Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

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

An almost top 10,000 blog!

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

“woke” is the new caravan.

“Alexa, change the president.”

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

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Reader Interactions

215Comments

  5. 5.

    mouse tolliver

    Last night I got a call from a conservative pollster that asked for…

    1) my opinion of Trump’s Ch’ville statement
    2) my opinion of the demonstrators
    3) whether or not I would support impeachment
    4) whether or not I could support a President Pence
    5) whether I’d vote D or R if the election was held today

    So I’m guessing there’s a lot of anxiety behind the scenes. And the GOP is trying to figure out whether or not they can safely throw Trump under the bus.

  6. 6.

    bystander

    @mouse tolliver: That’s weird. I got one of those push poll calls today. Hung up on them before I realized I could have really given them a hard time. Dammit.

  8. 8.

    Major Major Major Major

    Does this mean that you’re planning another breaking news thread soon? Or are there just the expected upcoming dumps.

    Samwise scratched me last night. Aggressive posturing, out of character. I think he was upset about something but I couldn’t tell what. He was fine like a half hour later, so I don’t think he’s injured or sick. Cats!

  9. 9.

    Adam L Silverman

    @mouse tolliver:

  10. 10.

    JCJ

    @mouse tolliver:

    interesting. I have gotten calls asking me to sign a petition to support Drumpf. The last time I said I was so pleased that he was finally embracing Nazis and the KKK that I wanted to give him a blow job. They hung up on me.

  11. 11.

    Yarrow

    Earlier people were saying they were seeing hints about some terrible poll numbers for Trump coming out today. Have we seen those yet?

  12. 12.

    Rich Webb

    @Big R: Probably true. ;-)

    My theory is that cats talk to us because we talk to cats. They correlate our key phrases, e.g., “Hiiiii JenJen!” with our positive actions: food, ear scratching, toy throwing, etc. and then answer in kind.

    Perhaps distinct from the 6 AM “Hell no you’re not sleeping in I’m hungry feed me now goddamnit it get up or I’ll jump on you again are you awake yet I know you’re awake get up time for my food nnnnoooowwwww” soliloquies.

  15. 15.

    LanceThruster

    I saw a meme that said, “When my cat meows at me, I say ‘I know. I know!’…but I *don’t* know.”

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I know what Miss Kitty Stormborn of House PainIntheAss, the first of her name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Hollers, Breaker of Chains, Killer of Copperheads, wants and let me tell you she gets it!

  21. 21.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Big R: DING DING DING DING DING

    “Open the door!”
    “I want breakfast!”
    “Scratch me behind the ears!”

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    Of course they use meows to communicate with other cats.

    Just only when there are no humans within earshot.

  26. 26.

    low-tech cyclist

    From Nicole Hollander‘s Sylvia comic strip:

    (Dr. Paul Johns, animal linguist, on cats) It seems their entire language consists of two phrases, uttered with varying degrees of intensity: “Hurry that dinner, willya” and “Everything here is mine.”

  30. 30.

    Jay S

    Maybe they can weasel out of calling it a meow, but I have experience with cats telling other cats to “get off my lawn” colorfully and at length.

  32. 32.

    jl

    I wonder if this Swedish research group is the same one that claims to have made a dog collar that can translate basic dog emotions into human. I’ve read that dogs are the only domesticated animal that recognizes and reads faces the same way humans do. Would be interesting if cants have some similar gimmick to dogs to communicate instructions to their hosts, er… I mean servents… no, owners.. no, I guess no we are supposed to say selfless guardians giving them a forever home.

    When aliens visit us in whatever eons in the future when they can get around to it, they will find dogs and cats living together (!!??) calmly running the lives of whatever our descendants have become. Who will they want to talk with first? What will be more interesting to them, the sophisticated and erudite dog and cat languages, or our frantic babble about nothing? I guess our descendants will be the interface between the dog and cat masters and the robots that produce everything.

  38. 38.

    Fair Economist

    @Adam L Silverman: From Rick Wilson’s post, it sounds like the polls in question are internals. Gallup is unlikely to be giving even semi-official sneak peeks to Republican Congressional staff. Externals will be along shortly, but not necessarily today.

