So, my little Henry broke into the cat food tin while I was at the grocery store yesterday.
He had tried once before (when the cat food tin was mostly empty) so I had taped the tins from top to bottom, ending at the middle of the bottom side of the tin. Plus they have elastic bands that go underneath the handles so you can’t get the lid off without undoing that. And then I placed a big, heavy, 2-inch thick book on top.
Well, that worked great for a few weeks. Until it didn’t.
So I got home and Henry was watching for me at the front window, but he did not greet me at the door. “Oh, Henry what have you done?” is what I said out loud as I walked into the house.
My little Henry was not so little. His normally flat little tummy was shaped like a watermelon, as if he had swallowed it whole.
I had just opened a 6-lb bag cat food on Friday, and it looked to me like about 1/3 of the bag was gone. Anyway, off to the vet we went, but not until the 4:30 opening they had. He weighed 2 more pounds than he had the week before, so my estimate that 2 lbs of food had been consumed may not have been far off. Henry only weighs 11 or 12 lbs, so 2 lbs is a lot!
Anyway, 24 hours and one puke and 5 poops later, Henry is looking less like a watermelon, though his tummy still looks to be close to twice the normal size.
Okay, back to the point of the post.
I listened to the Claire McCaskill podcast (after Henry got me up for the second time in the night). Katherine Clark (minority whip) was the guest. Claire asked what the one or two issues that were going to be focused on in the fight in 2024.
- Republican Extremism
- Protecting Freedom (encompasses Roe, Ukraine and more)
There are no regular republicans any anymore. Apparently the “conservative” Republicans whisper to Katherine Clark that they really aren’t FOR the awful thing they just voted for, and it looks like the Dems aren’t going to let them get away with that crap.
They are going to hang republican extremism around the neck of every Republican. They have apparently created a Marjorie Taylor Greene Index – voting records for every Republican – specifically how often they vote in lockstep with Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Apparently every Republican ranks in the HIGH 80s and 90s in terms of voting in lockstep with Marjorie Taylor Greene. See, she does have some value after all!!
Anyway, I couldn’t be more pleased with the Democratic plan for issues to focus on.
How about the rest of you?
Open thread.
Chief Oshkosh
I hope they provide concrete examples of Republican Extremism, especially repression (the specific examples of women with problem pregnancies being treated like criminals, and the horrific outcomes, should be as graphically shown as the victims are comfortable with).
Baud
I have not eaten any cat food recently.
p.a.
The “normal” Republican 2023 is a klans
manperson.Fucking Verizon. After retirement they only match donations to educational institutions, no other charities, and NOW the donation has to be made through them, using a credit card, and they charge a 3.31% processing fee. (At least that was the only match page I could find.)
Miss Bianca
My late lamented Luna did the same sort of thing once upon a time – dog food, not cat food, thank God – she got into a bag that had not been securely enough stowed and easily chowed down a couple pounds one time while I was away and Pal D was looking after her. He noticed that she didn’t touch her dinner that night, which was contrary her usual custom. He quickly discovered the reason after he went searching in the pantry.
Fortunately, it didn’t seem to leave her with any ill effects, but it definitely made for a fasting day or two!
ETA: I have to admire Henry’s dogged determination to get at the instrument of his gastric destruction – I mean, I have a chow hound in Watson, but even he has never been so determined that I had to construct such elaborate means to keep him from going hog-wild!
Anoniminous
Granted the Republican party is now the home of ignorant hick bigots and racists who are destroying our schools and willing to let poor children starve to death but THE REAL PROBLEM WITH AMERICA is the price of a Crudités platter has risen by an average of 20% over the last four years.
Thanks Biden!
(I should really stop reading @DougJBalloon on Nitter in the morning.)
azlib
I do not think the excuse “we only voted that way because we do not want to be primaried from the right ” will work even if it is the truth.
Mike S
Meanwhile Boebert is moving out of her Trump +8 district to Ken Buck’s Trump +20 district.
Alison Rose
When I was little, we had a dog called Fosdick, whom my dad had gotten as a puppy before he and my mom met. Dad liked to tell the story of how, when Fozzer was maybe around a year old, he was home alone for a brief bit and managed to get into the cabinet where the big kibble bag was stored. He’d knocked it over and started eating his way through it. When Dad got home and was looking around for him, he finally found him, conked out inside the now almost empty bag, round as a basketball with his tongue dangling out of his mouth. Poor pupper didn’t have a very fun couple of days after that.
And yet…he was still smarter than MTG.
Scout211
This is big Biden news. Task and Purpose
cope
@Mike S: And as a newly arrived resident of CO District 3, I am sorely pissed that I won’t be able to vote against her directly.
