Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

This blog will pay for itself.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

I really should read my own blog.

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

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

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

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

“They not like us!” (that’s for sure!)

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

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

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Open Thread: Siri, Show Me What ‘Desperation’ Sounds Like…

Open Thread: Siri, Show Me What ‘Desperation’ Sounds Like…

by | 204 Comments

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The Dog Rater:

“He’s brown… he looks like a junkyard dog… “ Subtle!

Timeline cleanser — maybe the Biden cat will be a ginger…

Reader Interactions

204Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family doesn’t resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I’d left him behind on an Aleutian island and had sent a destroyer back to find him—at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars—his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself … But I think I have a right to resent, to object, to libelous statements about my dog.”

  4. 4.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Greg Kelly is the same clown who fell all over himself fawning over Trump for giving him the First Interview after leaving office. Beyond pathetic. It’s also the same interview Trump whined about the election when he was supposed to be talking about the recently deceased Rush Limbaugh. If only Limbaugh could see it now

  8. 8.

    MomSense

    Just came in from snowshoeing around the lake.  There were lots of ice fishing shacks set up and bald eagles circling.  It was pretty cold and there was a snow squall on the way back.
    We saw some families snowmobiling.  The kids were driving mini ones.

  9. 9.

    debbie

    I would like to see Champ have a face-to-face with Kelly. A little guttural growl or two should put that ? in his place.

  13. 13.

    Jeffery

    Dogs are very unpopular with the voting public. Especially old one who’s lives are winding down. Those voters who had them as young puppies and formed strong emotional attachments sigh and wonder why they look like they came from a junkyard. I am sure there will be no blow back about the  statement made by this self identified dog lover.

  14. 14.

    JoyceH

    I usually can laugh at right wing smears, but televised bashing of this sweet old dog just ENRAGES me! I keep thinking of the adoption listings I see for elderly dogs that are noted as ‘owner surrender’, and I just want to break something. When you get a dog, you have a dog for life, and you give it the best old age possible – and what kind of monster mocks that?

  17. 17.

    geg6

    Guess this guy has never seen an aging German shepherd.  Fuck these stupid mother fuckers.  And who are these presidential historians I’ve never heard of and why would they be experts on dog gerontology?

  18. 18.

    The Moar You Know

    If there’s any dog more presidential than a German Shepherd I have yet to meet it.

    Of course, these are the kind of people who would shit talk a Golden Retriever or a Lab.  People with not one shred of human decency.

    This country is fucking broken.  Look where we’re at at!  First Limbaugh starts in on Clinton’s kid back in the nineties.  Never an apology for that, I might add.  A kid!  And now we’ve progressed to slagging dogs, God’s best creation?  What in the actual fuck is wrong with these people?

    ETA:  and OMG he’s slagging an OLD dog.  There’s no greater offense.

  19. 19.

    eclare

    Does anyone here know how to recognize animal tracks in snow?  I have some weird ones, I think it’s rabbit, but damn, that is a big rabbit.

    I’m in Memphis so I don’t get much practice.

  21. 21.

    JoyceH

    When I was a kid we had a cat that got lost and was gone for days during a blizzard. Cop found him, identified him by the tag on the collar and brought him home to us. The tips of his ears were frost-bit and fell off, so he had square ears. Neighbor lady told Mom we should have the cat put down because he was ‘ugly’. Hated that lady from then on. We thought he was beautiful and he lived for years after that despite the square ears.

  26. 26.

    karen marie

    @JoyceH: You were lucky.  We had a cat who went out one winter day and was found days later, 20 feet from the house, after the snow melted.

  27. 27.

    eclare

    @geg6:  Saw that, I think it’s rabbit because they are single file.  I measured, the track is eleven inches long with no space between the individual prints.  Giant rabbit.

  29. 29.

    scav

    @eclare: Tracks can get larger as they melt. Otherwise I’m useless.  The raccoon v deer distinction is all I can manage and it’s a low bar.

  30. 30.

    Ken

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It got up to near freezing today so I decided that ten days without a walk was enough. I anticipated being a little sore, but I hadn’t realized that the calluses on my feet had softened! Ouch.

  31. 31.

    MomSense

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    If it had been just me I’m sure I would have skipped it, but when my family is together there is always peer pressure to be rugged and productive.  I’m glad I saw the eagles and got to see the cousins having fun.

  34. 34.

    Wag

    I blame Rush Limbaugh for destroying all sense of decorum in the GOP. When he made it OK to joke about Chelsea Clinton being “the White House dog“ “ he gave them permission to attack Democrats on anything. Kids, pets, personal tragedies, it all became fair game

    He was such an asshole.

