Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

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

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

The lights are all blinking red.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Books are my comfort food!

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

People are weird.

Republicans in disarray!

I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / RNC Open Thread

RNC Open Thread

by | 170 Comments

This post is in: 

I haven’t even checked the front page in four hours so I am probably bigfooting like three posters, but I simply refuse to watch any of the RNC. As I noted last night, I chose to watch WWII in color, when it was acceptable to shoot nazis.

In other news, I have been in a legendary bad mood all day. I mean just spitting fire. I have no idea why. Don’t bother trying to cheer me up, I’m just gonna go to bed anyway.

Pet owners- THE FLEA SITUATION IS OUT OF CONTROL THIS SEASON. I have given them pills, I have given them drops, I bathe them every week, and they even have flea collars for the first time. And it doesn’t help. I feel terrible for them but there is nothing we can do and I am out of ideas. Thurston, btw, gets aggressive and barks at his ass whenever he itches.

Feh.

Fuck the Republicans.

Reader Interactions

170Comments

  3. 3.

    cain

    I’m not going to watch the speech.. I think I’ll head over to Chez Nichols to see what’s going on.

  4. 4.

    Jerzy Russian

    Is this convention more like a tire fire than a dumpster fire? I am leaning more towards the tire fire, based on the comments in previous threads.

  5. 5.

    Another Scott

    Rest easy, JC and crew.

    So many Hatch Act violations. Trump corrupts all he touches. The Office of Special Counsel will be busy.

    — Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) August 26, 2020

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  6. 6.

    bookdragon

    We use Frontline Flea & Tick on the greyhounds and have had no fleas this year or past years.  Works so much better than flea collars ever did. One application a month (unless they get bathed or really drenched in water, then reapply).

  7. 7.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    Melania needs a much bigger shovel for this huge mountain of bullshit that’s been given to her.

  8. 8.

    West of the Rockies

    Am I allowed to note that DKos has a hilarious thread up about the Guilfoyle Challenge (lots of screamy goodness).

  11. 11.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    In other news, I have been in a legendary bad mood all day. I mean just spitting fire. I have no idea why.

    Summer. It just drags on and on and on…

  12. 12.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @mad citizen: Madam looks like she’s wearing a trench coat (in the still shot I saw on twitter)  Is there a suitcase under the podium. Is this her exit strategy?

  13. 13.

    Gvg

    Flea meds tend to stop working after awhile. Ask your vet for a new type. My aunt who used to raise show dogs, always used 2 kinds alternating so they were slower to evolve resistance. It seemed to help extend the useful life span of flea meds.

    there are also nematodes you can buy for the soil that eat flea larva before they grow big enough to jump up and bite. I have thought about trying them but haven’t had a problem in awhile.

    old fashioned remedy is a night light with a tray of water underneath. Fleas are attracted to the light, fall in the water and drown. It can be a way to see how many are really around. I think they have glue traps as well.

  15. 15.

    brantl

    We should get a shitload of t-shirts that say FTR, and the rethugs would think it was about FDR and probably wouldn’t even notice the mispelling. Also, we should have WWFDRD t-shirts. It’s time to remind this party that the most popular president of the last century was FDR, and the conservatives called him a raving commie, too.

  17. 17.

    Ruckus

    Wonder if the fleas and the noseems are in contention for who can be the most annoying. Don’t have a pet right now but everywhere I go, noseems are everywhere.

  18. 18.

    satby

    Get food grade diatomaceous earth and rub it into their coats.  It mechanically kills fleas and if they ingest it it won’t hurt them. Wear a mask and don’t let them breathe it if you can avoid it. I use it in the garden for pests too.  You can sprinkle it on carpets to kill fleas too.  A bag that will last you a year costs about $10 on amazon.

  21. 21.

    Kent

    MSNBC not happy with the illegal and offensive use of the White House as a political prop.

    Good for them to call it out.

  24. 24.

    RaflW

    @Jerzy Russian: It may end up more like a refinery explosion, but so far it’s just the pressure building and building.

    So much rage. Over having won the 2016 election! (yah, ok, ‘won’, but still. They’re pissed that they’re in charge!)

