Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

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

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

All hail the time of the bunny!

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

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

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Giving up is unforgivable.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

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

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

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

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Friday Night Respite Open Thread

Friday Night Respite Open Thread

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I’m sure the rationalists are already explaining that this is not true language use, but the cat and his person have achieved a mutually satisfactory method of communication, and by my standards that is enough.

Reader Interactions

51Comments

  2. 2.

    The Moar You Know

    Holy shit. I’ve had cats all my life. They’re smart. But that is next-level right there. Truly amazing.

  3. 3.

    lamh36

    ‘Sup BJ.

    Been finalizing my only research paper for a class this semester. This one is on the Effect of the Increasing Aging Population on the Heatlhcare System.

    Completely done. Next up a 15 min presentation of the paper in 2 weeks, and then one final take home exam for my OTHER class that I’ll have 10 days before having to turn it in.

    So at least now and for most of next week, I can finally focus on all these darn trips Ive got planned this year…

    May – London (family trip w/sister, nephew & cousin) and a short weekend trip to DFW to see my sisters and da babies

    June – Las Vegas (taking my mom to Vegas for the weekend before her birthday to gamble and see Anita Baker)

    November – Paris for my birthday (trip w/sister her huband and my cousin)

    Late November (maybe December) – Hawaii (I’ve got enough Hawaiian Airline miles for a “free” RT from LAX to Hawaii!!)

    As you can guess… I’m tired just thinking about it all, so I’m off to bed

  6. 6.

    Dan B

    That careful and clear motion is amazing. My partner and I have had many cats in two decades. They each had their own vocalizations and those varied in each cat over time. We’ve got an ancient one, 19 years, who is the talkiest cat ever. He decided to yowl in the last year. He’d wander out of the room we were in and begin a horrible yowl that could be heard by the neighbors. Fortunately none if them called the ASPCA on us. We started feeding him expensive canned food 8 times a day. He put on weight and yowls less. Our other two make squeaks and high pitched sad cries and the boy cat will growl at us if we tease him about not being allowed to go out when he’s desperate. If we pick him up he keeps up growling lije ge wants to keeeel us and will gently bite. It sounds and looks scary but he’s just angry and upset, and lets us know it. Sorta cute / entertaining. Reminds me of Maxine Waters when she’s on a tear – righteous don’t mess with me! Not sure that Maxine would appreciate the comparison… You know you’ll survive but not sure hiw close you came.

  7. 7.

    West of the Rockies

    @lamh36:

    Congratulations! Keep up the good academic work. Is there good promise of work and satisfaction on the far end of your major? If I were doing it over, I’d maybe not get an MA in English Literature.

    You are one extremely well-traveled person. I’m envious.

  10. 10.

    Dan B

    @lamh36: Wow, you’ve got overachievement in work and adventures! Like London. Kew gardens is disneyland for gardeners and horticulturists – nothing like it in the US. And having its iwn tube stop is extra cool, in a brrritish way. I love the small towns and Oxford. There’s culture and lots to do, unlike most small towns in the west – too spread out for walking tourism.

    Do great!

  11. 11.

    jl

    @Betsy: “How is this different from my cat jumping on the table when he wants to get fed? ” I guess, the cat can bother to explain itself to you.

    Thanks to AL for cute protip on how to get cats to communicate with their humble servants (if and when they deem it proper and fitting).

  13. 13.

    trollhattan

    The kid won the 1,600 meter at the regional HS track meet tonight. Dad’s chuffed; she’s pissed because it wasn’t a PB and this isn’t the premiere distance meet.

    Kids.

    I’m just happy because I never make it to track meets but vacation and all that.

  15. 15.

    MobiusKlein

    @debbie: Communication and language are different things.
    It’s OK to make a distinction, without taking away from the cat / human interaction

  16. 16.

    Mnemosyne

    It’s not quite respite material, but our middle cat Annie has an appointment with the kitty oncologist tomorrow to see if they can get a better sample via needle biopsy to see whether or not she has something treatable. Good thoughts much appreciated right now. At this point, feline lymphoma is probably the best we can hope for since it’s pretty treatable in cats.

  24. 24.

    Jay

    “A Honduran transgender woman who was detained in a US immigration facility for seven months despite being granted asylum has been released after a legal challenge.

    Nicole García Aguilar was freed from the Cibola County detention facility in New Mexico on Wednesday night, a week after lawyers filed a habeas corpus writ challenging her unjustified and prolonged detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

    García’s ordeal, which included several stints in solitary confinement, highlights the ongoing arbitrary detention of asylum seekers under the Trump administration, which has triggered multiple legal challenges.

    “In Ms García Aguilar’s case we forced Ice to review what it was doing to one person, but this is an out-of-control agency that refuses to follow the law unless sued. That’s not how government should operate,” said Kristin Love, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who filed the petition.

    García, 24, fled Choluteca in southern Honduras in early 2018 after surviving a violent attack and receiving death threats which police refused to investigate.

    Since a coup in Honduras in 2009, violence against the LGBT community has escalated, prompting many to leave. At least 306 LGBT people, including 97 trans people, have been killed in the past decade, and only 20% of cases have been prosecuted, according to Cattrachas, a Honduran LGBT group.“

    https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/apr/19/honduran-transgender-woman-nicole-garcia-aguilar-freed-us-detention

  25. 25.

    trollhattan

    @rikyrah:
    Merci!

    Think she’s climbed to the next plateau and can up her PB before the school year ends. Soccer girl is discovering track might be a batter path, but they frown on knocking the competition around. No yellow cards in track. ;-)

  27. 27.

