Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We will not go back.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Let there be snark.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

T R E 4 5 O N

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Friday Morning Open Thread: Cat Funding Bleg

Friday Morning Open Thread: Cat Funding Bleg

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diffbrad binkley

Balloon Juice lurker, former Sadly, No! regular, and founder of FireMeganMcArdle has a bleg:

My 17 year old snowshoe siamese Binkley has been very sick the last few months. The good news is he’s going to be ok, the bad news is his treatment so far has cost more than my rent at a time when that alone is not so easy for me to cover, and he’s probably not done yet. So I’ve swallowed my pride and started a gofundme…

I just tweeted a good shot of him looking at Obama on tv in 08, if you’re curious about the fuzzball in question.

GoFundMe page here, if you have a soft spot for meezers.

***********
What else is on the agenda, as we wrap up the week and/or prepare for the holiday weekend?

Reader Interactions

123Comments

  3. 3.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Junaid Qaiser ‏@JunaidQaiser

    Incredibly powerful and soul-stirring speech by #US president @BarackObama at the #Hiroshima Peace Memorial. #ObamainJapan

    Lane ‏@LaneThomaHewitt

    @mrjamesob My God James you have to listen to the @POTUS speech he gave in #Hiroshima just now. Superb. Gonna miss this kind of oratory.

    Ammar ‏@ammar1f

    What a great human, Obama, to come at this site n yet be able to deliver a speech about unity and peace. What a great leader

    Adam Walker ‏@AdamWalkerGB

    Listening to today’s quite brilliant speech by #POTUS at the #Hiroshima memorial. ”We are not bound by genetic code to repeat mistakes”

    Beatrice Thomas ‏@bea_thomas82

    What a powerful speech. #Obama #Hiroshima

    “We must reimagine our connection to one another as members of one human race.” — Obama

    12 retweets 12 likes

    Quantum Mechanic® ‏@JamesEFinch

    #Hiroshima Watching stirring, powerful speech against nuclear war given by @POTUS. Really going to miss him. #Obama truly best president.

    5 retweets 7 likes

    margaret brennan ‏@margbrennan

    Following a moving speech by @POTUS in #Hiroshima, Japan’s @AbeShinzo offers his “eternal condolences to all the American souls lost in WW2”

    5 retweets 1 like

    showmethemoney ‏@smtm_LFC

    Hands up if you can EVER imagine @realDonaldTrump standing in #Hiroshima delivering such a beautiful, conciliatory & unifying speech?

    4 retweets 5 likes

    Will Ripley ‏@willripleyCNN

    An emotional embrace between President Obama and #Hiroshima survivor Shigeaki Mori

    (photo #1)

    (photo #2)

  7. 7.

    magurakurin

    @OzarkHillbilly: I know you are joking, but I can imagine how that will be the rethug spin tomorrow. sigh.

    Obama really does have true vision. He gets attacked by the left for not thinking big…like going for single payer. But Obama plays the small ball on policy because it works and it moves along to his real goals and vision. A world where not only policy is better but the hearts of people are actually better, too. A world in which we all become better people, more connected, more united and more loving of each other. Sanders has none of this in his supposed big thinking. I think Clinton shares Obama’s vision in this, I really do. She just can’t express in the same moving way that Obama can.

    It will be depressing to go back to tomorrow’s news cycle of small men quibbling over some silly debate that probably won’t happen and won’t mean a thing if it does.

  8. 8.

    satby

    Beautiful cat, Brad. I’m kicking in a bit as soon as I can. Good luck to you and him, I’ve been there!

  9. 9.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @magurakurin: Who is this guy that you were watching, couldn’t be our President. Joe of the Morning tells me that he rattles world leaders so Trump would be the same.

    ETA: That was the point of the big CLICK closing the TV window on my computer; I only lasted 15 minutes.

  20. 20.

    sherparick

    @magurakurin: There were not 30 votes in the Senate and probably only 100 in the House of Representatives for single payer in 2009-10. Further, when he ran in 2008 Obama never proposed single payer. His health care plan was to the right of not only Hilary Clinton’s plan, it was to the right of Mitch Romney 2008 edition. Apparently, no one has “civics” or “Government” classes in high school anymore, but the United States is a Presidential/Congressional Republic, not a a parliamentary system like the U.K., Canada, or 90% of the functioning democracies in the world. And even in the U.K. with thumping 150 seat majority after WWII, the Atlee Labor Government had a 3-year slog to the create the NHS. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/mar/14/past.education

  25. 25.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: I see what you did there?.

