Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Bark louder, little dog.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

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

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

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

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

All hail the time of the bunny!

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

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Momentary Feline Break

Momentary Feline Break

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The hits keep coming — check out the new Education Secretary nominee — and I need a respite.  So here’s a couple of gratuitous cat images:

1:  You talking to me?

tikka-glare

2:  I Am Feline! Hear Me Roar. (Alternatively:  Cat Lives Matter!):

tikka-stretch

Finally: I Can 2 Reed Buks (Alternatively: You Ain’t Getting Any Work Done Anyway):

tikka-book

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  6. 6.

    JPL

    Tom, Thanks for the cat pictures. So far today, I managed to burn my pumpkin pie, and my brussel sprouts. I was able to salvage enough of the sprouts, that with a little seasoning, they should heat up just fine. As far as the pie goes, whipping cream works.

    @Betty Cracker: Is there a way you can search his name, for posts? I tried google and didn’t find anything recent.

  9. 9.

    Glidwrith

    Got my cranberry sauce made and my buttermilk biscuits actually look like buttermilk biscuits, yeah!

  11. 11.

    JMG

    The country’s not going to be any worse off on Monday than it is today, I hope. So I intend to be thankful this holiday come what may. I am thankful for this community of interesting, argumentative, good people. My hope for the future is to meet some of you in person.

  13. 13.

    jacy

    So far today my rolls didn’t rise. They’re little hard balls. Sigh. Have to start over.

    I too worry about missing commenters. The world is an unsettling place just now.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    @schrodinger’s cat: Yeah, that’s why I’m concerned about him. Can’t blame people for wanting to take a break from talking or reading about politics since the news is uniformly grim, so I figure other folks are simply disgusted and depressed, as are most of us.

  16. 16.

    OneMadClown

    I assume most folks are aware, but Scott Eric Kaufman aka SEK, of Lawyers, Guns & Money, Acephalous, etc. has passed away. His family will be stuck with very significant medical bills, and a GoFundMe page has been set up here: https://www.gofundme.com/help-for-scotts-medical-bills

    Please chip in if you’re able, maybe one of the front pagers can post this more prominently.

  21. 21.

    Mnemosyne

    Poor G has been complaining lately that the cats treat him like warm-blooded furniture. It doesn’t get quite cold enough here for them to grow winter coats, but they obviously want a little extra warmth.

  22. 22.

    Mnemosyne

    @jeffreyw:

    I bought a cranberry pecan pie for tomorrow. I usually find pecan pie to be too sweet, so I’m hoping the cranberries will cut some of that.

  23. 23.

    mai naem mobile

    Betsy Fucking Devos. It’s all the old GOP hits. Wonder why Pat BucHanan isn’t in there for something.

  25. 25.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    My cats have been in conflict over the past two months or so, not getting along. I think part of it is Mal is acting more aggressive as he’s gotten older, while his mother Ocean is upset she’s not able to go outdoors anymore (she’s a part-feral feline I rescued from my old apartment complex, and I don’t want her out getting fleas and cat-borne illnesses).

  31. 31.

    Mothra

    I have worked in public schools since 1990. We do an amazing job of teaching and caring for children every day. “Failing schools” have low income students. Period. End of story.

    Last year we had a parent come in between her full time day job and her after work job as a Sonic waitress. We had concerns about her son, who had stomach problems and who would eat nothing except snack foods. We asked if he ate a better diet at home. She did not know. She had to have her parents watch him and his sister after school, because she was at work almost all the time. I could cry thinking about it right now. It’s not right.

  32. 32.

    hovercraft

    I hope the missing regulars are okay, and just taking a break to recharge their souls after this horrendous campaign we’ve just all been through.
    If you guys are just lurking, dip in and tell us you’re okay.
    @Major Major Major Major:
    I agree the trolls recently, they have been worse than usual, just here to shit up threads and inflame. Yesterdays early evening troll was particularly vile.

  33. 33.

    Brachiator

    This might be a useful app for those who want to contact their Congress critter about the issues of the day.

    Call to Action

    If you want to contact your local Congressional representative, Call to Action makes the whole process really simple. You just enter your address or location, and the app tells you who your representative is, where you can get a hold of them, and what you should say to get your point across.

    Even better, if you’re using the app on your phone, you can tap the phone number and just call directly from the app. It’s available for web only, so you’ll just head to the website and enter your location.

  36. 36.

    Keith P.

    Question #1: Does a president get to cancel audits, including those on themselves?
    Question #2: So we’re still gonna be seeing those tax returns, right?
    Question #3: Our adversarial media will be following up on #2 even though the election is over, right?

  39. 39.

