Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Let’s finish the job.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

This blog will pay for itself.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

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

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

This really is a full service blog.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Consistently wrong since 2002

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Late Night Open Thread- TREATS FOR EVERYONE

Reader Interactions

67Comments

  4. 4.

    Mary G

    Oh, she does the head tilt, too! And a little dance move. I love Lily to bits. Steve just sounds furious.

  5. 5.

    sukabi

    One of these days you’re going to get knocked down and mobbed while Steve meows out “Füçk you Cole, quit teasing and give us the fucking treats already.”

  6. 6.

    Yarrow

    Awww…Lily is adorable! Why don’t you give her the treat? You’re torturing her!

    Speaking of pets, I’m taking care of my neighbor’s cats again. They’re nice cats but one of them decided to poop outside the litter box today. Not somewhere else but right next to it. I had to move the whole thing to clean it up. Fun way to start the day. Then another one likes to rip up paper. I put the mail in a bowl, as I’ve been instructed to do, but I come in to find paper everywhere as one of the little darlings has ripped up the mail. Gah!

  7. 7.

    NineJean

    I made the mistake of actually showing the video. When the word “treat” was heard, my two (rather elderly) pups went from a dead sleep to “I’ll just starve now if I don’t get treats” mode. So, i had to see it again — after treats, of course, not before.

  8. 8.

    jl

    Cats and dogs teaming up together to cause Cole problems. Sounds familiar.
    If Steve and Rosie team up to steal Cole’s wallet, it’s Twilight Zone time at the Cole household.

  11. 11.

    jl

    Forgot to thank Cole for the cute petvid.
    Thanks.
    I grant Cole one treat for himself every time he posts a cute pet video.

  13. 13.

    B.B.A.

    In happier news, the Canadian parliament just passed the Cannabis Bill through their equivalent of conference committee, which means it goes to the Governor General’s desk for their equivalent of signing. The first legal pot shops will open in September, making Canada only the second country (after Uruguay) to buck the global drug treaties and make the demon weed fully legal.

  14. 14.

    Yarrow

    @Major Major Major Major: They’re actually really sweet and nice kitties and I like all of them. One has a neurological issue of some sort (as diagnosed by the vet; cat is a rescue so not sure what life was like before) and every so often just goes off and acts like a complete nut job. I’ve been there when it’s happened. Yesterday must have been one of those days. When it happens one of the other cats gets terrorized and that’s probably why pooping outside the box happened.

    They all seemed a bit calmer tonight, so fingers crossed tomorrow is a bit easier.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    Studies have shown that 9 out of 10 dogs and cats don’t consider autoplay ads a treat.

    ;)

  16. 16.

    scav

    I understand Steve. May not be as effective, but I do get Steve. (Had a Siamese.) Steve does not need to be (apparently) persuaded into a treat and just expects you to hop to and do all the moving around business.

  17. 17.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    A comment last thread made me uneasy. Why isn’t Trump’s approval rating tanking right now? Hasn’t enough time passed for that to show up?

  19. 19.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Yarrow: Oh, I wasn’t actually saying they were bad kitties. Just, you know: bad kitty!

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I can think of a few reasons. Maybe it won’t lower his approval. Maybe the polls weren’t in the field quite recently enough. Maybe approval tends to lag the news cycle (this I don’t know). I do know that daily tracking polls are extremely noisy and you shouldn’t extrapolate trends from them unless you see several data points in a row. You can even see the approval rate going up day-to-day for a bit during a period where it’s really falling! (Not often)

  20. 20.

    opiejeanne

    I have a stupid injury from when I caused my Annie cat to lose her balance and grab at me. She got a claw deep into the joint at the second joint of my thumb on my right hand, and raked the nerve. That area between the first and second joint have been numb since the accident. I thought it was getting worse instead of better, and a week later I found myself in the emergency room defending the cat who did this to me. Each nurse, nursing assistant, technician, and doctor I encountered asked about my cat that attacked me.

    I really was totally my own fault, she was not to blame, and I have some serious nerve damage to the nerve that runs from my thumb to my elbow. It may go away eventually but when I move just exactly wrong it lights me up like I’ve stuck my finger in an electrical socket.

    Really, the cat didn’t attack me. I don’t think they believed me.

  22. 22.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @NotMax:
    It does feel like an eternity

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Maybe it won’t lower his approval.

