Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

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

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

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

We still have time to mess this up!

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

The revolution will be supervised.

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

Let there be snark.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

People are complicated. Love is not.

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

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

After roe, women are no longer free.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Holiday Cat Greetings

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Holiday Cat Greetings

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werebear-tristan-holiday-rug-2016

Getting into the holiday spirit, without the indignity of wearing a party hat. From cat whisperer WereBear:

Per your request, here is Tristan, enjoying our Holiday Rug, an annual tradition.

I get a cheap holiday themed rug every year, lay it in an open space, and it becomes a cave, a mountain, and a wrestling ring — the virtual boundaries draw the cats like a magnet.

(Click here for full explanation, on WereBear’s Way of Cats blog.)

***********
Also, a(nother) great piece from Ta-Nehesi Coates, in the Atlantic — “My President Was Black“:

… Last spring, I went to the White House to meet the president for lunch. I arrived slightly early and sat in the waiting area. I was introduced to a deaf woman who worked as the president’s receptionist, a black woman who worked in the press office, a Muslim woman in a head scarf who worked on the National Security Council, and an Iranian American woman who worked as a personal aide to the president. This receiving party represented a healthy cross section of the people Donald Trump had been mocking, and would continue to spend his campaign mocking. At the time, the president seemed untroubled by Trump. When I told Obama that I thought Trump’s candidacy was an explicit reaction to the fact of a black president, he said he could see that, but then enumerated other explanations. When assessing Trump’s chances, he was direct: He couldn’t win.

This assessment was born out of the president’s innate optimism and unwavering faith in the ultimate wisdom of the American people—the same traits that had propelled his unlikely five-year ascent from Illinois state senator to U.S. senator to leader of the free world…

… I came to regard Obama as a skilled politician, a deeply moral human being, and one of the greatest presidents in American history. He was phenomenal—the most agile interpreter and navigator of the color line I had ever seen. He had an ability to emote a deep and sincere connection to the hearts of black people, while never doubting the hearts of white people. This was the core of his 2004 keynote, and it marked his historic race speech during the 2008 campaign at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center—and blinded him to the appeal of Trump. (“As a general proposition, it’s hard to run for president by telling people how terrible things are,” Obama once said to me.)

But if the president’s inability to cement his legacy in the form of Hillary Clinton proved the limits of his optimism, it also revealed the exceptional nature of his presidential victories. For eight years Barack Obama walked on ice and never fell. Nothing in that time suggested that straight talk on the facts of racism in American life would have given him surer footing…

It’s a long read, but even if you don’t have time for it now, I wanted to make sure you could bookmark it for later — given the pace of new outrages news right now.
***********
Apart from that, what’s on the agenda for the day?

Reader Interactions

141Comments

  1. 1.

    satby

    Frantically filling orders, dropping them at the post office, and picking up a rental can to move the very lovely dining room table a friend gave me because she inherited her mom’s. Hoping the weather cooperates for a drive to Chicago tomorrow to complete that.

  4. 4.

    Schlemazel

    A kitty in command of its space!

    TNC is a national treasure, and antidote to the vapid, nattering that passes for thought at the dawn of the 21st century. Because of that he will never have the megaphone of the Brooks or Broder and certainly not the distribution of the screamy-heads on TV. It is a shame because his opinions, particularly on the times I disagree with him, are more informative and more useful than all the other sludge put together.

  5. 5.

    Schlemazel

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Ms. Payne, “I don’t dictate what happens when I walk in the store. The people in charge dictate what happens with me when I walk in the store,” she said. “I don’t tell a person in the store I want to see something that costs $10,000. They make those decisions based on how I present myself and how I look.”

    A good con artist understands appearance is important & you always have to let the mark show you what you can get away with. I bet she is a fascinating person to talk to but I’d leave my wallet at home.

  10. 10.

    Schlemazel

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I believe if we paid for her dinner we would be sure to get more than our money’s worth in entertainment & maybe a little education thrown in. She is in Atlanta, maybe we could work something out with raven, we send him some money & he films the whole thing for us . . .

  12. 12.

    TriassicSands

    This assessment was born out of the president’s innate optimism and unwavering faith in the ultimate wisdom of the American people…

    I wonder how President Obama feels about the American people now? Trump could make a cynic out of Buddha.

  16. 16.

    Spanky (ex P-man)

    @RSR: That is hilarious!