    OT: I went out to get some soda out of the car and was looking up and Jupiter and saw a pretty bright shooting star go across that part of the sky. Also my right leg is sore cause new ink.

  29. 29.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: I think it’s more BillinKensingtonPalace.

    ETA: Though the kid told me that he learned that even if your grandmother is Queen of England, you still need your military ID to buy things at the Base Exchange on a US/UK air base.

  31. 31.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @Baud:
    No, I’m pretty sure they are white so they don’t commit fraud. At least that was what I learned watching FOX

  32. 32.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: No, the US military has rules. What happened was William was visiting the base that the kid was stationed at and tried to buy and camera at the BX and didn’t have his military ID. He was unable to purchase the camera, the kid was amused.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    @Schlemazel Khan:

    I’m pretty sure they are white

    I hope I live to see the time when one of them isn’t.

    Speaking of cable news, I caught a few minutes of Morning Joe today. I don’t see how you people put up with that.

  38. 38.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @debbie: If there was a reaction, I didn’t make it that far. I clicked it off when they were saying that Obama has “rattled” world leader the same as Trump would.

  39. 39.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: It’s been almost 6 years, but I was close to chugging my mouthwash this morning.

  42. 42.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @BillinGlendaleCA:
    No, but I am switching from a 4 ounce hammer to an 8 ounce one for hitting myself in the head with. Its less painful than FOX and has the same affect.

  46. 46.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @amk:
    That is no longer surprising, sadly. The question actually is pretty easy to answer and could have led to him explaining what he would propose & why it would work here. Instead he says something that makes him look stupid & unprepared. He really can’t think on his feet at all can he? I know I could have knocked that out of the park.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    @Schlemazel Khan: Yeah, that’s the sad part. That question is right in his wheelhouse. Essentially, defend why we should believe in your core message.

    The clip cut off, so I’ll leave open the possibility that the rest of the answer may have been more substantive. But not a good start.

  50. 50.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud:

    I’ll leave open the possibility that the rest of the answer may have been more substantive.

    You read the NYDN interview?

  52. 52.

    Schlemazel Khan

    In other, marginally Bernie related, news I read that the GOP is looking to change their rules to try to prevent another Drumpf-disaster in 2020. They want to pair Iowa, New Hampshire and North Carolina with more representative states so as to lessen their impact. They also want to tighten the rules so that only party members can participate in primaries and caucuses. I found both proposals interesting. The first because it is something we on the left have been pleading for fora long time. But the second is more interesting because it is the exact opposite of what Bernie people have been claiming should be happening on the D side. While they have been saying more non-Democrats sould chose the Democratic candidate the GOP is thinking they only want Republicans to chose theirs.

  54. 54.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Baud: did you see the follow up question

    “Again, you’re asking me questions about the impact on Central America, which honestly I should know more than I do know.” (link)

  56. 56.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
    the right answer:
    “The US has the strongest economy in the world, an economy that has produced billions of dollars in the last 40 years with very little of it flowing to the people doing the work that created that wealth. Sadly, CA nations do not have that sort of robust economy. Additionally many of the leaders chosen were corrupt or heading governments overrun with corruption. For those reasons it would be more honest to compare what I am am proposing to to the industrial nations of Europe.”
    This would be followed by specific proposals I would make for programs that exist in Europe and how much better their citizens are because of it citing specific countries again, This is not hard, people.

  57. 57.

    manyakitty

    @satby: I am, too. It’s only fair after the tear-inducing generosity you guys showed for Loki. Jessie and her family (especially her five-year-old son) are beyond thankful for all your help.

    By the way, he’s still kicking: regaining his balance and hearing, they think he’s getting at least light perception out of one eye, and today they’re checking to see if he’s strong enough now for treatments to help his remaining neurological deficits.

    This blog and its people are the absolute BEST!

  62. 62.

    Schlemazel Khan

    I have seen “African Queen” on TV 2 or 3 times but never from the beginning. I just saw it from the start, very nasty bit of racism that runs through that whole opening.

  63. 63.

    Keith P.

    I just put a cat to sleep yesterday…one that I adopted from here. He got pickier about his food, eating softer and softer food until he would only eat gravy, losing a good amount of weight in the process. Took him into the vet, who found an aggressive tumor in his abdomen, so I had to put him down. I’m down to one cat now, after going through 7 in 10 years (2 that I raised from kittens, 3 I inherited when my mother died, and 2 I adopted here)

  64. 64.