    Mr. Kite

    That cat blows my mind. I hope the video is real.

    I used to play long rounds of balloon volley ball with my orange cat. Until he got a just a little too exited.

  28. 28.

    Aleta

    @Mary G: I hope your medication arrives soon. I think it’s horrible that they do things that interrupt medications. It matters a lot and it’s not right.

  30. 30.

    Anne Laurie

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Cute. Though I don’t know how much the deafness has to do with it.

    Most cats of my acquaintance develop a Feed Me NOW signal — the kitty in the video hit on one that worked well with his human companion, because it’s ‘mutually intelligible’ (and also entertaining).

    Since his personal kibble bowl is on a stand next to my desk, our Piper indicates that his dish needs refreshing by reaching over & threatening to knock stuff off if I don’t cooperate. Our other cat Rocky, being a ginger Oriental, just follows the Spousal Unit around yowling loudly until his ‘request’ is granted (and then, as his dish is filled, usually stalks off bitching, but in a far less insistent & carrying tone).

    They split a can of wetfud every night before bedtime (since they’re not allowed in the bedroom overnight, because dogs), so they start hanging around the kitchen CONSPICUOUSLY WAITING, but in shifts. One sits in the (tiny) kitchen, staring at his invisible wristwatch — if he needs to move away, the other guy immediately shows up to take over reminder duty.

    Samwise may actually be using his own FMN signal, but so subtly that you don’t (consciously) pick it up.

  32. 32.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Anne Laurie: oh, he has a very loud sound for that, though it doesn’t work. For some reason I imagined human food being in a different category, which actually doesn’t make much sense! Probably because Samwise just has no interest in it.

  33. 33.

    Jay

    “( OpenDemocracy.net) – US Christian right ‘fundamentalists’ linked to the Trump administration and Steve Bannon are among a dozen American groups that have poured at least $50 million of ‘dark money’ into Europe over the last decade, openDemocracy can reveal today.

    Between them, these groups have backed ‘armies’ of ultra-conservative lawyers and political activists, as well as ‘family values’ campaigns against LGBT rights, sex education and abortion – and a number appear to have increasing links with Europe’s far right.”

    https://www.juancole.com/2019/04/revealed-christian-fundamentalists.html

  36. 36.

    Steeplejack

    @Steve in the ATL:

    The press McGahn has been getting as some sort of noble resister in the White House has really chapped me off. I think he is corrupt AF, but he’s not a buffoon like so many of the other Trumpers and he does a good job of covering his tracks. I think his “I’m sorry, I can’t do that, so I’m resigning” departure was timed to coincide with “Well, we got most of the Federalist Society judges fast-tracked through the Senate,” which (I think) is the real reason he was there.

    / Wipes flecks of conspiracy spittle from lips.

  37. 37.

    Jay

    “Christopher Wylie, of highlighter hair and Cambridge Analytica fame, was in Vancouver this week to talk about “Confronting the Disinformation Age.”

    In 2018, Wylie blew the whistle on Facebook and consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica, cofounded by Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon, for collecting data without users’ consent.

    The extensive and personal data sets, Wylie said, were used to target people with political messaging that appealed to their specific psychologies.

    “Fashion data was used to build AI models to help Steve Bannon build his insurgency and build the alt-right. And the alt-right is an insurgency,” he said in a presentation last November. “We used weaponized algorithms, we used weaponized cultural narratives to undermine people and undermine their perception of reality.”

    https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/04/19/Beware-Weaponized-Web/

  42. 42.

    Aleta

    Robert Maguire @RobertMaguire_
    The US is now ranked as a “problematic” place for U.S. journalists to work.

    “Never before have US journalists been subjected to so many death threats or turned so often to private security firms for protection.”

  48. 48.

    donnah

    The video is lovely and I think the cat is very clever. Notice how carefully the cat watches his person, and how he taps him on the arm to get his attention before asking for food. I love that!

    Our cats don’t sleep in our bedroom; they are too restless and they wake us if they’re in there. So first thing in the morning, our boy cat is waiting outside the bedroom door for me and he rubs my ankles and makes chirpy, short barking sounds. It’s the only time of day he does that. It’s very sweet and cheerful!

  49. 49.

    BobS

    We’d always been ‘dog people’, until a feral cat had kittens outside under our bedroom window. We still have one of the three kittens (the two males disappeared after a year or two). When she wants to be let in the house, she’s learned to stretch off the north end of our front porch, using her right front paw to ‘knock’ on the window screen that’s just within her reach (and which periodically has to be repaired due to being shredded by her claws) and we dutifully obey her command. Several years later, another stray showed up (a male, probably 8 or 9 months old). Very quickly, he began to emulate her behavior, but with a twist- he leans just as far off the south end of the porch, using his left front paw to knock on ‘his’ window. I would have been impressed by him just imitating her actions to get the desired result, but his ability to not only recognize the activity but essentially mirror it (different window, opposite front paw) is an even more impressive example of the ability of cats to learn and innovate.

  50. 50.

    J R in WV

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Cute. Though I don’t know how much the deafness has to do with it. I guess Samwise never wants people food so I don’t know if cats usually have a distinctive sound for it.

    A previous brilliant white tom cat with bright red markings used to sit at the dinner table with the company. He was very well behaved and friendly, would sometimes put a paw on his saucer when he thought he deserved some attention and a nibble. Purr you could hear in the other room when he got a sliver of seared tuna or BBQ or what ever… so polite with the company or just us family.

    Named Rufus for the red spots, near 20 pounds, walked around the farm with us like the dogs on a hike. Never needed a “carrier” just did what we needed when we needed it.

    Still miss him.

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