I’m also wondering if I will get a chance to vote against TFG pending the outcome of the recent ruling of the CO Supreme Court keeping him off the ballot.
raven
@Alison Rose: Fearless Fosdick!
Alison Rose
@raven: I’m pretty sure that’s where Dad got the name from :) Though we called him Fozzer most of the time.
twbrandt
@Mike S: Seen on bluesky: The last time Boebert vacated her seat was when an usher told her to.
raven
@Alison Rose: I’m sure. We were at a yard sale years ago and a little ol lady asked what Raven’s name was. I said “Well, his name is Raven, but we call him Stinky but he’ll answer to Boo-Boo”! She said “If a dog has more than one name he is truly loved”!
Scout211
Since the Colorado GOP has appealed to the US Supreme Court, my guess is that the Colorado decision will be overturned since the other state cases have been rejected by their state Supreme Courts.
But since I’m always wrong . . . one can hope!
Alison Rose
@raven: LOL! My cat has about a dozen other names, none of which seem to appeal to her :P
WaterGirl
@azlib: What, you don’t think “I’ll screw over the voters and vote against my conscience so I can get reelected” is a winning arguement?
WaterGirl
@Mike S: She has only the noblest of motives! Just ask her!
zhena gogolia
Poor Henry. I hope he feels better soon.
BlueGuitarist
Best i could find for Marjorie Taylor Greene Index is this from July at Center for American Progress:
americanprogressaction.org/article/the-maga-scorecard-how-house-republicans-vote-with-rep-marjorie-t…
Maybe CAP will be updating, or AnotherScott or other juicers with stronger google-fu will find updated info.
Indivisible has the % voting with Greene for the 18 districts Biden carried, checked a couple, percentages same or similar to CAP.
unrepresentative18.org/
WaterGirl
@Scout211: Lots more states have cases in the works, and they are all coming at it differently because of different state laws and star=te constitutions. That will make it tricky for the supreme court.
One size does not fit all.
Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
@Scout211: The Colorado decision was grounded specifically on Colorado election law, so in theory it shouldn’t matter whether other state courts reach a different conclusion applying their own states’ laws. (Knowing that the Michigan case was pending, the Colorado Supreme Court dropped a footnote pointing out how Michigan law gave the officer in charge of the ballot there much less discretion than Colorado law gives the Colorado Secretary of State.) Then again, nobody thought there was a federal issue at stake in Bush v. Gore until the U.S. Supreme Court invented one.
Jackie
@cope: Make a temporary move to CD-4 and vote her out during the primaries! Your temporary neighbors will be delighted!😉
edited to ask WHY do voters have to live in said district to vote, but congress critters can be carpetbaggers?
BlueGuitarist
@twbrandt:
“The last time Boebert vacated her seat was when an usher told her to.”
hahaha
WaterGirl
@BlueGuitarist: Yeah, I have no idea how far along they are regarding the nuts and bolts, but this is definitely their plan.
WaterGirl
@Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride:
I bailed on politics for over 3 years after that. I was crushed. Until then, I naively thought that the Supreme Court was above politics and would rule based on the law. That ruling nearly broke me.
Jackie
@twbrandt: 😂🤣😂
TheronWare
Poor Henry 😔, I hope he feels much better soon!
indycat32
I have a ghost cat in my garage. For the second time this month, there are footprints on my windshield and the litterbox has been used. But no cat demanding to be released when the door is closed, and no cat running out when I open the overhead door.
TaMara
Oh, man, do I feel for you with Henry and his cleverness. While I was in LA, Jasper somehow figured out how to unlock the gate to the duck/garden area and scarf down all their food. Which gave him horrible diarrhea that my pet sitter had to deal with. When I got home, I watched what he was doing – he was lifting the bolt out of the eye nut and then nudging the gate open. I had to special order an extra large carabineer to replace my current setup. Hopefully, without thumbs, this will stop him.
ETtheLibrarian
@twbrandt: Her seat is vacant even when she is sitting in it.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: That was the first presidential election I voted in, and man…what a bummer of an experience that turned out to be.
RaflW
197 Republican House members voted to excuse the Insurrectionist in Chief. 43 Senators did the same.
The MTG index is great. But there’s also the Dictator on Day One index right there.
JoyceH
Dog news. Jazzy will have her foot operation next week. The biopsy is back and they don’t outright say it’s not cancer, just that there’s “no evidence” of cancer. But it’s some sort of growth that needs to come out, along with the adjacent toes. In the meantime, Jazzy’s foot is bandaged, and since it’s been rainy, I have to tape a baggie over her foot every time she goes out. She’s still pretty lively, tussles around with the puppy but then sleeps like a log.
eclare
I keep the cat food on a high shelf where my dog can’t reach it. I think most cat foods have more fat than dog food which is why dogs love it.