    Mrs. P brought a cat into the marriage who always made sure she had a second household available wherever she got moved to, before and after we hitched. Only cat I’m sure who did that, although I’ve had suspicions about a couple others.

  17. 17.

    Schlemazel

    @JPL:
    I am not sure about that wish. My guess is that she only knows one way to support herself and at her age thinks she is smoother than all the cameras they have pointing at the stores. Her skills are as strong as they ever were but the technology has out paced her.

  18. 18.

    Botsplainer

    Something I’ll point out today:

    1. Nobody and nothing that Twitler touches ever emerges unscathed. You wind up genuinely worse off. Does he have old close friends with warm feelings for him? He’ll do for America what he’s done for others in his life.

    2. Nonviolence and peaceful resistance are failures in dealing with conservatism, as the bastards have no fear to try any anything to retain power. They have to feel fear in their puffy,pasty existence when overreach is attempted, as they’re generally physical cowards.

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Wow for the day:

    Wisdom the albatross, the world’s oldest-known breeding bird in the wild, has laid an egg at 66 years of age after returning to a wildlife refuge in the Pacific Ocean, US wildlife officials have said.

    Photos of the large seabird incubating her egg between her webbed feet at the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge, the world’s largest albatross colony, were posted on Twitter by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. While it was not known when she laid her egg – her 41st – it was likely to have been in the past few days, the agency said. Wisdom’s journey back to motherhood, at 66 years of age or possibly older, has amazed staff at the refuge.
    ……..
    The biologist Chandler Robbins, now 98, first placed an aluminium band around the albatross’s ankle at the Pacific Ocean atoll in 1956. Forty-six years later, Robbins spotted Wisdom among thousands of birds near the same nesting area and affixed a sturdier band to her ankle.

  27. 27.

    bemused

    We’ve had temps ranging from low of -12 overnight to high of maybe 4 above for about a week now, NE MN. The house is cozy warm but one of our long haired kitties has been spending a lot of her time sleeping up against the heat register next to toilet that pushes out the most heat. I was stripping a bed to wash sheets and when I pulled back the bedspread, there she was curled up underneath. We don’t see many feral cats here, not with MN winters, unless someone has a barn or shed they could get into.

  30. 30.

    bystander

    I’d read the Coates article if I didn’t think it would just depress me.

    I walked through midtown Manhattan yesterday. Jeb Bush, for the second time in my life, was walking toward me, talking to some other fatcat. I had to restrain myself from asking if he thought he would have fared better had he entered the peni$ sweepstakes when Marco took the party to new depths. That, or spit on him.

  31. 31.

    gogol's wife

    I’m now afraid of my 14-year-old cat. He won’t leave me alone at night, and he swats at my face when I’m asleep. He was diagnosed as hyperthyroid a week ago, and he’s been on medication, so he’s a bit better, but not enough! It’s kind of terrifying. (None of the doors in our house really close, and I’m afraid if I barricade him out of the bedroom he’ll just howl all night.)

    It coincides with Trump’s election.

  32. 32.

    Patricia Kayden

    For eight years Barack Obama walked on ice and never fell.

    Yep. No scandals, no drama. The first Black President had to be perfect and he was. Thank you, Obama.

  39. 39.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Botsplainer: So how do we instill fear in Republicans who now control everything in Washington, D.C. and control both houses in most of our states? Democratic politicians (who are generally spineless) probably won’t do much to instill fear in Trump and his cohorts.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    @bystander:

    I didn’t find it depressing. It’s a different look at it, that Obama’s “faith” in white people is genuine and grounded in his experience instead of how it’s usually portrayed, as political acumen or skill.

    It’s good to read in the age of Trump because Trump’s whole political career is so cynical and manipulative. The admiration of Trump is based on the premise that he isn’t telling the truth– that he’s secretly a better person than he appears to be and says what he says because he’s a master salesman- we’re supposed to admire this. Lying constantly and attacking whole groups of people is okay- he’s not a bad person, it’s just part of a sales pitch and it worked! He won! It worked so it’s therefore “good”.

    Genuinely grappling with racism is uplifting by comparison. It’s real. The real world, awful as it can be, is less scary and alienating than the alternate reality Trump creates.

  42. 42.