    D58826

    @Schlemazel Khan: There has been a lot of talk here about the role Bernie will play in the general and his price to play that role. There seems to be a good bit of reporting that top democrats are all saying Bernie will come around and support Hillary in the end. But I wonder

    Just speculation but –
    1. he has been given a bigger role in the platform process,
    2. he pushes his ideas into the platform, some of which like Palestinian statehood are unpopular in large sections of the more conservative US,
    3. voters who may be ‘gertable’ with Trump as the GOP nominee
    4. party platforms are pretty much ignored after the convention
    5. the price for the platform concessions is Bernie will campaign for Hillary
    6. BUT will he campaign for Hillary using her talking points or HIS?

    I don’t think it is a stretch that he will continue running on his campaign talking points in the general and Hillary’s be d****. After all he keeps saying that he has no plans on giving up fighting for HIS agenda, not the non-Bernie democratic candidate’s agenda.

    I think Bernie is going to be a liability right thru November.

  65. 65.

    EZSmirkzz

    @Schlemazel Khan: More here at phys.org

    Researchers at UC San Francisco and Stanford University have performed the first comprehensive survey of the central genes and proteins essential to bacterial life. The study, which combined a new variant of CRISPR gene-editing technology with automated cell imaging, generated new understanding of the fundamental gene networks that make bacteria so resilient to environmental stress and—increasingly—to antibacterial drugs.

    I don’t think we should be unconcerned about this, but let’s remember that humans can land a spacecraft on a comet, so our run isn’t over yet.

  66. 66.

    EZSmirkzz

    @D58826: Only in the context of being a liability to what he is trying to achieve. If this run is about policy and issues, then after the convention one has to pursue these goals by other means. If it is all about the Bernie, then he already has damaged the progressive, New Deal liberalism he ostensibly has been fighting for.

    Let’s not get our flags crossed up even before Fort Sumter.

  67. 67.

    D58826

    @Baud: It doesn’t matter what the rest of the clip said. The GOP will play ‘I should know more than I do’ and ask do you want this guy taking that 3am phone call.

    A couple of threads back some one linked to the absolutely devastating 30 second ad that Jerry Brown ran against Meg Whitman. She is tell the voters how wonderful Calif. was 30 years ago when she moved there. The image on the screen was WHO was Governor 30 years ago – Jerry Brown.
    This clip begs for the same kind of ad. And the beauty of it is it’s visual, his face, his voice. No need to read some musty old newspaper interview. Why doesn’t he just sign on to the Trump campaign and be done with it

  69. 69.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    So I’m packing the car to do a camping trip this weekend, and am being treated to my idiot Elvis impersonator neighbor fighting with his girlfriend, who I believe to have originally come from a middle tier gentlemen’s club. It is some bad shit.

    Thank god for spring foliage obscuring my view – there’s no HOA, no significant governing bodies, and he’s letting his home crumble around him since his wife left him over the Elvis thing. The only way he avoided foreclosure was his folks backstopping him on his mortgage – the place is now underwater. He’s a shitty neighbor, whiny and sloppy. With the Elvis gig, he’s home all day, yet chose 8 pmSunday night to start mowing; it takes him longer to do his acre (plus) with a riding mower than it takes me to use a push mower on my similar sized lot (I do it for the exercise).

  70. 70.

    D58826

    @EZSmirkzz:

    If this run is about policy and issues, then after the convention one has to pursue these goals by other means.

    It seems to me that the other means would involve getting Hillary elected and working within the party to build a strong progressive wing like Warren is doing. And I say a progressive wing because at the moment there are not enough progressive voters to take control at the federal/state/local levels. The party needs a coalition of slightly conservative/moderate and progressive voices. Push the party to far to the left and you wind up with a left wing tea party.

    At the moment Bernie still seems like it’s my way or the highway and I think it is going to be hard to give up his 15 minutes of fame. Hillary in 2008 was a bit different. She knew that she would have another shot at running and she was used to the spotlight. Bernie is 74, this is his one shot and after a career as a back bencher non-entity outside of Vermont he will find it very hard to play second fiddle to Hillary. Just human nature

  73. 73.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
    Sounds like a fun neighbor. As a young guy I lived below a divorced woman whose ex would visit about once a month so they could get good and stinking drunk and have a screaming, furniture-tossing brawl. In FLorida we had neighbors who appeared to be starting a scrapyard next to us. Neighbors can be a treat, sorry to hear about yours

  75. 75.

