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You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Monday Evening Open Thread: And Now for Something Completely Different…

Monday Evening Open Thread: And Now for Something Completely Different…

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This post is in: , ,


.
Poom!

Many thanks to commentor SiubhanDuinne, demonstrating once again why she is so universally beloved here. (She posted this in the comments last night, but I know not everybody gets to read all the comments.)
***********

Apart from dealing with That One Person In Your Life, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

137Comments

  1. 1.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Tea Pain‏ @TeaPainUSA 2h2 hours ago

    TRUMP: Racism is evil.
    ALT-RIGHT: What?
    TRUMP: I want to pardon Sheriff Joe Arpaio
    ALT-RIGHT: Oh baby, we knew you didn’t mean it! *Wink*

    100 replies 2,796 retweets 5,579 likes

    Pivot.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    I always thought the French had better things to do with their time compared to us.

    Thankfully, that’s not so.

  7. 7.

    lamh36

    Wow… public defenders have the hardest jobs sometimes and they don’t even get paid as much as private defense lawyers, do they?

    @WAFB
    #NEW: #Charlottesville murder suspect can’t afford lawyer; public defender is related to a victim https://buff.ly/2vBXyFc

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    @efgoldman: Via TPM:

    President Donald Trump said Sunday that he was considering pardoning former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt of court in July.

    “I am seriously considering a pardon for Sheriff Arpaio,” Trump told Fox News on Sunday in an interview from his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club. “He has done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration. He’s a great American patriot and I hate to see what has happened to him.”

    “Is there anyone in local law enforcement who has done more to crack down on illegal immigration than Sheriff Joe?” Trump added. “He has protected people from crimes and saved lives. He doesn’t deserve to be treated this way.”

  14. 14.

    lamh36

    Too bad, I wish he had continued…but I understand why he didn’t…

    @WorldProfessor
    Fifteen years ago, I taught a course on collective racial violence in the US. It is the only course I decided to never teach again. #Thread
    @WorldProfessor
    The students were traumatized by the weekly meetings, and I decided to break the material into multiple courses so it was easier to handle.

    @WorldProfessor
    That said, I’ll provide some of the available materials here in hopes that we can better understand the danger #Charlottesville represents.

  16. 16.

    Baud

    OT. Here’s something not entirely Trump related to talk about

    Wisconsin lawmakers are set to vote Monday on a $3 billion deal to bring a Foxconn factory the size of seven football fields to the state’s southeastern edge. But as they consider plans that could transform the area, Dennis Wiser, the mayor of Racine, says he wants to know more about it.
    …..

    Under the agreement, Wisconsin would pay Foxconn up to $3 billion over the next 15 years in refundable tax credits, much of which could be dispensed in cash. The tax credits, to be paid out in yearly installments, depend on performance — Foxconn would have to both construct the facility and hit its hiring goals to keep receiving the money.

    ……

    A report last week from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau found that it would take Wisconsin at least 25 years to break even. And that comes after a May audit of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, dug up by CNBC, showed that the agency that would be responsible for tracking Foxconn’s job creation has failed to independently verify past jobs numbers from businesses.

    ….

    Walker’s office has maintained that the deal would boost Wisconsin’s economy, since Foxconn would spend $10 billion of its own money to build the factory in the state, which could indirectly benefit other local industries.

    The company has also said the site has the potential to eventually employ 13,000 workers.

    WaPo

  18. 18.

    Suffragette City

    I may have actually learned French as a language if things like this had been around much earlier in my life.

  20. 20.

    MomSense

    That video was very sweet. A nice break from the ugly.

    I missed everything today because it was another manic Monday (wish it was Sunday).

    Haven’t watched the asshole in chief’s statement because fuck him. Decent people didn’t need several days to figure out what to say and we have a right to expect better from a president.

    No mulligans when it comes to denouncing a terrorist attack committed by Nazis.

  21. 21.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @dmsilev:

    “He has done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration. He’s a great American patriot and I hate to see what has happened to him.”

    “Is there anyone in local law enforcement who has done more to crack down on illegal immigration than Sheriff Joe?” Trump added. “He has protected people from crimes and saved lives. He doesn’t deserve to be treated this way.”