    JPL

    @Baud: This. He still believes in our better angels! The lack of common decency and the end of the PC culture, tossed those angels to the wind.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Well, Baud, “wrong”. I don’t speak for Obama but you’ve been listening to him long enough to know he’d see that as oversimplification. “While it is true…it is also true…” :)

    I’m still figuring it out, the election, but I’m not sure we should throw out his whole theory based on 100k votes in three states. Lotta different factors in play there, that election and it really wasn’t a “mandate”.

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    The admiration of Trump is based on the premise that he isn’t telling the truth–

    While it is true most everything Trump says is a lie, I think a large amount of the admiration for him is because he speaks certain “truths” that large segments of his fan base just know to be “true”.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    @Kay: No worries. Happy to wait for Rwanda II before making any gross generalizations about people who pulled the lever for Donald Trump.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    @JPL:

    But people do. Still believe in “better angels”. Lincoln did, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

    You almost have to or you’d give up.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: Yup.

    I blame a lot of this on Fox News and Limbaugh’s fake news purveying. It changes peoples’ emotions and brains. We need to eradicate that. It is poison.

    How does accurate and good news get out, when too much media is fearmongering for dollars?

    This is literally societal brainwashing, for a dangerously large segment of the American public. It actually is unprecedented. A nasty broadsheet or debate point of the 19th century was nothing compared to broadcast news and entertainment, 24/7.

    How do we deal with this? The First Amendment cannot seem to protect us, if we have people being purposely misinformed.

  48. 48.

    delk

    Heading home after a week in Quebec City, but half of my dad’s family is Canadian, so the temptation to stay north of the border is pretty strong.

    Oh well, we do miss the dog and the hubby should find out next week if he gets his dream job so time to pack up.

  50. 50.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay: Yeah. We gotta make sure the facts don’t get eradicated there. Less than 100,000 votes in three states. In the first election without the Voting Rights Act.

    Don’t let them lie. Watch out for fake “conventional wisdom.”

  52. 52.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elizabelle: People have a right to be misinformed. It’s in the 28th Amendment:

    The right of the People to be ignorant and lied to shall not be abridged.

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay & @Elizabelle: I saw two examples of the bullshit “mandate” narrative emerging on Twitter this morning. The Hill ran a piece with a headline about how a majority of Americans don’t believe Russian interference affected the election. I clicked through to the story, which featured a FOX News poll that found that 32% of Americans DO believe the Russians swung it. I replied that the fact that nearly a third of Americans believing their election was stolen is kind of a BFD.

    Second item: NBC News is running a feature on Trump’s “silent majority.” I replied that it was neither silent nor a majority. This is how bullshit narratives get built, and you’re right — it’s important to push back, even if it does feel like pissing into the wind.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    Garry Kasparov ‏@Kasparov63 Dec 13
    The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.

  57. 57.

    Jeffro

    @Botsplainer:

    2. Nonviolence and peaceful resistance are failures in dealing with conservatism, as the bastards have no fear to try any anything to retain power. They have to feel fear in their puffy,pasty existence when overreach is attempted, as they’re generally physical cowards.

    Seconded…sort of. They’re useful, but they can’t be the only tools in our toolbox. Witness NC.

    Btw I love this…going to have to go into our newspaper recycling pile and cut out the ad that was in the WaPo yesterday. Just so my kids can show their kids what it was like living through the end of 2016. (Or for extra kindling to roast our sparrow on the shower rod…)

  58. 58.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I don’t think the focus on the WWC as a “silent majority” matters. Media are always touchy and overly defensive about not being in touch with “Main street” so they overreact. They’ll go back to completely ignoring working class people. That theme is fashionable right now because it’s a neat and tidy Trump explanation that doesn’t implicate anyone or create waves. It’s safe. They’ll never get slammed for kowtowing to the noble white working class going to work with their lunchbackets when the factory whistle blows.

  59. 59.

    Jeffro

    @bystander:

    I’d read the Coates article if I didn’t think it would just depress me.

    I doubt that it would…it’s inspiring to hear just how incredibly perceptive, and deliberate, he is. He’s one of a kind, but I think his example will inspire others to be the same kind of leader, and that gives me hope as well.

  60. 60.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Ugh, the girl insists on having a “holiday open house” but NOT saying it’s her birthday party even thought it is on her birthday! That’s dinner party enough for me!

  61. 61.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay:

    Genuinely grappling with racism is uplifting by comparison. It’s real. The real world, awful as it can be, is less scary and alienating than the alternate reality Trump creates.