  28. 28.

    satby

    @satby: oh,  and fleas and ticks can’t build up resistance.  I use flea preventative too,  alternating Frontline and Advantage/tix each year,  but the DE is a great back up to those for the really bad years.

  29. 29.

    RaflW

    @mrmoshpotato: I can’t even imagine. Decades ago, we had just moved to TX and took a trip out of town. A neighbor kids took care of our dog (and this was not his fault). When we got home, we — unknowing about the ferociousness of warm climate fleas — had a house infestation.

    They bit our ankles and calves until we could get it under control. It hurt a lot. But it was just ankles and calves! Nether regions, yow.

  31. 31.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ruckus:

    Dumpsters full of tires.

    On fire.

    Rolling full speed downhill towards an orphanage that just had a bunch of puppies delivered.

  33. 33.

    Keith P.

    I had a bad flea explosion in March/April. Cheristin didn’t work out of the gate this year, so I tried Advantage II on top of that a few weeks later, and that basically did the trick. I’ve had a few minor reappearances, but they’ve largely been under control. I’ve had way worse years than this one.

  36. 36.

    TaMara (HFG)

    I turned the TV on and MSNBC was on and what did I see, Trump trying to french Melania, and she kept turning away.

    I cannot unsee. He’s so repulsive.

  37. 37.

    mad citizen

    I was reading the 400+ comments in the other thread.  Agree with the “boring” assessment of Third Lady speech.

  39. 39.

    Inspectrix

    Not just angry tonight but sad. I spent the evening watching Becoming and had myself a good cry for the majority of it. The Obamas thank the kitchen and security staff like they actually mean it. The differences only multiply after that. It’s been a while since I read the book, but they can be enjoyed independently.

  40. 40.

    Kropacetic

    @HeleninEire: No wonder she stole Michelle’s speech last time. I am bored to death. So is Donald.

    Why are they letting all these other people talk?  This is my party.

  42. 42.

    HumboldtBlue

    Pet owners- THE FLEA SITUATION IS OUT OF CONTROL THIS SEASON. I have given them pills, I have given them drops, I bathe them every week, and they even have flea collars for the first time. And it doesn’t help. I feel terrible for them but there is nothing we can do and I am out of ideas. Thurston, btw, gets aggressive and barks at his ass whenever he itches.

    I fucked up in early June and bought some cheap ass Hartz shit and now I’m battling fleas. I used chemical weapons today on the rug and my broke ass spent $80 on Frontline on Sunday.

    Those are usurious rates but when I look at those little fuckers hopping three feet a bound ya gotta pay.

    Now every tiny itch or flick on my dry-ass skin and I’m thinking fleas, the fuckers.

  46. 46.

    Matt McIrvin

    These people are going to murder us all while grinning.

    What kind of monster do you have to be to write an article like this?

    washingtonpost.com/opinions/sorry-democrats-trumps-convention-is-working/2020/08/25/cafb687c-e6f4-11…

    “Ha, ha, yeah he pals around with the Klan, but he’s making Democrats mad and that’s a win!”

    Yeah. You know what would REALLY make us mad? I bet it’d make us mad if we were all dying of a horrible disease! Hey, I bet it would make us mad if cops murdered a whole bunch of people!

    Hey, we’d really be steamed if he had goons actually come into our houses and smash our children’s heads in with hammers! I bet we’d have a sad and it’d be high-larious.

  48. 48.

    toine

     I have been in a legendary bad mood all day. I mean just spitting fire. I have no idea why. Don’t bother trying to cheer me up

    hemorrhoids?

  51. 51.

    walkingstone

    Attn Thurston here’s help!  Mineral oil mummifies the bastards on contact and also too relieves itchy skin.  (Sold as a laxative at the grocery.)  Just dip your fingers and give them a whole-body skritching as needed; my cat won’t tolerate any meds or collars but actually asks to be oiled.

    PS your clothes and furniture will get oil slicks.

  54. 54.

    RepubAnon

    @Gvg: Add a few drops of dish soap to the water as well – eliminates surface tension and ensures they sink. Also works on water barriers for keeping ants out of pet food

  55. 55.

    Quinerly

    @MomSense: my ex Senator. I actually liked her very much when she was in office. Cool chick. When she originally ran, I was part of a group who hosted her in our homes… “Cocktails With Claire.”

