Caturday; Settling In

Chip checks out the cat bed.

When he's sleeping, he goes to Jake's hidey-hole under the bed. I expect he'll eventually settle in and sleep on furniture.

George, Gracie and Jake were all contemporaries, so it's been a very long time since I had a young and agile cat. George was fairly agile, up until his end. The other day, I found Chip on top of the kitchen cabinets. I raised my voice and he quickly got down. Whether he knows that he's not supposed to be up there or that he's not supposed to be up there when I'm at home and awake remains to be seen.

George had the attitude of "your food is my food", which Chip seems to share. Chip was annoying me as I made lunch the other day, so I gave him a piece of red-leaf lettuce. He took an energetic bite of it, then realized that lettuce wasn't something that he wanted to eat.

When he wants attention, he literally gets in my face for it. He's a cuddler.

My vet said he's healthy.

Cleaning Up the Mess, Brexit Ed.

Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom will battle it out to become the next leader of the Conservative Party after Michael Gove was eliminated from the contest. ... The winner will become the UK's second female prime minister.

All the guys who brought about the Brexit vote have pretty much left the stage.

Meanwhile, following the Brexit vote, the number of hate crimes in the UK have risen sharply. No real surprise there.

The Brits have been part of a European single-market, in one form or another, for over 40 years. The EU came into being over 20 years ago. Which, as I gather, means that all of the trade deals between the EU and other nations have been negotiated by the EU, sort of in the same way that Iowas doesn't negotiate trade deals with Vietnam.

When the UK leaves (or is booted from) the EU, they're going to need to negotiate trade deals with everyone. The Brits will need to get some crackerjack trade negotiators and get them up to speed and on the governor in a pretty short timeframe.

Not my problem.

Trump: Thin-Skinned or an Idiot?

In a speech yesterday, Trump continued his full-throated argument that his Clinton graphic wasn't anti-Semitic.

So, on a day when the news cycle should have been about the Feebies giving a pass to Hillary, he kept this story going. Which is insane. Somebody with some smarts would have known that the thing to do would have been to issue a general denial and then just shut the fuck up and let the story peter out.

But no, that's not Trump's style. He's still got a chip on his shoulder about the "short-fingered vulgarian" insult of the 1980s. So you know he's not going to let this fade away.

Even though that would be the politically intelligent thing to do.

136 Years Ago

Otto Frederick Rohwedder was born in Davenport, Iowa.

I have little doubt that everyone who reads this has benefited from his work.

How to Bribe, err, Persuade Politicians (Yeah, That's the Ticket!)

It'd be a variation of this:

• Day 1: Walk into his/her office and say: "Gee, I think you're a great public servant, please accept this $25,000 donation for your campaign."
• Day 2: Walk into his/her office and say: "I'd like to suggest that you support/oppose Bill No. ###, as that is near and dear to my heart."
• Day 3: Again, walk into his/her office and say: "I don't believe that your timepiece reflects a person of your stature. Please accept a gift of this Rolex."

You might think that is bribery. It apparently isn't to the Supremes. For them, it has to be "vote for/against Bill ###, here's $25Gs."

And so, the American Oligarchy marches on. If you're not rich, the only time most of the politicians want to hear from you is on election day. The other 729/1,459/2,189 days of their term, they really don't give a rat's ass what you think.

(GMTA)

Pass the Popcorn; Fox News Ed.

Gretchen Carlson, a Fox News host, said Wednesday she was fired by the conservative-leaning cable news network and has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against its chairman and CEO, Roger Ailes.

In a statement released through a public relations firm, Carlson, best known for co-hosting “Fox & Friends” until 2013, said she “refused to sleep” with Ailes and “reported disparaging treatment in the newsroom.”

Oh, this is going to be good. Especially since this isn't the first time Ailes has been accused of sexually harassing women.

We Kind of Suspected That All Along; Iraq War Edition

While we've been jabbering about Racist Donald and Crooked Hillary, the British inquiry into the Iraq War has been released.

Basically, the only thing they didn't find was an evil cabal of neocons. But as to everything else, such as over-reliance on suspect intelligence, going to war when other options remained, and faulty postwar planning that could be considered to be criminally negligent, yeah, they found all that.

They found all that despite stonewalling and obstruction from both the British and American administrations, including refusals to release the conversations between President Bush and Prime Minister Blair.*

The Iraq War was a lie. Worse than a lie, it likely qualified as a war of aggression, which is a war crime.

Don't hold your breath that any of the architects or deciders of that war will ever be held to account for it.
__________________________________
* Or, "Chimpy and the Pig-Fucker", if you prefer.

The Cowards of Brexit (Plus News From Ft. Fumble)

Another one of the Brexit leaders has quit:

Nigel Farage's slogan during his 20-year campaign to take the UK out of the European Union was "I want my country back".

Now the UKIP leader has achieved his ultimate political ambition, seemingly against all the odds. And he has turned that epithet on himself - telling reporters that he "wants his life back" and is now standing down.

Yeah, sure. It'd be like Prime Minister Tojo saying, on December 8th, 1941 "I've achieved my goal, all y'all can finish up the pesky details."

Meanwhile, the Air Force is refusing to disclose how much their new B-3 B-21 will cost, claiming that telling the American taxpayers how much the Zoomie's new tow would help the enemy. But they say it will cost under $600 million apiece.

Which is poppycock. The Air Force leaders, both civilian and military, who make that assertion ought to be dragged down to the Capitol's holding cells and waterboarded.

The only "enemies" who would be assisted by revealing the true cost of the B-21 are those who are opposed to continually giving those fuckers blank checks.

Harvesting What They Planted; Saudi Ed.

A suicide bomber has killed four security officers and injured five others near one of Islam's holiest sites in the Saudi city of Medina, according to the interior ministry.

The bomber detonated his explosives after being stopped outside the Prophet's Mosque, a statement said.

The Saudi monarchy has been fostering and spreading a fundamentalist sect of Islam for decades. They are, in no small part, responsible for the spread of terrorism around the globe, whether they have funded it (as they have with al Qaeda, the Taliban, and ISIS) or morally encouraged it.

Some of it is not surprising, They're not the first kleptocratic monarchy to use religion as a justification for their actions. But it's been an unspoken deal that the Sauids would pay the terror groups and the terrorists would, in turn, not hit targets inside of the kingdom.

Now that deal seems to have fallen apart. About fucking time.

Aviating Assholes

1. Perfect footwear for an emergency evacuation:

2. I see more and more people traveling with "therapy" dogs. I'm 99+% sure it's bullshit. They want to take their little rat-dog with them on the plane, they don't want to put it into a carrier, and so they get a doctor-friend to write them something justifying the little mutt as a therapy dog. You can bet that, as they go about their daily affairs, that they don't take little Pootsy with them.

3. Some guy got a ride in a wheelchair from his flight down to baggage claim area. He's holding a cane between his legs. After he got out of the wheelchair, and the wheelchair attendant disappeared, the guy tucked his cane under his arm and walked briskly out of the terminal.