  35. 35.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    It finally struck me: was Rush so hateful of women and LBGTQ (sorry, I’ve gone blank on the rest) because he was a deeply closeted, self-loathing gay man? Four wives is a strange way to shout to the world, “See? I’m straight!”, but it would be irresponsible to not speculate.

  43. 43.

    AWOL

    If Kelly doesn’t like old dogs, imagine how he views older women and the vulnerable.

    In NYC we don’t have to. He skated from a rape charge years ago. I’m sure his personal connections had nada to do with the dropped charges. //

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    Intermittently cycling through episodes of Gadget Man on Prime. Amusing, in discrete doses, as intermission entertainment between more long form, serious or binge inducing fare. A sample snippet.

  47. 47.

    L85NJGT

    Kanye West Thinks His Failed Presidential Run ‘Cost Him His Marriage’ to Kim Kardashian

    He refusal to take bi-polar meds, and his resultant behavior, cost him his marriage.

  48. 48.

    randy khan

    Seeing the kitteh speculation, in my experience (long ago, but I don’t think the animals change that much), Shepherds and cats are a fine combination.  The dogs have something to herd, and the cats figure out ways to use the herding compulsion to their advantage.  We had one cat who taught the dog to lead her to the food.  (And the dogs did not did not did not eat the cat food.  Or at least they didn’t do it twice.)

  49. 49.

    John Revolta

    @Baud: 

    One other thing I probably should tell you, because if I don’t they’ll probably be saying this about me, too. We did get something, a gift, after the election. A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog. And believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip we got a message from Union Station in Baltimore, saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it. You know what it was? It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he’d sent all the way from Texas, black and white, spotted. And our little girl Tricia, the six year old, named it “Checkers.” And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog, and I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it.

  51. 51.

    Amir Khalid

    @Boris Rasputin (the evil twin): ​
     I think you have it right on the self-loathing. It’s probably hard to spew so much hate at others unless it comes out of your own self-hatred. As Bruce once said, “It’s a sad man, my friend, who’s living in his own skin/And can’t stand the company”.

  52. 52.

    zhena gogolia

    @geg6:

    Cool. We thought we were seeing deer tracks, but maybe they’re rabbit.

    We definitely have seen actual deer in that spot, so we just assumed.

  53. 53.

    trollhattan

    @L85NJGT:

    Being a rich, entitled and ginormous asshole might could have been a factor, also, too.

    He was on the CA ballot as VP to Roque De La Fuente, so I’m thinking the politicking wasn’t much of a factor.

  56. 56.

    Another Scott

    @Ken: So that was you that I saw walking his dog a couple of days ago, when it was about 30F out, in shorts and barefoot??!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    @JoyceH

    “Beauty he loved for its own sake; ugliness, which more often than not was a form of inverted beauty, fascinated him. Life offered far too little of either, and far too much appalling mediocrity, which he thought hideous.”
     - The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets, by Lloyd Biggle Jr.
    .

  61. 61.

    Brachiator

    @Wag:

    I blame Rush Limbaugh for destroying all sense of decorum in the GOP. When he made it OK to joke about Chelsea Clinton…

    I had to go back and check, but Rush made a crude joke about Amy Carter in 1988. He had been doing this crap for a long time.

    But I think you are right that he encouraged bile and gave conservatives permission to fully unleash their hatreds and resentments. It has been a part of the public forum ever since.

  62. 62.

    Ruckus

    @The Moar You Know:

    They sold their human decency for $.79, in a fire sale. The only reason they got $.79 is that someone felt sorry for them. They muttered “sucker” under their breath because they know they stole that human decency from their housekeeper, right before the fired her because she was pissed at them when they made fun of her kids.

  64. 64.

    mrmoshpotato

    WeRateDogs should start WeRateNewsMaxTrash, and then call them all scumbag trash in very detailed ways.

  69. 69.

    PsiFighter37

    @L85NJGT: I don’t feel sorry for anyone but their kids. Kim Karrdashian is just as much a preening narcissist as Kanye is; they were perfect for each other until he stopped taking his meds. I hope to hear and see less about either of them going forward.

  73. 73.

    Tokyokie

    @Boris Rasputin (the evil twin): 

    That’s long been my take. The wives tended to be blondes with big boobs. I thought was it was screaming overcompensation. And a couple of them divorced him soon after a 5th- or 10th-year anniversary, just long enough for the pre-nuptial agreement to vest.

  75. 75.

    NotMax

    Am I alone in not missing for so much as a half second TCM’s usual February shift to 30 Days of Oscar? One of very, very, very, very few COVID consequences with no downside, IMHO.