  58. 58.

    Matt McIrvin

    @WaterGirl: I just can’t manage the detachment any more. 538 tarts their model page up with cute cartoons of a silly fox like it’s some kind of game and it’s like they don’t know we’re looking down the barrel of a gun. Like they don’t know this is about human beings choking to death and being clubbed and shot and babies getting raped in cages and old people’s circulatory systems burning out with a death virus. Like they don’t understand all the murder that’s coming. The least people could do is be a little sober about it.

  59. 59.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I just can’t manage the detachment any more.

    They think they’re the only ones who are angry.  They think they’re the only ones who believe their lives have been upended, ruined.  They have no idea.  They have no idea.  The hatred just grows, every day, every day.  When this is all over,  if we still have a country, they will experience that hatred, every day, from me at least.

  63. 63.

    Pete Downunder

    @emrys: I second the Bravetco. We use it on our Border Collie here down under where we have some of the worst ticks in the world. One chewable tablet every three months. Never fleas or ticks.

  64. 64.

    mrmoshpotato

    Second bottle of Blue Moon Mango Wheat is less severe, but I still wouldn’t buy it again.

  68. 68.

    Aleta

    How can they speak about Covid while refusing masks and 6 feet spacing.   Tell stories about children after knowingly or  intentionally harming  thousands of them.

  69. 69.

    Matt McIrvin

    @featheredsprite: Here’s the fucking thing: I’m just about the luckiest man in this goddamn country. I shouldn’t be the one who needs the hugs. I just can’t bear to see all this shit going on.

  70. 70.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax: Where is that random trivia?  Did you pull the short straw for splitting driving duties with Joni Ernst cross-country?

  71. 71.

    Barbara

    @WaterGirl: I honestly don’t know whether any of this works, but neither do they. Above all else, I really despise the certainty. Von Drehle isn’t the worst but he wants to like conservative causes and especially rationalizes evangelical love for Trump as genuine religious conviction.

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    @mrmoshpotato

    Only gift I ever received from the parents of a close friend, with whom I was also friendly, was a thick tome on the European history of eunuchs. For Christmas one year.

    Talk about a mixed message.

    ;)

  73. 73.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I just can’t bear to see all this shit going on.

    I need hugs.  Specifically, my mom’s hugs.  I recently got just over six feet away, on a sidewalk.  I did not, and she did not, close in for a hug.  Which would have been the first in over 4mos, maybe 5mos.  Because I don’t wanna kill her.

    They only think in terms of themselves, never in terms of the people around them, the people they depend upon for their food and water and transport and health care and the functioning of society.  Selfish fucking bastards.  GrOPers: pedophiles and rapists, one and all.  Those who don’t rape, like to watch.  They’re all perverts and they should all be consigned to damnation.  Every.  One.

  75. 75.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I need hugs

    Ain’t the first time I’ve said it since March 13 but I need a fucking hug and a kiss and hand-hold and maybe a hair ruffle.

    I need my little homegirls who I get to buy shit they don’t need but absolutely love and who get to tell stories about how awesome uncle HB is.

    Fuck, I really need that.

  79. 79.

    Ivan X

    @Matt McIrvin: monstrous, indifferent to actual human life, but as an analysis, I don’t think it’s necessarily off the mark. I disagree with the idea that it’s “working,” but yeah, trolling the libs with as much belligerence as possible is what is gonna make these people get out and vote.

  81. 81.

    GregMulka

    Apple cider vinegar. The border collies caught an infestation from the neighbor’s dog one summer. Put them in the tub and poured half a bottle on each. Started at the heads and worked our back. The fleas were visibly trying to evacuate in front of the vinegar. Then Frontline for prevention.

  82. 82.

    oatler.

    I got fleas from an alley cat that spent the night in my car. Spread some kind of powder on the carpet, vacuumed and fleas were gone. I’ll omit the 2000 pages of rage and misery before I did that. Did you know you can hit a flea with a carpenters hammer and they bounce back up?

  84. 84.

    James E Powell

    @WaterGirl:

    Didn’t Booman become like an anti-Democrat or am I thinking of someone else from the salad days of blogs?

    Longman writes that it was a reprieve and that it diverted attention. Who got the reprieve? Sick people? People out of work? Whose attention was diverted? Villagers & Beltway courtiers? The NYT?