    JPL

    @jeffreyw: Normally I add a little white wine to my gravy, but recently I saw that a dry red might be good. What does the resident chef suggest?

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    @Mothra: We had a friend and neighbor who was a music teacher at a local elementary school. The school got bad grades from then-Governor Jeb Bush’s school grading scheme, not because the teachers didn’t work their asses off to look after the kids and help them learn, but rather because it serves an agricultural area with a lot of migrant workers, and the kids need a lot of help.

    Anyhoo, our friend loved his job, loved the kids and would have happily devoted the rest of his career to the public school system. But assholes like Bush squeezed the schools to the point where he and many of his colleagues just couldn’t take it anymore. My friend went back to college, got his PhD and is now a professor. That’s a gain for his college, but it’s a terrible loss for the local public school.

    I have a feeling the fat cat Republican donor Trump just named to head the Department of Education will be pushing that kind of “change” nationwide. And fat cats like the Bushes and others will be lined up at the trough, ready to lap up taxpayer dollars for further boondoggles that degrade public schools. Makes me sick.

    Anyhoo, kudos for what you do.

  42. 42.

    Botsplainer

    Betsy fucking DeVos, that nasty, Jesus humping c**t to Department of Education.

    It’ll be creationist fucking bullshit and charter schools, and every bullshit combo Bible College and auto mechanic school will get big ass grants to prove contraception causes breast cancer, plague and gout.

    Fuck polite.

  45. 45.

    Linnaeus

    The DeVos clan is terrible. They’re billionaires who are probably the most influential people in the Michigan Republican Party and played a key role in moving the state party rightward. Betsy’s husband, Dick DeVos, was himself a candidate for governor in 2006, but fortunately lost to Jennifer Granholm. Dick was the primary force behind the right-to-work legislation that the Republican majority in the state legislature rammed through in a lame-duck session; reportedly, he told Rick Snyder that if Snyder didn’t sign the legislation, he would finance a primary challenge against Snyder in 2014. When the DeVoses say, “jump”, Michigan Republicans ask, “how high?” These are not people that you want anywhere near government.

  46. 46.

    celticdragonchick

    @Betty Cracker: Betsy DeVos has a long history of trying to loot the public schools, divert everybody to creationist propaganda mill private schools and kill teachers unions. She is actually worse than Michelle Rhee. (that takes some real fucking talent).

  48. 48.

    Chat Noir

    @celticdragonchick: Asshole doesn’t even begin to describe Betsy DeVos (all the DeVoses, really). I remember back in the ’90s when she was chairman (not chairwoman but chairman because she didn’t want to be referred to as “chairwoman”) of the Michigan Republican Party. She really is deplorable, as are all of them.

    Gawd, they really are scraping the bottom of the barrel for these appointments.

  49. 49.

    raven

    @Felonius Monk:
    eclare

    Yea, I’m fine. I caught that 39 inch red in the surf last week and fought a ray for over a half-an-hour. When she go hurt I had to load all of our shit myself (with her guidance) and now I’m hauling stuff from under the house to the dump.

  50. 50.

    Ajabu

    Well, I hardly consider myself a regular commenter but I’m still here.
    Just have nothing pertinent to say in light of the unending parade of horrors that the Orange Cretin is visiting upon us. I’m still on a total news blackout. I refuse to watch our liberal media normalize this motherfucka. And I’m still working on a plan to get back to the islands.

  51. 51.

    raven

    @Schlemazel: And what we gonna do if they are not? I realize a lot of what has been going on is by way of understanding what happened but I don’t really care to engage in it much. I can see where some people just say fuck it for a while.

  52. 52.

    gogol's wife

    @Chat Noir:

    Well, destroying the public schools is right in line with the Republican game plan. I think it played a major role in giving us Trump. Keep the masses stupid, should be the GOP slogan.

  53. 53.

    Chat Noir

    @Linnaeus: I remember reading about her in the Detroit Free Press back in the mid-1990s. She couldn’t even be bothered to drive an American-made car — I think she drove a Toyota minivan or something similar because she had to cart around her spawn or some shit like that.

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    @Schlemazel: Yeah, but it’s a fine line between expressing concern and being intrusive with someone’s private info. Honestly, I’m not sure where to draw that line, outside clear cases of physical danger, etc.

  57. 57.

    celticdragonchick

    @Chat Noir: I hadn’t heard of her until I began researching a paper on Religious Right wing community organizing for schools(which is very much top-down as opposed to genuine grassroots bottom up models).

    Holy shit did her name start coming up a lot in my research. Astroturf groups all over the place advocating for creationism, intelligent design, revisionist history of America, get rid of public schools and let parents get a coupon to send their kids to third rate Bible studies posing as schools….she keeps showing up again and again and again.