    Edit: Ninja’d, I see.

  40. 40.

    MJS

    @jl: Reminds me of the Far Side comic that translates dogs’ barks. The only thing they’re saying is “Hey!”

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yutsano: Good doggo owner. Apparently heaven is being reincarnated as a dog that is then adopted into my household.

  42. 42.

    randy khan

    In our house, any meow generally means “Pay attention to me.” We don’t generally get much vocalization around mealtime, although one cat does believe that’s a fine time to remind us how much she looooooves us by being extremely affectionate.

    We once had a cat who would go into our front hall late at night and start meowing loudly. One of us (okay, me) would get out of bed to go see what he wanted, and he would just look at me and ignore any entreaties. We finally decided that he just liked how he sounded in that room, which does have nice acoustics, and ignored him.

  43. 43.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Rihilism: Go to the upper right corner of the tweet. Click on the little down arrow. Click on embed tweet. Copy and paste the code. Paste the code into the comment. Hit post comment. That said only front pagers can properly embed a tweet. As in if you do what I laid out above it isn’t going to look like what I’ve just done.

  44. 44.

    Gravenstone

    Certainly plausible. My tomcat has developed an extremely rich “vocabulary” in the three plus years I’ve had him and his sister. It’s often quite hilarious when he’s trying to get my attention or voice his displeasure about a choice I’ve made (usually relating to my insistence feeding involves explicit times not “right now!”).

  46. 46.

    TomatoQueen

    Luca’s meow = “Get up so I can more easily spray you with cat snot.” or, “Sit down, so I can more easily spray you with cat snot.”

    Whoever predicted Yawkey Way to be changed to something honoring Big Papi, you were correct, according to the lil rumor-monger on my tv screen.

  47. 47.

    bystander

    I know nothing about guns. But somebody who does, tell me if you could actually put bullets in anything fluid as sticky and viscous as blood and fire it from a gun. Wouldn’t it just jam up the gun?

    Youth wants to know.

  50. 50.

    PeakVT

    Finally, some news I can use, not just point at and laugh. And laugh and laugh and laugh… Okay, maybe there was some utility in the other stuff.

  52. 52.

    Lyrebird

    @mouse tolliver:

    So I’m guessing there’s a lot of anxiety behind the scenes. And the GOP is trying to figure out whether or not they can safely throw Trump under the bus.

    Such wonderful news!

    This brings a whole new meaning to what the college marching band used to chant… “Warm up the bus! Warm up the bus!”

    And just to be clear, it’s a bus of impeachment votes and jury trials that I want to roll over the heads of the Republican maladministration.

  56. 56.

    jl

    @Lyrebird: It will be a long wearying fight. Fact that Trumpsters at least played footsie with Russian collaboration, and Trump has become toxic to every powerful interest, means that Mueller won’t have to come with much to get the Trumpsters tossed, if just the ordinary chaos of the Trumpsters is not enough. But they will have to come up with smoking atomic bomb level evidence to root out the likes of Pence and Sessions. Pence is a dimwit, but an disciplined and obedient one. If Trump and Trumpsters go, it just means that more competent people will take over who will focus more narrowly on projects like voter suppression.

  58. 58.

    Schlemazel

    Ours very clearly says “OUT” when i get home from work and she thinks she should have a run at the squirrels out back

    other than that I have not noticed a pattern.

    The Nice Polite Republicans asked the David Brooks stand in if she thought Bannons departure would help settle things down. I nearly drove into the ditch I laughed so hard. She pretty much said “no”. I wanted to punch EJ in the throat because he said hair furor did not run as a conservative because he wanted to spend more on healthcare. Even the cat called bullshit on that line

  60. 60.

    jl

    Unless Bannon is physically frog marched out of the WH by Secret Service for viewing on tonight’s news, I guess we’ll need an explainer for Bannon’s status. I heard on news this morning that this was Bannon’s last day, but now there are rumors that it is not?

    The tragedy of the Bannon exit, or is it an exit, or whatever. What was Bannon doing with that interview? Was he trying to distance himself from the disaster of Trump through administrative suicide by public leak/interview?