    I really am starting to hate everyone who writes about political matters. Even the ones that are supposedly on our side. Jennifer Rubin’s tirade over the anti-Semite who was going to speak at the RNC tonight made me wonder if in her long pre-Trump career she ever met a Republican voter outside of her circle of friends.`

    Then I was watching a live post-RNC chat on Lincoln Project and they are all so outraged with Trump. And I thought, didn’t every one of them spend years smearing Hillary Clinton? Isn’t this what they were working to produce?

    I don’t think I’m as angry as John Cole, but I’m close. Real close.

  86. 86.

    satby

    Bravecto only is available for dogs, it could kill cats. Nematodes will work over a longer term, but does nothing for today’s fleas. And all due respect to oil (really?) and pans of water (ok) the DE is effective, nearly immediate, non-toxic, can be used on pets, furniture, and carpets, lawn too but it would also kill beneficial bugs (I use it on my veggies to keep pests off). Last year one of the feral kittens I trapped brought fleas in and because last year I still had 8 animals plus the 3 foster kittens things got ugly fast. The kittens were too young to treat with flea killers. After a combo of preventative, killer plus IGR (Precor), and DE for additional eradication, I got rid of them all and they haven’t come back.

    Edit: and Don’t even get me started in the essential oils woo folks.

  87. 87.

    joel hanes

    Been reading Gibson’s two latest, Peripheral and the sequel, Agency.
    They limn two linked dystopias: one in the present, and one seventy years in a future.

    So fucking weird to put down the book and look at the net and realize that America has become a dystopia more absurd and arguably worse than one of those.

    I really want to close the book of 2020, revoke my suspension of disbelief, and return to a sane world. Alas, this is hell, nor are we out of it.

  88. 88.

    mrmoshpotato

    @James E Powell: Jennifer Rubin’s tirade over the anti-Semite who was going to speak at the RNC tonight made me wonder if in her long pre-Trump career she ever met a Republican voter outside of her circle of friends.

    Ex-act-ly!  “So what Republican fuckery were you seeing before Dump?”

    Then I was watching a live post-RNC chat on Lincoln Project and they are all so outraged with Trump. And I thought, didn’t every one of them spend years smearing Hillary Clinton? Isn’t this what they were working to produce?

    Oh these ratfucking sacks…

    It’s why The Professional Left believes in Burn The Lifeboats

  90. 90.

    Chetan Murthy

    @James E Powell:

    wonder if in her long pre-Trump career she ever met a Republican voter outside of her circle of friends.

    None of them thought it was for keeps, y’know?  I mean sure some brown people get murdered in faraway places, but other than that (and some brown people getting murdered in not-so-faraway places like St. Louis and …and ..and ..), it was all just a game.  But then, after the Apocalypse, when they started realizing the they guys they’d put into power weren’t playing a game at all, they soiled their Union suits and decided that they had to do something about it.

    It’s OK: If Rubin sticks around after we save the Republic (assuming we do, and the country doesn’t go up in flames), then we can find out if she’s learned anything.  Ditto with all the others.  Who knows?  Maybe there’s a David Brock in there among the Irving Kristols.  Who knows.

  93. 93.

    mrmoshpotato

    @satby:

    Edit: and Don’t even get me started in the essential oils woo folks. 

    Yells out of striking range, “Then why are they called essential?” ?

  94. 94.

    Matt McIrvin

    @mrmoshpotato: I don’t understand those people at all–there’s no sense that they’ve owned up, like Cole did, or like I keep flogging myself about stupid shit I said 18 years ago when I wasn’t even a Republican.

    That said, we gotta win and they’re helping us now. I just don’t know when the other shoe drops.

  97. 97.

    joel hanes

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I tried the Blue Moon offerings when they appeared.

    Too sweet.  Cloying tastes, no balance, no subtlety.  The original was supposed to be in the style of a Belgian witbier — and it is, to the same extent that Franco-American Spaghetti is “in the style of” actual Italian food.

    Wasn’t surprised, therefore, to discover that it is produced by Miller-Coors.

    For “in the style of”, try to get Northcoast Pranqster, or Brother Thelonius, or anything brewed by Allagash.