    EZSmirkzz

    @D58826:

    It seems to me that the other means would involve getting Hillary elected and working within the party to build a strong progressive wing like Warren is doing.

    He’ll cross that bridge when he gets to it, won’t he?

    I’m all in favor of worst case scenario thinking, as well as best case scenario thinking, but I don’t think we should put to much emphasis on either one, when the outcomes are beyond our control and influence. So long as Bernie thinks he can win the nomination, he is going to behave as if he can.

    I think we will see a decidedly different Democratic Party when all cannons are trained on Trump.

  76. 76.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    @Schlemazel Khan:

    I can’t see it now because of the foliage, but he had apparently rammed his attached garage door (he’s got a second lower 4 bay garage with bonus room down the drive). His solution was to pile the wrecked door and rubbled supports next to the house for the past few months. Also joyful are the times he blows off his garbage bill, and his trash blows everywhere.

    I want him gone.

  77. 77.

    sherparick

    @Baud: But they also Kate, Duchess of Cambridge!

    Now for serious stuff. Kevin Drum also points out the mental fantasy history that Bernie and the Bernie Bros inhabit about the last 10 years and how their memory forgets that the President never advocated for a single payer system in 2008. He uses this wonderful thing called the internet and Google to find the actual thing. http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/05/how-can-you-barack-obama-loathe-hillary-clinton

    I must admit that I don’t quite get the way a guy like Shaun King believes himself morally superior asserting that “there is no difference if Hilary or Trump gets elected, and if Trump gets elected while we sit on the sidelines and jeer at Hilary, it will be her and the Democrats fault for hurting our fee-fees and not making Bernie the nominee of the party by unanimous consent . After all, besides 20 million Hispanics, immigrants and citizens alike, being threatened with incarceration, concentration camps, and deportation, besides 30 million Black being threatened with a return to at least de facto Jim Crow and the loss of 50 years of hard won civil and voting rights, besides nuclear bombs being dropped in the Middle East, and seeing a 100 years of environmental and conservation laws thrown into the incinerator http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/26/donald-trump-environmental-policy-climate-change-keystone-xl, they don’t see much difference between Hilary and the lying BS authoritarian Joker running as a Republican. He, the Trump, will certainly be great for ratings which is all the Cable News and Broadcast networks care about.

  79. 79.

    D58826

    @EZSmirkzz:

    He’ll cross that bridge when he gets to it, won’t he?

    Hopefully but fighting for one silly delegate in Kentucky and running after Trump to get a debate that can only help Trump, are not good signs. His campaign manager saying they don’t care about the damage they do to Hillary’s campaign isn’t a good sign either. Picking a fight over DWS is another example. It is just a distraction and will achieve nothing in the end. She is history come Jan. Register your complaint and then move on. Again the difference between 2008 and 2016 is Hillary was a bred to the bone democrat, for better or worse she was not going to blow up the party to save it. Bernie is an outsider, he doesn’t have any deep loyalty to the party or the people that make it up. His whole stick has been ‘we have to destroy it in order to rebuild it’.

  81. 81.

    Miss Bianca

    @Keith P.: Oh, so sorry to hear it! You’ve just been having an annis horribulus, haven’t you?

    Strapped for cash right now or I would be donating to kitty blegs.

  83. 83.

    Matt McIrvin

    My most hardcore Berniac friends on social media mostly know Sanders isn’t going to get the nomination; now they’re either railing about how Hillary and DWS stole Nevada through tyrannical vote-rigging, or just completely depressed about the imminent Trump administration since only Bernie could have beaten him.

  85. 85.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    @Miss Bianca:

    I know. The Elvis thing started as a hobby. He was a skilled tool and die man, had a good job with a really nice pay scale. His wife was this adorable nurse, and they had three little kids. The Elvis thing took over his life – we saw him perform by accident once, and I didn’t think he was very good. His primary milieu was 1967 comeback Elvis. He was a little old for that already, but did all 4 phases (early, army, comeback and fat). His costumes were a joke, he doesn’t play an instrument for shit so he used canned instrumentals, and he doesn’t really resemble Elvis – and I guffawed over his younger Elvis personae. What the gigs did have were really weird and pawing 60+ year old redneck women, who somehow convinced him he was good. So he quit his job, started doing these gigs primarily for tips, and sent his adorable wife and kids to the poorhouse.