    I can’t psychologically accept that.

    I do know that daily tracking polls are extremely noisy and you shouldn’t extrapolate trends from them unless you see several data points in a row.

    This makes me feel a tad better

  24. 24.

    Yarrow

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Supposedly Nixon’s approval ratings stayed pretty constant until they fell off a cliff. I expect something similar will happen with Trump. There will be some last straw and we won’t really understand why it’s that one and not the billion things before it but at that point things will change.

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    I love that little head-tilt after she does after her happy dance does not result in immediate treats, like, I’m a little concerned about your intelligence at this moment.

  29. 29.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    The weird thing to me in Trump’s numbers is that his disapproval rate stays pretty steady, and it’s his approval that jumps around. Where are those people who used to approve going to since they’re not showing up as “disapprove”?

  31. 31.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I didn’t delve too deep into it since I’m on the iPad, but they didn’t always seem to go hand-in-hand. It was the two most recent Ipsos surveys where it caught my eye as a weird anomoly.

    I was looking at the unadjusted numbers, FWIW.

  32. 32.

    Calouste

    Does anyone else think that the term “tender age shelter” is a bit…odd? As in “Stephen-Miller-picked-his-favorite-child-porn-category” odd? Rather than a more normal term like “infant shelter”?

  37. 37.

    Mnemosyne

    @Calouste:

    It’s apparently a legal term — Kay was explaining it earlier. The government is legally required to provide more services and supervision for kids of a “tender age,” which is usually under about 10 years old.

  39. 39.

    smike

    @Yarrow: “Having retired as prime minister in 2003 after 22 years in power, Dr Mahathir — who is aged 92 — came out of retirement and joined the opposition to topple Mr Najib in an election last month.”

    I am gobsmacked by the age and power of this guy. 92? Really?

  40. 40.

    sukabi

    @Calouste: it’s better than their other name which was baby pound…

    Not sure but I read something today that when we got rid of orphanages in this country because of the detrimental effects they had on child emotional development, that “orphanage” became not acceptable…I think “tender age shelter” is government speak for that.

  41. 41.

    Amir Khalid

    @Yarrow:
    Not a lot of new info in the Australian Broadcasting Corp story. It only repeats what is already known: that the case against Najib et al. is being put together, and that they have all the pieces to do it with. Calling Najib’s wife Rosmah in for questioning as a way of getting to him is a standard investigative/prosecutorial move. Bob Mueller has been doing exactly the same thing in DC with his investigation for the past year. The potential charges Dr Mahathir is describing are exactly what one would expect in this sort of case. The next bit of real news I’m waiting for is Najib’s arrest and the reading of the charges. I want to see who gets busted with him, and for what.

  45. 45.

    Aleta

    My dog only pays attention to video sounds if there’s genuine distress (animals, children, screams–real not fictional). The only exception is the vicious dogs of the nazis in Schindler’s List; I think Spielberg must have used authentic, very bad snarling.

    But just now he heard your voice John and was enchanted. He doesn’t know the word treat. Not kidding, I think it was the resonance of affection. Anyway now he wants to me to set him up with you. Hopefully with the passage of enough time he will forget this foolish impossible love.

  46. 46.

    NotMax

    @Aleta

    Some time back (1990s probably, definitely pre-Google) a friend half in jest challenged me on my internet search abilities. Rising above and beyond the challenge, it resulted in my presenting him with a ringtone of the cry of a Tasmanian devil.

    He quickly discovered that whenever his phone rang at home, the nine cats (!) his then-girlfriend had moved at warp speed in nine different directions to hide. Obviously it was a sound they had never encountered before but it nevertheless spooked them like nothing else.

  48. 48.

    karen marie

    @opiejeanne: My cat bit me quite badly when I was with her at the vet. The vet tech who had tried to get blood out of her neck had come into the exam room where I was with the cat, scritching her neck* to calm her. When the vet tech and I started talking, I didn’t move my hand away. Poor cat is old and blind, and when she realized her tormenter was in the room, she freaked and bit down on my hand as hard as she could. Later that afternoon, my hand was incredibly swollen and unbelievably painful. Hearing your story though I am grateful to have only received a flesh wound cured with antibiotics.