    Looks like Bannons dream of economic nationalist glory through industrial policy and infrastructure will not happen. Whither the new ironworks, shipyards, lime kilns, brick factories, coal gas plants and buggy whip workshops? Is our chance to recapture the excitement of the 1930s gone forever? (Edit: for those who missed it, that is a recap of Bannon’s recent loony statement of his dream infrastructure policy) No maniacal trade war with China?

    OTOH, Bannon seems to recognize that a hot war with North Korea would be a disaster.

    Some of the Trumpsters are so completely nuts, hard to tell what is going on. Democrats do need to come up with a positive and constructive policy agenda for 2018 and 2020. If we just scream that Trump and the Trumpsters are bad, stupid and nuts, two thirds of the population will be irritated that we are wasting their time stating the obvious and they may stay home on election day. Sounds crazy, but I think a danger. You need to win elections with the voters you have, not the ones you’d like to have.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    @Rich Webb:

    My cats will try to repeat specific words back to me. It was really freaky the day my late great cat Boris finally got his kitty larynx wrapped around “Mommy.” I don’t think I reacted the way he was hoping.

    (Yes, I’m one of those annoying people who refers to myself as “mommy” when I talk to my cats. Bite me.)

  63. 63.

    Adam L Silverman

    @bystander: It would make a mess. But…

    It would depend on the firearm used. The M1911 was just moving from development to being adopted when Pershing was overseeing the Philippines. For a firing squad they’d most likely use a rifle. The standard issue at that time the occupation began was a .30-40. Krag-Jorgenson. These were replaced with the 1903 Springfield in .30-06. Provided the bullets were seated properly in the cartridges and the cartridges were sealed and crimped properly, it should have been possible to dip the bullet or paint the bullet then let it dry and it would have fired. But we’ll never know because it never actually happened.

    All the above said the tolerances for battle firearms is often loose. The reason for this is that they have to be able to run dirty or with Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and/or Marines and/or irregular forces bleeding on ammunition being loaded, bleeding on the weapon, in wet, muddy, and other bad weather. Things like that. US military issue 1911s were noted for being exceedingly loose. Also, once a conflict scales up a lot of weapons wound up being kitbashed together. It’s why you can buy a WW II M1 and it’ll be 85% Inland Arms and 15% bits and bobs from other manufacturers on the contract. The different companies on the contract would trade lots of parts as needed.

    For specific information on the arms used during the Moro campaigns, this is a good write up:
    http://www.morolandhistory.com/05.pg-kris-vs-krag/3.american_longarms.htm

  64. 64.

    Schlemazel

    @bystander:
    I assume they would put it on wet & let it dry. Most if not all would burn off in use. Or they could go with hollow points which have a depression in the front. Rumor is the mob used to put garlic in that hollow but that may just be an old wives tale.

    Either way it is all part of the same racist bullshit designed to make more disaffected terrorists.

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    @jl: Trump is so weakened at present in the eyes of the R establishment a Muller report/indictment/summary nut-kicking could conceivably topple the Trumpster. I didn’t believe this seven days ago and I don’t think this moment will last. “Hey, NEW shiny thing!”

  69. 69.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I seem to remember a study like this announced a couple of months ago. Not only did they conclude (IIRC) that meows were for the purpose of communicating with humans, but each household had its own meow language: The humans could more or less decode the noises of their own cat, but not anybody else’s.

    @beef:

    And what is it that humans mean when they meow at cats? (Admit it. You’ve done it.)

    I’m a cat person by marriage, not by intrinsic nature [1]. When I meow back at the cat, it’s usually some variation of “I’m making fun of you”.

    [1] I am completely unable to convince the cat that I am not a cat person. Nor have I had much success with her predecessors.

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    Given the week it’s been, it turned out to be the perfect time for us to decide to go wine tasting on Sunday. Hopefully I won’t get completely blitzed and start screaming about Trump on the train ride home. ? ?

  71. 71.

    eclare

    Nicole Wallace: why aren’t more Republicans denouncing Trump like Sen. Corker?
    Steve Schmidt: (loudly, with no hesitation) because they’re cowards! You can see the yellow stripe down their back.

  74. 74.

