Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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

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

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

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

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

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

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

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

Not all heroes wear capes.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

We still have time to mess this up!

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Respite Open Thread: The Lion Escapes Tonight

Respite Open Thread: The Lion Escapes Tonight

by | 54 Comments

This post is in: , ,

The best part of this is the actual lions looking on, completely unimpressed:

Here’s a little Bixby update, with bonus Scout:

Bixby had another PT appointment yesterday (he’s sitting there very still so as not to dislodge his needles). He’s down to once a month. The vet is really pleased with how much mobility and stability he has regained and retained.  He loves going there and loves Dr. Deb.

This happy girl is doing very well home alone when we are at the vets (about ninety minutes). And her reward is a walk with just me. She’s hit her teenage phase, I watch her weigh doing what she’s supposed to with the fun of misbehaving. Misbehaving wins out a lot more these days.  But seriously, with that face, she gets away with it. More photos at the link.

Respite open thread

Reader Interactions

54Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    “I’m glad we have this fence to protect us from these strange two-legged animals, Marge.”

  3. 3.

    Sab

    I love the concept of ducks yelling. Easy to love if not in my neighborhood.

    New neighbor, with a weirdly obedient border collie. I mean weirdly obedient even by border collie standards. She just loves her owner.

    Also, Feliway cat difussers work! Meankitty is just lounging around, not being mean. Meg the feral disappearing cat let me pat the whole cat for fifteen minutes. The friendly boys are out cold in their favorite sleeping spots.

  4. 4.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Wow. When I worked at a zoo, the policy for lion escape was ‘kill it.’ Tranquilizers are hopelessly unreliable, a portable fence like that is a joke against an animal that strong, and they can kill people with so little effort that you can’t wait and try a more peaceful method with a spooked, unpredictable giant carnivore.

  5. 5.

    trollhattan

    Love big dogs and those are BIG dogs. Happy big dogs.

    Nervous anticipation re. US-France. Which version of each shows up? It’s anybody’s match, and the reward is a match with England who are looking very much in charge after yesterday.

    ETA “Tobe Zoo”? Is every animal named Tobe?

  6. 6.

    Sab

    Bixby is an elegant dog.

    My guess is he would not be happy to hear that.

    So don’t tell him.

  7. 7.

    Hermann Fegelein

    Those people are going to die if a lion ever does escape. A real lion is much much faster, much much stronger, and NOT TAME. A real lion could clear that net thing by I don’t know how much, but a lot, or could smash through it, or could grab one of the guys trying to hold it and break him into pieces. They need to do a drill that recognizes the existence of the Leroy Jenkins Rule: No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    https://twitter.com/HeerJeet/status/1144625911628816385

    Apparently this is in reference to Brooksie’s column today, which is full of the usual lies and BS about Democrats. A sample: “All of the Democrats seem to have decided to run a trumpov-style American carnage campaign.” Yes, he really wrote that. Also: “The big divide in American is not between the top 1 percent and the bottom 99. It’s between the top 20 percent and the rest.” Gee, David…howzabout we start with you 1%ers and then we’ll see if we need to get to the other 19%.

    “Right now we’ve got two parties trying to make moderates homeless.” F. U.

  10. 10.

    Sab

    The real lions in the Japanese zoo tapes aren’t lions. They are lionesses. Fiercer and meaner than lions. Lions keel over every time it gets hot. Lionesses have parental responsibilities they take seriously.

  11. 11.

    Anonymous At Work

    They teach lawyers using stupid people in lawsuits. Just warning zookeepers of the obvious…

  14. 14.

    CaseyL

    Yay for the **BIXBY** and **SCOUT** updates!

    I always wonder how “associative” dog memories are. Does Bixby remember being ill, and does he associate any of the frantic vet visits/PT visits/weird shit like accupuncture with his getting better? It’s clear animals remember what they don’t like about going to the doctor; but I wonder how many of them can figure out the cause-and-effect of being healed.

    Priceless “WTF??” expressions on the lions’ faces! I think those zookeepers are counting on an escaped lion being confused, wandering slowly back and forth, trying to figure out where to go when The Law arrives with nets and tranquilizer darts. I think the zookeepers may be wrong about that. The actual lions are in a position to have scoped out the entire area – thanks in part to this very training exercise! – and now know what tactics would be used against them.

