Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

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

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

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

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

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

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

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

Wednesday Night Open Thread

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I keep forgetting to tell you all this. About a week or so ago, my mother was walking Callie down the alley, and Callie walked over to the gate of my fence, and stuck her nose down to sniff. Unbeknownst to her, on the other side of the gate was one primed and ready GRADE A certified WV mountain panther, and Maxwell got her good to the point that she is now afraid of my fence.

So while Callie will no longer go near gate on their walks now, and I have filled in the little hole that had developed at the gate from years of packing down the dirt on the path, someone else remains on guard duty:

Wednesday Night Open Thread 18

He’s very serious about this security breach.

Reader Interactions

49Comments

  5. 5.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    After one of the rainiest and shittiest Mays in forever, it was in the mid 80’s today.  Holy shite.  From rainouts, grey. clouds and soggy softball games to blazing hot tonight.

  7. 7.

    bbleh

    “Nature red in tooth and claw.”

    @Spanky: lol sounds like some WWII OSS radio transmission.  “The willow is too close to the cat.  Repeat.  The willow is too close to the cat.  The panther is near the gate.  Repeat …

    @Gin & Tonic: TBF, to conclude she’s not, we’d need to know for whom she’s working.

  8. 8.

    MagdaInBlack

    I had a little grey tiger kitty that showed our full size Airedale who was boss. She leaped onto his back and would not let go. I had to rescue him and he gave her a very wide berth after that.

  9. 9.

    schrodingers_cat

    Yeah my late great boss cat was totally unafraid of my friend’s German shepherd and would bully her by slapping her in the face because she once tried to eat his food.

  10. 10.

    Jackie

    Maxwell, the Callie terrior! Poor Callie, but good job Max!

    I had a half-pint sized momma cat, who terrorized any sized dog who was stupid enough to encroach on “her” front lawn. She took “get off my lawn!” very seriously, while the much bigger male cats dashed through the cat door and cowered under my bed LOL! I miss her and her feistiness.

  11. 11.

    Jackie

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: We’ve had mild weather (for us) this past week or so, in the upper 60s – low-ish 70s. Suddenly it’s mid to upper 80s now to triple digits by the weekend. Sigh…

    We’re east/central south WA.

  12. 12.

    YY_Sima Qian

    I alluded to a stark gender divide among the young demographic in South Korea, in terms of political orientation, which was once again put in stark relief in the latest Presidential election. Here is an FT presentation that shows that the trend is global, & goes into the potential factors driving this dynamic, & the sociological consequences (charts through the link):

    John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch

    South Korea gender divide update
    Young men lean right by 50 points (74% conservative vs 24% centre-left) Young women lean left by 22 points (58% centre-left vs 36% cons)

    And the demographic consequences of young men and women going their separate ways? The share of young Koreans in relationships has fallen by almost half since 2010, with birth tracing almost exactly the same path

    Full slide deck here from our talk yesterday on the gender divide and relationship recession, featuring many more countries and plenty of economic data too

  13. 13.

    bbleh

    (Perhaps best not to point out what tune “walking Callie down the alley” sounds suspiciously like …)

  18. 18.

    HinTN

    @schrodingers_cat: All that is true, but it’s a great introduction to the vast majority who only speak Anglais. Let’s see what his policies are (or if he’s just an opportunist).

  20. 20.

    Suzanne

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: Yeah, it got warm and bright basically yesterday. But right now, it smells like smoke outside. Wonder if it’s the Canadian wildfires, or someone’s fire pit. I closed the windows!

  21. 21.

    Marc

    @schrodingers_cat: I don’t live in NYC, and I had the sound muted, but I actually found the guy rather likeable just based upon his gesturing.  Clearly someone who does not take himself all that seriously.  My God, I may be a vibe voter.

  22. 22.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On a less serious note, an elderly gentleman was fishing in the middle of a river in Lishui, Zhejiang Province. He was trapped in there when the water levels suddenly rose due to a flash flood. Someone living nearby used his agricultural drone (w/ 150 kg max load) to lift the fisherman out of danger. (video through the link):

    tphuang @tphuang

    Pretty cool moment to see a drone lifting fisherman out of danger. Modern tech

  24. 24.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Marc: He is kinda cute and that helps with the vibes! Is his mom making his ads

    In case, jackals are unaware. His mom is Mira Nair, the director of Namesake and Mississippi Masala among other movies.

  25. 25.

    sab

    @Suzanne: NE Ohio it’s the Canadian fires, so probably the same in Pittsburgh, since satby had them a day or so earlier in South Bend.

    I left a window open in the bedroom for the cats in their cat trees, and at midnight the dog woke me up because of the smoke.

  26. 26.

    CaseyL

    Poor Callie! Though Maxwell must be very pleased with himself: “Protected the homestead, Dad!”

    I have been in Florida for a family emergency, and the weather is thus far not unbearable. That’s because it’s been heavily overcast where I am. The minute the clouds go away and the sun comes out I’ll be pining for a fjord, any fjord, as long as it’s fed by mountain snow water.

    Aaand…it looks like I’ll be returning to Seattle just in time to catch a heat wave. Feh.

    I hope Seattle has gotten some rain. I put watering bulbs in all my deck garden plants, but am relying on a neighbor to keep an eye on them and refill as needed.

  27. 27.