    ET

    My Siamese Bean doesn’t talk much which bums me cause I like talky cats. My last cat Milo a polydactyl tuxedo, did chat and chitter quite a bit.

    (yes I meow back and baby talk NO SHAME)
    (yes I am his mommy NO SHAME)

  76. 76.

    jl

    @beef: ” And what is it that humans mean when they meow at cats? (Admit it. You’ve done it.) ”

    I practice communicating with dogs and cats in the hope of increasing my status when they take over.

    Edit: parrots too, though far fewer of them close to the center of current human powers that be. But I think parrots are in the running too.

  77. 77.

    Schlemazel

    @ET:
    By brother & SIL had a pair of Tonkinese and they would not shut up. It is cute for about 2 minutes then it is just annoying.

  79. 79.

    Barbara

    @JCJ: I wish I were as brave as you. I got called by Ben Carson’s campaign to gauge my support and I told them that they were totally wasting their time. If they were lucky a descendant of mine might vote for a Republican in the next century but I wouldn’t count on it. Then they usually ask to speak with my husband. I tell them I am doing them a favor by not honoring that request.

  81. 81.

    Bill K

    I keep reading this myth about cats only meowing for humans. This is not true. Cats vocalize for parent-child relationships. Young kittens won’t shut up unless they are nursing. Mommy cats vocalize to keep track of their children. Humans as parents-by-proxy are treated to the same meows as the mommy cat gets.

  82. 82.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @bystander: I’m a little confused by the setup you’re asking about, specifically the phrase “put bullets in anything fluid”. Do you mean the whole gun is immersed in a pool of something viscous? Or it’s in the barrel? Or where exactly are the fluid, the bullets and the gun in relation to each other?

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    @bystander: It never happened at all. Flat stop. Pershing actually met with the Moros, did a number of engagements with them. It tells you something about the President that he’d make this claim, which is one that borders on what we would now consider to be a war crime, about Pershing (regardless of any actual faults that Pershing may have had as a commander).

  84. 84.

    Mike J

    @Adam L Silverman: Much of this is a contributing factor[1] in why AKs are so popular with irregular forces, as opposed to the M-16 which has a reputation for requiring surgical levels of cleanliness.

    [1] Having producing countries supply them free/cheap is probably a bigger issue historically.

  85. 85.

    Hoodie

    Seems to me they’re screwed. Given the number of GOP wackos in the congress, they may not have sufficient GOP votes to impeach and definitely not enough to convict unless Mueller comes up with the peepee tape, and that ain’t happening any time soon. They’re stuck with Trump and have to figure out a way to control him, but they haven’t been able to do that yet. Bannon screwed them even more because now the corporate types will view Trump as a radioactive racist while the alt righters will view him as controlled by globalists by virtue of Jarvanka’s triumph over Bannon.

  86. 86.

    efgoldman

    @Barbara:

    I wish I were as brave as you. I got called by Ben Carson’s campaign to gauge my support and I told them that they were totally wasting their time.

    I got polled last September or so by some unaffiliated organization or other.
    I told them I was a really strong Green/Stein supporter.
    A lie. I wanted to skew their numbers.
    Had i but known….

  87. 87.

    Millard Filmore

    @low-tech cyclist:

    their entire language consists of two phrases, uttered with varying degrees of intensity: “Hurry that dinner, willya” and “Everything here is mine.”

    Mine also says “Come keep me company as I drink the water dripping in the tub.”

  88. 88.

    Jeffro

    @Rihilism: Have you seen that CNN clip where the anchor notes every dumb/mean/racist/etc thing that Trump has done in the past four weeks? It’s unbelievable.

  90. 90.

    Yarrow

    @Mnemosyne: Saw your comment that the chopping and freezing for your vegetables is going to work out for your recipes. Glad that’s going to work out. How are things going so far?

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne

    @Bill K:

    That’s also what I’ve heard. Cats essentially put their humans into a parental position. But it is correct that adult cats rarely meow at other adults.