I’m glad Henry is feeling better.
WaterGirl
@indycat32: Mysterious ghost cat. I think you have to be pretty special to have one of them.
WaterGirl
@TaMara: What a smart boy!
I’m sorry, that must have been a nightmare for the pet sitter.
Jasper is too smart for his own good, as they say. Henry, too. At least they don’t have opposable thumbs, but if they are smart enough, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: No evidence is 1000x better than the alternative, so there’s plenty of reason to be hopeful.
Complicated and scary, though, that I get.
JoyceH
@eclare: I think cat food is just tastier than dog food! All the dog training experts say you can’t train a dog not to eat cat food and it’s unfair to try. You just have to manage so the dog physically can’t get to the cat food. I’m going to have to be more careful going forward because it’s already clear that Whimsy wants to be a jumper and a counter surfer.
H.E.Wolf
Electoral-vote.com is on it, with a very informative article about Boebert’s chances. (Spoiler: they’re slim to none. I love that for her!)
electoral-vote.com/evp2023/Items/Dec28-3.html
zhena gogolia
@JoyceH: Oh, well, that is better news than you thought. Poor Jazzy! She is such a love.
WaterGirl
@eclare: The vet said Henry was packed so full that she would love to see what it would look like with an x-ray, but of course he didn’t need an x-ray so actually doing that was never considered.
But it seemed right up there with the family doctor, who, when I was 17, told me I had the worst case of strep throat he had ever seen. Thankfully he did not tell me that until I was recovered.
I had skipped school, gone to the Lake Michigan to hung out with my friends, and we ended up smoking pot and passing around drinks with a big bunch of strangers.
I’m sure that had nothing to do with my getting sick!
JoyceH
@zhena gogolia: I just hope the foot heals quickly and we can finally remove the donut collar – poor girl is so tired of it!
Matt McIrvin
@Alison Rose: My first was 1988, Bush the elder vs. Michael Dukakis. I basically took it for granted that my vote was going to be worthless.
eclare
@JoyceH:
Poor Jazzy, although it sounds like this is not as bad as it could have been. I hope the surgery goes well!
prostratedragon
😼Hen-n–n-ry!🎶
eclare
@WaterGirl:
Nah…of course not! Sounds like a fun day.
Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
@Matt McIrvin: Got you beat there — my first was 1972. It definitely taught me that a candidate saying the things I wanted to hear was more likely than not dead meat.
Jackie
Is anyone challenging MTG in the primaries next year? I know her district is solidly blood red, but if she got booted…!
Westyny
@indycat32: A nice haunting. And glad s/he is using the litter box, amiright?
Off topic: in my sixth day of Covid isolation, breathing well, muscles feel like jelly. But for some reason my Christmas playlist is sounding sweeter and more poignant than it did during the run-up week.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@WaterGirl: The declaration that their decision was NOT A PRECEDENT was the tell. This card is just for you.
Alison Rose
@JoyceH: Sending aaaaaaall the good thoughts <3
TaMara
@WaterGirl: He and Trixie used to Marine belly crawl under the fence until I added a lower rail. I also had to add an additional middle rail because they would also squeeze through.
Bad Horse, who built the fence to keep Bixby out (and Bailey and Scout, too, obeyed the boundaries) was gobsmacked that these two would perform these acrobatics and get through what he thought was a well-planned system. LOL
WaterGirl
@prostratedragon: Henry appreciates all the love and support!
from everyone. :-)
Alison Rose
@Matt McIrvin: I was 8 that year, and I remember being aware of the election and that my parents supported Dukakis, but that neither of them seemed to be very optimistic about it, LOL.
Chief Oshkosh
@raven:
Weeellll, not always…
youtu.be/ae3eUXMR3RM?si=yAQ1veYYw9TERfqM
eclare
@Matt McIrvin:
That election was my first, and I voted for HW. He is the last Republican that I ever voted for, straight D ever since. Not that it matters above the level of my US rep, I live in TN.
WaterGirl
It just started snowing! Our first snow of the season, yay!
Last year I don’t think we ever got anything more than a light dusting that disappeared as soon as it stopped snowing. Fingers crossed for this year. I LOVE SNOW! It’s the only good thing about winter.
edit: ooh! I just looked at the weather, and they are predicting 3.7 inches!
eclare
@Jackie:
Anyone challenging MTG is wasting time and money, that district is not going to change.
BC in Illinois
Speaking about “Republican extremism,” let’s talk about Nikki Haley:
Nikki Haley was asked what the Civil War was about.