    But at the end of January, the real world is going to transform into the alternate reality Trump creates. I’m seriously wondering if we are going to be able to live in it, in any decent way. Will it be possible to survive without becoming morally tainted?

  65. 65.

    Botsplainer

    @Patricia Kayden:

    @Jeffro:

    Test run with Pu55y Riot style actions at mega churches, country clubs, government buildings, homes of funding activists and legislative chambers, I’m thinking. Eliminate the idea that there are “safe spaces” and cultural icons free of reminders that there are people who are deeply unhappy with the policies of those in power.

    It is partial and a lot milder than the violence, arson, and total destruction these fuckers deserve, but it is a start.

  66. 66.

    bemused

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Maybe some of them have convinced themselves that he doesn’t really mean the horrible things he says but they love it all. He’s saying what they believe and want to say but pc liberals put them down, call them racists and bigots.

  67. 67.

    Botsplainer

    @Matt McIrvin:

    No, because everything and everyone he has ever touched has come out poorer in economic, emotional and moral terms. I blame Ivanka and Marla for not killing him in the sleep that undoubtedly claims him after his undoubted three-grunts-and-short-release sex.

  68. 68.

    debit

    Tristan is so beautiful. @all Read the post that goes with the picture. Fascinating and explains why when I change a bike tire and set it on the floor, at least one cat will leap into the center of the circle and appear to be very smug.

  69. 69.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    But if the president’s inability to cement his legacy in the form of Hillary Clinton proved the limits of his optimism, it also revealed the exceptional nature of his presidential victories.

    Considering she won the popular vote more like Obama underestimated the exceptional effort the reactionaries would go to in thier effort to just try and stop the future.

  71. 71.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jeffro: Pink Martini is one of our go-to Pandora stations. Was not familiar with Storm Large, but I’m impressed — will have to check out more!

  72. 72.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Elizabelle:

    I blame a lot of this on Fox News and Limbaugh’s fake news purveying. It changes peoples’ emotions and brains. We need to eradicate that. It is poison.

    This has been going since the ’70s. I blame the megachurches – they’ve been spending the last 40 years creating this cult like culture were their congregation is passive and rejects any outside information. Fox and so one are merely catering to this demographic.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Will it be possible to survive

    Yes, because it’s less scary than living in his world. During the financial crisis our revenue dropped by half. My sister is a CPA and a really good manager so I called her, freaking out- “I have to fire everyone, including myself!” She asked me if I had stopped looking at revenue. Bingo. It was too scary. We looked at it and it was survivable. She told me her clients do it all the time- they don’t want to look and they’re okay once they look and get over the shock and horror :)

    His world is worse.

  74. 74.

    Belafon

    Have you all seen what happened in Kentucky:

    Kansas Democrats made huge gains this year in a number of areas. We have grown from just 40 organized county parties in 2014 to 63 organized counties in 2016. This growth helped recruit a historically full slate of Senate candidates (the first time in over 30 years) and a large number of qualified House candidates. Our monthly giving program, the Blue Kansas Club, has increased from bringing in about $800 each month from 54 donors, currently bringing in $13,000 monthly from over 650 Kansans.

    As Vice-President Biden would say, that’s a big freakin’ deal.

    With such wonderful support, we were able to hire field organizers in each of our four congressional districts — which vastly improved our ground game in the “get out the vote” phase of the election cycle. The results of our efforts could not be more clear: with 13 new House seats and 1 new Senate seat while maintaining all of our incumbents, Democrats in Kansas gained more seats than in any other state in the country. And they say there are no Democrats in Kansas!

    We can do this in every other state. Plus, Ryan and Co are in the process of screwing the people that pushed them over the top. These are people we can pick up votes from.

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Botsplainer:

    I blame Ivanka and Marla for not killing him in the sleep that undoubtedly claims him after his undoubted three-grunts-and-short-release sex.

    I really, really, really hope you mean “Ivana” here.

    Although hmmm….

  79. 79.

    Pogonip

    Your life will be the poorer if you do not look at goodmorningkitten dot com today. It’s exceptionally cute, especially the one of the big-brother cat cuddling “his” kitten.

  81. 81.

    debbie

    @Belafon:

    I’m happy for Kansas and I hope it will work elsewhere, but I don’t think it will ever happen in Ohio. The GOP is long entrenched and the Dems are a leaderless herd of cats.

