Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Everybody saw this coming.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Consistently wrong since 2002

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Alright You Unsympathetic Jackals…

Alright You Unsympathetic Jackals…

by | 135 Comments

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Y’all want me to quit kvetching about something on the internet? That’s practically active sympathy for Putin in my book, but Bqhatevwr.

Y’all want something a little more inspiring? Well, intercourse yourselves sideways with an oxidized agricultural implement, but here you go anyway, because I love you folks.

This is Tikka 2016, getting ready for his next campaign speech.

tikka-microphone

And here he is unwinding after a demanding five minutes or so on the campaign trail:

tikka-at-ease

So drink these in until you’re catatonic.

Humph.

Reader Interactions

135Comments

  9. 9.

    Larkspur

    Where’s the Donate to Tikka button? I need to be on another list. Hurry!

    BTW that is one fine-looking cat. Thx.

  12. 12.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Tom, giving these people cat pics is simply pandering to them. And they will only demand more.

  21. 21.

    Origuy

    Early voting at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. They’ve been open for 1:40 and are up to number 700.

  22. 22.

    Kropadope

    I just saw a headline on Vox that reads “How Donald Trump Thinks About Foreign Policy, Explained in 7 Minutes.”

    My reaction, “how could it possibly take that long?”

  25. 25.

    amk

    gopolitico ‘pieces’ now

    Trump touts Texas official who called Clinton a ‘c—’

    Trump has a problem with Jay-Z’s language

    just can’t make up this shit any more.

  26. 26.

    JPL

    Melania is introducing her husband at a rally in NC

    Said mere moments after saying “Hello North Carolina.”Mike Warren added,
    Kevin Cirilli @kevcirilli
    WILMINGTON, N.C. —
    Melania Trump: “I enjoy speaking to all of you in Pennsylvania so much, I decided to do it again.”…

    Whoops!

  27. 27.

    GrandJury

    @Origuy: So I guess early voting is the new “law signs in my neighbourhood” trend around here. Both equally irrelevant predicters of anything.

    So lots of people are early voting. Ok so what? More people early vote now. That’s the SHOCKING conclusion. It’s not just more Democrats either. Not a predicter of how many will vote on election day. Presumably less because….GASP….they early voted.

    So what are y’all gonna say election day? GASP…omgzzz not as many people voting! Why? It’s a complete mystery!

  30. 30.

    different-church-lady

    Y’all want me to quit kvetching about something on the internet?

    I was underrepresented in that poll!

  39. 39.

    Gindy51

    Nice cat but what is the device in the back ground of the 1st picture. Is it a telescope of some kind but what and what do gaze at with it?
    We’ve been wanting to get one and have no idea what to look for.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @amk: I turned of the panel last night because I thought he was letting David fucking Axis of Evil Frum dominate the conversation, so I missed it when he bought into the whole “We liberals cried wolf… We treated Bush like the end of the world, he wasn’t”,
    yeah, Bill, for several hundred thousand Iraqis, and now Syrians, he was.

    ETA: Katie Tur and Kasse Hunt Concern Trolling hard for Hillary Apparently celebrity events are now a sign of desperation, and very unusual. Good fucking god. I know, turn it off, turn it off….

  42. 42.

    bemused

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I didn’t hear Tur or Hunt but jealous Trump put down Hillary getting big name talent to come out for her. Hell, the only “celebrities” Trump could get would be Ted Nugent or other losers.

  45. 45.

    pamelabrown53

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    My philosophy: If you can’t inspire, pander.

    Either way, I’ve assembled an arsenal of Netflix (some might say pablum, but I say comfort food) decompressors. I’m nearly on my second season of re-watching “Star Trek: Voyager”, the newly released “The Crown” plus a Jane Austen inspired DVD “Love and Friendship”. Sounds like a lot for 3 days but I’m an insomniac and this campaign has only exacerbated it.

    P.S. I’m not just passively awaiting Tuesday’s results: GOTV.

  46. 46.