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: The President repeated his claim yesterday that Pershing captured fifty Moro rebels, convened a summary firing squad, then dipped fifty bullets into pig’s blood, had them loaded into fifty firearms, and then ordered the summary execution of 49 of the rebels. Pershing then released the 50th and only surviving rebel instructing him to go back to his people and tell them what had happened. As a result, according to the President, there was no further trouble with the Moros for 25-30 years.

    Not only did Pershing never do this, he actually engaged in outreach to the Moro leadership in his attempts to resolve the rebellion. Moreover, there was no 25-30 year cessation.

  95. 95.

    bystander

    @Adam L Silverman: I’ve long since decided that anything that comes out of Trump’s mouth is a lie. I’m combining aerobics and mental health exercises by going on FB and slapping rwns around. But I would never have thought anyone, least of all Pershing, would ruin a good rifle for some dumb symbolic gesture.

  96. 96.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mike J: The AK will basically work if you dropped a nuke on it. We’ll see where the US Army goes with it’s next rifle test. They’ve put out a call for a new, light weight battle rifle in 7.62X51mm NATO.

  100. 100.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Cats don’t meow to communicate with other cats—but to communicate with humans. So what exactly are they saying?

    “Laugh while you can, you dirty hairless ape, but tonight while your asleep I am going put my furry behind in your face”

  102. 102.

    A Ghost to Most

    For all my many flaws, cats adore me for some reason. I tell a lot about a cat by their tail and their ears.

    Dogs, on the other hand, have come after me early and often, twice quite badly.

  105. 105.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Adam L Silverman: Ah, didn’t make the connection. I thought this was one of those occasional author questions we get, “what are the physics of this situation?”, maybe for some sci-fi story. It’s a question as to whether the Pershing urban legend is actually physically possible.

    So this is a question that requires knowledge of guns, specifically whether a bullet coated with something sticky, or something dried on it, would still work. And I don’t have that knowledge. It seems like bullets so abused wouldn’t fire, but I don’t actually know. I guess older firearms were actually a little more forgiving, for instance didn’t Civil War muskets fire balls that were hand made? So the story may at least be plausible on the grounds of not violating the laws of physics.

  107. 107.

    Rihilism

    FYI- I don’t know if any of you twit-twat but if you’re up for some light reading, I document the common ailments afflicting twit-twat users @Rihilism…would be interested in reading your twit-twats as well…

  108. 108.

    randy khan

    @Bill K:

    I meant to comment on that, too. We had a pair (sadly, one is gone) who would talk to each other all the time, a fair amount of which seemed to be one saying to the other “Where are you? Why aren’t you with me?”

  109. 109.

    The Moar You Know

    I lost my dear kitty Brit in 2006. She was my last: I got married afterwards and my wife is lethally allergic to cats. Which is a shame; she likes them and would like them in bed, purring and being warm, a lot more.

    Brit was a talker like none I’ve met. And once she discovered I’d talk back – just talk, no meowing or any of that shit, just talk to her like she was a person – she never shut up until the day I had to put her down. She’d talk about everything. And I could understand her, and she could understand me.

    It’s hard to type this, actually. I still miss that little girl like it was yesterday.

  110. 110.

    Mike in NC

    Trump never passes up the opportunity to repeat some idiotic Internet lie about Muslims and Mexicans. It carried him this far. Personally, I think his next white power rally in Phoenix will get pretty damn ugly.

  112. 112.

    The Pale Scot

    @JCJ:

    I said I was so pleased that he was finally embracing Nazis and the KKK that I wanted to give him a blow job.

    Perfect

  114. 114.

    Josie

    @Mnemosyne: Lol. When we have dinner with his conservative in-laws (happens fairly often), my son begs me to limit myself to one glass of wine only. It seems my political feathers get ruffled easily after 2 or more glasses. So far, I have behaved myself. The next dinner should be interesting.

  115. 115.

    Schlemazel

    @Adam L Silverman:
    yeah thats it. It seemed like a good idea if they could have pulled it off.

    What would have been the shell casing was solid propellant of some sort. In theory if they work you don’t need to energize the ejection so more force goes into the slug

  117. 117.

    Applejinx

    @Cheryl Rofer: Yeah, that got a ‘fuuuuck you’ and immediate tab close from me. It was such a clickbaity cutey article anyhow, might just as well listen to Balloon Juicers talk about their cats ;)

  120. 120.