  15. 15.

    ruemara

    Hmm. That lion looks like it can be trapped with a street vendor musubi and mango bubble tea.

    If you’re interested in a respite – from politics, re-upping my link to the latest story I performed for Night Light Podcast. Black owned, black written & black performers doing horror. And if you like it, subscribe, break off a fiver to the show, give us a 5 star review – reviews really do help shows, so if you can toss one out for Night Light & Ostium podcasts, you’re doing us a solid.

  16. 16.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @CaseyL: Bixby is pretty easy going when people are involved. But the first time I put him in the car after the horror-show vet – it was a struggle. Very reluctant to go. But, seriously, after her first adjustment on him, he about melted into her arms – and with the exception of his TMJ issue, everything else she does for him, he is willing and does whatever she asks. And he knows as soon as we are in her mile-long driveway, where we are and gets very excited.

    But he also LOVES his nail-trim technician. So I have no idea. LOL

  17. 17.

    scav

    It would certainly enliven quite a few sporting events if the mascots were chased down and tranquilized at half-time or, better still, unexpectedly.

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jeffro:

    I posted this in Betty’s thread downstairs, but it’s more relevant here. The column you cite is the one under discussion.

    Am currently listening to a call-in discussion with Charles P. Pierce. The fellow conversing with him is a Poli Sci professor, whose name escapes me. There was a reference to a recent Bobo column, and professor asked CPP “What’s going on with David Brooks these days? Is he even a conservative?”

    Charlie’s response made me laugh:

    “David Brooks is a fundamentally ridiculous person and has been for a very long time. . . And I include Andrew Sullivan in the same category.”

  20. 20.

    pluky

    @Sab: Absolutely! Lion prides are matriarchies with inheritance in the female line. Males fight each other for co-habitation privileges, but if the ladies decide a particular male is no longer welcome, he’s toast. Besides raising the cubs, they also do all the hunting. Other than providing a bit of muscle should a spat with the local hyena pack be imminent, the males are basically just there for stud.

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    Bixby looks so dignified and handsome. You should put it in picture frame.
    Scout is so cute.
    PS-where are the ducks?

  22. 22.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @Sab:

    Lionesses have parental responsibilities they take seriously.

    Unsurprisingly, this has been my experience as a Homo sapien mother, right down to the ability to rip other people’s faces off as needed then return to my business.

    @ruemara:

    Hmm. That lion looks like it can be trapped with a street vendor musubi and mango bubble tea.

    OMG best comment of this post!

  23. 23.

    raven

    @Ella in New Mexico: “Unsurprisingly, this has been my experience as a Homo sapien mother, right down to the ability to rip other people’s faces off ”

    Oh, you’ve run youth sports programs too

  24. 24.

    Martin

    Something good? Kamala Harris doing California proud.

    Look, all. CA has added skin in this game. Our historical legacy for Presidents is Nixon and Reagan. Illinois has Grant, Lincoln and Obama. We really need some redemption here.

  25. 25.

    Jeffro

    @SiubhanDuinne: Just saw that – thank you.

    I don’t quite agree with Pierce (was he chatting with Larry Sabato from UVA?)…Brooks is not ‘fundamentally ridiculous’; in my opinion, he’s a very very sneaky shill for the interests of the 1% and white male conservatives (though obviously there’s a lot of overlap there).

    He thinks he’s quite enlightened and yeah, that’s the ridiculous part. But fundamentally, he’s a dishonest shill for the rich and for white males.

  26. 26.

    rikyrah

    17 Million Watched Last Night’s Debate
    June 28, 2019

    Thursday night’s Democratic debate was the highest-rated Democratic match-up in Nielsen ratings history, CNN reports.

    “Final viewership numbers won’t be available until Friday afternoon. But the so-called ‘overnight’ ratings, recording how many households tuned in, showed a 15 to 20 percent increase over Wednesday, which was night one of the two-night event… Given the strong household rating for Thursday night, the total viewership could be in the ballpark of 17 million.”

    https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/28/media/nbc-democratic-debate-ratings-night-two/index.html

  28. 28.

    The Moar You Know

    Wow. When I worked at a zoo, the policy for lion escape was ‘kill it.’

    @Frankensteinbeck: I’m in no way surprised, that would be my policy too.

