Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

People are weird.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

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

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

“But what about the lurkers?”

How stupid are these people?

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Monday Morning Open Thread: Back to Reality

Monday Morning Open Thread: Back to Reality

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  1. 1.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Been up for almost an hour and a half. Awakened by the housecat for her middle-of-the-night snack. (“Special needs” or just spoiled? Who can say?) But the real problem is that I can never resist “just checking my phone” before I go back to sleep, and then I get caught up in reading stuff, and there you are.

    At least I went to bed very early (for me), 10:30, so I did get a good bit of sleep. And I can always take a nap later in the day, if needed. Now the question is, do I try to go back to sleep or just get up and get on the computer? A cup of coffee is starting to sound pretty good.

    Of course the housecat was sound asleep 10 minutes after finishing her snack.

  10. 10.

    Steeplejack

    @eclare:

    Good morning. Went off to start on today’s crosswords.

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Yeah, I got up. The housecat came out of her deep sleep like radar and is now dozing on her heated throw by the computer. Workin’!

  12. 12.

    eclare

    @rikyrah: WaPo also had a really good article with personal remembrances. One example was to keep a chauffeur’s hat in the car, so if you were pulled over, you could say it was your white employer’s car.

    Sorry, on my phone, no link.

  13. 13.

    JPL

    @rikyrah: Years ago a friends dad was sharing a video of his birthday celebration that he had with his friends who were retired military. They spoke about being transferred and having to use the green book in order to move their family. It was the first time that I became aware of it.

  15. 15.

    Raven

    @JPL: On the night of July 11, 1964 three African-American World War II veterans returning home following training at Ft. Benning, Georgia were noticed in Athens by local members of the Ku Klux Klan. The officers were followed to the nearby Broad River Bridge where their pursuers fired into the vehicle, killing Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn. When a local jury failed to convict the suspects of murder, the federal government successfully prosecuted the men for violations under the new Civil Rights Act of 1964, passed just nine days before Penn’s murder. The case was instrumental in the creation of a Justice Department task force whose work culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1968.[7]

  22. 22.

    RAVEN

    @Plato: I saw them both in Vietnam. People always blather about Hope and “the troopS” but they built a huge camera platform and half the “troops” couldn’t see Connie Stevens! There was almost a riot but her got great footage of the stage for his TV special.

  23. 23.

    Bruce K

    With regard to favorite presidents? Trump doesn’t make the podium even if you only count living presidents (yes, he even ranks below GWB). Open it up to all Presidents, and he doesn’t make the top one hundred. (Even if you include Presidents of the Continental Congress. And even if you include Jefferson Davis and George III Hanover.)

  26. 26.

    debbie

    Mark my words, Trump is planning to pull a Nixon right before the 2020 election. Putting off the China tariffs? Bogus. Putting off North Korean denuclearization (he just said there is no rush)? Bogus. He is scheming to terrify the terrifiable into reelecting him.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: He is taking the thunder out of his failures and trying to recast them as successes. The 27% will be suckered into believing it but everybody else will be remembering the check they had to cut the IRS on April 15th.

  28. 28.

    Steeplejack

    The housecat is “galloping” in her sleep. This is the most exercise she gets in a normal day.

    Okay, she does occasionally jump from an armchair to the desk, if I’m not around to hoist her up.

    I think I’m about to gallop my ass back to bed for an hour or so.

  30. 30.

    tokyokie

    @Bruce K: My father, who was a construction engineer, spent World War II in the Aleutians Theater. The only story he shared with his family about his time during the war concerned Bob Hope. Keep in mind that the other theaters of war, European, Pacific, North Africa, were considered higher priority than the Aleutians. So even by U.S. military standards, the main base on Adak was pretty rundown. And the weather was consistently miserable, always overcast, temperatures around freezing, and howling winds. So when Hope disembarked from the transport plane, he looked around and saw how miserable the place was, then went straight to the officers club, where he became too plastered to put on the show. But the rest of the troupe were real troopers, Jerry Colonna took over Hope’s role, and soldiers got their show. And my father hated Bob Hope and considered him a phony. But he always liked Jerry Colonna.

