Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

This fight is for everything.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

This blog will pay for itself.

Let there be snark.

People are complicated. Love is not.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

In my day, never was longer.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

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82Comments

  9. 9.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Geoduck: And CNN is so happy to announce that there’s a horse race between a dangerous, inexperienced, egomaniacal bigot and Secretary Clinton.

    Steve’s eyes look like he is going to get John one of these days. That’s one floofy cat.

  10. 10.

    TaMara (HFG)

    I’m banning the first person who calls this beautiful cat fat. /jk

    One of the best days in the new house was when I came home and found all the kithehs in their “usual” spots, adjusted of course for the new location of everything, but they found their spots.

    They were so traumatized by the move, it about broke Bixby. He fretted for days because his kittehs were distressed.

  19. 19.

    JGabriel

    John Cole @ Top:

    Every time I walk into the bedroom he is in another ridiculous position.

    Don’t cats mimic their owners?

  20. 20.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @LAO: The judge should only let the Bundy Bunch wear cowboy boots if the cowboy boots are covered in shit.

  21. 21.

    scav

    @LAO: I’m somehow particularly relishing the detail that the ultimate symbol of attractive authenticity (cowboy boots!) is being valiantly fought for. (life isn’t kind enough to me for the ruling of “sure, but they have to be orange or pink.” is remotely possible.)

  23. 23.

    Elmo

    Cat-based open thread! Goody!
    So I’m not experienced with cats the way I know dogs. We have three now, only because my wife picked up an abandoned litter on the side of the road a couple of years ago. Two of them are normal wonderful friendly cats, loving on all the dogs and purring in laps for attention. The third is that way too – eight months out of the year.

    But in the summertime, he takes himself out into the woods and won’t come back in. Won’t allow us to approach him either. He hangs around at the perimeter, eats food that we put outside, but it’s like he becomes a stranger. Two summers in a row now.

    And it isn’t weather based. It’s still hot as fuck in the DC region, but he’s back now. He climbs in my lap and demands attention, he sleeps on the bed, he talks to us as he meanders around the house. Two weeks ago, he was Intrepid Danger Kitty, like a teenage boy unwilling to admit he has parents.

    He’s a giant, too – 20lbs of lean muscle covered in the thickest, glossiest floofy coat. His paws are only a little smaller than my wife’s palms when fully extended.

    Anybody else have a cat like this? He’s neutered, so it isn’t l’amour.

  25. 25.

    Poopyman

    Looks like our Archie, although at 25 pounds we like to say he’s capsized. And Archie luvs to have a belly rub. Not catlike at all.

    Also too, with the outstretched right hand. I have a pic of him on the kitchen floor on his back with the paw outstretched towards his empty bowl. Caption-worthy, although it reminds me most of the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

  26. 26.

    RSR

    From the holy shit files:

    Justice is blind, except after your judge’s football team loses unexpectedly.

    Emotional Judges and Unlucky Juveniles

    Employing the universe of juvenile court decisions in a U.S. state between 1996 and 2012, we analyze the effects of emotional shocks associated with unexpected outcomes of football games played by a prominent college team in the state. We investigate the behavior of judges, the conduct of whom should, by law, be free of personal biases and emotions. We find that unexpected losses increase disposition (sentence) lengths assigned by judges during the week following the game. Unexpected wins, or losses that were expected to be close contests ex-ante, have no impact. The effects of these emotional shocks are asymmetrically borne by black defendants. We present evidence that the results are not influenced by defendant or attorney behavior or by defendants’ economic background. Importantly, the results are driven by judges who have received their bachelor’s degrees from the university with which the football team is affiliated. Different falsification tests and a number of auxiliary analyses demonstrate the robustness of the findings. These results provide evidence for the impact of emotions in one domain on a behavior in a completely unrelated domain among a uniformly highly-educated group of individuals (judges), with decisions involving high stakes (sentence lengths). They also point to the existence of a subtle and previously-unnoticed capricious application of sentencing.

  27. 27.

    ruemara

    Bellehbellehbelleh. That is all. I got proof of life pics of my cats from the h’ex. The floofy one is looking floofy & dignified. The minipanther is looking rather like Steve, but with early JC style photo oeuvre.