    Marc

    @schrodingers_cat: In case, jackals are unaware. His mom is Mira Nair, the director of Namesake and Mississippi Masala among other movies.

    I did not know and loved both of those movies, along with Monsoon Wedding.

  28. 28.

    sukabi

    John, it looks like Maxwell’s name should be changed to MaxSwell… he’s looking very filled out. lol

  30. 30.

    Lyrebird

    @BlueGuitarist: Thanks for posting that ad!!  I agree with @schrodingers_cat: that it’s long and corny (I can’t judge his Hindi), but I also agree with one of the bsky commenters – definitely the best lay explanation of ranked choice voting I have seen!

     

    I clicked to see more of his posts, and wow, if he could knock out Andrew Cuomo in the primary that would be great.

    ETA: Mira Nair’s son?????????? WHOA!!!  No wonder he goes heavy on the movie clips!

    @Marc: another Monsoon Wedding fan here.

  32. 32.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    There’s a lot of correlation between cat color and personality.  For example, most male orange cats of varying degrees tend to be big doufouses, sharing one brain cell and the waiting list for using it is *very* long.

    Female tabbies, particularly after having at least one litter of kittens are almost always the bestest house cats.

    Torbies are flakes.  And so on.

    Black cats somewhat defy that tendency (in terms of personality traits) as they can be all over the place.  I’ve had friends with black cats over the years and they’re calm, fun things to be around.  We’ve got a family across the street who unfortunately don’t fix their cats (we’ve trapped some, fixed them ourselves, then turned them loose).  A couple of been hit by cars, it’s awful to see.  But the one black cat is a shmoozer and seems to have survived the streets thus far.  It’s only a matter of time tho.  I digress.

    Our black cat?  We call her Satan’s Handmaiden for many good reasons.

  37. 37.

    A Good Woman

    I had a little black cat, named Demon, who morphed into a black panther when visiting veterniarians.  As far as he was concerned he was on a mission from God to obliterate them from this earth.  One vet had 2 of her techs armed with thick gloves to restrain him.  They did so.  Barely.  Meanwhile my female, Tulip, cowered in a corner of the room, praying to whatever feline divinity there may be (Bast perhaps) for salvation from the humans torturing her furious friend, while promising to be a good girl.

    I laugh now but I don’t think the vet was amused.

  38. 38.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yeah, this is why I am not taking my wife & daughters to the States any time soon (video through the link):

    Liz (or Lizzie) Kim 김혜성 💫 ‪@zen4ever2us.bsky.social‬

    The NYPD and ICE mistakenly arrested a Chilean woman who is a permanent resident in New York City and left her poor frightened 12 year old daughter on the street alone. She was released approximately six hours later. This is the fearful state of America.

  39. 39.

    prostratedragon

    “They’re eating the cats!”

    Trump just issued a sweeping new travel ban.
    The ban fully restricts people from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

    The ban partially restricts Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

    Caveat:

    It’s important to challenge this in the courts. It’s also important to understand that Trump engages in performative behavior when he wants you to ignore something else he’s doing. Don’t look away.

  40. 40.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Omnes Omnibus: I totally support spays and neuters for all domestic, stray, and feral cats.  If the ass**** neighbors won’t do it, I will!  There are far too many kittens born each year for the available homes, and far too many cats euthanized in overwhelmed shelters.

  41. 41.

    Geminid

    @BlueGuitarist:

     

    @Lyrebird: Emerson College released a poll on May 28 that showed Cuomo winning with 54.4% of the vote to Mamdami’s 45.6%. This was after rankings for ten candidates were tabulated.

    First round results were: former Governor Andrew Cuomo, 35.1%; Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, 22.7%; NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, 10.5%; former Comptroller Scott Stringer, 9%; NYC Council President Adrienne Adams, 8.5%; and five more hopefulls polling 1% to 5.5%.

    Here are some of the “crosstabs” breaking out the vote by demographic groups, according to Emerson polling director Spencer Kimball:

       “Cuomo’s strongest support comes from Black voters (74%), voters over 50 (66%), and women (58% to 42%).

    Mamdani leads among voters under 50, with 61% and holds an edge among white voters (57% to 43%) and college educated voters (58% to 42%).”

    It sounds like Mamdani could win if he can close the gender gap.

  42. 42.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: While there were at it,  Emerson polled general election matchups:

       Looking ahead to the November general election, Cuomo leads s hypothetical matchup with a plurality of of support (44%), while 13% support Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, 10% support current Mayor Eric Adams running as an Independent and 7% support independent candidate Jim Walden.

    The poll showed Mamdani winning also:

       With Mamdani as the Democratic nominee, 35% would support him in a hypothetical general election, 16% Sliwa, 15% Adams and 6% Walden.

  43. 43.

    satby

    @Omnes Omnibus: so do Trap/Spay/Release groups. If the cats are running loose they probably aren’t immunized or chipped either, and if the owners have had several cats killed because of their continuing negligence Animal Control could also easily pick them up. They end up euthanized because often people like that never check to see if their pets are there. Edit: they also often are running loose looking for food. Those aren’t the kind of people who worry about details like feeding them.

  46. 46.

    Another Scott

    @prostratedragon: Some are questioning whether they mixed up Congo (Congo-Brazzaville – a tiny country) and DR Congo (a vast country with neverending wars).

    Who knows.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

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