    Those were some dark times.

    Now, he goes to bullshit contests and feeds the Elvis impersonator costume industry, which I learned is actually a thing.

    I’ve never had the heart to tell him that there isn’t a future for bald, heavy 50-something Elvises, nor geriatric Elvises.

    Oh, and his dog’s name? Elvis….

  86. 86.

    ruemara

    @Keith P.: So sorry, Keith P. You did what was best.

    Tired of Bernistas even ones I love. Off to Fanime today. I have no idea what I’m doing there, but I will have my camera. Had a nice dinner out with a friend to cheer him up. I need a friend like me.

  87. 87.

    sherparick

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Its the rules under which BX/PX’s operate on in NATO countries so local citizens don’t come in and skirt their custom rules and VAT. We get some very stern letters from the local authorities if we don’t limit sales to ID card holders. Technically, if this was a BX in the UK, I am not sure the Duke of Cambridge could buy the camera even with an ID (in Germany, he would not have problem since he would be a “Member of the Force.”)o

  89. 89.

    EZSmirkzz

    @D58826: I think if you do a little research you’ll find some Neanderthal genetic material in pure bred Democrat Hillary. Two differing arguments worth noting in this, Charlie’s and Josh’s pretty much cover the concerns you have expressed.

    In 2008 I came out early for Obama, voiding my normal neutrality due to family issues by expressing a preference for him over Hillary. I even got ugly during the primaries, which I think was riffed on by some of the current original thinkers in the GOP this cycle, and so I’ve stayed neutral throughout this campaign as I saw fit to do. So I do understand preferences in candidates and the effort you are making to persuade or dissuade me in either direction, which is mostly wasting your time, as I have already moved beyond this phase of the campaign. If you are quite certain that Hillary is going to win the primary, then by all means focus on the general election and Trump, but I wouldn’t waste any time on Bernie supporters in non voting states, which can only damage Hillary in the long run, analyzing Bernie’s motives which, frankly, you and I, and Josh and Charlie cannot even pretend to know.

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    hat tip- POU:

    Harvard Grad’s Moving Commencement Speech Racks Up More Than 1 Million Views

    Donovan Livingston, a graduate of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, delivered a commencement speech for the ages on Wednesday. It was so good that Harvard referred to it as “one of the most powerful, heartfelt student speeches you will ever hear” when they posted it on Facebook. And for great reason. Livingston gave his speech in the form of a stirring five-minute spoken word poem, where he addressed racism and education. Titled “Lift Off,” Livingston’s poem spoke to his own experience with education, the students he teaches, and the United States’ history of systemic racism in education.

  91. 91.

    pseudonymous in nc

    I’d like to think that Obama’s personal love of Asia has long-term positive implications. Eating bun cha with Bourdain was a BFD to the Vietnamese; going to Hiroshima is a BFD to the Japanese. To idiots, this is of course treated as an anti-colonialist radical slap in the face to Europe, blah blah blah.

    Of course, the positive implications depend on avoiding the scenario we shall not mention.

  92. 92.

    dmsilev

    Bernie Sanders, demonstrating his deep local knowledge of California:

    With his highly nationalized approach, however, Sanders doesn’t take full advantage of the opportunity for kinship. In the northern San Diego County city of Vista, he mispronounced the city’s name. In Irvine, he suggested that many schoolchildren in that upscale area didn’t know anyone attending college.

    In perhaps the most gaping omission, he did not refer to the December San Bernardino terrorist attacks in his speech there. Clinton, by contrast, mentioned the loss of life and continued concern in San Bernardino during her appearance in nearby Riverside.

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    Anthony Bourdain
    @Bourdain
    SIX TRUE THINGS ABOUT DINNER WITH OBAMA
    Bun Cha is a typical Hanoi dish, decidedly everyday, and much loved by locals . To the consternation, no doubt, of the Secret Service (who were very cool about it) I was recently joined for dinner by the leader of the free world in a working class joint near the old quarter of town for an upcoming episode of Parts Unknown .
    •
    The President is very comfortable with chopsticks. He handled the sticky, hard to separate noodles that accompany the pork and the broth components of Bun Cha skillfully. He even went in for seconds.
    …………..

