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You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Free Range Panther

Free Range Panther

by John Cole|  March 10, 202311:38 am| 88 Comments

This post is in: John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House"

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I know there is lots of important shit going on in the world and I am ignoring all of it and talking about my fucking cats, but this is where I am right now in my life. At any rate, I removed the gate from the office so everyone is free to go where they want, and Maxwell spent the night exploring. There have been no incidents with Thurston or Steve, so I am assuming everyone is sorting their shit out.

I woke up in the middle of the night and checked the tracking device, and Max was in the basement, and when I fed him this morning I had to spend a bit of time removing cobwebs. Steve’s nose is a touch out of joint- Maxwell came running in for skritches, and as I was petting him, Steve took notice and sauntered up for some attention, too. So I had them both at arm’s length on different sides of me, petting them simultaneously without incident. That’s good, because it means they can share the same space and it assures them both there is plenty of the fat man to go around and no favoritism.

Meanwhile, here is an adorable picture of Steve:

Free Range Panther

Did any of you catch Dan Goldman pantsing Taibbi, turning him into a sniveling, smirking, little shit? Was beautimous.

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    88Comments

    1. 1.

      Baud

      March 10, 2023 at 11:42 am

      Jealousy is the best.

      Reply
    2. 2.

      WereBear

      March 10, 2023 at 11:42 am

      Steve, it gets better.

      Reply
    3. 3.

      WereBear

      March 10, 2023 at 11:42 am

      When we get a new cat, my story is, “I got this for YOU!” to any complaining cat.

      Reply
    4. 4.

      cain

      March 10, 2023 at 11:46 am

      You need to update the balloon-juice pet calendar to include this sweetie!

      Reply
    5. 5.

      catclub

      March 10, 2023 at 11:46 am

      @WereBear: ​
       Environment enrichment!

      At the New Orleans zoo, when the Elephants were out [still in their area] and near the Tiger’s enclosure, the tiger was VERY nervous. They called it environmental enrichment for the tiger.

      Reply
    6. 6.

      CaseyL

      March 10, 2023 at 11:49 am

      I am all in favor of shutting out the world and focusing on cats!

      I am also beyond impressed with how smoothly you’re integrating Maxwell into the family.  Here’s hoping he and Steve become Best Buddies, and embark on many entertaining capers and hijinks.

      Reply
    7. 7.

      Betty Cracker

      March 10, 2023 at 11:52 am

      One of my aunts had a beautiful black cat we called “the micro-panther.” He was magnificent, but I think your lad has a sweeter disposition. Micro-panther was a one-human kind of cat

      ETA: I did see a clip of Goldman pantsing Taibbi and may post it later. Goldman’s cross-examination skills are serving him well in his new role.

      Reply
    8. 8.

      MisterDancer

      March 10, 2023 at 11:52 am

      Yay Cole! What a lovely kitty :)

      If I may ask — what tracking device are you using for Max? I’m considering one for our wee little run-under-stuff cat (sigh)

      Reply
    9. 9.

      Geminid

      March 10, 2023 at 11:52 am

      I was doing a survey of the new class of House Democrats, and Dan Goldman was one of just a few who have never held public office before. It looks like he picked up some skills though, as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

      Watergirl’s new Congresswoman, Nikki Budzinski is another new Rep with no background of elective office but a whole lot of relevant experience.

      Reply
    10. 10.

      RedDirtGirl

      March 10, 2023 at 11:52 am

      Impressive pet expansion!

      Reply
    11. 11.

      Amir Khalid

      March 10, 2023 at 11:53 am

      I ddn’t know Matt Taibbi needed to be turned into a snivelling, smirking little shit.

      Reply
    12. 12.

      Baud

      March 10, 2023 at 11:56 am

      @Amir Khalid: Heh.

      Reply
    13. 13.

      Math Guy

      March 10, 2023 at 11:58 am

      I enjoyed watching both Goldman and Wasserman-Schulz work him over.  It is important to confront these republican thugs with the facts; it is even more important that the general public see it happen, and see the republicans squirming in their own flop-sweat because it paints Dems as winners and republicans as losers; public perception matters in elections.