  76. 76.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: The calluses are where my winter boots (which are also my summer work books) press my feet as I walk.  I don’t have a dog; my apartment building allows them, but it wouldn’t work well for me (assuming the pandemic ever ends).  They get lonely, as I’m daily reminded by the dog in the apartment below me, who whines pitifully most of the day because the people aren’t there. I’ve left a post-it on the door…

  78. 78.

    zhena gogolia

    @NotMax: Oh, I didn’t know they got rid of that. Yes, I hated it. I think that was Robert Osborne’s thing. I love him, but the 30 days of Oscar was horrible.

  79. 79.

    trollhattan

    Dear Santa,

    We have been very, very, very good, yes we have. May we please have Roger Stone’s and Alex Jones’ saggy asses on a silver DoJ-inscribed platter for Christmas? Memorial Day would be fine, too.

    “The Justice Department and FBI are investigating whether high-profile right-wing figures — including Roger Stone and Alex Jones — may have played a role in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach as part of a broader look into the mind-set of those who committed violence and their apparent paths to radicalization,” the Washington Post reports.

    “The investigation into potential ties between key figures in the riot and those who promoted former president Donald Trump’s false assertions that the election was stolen from him does not mean those who may have influenced rioters will face criminal charges, particularly given U.S. case law surrounding incitement and free speech… Officials at this stage said they are principally seeking to understand what the rioters were thinking — and who may have influenced beliefs — which could be critical to showing their intentions at trial.”

    https://politicalwire.com/2021/02/20/fbi-investigating-roger-stone-and-alex-jones/

  81. 81.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    @Tokyokie: Good point. The first wife lasted 3 years, the second 8, and the third 10. Internet Movie Database told me that; I wouldn’t keep track of anything about the man myself.

  82. 82.

    Another Scott

    @Ken: Understood.  :-)  Good luck getting your feet back in fighting shape!

    Our Ellie has been very happy with us being home teleworking.  But it doesn’t stop her from going nuts when people in hats walk past with their dogs; when the delivery folks drop off packages; when she sees the neighborhood foxes on the prowl at twilight; etc.  ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  84. 84.

    geg6

    @zhena gogolia:

    Not sure how big the deer are where you live, but there is no mistaking deer tracks for rabbit tracks around here.  But the deer here are quite large.  I saw some deer in Florida while visiting my sister there back in the early 90s.  I thought they were medium sized dogs until I got a good look and realized they were actual deer.  So tiny compared to ours!

    We have a paper road between us and one neighbor and deer seem to use it as a path through our yard.  The fawns we’ve seen go through with their moms are twice the size of the deer in Florida.  A full grown doe or, even more so, buck from here in WPA is four or fives times bigger.

  86. 86.

    NotMax

    @zhena gogolia

    Not gotten rid of so much as put on the shelf, methinks, until such time as the in limbo Oscars ceremony is rescheduled (if at all) to be telecast this year.

  87. 87.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax: Compadre!  I think you may be watching too much TV if you are missing a specific specialty station’s specific series in a specific month….

    ETA. Not missing is first noticing the absence.

  91. 91.

    A Ghost To Most

    It just be raining plane parts here in Denver. The plane flew over our house on its’ return to DIA, according to the flight path.

  92. 92.

    geg6

    @NotMax:

    I never paid attention to it unless they were showing something I wanted to see.

    Gonna watch an Oscar movie tonight.  Argo is on HBO tonight.  I saw it once, not long after it won the Oscar, and remember liking it quite a bit.  So I’m going to catch it again tonight and see if it was as I remember.

  93. 93.

    Brachiator

    @Wag:

    A misogynist like Limbaugh always needed to have his fragile ego massaged by denigrating anyone the least bit threatening

    The gratuitous cruelty primarily had a political motive. The supposed norm was to avoid joking about the wives and children of political leaders. But Rush signaled that neither Democratic Party politicians nor “liberals” in general needed to be shown any consideration or respect. Of course, these hypocrites would howl if any jokes were made about Republican wives or children.

    And to your point, Rush the misogynist liked to mock daughters of liberals as part of his assault on feminism and “liberal values.”

    So happy that Rush is dead, even though the evil he spawned persists.

  94. 94.

    Zelma

    Every one brags about being the first or second poster on a thread. I think I managed to be the final on the last thread. Number 344!

    My post was to express my sympathy to Ozark Hillbilly on the loss of a great dog. Consider the sentiment repeated here. I loved reading about his pets.

  95. 95.

    Ruckus

    @geg6:

    Was once in the housing area of the south rim of the Grand Canyon, summer time the kids are out playing as I’m walking through on my way to the laundromat. All the kids get real quiet and then very calmly walk away. I wondered why till I looked over my right shoulder and saw a moose standing about 15 ft from me. His shoulders were well over my head and those antlers looked absolutely huge. I walked quietly away so as to not piss him off. I’m not actually sure he gave a damn about me at all. I did not want to find out.

  96. 96.

    NotMax

    @Immanentize

    Read again. Not missing.