    •
    The reaction among regular people in Hanoi to the fact that the US President chose to eat Bun Cha was beyond all imagining. The effect was unbelievable.People were actually crying the next day, describing to me their shock and their pride, the reactions of their neighbors, to this completely unexpected choice of meal—and the venue.

  94. 94.

    sherparick

    @Schlemazel Khan: I think this is a bit out context as I think the question was not directed at his views or policies toward Latin America, but as question directed at his proposals in the U.S. when the Governments of the Latin Left are having big problems in Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina. The implication is that those Governments have been disasters, how would a Bernie Administration not be disastrous for the U.S.? Bernie, Hilary, and the U.S. media are all having a bad week. I am just going to follow my Cubs this weekend and tune out the crap.

    If you live in the D.C./Northern Virginia area, you may want to check out this event tomorrow night at Fredericksburg National Military Cemetery https://www.nps.gov/frsp/learn/news/luminaria.htm It is a very special, and a honor to visit the resting place of so many who fell at Fredericksburg, Willderness, Spotsylvania, etc.

  97. 97.

    Miss Bianca

    @Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: God, it gets better/worse with each revelation…I’m riven between laughter and horror.

    Yeah, don’t go there with bursting his bubble about his future prospects. Life will do that all on its own, most likely. Or not. But the last thing you want is a *murderous* Elvis impersonator on your doorstep.

  99. 99.

    Paul in KY

    @D58826: That’s why he needs to be the Veep choice. Mainly to get his ‘bros’ to get in there & pull lever in Nov, but also to get him singing the Hill praises & pissing out from the tent.

  100. 100.

    rikyrah

    This muthaphucka here!

    Ohio Governor Poised To Make Voters Pay To Keep Polls Open Late
    BY ALICE OLLSTEIN
    MAY 26, 2016 8:08 AM

    Republican lawmakers in Ohio approved a bill late Wednesday night that would force residents to put up a cash bond when they petition a court extend voting hours during an election day emergency, such as a natural disaster. If Gov. John Kasich (R) signs the bill, Ohio could become the first state in the nation to make voters risk losing tens of thousands of dollars of their own money when making the case for keeping the polls open a few extra hours.
    The bill’s author, Republican Sen. Bill Seitz of Green Township, wrote an op-ed this week about his motivation for pushing the measure.
    “Sadly, in both the November 2015 and March 2016 elections, rogue courts in Hamilton County issued orders extending polling hours. These orders cost Hamilton County taxpayers $57,000, and forced the inside poll workers to stay around for an extra 60 to 90 minutes after already working a 14-hour day.”
    In the instances he’s citing, local courts ruled that true, unforeseen emergencies — a software glitch in 2015 that temporarily wiped out the poll books and a massive car wreck in 2016 that cut off the county’s main highway — justified keeping the polls open longer so that a few thousand waiting voters wouldn’t be disenfranchised.
    Mike Brickner with the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio says the bill now before Gov. Kasich would make it much more complicated and expensive to respond to such emergencies in the future.

  104. 104.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @Paul in KY:
    Would his being #2 actually get him to piss outward? I am unconvinced & I would have caucused for him had I been in town that night instead of on the road working

  107. 107.

    rikyrah

    The End of Black Harlem
    Newcomers say gentrification is about wealth, not
    race. But that’s a distinction without a difference.
    MAY 27, 2016

    I HAVE lived in Harlem for half my life — 30 years. I have seen it in all its complexities: a cultural nexus of black America, the landing place for Senegalese immigrants and Southern transplants, a home for people fleeing oppression and seeking opportunity. Harlem is the birthplace of so much poetry and music and beauty, but in the eyes of many who have never set foot here, it has long been a swamp of pain and suffering.

    It is also changing, rapidly. A few years ago I was on Eighth Avenue, also known as Frederick Douglass Boulevard, picketing a fund-raiser for a politician who was pushing for denser mixed-use zoning along 125th Street, the “Main Street” of my sprawling neighborhood. Harlem has seen an influx of tourists, developers and stroller-pushing young families, described in the media as “urban pioneers,” attracted by city tax abatements. New high-end housing and hip restaurants have also played their part. So have various public improvements, like new landscaping and yoga studios. In general all this activity has helped spruce the place up. Not surprisingly, on that day a few passers-by shot us ugly looks, as if to say, “Why can’t you accept a good thing?”