      If there is an afterlife, I hope it includes the cats we have adopted and cared for.

      Reply
    14. 14.

      John Cole

      March 10, 2023 at 11:59 am

      @CaseyL: @CaseyL: 

      I am also beyond impressed with how smoothly you’re integrating Maxwell into the family.

      Cats integrate themself you just have to stay out of the fucking way and be consistent and predictable.

      Reply
    15. 15.

      Roger Moore

      March 10, 2023 at 12:00 pm

      Did any of you catch Dan Goldman pantsing Taibbi, turning him into a sniveling, smirking, little shit?

      Taibbi was already a sniveling, smirking little shit; Goldman just exposed him.

      Reply
    16. 16.

      Kay

      March 10, 2023 at 12:01 pm

      Senator Ted Cruz @SenTedCruz

      Great to meet @mtaibbi and @ShellenbergerMD

      today.   They’re true patriots for shining a light on the brazen corruption, censorship, and abuses at Twitter. 

      No one has to buy any of these peoples work. Republican pol Twitter is free and the content is identical.
      Perfectly aligned messaging, every day, but skip paying for the subscriptions and go right to the source.

      Reply
    17. 17.

      Geminid

      March 10, 2023 at 12:01 pm

      @Math Guy: Republicans really gave Democrats a lot of fat pitches to hit with these hearings. I don’t think they thought that part through.

      Reply
    18. 18.

      p.a.

      March 10, 2023 at 12:03 pm

      Of course sooner or later they’ll team up against you.

      Cats are interesting.  My GF had to put down her puggle, and her cat, which paid no more attention to him than she did a doorknob, sequestered herself in a back room for 3 weeks, only emerging for food, water, and potty.  She’s back to being herself now.

      Reply
    19. 19.

      ellie

      March 10, 2023 at 12:03 pm

      I, too, have a house panther and he loves cobwebs! I don’t know why. We have to lint brush him.

      Reply
    20. 20.

      Roger Moore

      March 10, 2023 at 12:06 pm

      @ellie:

      I, too, have a house panther and he loves cobwebs! I don’t know why.

      I think all cats like cobwebs, but they show more on black cats.

      Reply
    21. 21.

      schrodingers_cat

      March 10, 2023 at 12:07 pm

      Steve looks like he is plotting something.

      Reply
    22. 22.

      schrodingers_cat

      March 10, 2023 at 12:08 pm

      @Roger Moore: My late ginger tabby loved to eat small spiders. MMmm cruncy and delicious. She was a good kitty.

      Reply
    23. 23.

      Baud

      March 10, 2023 at 12:08 pm

      @schrodingers_cat:

      The Perfect Purrder.

      ETA:

      Or Purrfect Murder.

      Reply
    24. 24.

      citizen dave

      March 10, 2023 at 12:08 pm

      We got a real character male cat from my stepson, tons of personality, cattitude, etc.  Sprayer even though fixed (but not as a kitten).  Also had 2 female cats.  When a male stray kitten showed and up and we took him in, it seemed like older male cat calmed down a lot.  ‘Course he was a senior cat as well.  Maybe Steve is going to be good with another male sharing the load/taking over.

      Reply
    25. 25.

      Math Guy

      March 10, 2023 at 12:09 pm

      @Roger Moore: Two of our cats discovered that there were cobwebs to be found between the floor and the bottoms of the kitchen cabinets – they were constantly “snacking” on them.

      Reply
    26. 26.

      geg6

      March 10, 2023 at 12:10 pm

      I missed the Goldman pantsing!  However, I did catch the pantsing Wasserman-Schultz gave him.  Sounds like Matty was pantsless all day.

      Reply
    27. 27.

      Baud

      March 10, 2023 at 12:12 pm

      @geg6:

      Decent pantless people are none too happy about the association.

      Reply
    28. 28.

      NaijaGal

      March 10, 2023 at 12:15 pm

      Silicon Valley Bank just failed. FDIC taking over. Used by a lot of venture capitalists, so I wonder what the impact on the economy will be.

      Reply
    29. 29.