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Heh:

    As souvenirs go, it is a unique one. A woman has returned to Scotland from a holiday in Australia to discover a stowaway snake hidden in one of her shoes.

    In an incident that will confirm the worst fears of visitors to Australia, Moira Boxall unpacked her luggage after the more than 9,300-mile journey from Queensland to find the small and very much alive creature curled up in her slip-ons. It even shed its skin during its voyage in her footwear. The resilient reptile – later identified as a non-venomous spotted python, a breed commonly kept as a pet – travelled safely from Mackay to Glasgow, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

    Paul Airlie, Boxall’s son-in-law, told the ABC news network that when Boxall opened her bag and saw the animal she thought it was a toy put there as a prank.
    …………………………..
    The snake is in quarantine in Scotland.

    Just in case anyone was worried about the poor little feller.

  32. 32.

    Ken

    @Steeplejack:

    The housecat is “galloping” in her sleep.

    I’ve seen that in such a different light after reading Neil Gaiman’s “The Dream of a Thousand Cats”.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: To be honest, and I am speaking only for myself, I’m just not losing any sleep over that particular prospect, The plain and simple reason being that I can’t do a damn thing about it. I understand when others feel differently about it.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Japan battles worst measles outbreak in a decade

    More than half of the cases in Mie involved members of the religious group Kyusei Shinkyo who had attended a workshop late last year. The group believes that medicines are “harmful” and advocates purification of the body and spirit. It later apologised for the outbreak on its website and said it was cooperating with health authorities.

    Death is rather purifying.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Okinawa rejects new US military base but Abe vows to push on

    Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has vowed to push on with the controversial relocation of a US military base in Okinawa, hours after the island’s voters overwhelmingly rejected the move in a referendum. Just over 70% of voters – or 434,000 people – opposed construction of a new base on Okinawa’s northeast coast that will replace an existing US marine corps base 30 miles away. Just 19% voted in favour of the move, with turnout at 52%.

    Speaking to reporters on Monday morning, Abe acknowledged the strength of feeling among Okinawa residents but said construction work would continue. “We have been holding dialogue with people in Okinawa for a long time and intend to keep on ignoring them for as long as it takes,” Abe said, according to Kyodo news agency.

    FTFH.

  42. 42.

    Karen S.

    @rikyrah:
    Before I traveled to Uganda several years ago, I had to have at least one vaccine, and that was the vaccine against yellow fever because yellow fever was endemic in Uganda. If I traveled anywhere else, I had to prove I’d had the vaccine. I went to a travel medicine doc to get the vaccine and she filled out the international vaccine card I had to carry with me along wit my passport. Maybe countries should do something like that with the measles vaccine for those people who can be vaccinated. I know there are people who can’t get vaccinated for some health reasons.

  45. 45.

    Betty Cracker

    Just catching up on all the news after three days of birthday celebration debauchery. As much as it pains me to admit it, sounds like Caitlyn Flanagan (ugh!) nailed the whole Dianne Feinstein vs. the Sunrise Movement thing (via The Atlantic):

    At the 13th hour of a long career, Feinstein did something that the kids weren’t expecting. She took them seriously, and she patiently explained some truths about American political life that they didn’t understand. And then she did the one thing that an old woman isn’t supposed to do. She said that she wasn’t good at her job in spite of being old, but because of it…

    Dianne Feinstein is the longest-tenured woman in the U.S. Senate, and the senior senator of the state that almost single-handedly allowed the U.S. to meet its target numbers for the Paris Agreement in 2018, even though Trump had already pulled out of it. California met its 2020 goal for lowering greenhouse gasses four years early; the United States Climate Alliance has named California as having the best practices in the country. To send schoolchildren to Feinstein’s office to educate her on the science of climate change was, at best, unwise. To set them up for the titanic humiliation of trying to bully an adult into doing their bidding was cruel…

    But what made the short video so rich is that these activists were too young to know something important about old women. Old women have finally—finally—given up on the notion that they are expected to be agreeable to rude people. They have often done hard things: raised children, buried parents, worked at demanding jobs, and seen a lot of history. Bust into the office of an old woman with the intention of telling her how uninformed she is? That probably won’t go well for you.