    Major Major Major Major

    I’m thinking about signing up on that Trump Traders website where you vote for a third party candidate in a safe state and the person in the battleground state (I guess they’re “firewall” states this year) votes for Hillary, even though I’ve already voted for Hillary. Serves ’em right for living in an important state and considering voting third-party in the first place.

  48. 48.

    Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim

    Such a Roman nose, such an aristocratic mien. Shades of Leverette Saltonstall. Well, maybe not. Salty just had a big nose, and the kind of teeth that mean you come from either one far end of the class system or the other.

  53. 53.

    Shell

    Tikka is one big slab o’ cat!
    ************

    I see Trump is sneering at Beyonce and Jayz appearing at a Hillary rally.
    “We don’t need them to fill up our rallies, we do it the old fashioned way,” says he.
    If he changes his mind I guess he can always get Scott Baio.

  56. 56.

    Larkspur

    @pamelabrown53: My decompressing vids have been various episodes of Firefly. I may resort to the final season of Angel, too, on account of some very refreshing righteous mayhem. I WILL relax.

  57. 57.

    Amir Khalid

    Meanwhile in the Premier League of England, Chelsea lead Everton 3-0 at Stamford Bridge. A win today will put Chelsea at the top of the table, at least until Arsenal and Liverpool play tomorrow.

  59. 59.

    Anoniminous

    This is what happens when unenthusiastic Hillary supporters vote early …

    Nevada politics expert: “Trump is dead” in the state

    When the national media needs to know what’s going on in Nevada politics, they often turn to Las Vegas-based journalist Jon Ralston, who’s developed a strong track record of calling elections in the state.

    And now that Nevada early voting has come to a close, Ralston isn’t mincing words about how he sees Trump’s prospects. “Trump is dead,” Ralston tweeted Saturday. He elaborated on his blog that from the early voting numbers so far, the GOP nominee would need a “miracle” to win Nevada at this point.

  60. 60.

    Shell

    So what are y’all gonna say election day? GASP…omgzzz not as many people voting! Why? It’s a complete mystery!

    Nah, thats the Media’s job. Just like now its the constant wailing of “The race is tightening!” and “Black voter turnout is down!” with nary any real evidence for either.

  61. 61.

    Ruckus

    @Shell:
    Washed up stars for a washed up whatever it is that he is trying to be. This should be a lesson to all those tRump supporters (his supporters are like athletic supporters, they support a dick) is that washed up stars are as good as he can get. I just got it, his supporters like Ted Nugent. That will put a kink in your colon.

  64. 64.

    Mnemosyne

    In knitting news, I worked through the pain and got my shawl for tonight bound off and steam-blocked. Now it’s pinned down on the blocking board in front of a fan in the hope that it will be reasonably dry before we have to leave for tonight’s party at 4:30 pm. Getting ready to finally eat breakfast and contemplating doing a little bit of NaNo writing this afternoon just so I don’t get off schedule.

  65. 65.

    pamelabrown53

    @Major Major Major Major: #50
    I have checked out “crazy Ex Girlfriend” and it’s quite unique. Still, “crazy” is not what I’m aiming for in these last few days. It’s all about comfort. While I’m eating cod fish tonight, we bought some outstanding porterhouse steaks for tomorrow. Monday: p.f. changs. V-Day, best pizza in the area. A bottle of xanax would be less fattening, unfortunately no access. I suppose I could drive into Jacksonville and hang out under the overpasses and peep shows but methinks the costs outweighs the gains!

  69. 69.

    Steeplejack

    @Amir Khalid:

    Now 4-0. I’ve given up on this match, but I’m looking forward to at least two good ones tomorrow.

    ETA: And now 5-0 just as I post!

  71. 71.

    Amir Khalid

    @Amir Khalid:
    5-0. It would be nice if the referee could do like in boxing, and award the match to Chelsea by TKO to spare Everton a dangerous beating.