      CaseyL

      March 10, 2023 at 12:19 pm

      @p.a.:  When you have to have an animal euthanized, what the other animals know is that So-and-So went away with Mom/Dad and never came back.  

      They don’t see the dead body, after all.

      I really don’t know how much they understand about those disappearances, so I suspect their over-riding anxiety is that the same thing could happen to them.  So they hide for a while.

      This is on top of any grief or loss they might be feeling.

      Reply
    30. 30.

      artem1s

      March 10, 2023 at 12:28 pm

      @NaijaGal:

      Silicon Valley Bank just failed.

      hmmm, wonder if it has anything to do with Bankman-Fried’s crypto failure?

      Oops, looks like maybe a YES!

      Crypto-focused lender Silvergate said Wednesday it is winding down operations and will liquidate the bank after being financially pummeled by turmoil in digital assets. Signature Bank, another crypto-friendly lender, was hit hard by the bank selloff, with shares sinking 30% before being halted for volatility Friday.

      Reply
    31. 31.

      WaterGirl

      March 10, 2023 at 12:28 pm

      @CaseyL: I had a good friend bring Henry to say goodbye to Tucker at the vet school so he would understand what was happening.  It helped.

      Reply
    32. 32.

      Math Guy

      March 10, 2023 at 12:29 pm

      @CaseyL: We had two cats: a female stray I’d taken in years ago, and a male stray that we had for about four years. The male loved to play with wadded up pieces of paper: he would bat them around the house until they disappeared under the furniture. He died in my arms, at home, from kidney failure. The other cat just hissed at him a few times till he passed. Three months later we were moving a desk and underneath there were about a dozen wadded up pieces of paper. My little cat walked over, sat down in the middle of all of those “toys” and wailed her heart out.

      Reply
    33. 33.

      WaterGirl

      March 10, 2023 at 12:31 pm

      @artem1s: Crypto’s complete failure can’t come soon enough for me.  It’s obvious that investing in crypto was playing with fire, and it’s beyond me to understand how anyone convinces themselves they will not get burned.

      Reply
    34. 34.

      WaterGirl

      March 10, 2023 at 12:32 pm

      @Math Guy: I am crying.

      Reply
    35. 35.

      Math Guy

      March 10, 2023 at 12:34 pm

      @WaterGirl: I didn’t mean to make you cry, but thank you.

      Reply
    36. 36.

      artem1s

      March 10, 2023 at 12:35 pm

      @WaterGirl: ​

      it’s beyond me to understand how anyone convinces themselves they will not get burned.

      It’s basically digital Amway. Everyone thinks they are at the top of the pyramid until it collapses on the poor saps at the bottom.​

      Reply
    37. 37.

      Ruckus

      March 10, 2023 at 12:36 pm

      @John Cole:

      Cats integrate themself you just have to stay out of the fucking way and be consistent and predictable.

      Sounds like most of life.

      Reply
    38. 38.

      zhena gogolia

      March 10, 2023 at 12:36 pm

      Inspired by John, I went to YouTube to watch some of Goldman & Taibbi (Forbes video). The comments are all about how Taibbi pantsed Goldman. I’m living in an insane universe.

      Reply
    39. 39.

      Amir Khalid

      March 10, 2023 at 12:37 pm

      @Math Guy:

      I cried too.

      Reply
    40. 40.

      Betty Cracker

      March 10, 2023 at 12:37 pm

      @NaijaGal: Yikes. A quote from that article:

      Mike Mayo, Wells Fargo senior bank analyst, said the crisis at SVB may be “an idiosyncratic situation.”

      “This is night and day versus the global financial crisis from 15 years ago,” he told CNN’s Julia Chatterly on Friday. Back then, he said, “banks were taking excessive risks, and people thought everything was fine. Now everyone’s concerned, but underneath the surface the banks are more resilient than they’ve been in a generation.”

      I hope he’s right, and I’ll say straight up I don’t understand how any of this stuff works, so grain of salt, etc. That said, I do know certain unprofitable or barely profitable platforms and tech outfits have been outrageously overvalued for a long time now, and we’ve seen VC geniuses fall for obvious scams like NFTs and sketchy crypto outfits. That’s gotta come home to roost sooner or later.