    The children had been taught that confrontation is the way to achieve political goals. But the senior senator from California knows more about climate science and American realpolitik than all the fifth graders in the world. As a woman who stormed into the male world of city and national politics when it was an actual boys’ club, she’s had to put up with more rudeness and bullying than many of us can imagine; she’s used to people underestimating her. If she’s going to lose any of her famous courage, it’s not because angry children showed up to teach her a lesson.

    Of course, Flanagan takes gratuitous swipes at the kids and green movement because Flanagan, but she’s right about how inappropriate and unwise it was to target Feinstein.

  46. 46.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I recently started getting treatment for both sleep apnea and terrible nighttime acid reflux, and one of the things that’s surprised me is that though my sleep is higher-quality and I’m not as sleepy during the day, I’m actually going to bed for more hours a night.

    It may be partly because the CPAP machine gives me feedback and sort of gamifies it, but I think it’s mostly because, before, on some level I’d come to dread sleeping–I just knew I’d wake up in the morning feeling kicked in the head and not ready to face another day, and I wanted to put that off as long as possible, so I stayed up late, which just made things worse.

  47. 47.

    raven

    @tokyokie: Ding! The 7th ID was the main US force and it was a nasty operation with 1400 Americans killed. Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr was one of the commanders and he was killed at Okinawa, the highest ranking officer killed in WW2.

  50. 50.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Matt McIrvin: That sounds like a big improvement. I learned to fall asleep quickly when my son was a baby. He didn’t sleep through the night until he was two, I was miserable until I learned. Mostly, I told myself stories, something I do even now after I have to get up to pee. Now I sleep with earplugs because Mr DAW snores, and it’s like I’m in my own cozy little world.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    With the spotlight on the presidential primary, I’m starting to sense an increasing feeling of savviness among the people on our side of the aisle, and it worries me.

  52. 52.

    Betty Cracker

    Politico, in a story about ex-Clinton staffers slamming Bernie Sanders for demanding private planes to campaign for Clinton in the run-up to the general election:

    But he [Sanders] also faces another hurdle: hard feelings that remain to this day after the contentious 2016 Democratic primary. Many in the party continue to believe the Vermont senator played a role in contributing to Clinton’s defeat in November because of his criticisms of her prior to the general election, and his refusal to concede earlier when it appeared he had little mathematical chance of securing the party nomination.

    And they are eager to point out Sanders’ flaws and examples of what they perceive to be examples of hypocrisy now that the one-time underdog rates as one of the front-runners in the crowded Democratic field.

    Glad someone finally noticed that 17 million Clinton voters from the 2016 Democratic primary might be an obstacle to Sanders’ 2020 coronation. I seem to recall plenty of pixels expended in assessing whether Clinton could get hardcore Obama voters on board and the specific efforts the candidate herself (plus the Obamas) undertook with that goal.

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I have no idea what you mean, but I’m sure that’s my fault. I’m so out of the loop I didn’t even know the Oscars were this weekend.

  57. 57.

    Princess

    @Betty Cracker: For Sanders to win this time around, some of the primary voters who went for Hilary are going to have to choose him this time over the other candidates. There is no way of getting around that fact. I can’t see that happening and I don’t think there are enough new voters in the world to make up for that. Plus, anecdotally, most of my friends went Sanders last time around and this time are looking at other candidates. Sanders inspires a Ron-Paul level of loyalty but I don’t see how he is going to break out.

  61. 61.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: True, but maybe it’s also related to the narcissism of small differences phenomenon. I mean, if they wanted to go after an older woman for being insufficiently green, maybe someone like Susan Collins or Elaine Chao would be a better target.

  62. 62.

    Betty Cracker

    @Princess: I’m noting the same among Democrats I know, including Sanders supporters who’ve moved on. I don’t see Sanders winning the nomination, but he could cause a lot of havoc before leaving the stage — again. One specific thing that worries me, which Kay brought up the other day, is that Sanders could post a strong showing in New Hampshire and cause the media horde to write Warren off since she’s in the same “lane” and also from a neighboring state. On the other hand, if Warren finishes ahead of Sanders in New Hampshire, the media will declare him toast, so I’m hoping for that outcome.

