Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

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

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

We’re not going back!

White supremacy is terrorism.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

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

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

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

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

After roe, women are no longer free.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Let’s finish the job.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

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Squishable Morning Thread

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Are you in Berlin? If so, it might be a good idea to keep yourself and your pets inside — a lioness is on the loose! From the BBC:

Police are searching for a wild animal in the south-western outskirts of Berlin after a big cat, which they say could be a lioness, was spotted in the area.

Police were first alerted to the animal’s presence after it was seen by two residents chasing a boar.

On Wednesday, an unverified video posted on Twitter appeared to show a lioness in a forest in Kleinmachnow.

Residents are being told to stay indoors until police find the animal.

A Berlin resident tweeted a brief clip of the lion last night, filmed from inside a vehicle. The cops don’t know where she came from — local zoos and animal sanctuaries say none of their lions are missing.

In other animal news, Badger has a vet appointment today for his annual checkup. I was told to bring a poop sample, so when I let him out earlier, I followed him around with a baggie at a discreet distance.

Despite my attempt at discretion, he kept looking back at me as he made his way through the vegetation, as if I were a weirdo stalker. I’d feel the same way if I were him.

I’m never sure how to transport the poop. It seems strange to just throw the baggie in my purse, so I enclosed it in an envelope. But it’s still vaguely gross to be hauling dogshit around.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

63Comments

  2. 2.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: That’s a good idea since it would theoretically be sturdier than a baggie in an envelope, which could easily be pierced by one of the half dozen or so pens I carry around with me. Our cabinet space is very limited, so I am ruthless about recycling plastic containers immediately, but next time maybe I’ll set one aside.

  3. 3.

    raven

    Put it under your windshield wiper. If you are driving a van the rear wiper is great!

  11. 11.

    Stevo

    I guess people don’t clean up after their dogs in the free state of Florida.  I spend a lot of time walking around with a bag of poop.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    Today show gave a tongue bath to Republicans about the Hunter Biden hearings without once mentioning MTG’s porn demonstration.

  14. 14.

    oldster

    Exotic cat not from a zoo = rich moron. In Berlin, that’s very likely to mean Ruzzian oligarch.

    So, this could mean that one of the oligarchs has had to abandon their exurban estate, and the animals are jail-breaking themselves.  Or perhaps said oligarch fell out of a window.

  20. 20.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WereBear:

    Forget the lioness. We can get along. Did those people catch the boar? I’m more scared of them. 

    Just listen for the singing – of Hakuna Matata.

  24. 24.

    WereBear

    @NotMax: The other night I discovered the song I’ve been singing to Bud Abbott since he was a kitten is the 1963 hit, Surfin’ Bird.

    The lyrics are near perfect with his nickname, Bud-Bud the Spud. Somehow it earwormed into my head because I had no idea of the origin.

  25. 25.

    grubert

    @Stevo: same here. City dweller.

    Betty’s desc of feeling like a stalker is alien to me.. we watch our dogs like hawks

  26. 26.

    prostratedragon

    So I’m not the only one wondering why the boar wasn’t considered newsworthy. And thinking the zoos saying it’s not them is pretty funny. Buried treasure.

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Just remember the last of the 3 rules of plumbing:

    #1 Shit flows down hill.
    #2 Payday is on Friday.
    #3 Always wash your hands before lunch.

  30. 30.

    Yarrow

    My neighbor’s vet gave them a little vial with a scooper attached to the lid  to collect their dog’s poop.

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @prostratedragon: So I’m not the only one wondering why the boar wasn’t considered newsworthy.

    Wild boar are quite common in many parts of Europe. Seeing one would be as newsworthy as seeing a deer here in the US.

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WereBear:

    The other night I discovered the song I’ve been singing to Bud Abbott since he was a kitten is the 1963 hit, Surfin’ Bird. 

    Ah.  So you know about the bird.

  35. 35.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    Today show gave a tongue bath to Republicans about the Hunter Biden hearings without once mentioning MTG’s porn demonstration.

    How could that not be the lede of any story about yesterday’s hearing??