      Reply
    41. 41.

      Ruckus

      March 10, 2023 at 12:40 pm

      @Geminid:

      I don’t think they thought that part through.

      They never do.

      They think they do/have thought it through but they have zero concept of what that actually means or what actual thought is like, is done, works, happens because they are haters and morons. But you know that…

      Reply
    42. 42.

      Amir Khalid

      March 10, 2023 at 12:42 pm

      @artem1s:

      It’s basically digital Amway.

      This is a brilliant, succinct four-word summary of crypto.

      Reply
    43. 43.

      The Kropenhagen Interpretation

      March 10, 2023 at 12:46 pm

      So I just signed up for Spoutible

      My first attempt at branching off Youtube and Balloon Juice for social media since I deactivated my Facebook in 2016.

      Reply
    44. 44.

      LiminalOwl

      March 10, 2023 at 12:48 pm

      @CaseyL: When my beloved Java (another black micro-panther) had to be euthanized, her best friend the pug from downstairs let me know how he felt. He never forgave me, in the three years we still lived upstairs.

      Reply
    45. 45.

      Ruckus

      March 10, 2023 at 12:49 pm

      @Betty Cracker:

      My comment at #41 answering Geminid, applies to crypto and most of the investment industry. They understand the outcome when it works, they usually seem to have zero idea of what went wrong when it fails. I’d say humanity often equals greed is the basis of that failure.

      Reply
    46. 46.

      Emmyelle

      March 10, 2023 at 12:49 pm

      When you think about all the things that had to go wrong for this guy to be president, and they did, it’s mind blowing. I think I’m still pretty traumatized by the whole thing.

      Reply
    47. 47.

      Roger Moore

      March 10, 2023 at 12:50 pm

      @WaterGirl:

      It’s obvious that investing in crypto was playing with fire, and it’s beyond me to understand how anyone convinces themselves they will not get burned.

      Because they believe they’re super smart.  They know they’re playing with fire, but they’re certain they’ll be able to sell off their crypto to some greater fool in plenty of time to get out before the inevitable collapse.  Of course some people were right when they believed that, but some people will inevitably be wrong.

      To me, it all gets back to the Super Bowl ads for crypto.  When the scam has gotten to the point they’re advertising at the Super Bowl looking for greater fools, the bubble is primed to burst.

      Reply
    48. 48.

      NutmegAgain

      March 10, 2023 at 12:54 pm

      Love that image of Steve as a furry flying saucer.

      Reply
    49. 49.

      dlwchico

      March 10, 2023 at 12:55 pm

      Moved into a new place once with our two cats.   One got lost for several days.  We finally found her under the house in a crawlspace.

      Turns out the dryer in the garage had a hole in the wall behind it for some fittings to go through and she was able to squeeze through but then apparently couldn’t get back through to get out again.

      Reply
    50. 50.

      TaMara

      March 10, 2023 at 12:59 pm

      @WereBear: LOL Same here.

      Reply
    51. 51.

      NaijaGal

      March 10, 2023 at 1:00 pm

      @Betty Cracker: I don’t pretend to understand any of this either but I’d read that they invested in some form of mortgage backed securities and that strategy hit a snag when the Fed raised interest rates. Made me alarmed but most seem to think that this isn’t going to cause systemic problems because the mortgage backed security situation is different from 15 years ago. I certainly hope they’re right.

      Reply
    52. 52.

      Roger Moore

      March 10, 2023 at 1:08 pm

      @NaijaGal:

      I don’t think it’s mortgage-backed securities.  The article mentioned that a lot of banks had parked their excess cash reserves in government bonds, since they’re supposed to be extremely safe.  The problem is that when interest rates rise, that shows up by bond prices going down.  So the higher interest rates the Fed has been pushing have driven down the value of those bonds, meaning the banks’ reserves have shrunk.

      Fortunately, banks are required to have substantial reserves, and the first part of those reserves are shareholder equity rather than deposits.  So far, at least, the rise in interest rates has only hurt shareholders rather than depositors, so there isn’t any systemic risk.  Yet.