    (Just because the TV is on doesn’t mean it’s being actively watched, also too. When am on the PC my back is to it.)

    ;)

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    Am I alone in not missing for so much as a half second TCM’s usual February shift to 30 Days of Oscar? One of very, very, very, very few COVID consequences with no downside, IMHO.

    Never watch stuff like this. Just no interest.

    I sometimes watched the Oscars, but generally forget who won the next day. Sometimes I agree with the picks, other times not.

    And times change. I remember how the entertainment section of newspapers would include big inclusions of the top Oscar winners, and that this would often cause a spike in movie attendance the next few weekends.

    And of course, now, movie theaters largely empty, waiting to see if they have a future.

  98. 98.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax:
    I did read it. I should have said “noticed” which is in my ETA.

    As a friend of mine used to say about any bad movie (like that TCM series), “Miss it with a friend!”

  99. 99.

    KenK

    So, what exactly the fuck does a “presidential dog” look like? It’s been a few years since we’ve seen one.

  100. 100.

    NotMax

    @geg6

    Noticed there’s free preview access (I guess for the weekend?) of Showtime on Sling.

    Took the time to scroll through the entire list of offerings and failed to spot a single one which attracted me.

  101. 101.

    NotMax

    @KenK

    what exactly the fuck does a “presidential dog” look like

    They hate, hate, hate it when the flag gewgaw is pinned on them.

    //

  103. 103.

    dmsilev

    @KenK:

    So, what exactly the fuck does a “presidential dog” look like? It’s been a few years since we’ve seen one.

    Does Lindsey Graham no longer count as a White House pet?

  104. 104.

    AWOL

    @zhena gogolia: He’s a cesspool and the woman he may have raped was dragged through hell. A right-wing family that sadly sneaked into power with help from a lot of NYC Democrats.

  106. 106.

    NotMax

    WaterGirl, I experimented again with the yellow cakey bread. This time added a couple of palmsful of raisins. Major improvement.

  110. 110.

    Another Scott

    Nancy’s latest brings the receipts – Horizons:

    […]

    But as Garland now faces confirmation hearings on his nomination to be Biden’s attorney general, JCN [Judicial Crisis Network] isn’t directly attacking him. Instead, their CEO, Carrie Severino, has identified 10 questions Garland should face during the hearings, all aimed a demonizing the woman Biden nominated to be associate attorney general (the number three spot at the Justice Department) – Vanita Gupta.

    But that is just part of the assault JCN is waging against Gupta. Severino is going on right-wing networks to attack her and the organization recently released this ad calling Gupta “dangerous.”

    […]

    The Honest Elections Project, which has been spreading lies about voter fraud in order to make the case for voter suppression, is also the Judicial Education Project and The 85 Fund. Whatever name they use, that organization is connected via Severino to the Judicial Crisis Network, or the Concord Fund.

    With that information, we can finally connect the dots between the Judicial Crisis Network and Vanita Gupta. During her time as CEO of the Leadership Conference, Gupta prioritized lobbying for H.R. 1—otherwise know as the For the People Act, which would expand voting rights, election security, and campaign finance reform. That is precisely why she is being demonized by these right-wing groups. If confirmed, she is likely to go head-to-head with them on the issue of voting rights.

    […]

    The monsters are working all the time. We have to fight them every single day. An important next step after the American Rescue Plan should be voting rights like HR-1.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  111. 111.

    RSA

    @eclare:

    Does anyone here know how to recognize animal tracks in snow?

    Funny coincidence: I went for a run today, and on my return route, walking the last bit, I stopped to try to figure out which of the tracks in the snow were mine. It took me much longer than I’d expected.

    @trollhattan:

    Memphis = Elvis. Just sayin’.

    LOL

  113. 113.

    Subsole

    @Wag: I had to listen to that fucker every day for 10 years cause folks in our shop loved him.

    I am STILL chuckling that he is dead.

    The thing I hated above all else is he said this horrible shit, then punked out and said it was just jokes when he got called on it. A bully, a hypocrite, and a coward to his death.

  114. 114.

    sab

    @MattF: Why.?He already has brown fur.

    I think those dogs are having the time of their lives. Huge new yard, huge new house,  and Dad is almost always home.

  116. 116.

    J R in WV

    Champ and Major are far more presidential than Herr Drumpf ever was, I dunno how the “writer” of that piece could make a judgement on Champ’s cleanliness without a personal inspection of the dog, hands on.e

    Our dogs are great puppies, but are farm dogs, so their cleanliness can vary quite a bit from day to day. They only get a shower with Mane and Tail when they get into something like oil well grease. They get drenched with a Hydrogen Peroxside, baking soda, Dawn solution when they get uip close and personal with Mr Skunk.