    Albert Z.

    I miss having a cat but having a Jack Russell precludes cat adoption. Maybe someone can convince me otherwise, but all the stories and recommendations tell the same story: JRTs do not do well at all with cats.

  121. 121.

    jl

    @Adam L Silverman: Apology if repeat, the blog is hanging up for some reason.

    IIRC any cessation in problems from Moros from US point of view was because we handed the problem off to Filipino forces loyal to the US after 1913. At the time that Trump is referring to, (or would be referring to, if he had the slightest idea what he was talking about), Pershing was very aware that he had to get the job done without massive collateral damage to civilians. He replaced a commander who had riled up popular opinion in US against occupation with some supposed great battle victories that were really slaughters. Many anti-imperialists in the US, including very effective spokesmen such as Mark Twain, were shaping public opinion against the occupation.

    But Pershing’s ‘modern softy’ approach to dealing with occupation, I think far predated his stint there as general. Long before, during his first tour, he made a point of gaining a thorough knowledge of native culture, and making sure he was known to the natives as a sympathetic presence who understood them and cared for their interests. He detailed many of his troops to what today is called (I think) ‘civilian affairs specialist’ duty. He understood that a successful pacification campaign required sincere and friendly cooperation from the vast majority of the people in the occupied territory.

  133. 133.

    Yarrow

    @Major Major Major Major: Me too. Even if Manchin was considering it as recently as a few days ago, he’s got to be smart enough to see that everyone and everything is fleeing the Trumptanic and jumping aboard would be a bad decision.

  134. 134.

    jl

    @jl: Except I forgot that Twain died in 1910. But still I think one of the slaughters Wood(?) and Funston produced prompted Twain to let loose one of his last blasts against the occupation.

  136. 136.

    CarolPW

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Sorry, plague fleas have been in California since at least the late ’70s. That’s when my lab was testing flea insecticides slated for use on the chipmunks and squirrels in California parks.

  138. 138.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Major Major Major Major: I don’t know if skepticism about Shootin’ Joe Coal could be considered a wild conspiracy theory. Seems like the healthy end of the paranoid spectrum.

    I’ve been thinking this might be an interesting book, now I think I have to buy a hard cover copy out of spite

    Trump, meanwhile, had been upset about Bannon’s participation in a book by Bloomberg News reporter Joshua Green, “Devil’s Bargain” — particularly a cover photo giving equal billing to Trump and his chief strategist. Every time Green was on CNN, where he is now contributor, Trump grew unhappy with his references to Bannon as a thinker and strategist — and upset that the conversation was not instead about Trump.

  139. 139.

    Mnemosyne

    @Josie:

    I’m in Southern California, so I’d probably get a standing ovation, but, still, not a good look for me.

  141. 141.

    Yarrow

    @Major Major Major Major: Exactly!

    And in other news…

    Stephen Bannon said in his first public remarks since his ouster from the White House that he will be “going to war” for President Donald Trump.

    “If there’s any confusion out there, let me clear it up: I’m leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents — on capitol hill, in the media, and in corporate America,” Bannon said Friday in an interview hours after his departure was announced by the administration.

    Rooting for injuries!

  142. 142.

    Gelfling 545

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: She knows you’re not. It’s one of their little ways to shower non-cat people with attention and cat hair not in the hopes of charming them but to assert their catly superiority.

  144. 144.

    lamh36

    @JoshuaGreen
    Just got off the phone w/ Bannon: “If there’s any confusion out there, let me clear it up: I’m leaving the White House and going to war” 1/2
    @JoshuaGreen
    “…for Trump against his opponents — on Capitol Hill, in the media, and in corporate America.” 2/2

  146. 146.

    MaryL

    So what exactly are they saying?

    “Feed me!” “Pet me!” or “Get ready to clean up the hairball I’m about to hack up.” Usually the last one.

  148. 148.

    lamh36

    Lord…why nobody never told me Pizza Hut has a “Skinny pizza”.