She answered by showing us what the Republican Party is all about.
She was asked a question. She knew it was a trap. [“A Democrat plant,” she said.]
Why was it a trap?Because she knew that she was not free to simply answer that the war was about slavery. She could not answer in any way that indicated that slavery was, simply, wrong. There are Republicans who are saying that slavery was humane, even genteel, and beneficial to the enslaved. She did not feel free to say otherwise.
In her mind, Nikki Haley was not free to speak against slavery. So she spoke about “freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do.” Hoping that no one would ask, “which people?” or “freedom to do what?” For her intended audience, the only people whose opinion matters are the Republican white people. For them, for their “Uncritical Race Theory,” slavery is not a safe subject.
Ms. Haley was not confused. She was not bamboozled.
She was afraid. She was not free.
She was not free to speak the truth. She was being a Republican.
rikyrah
@JoyceH:
🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
eclare
@WaterGirl:
How does Henry feel about snow?
Brachiator
Interesting. I think I like it.
Might soon need a Nikki Haley Index as well.
JoyceH
My first presidential vote was for McGovern, who lost in a “historic landslide” – but at least I had the opportunity to vote against Nixon.
Uncle Cosmo
I like the concept of an “Empty, Gee!” Index. The Thuglican ethos is empty – gee, whodathunkit? :^D
wjca
An MTG index might be useful for deciding who to target. But for actually winning an election, going after specific votes/policies is still the way to go. Because the voters needed to win an election probably have no clue who she is, let alone what her views are.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yep. Horrendous. They should have resigned in shame.
WaterGirl
@TaMara: Little did he know! LOL.
WaterGirl
@BC in Illinois: Biden’s tweet in response:
indycat32
@Westyny: It’s strange. No idea how s/he is getting in.
zhena gogolia
This is the country I want to live in. Renee Fleming at Obama inauguration.
WaterGirl
@eclare: Henry LOVES snow!
edit: MomSense had to knit Henry a sweater because he would come in with softball size snowballs hanging down from his tummy.
I had to rinse him under warm water to get them off.
Soprano2
When I was in my 20’s I lived with two roommates. One of them had a toy poodle. I had never been around dogs before, so it was a new experience for me. I bought my sister 1/2 pound of chocolate caramels for Christmas; I wrapped them and put them under our tree like I always had. A couple of days later I came home to an apologetic roommate who told me she would replace the caramels. That toy poodle had gotten into the box and eaten at least 1/3 of them! I think she also squirreled a few of them away around the house, because my roommate found one hidden in her bed. Poor dog, her belly was hard as a rock. She was OK, it passed (literally) after a couple of days, and I learned you can’t put food under the Christmas tree.
I feel for you, it’s hard to keep a determined dog out of the cat food, because they love it so much.
Wyatt Salamanca
@BC in Illinois:
BREAKING NEWS!
Nikki Haley has shit for brains.
This was the lead story on today’s 10 am CBS World News roundup, so I look forward to hearing more pathetic excuses from her idiot staffers for the rest of today.
Soprano2
@Dorothy A. Winsor: You do not want to get me started on that! You’ll never catch me saying George W. was anything but appointed president in 2000, because that’s what happened. Sandra Day O’Connor put her own self-interest ahead of what was right.
Uncle Cosmo
True, but the Democrats should put up a MTHWS** challeger anyway – after doing a minimal amount of verification that said person meets the legal requirements & isn’t a whackjob. As the Great Gretzky woulda said had he been a politician, you lose 100% of the elections where you don’t field a candidate.
** Maybe The Horse Will Sing. For those unfamiliar with the story, click here.
Gin & Tonic
I posted about this in the Ukraine thread last night, and I won’t find the original Tweet now, but the other day MTG approvingly cited a new russian 11th grade history text, which states that Trump lost the 2020 election due to obvious Democratic fraud.
Another Scott
@Scout211:
Electoral-Vote.com points out that TIFG didn’t really win in the case in Michigan (where he can stay on the primary ballot for now):
Politics, and the courts, are slow.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@BC in Illinois:
I could not tell, from her answer, whether Nikki Hayley supported the North or the Confederacy.
Worse, conservatives insist that this lie be taught in schools.
These devils insist that white children should not feel bad about the facts of American history. What black children might feel is of no concern.
Ohio Mom
@H.E.Wolf: I wonder how much of the money Adam Frisch has collected to date is “anybody but Bobert” money, and if he’s expecting a drop in donations. He still has to beat a Republican, whomever that turns out to be, in district that went for Bobert (however slightly).
Sounds like no Democrat can possibly win the Eastern district, so as a whole, it may be wash as far as the Democratic House numbers as a whole.