    We’ve had a new variety of skunk in this area. Used to all be striped skunks, and now we also have spotted skunks, which smell differently and much worse, as hard as that is to imagine. Dogs helped us discover all that information a year or two ago.

  117. 117.

    Brachiator

    Perhaps a movie to watch this weekend. From BBC News …

    A film that cast unknown east London schoolgirls in most of its main roles has been honoured with five prizes at the British Independent Film Awards.

    Rocks won best British independent film, and one of its stars, Kosar Ali, 17, was named both best supporting actress and most promising newcomer.

    Rocks got glowing reviews when it came out last year and is now on Netflix.

     

     

  118. 118.

    JMG

    Some happy news. Thanks to Alice’s persistence, we have our vaccination appointments for next Friday afternoon. It’s in Worcester, but that’s like less than an hour drive. This has made February much nicer.

  119. 119.

    sab

    @JoyceH: I see Champ slo-o-o-w-w-ly folding those arthritic old joints down into a sit or lie-down, and I think about my old GSD who died at age twelve. It makes me laugh and cry at the same time. What a great old dog.

  120. 120.

    Jeffro

    They really don’t know how to do ANYTHING except heckle, jeer, and sneer, do they?  Ragging on someone’s older dog?  Seriously?

    Maybe they should have paid more attention in high school?  I just don’t know.  But 30+ years of Rush/Gingrich/trumpov-style conservatism makes me think that all they’ve done is babble amongst themselves.  PICK UP A BOOK, losers.

  121. 121.

    kindness

    It’s inappropriate to talk smack about a president’s kids.  Even the furry ones.*

    *(does not apply to the Trump family)

  122. 122.

    Suzanne

    @Boris Rasputin (the evil twin):

    It finally struck me: was Rush so hateful of women and LBGTQ (sorry, I’ve gone blank on the rest) because he was a deeply closeted, self-loathing gay man? 

    I think Rush was an incel. There’s a certain kind of rich dude who can buy himself an attractive wife, but she won’t fuck. See also: Trump, Donald.

  123. 123.

    sab

    OT. I have just finished 14 tax returns, and only one had a taxpayer reported stimulus check that agreed with what the tax software thinks they should have received.

    Of course, there were no 1099s, just maybe a letter from Turnip that said here is your check, but did not say save this for your tax filing.

    This spring and summer are going to be a clusterphuck in tax-prep world

    ETA they have already warned us that retroactive tax law changes mean 2018 and 2019 may need to be amended.

  124. 124.

    Mary Beth

    @JoyceH: When you see an old dog surrendered, it is often because some elderly person has become incapacitated.  I know I worry that something might happen to me and  my dead husband’s corgi might not find a home.

  126. 126.

    JPL

    @JMG: Congrats.   Friends found appointments next week in Springfield which is a hour and half from them, but they don’t care.   They have to go on separate days, but sometimes you take what you can get.

  127. 127.

    West of the Rockies

    This was utterly, cosmically predictable… Republicans have no problem with children in cages, killing students in school, black people being killed for being black…

    But an aged dog looking aged?  A First Lady having toned (and brown!!!) arms?  Dijon mustard on a hotdog?  Bolt the door, Martha, the heathens are coming.

  129. 129.

    Brachiator

    @West of the Rockies:

    Dijon mustard on a hotdog? Bolt the door, Martha, the heathens are coming.

    I thought that Dijon mustard on a hot dog was supposed to be elitist.

    But Republicans are never consistent in their hypocrisy.

  132. 132.

    AnotherBruce

    @Baud: Its so true. She is incredibly consistent. My favorite front pager. She makes this blog go as much as anybody does. I just hope she can stay awake. She should get graveyard shift pay.

  134. 134.

    geg6

    @Ruckus:

    Whoa!  That would freak me out.  The deer scare the shit out of me if it’s dark outside while walking the dogs and I don’t expect or see them coming.  A buck could really hurt you if he decided to charge.  I can’t imagine a moose!

  135. 135.

    Jeffro

    @Brachiator: they were fine with this former guy who used to put ketchup on his burnt steak, right?  Fuck them.

    (ok, not certain on the ketchup…100% certain on the burnt steak ;)

  136. 136.

    Benw

    I mean I guess if you WANT people to know you’re a shitty person you could rag on a nice old dude’s old dog

  137. 137.

    zhena gogolia

    @AWOL:

    I didn’t even know he was Ray Kelly’s son. (To be honest, I never heard of Greg Kelly before this dog story.) I had forgotten that pugnacious mug.

  138. 138.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @eclare: Since spotting our local fox in daylight and figuring out what his tracks look like, I’ve become a lot more aware of the tracks in the snow. Rabbit and raccoon have very characteristic appearances, and I’m pretty sure I can pick out the fox now too.

    So what have you got?