    Kansas has demonstrated Obama’s sense of long-term strategy, something exceedingly rare in this country.

  84. 84.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    At some point recently, someone shared a link about immigrants revitalizing rural areas. I believe the article talked specifically about Bucks County, PA. Does anyone remember where that article was published?

  85. 85.

    Belafon

    @Major Major Major Major:
    I like this part:

    As I watched the Kansas numbers come in last night, a part of me wanted to celebrate. Kansas retained our court judges, despite a hard fight. Democratic party members picked up seats. We handled our business. But as I watched the nation I realized something. And I will say this out loud:

    Moderate Republicans and Republicans own Trump. Not the DNC, not Hillary. He is a Republican. He is their standard bearer. Moderates and middle-of-the-road Republicans nationwide knew who he was and they said nothing.

    In a text message from a Missouri consultant, I received this note: “I never thought this would happen, it’s a nightmare..” A Kansas consultant relayed: “What just happened.” When I pressured the Missouri consultant why their moderate Republican candidates didn’t denounce Trump, they told me point blank: “We couldn’t, we would probably lose if we did that.. we needed those Republican votes.” And there it was. Republicans put their political futures ahead of the country. A grenade was thrown into the room and rather than jump on it to save us, they pretended it wasn’t a grenade, hoping it would be a dud. It wasn’t. And now we all suffer. There are times you need to put your country over your party. That didn’t happen.

    The question becomes how to get these “moderate” Republicans to go “shit, that was a bad move” and do the right thing over the next few years. I’m not sure there is an answer to that.

  86. 86.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: If it can happen in Kansas, it can happen anywhere. Of course, not everybody can survive 8 years of Sam Brownback. Kansans are hardy people.

  88. 88.

    hovercraft

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Doris Payne, 86 yrs old and still stealing any jewel somebody is fool enough to show her.

    I want to say God Bless Her, but she’s a thief. What the hell she’s 86, and still going strong, she’s not violent, so you go girl. I guess she doesn’t get SS since she didn’t hold down a regular job? A girls got to eat ;-)

  89. 89.

    Spanky (ex P-man)

    Thanks everyone for the good wishes. The brief explanation is here.

    @Botsplainer: I’m kinda leaning more toward “Ivanka” as being correct, myself. There are signs ….

  90. 90.

    Aleta

    Several news outlets gave Tillerson credit for at least acknowledging that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, a fact that was already considered established science in the Victorian era. The Washington Post noted that Tillerson’s position—that climate change is not a “hoax“ invented by the Chinese—is more nuanced than that of many other of Trump’s appointees, and “in the context of how Trump’s administration is shaping up on energy and environmental policy, could almost be called moderate.” The Times editorial board went so far as to praise Tillerson for having “reversed ExxonMobil’s long history of funding right-wing groups that denied the threat of global warming,” and suggested that he might “convince Mr. Trump not to pull out of” the Paris climate accord.

    All of which goes to show that Tillerson is smart enough to have positioned himself, and repositioned his company, so that there’s now at least confusion about where he stands. But you have to be pretty desperate—and at this point many people are—to take this as cause for optimism.

    -Elizabeth Kolbert in New Yorker

  92. 92.

    hovercraft

    @TriassicSands:

    I wonder how President Obama feels about the American people now? Trump could make a cynic out of Buddha.

    Like the rest of us he’s like, “WTF America, I knew we had crazies, but how the hell did so many of you lose your goddamn minds. Seriously WTF, do you understand what you just did, now I have to spend my last days in office giving remedial presidenting tutorials, and trying to set up roadblocks to slow the stupid shit these fuckers are going to try to do down. Thanks America, after what you’ve done I should tell you all to GFYS, but I love the country too much, so I’m trying.”

  94. 94.

    Spanky (ex P-man)

    @hovercraft: Oh yeah, I wanted to point out, some folks up above said (paraphrasing) “except for ~100K voters, Trump would be an asterisk”. No. There were over 63 million people in this country who voted for arguably the worst person currently alive in the US of A.

    It’s hard to call this feeling “cynical” when you look at those kinds of facts.

  95. 95.

    hovercraft

    @gogol’s wife:

    It’s kind of terrifying. (None of the doors in our house really close, and I’m afraid if I barricade him out of the bedroom he’ll just howl all night.)

    It coincides with Trump’s election.

    Is this how the end comes, we are all killed in our sleep by possessed pets?