    Depending on what you choose as toppings, each slice is supposed to be no more than 300 cal, esp if you select one lean meat (chicken or ham) and load up on the veggies! And if you get just Veggies, no meat, even less!
    Weight Watchers is all about portion control. Your success is def based on how strong your willpower is…

    I aint gonna lie, it’s testing mine, but every week, I get better and better at maintaing my willpower!!

  149. 149.

    jl

    @Gelfling 545: I’ve read that one way cats and dogs differ is how they view their local society. Dogs build up in their heads a ‘consensus’ animal based on who is in the household and try to fit into a society composed of that hybrid beast. Cats think anything not pey is a another cat. Cats conceive of humans as defective and incompetent fellow cats, and they treat us, according to their estimation of our individual worth, with pity or contempt.

  150. 150.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lamh36: “…for Trump against his opponents — on Capitol Hill, in the media, and in corporate America.” 2/2

    Might could make things interesting. Might could make things interesting for Jared Kushner. God, I hope so

  152. 152.

    jl

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Bannon going to war for the actual and existing Trump, or his conception of what Trump should do (which would be whatever looney toon vision Bannon as for the country)? Could be interesting.

    Bannon might be a white supremacist, but he is smart enough to know that cause has to be under deep cover.

  156. 156.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    One of the ways we used to talk about “willpower” back when I worked for WW was framing it as a choice. If you tell yourself you “can’t” have something, it’s even harder to resist. But if you tell yourself that you could have it if you wanted to, but you choose not to, you’re more likely to not do it.

  157. 157.

    burnspbesq

    @TomatoQueen:

    Whoever predicted Yawkey Way to be changed to something honoring Big Papi

    I’m far from a Sox fan (I’m a Mets fan and an Everton fan, and being an Everton fan requires me to hate the Sox because they are under common ownership with Liverpool), but that is sweet and richly deserved.

  159. 159.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lamh36:

    Lordt. NPR just had some people on defending all the Confederate statues. Their fine reasoning included “The White House was built by slaves. Are they gonna pull the White House down too?”

  160. 160.

    Baud

    @Yarrow:

    “If there’s any confusion out there, let me clear it up: I’m leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents — on capitol hill, in the media, and in corporate America,” Bannon said

    But not on Balloon Juice? We need to up our game.

  162. 162.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Yarrow: Plague is endemic to the southwestern US. Fleas often test positive for it. One of the reasons my kittehs are indoor kittehs.

    While we’re pondering the mysteries of meowing, Ric came up with one of his performances. He picks up one of his toy mousies and runs around the house meowing around it, then places it at my feet. Sometimes I can throw it and he’ll fetch. The meows always sound frantic, though, and scare me until I figure out it’s his “I caught a mousie! Look at me!”

  166. 166.

    burnspbesq

    WRAL has video of a demonstration in Durham that turned into a big ol’ dance party.

  171. 171.

    jl

    @Baud: Some almost top 10,000 miserable lefty blogs punch far above their weight (unlike some almost top 10,000 presidential candidates). Bannon doesn’t want to tip us off.

  172. 172.

    eclare

    @Yarrow: Does Bannon have any Russian connections? I haven’t seen any in the news or if I type Bannon and Russia in Google.

  175. 175.

    Petorado

    Carl Icahn just resigned as advisor to Trump. Getting off the ship while there still are lifeboats.

  177. 177.

    lamh36

    Per CNN…per Briebart reporters…Bannon back at Breibart as Chief Executive and Chaired the staff meeting this afternoon!

    Oh and he came with notes!

  179. 179.

    Mnemosyne

    @eclare:

    The Mercers are hand-in-hand with the Russians, and Bannon is the Mercers’ boy.

    Plus IIRC there’s some evidence that Breitbart news gets some Russian funding.

  182. 182.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    for instance didn’t Civil War muskets fire balls that were hand made?

    Civil War armies mainly used

    Buck and ball smoothbore muskets – which was one 58 cal lead ball and two smaller ones (that’s right, 58′, there was reason so many limbs were cut off by Civil War doctors)

    57′ cal mini balls. which were shaped like a modern bullets but designed to explained when fired so the bullet caught on the barrels groves and began spinning.