    But even then, a few boys passing by on their bikes understood what was at stake. As we chanted, “Save Harlem now!” one of them inquired, “Why are y’all yelling that?” We explained that the city was encouraging housing on the historic, retail-centered 125th Street, as well as taller buildings. Housing’s good, in theory, but because the median income in Harlem is less than $37,000 a year, many of these new apartments would be too expensive for those of us who already live here.

    Hearing this, making a quick calculation, one boy in glasses shot back at his companions, “You see, I told you they didn’t plant those trees for us.”

  109. 109.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OzarkHillbilly: To the US right, this is the kind of “apology tour” that destroys the respect of other countries for the United States, because the only thing they understand as “respect” is fear. Either you’re feared, or you’re a laughing stock.

  110. 110.

    D58826

    @EZSmirkzz: yea I know she was a goldwater girl. that’s why I didn’t say born and bred a democrat. But she was young and wet behind the ears and grew out of it. Her political career was democratic all the way back to being on the majority counsel staff of the Nixon impeachment hearings. I think that makes her a democratic loyalist. Bernie not so much.

    My original post was labeled speculation and I was just responding to you reply. I really don’t care what your opinions are and being in a bad mood today I will do something I try to refrain from and that is tell you and your attitude to take a long walk off a short pier

    the effort you are making to persuade or dissuade me in either direction, which is mostly wasting your time, as I have already moved beyond this phase of the campaign.

  112. 112.

    Ella in New Mexico

    Happy to drop an electronic Harriet Tubman on the Binkley recovery effort. He’s pretty adorable.

  114. 114.

    Shell

    @Paul in KY: Dear God, no! Can you imagine, that really w ould be like having Larry David wandering around the White House, muttering and stumbling into cabinet meetings.

  115. 115.

    Chyron HR

    @liberal:

    Oh shit, the Republican party is being criticized! I have to change the subject to the perfidy of President Obummer!

    Ladies and gentlemen, a “liberal”.

  117. 117.

    Paul in KY

    @Shell: We need to win this race. Shell. Pres. Clinton can put a minder on him. I need his bros at the polls pulling a lever for Hillary. For some of the ones I have talked to, it would take Bernie on ballot for that to happen.

  118. 118.

    Mnemosyne

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    There is a famous story at the GEC that Roy E. Disney, a dead ringer for his uncle and then a member of the board of directors for the GEC, was stopped at the door of the animation facility in Florida because he didn’t have an ID. So he looked at the guard and said,

    “No problem, where do I go to get that?” And the guard sent him to the correct security office, where they were horrified that Roy had been so disrespected, but he told them, “He was doing his job of keeping unauthorized people out. I *want* him to do his job and not be intimidated by people who are higher up.”

    This is why people still talk about him with reverence even though he died almost a decade ago.

  119. 119.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: You would eat him alive!! Literally.

    @Schlemazel Khan:

    the GOP is looking to change their rules to try to prevent another Drumpf-disaster in 2020.

    Isn’t the problem the Republican base? They would have to change their racist, xenophobic base to prevent another Trump in 2020 and I can’t see them doing that. Their message is targeted towards hateful people so they may end up with someone worse than Trump the next time around. Who knows?

  120. 120.

    J R in WV

    Here’s a wonderful and amusing story on WaPo this morning. I found it via Google News front page. Long time commenter Schroedinger’s Cat will especially find it interesting:

    Here’s the link

    The story not so much as the illustrations of kitties doing strange things with the aid of cat wranglers and kitty trainers, etc. At least I imagine professional cats were involved. Amazing stuff. With a long-haired orange cat shooting the most disdainful glance toward the world that you can imagine.

  121. 121.

    brad

    This is “that” brad, and thanks so much everyone. I’m amazed, grateful, and relieved. At the rate it’s going the target will be hit today or tomorrow. Just… thank you. He was cuddly and had a purr this morning, but isn’t quite himself yet still. Here’s hoping he can be spared a second enema.

    And also, for any who care, keep an eye on Fire McMegan. Susan and Roy made me realize McMegan is producing words about Trump. And Hillary, but mainly Trump. Susan especially can’t be left to face that all alone, she’s too good a person. A series of shorters is in the offing.

    And thanks again.

  122. 122.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Paul in KY: With Sanders as the VP nominee, all the juicy oppo the Republicans were saving up for presidential candidate Bernie gets to come out for VP candidate Bernie instead, along with all the Clinton stuff we know and love. He’d turn into the Eagleton of the cycle within weeks. And he has no concept of message discipline.

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