    I had to adjust my initial paper parameters to include her presence.

    My paper is here…https://www.academia.edu/21564584/Creationism_in_Public_Schools_Community_Organizing_on_the_Religious_Right

  58. 58.

    Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap

    Every single public resource will be sold to the Republican connected 1%. A bustout on a scale the Mafia could only ever dream of. The Dems can’t stop it and the press is rolling over asking for a belly rub.

  60. 60.

    Prufrock

    @Betty Cracker: My wife was a public school teacher in Pinellas County for four years. She quit a year and a half ago. She was outstanding at her job, and she loved the kids, but the constant testing and other bullshit introduced to choke out the public school system finally got to her. It was too much work and stress for too little compensation.

    I now see the local highways dotted with billboards begging people to get into teaching. In the current environment, it’s laughable. I would advise young people to stay away for the same reason I would advise them to stay away from military service; significant risk to one’s well being.

  61. 61.

    Jeffro

    @Chat Noir:

    Gawd, they really are scraping the bottom of the barrel for these appointments.

    Some combination of most folks being unwilling to work for Der Trumpster, and those that are, have to be bad enough to make Donald feel good about himself. “This guy’s almost as loathed as I am, I gotta have him on the team!”

    America, this just isn’t going to work…we’re going to have to do something else, and quickly…

  62. 62.

    Linnaeus

    @Chat Noir:

    Toyota makes some good vehicles, but I wouldn’t be surprised if an additional “bonus” for DeVos is that Toyotas aren’t made by UAW or CAW members. The right wing in Michigan really hates organized labor. They’d turn the entire state into a permanent economic backwater if it meant that there’d never be a union in Michigan again.

  63. 63.

    jeffreyw

    @JPL: I’m not really much of a cook but I have never used wine in a drippings type gravy. Pan sauces, on the other hand, or thickened braising liquids work fine with red wines. White for chicken and seafood, red for beef, but that’s not a rule carved in granite.

  64. 64.

    Elmo

    Sitting in the emergency room at Georgetown Medical, waiting for the spine guy to tell my wife whether she needs emergency surgery to remove a synovial cyst and fuse L4-L5. We were referred here this morning when the other spine doc saw her MRI. He was booked solid and couldn’t do anything immediately.

    Anybody have experience with a spinal fusion? It’s just us, no nearby family or friends to help, so it’s going to be me dealing with the dogs cats chickens fish turtles…

  65. 65.

    HILFY

    @PaulWartenberg2016: Try Feliway, a synthetic cat pheromone (hormone ?) which helps stressed cats mellow out. My original cat and our new SPCA cat are getting along quite well, even playing together a little, even tho Original is rather territorial. Feliway comes in a plug-in diffusor. One in my kitchen and one in the bathroom has been effective; no disagreements over who uses whose litter box. It’s available at Amazon and Petsmart.

  66. 66.

    celticdragonchick

    @Prufrock: I’m a substitute in the Guilford County School district. (Being on disablity makes it real hard to even be part time because of the income cap).

    I love the kids. The testing regime has got to go.

  67. 67.

    Linnaeus

    @Prufrock:

    I now see the local highways dotted with billboards begging people to get into teaching. In the current environment, it’s laughable. I would advise young people to stay away for the same reason I would advise them to stay away from military service; significant risk to one’s well being.

    I can’t find it now, but I read an article some months back about fewer students going into schools of education, teacher training programs, etc., and this is a problem for school districts across the country because they don’t know where they’re going to get new teachers from. I’m not surprised one bit. Who would go into public school teaching right now when you can do something else for better pay and not get blamed for every problem?

  68. 68.

    Mnemosyne

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think the one person I’m currently most concerned about is different-church-lady. She was having issues with depression even before the election. I feel like everyone else who was giving me nightmares about their well-being has checked in and is feeling more stable.

  69. 69.

    celticdragonchick

    @Elmo:

    I had L4/L5 fused and it has been nothing but non stop debilitating pain for 8 years and daily handfuls of pain medication monitored by a pain management doctor. Don’t do it unless no other option presents itself.

  70. 70.

    Ian

    @JPL:
    Put the wine in when you are cooking your onions. To many people add the wine at the end where the alcohol will not cook out. I don’t personally use wine when making gravy, but if used it must get cooked out or else the food will taste like alcohol.

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    @celticdragonchick:

    I’ve started referring to those people as Secular Calvinists. They really do believe that God loves them best because they were born rich, and any actual religious training doesn’t make a dent in that self-identity.

  76. 76.

    D58826

    @Linnaeus: say on twitter than 1-5 of one teachers union ands 1-3 from the other voted for Trump. Hope they like losing their jobs when schools funds go to charters.

  78. 78.