  63. 63.

    Bruuuuce

    @Betty Cracker: Oh, NOEZ! Heaven forfend that the brave, trend-bucking Republican wimmenz should be criticized. They already have it so tough just by standing up for the GOP, why would anyone EVER be so mean and petty as to go after them for little things like policy? [/sarcasm]

  64. 64.

    plato

    Harry Reid on CNN: "Is there anything I think the President Trump is doing right? I just have trouble accepting him as a person and so frankly I don't see anything he's doing right."— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 25, 2019

    Yup Harry, totus is a thug, not a person.

  65. 65.

    Lapassionara

    @Baud: To which I say “sigh.” I know people who voted third-party in 2016 because they thought Hillary was too corrupt. I have lived through enough elections to know that whoever wins the Dem nomination will be vilified and demonized, and some of the hurtful rhetoric will be coming from other Dems.

    This is a national emergency. We need all hands on deck!

  66. 66.

    rikyrah

    @Betty Cracker:

    Sorry, I was vague. I basically meant it seems like people are increasingly starting to think they can advance their cause by hurting Democrats.

    The thing is Baud, is that they are showing themselves. And, unlike 2016, they won’t get the benefit of the doubt. They will get investigated, receipts called, and then cancelled. . Plus, unlike 2016, folks who may have kept quiet, no longer will. They will not be bullied.

  68. 68.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: It’s also the fact that she is a DEM, the feeling being that going after women such as Susan Collins or Elaine Chao is just spitting in the wind where as Feinstein is one of 2 things:

    a) primariable (a word I just made up, I rather like it too)
    b) persuadable

    I also detect the strong presence of hubris on the part of those who set this up. They let their preconceived prejudices dictate their target and their approach as opposed to doing any kind of research on DF.

  69. 69.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    She isn’t the real hurdle they’ll have to get around:

    Thursday, August 6, 2009
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ten U.S. senators wrote to President Barack Obama today to outline the need to maintain a level playing field for American manufacturing in any climate change legislation. The senators expressed their support for a border adjustment mechanism and other initiatives that would ensure the future competiveness of U.S. manufacturing.
    The letter was signed by U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Russell D. Feingold (D-WI), Carl Levin (D-MI), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Robert P. Casey (D-PA), Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), Arlen Specter (D-PA), John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV), and Al Franken (D-MN).
    “As Congress considers energy and climate legislation, it is important that such a bill include provisions to maintain a level playing field for American manufacturing,” the senators wrote. “It is essential that any clean energy legislation not only address the crisis of climate change, but include strong provisions to ensure the strength and viability of domestic manufacturing.”
    The senators also outlined initiatives to ensure manufacturers are not disproportionately affected by climate change legislation.

    Agriculture and manufacturing and affordable home heating in cold places. They can do the political tactic of “she’s mean to the children!” if they want, but what they’re going to run into are Democratic and liberals senators who have home state priorities. Climate change legislation got less attention than health care but the fights didn’t always fall along ideological lines.

  71. 71.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Betty Cracker:

    Bernie Sanders for demanding private planes to campaign for Clinton in the run-up to the general election:

    I can verify that Wilmer did indeed do that. At great expense. For a less than 90-minute flight on a well-served route. Wanker.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    And, they weren’t prepared for it last time. They had no response to 10 Democratic Senators, some of them liberals, who can’t get elected in those states without addressing manufacturing and ag issues. Republicans will say “AOC is from NYC, she doesn’t know the issues in states that have power-heavy economic sectors”. California actually has tons of manufacturing (less known) and also, agriculture (better known). It’s not that can’t deal with this- they can and they will have to, but doing this manipulative “the old witch hates children” bit doesn’t get them there.
    The sainted Russ Feingold was on that list, as is Sherrod Brown.

  77. 77.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @MomSense: Inorite? Less than 90-minute flight to the tune of hundreds of $27 donations. Suckers.