  96. 96.

    catclub

    @Schlemazel:

    Her skills are as strong as they ever were but the technology has out paced her.

    next time she has a paste necklace in that pocket, brings that one out in plain view of the cameras

  97. 97.

    hovercraft

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    While it is true most everything Trump says is a lie, I think a large amount of the admiration for him is because he speaks certain “truths” that large segments of his fan base just know to be “true”.

    Ding, Ding, Ding. They just “know, it’s true”, and the Shitgibbon confirms this by constantly talking about the “lying media”. If only the rest of us would reject the media like they have, we too would “know the truth.” America should stop relying on pesky things like “facts”, then we can all begin the journey to make America great again.

  99. 99.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Four Trump tweets so far this morning:

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump · 53m53 minutes ago

    If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump · 2h2 hours ago

    The media tries so hard to make my move to the White House, as it pertains to my business, so complex – when actually it isn’t!

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump · 2h2 hours ago

    Thank you to Time Magazine and Financial Times for naming me “Person of the Year” – a great honor!

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump · 2h2 hours ago

    Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFair Magazine. Way down, big trouble, dead! Graydon Carter, no talent, will be out!

    This man is so petty.

  101. 101.

    hovercraft

    @Botsplainer:

    I blame Ivanka and Marla for not killing him in the sleep that undoubtedly claims him after his undoubted three-grunts-and-short-release sex.

    Please send me a new keyboard. Stat !

  103. 103.

    debbie

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Here’s all the proof I need about hacking: I was reminded this morning of Trump’s statement back in July. As a response to Hillary’s server, Trump suggested that the Russians might want to consider hacking it. With his penchant for simultaneous projection and distraction, it’s clear to me Trump knew what was going on.

  104. 104.

    debbie

    @japa21:

    A couple of days ago, he was bitching that he wasn’t named the Man, as opposed to Person, of the Year. Another shot to women everywhere.

  105. 105.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Iowa Old Lady: the pettiness has me extremely worried. There are many reasons to be extremely worried but the pettiness is one of them! In addition to long-running vendettas against china, NATO, and black people, he’ll also probably wield the power of the state to slap at whatever fly is currently buzzing in his ear.

    I pity the poor journalists. The actual ones who did their job, not the ones just joining us on the “trump is a monster” beat.

  106. 106.

    hovercraft

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I really, really, really hope you mean “Ivana” here.

    As Julia Inoffe said, it’s Ivanka. She’s his secret love and always has been. Why do you think she and not Melanoma is moving to DC? He needs her for those aforementioned three grunts.

  107. 107.

    debbie

    Where would Trump be without Twitter? So why weren’t they invited to yesterday’s meeting? Insult! If I were Twitter, I’d cut him off.

  108. 108.

    bemused

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Ha, ha. Graydon Carter got under his skin bigly decades ago and whiny baby Trump never forgets. This is what his voters have to look forward to when (I hope it’s not if) they get a clue he played them for idiots and they stop showing him love. I guess I can dream anyway.

  109. 109.

    hovercraft

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFair Magazine. Way down, big trouble, dead! Graydon Carter, no talent, will be out!

    This man is so petty.

    Isn’t Graydon Carter the originator of “short fingered vulgarian?” The Shitgibbon still sends him photos of it’s hands to show that they are normal, if I’m thinking of the right guy.

  110. 110.

    Major Major Major Major

    @debbie: apparently it’s because they didn’t make a “crooked Hillary” emoji for him during the campaign.

    No. Really.

    ETA: which shows not only pettiness but a fundamental inability to grasp what a computer is or how it works.

  111. 111.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: Obama’s lived this stuff his whole life – being tolerant of other views – even ones he knows are wrong and dangerous – isn’t just a persona he took on as President. It’s who he is.

    Janny Scott in the NY Times:

    The white woman and her half-African son made quite a pair traveling in Indonesia together. Elizabeth Bryant, an American who lived in the city of Yogyakarta at the time, remembers a lunch held at another expatriate’s house that Ann and Barry attended. Ann arrived in a long skirt made of Indonesian fabric — not, Bryant noticed, a look that other American women in Indonesia seemed to favor. Ann in­structed Barry to shake hands, then to sit on the sofa and turn his attention to an English-language workbook she brought along. Ann, who had been in Indonesia for nearly four years, talked about whether to go back to Hawaii. “She said, ‘What would you do?’ ” Bryant recalled when I spoke to her nearly 40 years later. “I said, ‘I could live here as long as two years, then would go back to Hawaii.’ She said, ‘Why?’ I said it was hard liv­ing, it took a toll on your body, there were no doctors, it was not healthy. She didn’t agree with me.”