    *To be clear, no needle had gotten within poking distance of her neck. She flipped out on the tech before the deed could be done, pissing all over the counter in the back where they do the dirty work.

  51. 51.

    Aleta

    My cat Charles is losing weight steadily, and a few behavior changes. Two different vets thought maybe hyperthyroid that is too early to treat. Then his numbers went back to normal.

    Tonight his breathing is moving his chest too deeply. I don’t think it’s his heart, but maybe fluid from another cause. He’s such a wonderful cat. He’s been spending a lot more time near me than usual.

    I’ll probably take him to the vet again tomorrow. He just saw the 2nd vet for a 2nd opinion last Thursday, who picked up on nothing but gave us some new information and charged 350$.

    We have to make a trip for 4-5 days; I’m worried about him getting worse. I have several experiences with cat health problems that weren’t noticed until too late while I was gone, so that’s probably affecting me too.

  52. 52.

    bluefish

    Can’t sleep a wink tonight. Thanks for the super cuteness. Almost too much cuteness. Much appreciated. You’re a lucky man to have such swell companions. Wondering how we will cope with tomorrow. Tonight was just unbelievable … and that’s saying something. Then again, not saying much. I feel heartbroken over, you know, babies, weirdness, creepy lying blondes who get shamed out of 14th Street restaurants. Horrible enablers of this sick, pathetic faux POTUS, who’s proven himself to be The Beast. blah blah blah blah blah It can all feel like shit, really, but last night’s announcements, new discoveries, the reaction to it — wow, it gave me hope. Just sucks to have glimmers of tepid hope when one knows of what’s being done in our name. It infuriates me to think that DJT has now attempted to make us all complicit in his never-ending laundry list of crimes, misadventures, atrocities, etcs. I’d like to see him and his at the Hague. Maybe then we’d learn for real not to go down this road ever ever again. What an abomination he is. A real straight up tragedy of a person.

    At any rate, I think this latest round of info will begin to turn the tide for us in a real way. Write, write, write, call call call. All that stuff, like that. I hope we will recover and I hope he goes to prison. For the rest of his miserable life. What’s happened, is happening with these parents and children is unforgivable and his own agency, such as it was, has been severely damaged. We may be rid of him sooner than imagination might have allowed. I’m writing in a weird stilted way because I’m too tired to stop and can hardly believe, I simply can’t believe, that this is actually happening. Just astounding and so very very sad.

  53. 53.

    Amir Khalid

    Something arrived a few minutes ago by courier — a guitar stand. The guitar herself should be here in the next seven days.

  55. 55.

    Aleta

    @bluefish: Here are two cases where detained immigrants are suing in US courts. There will be many more I bet.
    Yesterday in the Wa Post:

    A Guatemalan woman who says her 7-year-old son was forcibly taken from her after the two of them crossed into the United States to seek asylum is suing the U.S. government, saying that the separation violated rights given to her by both the Constitution and international conventions.

    Beata Mariana de Jesus Mejia-Mejia, 38, says in the lawsuit filed in the federal district court in Washington on Tuesday that more than a month has passed since she has seen her son, Darwin.

    Story last Feb. in the Denver Post:

    Immigrants can sue federal detention center in Colorado over forced labor, appeals court says. The immigrants seek more than $5 million in damages from the GEO Group. A lawsuit representing about 62,000 people held in an immigration detention center and forced to do manual labor while they awaited possible deportation can proceed.

    This Geo Group seems to be a private detention company that makes donations to Republicans. Corey Lewandowski supposedly works for one of the PACs connected to the Geo Group. This may be ‘rumor’–twitter claim, not necessarily fact.

  56. 56.

    Aleta

    @Aleta: Here’s how the Geo Group describes itself:

    The GEO Group is committed to providing leading, evidence-based rehabilitation programs to individuals while in-custody and post-release into the community through the “GEO Continuum of Care®.” GEO’s diversified services platform provides unique capabilities for the delivery of educational and vocational programs, cognitive behavioral and substance abuse treatment, and faith-based services across the entire corrections spectrum.

    Immigrants in detention are not criminals in need of rehab. But Trump and Co. puts asylum seekers in prison and then calls them criminals.

    And after separating children from parents, Trump and Co. is reclassifying them as young migrants without parents. Is this so contractors can save money and avoid responsibility, by not keeping location records for parents and kids? It’s looking like they want these children to be lost. Not a mistake, but a plan, so as to avoid liability and responsibility.