    HE BROKE THE LAW! He violated constitutional and human rights! He’s no fucking patriot. He’s a scumbag who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of his life. Arpaio is just some two-bit goon of a sheriff. Why is the POTUS considering pardoning some low-life nobody?

    See, this is why I don’t believe in karma. Finally, Arpaio was going to face some justice, until the Orange asshole decided to muck that up.

  23. 23.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @schrodingers_cat:
    To my limited knowledge no. But if you’re going to pardon someone, it should be for a good fucking reason other than just because you agree with and are a horrifying racist POS too.

    I’m still pissed about Charlottesville and Trump’s response to it. No amount of backtracking will erase what he did

  26. 26.

    A Ghost to Most

    “It was the silence of good people that allowed the Nazis to flourish the first time around, and it is the silence of good people that is allowing them to flourish now,”

    .
    .
    His father recalled a time when his son joked, “The thing about us fascists is, it’s not that we don’t believe in freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want. We’ll just throw you in an oven,” Tefft recalled.

    .

    “Peter, you will have to shovel our bodies into the oven, too. Please son, renounce the hate, accept and love all,” the father closed.

    rawstory

    This was the father of one of the marchers. Apologies if previously noted.

  27. 27.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: That’s what I thought. Let T make toxic political decisions that play well among his base of assorted bigots.

    ETA: Got my voter registration in the mail. One more box checked!

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    And Now for Something Completely Different…

    A penguin atop the TV to which Dolt 45 is eternally glued?

  31. 31.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @A Ghost to Most:

    His father recalled a time when his son joked, “The thing about us fascists is, it’s not that we don’t believe in freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want. We’ll just throw you in an oven,” Tefft recalled

    So IOW, if you say something we don’t like we’ll murder you.

    But please tell me more about the evil SJW’s and how their criticisms of things you say are the worst thing ever.

  35. 35.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    So how did Trump’s mulligan go? Did the media fall for it hook, line, and sinker? I couldn’t watch.

  36. 36.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So Trump’s big China trade annoucment today was signing an exacutive order instructing some depratment to look into Chines trade practices? WTF? How utterly useless can this guy be? The guy is nothing but a basket of badly done symbolic gestures.

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Oh, thanks for putting that up in prime time, Anne Laurie! The only reason I linked to it last night is that M4 reported that Samwise was giving him a boop, and it reminded me of poom, and, well.

    But the English-language version (Pattycake) — identical video, completely different dialogue — is also brilliantly done. They’re fun to watch back-to-back.

  40. 40.

    bystander

    I think I’m just going to watch that video and skip the news tonight. So much more enjoyable and I’d really like to add Dansons to my repertoire of Sous le pont and Chevaliers de la Table Ronde.

  42. 42.

    schrodingers_cat

    A man is known by the company he keeps. Putin, Arapaio, Duke are T’s buddies, tells us a lot about the man and the people who decided to hand him the keys to the nuclear arsenal.

  43. 43.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @NotMax: Sounds like another group of Chines’ buisnessmen about to find out that low bidding high volumn, low margen work in a high cost of living area isn’t going to work out like they expect.

  45. 45.

    bystander

    @SiubhanDuinne: Thanks for that one. I was hoping the “Poum” was a reference to Charles Trenet’s “Boum”. I was excited to see cats perform Trenet.

  46. 46.

    geg6

    Kitty video is adorable (pronounced the French way). I needed the laugh after catching the local news announcing that Pittsburgh is about to be invaded by the racist pigs as part of their Google protests next weekend. This is not good news.

  47. 47.

    trollhattan

    @bystander:
    Not bragging when I note having completely ditched the teevee news habit.

    Local disaster, election returns, Seahawks victory parade, Hillary’s in town, my kid’s in the news, okay, otherwise, nyet.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    @NotMax:

    Thanks. The one thing I would say that’s missing from that analysis is any consideration of whether the deal will have an economic multiplier effect for the regional economy. Just as we say that raising the minimum wage does, for example. That said, it does seem like an enormous amount of money for what they are getting.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @geg6: How many are they expecting? I can’t imagine it’s a lot, especially for a city the size of Pittsburgh.

  53. 53.