     

    Or, you know, a genuine Belgian, like Chimay.

  99. 99.

    SWMBO

    John Cole.
    They may have improved things over the years but back when I was grooming pets, it was a big no no to mix flea collars with other flea poisons. Call your vet and find out what combos you can use, especially with Lily. She’s had chemo and doesn’t need a toxic strike on her system.

  100. 100.

    Leto

    @mrmoshpotato: I’ve thought the same thing: these fucks basically enabled everything happening now, but ARE OH SO SHOCKED! that the monster they helped create/unleash is now eating their face. I mean, I’m glad that they’re actively helping try to beat him but FFS, but you guys/gals need to spend the next 100 years in serious self-reflection. While our tent is big enough for everyone, you fucks are going to be sitting out in the annex (with Toby) for a really long time.

  106. 106.

    Anya

    I haven’t watched the RNC because I don’t have any outrage and sad to spare. I’ve been trying to understand since 2016 how can anyone (who was not a  racist lunatic) not be repulsed by this monster and his horrible family. It’s 2020 and still don’t understand.

  107. 107.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Leto: Yup!  As I’ve said many times before, I’ll take the attack ads, but you fucks created this.  Decades of working in the monster factory, and suddenly “Oh shit!  A monster!  And we can’t control it!”

    And make no mistake, Rubio, Cruz, JEB!, etal would’ve been as bad if not worse, because they’d’ve kept their yaps shut about the destruction.

  108. 108.

    Anya

    I keep hearing about “Hatch Act violations” and I don’t understand what’s the point with having an act if it’s never enforced. It’s a joke. Just get rid of it.

  109. 109.

    Leto

    @mrmoshpotato: Agreed; Rubio, Cruz, Bushx3, etc… would’ve been as bad, if not worse, because they could’ve at least mouthed the appropriate words to make everyone believe it’s not that bad. That’s going to be the takeaway from this: if you can put a better PR spin on it, everything would’ve been fine! Morning in America, 2.0! UGH!

  110. 110.

    Bill Arnold

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I did not, and she did not, close in for a hug. Which would have been the first in over 4mos, maybe 5mos. Because I don’t wanna kill her.

    Try the hold-breath hug. Just one person needs to do it (both better in case one oop-ses), hold breath before closing then until after 6 feet.

  111. 111.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Bill Arnold: I appreciate the attempt to ameliorate the situation, but …. not a chance.  I will do whatever it takes so that my mom comes out of this on the other side with a working vaccination.  Not gonna fuck it up by trying something that probably wlll work.  When I get deliveries from Whole Foods, I do my cleaning ritual, then take it over to their house, where my sister’s BF does his cleaning ritual.  He never assumes that what I’ve done is enough.

  112. 112.

    Matt McIrvin

    @satby: I’m thinking more the ones who keep going on about betraying the legacy of Reagan. Come on, it’s mostly an extrapolation of Reagan.

    I guess the one area where you can’t say that is that Reagan was welcoming to many classes of immigrants that Trumpism despises, but only inasmuch as it was useful as a hammer to beat Communists with. Still, that was more sophistication than Trump and Stephen Miller can manage–in his situation they’d have kept all those Vietnamese and Cambodians out to avoid the Commie cooties in their DNA.

  114. 114.

    Wapiti

    @Anya: That goes for the entirety of the American justice system: a corrupt Attorney General with a compliant Senate can ignore any violation of the law.

  115. 115.

    Mary G

    WaPo has a story on the anti-abortion lady who spoke tonight:

    Separately, controversial past remarks disclosed Tuesday dogged another convention speaker who has been chosen to highlight the president’s record on abortion issues.

    The 19th, a new news outlet focusing on gender and politics, unearthed recent tweets from Abby Johnson, a prominent opponent of abortion rights, that said she supports reviving household voting, which would allow only the head of a household to cast a vote in elections.

    Calling her own views “anti-feminist,” Johnson said in her tweets from May as well as Tuesday night that the husband should get the “final say” in how the household votes in elections.

    I have no husband, so I guess I get to vote. Maybe.

  116. 116.

    West of the Rockies

    @joel hanes:

    Of all stories from the last 3.5 years, that Kushner said, “Let Blue State Americans die from COVID,” is most stupefying to me.  That should be the front page story for weeks.  It would have been the undoing of another administration.