      Reply
    53. 53.

      kindness

      March 10, 2023 at 1:08 pm

      When you say basement John, I think of a cold, drafty place.  I know the one I grew up in was till my parents converted it to a living area (and insulating the crap out of it).  Up until that point, the basement was closed off most the year.  So I’m wondering if your basement is old & cold or modern subterrainian living space.  Which leads to why do you have your door open to the basement this time of year?

      Reply
    54. 54.

      indycat32

      March 10, 2023 at 1:13 pm

      @kindness: Obviously I don’t speak for John but my basement is open because that’s where the litter boxes are.

      Reply
    55. 55.

      Cheryl from Maryland

      March 10, 2023 at 1:14 pm

      I have selected Dan Goldman to be my imaginary boyfriend.  That is all.

      Reply
    56. 56.

      NaijaGal

      March 10, 2023 at 1:17 pm

      @Roger Moore: I’d read somewhere else that SVB had invested in relatively long term securities like 10-year mortgage backed securities (among other investments like US Treasuries) but the Fed raising rates meant that refinancing wouldn’t occur as planned (who wants to refinance their mortgage to a higher rate?). They didn’t have enough investments in short term vehicles – when people wanted their money back, they had to sell certain assets at a loss. I certainly hope you’re right and this is a unique situation unrelated to just that exposure.

      Reply
    57. 57.

      MisterForkbeard

      March 10, 2023 at 1:17 pm

      @Math Guy: Cats have a lot of capacity for grief.

      When I was I college, I was engaged to a lovely redhead and we’d moved in together. She died in a car accident and my normally standoffs cats would RUN to meet any redheaded woman who walked past the house. They were always disappointed when they realized it wasn’t her.

      Later that same year, one of the cats was hit by a car and died instantly.The other cat came and got me, and then stood next to my poor kitty and tried to wake her up, then wailed when I picked her up and tried to give her some dignity.

      There’s some real depth in their little brains. :(

      Reply
    58. 58.

      MisterForkbeard

      March 10, 2023 at 1:19 pm

      @dlwchico: We had the same – a cat that could get into the crawlspace through the drier fittings but couldn’t get back out.

      AND HE KEPT GOING IN

      Reply
    59. 59.

      Nettoyeur

      March 10, 2023 at 1:20 pm

      @Amir Khalid: Me neither. He, like Andrew Sullivan, Glenn Greenwald,  Noam Chomsky, and many 14 year olds, suffers from selective oppositional-defiant disorder. Anything to get attention. Fortunately, only the suckers who pay these clowns via Substack have to read them.

      Reply
    60. 60.

      Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

      March 10, 2023 at 1:22 pm

      Yeah, but Glenn Greenwald said the Democrats utterly failed, and Taibbi was a bigly winner and made the mean, mean Democrats look like big, stinky poopie heads. I don’t know who to believe here. I mean, if youo can’t trust Glenn Greenwald, who can you trust?

      Reply
    61. 61.

      Ruckus

      March 10, 2023 at 1:27 pm

      @NaijaGal:

      It would be an individual event if it wasn’t for that one human character flaw. GREED. (OK I know there are other flaws, I’m only talking about this one.) Greed is the thing that always gets the flim flamers. The people who try to sell you the magic potion or the magic money maker or the magic salvation of humanity. And it may work for a short time, until the greed becomes the one obvious selling factor and everyone gets screwed. And being humanity, and greed is one of our traits, it will continue to happen till the last 2 humans.

      Reply
    62. 62.

      Ruckus

      March 10, 2023 at 1:30 pm

      @Nettoyeur:

      You seem to be giving them a lot of age credit on their emotional maturity level.

      Reply
    63. 63.

      Roger Moore

      March 10, 2023 at 1:31 pm

      @NaijaGal:

      I think this is more or less the same thing.  The  key is the problem wasn’t triggered by the something like the mortgage defaults that led to the 2008 financial crisis.  It’s a result of the bank investing too much in long-term securities and then having those securities fall in value because of interest rate fluctuations.  There is still some systemic risk- other banks might have made the same investment decisions- but you don’t see a whole class of assets that are genuinely worthless.