  29. 29.

    germy

    Our cat will be sitting quietly on the floor (bread loaf pose) but when I enter the room she’ll flip over on her back and writhe around while staring at me. Loves to be petted.

  30. 30.

    Poopyman

    @Elmo: Yes, he whose nickname is my nym. Right now he still spends most nights and days outside, but has become more willing to come in for periods. He knows the days are getting shorter, and I think the (too) few cool nights this past week has reminded him that warm nights are slipping away.

    He’ll be 14 next week, and a tad arthritic, so I expect I’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the next couple of weeks. Gonna be hot competition for laptime, though.

  33. 33.

    germy

    So will this become a regular thing for Steve? A once-a-year shave-down? Got rid of all the fur knots, and he looked comfortable with his hot weather crewcut.

    Probably swallowed a lot less fur, too.

  36. 36.

    catclub

    Fun thoughts:

    The terrible lesson of history

    Historically, resurgent nationalism has always led to war. I see no reason why this time should be different. We scared ourselves silly at the end of World War II: the memory of Hiroshima has kept the world in an uneasy peace (though with numerous local breaches) ever since. But as the memory fades, and old tribal loyalties reassert themselves, the world enters a new and dangerous phase.

    There is a fine line between nationalism and imperialism, and at some point, someone will cross that line. I don’t know who, or where, that will be. But when they do, there will be war.

    True? If so, how long?

  39. 39.

    Peale

    @catclub: I believe the “making them pay for it” part of the whole wall business is in fact imperialism. So there you have your answer.

  41. 41.

    CaseyL

    @Elmo: One of mine is like that, too.

    He’s the son of a stray who turned up on my doorstep 8+ years ago. The whole townhouse complex was feeding her. My theory is that she went into heat and escaped from whatever house she lived in, because she was too socialized to be a feral. She came to our lovely little complex (lots of landscaping, and backs up to a greenbelt) and promptly got knocked up by one of the many cats who roamed here back then. We adopted out all of her kids but one, whom I adopted along with Mama (now Jeannie).

    Her babies were raised outdoor for their first 4 weeks, and I think it “took.” One of the adopted-out ones ran away from home and became feral. Mine – Oscar – is happily an indoor-outdoor kitty most of the year, but during summers he goes all Fearsome Jungle Kitty, and stays outside overnight quite often. He used to be gone for 3-4 days at a time, but is possibly reaching the age when that’s not as much fun.

  42. 42.

    germy

    The average conservative foot soldier has no clue who the Cato Institute or Friedrich von Hayek or Milton Friedman or Arthur Laffer are. They are much more likely to know Alex Jones, who is the most listened-to practitioner of the paranoid style in many decades. The average conservative is not a college young Republican with a copy of The Fountainhead on their nightstand. It’s an exurban talk radio fan driving a pick up truck to their lower middle class job while listening to Michael Savage. Instead of being defeated in the early 1960s, the Birchers have played the long game, and are now running the show. The Frums, Brookses, and Wills of the world are modern day Alexander Kerenskys, victims of the revolution they were foolish enough to think they were in control of.

    The Bircher Long March

  43. 43.

    germy

    The average conservative foot soldier has no clue who the Cato Institute or Friedrich von Hayek or Milton Friedman or Arthur Laffer are. They are much more likely to know Alex Jones, who is the most listened-to practitioner of the paranoid style in many decades. The average conservative is not a college young Republican with a copy of The Fountainhead on their nightstand. It’s an exurban talk radio fan driving a pick up truck to their lower middle class job while listening to Michael Savage. Instead of being defeated in the early 1960s, the Birchers have played the long game, and are now running the show. The Frums, Brookses, and Wills of the world are modern day Alexander Kerenskys, victims of the revolution they were foolish enough to think they were in control of.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    @LAO:

    I was saying in the thread below that the sovcits got some coverage on one of the wacky morning deejay shows here in Los Angeles. Everyone agreed that they’re fucking nuts, and the lawyer they had on the phone to explain it to them could barely conceal his contempt. It was pretty sweet. When a guy who defends DUIs for a living thinks you’re a jerk …

  45. 45.