But it will be blessedly more quieter. Maybe Bobert can meet up with that Cawthorn kid and start a one-hit wonder club.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@H.E.Wolf:
Ah, the godforsakeneasternplainsofcolorado (on ‘official’ geographic term for the region, at least it was for my thesis advisor in the geography dept at CU-Boulder a lifetime ago).
The linked piece (thanks!) probably makes a little too much about the RWNJs there being put off by her behavior/divorce (the cultural conservative angle) but nail it on the carpetbagging angle.
It’s not as if she’ll be able to out-Trump most of the other nut-cases in the primary which means they’ll vote for own of their own as opposed to an import from a foreign land, aka the Western Slopes.
CaseyL
I never thought dogs would eat until they foundered until I read a story some years ago about a dog who got into a bag of food and ate until his entire digestive tract, from esophagus to anus, was stuffed and blocked. As I recall, he needed surgery (and did survive, thank goodness).
It’s amazing to me that some dogs have no “I’m full, stop eating” switch. I wonder if it has something to do with how many carbs there are in kibble, and whether those carbs act as appetite stimulants.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic:
Oh. my. god. That is beyond awful on so many levels.
THEY ARE SO TRANSPARENT. They are for fucking Russia, and at least a third of the country is fine with that.
Pittsburgh Mike
I have to say I’m unimpressed by McCaskill’s plan. You don’t get points for abstraction. Here’s what I’d say:
1 — Roe. If you vote for Republicans, they’ll ban abortion everywhere. And that means no medical treatment for failing pregnancies, anywhere, no matter how rich you are. Run ad after ad about Katie Cox. If you vote for Democrats, we’ll put Roe into law and shut down this nonsense.
2 — Same as 1
3 — Do you want your kids fighting Russians in Poland and Germany? Or do you want Ukraine to stop Russia now?
4 — Jobs. No matter what you think, the world is going to decarbonize. We can either get our share of the jobs, or they can go to China. But everyone outside of the Republican party knows it’s real.
5 — Maybe dig up some quotes from some hard core Republicans about how contraception is next.
WaterGirl
@CaseyL: Henry looked like a water balloon that was ready to pop. I was really worried about him.
eclare
@Uncle Cosmo:
I get that, but D’s should not waste an obscene amount of money on an unwinnable election. There are plenty of examples in the past few years where D’s did exactly that, wasting tens of millions of dollars.
BTW my CD is so gerrymandered I don’t even know if an R ran in 2022. It doesn’t matter, this district will always be repped by a D.
WaterGirl
@Pittsburgh Mike:
First of all, it’s not McCaskill’s plan. It’s the Democratic plan, shared by Katherine Clark.
But it’s not abstraction, at least I don’t think so. It was clear to me that those are the overarching themes, and they are planning to include plenty of specifics.
YMMV.
WaterGirl
@BC in Illinois:
Steeplejack
Re Nikki Haley and the “Democrat plant”:
@Fritschner on Twitter/Nitter:
H.E.Wolf
The article (link is in Comment 40) addresses that in the final couple of paragraphs.
Electoral-vote.com, particularly on the days when Z, a historian, writes the blog post, is a resource I greatly appreciate!
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: Katherine, with a K. ;-)
nitter.net/whipkclark
I don’t see a posting of the “MTG Index” yet either, but I assume it’s coming. The CAP story referenced above shows that folks have been thinking about it for a while.
Cheers,
Scott.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl:
Not her Tweet, but here is what she approved of:
H.E.Wolf
@Pittsburgh Mike:
Not to worry. Katherine Clark – aka The Queen of Suffolk County, in homage to her skill in a scrimmage – will have no problem getting specific when it’s called for.
In general, I tend not to second-guess the political actions of Democratic women in positions of power (and the position of Whip is power writ large). Most of them got there by being twice as competent as many of their male colleagues, and having to prove it three times as often. :-)
jonas
Not quite — the Michigan SC ruled that Trump can’t be *preemptively* blocked on the ballot until he’s actually the nominee. No idea if that’s the logic SCOTUS might follow as well, or if they’ll make up some shit on the fly to excuse Trump. We’ll see.
Alison Rose
@Steeplejack: It’s like the word “slavery” for them is akin to when Jim Carrey’s character tries to say something untrue in Liar Liar and his mouth can’t form the words.
jonas
And this is coming from people who keep whining that it’s liberals who are all relativistic and overcomplicate simple, straightforward, black-and-white truths. Republicans have gone so postmodern, Derrida is spinning in his grave.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: I swear I googled first to make sure I had it right. thanks
SiubhanDuinne
@H.E.Wolf:
Backwards, in high heels, etc.…
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: The party of Putin, indeed!