      Reply
    64. 64.

      Ruckus

      March 10, 2023 at 1:32 pm

      @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):

      I mean, if youo can’t trust Glenn Greenwald, who can you trust?

      Anyone walking down the street, even if they are carrying an open bottle in a brown paper bag would seem to be a better option. But then you knew that.

      Reply
    65. 65.

      Ann Marie

      March 10, 2023 at 1:42 pm

      @MisterForkbeard:  When my red tabby Hugh died, after a struggle with cancer, I came home from the vet hospital and found my remaining cat, Louie, sitting in the same spot on my bed where Hugh had spent his last days.  He stayed there all evening until bedtime, instead of coming down to be with me as he usually did.  They had not been best buds, but Louie still grieved.

      Reply
    66. 66.

      NaijaGal

      March 10, 2023 at 1:52 pm

      @Roger Moore: That makes sense to me. Thank you for breaking it down. So we have made progress in reducing exposure to garbage in the banking sector since 2008 🙂.

      Reply
    67. 67.

      Spanky

      March 10, 2023 at 1:58 pm

      So I had them both at arm’s length on different sides of me, petting them simultaneously without incident.

      Get used to this.

      Reply
    68. 68.

      Paul in KY

      March 10, 2023 at 1:59 pm

      @Amir Khalid: Excellent observation, Amir!

      Reply
    69. 69.

      A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

      March 10, 2023 at 2:23 pm

      @NaijaGal: My financial guy sold my bonds with that bank and a couple of others yesterday so I got out just before the hammer fell.  He says the raise in interest rates, plus all the working from home has really depressed the commercial real estate market in major cities like SF, LA, NYC, and Chicago  (and apparently it is overbuilt too), so banks holding a lot of those building loans are in trouble.  He also says a recession is coming.  He put the $ from the sales into tax-free muni bonds and treasury bills.  Being very conservative

      ETA: yes, and lending for crypto didn’t help.  Annie Laurie always said it would end in tears. And the rate hikes are exposing weakness in companies and sectors.  While a rising tide (low rates) lifts all boats, a falling tide exposes everything.

      Reply
    70. 70.

      A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

      March 10, 2023 at 2:25 pm

      @CaseyL: I know what you mean, although I think they can usually smell the sickness in the dying animal so they have an idea of what is going on.

      Reply
    71. 71.

      Paul in KY

      March 10, 2023 at 2:32 pm

      @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Agree with cats being able to smell it. There’s an idea that some dog attacks on (mostly) elderly people happen due to the (stupid) dog smelling that the person is dying or has a terminal condition and the dog  can’t help themselves and attacks.

      Reply
    72. 72.

      A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

      March 10, 2023 at 2:37 pm

      @Paul in KY: Wow, that puts dogs in a charming light. A little above vultures LOL (not that attacking elderly humans is a laughing matter, of course).

      Reply
    73. 73.

      JML

      March 10, 2023 at 2:41 pm

      I remember when I thought Taibbi was an interesting read who wrote about things others weren’t writing and had a high level of skepticism to his writing. (This would have been the Bush years, I think) Turns out he’s just another grifty little shit who believed all of his own press.

      Reply
    74. 74.

      Cjcat

      March 10, 2023 at 3:04 pm

      Steve is a good sweet boy. Thurston is too. You just might be as well, Cole. Who would have guessed?

      Reply
    75. 75.

      Paul in KY

      March 10, 2023 at 3:13 pm

      @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): They are opportunistic predators in the wild, who generally attack the old, sick & lame. Which from their standpoint is a good idea, as situations where the prey kicks their ass, usually lead to their death.

      Reply
    76. 76.

      robtrim

      March 10, 2023 at 3:21 pm

      @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):

      Good move!

      Between the Fed precipitating a recession with its mindless rate increases and the rapacious greed of our capitalist one percent, we are back in the no-man’s-land of bank bailouts and corporate trouble making.

      Reply
    77. 77.