    MomSense

    @Yarrow:

    He has another aortic dissection although this one is seemingly not aggressive. He’s too weak for another surgery to repair it and it can’t be fixed with a stent. So he is home with significant pain and knows he could drop dead at any time. We are just enjoying every day we have. I spent the weekend there and my youngest is spending a whole week. Yesterday we took a drive through gorgeous country to visit some cousins he hasn’t seen in a while. Their farm is amazing and we ate a ton of fresh sweet corn. He slept the whole way home!
    He will have cat scans every month to see how it looks and hopefully will be around long enough to have the repair.

    I’ll go back next weekend and spend as much time with them as I can. My stepmom is a champion but she is exhausted.

    Thank you for thinking of us.

  55. 55.

    schrodingers_cat

    When has David Brooks asked for a CEO’s resignation before this? CEOs are treated like Gods by the Rs, unless they have happen to have non European immigrant origins, coincidence? I think not.

  56. 56.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Ruckus:
    Oh, I know. He’s a scumbag loser too. That is obvious. My question was more rhetorical than anything. The POTUS should not pardon a person like Arpaio. Doesn’t he understand he’s only throwing more fuel on the fire? A few more Charlottesvilles and this country will blow up. I wouldn’t be surprised see in a 6 months to a year from now someone seriously trying to kill Trump.

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    Also pretty much ignored is that the type of manufacturing envisioned creates toxic by-products. In a facility of such size and scope (coupled with a defanged EPA), an environmental time bomb.

  58. 58.

    JPL

    [email protected] Pharma is a leader in higher & higher drug prices while at the same time taking jobs out of the U.S. Bring jobs back & LOWER PRICES!

    This is Trump’s latest tweet, which I assume was written as a threat to other CEO’s thinking about jumping ship.
    I’m going to boycott the companies.

  61. 61.

    Tazj

    Cute video but I feel cheated, my cats don’t do that.

    I saw something on a car that actually made me smile. It was on a car that had an Obama/Biden bumper sticker on it. These words surrounded the liscense plate. On the top it said”We are loved”, and on the bottom it said “And so are they.”

  64. 64.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Baud:

    I always thought the French had better things to do with their time compared to us.

    That they do not is evident if you visit France, but then again my definition of “better things to do” is that of coastal elite cosmopolitan scum.

    The French, they’re just like us!

  65. 65.

    debbie

    @dmsilev:

    After his “missteps” this weekend, pardoning Arpaio would wouldn’t help his approval rating, to say the least.

  66. 66.

    Ohio Mom

    @NotMax: The Murphy Brown clip you linked to in the previous thread made me laugh the hardest since I can remember.

    I wasn’t all that big a fan (got a little tired of the Elroy, baby, and other-stretched-too-far-plot devices) but now I am going to look for the whole episode.

    Thanks!

  69. 69.

    SFAW

    SiubhanDuinne, demonstrating once again why she is so universally beloved here.

    And universally feared, when she is in her “Mob Enforcer” mode.

    Re: the vid: which one is Groucho and which one is Harpo?

  70. 70.

    debbie

    So I come home and there are all kinds of Charlottesville photos on my FB feed. One is of the Nazi thugs doing their Tiki Torch Dance, and for the first time, I realized that they all dressed like Trump on the golf course — white polo, khakis, black belt, and that stupid red hat. I can only assume this was intentional on their part. Has anyone asked any of Trump’s staff for their reaction?

  71. 71.

    lamh36

    This will probably be happening in ALOT of places…

    @davidminpdx
    Confederate statue removed from downtown Gainesville, Florida.

  74. 74.

    NotMax

    @Ohio Mom

    You’re welcome. IIRC, there’s also a funny follow-up episode about what occurs regarding Congressman Best after the interview.

  75. 75.

    Suzanne

    @A Ghost to Most:

    His father recalled a time when his son joked, “The thing about us fascists is, it’s not that we don’t believe in freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want. We’ll just throw you in an oven,” Tefft recalled.

    Delicate snowflakes, can’t deal with any disagreement. Hurts their fee-fees.

    I have been fantasizing about the speech I want to hear when Trump is thrown in jail. It ends with, “Well, Mr. Trump, you finally made America great again.”

  83. 83.

    Suzanne

    @MomSense: Hugs to you and your family. Hang in there. Come vent at your favorite herd of snarling jackals whenever you’re feeling down.