    Both were mass produced and both had a lot of windage for speedy reload, black powder fouls a barrel like no ones business.

  184. 184.

    danielx

    A while ago, Boris’ meows and trilling were all about how he wanted to play with an American Dagger Moth caterpillar on the back porch. He was not permitted to, since the furry little buggers are toxic if touched.

    But yes, it’s usually an “I want SOMETHING” signal. Unless you are Zoey, who makes a tremendous fuss about catching the various stuffed mice but doesn’t want to be seen doing it. She either lies down on it or drops it and gives us the “What?” look.

  185. 185.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Those bungholes thought pissing off liberals was fun. I don’t think they counted on how pissed off we could get, and all their mythology is coming down around them. They got nuthin.

  193. 193.

    Gravenstone

    @Mnemosyne: Other than the cat equivalent of ‘get off of me! I said I have a headache!’

    Of course with my pair, that usually stems from an overzealous grooming session.

  194. 194.

    jl

    @Major Major Major Major:

    ” I’ve always thought of it as, simply, dogs think dogs are people, cats think people are cats. ”

    I just typed a summary of research I’ve read. I was trying to drop some Real Science on you, my son.”

  197. 197.

    Yarrow

    @eclare: @Mnemosyne: Mnem is right. Bannon is in deep with the Mercers and they are well involved with the Russians. Rumors are that Bannon is a Russian asset, but no confirmation on that. Guess we’ll see what turns up with Mueller’s investigation.

  204. 204.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Schlemazel:
    My father was brutal about gun safety, which was ingrained in me constantly.
    I shot on a competitive Civil War shooting team, clearing breakable targets for time. I would never reenact, because those crazy fools are shooting at each other.

  207. 207.

    Bokonon

    Our cat just cuts to the chase – and she just uses actual words, in English. For the important stuff. Like “Hello” and “milk” and “no” and “out” and “yeah.”

    She understands what we humans are saying, too.

    It freaks out people who come over to our house. One of our visitors said to our cat, “Do you understand me?” And the cat answered “yeah.”

    -Mike

  209. 209.

    Ella in New Mexico

    I’m ashamed to admit I never read Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money”, settling for excerpts and summarized references instead.

    I just read this long-form piece by her on the Mercer family and its influences in politics over the past few years. Again, I’d heard many of its bits and pieces, but I have to say, it was pretty freaking mindblowing.

    Cheering about Bannon being out seems like a pathetic victory now. We need major campaign and political finance reform ASAP.

  210. 210.

    Vickie Feminist

    @low-tech cyclist: Wonderful Nicole Hollander. I often quote that cartoon. BTW I live in liberal enclave outside of DC in Maryland.

    I got polled Wed nite about whether I approved or disapproved of DJT with a promise that they would call monthly and only ask one question each time. Our governor needs a lot of Democrats to vote for him next year which could explain his paying for the poll.

  211. 211.

    PaulWartenberg

    My writers group offered a monthly story prompt of “What would happen if you suddenly got the ability to talk to your dog or cat?”

    So I wrote a story about what would happen if I could understand my two cats Ocean and Mal. Does anyone wanna read the story?

  213. 213.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Adam L Silverman: So far, since Charlottesville I’ve mostly seen Trump’s poll numbers modestly rising. I’m not sure I believe these reports at all– seems like wishful thinking like you hear on a bad Election Day. The divisions that already exist are just hardening.

  214. 214.

    AnotherBruce

    @Wallis Lane: “Me out” That’s from an old Freak Brothers cartoon. Where Fat Freddy’s cat says “Me out” (I want to go outside) and Freddy doesn’t understand the meaning. The cat complains about humans not understanding even when the cat communicates in human.

    You can learn everything there is to know about cats from Fat Freddy’s Cat cartoons.

  215. 215.

    No One You Know

    @The Moar You Know: My cats know when I’m sick, and they’ll guard me. A long-gone pair took turns waiting out a bout of flu. I woke up once in time to see her get off the bed, touch noises with him, whereupon he took her place on the bed.

    Present pair is attentive in a different way. She always knows when I’m seriously upset, and sits and stares into my eyes. It feels like therapy. (He has a bad history, and hides when emotions are high.)

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