      Nettoyeur

      March 10, 2023 at 3:29 pm

      @Ruckus: It’s an act they are naturally qualified for , but which I think they do for the loot.  Taibbi and former buddy Mark Ames ran the Exile mag in Moscow in which they harassed the powers that be and documented their adventures with Russian prostitutes, all in Gonzo Journo style. Eventually they got closed down by the Russian authorities, which gave them dissident rebel cred, and moved back to US. Once home, their commentary became increasingly anti US and eventually darn near Kremlinesque, which made a a long time Russia watcher like me begin to wonder if they’d been turned. I don’t know about Greenwald’s background, but his connection with Assange (who was sheltered by the Putin allied Ecuadoran govt until they lost power, at which point he got booted, funny about that) makes me wonder about him, too. The gullible Substack subscribers are giving these scammers millions per year without any  editorial oversight cost…..the arrangements reeks of Trumpism, which is itself a descendant of the American huckster tradition first pilloried by Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn.

      Reply
    78. 78.

      jonas

      March 10, 2023 at 3:55 pm

      Did any of you catch Dan Goldman pantsing Taibbi, turning him into a sniveling, smirking, little shit? Was beautimous.

      This keeps happening on this committee (and others) because the Democrats, like Goldman, are *very* smart people who hire smart staffers and who know their shit and do their homework and come prepared to expertly fillet the nitwits and grifters Gym and the other dim-bulb Republicans keep serving up because they’re not terribly smart people and have long ago given up on oversight or governing in favor of creating Fox News and Twitter-friendly, lib-pwning soundbites. Except most of them end up being ridiculous self-owns that they’re usually not even aware of.

      Reply
    79. 79.

      Suzanne

      March 10, 2023 at 4:40 pm

      @Math Guy:

      Two of our cats discovered that there were cobwebs to be found between the floor and the bottoms of the kitchen cabinets – they were constantly “snacking” on them. 

      I had an amazing kitty — the dearly departed Polly Jean — who explored that very space, and then found a gap in the kitchen cabinets that could be accessed only from under the toekick. I couldn’t figure out where she was hiding until I watched her slither out one day.

      Reply
    80. 80.

      karen marie

      March 10, 2023 at 5:00 pm

      Nothing is more important than an update on your pets, John Cole.

      I’m delighted that Maxwell and Steve are doing so well together!

      Reply
    81. 81.

      Ruckus

      March 10, 2023 at 5:09 pm

      @Geminid:

      I don’t think they thought that part through.

      Nice snark.

      As if any of those sfbmf think. Or are even capable of any thing even resembling thought.

      Reply
    82. 82.

      WaterGirl

      March 10, 2023 at 6:03 pm

      @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: If you search for Balloon Juice or WaterGirl, you will find quite a few jackals.

      Reply
    83. 83.

      WaterGirl

      March 10, 2023 at 6:03 pm

      @LiminalOwl: Oh, that’s so sad.

      Reply
    84. 84.

      PBK

      March 10, 2023 at 6:06 pm

      @Math Guy: Oh I’m crying too.  How can anyone say animals don’t feel or think or remember.

      Reply
    85. 85.

      WaterGirl

      March 10, 2023 at 6:13 pm

      @MisterForkbeard: You guys are both making me cry.  So sorry that you lost your red-headed love in college.  I, too, lost my love to a freak accident.  Gone in an instant.

      So sweet and so terribly sad that your kitties would run to the window when they saw a redhead.  Love.  And then the poor guy trying to wake up your other kitty?  Totally crying my eyes out.

      Reply
    86. 86.

      Geminid

      March 10, 2023 at 6:16 pm

      @Ruckus: They just talk to people in their own bubble. About the most charitable thing I could say about the House Republicans who planned these hearings is: they lacked circumspection.

      Reply
    87. 87.

      Jay C

      March 10, 2023 at 8:03 pm

      @Geminid:

      Better than I, for sure: the best thing I can say about most/all of the House Republican hearings is that it shows them up as a gang of stupid f*ck*ing idiots….

      Reply
    88. 88.

      karensky

      March 11, 2023 at 9:00 am

      @NaijaGal: I am getting August of 2007 feelings!

      Reply

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