    Over lunch, Barry, who was 9 at the time, sat at the dining table and listened intently but did not speak. When he asked to be excused, Ann directed him to ask the hostess for permission. Permission granted, he got down on the floor and played with Bryant’s son, who was 13 months old. After lunch, the group took a walk, with Barry running ahead. A flock of Indonesian children began lobbing rocks in his direction. They ducked behind a wall and shouted racial epithets. He seemed unfazed, dancing around as though playing dodge ball “with unseen players,” Bryant said. Ann did not react. Assuming she must not have understood the words, Bryant offered to intervene. “No, he’s O.K.,” Ann said. “He’s used to it.”

    It’s a good book, also too.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  112. 112.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @hovercraft:

    Isn’t Graydon Carter the originator of “short fingered vulgarian?” The Shitgibbon still sends him photos of it’s hands to show that they are normal, if I’m thinking of the right guy.

    He’s the one. And not only does Trump occasionally mail photos of his hands to Carter, he circles them with a gold Sharpie, draws an arrow, and writes “SEE? NORMAL SIZE!”

    Petty doesn’t even begin to describe this man.

  113. 113.

    Betty Cracker

    @Hal: Hilarious!

    @Iowa Old Lady: Not only did Carter tag Trump with the “short-fingered vulgarian” line ages ago, VF slagged the (apparently) crappy restaurant in Trump Tower yesterday, so this is payback. Seems mighty improper for a president-elect to use his position to harm the business interests of a company that insulted his business. But there are so many massive conflicts and improprieties engulfing the shitgibbon administration before it even takes power that this is small potatoes, I guess.

  115. 115.

    WereBear

    @Spanky (ex P-man): We’ve been poaching fish and chicken for him and that seems to have helped. We’ve eliminated certain diagnoses: the vet thinks it’s a basic protein digestion problem, so we are trying to move him as close to the source as possible, with probiotics and certain herbs.

    Seems to be helping, and we haven’t gone to steroids yet; keeping that in reserve. So it’s kinda good, thanks!

  119. 119.

    WereBear

    @debit: Tristan is so beautiful.

    Thanks, he certainly is.

    He is my current “heart cat” and came into our lives as a three week old foster. So cute you could fall down. We kept saying we’d find him another home if he didn’t work out… and we bought two cat trees and made it work :)

    He’s very high energy and we have a tiny apartment.

  120. 120.

    Elizabelle

    I’m not comfortable with alleging incest with Ivanka. That’s not what this blog is about.

    No question, she is both his idealized reflection and his perfect woman. Doesn’t mean they have an actual sexual relationship.

    My guess: watching the body language: Melania was ready to separate. At some point in the next few years. Very little warmth between the couple. Then the big lug hack-benefited his way to the Oval Office.

    Daughter is a trusted advisor and minder.

  121. 121.

    Elizabelle

    Comment in moderation. Think it’s the inter family secksy time word.

    As in, we should not be speculating about that. But ears perked …

  123. 123.

    Belafon

    @rikyrah: That’s the hardest thing for us to hold onto it seems. No, Clinton did not make it into office. There was direct involvement by the Russians. Trump, Ryan, and the others are about to embark on some changes that a lot of people are not going to like. We’re not done yet.

  125. 125.

    Elizabelle

    @rikyrah: Yes. Yours is the better way to frame it. Votes on behalf of foreign country are more worrisome to many than minorities not able to vote. Certainly for all those super duper smart MSM types who couldn’t scream “EMAILS!” loud enough.

  126. 126.

    StringOnAStick

    @gogol’s wife: It takes a while for the hyperthyroid meds to fully work. My late BIL’s cat had hyperthyroid, but they were all so wrapped up in his struggle with cancer that no one noticed that the cat was rapidly losing weight even though he was ravenously hungry. I visited only half as often as my husband, and when I noticed he got the cat to the vet and sure enough, hyperthyroid.