Kristine
Poor little Henry–I hope he feels better soon.
His sweater is très spiff.
WaterGirl
@Kristine: Yes! MomSense is very talented, and she chose the perfect color! I was losing Henry in the white snow.
WaterGirl
In other news:
Matt McIrvin
@Alison Rose: In the 1980s, the Republicans made a big deal about supporting democracy to a degree they don’t today, but the reason (aside from Cold War anticommunist rhetoric) was that they knew that in a fair election they’d win. At least, they’d win the Presidency, and that was the big prize.
It’s worth remembering that–the reason the Republicans put so much effort into delegitimizing democratic elections is that they’re much more likely to lose them than they used to be.
Kathleen
Poor Henry! I’m glad he got some relief and I hope he recovers fully. Do you think he would do that again?
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: It also calls him “the richest of all American presidents.” Is that true?
Jackie
@WaterGirl: We had a long-haired Siamese mix with very fine fur prone to matting if he wasn’t constantly brushed. He LOVED snow and the snowballs he collected on his belly wouldn’t let him squeeze through the catdoor lol! My son had to shovel several pathways so he could explore the snow and still get back inside. Crazy Cat!
Kathleen
@WaterGirl: I want a sweater like that! Except for human. I love that color.
Alison Rose
@zhena gogolia: I’d have to think so. Even with him lying about his actual wealth, I can’t think of another president who would have been wealthier than him while in office.
Chris T.
@Westyny:
In my head, I tried to sing that as “On my sixth day of Christmas, my Covid gave to me” or some such. Couldn’t get it to scan though!
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose: JFK? FDR?
Jackie
@eclare: I’m talking the primary. I’ve seen past articles that MTG’s constituents aren’t very happy with her anymore.
That congressional district will stay GQP, but not necessarily MAGA.
Alison Rose
@zhena gogolia: According to this list from NBC News from 2012, while JFK could have been said to have a net worth of $1 billion, he never inherited his father’s wealth, so that figure is applicable more to the whole Kennedy family, not to JFK himself. Other figures I saw put his own net worth between $100 and $300 million at the time of his death. FDR’s was $60 million.
WaterGirl
@Kathleen: Yes!
The vet told me that animals do not make the connection between how awful they feel and eating all that food.
She said Henry will absolutely do it again if given the chance, so I have to figure out another storage option
edit: Which makes me sad. I have had these tins forever, they are so cute. The bigger one has dogs on it and the smaller one has cats. Not cheesy pictures, either, but charming and sort of cartoon-like. :-(
Redshift
Gah, I don’t know what came over me, but I skimmed a Megan McArdle column about abortion. She was at least admitting a big mistake (apparently she was one of those who predicted the would be no big Dobbs backlash, because opinion in the middle was divided, doncha know.) Other than the mea culpa, it was as brainless and ill-informed as you’d expect, and I posted this remarkably restrained comment:
Jackie
@WaterGirl: Lock the cute tins in a bank vault AND DON’T give Henry the two step process combination!
piratedan
@Uncle Cosmo: very much agree… it’s a case where you can simply campaign on being against whatever comes out of MTG’s mouth. Speak truth to power and note the hypocrisy, cruelty and idiocy that is the GOP.
Going into it with the expectation that it’s a campaign where the expectations are low, it’s extremely freeing to just go in and say what you want to say and not feel like you would have to go into debt to run. Make her defend herself, use her words and statements against her. The campaign ads practically make themselves.
Redshift
@Alison Rose: But those numbers aren’t adjusted for inflation, are they?
Uncle Cosmo
?
You’ve obviously confused me with someone who’s advocating that the Democratic Party “waste tens of millions of dollars.”
I’d bet good money (but not a lot) that your “plenty of examples” involved small individual donations to Democratic candidates challenging mostly particularly noxious incumbent Thugs where the donors gave with their hearts instead of their heads, possibly based upon evidence of dubious validity (outlier polls, anecdotes, etc.)
Any evidence ought to be rigorously vetted before national $$$ flows into a campaign, but ought not be dismissed out of hand lest an opportunity be missed. Let me tell you a true story:
And insurgent Democrats won seats in the County Council and General Assembly in our district as well.
The naysayers in that meeting were neither stupid nor politically incompetent (one became County Executive in a later go-round) – they were properly skeptical – but only one person thought to check our results to see if they were a fluke or represented a real general sentiment.
jonas
@WaterGirl: Wait, isn’t this second trial a result of him going on a CNN town hall right after the *first* trial and calling her a liar again or something? He’s claiming he has immunity for that? Good Lord.