    Mnemosyne

    @manyakitty:

    I bet we could do a whole calendar just of those. I know I have several of Charlotte, though she ends up looking more like an otter with her paws folded over.

  47. 47.

    germy

    @Mnemosyne:

    looking more like an otter with her paws folded over.

    Our cat does the same thing. I actually was wondering if she is double-jointed, because she always folds her paws over. She’s a polydactyl, so I thought maybe that had something to do with it.

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, too, Charlotte’s big thing right now is that she likes to lay on her side on the floor and have us thump her ribcage fairly hard (like, it almost seems to echo). She demands that G sit on the floor to do it, every single morning, and she purrs her little head off. It’s weird, but since she’s demanding it, it must not be hurting her.

  51. 51.

    germy

    @WereBear: That photo of Sir Tristan looks like it should be gracing the back of a hardcover, under the “About The Author” blurb. He looks like a young first novelist. Should be posing next to a typewriter.

  52. 52.

    hovercraft

    I guess Kathleen Parker is an animal lover, her contempt for Uday and Qusay just drips from her pen.
    Kathleen Parker is lamenting the departure of the staunchest defender of the animal kingdom when Obama leaves.

    The animal kingdom will have lost one of its staunchest defenders when the Oval Office is abandoned by Barack Obama, who through a series of critical administrative rulemakings has done more to protect animals than any other president in recent memory.

    This will be especially devastating if Donald Trump replaces him — not only because of his sons’ lust for hunting exotic game but also because his recently announced agriculture advisory committee includes several active opponents of animal protection policies.

    By now, many will have seen the photographs circulating on social media of Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. displaying their trophy kills. One shows the two young men posed with a leopard they killed in Africa. Another shows Junior holding the tail of an elephant, which he appears to have just sliced off with the knife in his other hand, and another of him lounging against the lifeless hulk of a Cape buffalo bull. A fourth photo shows the brothers’ smiling faces framed between the horns of a magnificent waterbuck.

    If these snapshots were intended to capture the rapture of proud manhood, they missed their mark. Trump’s spawn aren’t Maasai warriors, suffice it to say. But even the Maasai have stopped killing lions to prove themselves, thanks to conservationists, and now determine leadership according to who jumps highest — evidence that one can easily jump a rival’s fence when raiding cows.

    When asked about his sons’ bloody hobby, Trump demurred except to say that his sons are excellent marksmen. Trump prefers golf, he said, and he obviously limits trophy collecting to women. Junior, meanwhile, says he’d like to head the Interior Department, which, among other things, oversees trophy-hunting imports. Under Obama, elephant trophies from Tanzania and Zimbabwe were halted and African lions were listed as threatened. What would a trophy-hunting Trump do with such protections?

  53. 53.

    Mnemosyne

    @Trollhattan:

    DON’T DO IT, IT’S A TRAP!

    (Unless it’s our little cat Annie, who really does love to have her belly rubbed. We think it’s because she’s a longhair and can never really get in there to groom it the way she would like.)

  54. 54.

    Gelfling 545

    @Elmo: I have a cat who was just like that. We called him our part time cat. Now, though, he is elderly, though in excellent health unimpaired by his odd life style choices, and just under 2 years ago he came inside when the cold weather arrived and has remained inside since. He was more of a 6/7 months outside guy in his heyday.

  55. 55.

    germy

    Things I am honored to receive from our cat:

    The nose bump.

    The head bump (she looks like a bull goring a matador; turns her head slightly to one side and bumps against me while I’m dozing in bed.

    The purr

    The long, loving gaze

  57. 57.

    germy

    @hovercraft:

    Junior, meanwhile, says he’d like to head the Interior Department, which, among other things, oversees trophy-hunting imports.

    I thought that post would go to the lion-killing dentist.

  61. 61.

    Trollhattan

    @germy:
    He’s probably holding out for HHS secretary. I’m sure he has some…interesting thoughts about overhauling healthcare.

  62. 62.