  86. 86.

    debbie

    Someone needs to file a FOIA for staff phone records. You gotta think calls were made to Duke, Spencer, etc., telling them Trump’s fingers were crossed behind his back when he read the statement calling out the hate groups by name. I can’t believe he’d alienate them.

  88. 88.

    Inventor

    I don’t think Nazis should work in the Whitehouse.
    Even if they are accomplished contortionists.

  89. 89.

    NotMax

    Thought for the day: With the Daily Stormer site gone (for now), the daily Dolt 45 propaganda folder is gonna be noticeably slimmer.

    Also, for those so inclined, Scaramucci scheduled to appear on Colbert’s show tonight.

  91. 91.

    geg6

    @Baud:

    There are tons of white supremacists all over Western PA. Hell, PA is a hotbed of these sorts. They don’t live in the city but they are all over nearby counties. It could be a lot but no one seems to know. Mayor is making preparations and there is a community meeting set up. Google’s operations here are located in an area of the city filled with college students (Pitt, CMU and some smaller colleges) and an incredibly diverse place. A very upscale neighborhood is just a few blocks away. Students are moving in this week. It could be very bad.

  92. 92.

    debbie

    How pitiful: Retweeting a 16-year-old!

    Donald J. Trump Retweeted
    Seth Morton ??‏ @FiIibuster 19m19 minutes ago
    More
    Replying to @realDonaldTrump
    We have a President that is putting the security and prosperity of America first. Thank you, President Trump! #MAGA ??

  94. 94.

    MomSense

    ??? Thanks, everyone. He’s had a really good life and he has done so much good with his life so we really do feel grateful. We are are trying not to allow much more than love and joy to enter our family space.

  99. 99.

    smintheus

    @lamh36: The latest revelations concern the “Model UN” doofus Trump hired, who spent months trying to set up meetings between Trump and the Russians.

    Three days after Donald Trump named his campaign foreign policy team in March 2016, the youngest of the new advisers sent an email to seven campaign officials with the subject line: “Meeting with Russian Leadership – Including Putin.”

    The adviser, George Papadopoulos, offered to set up “a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump,” telling them his Russian contacts welcomed the opportunity, according to internal campaign emails read to The Washington Post.

    The proposal sent a ripple of concern through campaign headquarters in Trump Tower. Campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis wrote that he thought NATO allies should be consulted before any plans were made. Another Trump adviser, retired Navy Rear Adm. Charles Kubic, cited legal concerns, including a possible violation of U.S. sanctions against Russia and of the Logan Act, which prohibits U.S. citizens from unauthorized negotiation with foreign governments.

    But Papadopoulos, a campaign volunteer with scant foreign policy experience, persisted. Between March and September, the self-described energy consultant sent at least a half-dozen requests for Trump, as he turned from primary candidate to party nominee, or for members of his team to meet with Russian officials. Among those to express concern about the effort was then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who rejected in May 2016 a proposal from Papadopoulos for Trump to do so.

    Model UN guy kept pushing for meetings with the Russians, higher-ups in the campaign were all ‘concerned’ about the optics, but nobody ever fired Model UN guy for proposing that they commit treason. Just like they never told the FBI about the Russians’ attempts to use them to attack Clinton. They were only treason-curious.

  101. 101.

    trollhattan

    @lamh36:

    #Fake News Media will never be satisfied

    I’ll tell you when they’ll be satisfied, Donnie boy, when you’re on that plane flight to Moscow to take up permanent residence. #FakeToughGuy

  105. 105.

    Yarrow

    @MomSense: Sorry I’m late back to the thread–got a phone call. I’m sorry to hear things are so fragile with your dad right now. I hope he can hang on, heal and get strong enough for the next surgery. It’s great you and your family can spend so much time with him. Enjoy every day! Sending warm thoughts your way.

  106. 106.

    TenguPhule

    @A Ghost to Most:

    His father recalled a time when his son joked, “The thing about us fascists is, it’s not that we don’t believe in freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want. We’ll just throw you in an oven,” Tefft recalled.

    And he did not immediately beat some sense into his son?