    Getting the cat treated was a blessing, because he was waking up my BIL constantly and my BIL was getting very little rest, which was just part of the huge shit sandwich that was his disease process. After a few weeks, no more waking everyone up at night and less ravenous appetite too. My BIL passed in mid-October and his widow has odd hours, so it made sense to get the radioactive treatment for a permanent fix than the pills since she can’t be sure she’ll get the pills in him every 12 hours. So, give it time to work and consider the longer term solution if you can afford it or the pills aren’t working well enough.

  129. 129.

    The Moar You Know

    We definitely know that Luke has a second family now. Because they’ve dressed him for Christmas. I am dead.

    @RSR: We had a beautiful lab for many years. Towards the end, she got a little overweight, not too badly, but her mobility was a bit impaired. And we started finding out about her second life. She didn’t stay in the backyard while we were gone from work.

    No, the next door neighbors would take her in to stop her barking. Which made it a guarantee that she’d bark if left alone. OK, that’s where that came from. No big deal.

    And then she’d wonder over to the next set of neighbors on the cul-de-sac. And the next.

    Damn dog was eating five fucking meals a day and snacking all day long. Waffles. Sandwiches. Bacon. She was eating better than we were, and probably more than my wife and I put together!

    When she finally passed on of the insults and horrors of old age (mostly arthritis) – I still think about her every day, that lying, sneaking, wonderful and loving thief dog that she was – she was maybe about 5 pounds overweight on a 70 pound dog. What a critter.

    Miss you still, big baby doll.

  130. 130.

    Larkspur

    OMG, the Coates article is great. I selected so many parts of it to save; I’m just gonna bookmark the whole thing. No wait, I can actually go out and buy the magazine the old-fashioned way.

    It is bleak, but it’s also wonderful Here’s just one part (emphasis mine):

    …It was said that the Americans who’d supported Trump were victims of liberal condescension. The word racist would be dismissed as a profane slur put upon the common man, as opposed to an accurate description of actual men. “We simply don’t yet know how much racism or misogyny motivated Trump voters,” David Brooks would write in The New York Times. “If you were stuck in a jobless town, watching your friends OD on opiates, scrambling every month to pay the electric bill, and then along came a guy who seemed able to fix your problems and hear your voice, maybe you would stomach some ugliness, too.” This strikes me as perfectly logical. Indeed, it could apply just as well to Louis Farrakhan’s appeal to the black poor and working class. But whereas the followers of an Islamophobic white nationalist enjoy the sympathy that must always greet the salt of the earth, the followers of an anti-Semitic black nationalist endure the scorn that must ever greet the children of the enslaved….

    And:

    …Historians will spend the next century analyzing how a country with such allegedly grand democratic traditions was, so swiftly and so easily, brought to the brink of fascism. But one needn’t stretch too far to conclude that an eight-year campaign of consistent and open racism aimed at the leader of the free world helped clear the way.
    ….

    TNC is so good. And oh do I love my President Obama.

  131. 131.

    Larkspur

    @Elizabelle: Yeah, I agree. It’s not like I’m horribly offended, but it denies Ivanka’s agency, and there’s plenty of stuff to hold her accountable for (including stuff that’s going to happen). And the point about Melania staying in New York with Barron (at least through the school year) – well, I’m inclined to believe that Melania wants what’s best for her son, who may be a boy who’s somewhere on the autism spectrum (again, speculation). So I’d rather focus on Trump, and the actions of his adult children right now.

  136. 136.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:

    Was not familiar with Storm Large, but I’m impressed — will have to check out more!

    Please do! She sings with Pink Martini for about 1/4 of their shows…also sings with her own band Le Bonheur…and she has an absolutely hysterical (and gut-wrenching, in places) autobiography, “Crazy Enough”.

  140. 140.

    Mnemosyne

    @Larkspur:

    Paternal age is one of the major risk factors for ASD, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if Barron was on the spectrum.

    I don’t get too far into the Melania-bashing because, frankly, she seems to not want to have any part of this “First Lady” crap and never did. If she wants to remain a private citizen as much as she can, I’m not going to criticize her too much.

    My main worry with Ivanka is that she’s not going to confine herself to the First Lady role. As many others have said, the Trumps as a family lack boundaries, so I’m pretty sure she’s going to try and leverage that role to benefit herself financially. It’s what the Trumps do.

  141. 141.

    Mnemosyne

    @gogol’s wife:

    FWIW, my friend’s wife had the radiation thing done on her cat in England, and while it was kind of freaky to have to dispose of the cat’s poops as radioactive waste for a few weeks, kitty is perfectly fine now.

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