  139. 139.

    jackmac

    @eclare: Are there little brown poop pellets accompanying those tracks?  Then it’s a rabbit (or rabbits). We have several congregating in the 12-plus-inch snow cover in our back yard. They’re driving my Aussie crazy.

  140. 140.

    Flanders Other Neighbor

    I love GSDs.  Had one as a kid that my grandpa on the farm adopted from us when it was clear my mom was not a large dog person.  But since I met my wife 25 years ago, other than one we had for five or six years, it’s been all adopted Huskies.  Wonderful dogs that don’t trigger my wife’s allergies and that I never worry about biting anyone, but they need exercise and they’re often too smart for their own good.

  141. 141.

    geg6

    @frosty:

    Saw key deer in the Keys, yes.  But these were just normal deer in the West Palm area.  Obviously a different strain of deer from what we get here.

  142. 142.

    Brachiator

    @sab: ​
     

    OT. I have just finished 14 tax returns, and only one had a taxpayer reported stimulus check that agreed with what the tax software thinks they should have received.

    I work with many preparers. I think the Recovery Rebate Worksheet is working fairly well. A couple of the biggest things: it is catching and helping those who had a kid born after the original rebates were sent, and it is providing a nice bonus to “mixed families” where one person has a SSN and his or her spouse does not. These people are retroactively eligible for the first stimulus payment.

    Of course, there were no 1099s, just maybe a letter from Turnip that said here is your check, but did not say save this for your tax filing.

    People got Notice 1444, but nobody saves those things. A 1099-G would have been nice.

    This spring and summer are going to be a clusterphuck in tax-prep world

    Oh, yes. Things will get crazy also if there is a third stimulus this March.

    ETA they have already warned us that retroactive tax law changes mean 2018 and 2019 may need to be amended.

    Yeah, but this is insane. There were a couple of retroactive changes in 2019, but not all software providers went back and changed their software, or did so correctly.

    I am not sure that many companies would go back and change 2018 software.

    Congress is out of step with practical realities. Hell, the IRS would have problems redoing 2018 paper forms.

    And Maryland and Delaware have (I think) recently enacted some changes to 2020 laws relating to unemployment or something. California is about to enact new 2020 laws regarding the California Earned Income Credit. This will be hard enough to do as updates in an overall shorter tax season.

  144. 144.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @eclare: ​
    I think it’s rabbit because they are single file.

    The rabbit isn’t single file, you get two paws together and two paws staggered.

    If you are getting those groups of four with a lot of space between the groups, that’s a rabbit in a hurry.

    The fox tracks I’ve been seeing are pretty close to single file.

  154. 154.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    they were fine with this former guy who used to put ketchup on his burnt steak, right? Fuck them.

    (ok, not certain on the ketchup…100% certain on the burnt steak ;)

    I believe you are right about the burnt steak. But here is where his supporters loved their Jerk-in-Chief. Trump could have a three start Michelin restaurant in one of his hotels and force the chef to serve a burnt steak when he ate there.  It is super dooper phony man of the people bullshit.

    From a 2016 news story:

    [Trump and Mitch Romney] met for dinner at Jean-Georges restaurant in the Trump International Hotel and Tower, off Columbus Circle in midtown Manhattan.

    The exclusive restaurant, which has received three Michelin stars, has a dinner menu featuring a variety of meat, fish and pasta dishes.

    The group dined on garlic soup with thyme and sauteed frog legs as well as diver scallops for appetizers. Priebus and Trump had steak, and Romney had lamb chops.

    This was the infamous dinner where Trump forced Romney to kiss his ass while pretending that he was considering Mittbot 2000 to be named Secretary of State.

  155. 155.

    The Pale Scot

    @Another Scott:

    about 30F out, in shorts and barefoot??!

     

    That would be me if I could. The polar vortex isn’t going to make it to SW FL. I’m disappointed. Just a 3 day freeze to kill the bugs, is that to muck to ask?

  157. 157.

    The Fat White Duchess

    @Amir Khalid: I will forever remember my ex, working as a house-cleaner, coming home furious. A couple he cleaned for had surrendered their two cats and gotten a new one or two—because they’d redecorated the living room and the first pair no longer matched the decor.

  159. 159.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @trollhattan: We watched a GBBO special where they brought in cast members from “Derry Girls” to bake. They were totally incompetent in the kitchen, and hysterically funny. Paul Hollywood almost smiled!

  161. 161.

    Achrachno

    @Ruckus: I don’t believe there are records of moose in Arizona, and it’d be shocking if one turned up south of the Grand Canyon.  I’m guessing your beast was an elk — they’re big enough.

  162. 162.

    Brachiator

    @WaterGirl:

    My letter re: the stimulus check said NOT to claim them on my taxes. Why are people claiming them?

    They aren’t claiming the amount. Some people who did not get the stimulus can have any additional amount added when they file for 2020.