    Trollhattan

    @Mnemosyne:
    Guessing that a hand ensnared by Steve’s enormous catcher’s mitt paws is forever lost. Our puppeh has nearly doubled in weight since we brought him home and is only now approaching Steve scale. Eventually he should be somewhere in the vicinity of 2 to 2.5 Steves.

  63. 63.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @RSR:
    It continually surprises me that this would surprise anyone else. Yes, this is just… how people work. Emotional considerations they don’t even notice make small (or sometimes big!) changes in their behavior. Mostly the results are subtle enough that they only show statistically. Racism particularly stands out, showing up in people who have no obvious racism or idea they are racist.

  65. 65.

    hovercraft

    @Trollhattan:
    The number of strange bedfellows this election season is mind boggling, but I really think this case is simply about her love of animals. I didn’t click on her links to the pictures, but if they’re the ones I’ve seen before, they are enough to never want those “spawn” anywhere near the Interior Department. I did detect a subtle dig in her choice of words though, Obama is going to “abandon” the Oval Office? Last time I checked that was a function of the constitution. I guess she couldn’t resist.
    @germy:
    Hopefully he’s still hiding out and being shunned by his neighbors in MN.

  66. 66.

    Shana

    @Rich Webb: My father always said he wanted to come back as a cat in a Jewish household. (We’re jewish) My father, who could be very difficult, was always a softy for his cats and spoiled them terribly. One of the childhood cats always got its own chair at Thanksgiving with bits of turkey on a plate.

  67. 67.

    Eric U.

    one of our dogs likes to lounge on his back. It’s amusing to find him in some random spot lying on his back. I assume it’s cooler.

  68. 68.

    Mnemosyne

    @hovercraft:

    Kathleen Parker has a weird relationship to Obama — she seems to really like and respect him but gets mad at herself for it. She was one of his few defenders on the right in 2008, but she also wrote the execrable column about Obama not having the right “blood” during that same election.

  70. 70.

    shell

    So Mr. “I Know More About Isis Than The Generals” will demand a plan to defeat Isis from said generals, 30 days after he takes office.
    Why do I think that exchange will go like this scene from ‘The Simpsons.’

    Homer: (in his new role as supervisor) Um, are you guys working?
    Employee: Yes, sir.
    Homer: Can you . . . work any harder?
    Employee: Sure thing, boss!

  73. 73.

    sukabi

    @sukabi:
    @sukabi:
    Adding that any actual drumpf news sent to “news” outlets should appear as if it’s coming from thr RNC, more likely to be considered for public consumption apparently.

  74. 74.

    Cat48

    Thanks, John for a picture of Steve. He lucks like such a good kitty. Yesterday, it sent me to look for a kitty to adopt. I found 2 yesterday, but I haven’t gone to the shelter yet. Just not ready yet.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    I saw. I’m still considering it because even if all I get back is the filled-out checklist (which is posted on their website), I’ll feel like I have a little direction. I have no idea when the writers’ group is going to get critiques organized, but right now it sounds like after January 1st at the earliest.

    And, yes, right now I want avid romance readers to be reading it, not random people who don’t know the genre. I know my writing is good, I’m just trying to figure out if it fits the current genre parameters.

  79. 79.

    Pogonip

    @TaMara (HFG): I’m banned! I said he was fat–he used to hunt, if I remember right, the local mice and birds must have been buying him off with snacks. I suggested Cole get him tested for diabetes.

  80. 80.

    Pogonip

    @hovercraft: re the new improved Maasai method of determining leadership, by crowning the guy who jumps highest. Do you suppose that Bethany, West Virginia, determines leadership by who has the most accidents, and that all this time Cole has been running for mayor and we didn’t realize it?

  82. 82.

    NJ Maine Coon Slave

    @Patricia Kayden: I am the proud dad of a beautiful 16 year old Maine Coon gal and that look is normal. They throw shade at everyone. That said they are wicked smart and also extremely vocal. I don’t think in all of her years she has not at least several times a day scolded me or decided to explain to me how things are supposed to be, i.e., her way. Wouldn’t trade her for the world.

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