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose: But what would $60 million be in today’s money? I don’t really care. So glad that the country of workers and soviets considers that an important thing to mention in a history book.
chrome agnomen
@jonas: on the other hand, they’ll endlessly remind us the is was the democrat party who supported slavery. why, you’d think this would be an easy one or them!
H.E.Wolf
Bien sûr.
JPL
@WaterGirl: There’s still a hole in my heart from that decision. I heard they had the votes in the 11th beforehand. In fact naive me said you can’t know that..ha. yup the fix was in
Alison Rose
@Redshift: They appear to be, because in the intro, it says “George Washington was worth over half a billion in today’s dollars” and they have him at #1 with $525 million.
Alison Rose
@zhena gogolia: As noted in my comment above, I think the figures ARE adjusted for today’s dollar. But yeah, it’s really neither here nor there, especially since we know even if it were totally untrue, russia would still insist it was real. Down is up and all that.
WaterGirl
@Jackie: Funny! Those snowballs hang on tight! Really, the only thing I could do was hold him under hot running water over the sink.
WaterGirl
@Kathleen: Me, too! Maybe MomSense can make us matching sweaters?
Jay
Just a warning. the original BeetleJuice film is going to be back in theatres. Check the seats around you carefully for loose Boberts.
WaterGirl
@jonas: I believe you are right. I think they are just making up bullshit and calling it immunity. They have to know that none of it will fly, but the goal is delay, delay, delay.
The courts need to shut this shit down.
Zelma
@zhena gogolia:
I doubt it. There are those who suggest that George Washington was the richest man in America. Can’t say that about Trump.
Hoodie
@Matt McIrvin: The thing I’ve lately wondered if this knowledge that they can’t legitimately compete on policy is coupled to a further retreat into abstraction and, ultimately, infantilism. In other words, when you run out of concrete ideas, you try to escape reality by increasingly leaning on abstract, ungrounded “universal principles,” which ultimately turn into infantile fantasies, such as conspiracy theories. Hence, perhaps, the weird attraction to Trump (a paradigmatic case of arrested development himself) as some sort of vessel for these principles. I was recently listening to an interview with Taika Waititi, where he talked about one of his themes he wanted to present in JoJo Rabbit was the infantile nature of much of Third Reich chic, e.g., lightning bolt and death’s head insignias, etc.
Juju
@Kathleen: He’s a dog. Yes, if given the chance he will do it again. I had a dog who loved to chase and catch toads. The first time she caught one the toad did the self defense venom squirt in her mouth. Her face was swollen and her tongue was so swollen she could barely swallow. I had to take her to the vet. The vet knew immediately what happened and gave her some Benadryl to start, and for me to give her more according to directions until swelling went down. He laughed and said the sad thing was Margot wouldn’t learn anything from this incident and to always keep Benadryl around in case she caught another toad. She did catch a few more and I had the Benadryl, but she never did learn her lesson about toads.
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
Trump may be the richest president, but you have to adjust for his lies. Historically, after Trump might come George Washington, with an estimated and inflation adjusted net worth of $700 million.
Ran across this bit of history when looking for information about the richest presidents.
JPL
@Brachiator: Thank you for that little bit of history. I hadn’t thought that they would have medicare cards.
horatius
@Brachiator: Truman’s a liar, grifter and a thief. He pretended to be poor to grift money post-presidency.
lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2021/07/the-truman-show
Matt McIrvin
@Hoodie: Democrats didn’t do this during the era when the standard crack on Democrats was “that’s why you always lose elections”, so I don’t see why Republicans feel obliged to.
JPL
@Jay: yuk You should have put up a warning to bring lysol wipes
topclimber
Probably killing this thread with a nice tidbit from the electoral-vote.com article cited above.
Boebert did the Dems a favor by waiting until now to announce her switch. The filing deadline for Colorado’s 3rd CD (her ex) is January 2. Makes it tough on any real candidate to mull the decision and less likely a consensus one can be found before the primary campaign begins. It will be every MAGAT for themselves!
This is the good part of her being a jackass–she helps the party with that mascot just by being herself.
One for the election lawyers: Can she tap money raised for a campaign in one district for another?
Redshift
@Alison Rose: Huh. Interesting.
H.E.Wolf
I’d remembered that from a biography of Truman. What I hadn’t remembered, until you and Brachiator caused me to look it up, was that during his time as President (1945-1952), Truman had asked Congress to create a national health insurance plan.
In recognition of Truman’s efforts, the 1965 federal law was signed by President Johnson at the Truman Presidential Library, with the Trumans in attendance; and they received the first two cards likewise.
[There’s cool stuff in the national archives!]
archives.gov/milestone-documents/medicare-and-medicaid-act
pbs.org/newshour/health/president-johnson-signs-medicare-law [photo]
Brachiator
@horatius:
Interesting revision on Truman.
