This probably counts as animal abuse:
I’m on the phone with Amazon customer service, and my issue has been escalated! Weee! Hope your day is better.
Open thread!
by Betty Cracker| 124 Comments
This post is in: Dog Blogging, Domestic Politics, Open Threads, General Stupidity
This probably counts as animal abuse:
I’m on the phone with Amazon customer service, and my issue has been escalated! Weee! Hope your day is better.
Open thread!
by John Cole| 71 Comments
This post is in: Dog Blogging, Pet Rescue
I know there are lot of posts up for you right now, but I just had to share this picture:
I was sitting here working, heard tandem snoring, looked around and found the two top fillies in my heard snuggling like they had been together forever. I can’t tell you how remarkable this is. Lily has always been an angel, but she is not really fond of snuggling with other dogs. It’s not that she is mean or aggressive, she just has no interest in them. When Thurston gets up in her grill she’ll just turn her head and look away and leave the area.
But with Yuki, they just seem to get each other- the “Yeah I was on the dark side in a bad place too we’re safe here.” I’m starting to think that Yuki needs to become a canine good citizen and go to a home with a special needs child.
And then there is Thurston.
by John Cole| 50 Comments
This post is in: Just Shut the Fuck Up
I went to the New York county clerk’s website and found this filing. It includes the entire manuscript with allllllll the editor’s comments as exhibit B. https://t.co/fb9yptldbO
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei) December 28, 2017
It’s amazing. I’ve uploaded the entire .pdf here.
NM- Downloading it is crushingly slow. I have the file- anyone have a pastebin or something to publish it to?
by John Cole| 76 Comments
This post is in: Post-racial America, Sociopaths
Moore will not concede.
— Serenity Now! (@Johngcole) December 13, 2017
That’s the sum total of Roy Moore’s lawsuit that was filed to block the certification of Doug Jones:
Republican Roy Moore filed a lawsuit to try to stop Alabama from certifying Democrat Doug Jones as the winner of the U.S. Senate race.
The court filing occurred about 14 hours ahead of Thursday’s meeting of a state canvassing board to officially declare Jones the winner of the Dec. 12 special election. Jones defeated Moore by about 20,000 votes.
Moore’s attorney wrote in the complaint filed late Wednesday that he believed there were irregularities during the election and said there should be a fraud investigation and eventually a new election.
This is special:
One of the experts Moore cites is Richard Charnin, who says the probability that the election results are accurate is “less than one in 15 billion.” Charnin runs a blog devoted to “JFK conspiracy and systemic election fraud analysis,” and is known for pushing dubious voter-fraud claims, like that George W. Bush stole the 2004 election from John Kerry, Bernie Sanders is the rightful winner of the 2016 Democratic primary, and President Trump actually beat Hillary Clinton in the popular vote, not just the Electoral College.
Alabama officials have repeatedly said they found no evidence of voter fraud, and President Trump acknowledged that Moore lost on election night. It’s unclear when a judge will consider Moore’s complaint, but Alabama secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican who voted for Moore, seemed confident that nothing will come of it.
It will be fun watching this unfold because the legal community in Alabama fucking hates Moore.
Obviously This Election is a Fraud Because Blah People VotedPost + Comments (76)
This post is in: Excellent Links, Open Threads, Readership Capture, Daydream Believers
This morning Prince Harry interviewed @BarackObama for @BBCr4today. Missed it? Download the full interview here. ?? https://t.co/uQgsXFv4sx pic.twitter.com/qH2GD1xfgj
— BBC (@BBC) December 27, 2017
Shorter, in case you don’t have time to listen right now:
Politicians, and others in positions of power, should stop corroding civil discourse and seek to unify society, the former US president Barack Obama said in a rare interview conducted by Prince Harry for BBC Radio 4’s Today programme…
Obama reflected on the day he relinquished power to Trump and said: “Overall there was serenity there, more than I would have expected,” but his sense of achievement was laced with a sense of “all the work that was left undone”. He said he viewed each presidency as part of a relay race, but felt he had passed the baton on successfully. “We had run a good race,” he said.
Since leaving office, he said, life appeared to move in slow motion, but he insisted this slower pace could be liberating if it meant he “could spend an extra 45 minutes talking to Michelle or having a long breakfast”…
Prince Harry and Obama spent part of an often personal interview – the first since he left office – discussing their shared “obsession” in empowering a new generation of young civic leaders worldwide, an issue that lies at the heart of the Obama Foundation, the central vehicle for Obama’s post-presidential public work.
He said: “This generation is the most sophisticated, the most tolerant in many ways, the most embracing of diversity, the most tech-savvy, the most entrepreneurial, but they do not have much faith in existing institutions.” …
Asked about anything that he had missed since leaving office, he said he missed the camaderie of his team, adding: “I used to cause traffic, I now experience traffic.”…
“Love or hate him, Obama has always made an effort to be constructive in his public statements. I appreciate that quality more now than I did before he left office.” https://t.co/axeuj0zINz
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 27, 2017
Thursday Morning Open Thread: A Little Reward for the FaithfulPost + Comments (100)
by Alain Chamot (1971-2020)| 18 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Open Threads, Readership Capture
Good Morning All,
There are issues with the form; I’ll work on them next week, but I’ve got more consuming and time-sensitive things owning me.
Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!
Well, my one present to myself happened today – I bought a new vehicle. Now I’ve been driving a 2001 Mitsubishi Galant I bought new, and I’ve put less than 100,000 miles on her! I had planned to drive her into 2021, and then see how the world looked. Unplanned-for tragedy then life insurance/inheritance, and my perspective is changed. While I swore I’d never buy a new vehicle off the lot ever again, I wanted something brand spanking new, with full warranties, modern tech, perfected design, etc. I planned to wait for 6 months or more, but there are tax and price considerations, plus my desire to have a safer vehicle through the winter was weighing heavily. Also: carpe diem.