    Remember a few years back when those three choads decided to get wasted and go climbing down into the tiger pen at the SF Zoo? The tiger used dead dumbshit #1 as a ladder to get out of his pen and go out looking for more idiot meat. The SFPD had to show up and shoot the tiger, which apparently they were not at all happy about having to do.

    They didn’t have any other plan and I’m damned if I could think of anything else they could have done. The zoo was full; the tiger was loose, they are FUCKING HUGE and strong and don’t stop for anything.

    I’ve been next to a cheetah once, which is about a quarter the size of a tiger, and if I’d had a gun and known in advance that an attack was coming, the odds of me coming out on top would have still been a lot less than 50/50 at that distance. Standing next to a big cat made me very acutely aware of where I stand in the food chain. Unless I’ve got my human killing tools, I am the easiest prey out there. It’s a very humbling experience. FWIW I feel big cats absolutely should not be in zoos, but in parks.

  29. 29.

    rikyrah

    A Wild Night on MSNBC: Why the Latest Presidential Debate Has Donald Trump Shook—and 4 More Observations

    Jason Johnson
    Today 10:38am

    Thursday’s debate was Donald Trump’s biggest nightmare: A loud, creative, diverse and television-ready slugfest that lasted for two hours, went off the rails a few times and left the audience wanting more.

    While policy matters, Donald Trump knows that his biggest weapon against any Democratic challenger is making enough of a circus that issues, facts, and values don’t matter. The only way to beat that is to come up with a bigger, louder show where facts do matter, policy can seem cool and you still have a car wreck factor. That and more happened in Thursday night’s Democratic debate, a debate that will totally throw a wrench in our 2020 Black Power Rankings next week. For now, here are the top 4 takeaways from the second Democratic debate.

    ………………………………….

    It goes without saying that despite the memes, the tweets and the endless post-Super Bowl-type analysis from the debates that nothing substantially changed after these two nights. Not one frontrunner fell, but some middle-tier candidates have likely punched a ticket to the second debate. Joe Biden is still a weak frontrunner; Kamala Harris will still have to work hard to win over older black voters and men; and Bernie Sanders, along with Pete Buttigieg, will still struggle to reach double digits with black voters.

    What they did show Thursday night, however, is that more candidates are in this 2020 campaign to win it than most voters thought. Perhaps, more importantly, the Democratic bench is much more interesting and compelling than the 20 nameless faces that caused eye rolls and late night jokes just 72 hours ago. This is going to be a long competitive campaign, which is the last thing that Donald Trump wants, and likely the best thing for the American voter.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jeffro:

    was he chatting with Larry Sabato from UVA?

    No, I would have remembered Sabato. This was someone named Heath (or Keith?) Something, from a college or uni in the NYC area.

    [Brooks] thinks he’s quite enlightened and yeah, that’s the ridiculous part. But fundamentally, he’s a dishonest shill for the rich and for white males.

    I suspect Charlie would fully endorse this.

  32. 32.

    Feathers

    I suspect the plan is still to shoot the lion. However, shooting the lion is more socially acceptable if you had a plan not to, but things became too dangerous. Also, I suspect it is so that it involved evacuating bystanders and giving park employees jobs to do in that situation.

    Having to call the cops to shoot your tiger is not good. Unless you’ve worked with the SWAT team on how to take a big cat down. I bet that is going on behind the scenes. SWAT teams would love to meet up with big game hunters to get their high caliber jollies on.

  33. 33.

    chris

    @Jeffro: I went back and looked, apologies for leaving a step out of my little tutorial this morning.

    Click it, copy the green text and paste it here.

    Click the arrow. Click Embed Tweet. Copy and paste.

  34. 34.

    Wapiti

    @Ella in New Mexico: Unsurprisingly, this has been my experience as a Homo sapien mother, right down to the ability to rip other people’s faces off as needed then return to my business.

    I apply the old common sense rule about not getting between a mama bear and her cubs in daily life: I avoid getting between a mother and her children. Figuratively and literally.

  35. 35.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @rikyrah: Everyone seems so suprised about Harris – maybe I’ve been watching more closely than most, but nothing she did last night surprised me. That’s the person I’ve been so excited about since watching her in Senate hearings grilling idiots.

  36. 36.

    TaMara (HFG)

    OMG, I think Uncle Joe just pulled the “I have black friends so I can’t be racist” card just now. I’m only half listening, but he invoked MLK and Jessie Jackson in the same sentence.