  110. 110.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @debbie: That NYT article is highly suspect. Joshua Pollock, editor of the Nonproliferation Review, tweeted a long thread on it this morning. He knows more of the details than I do, but given Ukraine’s desire to get along with Europe and the US and its removal of missile-launching capabilities in the 1990s, I find it hard to believe that such cooperation existed. It’s possible, but you need a lot of people supporting the program to ship a rocket motor from Ukraine to North Korea.

    Here’s a tweet from the middle of Pollock’s tweetstream. It goes in both directions and incorporates a shorter tweetstream from Jeffrey Lewis wherein he agrees.

  118. 118.

    Ohio Mom

    @MomSense: Sounds like you are all doing what can be done, which is enjoying and loving and appreciating one another. It’s wonderful that everyone on your family is on the same page, and working together to support your dad and step mom and each other.

    Sadly, a lot of families can’t manage something like that.

    @rikyrah: Oh dear — how frightening. Hope the doctors find what’s wrong and get her on the road to recovery ASAP. Take good care of yourself while you are taking good care of your sister.

  121. 121.

    Kay

    This is just sad:

    The driver charged with killing a woman at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville was previously accused of beating his mother and threatening her with a knife, according to police records released Monday.
    The records from the Florence Police Department in Kentucky show the man’s mother had called police in 2011. Fields’ mother, Samantha Bloom, told police he stood behind her wielding a 12-inch knife. Bloom is disabled and uses a wheelchair.
    In another incident in 2010, Bloom said that Fields smacked her in the head and locked her in the bathroom after she told him to stop playing video games.

  122. 122.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @rikyrah:

    Oh rikyrah! So sorry to hear this, and of course I am holding your sister and you in my heart and with all good thoughts. Please let us know what we can do to help support you, even from a distance.

  123. 123.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    It would be like teaching a Holocaust course that focused solely on the death camps and einsatzgruppen (the Nazis’ roving murder squads). Important work, but damn hard to look at and read about week after week for 14 or 16 weeks.

  124. 124.

    chopper

    @smintheus:

    The adviser, George Papadopoulos, offered to set up “a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump,” telling them his Russian contacts welcomed the opportunity, according to internal campaign emails read to The Washington Post.

    don’t tell me, the whole thing went tits up after his son Webster set the house on fire.

  125. 125.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    So sorry to learn that your father has had something of a setback, and especially that he’s in pain. I hope they can find some way to alleviate that, so he can really enjoy having family around, visiting old friends, eating corn ?, etc.

    Most of us are a pretty fair distance from you geographically, but you know, I hope, that if you need anything, you have only to mention it and this jackal-pack will be there for you and your dad. Sending {{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}} to you both, as well as your son and stepmother.

  126. 126.

    TriassicSands

    Pardoning Fascist Joe is perfect for Trump. He was convicted of criminal contempt of court. I mean, he didn’t do anything wrong, he just ignored a judge’s order, um, excuse me, a so-called judge’s order. No one has more contempt for the law and the rule of law than white nationalist Donald Trump. So, pardoning Arpaio is exactly what one would expect of Trump.

    Donald Trump: “It’s a great honor being named honorary Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. No one has done more for real Americans than the Klan.” If only he’d just come right out and say it.

  127. 127.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kay:

    This is just sad:

    It’s sad on several levels. When I first saw the video, I hadn’t yet read, and didn’t notice, that she was in a wheelchair. She came across to me as someone who simply didn’t grasp in any way the horror of what her son did. She was almost giggling. Childlike. It was very off-putting. Sad, certainly, that she is chair-bound, and just awful that her son has such a history of abusing her (without, evidently, paying any price for it).

  135. 135.

    Another Scott

    @lamh36: Yeah, everyone was waiting for Donnie to “[make] additional remarks” – as if the problem was the quantity of words he used.

    He is so brain damaged that he doesn’t even understand why people hate him and why he’s such a horrible, horrible man.

    Even when he tries to do what he thinks is normal making amends, he does it badly.

    (sigh)

    We have to fight them every single day.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  137. 137.

    sukabi

    @A Ghost to Most: no $66,600.00… The amount of money per year per person employed by (3300) foxconn would be paid by the taxpayers to foxconn in subsidies…while the average wage foxconn would pay those 3300 people would be approximately $54,000.00 / year.

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