    It is like Henry Kissinger counseling Nixon in ’68 to keep the war going as a way to secure a second term.

  117. 117.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kent:

    Don’t presidents technically use the White House as a political prop when giving speeches in the Oval Office and the Rose Garden, if even for important occasions/emergencies/crisies?

  118. 118.

    LeftCoastYankee

    “Trolling the libs” is so 2019.

    “Everyone who doesn’t believe cannibal satanists are eating our children are cannibal satanists”, is 2020 fresh.

  119. 119.

    Bill Arnold

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Not gonna fuck it up by trying something that probably wlll work.

    OK. (Wish everyone in my circles were even 10 percent as cautious.)
    (Immune system compromised? If it’s normal, make sure she gets sufficient vitamin d (lots of sun, or up to 4000 IIU per day is safe), and also at least RDA of Zn and Vit C, assuming doctors don’t advise against. Yet another observational paper a couple of days ago about vitamin d insufficiency correlated with COVID-19 severity.)

  120. 120.

    joel hanes

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Yes.  Just fine with me.

    I like Maredsous about the best of the Belgian Tripels I’ve tried, but the St. Bernardus is also great, as is Fin du Monde

  121. 121.

    Tazj

    @Matt McIrvin: I just saw a female WaPo reporter on MSNBC talk about what an important speech this was for Melania, and  that this was the first time that she was able to show who she really is. Other reporters are talking about her showing a softer side and “I talk to female suburban center-right voters and this will work with them.”

    It’s all BS, her speech should be meaningless. She doesn’t set policy and she obviously hasn’t been a positive influence on her husband so it doesn’t matter what she says. We know who her husband is and what he’s done.

    This administration can’t be redeemed and no one should care who Melania says she is in a speech, and anyone in the media  trying to tell the American public otherwise is a monster.

  122. 122.

    joel hanes

    @Leto:

    I sometimes drink fruit-flavored beers (Stone’s Tangerine, e.g.) but I’m never looking for one.

    On a hot day, do like Widmer’s Hefe with several good slices of lemon squeezed into it

  124. 124.

    Calouste

    @Mary G: “unearthed” of course means “spend 30 seconds to find Abby Johnson’s twitter handle and the read the feed”. The WaPo could have checked all the RNC speakers in about an hour, but they chose not to. Heck, we can do it together in an hour, Betty should put a thread up for it in the morning.

  125. 125.

    joel hanes

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Nothing very wrong with a plain old American beer that isn’t pretending to be something else, and isn’t sweet.  Especially if it’s hot, you’re thirsty, and the beer is cold.

    I used to drink PBR longnecks with the boys at The Pastime Gardens every Tuesday night and Saturday afternoon.

    I’m just not fond of bad imitations of … much of anything.

  126. 126.

    emrys

    @satby:  it is available for both.  Cats as a topical and dogs as a pill.  However they recently introduced a topical for dogs as well.

  127. 127.

    joel hanes

    @Anya:

    One of the functions of such a law is to allow the law-abiding to distinguish themselves from such as are not.

    The Biden administration will observe the provisions of the Hatch Act nearly perfectly, and will be chagrined when they flub.

  128. 128.

    piratedan

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): short answer: No

    long answer: if you choose to characterize everything that a POTUS does once in office, then fine, no one is saying that you can’t interpret as such, the simple fact is that until THIS Administration, no one else (to my knowledge as a political junkie) has ever done so.

  130. 130.

    frosty

    @mrmoshpotato: I guess this is beer? Why would you a) drink any beer with fruit? and b) drink any beer with wheat? OK, I guess the Germans made Weissbier, but I’m a Rheinheitsgebot guy myself. Four ingredients: water, barley malt, hops, yeast.

  131. 131.

    mrmoshpotato

    @LeftCoastYankee:

    “Everyone who doesn’t believe cannibal satanists are eating our children are cannibal satanists”, is 2020 fresh.

    Sorry.  The Pythons rejected this as too absurd, even in their heyday.  Tone it down a bit for the gents.