  72. 72.

    pamelabrown53

    @Larkspur:
    Whatever works. I’ve had both “Firefly” and “Angel” on my Netflix list but haven’t dipped yet. Thanks for replying. I think not a few people are trying to cope with this fact-free, nearly issue-free campaign. At this moment in time, I’m feeling confident that sanity and decency will win.

  74. 74.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steeplejack:

    Major^4 and I have had this conversation before. Apparently Samwise is a Korat, not a Russian Blue, thankyewverymuchly.

    My late great cat Boris was (mostly) a Russian Blue. I still miss him, because he was the sweetest, most loyal cat a person could ever want. Best roommate ever (though he wouldn’t have said the same about me).

  75. 75.

    schrodinger's cat

    In other exciting news, I bought the Samsung 5 burner gas stove and convection oven that I had set my heart upon! And it was almost 50% off. So I paid half of what I expected to pay/
    *Happy Dance*

  78. 78.

    schrodinger's cat

    Weather is gorgeous here, and the mountain ranges surrounding me are flame colored right now. Stopped by a tag sale and the nice old lady who had the sale gave me two beautiful Japanese fans. I also bought some jewelry organizers and a wall shelf thingie and some curtains.

  81. 81.

    CarolDuhart2

    Went down to the nearby Hillary Clinton office, and donated a chocolate cake. While I think my knees are a bit stiff to canvass, I asked if I could do some paperwork. It wasn’t ready to worked on. They appreciated the cake though.

    Why is Grand Jury so down about early voting? Early voting may get more dedicated partisans, but then the campaign can reach out to leaners and people who could only vote on the day itself, and even have room for converts. That’s what makes it a winning strategy. And the more votes banked, the more the campaign can expand its reach to people and insure more people vote and vote.

  82. 82.

    Aleta

    Tikka’s door-to-door volunteers have swung by several times this year to pee up against the door step.

  86. 86.

    different-church-lady

    @CarolDuhart2: there’s a difference between obseving that X (in this case, early voting) ia a good sign vs. pinning one’s hopes on X. While Grand Jury might have a point in regard to the second, they seem to be deliberatly uninterested in the distinction.

  87. 87.

    Ceci n'est pas mon nym

    This seems like an appropriate place to post a link to this sci-fi story. I’ve posted it before but I just love this story so I’m posting it again.

    What would Google want if it became sentient? Cat Pictures Please

  89. 89.

    FlyingToaster

    @GrandJury: You are the complete fuckwit, aren’t you?

    Early voting is dominated by two groups:

    Activists, many of whom previously voted absentee because they’re going to be elsewhere on GOTV duties during election day, and
    Low-probability voters, many of whom work two jobs and live on the fucking margins. Those who can get to an early polling place do. My mom (one of the aforementioned activists) used to pick them up on their lunch hour and drive them to early voting. This year, she’s not really up to driving, so she’s been phonebanking.

    The first number is a wash; the second number slews things ever so slightly [D]. Florida 2008 and 2012; Nevada this year.

    Us high probability voters with kids, either urban or suburban, are likely to wait to vote until election day so that we can take the kid(s) with us to vote. My polling place staff doesn’t recognize me; they recognize WarriorGirl and they get the “Future Voter” sticker out while I’m filling out my ballot.

    Is GrandJury a new troll, or one returned from the dead?

  90. 90.

    hueyplong

    Y’all show a little pity for grandjury. Blathering about how hundreds of thousands of voting “early voters” are just like dozens of non-voting yard signs is his last gasp before the Great Disappearance on Tuesday night.

  92. 92.

    Peale

    @different-church-lady: as he’s made clear many times, he’s against us talking about politics. I believe he’s said “shut up and vote”. He’s a Democrat who likes to insult democrats for some reason. A DNC version of a Green voter mixed in with the authoritarian demands of a true Trump supporter. There’s a lot in there to get on everyone’s nerves.

  93. 93.

    GrandJury

    @FlyingToaster: Total BS.

    Every time you people talk about early voting like it is somehow telling you something and every time you are wrong.