    Botsplainer

    Until the Rust Belt and WWC redeems itself, no more US made vehicles in my house. Zero.

    I’m also calling my Ford dealer, which I actually like, to let them know. If I’m going to spend $45000 on a car, I can buy a small Mercedes or an A4.

  82. 82.

    RedDirtGirl

    @Elmo: No advice, just warm thoughts for the both of you. And “Keep your pecker up” which my Scottish aunt used to say. (Translates to keep your chin up!)

  84. 84.

    Mnemosyne

    @debbie:

    Because it’s a (slightly) different group than the American Taliban, though they often flock together. The AT wants to take over because they are The Righteous; the SC want to take over because God clearly chose them to be leaders by making them rich, so they should be allowed to make everyone else obey them.

    The SC are happy to let the AT be their foot soldiers, but they actually hold the AT in contempt. Are the ATs rich? No? Then they’re not the chosen ones, and they will have to obey the SC when the revolution comes.

  85. 85.

    Linnaeus

    @Mnemosyne:

    Buy a Toyota. They’re made right here in solid blue California.

    No, they’re not. Toyota has a auto body parts plant in Long Beach, but the cars are made in plants in Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Texas.

    ETA: You might be thinking of the old NUMMI plant in Fremont that used to make the Corolla and Tacoma light truck. That’s a Tesla plant now.

  86. 86.

    debbie

    @Mnemosyne:

    Oh, well. I guess I just saw an easy chance to insult them. I intend to fling “Taliban” and “American Sharia” at family members next time I see them.

  87. 87.

    Schlemazel

    @raven:
    Well, we could see if they wanted to talk about it or if there are local resources that could help them. They could – as I assume you would – tell us to fuck right off and we can then fuck right off but at least we asked.

    I seem to remember us saving a life on this very blog a couple years back

  90. 90.

    Mnemosyne

    @debbie:

    Unless your family is made up of billionaires, they’re American Taliban. If that helps. But you can add in that they’re stupid enough to think that billionaires have their best interests at heart.

  92. 92.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Schlemazel:

    I seem to remember us saving a life on this very blog a couple years back

    I remember it vividly. I was on the road, and pulled over into rest stops at every possible opportunity to make sure the distressed commenter was still with us and okay, weigh in when I had something useful or comforting to say, and follow the unfolding story. So relieved that it had a happy ending.

    I wonder about that commenter sometimes and hope he is well.

  94. 94.

    TriassicSands

    Trump, who knows nothing about much of anything (except con games and grifting) has appointed a voucher zealot to “reform” education. Reform means privatize. This is going to be a horrendous four years.

    In other news, Trump has supposedly offered a cabinet position to Ben Carson. Last week Carson said he didn’t know anything about running a government agency — a rare bit of honesty from a Republican. Apparently, he studied hard and, anyway, there really isn’t anything much involved in running (I’m tempted to substitute “ruining” for “running”) a federal agency. Not only does Carson not know anything about running an agency, his expertise that qualifies him to run HUD is apparently that he lived in low income housing once upon a time. If Trump set the bar any lower it would disappear into Hell.

  95. 95.

    Chris

    @Mnemosyne:

    The SC are happy to let the AT be their foot soldiers, but they actually hold the AT in contempt. Are the ATs rich? No? Then they’re not the chosen ones, and they will have to obey the SC when the revolution comes.

    So, AT = American Taliban, SC = American Al-Qaeda. (“The people behind the Taliban,” in the words of The Kite Runner).

  96. 96.

    John Hanson

    It sure would be great if one of the front pagers did a story on the DAPL and what is being done by the (militarized) police to peaceful water protectors in North Dakota.

  97. 97.

    The Moar You Know

    You can see our email addresses, right? would it be wrong to email & ask some of the missing if they are OK?

    @Schlemazel: I use a dead-drop address and I’ll bet most people posting here do as well. If I “go away”, I goddamn well don’t want anyone here trying to hunt me down finding out if I’m OK.

    If I stop posting, it will be for a good reason and that reason will be nobody’s goddamn business.

  98. 98.

    burnspbesq

    I didn’t think it would be possible for Trump to find a SecEd nominee that people would hate more than Duncan.

    I wuz rong.

  100. 100.

    Juice Box

    I was just talking to a Trump voter today who is very worried about global warming. I. Just. Didn’t. Have. The. Energy.

  101. 101.

    Calming Influence

    Every dish I’m making has at least a pound of cheddar cheese, including the turkey. Once the non-believers have sucumbed to its pacifying effect, I’ll begin the indoctrination.

  102. 102.

    Calming Influence

    “So far today my rolls didn’t rise. They’re little hard balls.”

    If I had a buck for every time I’ve said that…

Comments are closed.