  134. 134.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Tazj:

    This [Trump] administration can’t be redeemed and no one should care who Melania says she is in a speech, and anyone in the media  trying to tell the American public otherwise is a monster.Biden should have this engraved at the White House.

    Biden should have this engraved at the White House.

  136. 136.

    frosty

    @joel hanes: Nothing very wrong with a plain old American beer that isn’t pretending to be something else, and isn’t sweet. Especially if it’s hot, you’re thirsty, and the beer is cold.

    My favorite description of this is “lawnmower beer” – what you have after a sweaty afternoon mowing the lawn. Two choices: Rolling Rock and Natty Boh. Used to be three but the head of Yuengleng is all in for Trump.

    Same thing ruined Maple Donuts for me too. Why can’t these asshole businessmen keep their mouths shut?

  138. 138.

    brantl

    I keep hearing about “Hatch Act violations” and I don’t understand what’s the point with having an act if it’s never enforced. It’s a joke. Just get rid of it.

    Currently ignored laws, don’t have to be ignored by the  good guys. We need a push for the Attorney General to be an elected position, not an appointee of the president. That’s what enabled this shit. They let Trump have that jack-booted pig, Barr. Himmler revisited.

  144. 144.

    bluefish

    Bless you cuz you make me laugh. I knocked myself out with Pho today. My sleep schedule is whack and has been for years. Wake up so grumpy at 4 pm cuz I clean house 5 out of 7 days from 2 am til 7 in same. Then crash. This convention is the nightmare. I clean our small bathroom everyday, twice a day, cuz lucky enough to be living with 3 other humans for going on 7 months now but, man, do I miss my privacy. The hair on floor bums me out. What is grateful but bereft plus pissed? What is that word? Never needs to be a reason. Am grateful as hell we are making it and donating as we can. I love my dog and read my BJ Calendar. I still put on lipstick and perfume everyday and read the quotes. Today I felt afraid. Again. Sorry. Am I don’t know what and drank.
    Have long loved yr voice, Cole. I think of Walter all the time. Sweetest story.

  145. 145.

    AlaskaReader

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Do like some folks do and just get a big plastic sheet, like 15×15 foot and drape it over the hugger or huggee.

    The contact is plastic shielded, use 4 mil or better so you don’t puncture it.

    Yes, I know, it’s not the same as the real thing, it’s not spontaneous either, but it’s a really good alternative in these times.

  148. 148.

    TS (the original)

    @Anya:

     It’s 2020 and still don’t understand

    I am the same – didn’t watch today, keep reading about how trump can still win. Cannot imagine that either.

  149. 149.

    JoyceH

    @Tazj: ” I just saw a female WaPo reporter on MSNBC talk about what an important speech this was for Melania, and that this was the first time that she was able to show who she really is. ”

    I saw a clip of the speech and what struck me about it is how thick her accent still is, after all these years in the US. In fact, I wondered if her accent has grown stronger in the past few years.

    And that reminded me of the persistent rumor that she doesn’t really live in the White House, but she and Barron live in Maryland with her parents and she commutes to the White House for events. If true, that might explain the accent, if she’s speaking Slovenian at home and using her English less.

    Yes, this sounds like celebrity gossip, but why doesn’t some news organization spend a little bit of time and staking out and shoe leather to find out if it’s true? Because if it is, and the whole First Family show is a charade, I think that would be relevant to some voters.

  151. 151.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @satby: I do foster kittens and for the ones too small for the drop between the shoulders I wield a mean flea comb.  I go over them, and over them, and within 2-3 days the fleas are gone (of course I don’t have any fleas on my own cats or in the house to reseed the kittens).  The good side effect is so much handling tames the feral kittens  (which are the ones usually with fleas)  down really fast. In medieval days when people groomed each other for lice (i.e. nit pickers) I would have been popular.  I’ve always liked social grooming :-)

  152. 152.

    Martin

    The fleas have become immune to Frontline.

    Talk to your vet about what’s working best in your area. Don’t use Hartz – causes neurological problems.

  153. 153.

    TS (the original)

    @JoyceH:

    I saw a clip of the speech and what struck me about it is how thick her accent still is,

    And I read this & think about the deplorables who scream at other immigrants because of the way they speak.

  155. 155.