    In the end everyone involved will claim they weren’t responsible. Familiar.

  57. 57.

    Aleta

    Here’s some of what Wikipedia says about the Geo Group:

    In 2015, the GEO Group’s contracts with the U.S. federal government for operating prisons generated about 45% of its revenues. GEO Group facilities include prisons of all three security levels, immigration detention centers, minimum-security detention centers, and mental-health and residential-treatment facilities. It owns numerous facilities and, in other cases, operates state or federal facilities under contract.

    The company has been the subject of civil suits in the United States by prisoners and families of prisoners for injuries due to riots and poor treatment at prisons and immigrant detention facilities which it has operated.

    In addition, due to settlement of a class-action suit in 2012 for its management of Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Mississippi, the GEO Group lost its contract for this and two other Mississippi prisons (which it had been operating since 2010). Related federal investigations of kickback and bribery schemes associated with nearly $1 billion in Mississippi state contracts for prisons and related services have resulted in the criminal prosecution of several public officials in the state. In February 2017, the state attorney general announced a civil suit for damages, to recover monies from contracts completed in the period of corruption.

  58. 58.

    Aleta

    Also about Geo Group, from Wiki:

    In 2010, the company was reported to operate more than a dozen facilities in the state of Texas, and nearly three dozen in the rest of the United States. In addition to prison facilities…the GEO Group owns and operates the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida, the Aurora Detention Facility[9] and the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, all under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    In July 2012, two undocumented immigrants in Florida turned themselves in to police, with the expectation that they would be transported to and housed in GEO’s Broward Transitional Center, a 720-bed facility in Pompano Beach, Florida, that holds immigration detainees.[33] It is the only privately owned immigration detention center in Florida.[34] The pair intended to report firsthand on the conditions inside the facility, as many accounts in the immigrant community reported substandard conditions.[35] The pair reported “substandard or callous medical care, including a woman taken for ovarian surgery and returned the same day, still bleeding, to her cell, and a man who urinated blood for days but was not taken to see a doctor.”[36]

    In March 2017, a class-action lawsuit accused GEO Group of violating the U.S. Constitution and federal antislavery laws by forcing some 60,000 current and former immigrant detainees at the Denver Contract Detention Facility based in Aurora, Colorado, to work for less than a dollar a day or for nothing at all. It evolved from a 2014 lawsuit filed on behalf of nine immigrant plaintiffs, who alleged they were forced to work without pay and were threatened with solitary confinement if they refused.

    On December 2, 2017, 64-year-old Kamyar Samimi, who had come to the U.S.in 1976, was taken into ICE custody at his home due to his having been arrested for a minor drug offense in 2005. He was imprisoned at the Aurora contract facility, where he died 16 days later from cardiac arrest. In 2012, Evalin-Ali Mandza died of cardiac arrest at the same detention center. An investigation of Mandza’s death found GEO employees did not know how to use an EKG machine and the procrastinated in calling an ambulance. A 2016 ACLU report entitled “Fatal Neglect: How ICE Ignored Deaths in Detention” discovered 200 immigrant detainees had died in ICE contract facilities since 2003.

  61. 61.

    raven

    As soon as I post this the automatic morning thread will pop. We should be able to pick up Lil Bit this afternoon and this “tie-back” surgery is going to present great challenges in relation to food. One side of her larynx is “tied-back” and this allows her to breathe. The problem is that the function of the larynx is to prevent food and liquid from getting into the lungs so she’ll be susceptible to aspiration pneumonia. She love her food and treats so well have to see how this all works.

  64. 64.

    raven

    @Aleta: The cost of veterinary care is pretty overwhelming. The UGA vet teaching hospital is self-support so were expecting to get hammered today. People didn’t used to do this stuff.

  65. 65.

    opiejeanne

    @raven: I can’t say enough good about Banfield pet insurance. We are now hosting my older daughter’s cat, Henry. He’s 13 and in need of having his teeth cleaned. That plus the cost of an annual checkup is far more than what the insurance costs us each year.

    Vet care is now using just about every test and treatment for animals that used to be just for people.

  67. 67.

    stinger

    Thanks, John Cole. Such a respite to see sweet pet videos — and to hear Steve’s voice!

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