  39. 39.

    laura

    Bixby looks so very regal and I’m so glad for you and your household that he’s continuing to improve. Keep on keeping on Bixby. But that spotty pup, pooh, the cute, it hurts! For your sake, I hope her teen years are easier on you and mine were on my loving mother.
    Scritches to all the dogs and cuddles for Pearl and Co.

  40. 40.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Sab: Lincoln was born in Kentucky, and we all know that Obama was born in Kenya. Reagan, however, was born in IL.

    I think the assignment of a state to a president or vice versa has more to do with where they rise to prominence than where they were born.

  41. 41.

    MelissaM

    I’m so happy Bixby is doing well, and that Scout is a good girl. Well, of course she is! And it’s not her fault her name tag keeps falling off, you know.

  42. 42.

    plato

    CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — White supremacist sentenced to life in prison for deadly car attack in Charlottesville, Virginia.— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 28, 2019

    Very fine sentence for the thug’s very fine people.

  43. 43.

    VeniceRiley

    Kamala got so inside Biden’s head, he’s on CNN and his white girl spox is on MSNBC talking about civil rights and bussing. Apparently the one on MSNBC said Biden was for “voluntary bussing” hahaha omg. Give me the popcorn. This is turning into a debacle that is better than 10 million worth of ADs for Harris.

  45. 45.

    mrmoshpotato

    ?In the Tobe Zoo, the Japanese Tobe Zoo, the humans act like lions todaaaaaaay! Ahhh weeee eeee eeee eeee The humans are acting really weird.?

  47. 47.

    Ruckus

    @TaMara (HFG):
    I think the reality is that “I have black friends” is all an old white person has, unless they have been on the actual front lines. And almost no white folks have been, other than a photo op. BS comes to mind here. An old white person probably doesn’t live in an area with many black people, doesn’t work in a job with a lot of black people or socialize with many. And really, how many best friends does one person have?
    One can be totally non racist, but it’s actually the working with, talking with, being friends with, that most olds see as a marker of their true feelings. Maybe all humans think this way.
    But really it’s a matter of equality. Does one think that they are inherently better than someone with skin that doesn’t look like theirs or a heritage that is different? It’s about a station in life. Many of us have long passed by the need to use “a station in life” or some other made up BS to determine someone’s value. Or even a reason to even think that someone has more or less value, based upon characteristics the person was born with. Of course then along comes some one with massively negative value, think drumpf, and ist somewhat blows that argument out the window.

  48. 48.

    chris

    @Jeffro: You got it and that’s all you’re going to get until Cole gives you the keys to the blog. Only front pagers can post pictures, etc.

    One caveat, if there are a lot of links in the tweet it may go straight to moderation.

  49. 49.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I think what is happening with Biden is fascinating. He is a holdover from an earlier version of the Democratic Party. He is part of the Tip O’Neil, Dick Gephardt version of the party. One of the last of the lunch bucket guys who Chris Matthews so admires. His time has passed. Harris took him down last night; it needed to be done, and she did a masterful job of it. I am really surprised at the glee I see coming from a good number of commenters about the takedown.

  51. 51.

    VeniceRiley

    @Omnes Omnibus: And now he just said that kid in the hoodie could be a gang-banger or the next poet laureate. Dude! he’s just … awful. Someone take his shovel away. this is worse than Sanders “hanging out on street corners in the ghetto” from 2016

  53. 53.

    Ben Cisco

    @Omnes Omnibus: This is a great summation of what happened.

    Also, I think that the responses to it are because of a sincere desire on the part of many not to make nice with the fascists. It’s going to be a long enough slog fighting the GrOP, the media, and the ill-informed. We don’t need and have no time for a nominee who doesn’t – who CAN’T – grasp that.

  54. 54.

    J R in WV

    I didn’t like Biden the day Obama picked him, thought it was a terrible pick, but it worked so WTF. But Biden hasn’t improved a bit over the years. Didn’t watch Obama to learn from the master AT ALL. Else he wouldn’t be missing all these swings like he is.

    Was horrified and appalled when he entered the race… but now he’s in it for better or worse. Hope it’s as short as his last runs!!!

    Also, on a different topic, David Brooks is a mendacious ignorant despicable propagandist for the very wealthiest thieves of our nation. Screw him with rusty tools !!

    May he have to live on scraps from Appleby’s Salad Bar forever!!

Comments are closed.