Thanks.
JPL
In honor of Nikki Haley , Mike Luckovich his cartoon. 12/29 Mike Luckovich: I’ll solve the puzzle (ajc.com)
Sure Lurkalot
@WaterGirl: Henry totally rocks the lovely sweater MomSense knitted.
Sure Lurkalot
@Uncle Cosmo:
Marcus Flowers raised over $15M and lost by over 30 points in 2022. What the Dems should do is fund a primary challenger.
Jackie
@topclimber: IANAL, but an article I read last night when the news broke, is YES. Fortunately, her funds are dismally low – at least in comparison to the several millions Frisch has accumulated.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
I think the Democrats would be wise to point out that Trump’s campaigning on repealing most of the Bill of Rights and asking every other Republican running for every other office if they’re down with that agenda.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Scout211:
Yeah, that has been kind of a problem when your sexual predator is your unit commander.
eclare
@JPL:
That’s good!
Geminid
@topclimber: According to a Colorado Politics article written before Boebert skipped out on the 3rd District, “numerous current and former Republican officials have pulled their support from Lauren Boebert and endorsed Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd.” It will still be a contested primary.
Boebert knocked out incumbent Scott Tipton in the 2020 primary and went on to win in November by 6 points. That was the same as Trump’s margin that year. Redistricting left the 3rd CD more Republican than before, and now it is rated R+9 by at least one site.
So with Boebert off to greener pastures, Republicans should be able to hang on to the seat now.
Another Scott
@horatius: That reads like a smear job to me. And one of his big linked cites is another article he himself wrote (in the New Yorker).
Wikipedia’s list of richest presidents has HST way down the list (Washington was #1 until TIFG came around).
YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: One word. Dobbs. No, make that two words. Adding “women” as well.
SWMBO
@indycat32:
Is there a dryer vent hose to the outside? Ghost kitty may have shoved it aside and gets in that way.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
There’s also a story about this from the Boston Globe. Maybe it has some of the same sources. And although there may be some bias and exaggeration, some of the basic information may be correct.
But even so, it suggests that Truman accumulated a healthy nest egg, not that he was rolling in dough or working a con.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Yes, Dobbs and its aftermath could make this a wave election. And in the likely event Trump heads the ticket, he could drag other Republicans down even further. So Frisch has a chance, just not as good a one now that Boebert’s out of the race.
Miss Bianca
@Redshift: Good for you!
WaterGirl
@Redshift:
I just made that a rotating tag. Hope it isn’t too long!
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: Let’s not completely discount the possibility that Trump may not be on the ballot *at all* in Colorado!
WaterGirl
@Miss Bianca: I believe there are now something like 20 states that are challenging Trump being on the ballot, in one way or another.
Timill
@WaterGirl: I just want to see one state rule him off due to the 22nd Amendment…
Matt McIrvin
@WaterGirl: I admit the whole thing makes me nervous even if it’s right on the merits. There’s no way Trump is going to be removed from the ballot in any state that he has a reasonable chance of winning. So it’s not as if this is actually going to swing the election, and it’ll just make the more normie Republicans more likely to regard the result as illegitimate, and increase the chance of civil war and the destruction of the United States if Biden wins.
But we can’t really control what they do, and if it’s right, it’s right.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: How are things looking for your new Democratic Representative?
WaterGirl
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, can’t argue with any of that. Hopefully, win or lose, it’s all done on the merits of the cases and what’s in the constitution.
Tazj
Late to this, but poor Henry! I hope the little devil feels better.
WaterGirl
@Tazj: Henry still has a distended tummy, but he is feeling much better! I hope he gets his girlish figure back!
Ironcity
@Scout211: I don’t think there is a Secretary of the Marine Corps.
Don K
@Brachiator:
Seems to me Dems need to make MTG the equivalent of the PELOSI created by Republican marketers. Find the four or five most extreme things she ever said (“MTG thinks kittens should be strangled at birth”), combine it with a b/w image of the ugliest picture of her you can find, and hang it around the neck of every Republican in a swing district (“Joe Blow voted 90% of the time with MTG, who wants to strangle kittens”). (I’m tired of playing nice with these mofos.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
Maybe so. What I know for sure is that cat food has a whole lot more protein than dog food (40% or more), so every mammal I’ve ever met (plus ants) LOVE it. Cats need more protein, being carnivores, whereas dogs (and humans) are omnivores. Dogs can actually survive as vegetarians (not happily, I’m guessing), but cats have to have meat. There are a couple of necessary amino acids they can’t synthesize and have to get from meat.