    Not that it’ll make a dent with the media, but Dems ought to be going on about how the House Republicans are pushing gay* porn right there in Congress itself.

    *My general understanding is that gay men are more turned on seeing dick pics of some stranger than straight women are. So call it gay porn, and make them try to explain it away. When you’re explaining, you’re losing.

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Today in Florida news: Judge orders Florida to stop putting children in nursing homes

    A pediatric doctor who saw first-hand the misery caused by Florida’s “antiquated” practice of locking medically fragile children in nursing facilities, and preventing parents and caregivers from looking after them at home, has welcomed a court order ending the policy.

    District court judge Donald Middlebrooks rebuked the state in a scathing 79-page ruling for its “systemic institutionalization” of the children, and flagrant breaches of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which compels care to take place in the least restrictive environment available.

    Pediatric expert Mary Ehlenbach toured three nursing homes to compile a report used to guide the court’s decision, and praised Middlebrooks for an “amazingly comprehensive” ruling that ended an 11-year legal tussle between Florida health officials and the justice department, which accused the state of consigning the children to a life of loneliness and isolation.

    “The site visits were emotionally taxing, particularly in light of the fact that I care for children with similar conditions and statuses who live with their families and are integrated into the community,” said Ehlenbach, medical director of the pediatric complex care program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s school of medicine and public health.

    “To envision some of my own patients being forced to live in an institution, that really hit home for me. It was challenging.”

    I would say I can’t believe Florida would do this, but of course I can. It’s Florida.

  39. 39.

    Chris

    Oof.  Must be terrifying going about your day knowing that a predator could be lion in wait around any corner.

    My mane concern is that nobody get hurt, of course.  Whether the lion or the humans.  Either would be cat-astrophic.

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    as if I were a weirdo stalker

    “As if I were”?

    Sorry, but use of the subjunctive is not really appropriate.

  45. 45.

    Gvg

    Europe is where boars are from. I suppose Germans think its normal to have them about just as Floridians are vaguely amused by how afraid non locals are of alligators.  They are dangerous.  Don’t bother them.  Don’t walk your dog near water. Go on with your life.

  46. 46.

    prostratedragon

    @OzarkHillbilly:  In Chicago? (Actually there have been some in outlying neighborhoods early in my lifetime, along with the mastodons, but even then one never saw them, just the effects on one’s garden foliage.)

  47. 47.

    prostratedragon

    It actually is “Woolly Bully” — off only by an ‘l.’ Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.

  48. 48.

    CaseyL

    I’ve never seen deer in Seattle city proper.  Raccoons by the carload, yes.  Coyotes for sure.  But no deer.

  51. 51.

    Another Scott

    I saw a bit of some PBS show (Human Footprint) on the TV last night talking about the evolution of dogs, and street dogs in particular.  An expert said that dog poop was collected by tanners in cities and used to tan leather.  And that after the PTB decided that street dogs were a menace that had to be eradicated (RABIES!!1) that source of raw materials dried up.  So to speak.

    The guy didn’t have an answer to the obvious question about whether animal poop is still used for tanning.

    [/the-more-you-know]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  52. 52.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: Album graecum. Latin makes everything sound better. I would doubt it’s still used in mass-produced leather, just on the grounds of sourcing the material.

    Perhaps by specialty tanners, who could even use it in their advertising to justify their price. People pay premium prices for coffee made from beans that have passed through a weasel, after all.

  55. 55.

    Wapiti

    @CaseyL: I almost hit a deer last summer on a residential street near the Roosevelt reservoir. They were browsing in the gardens and one came across the road.

  56. 56.

    Yutsano

    @CaseyL: I want urban foxen*. Is that too much to ask?

    *If the plural of ox is oxen then the plural of fox should be foxen.
    Also: FYWP.​

  57. 57.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @NotMax: Yes!  My spouse threw away a shirt that had the dye fixed with urine because when he sweated, he smelled of pee.

  60. 60.

    Doug

    @WereBear: There are lots and lots of boar in and around Grunewald, on the city’s southwestern side. In preschool and elementary school, they give boar safety instruction. (Avoid as much as possible, be still and let them go by, don’t come between mom and baby boar.)

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