    Like ground hog day around here except it happens every 2 years. You people never seem to learn a thing from it. Same with polls. OMGzzz…..the polls.

  94. 94.

    Vheidi

    @WereBear: did you recommend that fishing pole cat toy, whose name escapes me? Omg, Bargles absolutely Loves It! He’s been getting a bit portly cause I can’t stop feeding him treats, this will def help. Thank you!

  95. 95.

    Lurking Canadian

    @Amir Khalid: Winning at Stamford Bridge has historically not been a good idea. I hope Chelsea’s not too tired for tomorrow’s game at Hastings.

  96. 96.

    WereBear

    @Vheidi: Da Bird was mentioned in the discussion, and I also love the Bird Catcher PRO.

    Any good, sturdy, wand toy will make itself appealing because of the True! Prey! Action! we can put into it with our fly fishing skills.

    Glad you are making him lively :)

  97. 97.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Mnemosyne:

    Excuse me!

    I had one cat that was half blue, half Siamese, and I had a purebred Russian blue for 20 years. Both great cats.

  98. 98.

    GrandJury

    I don’t even have to look at the pollzzz. I just need to read the comments here and see how many concern trollzzz are posting scary poll numbers (which are usually outliers anyways).

    Strange they haven’t been doing that lately. Hmmm. What does that mean?

  99. 99.

    Ruckus

    @FlyingToaster:
    Is GrandJury a new troll, or one returned from the dead?
    Some think a resurrection but the jury is still in my opinion. Snarky beyond the pale but does every once in a while make somewhat of a point.

  100. 100.

    GrandJury

    For all you people wanking about the media meme that the latinos are showing up for early voting and that is totally awesome for Dems.

    Sam Wang says unlikely. Same thing I am saying.

    However, it’s probably a good thing for all the low info voters to hear that media meme about now. I don’t think it would help motivate the other side any more because deep down, despite living in a fox news fantasy world, most of them probably realize they are behind and ‘probably’ going to lose. I

    To clarify….THEY are thinking ‘probably’. It’s an absolute certainty as far as I’m concerned and has been since July.

  101. 101.

    NoraLenderbee

    I had great plans for being productive today, but the cat Will.Not. get off my lap. On-topic because he looks like a combination of Russian Blue and Abyssinian.

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    And a couple of comments after the one I replied to I see that you are correct and I am wrong. It’s the first time for me of course, not sure about your record.

  103. 103.

    FlyingToaster

    @GrandJury: Totally true. Sorry, bucko, I’ve been reading the analysis on this shit for a long time.

    The margins in Florida in 2008 and 2012 are specific to two groups showing up to vote who hadn’t shown up before: working-class black voters, and 1st generation non-cuban working-class hispanic voters.

    Early voting is new in most of the country. Florida is good because they’ve had it a while, and their results give an insight into two groups who are considered to be low-propensity voters. The contrast between 2008 and 2010 — and 2012 and 2014 — tells the Florida Democratic party that they need to quit wasting money on the fucking air war they can’t win and start putting boots on the ground. And no, they haven’t learned that lesson.

    This is our first year with early voting in Massachusetts (I live two towns away from Tom), and the early voters at our city hall were also dominated by activists and first-generation immigrants, though our immigrants tend to come from Greece, Armenia, and Brazil. My friends in Somerville said they were in line with a crowd of grad students. These are anecdata, but check back around Friday and we should have some datamining results from the Dark Lord. Other states may vary :)

    Early voting doesn’t make anything a [D] lock. I have a (complete with yard sign) Trump voter two doors up, and another next door on the other side. My next-door-neighbor doesn’t always bother to vote, but he voted early this year.

    Being a complete tool just comes naturally to you, doesn’t it? No matter what name you use, your commentary still sounds like some doofus in his mom’s basement.

    Now, I have to go oversee the 9-year-old’s violin practice. Play nice.

  104. 104.