  163. 163.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Totally OT but: Has anyone ever run into anything with August Wilson talking about his plays and his characters?

    A month or so ago we watched the film of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom that was Chadwick Boseman’s last film. I found myself really wanting to hear Wilson talk about Levee, Boseman’s character.

    I took out “Ma Rainey” from the library to compare to the film. Then decided I was going to read the entire “Century” cycle in chronological order by decade. These things all have forwards by other people with plenty of commentary, but not a word by Wilson himself.

    The Denzel Washington / Viola Davis version of Fences is also definitely on my to-see list, but not until after I’ve read it.​​​

  166. 166.

    Brachiator

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: ​
     

    Totally OT but: Has anyone ever run into anything with August Wilson talking about his plays and his characters?

    You might find this PBS link useful.

    I was fortunate enough to see one of his plays, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone twice, once in Los Angeles and again in New York. The New York production included a post-theater discussion with some people involved in the production.

    Amazing stuff.

  167. 167.

    jl

    I can’t wait for the Baud XXXX administration, which will take credit for the previous administration’s amazing accomplishment of the Duck Dodgers of the 24 and half century Planet X expedition.

    The Baud pet will a snipe, which guests will hunt for around the WH grounds, while Baud holds a stale beer.

  172. 172.

    gwangung

    @Brachiator: Talk to any Black theatre artist and you will get an education. (A very GOOD education).

    I follow a lot of them on Facebook and Twitter and I’ve learned lots, and I have lots to learn.

  173. 173.

    Another Scott

    I just received an Amazon padded envelope package.  In looking at the label I see:

    Weight: 1.8739291046322646 lb

    Amazing!!1

    That is all.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  174. 174.

    jl

    Back when the US was a self-confident country that allowed presidents to be human beings, rather than pompous tin-pot royalty, people didn’t waste their time whining about whether presidential pets projected the correct CW respectability.

    In particular scraggly looking dogs appear to have a long history in the WH:

    John Adams: Among them were a pair of mongrel dogs named Juno and Satan, and a horse named Cleopatra.

    John Q Adams: Lafayette had an unusual gift for then president John Quincy Adams: an alligator. Adams decided to lodge the reptile in the then-unfinished East Room of the White House, which had its own bath tub.

    [Jackson] brought his pet parrot, Poll, with him-and it seems the bird picked up some of the president’s own salty vocabulary.

    President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge had menagerie of animals living with them during their time in the White House, including a donkey, a bobcat, and geese. Among the best-loved was a raccoon called Rebecca.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/weird-presidential-pets-include-alligator-tiger-cub-dog-named-satan-2019-12

    Washington had a coonhound named Drunkard, Jefferson had a mocking bird named Dick, which flew around the WH, I suppose, mocking various things it overheard. TR had a considerable zoo, which included a laughing hyena and one legged rooster named Fierce.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_pets

  177. 177.

    jl

    In the halcyon days of yore, presidents were also allowed to have whatever damned garden they pleased.

    ” The first White House garden was planted in 1800, by the second president of the United States John Adams and first lady Abigail Adams.[3] Adams and his wife grew their own fresh fruits and vegetables to feed their family, rather than buying produce at the local market. ”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_vegetable_garden#History_of_White_House_gardens

    John Adams fancied himself a farmer, though. I think he made his living farming after he left the WH.

    Edit: I wonder if John and Abigail puttered around the garden themselves. If Adam and Abigail viewed themselves as a farm family, I imagine they did.

  179. 179.

    Brachiator

    @gwangung:

    Talk to any Black theatre artist and you will get an education. (A very GOOD education).

    I follow a lot of them on Facebook and Twitter and I’ve learned lots, and I have lots to learn.

    I don’t do FaceBook or Twitter, but am glad to know that there is some good and stimulating stuff out there on black theater.

    You might enjoy this piece about a video production of the play Hymn.

    It stars two black actors and was written by Lolita Chakrabarti. One of the stars of the production, Adrian Lister, is her husband.

  180. 180.

    Another Scott

    @Amir Khalid: A bunch of miscellaneous stuff, but mostly accessories for my air compressor.

    (Whoever wrote the label software apparently didn’t have to suffer through “significant figures” being drummed into them in physics class…)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  182. 182.

    Immanentize

    @Brachiator: my son’s name is in part because of Wilson.  So amazing in so many directions.

    Pathos ethos logos But in this house we end with legos.

  185. 185.

    Gvg

    @geg6: Florida doesn’t have the forage that more northern climates do. We also don’t have extreme winter and most animals don’t try to build up fat for surviving winter. Raccoons and squirrels are much skinnier and have thinner fur which makes them look even smaller. Our regular deer are definitely smaller than say Virginia’s or Georgia’s.