    ETA: Local Dems had to pick up the tab, which they were not expecting. DNC later reimbursed a portion of Bernie’s flight costs, which is good, I guess.

  79. 79.

    tokyokie

    @raven: The nastiest part of the Aleutians campaign was the Battle of Attu. Not only did lots of GIs suffer frostbite, the battle ended with a banzai charge that broke through the front lines, leaving the support troops to fend off the attack in hand-to-hand combat.

    I’ve come to believe that my father was among the support troops the fended off the banzai attack. The battle had raged on for more than a week and seemed to be well in hand, which would be when the Corps of Engineers would begin building airstrips and the like. And leading the Corps contingent would probably fall to a junior officer, and my father was a lieutenant back then. Anyway, that would explain his mostly not talking about his wartime experiences and the white-hot hatred for firearms — and he grew up on a farm.

  84. 84.

    Yarrow

    Good morning, all.

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I don’t know how you insomniacs deal. I love sleeping.

    Grrr…love ya DAW but this comment pissed me off. Only someone who doesn’t struggle with insomnia could frame it that way. People with insomnia don’t stay up because it’s fun and they want to be awake. They don’t stay up because they don’t love sleeping. Insomnia is the inability to sleep.

    As Matt McIrvin described, people may develop coping strategies but it’s still not fun. There can be fear associated with going to bed because of the struggle with not being able to sleep. It negatively affects people’s lives and it’s a massive health risk. It is in no way fun.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    The “green jobs” Democrats – the precursors to the Green New Deal Democrats- actually have a response to this. It’s embedded in the name- they will create green jobs. That’s where Brown and the MI Senators will fall- on the “green jobs” side of the fence. There’s truth to it. In Toledo, right now, they are building a HUGE solar panels factory. They are good jobs- more than 20 an hour to start. They’ll be inundated with applicants.

  86. 86.

    plato

    Trump's ambassadors are the least qualified among modern presidents. But they've given more money to his election than any group of ambassadors in recent history. t.co/LyCWS8tnG2— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 25, 2019

    Give money to the totus thug, get hated around the world. Dumbfucks.

  87. 87.

    Betty Cracker

    @BrianM: Well, I’m mad at the building permit office, so maybe I’ll yell at the lady who delivers my mail. I won’t even have to drive anywhere. She comes to my HOUSE.

  88. 88.

    Just Chuck

    @Betty Cracker: I think a lot of New Hampshire and Iowa’s thunder is going to be muted this election, since _California_ is now doing primaries at that time. Which will incentivize other states like New York and (ugh) Texas to do the same. Fuck those flyover states forever.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Far be it from me to advise them, but they’re heading into the same buzz saw environmentalists always face- that it’s elitist. That it’s policy focused on college educated people who don’t work in these industries and sectors. That’s the flip side of “populism”- it involves all kinds of people. That’s why Democrats settled on the “green jobs” approach. They knew what was coming.

  92. 92.

    Elizabelle

    @Just Chuck: I was compiling a list. That struck me too. My draft comment:

    @Kay:

    Look at the turnover in that list, some of it mortal. Nine years ago, and only three of those ten Senators are still in office. Stunning. And only one Republican (Spector) signed on to the letter.

    Still in office:
    U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH),
    Debbie Stabenow (D-MI),
    Robert P. Casey (D-PA)

    Dead: (and all this is from memory, checking it out now):

    Arlen Spector (R-PA), lost re-election
    Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) (died in office)
    Carl Levin (D-MI), retired

    Retired
    John D. Rockefeller IV
    Evan Bayh (D-IN)

    Defeated for re-election
    Russ Feingold (D-WI), defeated for re-election, 2016??

    Resigned
    Al Franken (D-MN)

    Mean to look into the details, since this is from memory. But, it is striking. Albeit, a rather old set of Senators, some of them …

  93. 93.