    FlyingToaster

    @GrandJury: Sam Wang is running national numbers. Electoral college is running by state as always; Ralston Reports has been documenting the turnout of hispanic voters in Nevada. Where Sam (and everyone else, even Nate Silver) says the polling is problematic.

    PEC had a lovely article this year on the problems with polling.

  105. 105.

    Ruckus

    @FlyingToaster:
    Bet good money that your 9 yr old playing the violin is far less annoying than our new “friend.”
    (I’m remembering my musical instrument playing as a child. Dictatorships have been destroyed for less horribleness. And no it doesn’t run in the family, I’m not the only one so blessed, some were/are actually quite good.)

  107. 107.

    CarolDuhart2

    No, early voting isn’t necessarily a lock. Election Day means something. But I remember 2000 and the super long lines where people gave up because they couldn’t stay in line long enough to vote. Wasn’t that margin 500 or so votes? And let’s not forget about the machines that broke down, or the chads that weren’t cleaned out.

    Super long lines are a form of voter suppression-usually against those who work shifts and can’t stay up, the disabled who can’t stand for long periods of time, people who can’t get child care. With early voting, these people can usually find time to vote and shorter lines. With early voting, campaigns can focus on those voters who can only vote on the day itself, late deciders and such.

    Votes banked are votes cast. They aren’t affected by weather, transit difficulties, or daycare issues.

    And about getting time off to vote, this from the AFL-CIO:

    State Laws on Employee Time Off To Vote

  110. 110.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m allergic to the taste and texture of beans, but I can still admire a good-looking pile of black beans on a plate in a restaurant. On someone else’s plate, of course.

  113. 113.

    CarolDuhart2

    To a comment that may not show up: @Lyft and @Uber have promo codes for people who need rides to the polls, per @amyheather

  117. 117.

    J R in WV

    @Gindy51:

    That’s a professional level microphone stand. Not very much like a telescope.

    There are astronomy clubs and magazines with articles and reviews of telescopes from inexpensive to sky’s the limit! Try the google with amateur telescope reviews for search terms.

    Celestron is a good entry level brand, Meade is somewhat more expensive. If you want to use a camera to do photos of deep space objects, you will need a motorized mount to move the ‘scope as the Earth spins, which costs a little more. Computerized motor mounts are a little more yet, but can point your ‘scope at things you can’t see with the naked eye to aim at.

    Enjoy, it’s a great hobby.

  118. 118.

    gwangung

    @FlyingToaster: Yeah. My notion is that early voting, particularly of Hispanics, is good news because it’s tailored to the state as it is an empirical test of voting models for that state.

  119. 119.

    FlyingToaster

    @Kilgore Trout: Almost entirely. But he complained this summer that for some states he was not confident in the numbers he was generating because the polls seemed to have crap data.

    The problem is exacerbated by the increasingly low response rate to phone polls. Through 2012, the responses were enough to map pretty well, but this year, only PEW was doing the “manually dial cell phone exchanges” to poll the cell-only or cell-mostly users. And now, those aren’t just low-propensity voters, but retirees and sandwich generation members as well.

    I had to go back and find the damn article, but this one does a good job of explaining the issue: The Problem with Polls .

  120. 120.

    Ruckus

    @gwangung:
    My notion is that voting should be easy for everyone and early voting does that. There may be other ways but that is one. However, here in the LA area the early voting places are miles away from most of us. And if they are miles they can be a long time driving. The freeway I take to work is worse all day Sat and Sun than rush hr during the week. Many others are the same. For me the closest early voting place is about 15 miles away which is most likely a half hr or more each way. My Nov 8 location is within easy walking distance of less than 15 min.

  121. 121.

    J R in WV

    @GrandJury:

    Actually, early voting can disclose a lot about the eventual totals.

    You can see if the proportion of D to R voters is the same as the last election, and if way more Ds are voting, win!

    You can determine if more voters are voting early, and if they are it is probably that you will get more voters on election day itself. Depending on voter registration by party, this too can indicate which side may win by the close of business on election day.

    So, as usual, you are wrong about fundamental, elementary things. Wonder why you bother when you display ordinary ignorance and stupidity…

  122. 122.