  186. 186.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @WaterGirl: ​My letter re: the stimulus check said NOT to claim them on my taxes. Why are people claiming them?

    My understanding is that the stimulus check is non-taxable, so if you received one you don’t have to claim them.

    However there are a number of people who did not receive one, not because they weren’t supposed to, but because the checks were distributed according to the address (or checking account routing number) associated with the previous year’s tax returns, and anyone whose prior year’s return has been held up wouldn’t have that on file at the IRS.

    (I’m in that boat, still waiting for a prior year’s paper-filed return [which was postmarked last April 14] to be processed in order to release later years’ electronic filings. )

    My tax accountant tells me the simplest way to recover the amount of the stimulus check that was never sent is to claim it on this year’s return as a tax credit. That sounds like what you might have heard about.

  187. 187.

    Brachiator

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    My tax accountant tells me the simplest way to recover the amount of the stimulus check that was never sent is to claim it on this year’s return as a tax credit. That sounds like what you might have heard about.

    Yes, this is what many people are doing.  Including the stimulus payment on their tax return so that it can be paid along with any refund.

    Some people who otherwise do not have to file a tax return should file if they are getting a stimulus payment.

  189. 189.

    Starboard Tack

    @JoyceH:

    I had a “pet cat” when I was a kid that was an unneutered tom. He lived outside and disappeared for days at a time. At nights in the summer we could hear him yowling in the woods behind the house. The tips of his ears were ragged from fighting with raccoons. One winter he showed up with the lower half of his face chewed up. He sat with his chin in the snow for a week and survived, but all the hair on it was gone. My Dad and older brother once tried to put him in a burlap bag. It did not go well.

  190. 190.

    Just Chuck

    Snide commentary about POTUS’s dog is apparently sufficient for a writing gig in Wingnutopia.  The soft bigotry of low expectations …

  191. 191.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Since I am a sexist slob, ect I have to himpathy the dorks doing the Biden’s Dog crap and,..just no, what kind fucked in the head idiot dumps on another guy’s dog?  I think Newsmax is run by serial killers.

  192. 192.

    Brachiator

    @Just Chuck:

    Snide commentary about POTUS’s dog is apparently sufficient for a writing gig in Wingnutopia.

    Why do they bother? I am not interested in a pundit take on Biden’s pets.

  194. 194.

    The Pale Scot

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Polar vortex in southwest Florida – imagine the freakout

    Back in the day we came down here to Orlando & Miami during the winter and it was in the 50’s. Being an infomaniac from the time I was knee high a grasshopper I remember NYC newscasts (Chuck Scarsboro) talking about night frosts damaging the citrus crops. That hasn’t happened for 15 years. I hope to retire to a farm in Quebec, or a nice dacha in upper Norway.

  195. 195.

    The Pale Scot

    @Brachiator:

    I believe that if you haven’t received a stimulus check you can use it as a refundable credit against taxes owed. I’d wait month to see the dust settle. If you can get an no pay extension, probably a good idea

  196. 196.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Champ is a good looking GS. I don’t get it. I would have thought GSs would be the prototypical GOP WH dog. They’re pretty ‘manly’ looking dogs. I believe Hitler had German Shepherds for crying out loud.

  197. 197.

    NotMax

    @Mai Naem mobile

    As a breed, the GS practically still has that new dog smell.

    Despite its wolf-like appearance, the German Shepherd is a relatively modern breed of dog, with their origin dating to 1899. Source

  198. 198.

    Jacel

    @John Revolta: An early instance (but I’m sure not the earliest) of Republicans expressing outrage over something unfair they are oh so sure that their Democratic critics are going to accuse them of in the future — AND HOW DARE THEY!!!

  199. 199.

    The Fat White Duchess

    @gwangung: Do you know Andrea Hairston by any chance? Professor of theatre arts at, I think, Smith, and writer of amazing specfic. Also one of the panelists I try to see at any science-fiction convention.

  202. 202.

    Ruckus

    @geg6:

    Neither did I. But those kids had been properly trained and knew exactly what to do. And the way they did that told me that something was happening that I absolutely needed to be aware of. As well they showed me, do not run, or act like you are scared in any way. Just walk away smoothly and calmly. And really, them doing that made it a lot easier for me to at least attempt the same.

  203. 203.

    Ruckus

    @Achrachno:

    Not arguing at all, I thought it was an elk and looked it up and thought I must be crazy because I didn’t think there were moose in the area either. And really I wasn’t on a scientific discovery, I was walking through what looked like a suburb housing tract So, elk-moose, big deal, big, freaking huge animal that looked like it could step on me, or fling me far with it’s antlers. Wiki says moose don’t come that far south but the horns looked more like moose which is why I said that in the first place. I’m not arguing with science, it knows far more than I do.

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