    Winston

    In an alternate reality:

    Melania’s speech excerpt
    (Truth checked)

    I want to acknowledge that my husband destroyed Obama-Biden Pandemic defenses here and in China In 2018 to save money. These systems would have stopped the virus in its tracks in China.

    Since March 2020, when it finally arrived here, our lives have changed drastically.

    The invisible enemy Covid-19 swept across our beautiful country, particularly impacting minorities. The small amount of money we saved by dismantling the Obama-Biden Pandemic prevention systems, has now been used to buy PPE for the White House west wing.

    My deepest sympathy goes out to the One Hundred and Seventy-Eight Thousand People who have lost their lives. To everyone who has lost a loved one, my prayers are with you and those who are ill or suffering.

    I know many people are anxious about my husband’s failure to implement useful tests, track and trace, racial discrimination, police misconduct, lost jobs, travel restrictions, the crashed economy, poverty, hunger, and pending foreclosures.

    Some feel badly let down and helpless. I want you to know you are not alone. I, too, feel we could and should have done much more.

    My husband and the administration will not stop fighting to stay in office until the threat to his and their liberty for crimes in sealed indictments, and pending investigations are no more. He is eager for an effective treatment or vaccine available to everyone before the election, for obvious reasons.

    I want to belatedly extend my gratitude to all healthcare professionals, frontline workers, and teachers who stepped up in my husband’s absence. Despite the risk to yourselves and your own families, you put our country first.

    I have seen Americans come together in peaceful street protests, while beaten and gassed even outside the White House.

    It is in times like this that we will look back and tell our grandchildren their Grandad caused a Pandemic, and people responded with words of freedom;

    VOTE BLUE!

  156. 156.

    bemused

    Melania’s drab olive green outfit was pretty blah and odd for a convention for her creepy spouse. She looked she was in the army.

  159. 159.

    Gvg

    @Leto: actually no. Real politicians actually care about getting re-elected and know things like term limitations mean someday you will be out of power. Trump wants to be elected, but he refuses to understand things like don’t do stuff that harms your own voters like trade wars. They also understand that absolutely screwing up things like pandemic response means losing. Trump has done a bunch of stuff that were never done before because everyone else was too smart to do. That is the flaw in a bunch of our laws. We counted on elected officials having some political smarts. That’s why it worked till now. Now Trump has a lot of cultists that he took over from the GOP and he doesn’t get that he’s actually made fewer plus they are going to latch onto someone else when he’s gone and he will be gone because he has made a lot of enemies.

    the guys you named had long term plans and paid attention to some but not all opinion polls. They would have been better, but if trump hadn’t been elected, we wouldn’t have had him as a comparison and would think they were awful.

  161. 161.

    SFAW

    @JoyceH:

    Because if it is, and the whole First Family show is a charade, I think that would be relevant to some voters.

    In a country with a rational electorate, maybe. But here? It’s about 573rd on the list.

  162. 162.

    SFAW

    @joel hanes:

    You guys and your Belgian “beers,” oy vey. Although I guess they’re better than Coors (Extra) Light, the homeopathic version of beer.

  165. 165.

    Sab

    @bookdragon: Frontlime doesn’t do anything for our guys. Advantage does better, but it is extremely toxic for cats, so if we accidentally apply dog Advantage to one of the cats the vet assures us that cat will die. So Frontline it is.

    Fleacollars should be put inside your vaccuum cleaner bag, not on the pet.

  166. 166.

    V. Bush

    Fleas.  Your probably getting generations of hatching.   When it gets bad like this you will have to fumigate.  Carpets are the preferred place for flea eggs..  but they can nest anywhere.  Major warfare for a determined period is the only solution now. You might have to start seriously bug -bombing individual rooms, more than once

  167. 167.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Matt McIrvin: Here’s the fucking thing: I’m just about the luckiest man in this goddamn country. I shouldn’t be the one who needs the hugs. I just can’t bear to see all this shit going on.

    Yeah, that’s pretty much where I’m coming from too. And it drives me nuts to see pundits do the whole theater-criticism thing when the fate of our democracy hangs in the balance.  This is fucking real, not a damned game.

  169. 169.

    biff murphy

    I have found the one that works best is SERESTO

    the collar works for 8 months

    my cat who goes out often never has a problem.

    Hope this helps…

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