Caturday; Chip News

I gave Chip his first can of Fancy Feast this afternoon.

I would have needed a vacuum line to have gotten it out of the bowl faster than he did.

When it comes to the litter box, he's a digger.

Can Donald Trump Really Be This Politically Inept?

He swiped an image of Hillary Clinton from an anti-Semitic website and put it on Twitter.

This is the now-deleted tweet:

Trump claims, of course, that it was innocuous and that the "dishonest media" is blowing this out of proportion. He believes that calling him out on his blatant racism and sexism is only "political correctness run amok".

Really. The Donald is so naïve that he doesn't recognize that was the Star of David, because he's so used to seeing it as a "sheriff's star"? He's a frigging Yorker bastard, not a SASS member.

So, on a weekend when the buzz should have been about Hillary's FBI interview and Bill's tarmac meeting with the AG, The Donald is tripping over his own feet. Again.

Is he trying to deliberately blow this election? I don't say that with an ounce of sarcasm, for it certainly seems like the more likely explanation for all of this shit.

Or is he trying to fuck it up so badly that he can quietly (and with plausible deniability) persuade the party to choose somebody else? And if not him, then whom?

Fun Gift Facts

In the U.K, the traditional 90th anniversary present is something made of granite.

The jokes almost write themselves.

The Fourth Plus 240

240 years ago, the Continental Congress quit dragging its feet and realized that the American Colonies, at least the northern ones, were already at war with the British Empire.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Caturday; New Resident Ed.

Meet Chip:

He came home less than an hour ago. He is very affectionate, though right now, he's exploring the place.

You will be seeing a lot more of him!

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

The Red Arrows.

A Good Idea, CCW Edition

Top Gun actress Kelly McGillis says she has been issued a conceal and carry gun permit after being assaulted during a break-in at her home on June 17.

That's not a bad idea.

Still, one thing to do is have some awareness of when things are wrong and back up.

McGillis painted a dramatic picture of the June 17 incident in a Facebook post the day after it happened. After noticing an odd light on and finding the front door unlocked when she got home that Friday night, she noticed two pairs of sandals inside the house, one large and one small.

Finding the front door unlocked would have been the time to back out and call in the local po-po.

Even with a gun, going into a building and clearing it single-handed is a very bad idea, even for professionals, or those with a boatload of training.

The Whistles Blew and Over the Top They Went

Right into the face of German Maxim guns and artillery fire.

The Battle of the Somme began 100 years ago this day. The British Army had almost 60,000 casualties on the first day of the battle.

One of the more insanely stupid ideas that the Brits had were to form "Pals Battalions". units made up of men from one area. Their idea was that men would be more inclined to enlist if they were to serve with their friends and neighbors. When one of those units suffered heavy casualties, well, you can imagine the impact back in Old Blighty.

That's just what happened at the Somme.

One of the sadder things of Western military tradition is that flag officers who are incompetents and wastrels of their men are allowed to retire gracefully, instead of being shot.

Boris the Wrecker; Brexit Edition

Boris Johnson has unexpectedly ruled himself out as a candidate for Britain’s next prime minister, after the justice secretary, Michael Gove, sent shockwaves through Westminster with a last-minute bid for the Conservative leadership.

Create chaos and then leave to let other pick up the pieces. That's a very Trumpian thing to do. Boris clearly shares more with the Donald than just a shitty haircut/piece.

"You Furnish the Pictures, I'll Furnish the War."

On this day, 118 years ago, the Battle of San Juan Hill was fought.

The Rough Riders got the glory, but they fought in support of an attack by the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry. That was a point that the press pretty much ignored at the time, but that the historians haven't.

The Spanish-American War may not have been the first war that Americans were fed large doses of propaganda and lies in order to gain national support for fighting, but it sure as hell wasn't the last.