    FlyingToaster

    @Ruckus: WarriorGirl’s actually really good, and came downstairs on her own to practice. Normally Saturday is a day off because she has music school (musicianship and group violin), but it’s closed today. So after her technicals she played fiddle pieces for review and then on to the performance pieces. She’s nearly mastered Beethoven’s “Minuet in G”, you’re right, not at all annoying.

    Concern trolls are just a pain in the ass. The shomi/srv/NR nexus is starting to get to me. Not amusing, not fact based — issues about GOTV may be concern trolling, but they’re actually based on shit that’s happened before.

  125. 125.

    T S

    @Omnes Omnibus: Okay, I’m worried as hell, but there is a clear difference between pantswetting and throwing your dirty diapers at people, as GrandJury seems to prefer. I can’t endorse that (but I’ll still vote for him…but that’s not an endorsement!).

    However…what IF the optimism is delusional false hope….? I guess it doesn’t matter. We do what we can, and what happens happens.

  126. 126.

    GrandJury

    I look forward to coming here on Nov9 making fun of people buying into the whole omgzzz latinos are showing up for the first time in forever. Seems to be going right over everyones head that early voting has been an increasing trend every election. Nothing out of the ordinary.

    Must be the same people who were wanking about how it’s gonna be another Al Gore2000 situation a couple months ago…lol.

    I’ll say it right now. Latino vote will be the same as it is every year. Dismal. There will be more of them voting of course….because there are more of them.

    Or….I’m wrong and latinos actually show up and Arizona/Texas turn blue and there are rainbows and unicorns for everyone.

  130. 130.

    CarolDuhart2

    Why do you insist that what is happening is not happening? Re: the dismal Hispanic numbers you talk about as apparently iron-clad. One thing about voting: nothing, even turnout, is written eternally in stone.

    1) Fewer and fewer Hispanics are what you would call “ineligible to vote”. Yes, some older ones are undocumented, but their kids are citizens
    2) There is now organizational muscle to get out those votes that there wasn’t years ago: churches to community orgs who can deal with the issues surrounding voting.
    3) Spanish language media that can inform voters and mobilize them. Wasn’t there in earlier years, at least to the same extent as before.
    4) Democrats, like the former “lovable losers”, the Cubs have finally found a way to win and now court instead of turning away supporters in an attempt to bring back Trump’s deplorables to the party.
    5) There are simply more of them, through increase, some legal immigration compared to the declining white population-which makes efforts to mobilize more successful.

  131. 131.

    GrandJury

    @CarolDuhart2: There was a big push to get Latinos to vote early…so I hear. So maybe more are voting early. I don’t think there will be a higher percentage voting overall after all is said and done.

    If there are a higher percentage voting it would be the first time ever. That is why all the polls bake that in. I’d love to be wrong. Not gonna happen.

    It’s the same thing people say every time. Every time it’s always “oh this time it’s different because Obama ,dream act, Arizona anti immigrant law, Trump’s wall….or whatever”.

  132. 132.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Comrade Scrutinizer:

    She knows how to dress up a link. I believe she was testing a naked link (as she said) to see if it triggered moderation. That was allegedly fixed in the last few days.

  133. 133.

    CarolDuhart2

    @GrandJury: Why do not believe that there are more actually voting this time? There’s a reason that last night there were 1000 in line when the polling place closed at 10 pm in Las Vegas. People who are unconcerned aren’t going to vote at 10pm on a Friday night and stand in line to do it.

    For all their flaws, McCain and Romney never made threats to the Hispanic and Immigrant community like this. While many no doubt expected stepped up enforcement, there were no threats and no insults to those who were here legally for being different.

  134. 134.

    Wumpus

    @GrandJury: Yup, it’s the same thing people say every time. And you know what? Sometimes they’re absolutely right. Obama outperformed the final polls by 2 full percentage points in 2012, and that was largely because of record African-American turnout.

Comments are closed.