    Elizabelle

    Carl Levin is still alive. So is his brother, Sander. My bad. Apologies, Senator Levin. Wondering who I was thinking of …

    Ouch. Feingold lost to Ron Johnson twice. WTG, Wisconsin. Wiki:

    In 2010, Feingold lost his campaign for reelection to the U.S. Senate to Republican Ron Johnson. …

    On May 14, 2015, Feingold announced his candidacy for his old Senate seat in 2016. He was defeated by Republican Ron Johnson in a rematch of their 2010 Senate race.

  95. 95.

    Elizabelle

    Arlen Specter lost in the 2010 primary. He’d switched parties, from GOP to Democrat in 2009, and was defeated by Joe Sestak, who went on to lose to Pat Toomey, who has held the seat ever since.

    Specter died of cancer in 2012. He had begun his career as a Democrat, from 1951 to 1965. Elected to the Senate from Pennsylvania in 1980, where he served five terms.

  96. 96.

    Elizabelle

    @OzarkHillbilly: Hey there. Good morning.

    I think it matters greatly whether a Senator is a Dem or a Republican. Democrats are much more likely to address policy issues in a manner that takes human constituents into account. GOP fundraises off them.

  97. 97.

    Miss Bianca

    @OzarkHillbilly: I remember when I wanted to travel to Ghana that I needed proof of a whole butt-load of vaccinations before I could get a visa. Don’t remember whether measles was one of them, but I bet you it will be now.

    The 90s were miserable for all kinds of reasons, but at least the anti-vaxxers hadn’t shown up in force yet.

  98. 98.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elizabelle: My point is only that the current DEM Senator or DEM candidate is going to be playing to the concerns of his/her constituents and those concerns probably haven’t shifted all that much, most likely a few percentage point shift from D to R, or D to less strong D.

  99. 99.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Miss Bianca: My last 2 international travels have both been to Spain and there was no such requirement, but my international travels are rather limited compared to most people around here.

  102. 102.

    Kay

    @Just Chuck:

    They’re still going to run into it. It’s not “the senator”. It’s Michigan :)

    This is exactly the same dynamic where people say they forgive Schumer or Booker for finance sector pandering because they rep areas where the finance sector is huge. THOSE Democrats have manufacturing and agriculture, and if you say those jobs don’t matter you’ll be (rightly, in my view) tagged as elitist.

  103. 103.

    cynthia ackerman

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    My mom purloined a tiny seashell from the Galapagos many years ago. This is highly wrong — visitors must even sweep the sand from feet before leaving.

    She got back to the States, set the shell in a flower arrangement, and …

    A few days later the “shell” had climbed up a long stem. It was a live snail.

    Turns out this is common enough that there is an officer for receiving and repatriating various “souvenirs”.

    Mom was given instructions and asked to pinpoint the location the snail came from. And thanked!

  107. 107.

    BrianM

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t think that’s fair to the kids. I couldn’t find the text of the letter, nor a clear picture, but it ends “We believe in you Senator Feinstein. Vote Yes [on the Green New Deal].”

    Senator Feinstein goofed. Bad people want to use that to drive wedges between the “AOC left” and the center-left. Let’s not help them by casting a typical “kids visit the Senator with a cute card” session as a planned attack on Feinstein. Heck, I grew up in a state capital and I’m pretty sure teachers and kids from my middle school did something like that on one of the early Earth Days.

  108. 108.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: One thing the CPAP did was, apparently, kill the snoring I did that was sometimes loud enough to keep everyone else awake.

    For us, having a child killed our ability to sleep in on weekend mornings, for years. Even when she wasn’t around, it got hard to do. Now she’s almost a teenager and sleeps like one, and we’re learning again.

  109. 109.

    ruemara

    @BrianM: Except it was. People think there’s a legitimate bill, there isn’t. They’re making it a purity metric, it shouldn’t be. It was immediately sent out through multiple feeds connected with Justice Dems, Sunrise Movement (if you’d like to find out who they are, good luck) & Sanders blue checkmark fan bois.
    Whether or not people like it, this is definitely people using kids to promote both a non binding resolution with all the strength & focus of your 2019 resolutions and to start up the generational wars between Democrats & supposed “AOC” Democrats which is really just Bernicrats with a new face.

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