When I lived in Colorado, I owned a 30 year-old 4×4 Nissan hardbody pickup with camper shell. I miss it every day, old and dirty and clunky and no-frills though it was. I used to fish, hunt mushrooms, camp, and hike whenever I could – I’ve got the explorer bug, and as I learned how to use a 4×4 in challenging terrain, I had some wonderful adventures which often included me sleeping in the back so as to be more comfortable (futon), safe from wildlife, save time on the setup/takedown for a campsite, and to allow me to be high up on the mountain so I could be moving at first light and not waste a moment. I was concerned about fire, so I always used a stove and never made a campfire. Without that comfort, a tent feels very flimsy; automotive steel, less so. But once you’re used to quick use of camping stoves, you get by.
Flash forward to now, and since I had the opportunity, I bought a 4×4 suv – a Toyota 4runner, off-road model so I can explore some serious mountain and forest roads when I have the opportunity as well as have a safe, new vehicle which has good interior room for moving boxes and furniture, not to mention a hitch and tow ball so I can rent a trailer if needed.
I’m planning on doing some exploring as far and as much as I can, when I can, starting in 2018. So, for example, I’m planning an early February ice fishing trip, and then plan some trout, mushroom, and ginseng adventures from Spring through Fall. I expect to have some camping expeditions and a road trip or two, but no firm ideas yet. With two homes and a set of cats in each, I can’t go away for long, though I hope to have an Autumn getaway to New England (Lake Winnepasaukee, hello!) for the leaves, fried clams, lobster rolls, and fresh local cheeses.
As I confided to my mom’s financial adviser, I’m not the most religious person, but when I’m out there wandering around in nature, I feel closer to God; I feel my place in things. Waking up in your snuggly bed in a truck, opening the back window to reveal a view that people would pay millions for, that’s a simple pleasure that few get to enjoy, but is available to any of us with the right vehicle. I’ve learned that part of the magic of these experiences for me is exploration, usually by myself – just wandering, looking, and seeing. And then reflection, lots of reflection. As I explore this amazing planet and see nature in its infinite variations, I get thrilled like a 5 year old boy all over again.
I especially love observing goofy, silly, intriguing animal behavior, be they eagles diving hundreds of feet in the sky (mating!), a praying mantis hunting at night and decapitating then consuming a roach, or noticing a strange cluster of bees and then realizing that it’s a swarm – a queen and hive on the move, looking for a new home. There are just so many amazing living things, interacting and behaving in so many fascinating, thrilling ways. I’ve seen roadrunners, crocodiles, rare lizards and salamnders, even what I would call intelligent behavior in a simple insect, a sphinx moth. And the amazing diversity of birds and bird behaviors is an endless joy.
All this is one of my major motivations for this feature – looking, seeing, sharing aspects of this world around us. I am thrilled by all the pictures, am partial to the nature stuff, but also love the views of cities, countries, sites around the world that most of us will never be lucky enough to visit. I prefer the natural world, but I do enjoy seeing people everywhere and gaining insight into them; that helps me gain more insight into me.
And now, a picture from valued commenter KarenH:
Thursday night we got snow in San Antonio. This is a rare event for us. The high here on Monday(12/4/17) was 87. I grabbed my camera and hurried to the park, but didn’t think to take the tripod (duh). The light from the streetlight was enough to get a hand held shot.
Wow, that’s a great picture! My cousin lives in San Antonio and sent me some pictures of that snow, but not as impressive as this one. On the other hand, she did send me two short videos of her cats watching and reacting to the snow from their protected outside porch, the first they’d seen. Cats are always good.
Have a great day, everyone. For much of the US – stay warm! See you tomorrow, we’ll finish off the week on a bang.
One again, to submit pictures: the form is broken so Send an Email
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Dolt 45, Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?
Per pool, Trump has arrived at Trump International Golf Club.
This is his 111th day at a Trump property, 85th day at a golf club as president. https://t.co/4ywA2Sm8iX
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 26, 2017
WSJ analysis found President Trump spent nearly a third of his 1st year at one of his company’s properties https://t.co/X2Gtx1Bd0O
— Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) December 26, 2017
A third of his first year as president has been spent on the premises of his private business. https://t.co/z78eTTXmtQ
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) December 26, 2017
Stop calling Mar-a-Lago the “Winter White House.” (You too, @CNN ).
That is a deceptive Trump branding effort. Mar-a-Lago is a for-profit business owned and promoted by Trump. It is not govt-owned and it is primarily a vacation resort, whose dues T doubled when he took office— Frida Ghitis (@FridaGhitis) December 26, 2017
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Once Trump has been removed from office, I vote we charge the RNC back for every bloody penny.
Mr. Charles P. Pierce takes the long view:
… All of this, and so much more of which we are probably unaware, is nakedly, blatantly unconstitutional. It’s not even a close call. When the president* turned the presidential coin into an advertisement for himself, it was only the most literal example of his coining the presidency into gold. And Judge George Daniels has dumped it right in Paul Ryan’s lap. He has challenged Ryan’s patriotism to Ryan’s face. And Ryan has shirked his constitutional duty to his country in this as he has shirked it in so many other areas. He also has dumped it in the country’s lap as well. If you don’t want to be represented by people who don’t give a damn about the Constitution, his decision says, vote them out of office—or else join them in sad complicity.
Sidebar: Note the Democrats consistently take less time off than the Repubs…
Now let’s see a chart of how much the Presidents personally profited off their vacations. pic.twitter.com/0lN3awA863
— Schooley (@Rschooley) December 27, 2017
Late Night Open Thread: The Grifter-in-ChiefPost + Comments (14)