Make America Kittens Again

@f00l - Ouch! You seem to have it backwards. Putting a Drumpf wig on a kitten is doing it wrong. Poor, poor kitty.

@f00l

@KDemo

According to the caption, it was a bear outfit designed for cats. But it seemed to fit your thread.

@f00l - I forgot the /s. Technically your fault, but since you were the affected party, I shall accept the blame.

TL;DR - Oops.

@OldCatLady - Kittens are the best medicine.

It was so good in a cringe-worthy way, @OldCatLady, with Putee and Drillerson. One might even call it unpresidented.

@OldCatLady omg, I’m completely devastated again. I so hope the electors were watching, for what it’s worth.

@KDemo I doubt that many electors were watching. The opening sketch was blistering. I’d spell it ‘Putie’, or maybe ‘Pooty’. Either way, they’re going to get excellent material out of it. Some good new characters in the mix, too. John Goodman as SoS Drillerson has lots of potential. He’s so jovial. And so evil.

@OldCatLady - Agreed - it was the ‘Love Actually’ bit that got me, but the opener was on point, too. Glad John Goodman has signed on, we’re really gonna need every ray of light we can find.

@Shrdlu - That must be the incoming Secretary of Defense.

@KDemo
One could only wish.

Except that the incoming Sec of Def choice is one of the few picks who appears to be both politically sane and competent for the position.

Can we nominate the cookie-kitty for State instead?

@f00l - But of course! It may not be old and white and wealthy enough to qualify, though.

@KDemo
You forgot male - and formerly CEO of something that causes a conflict of interest with the new job, and a commercial history of acting against US interests in furtherance of corporate goals, and being deeply and personally invested in the area he’s about to be Secretary of so that he can be sure to benefit everyone he knows including his relatives.

It’s gonna take some kitty to compete with that.

@f00l @Kdemo Well, that went downhill fast. It started dark and got positively Stygian.

@OldCatLady
Oops. And I thought I was understating things.

Let’s do kitties again. Cute kitties!!!

@f00l

@f00l

Tigger wouldn’t wear the hat.
=^…^=

@PocketBrain If I tried costumes on mine, my hide would be crosshatched all over.

@PocketBrain

That’s too good. Tell Tigger to spend more time in the Bacta tank.

@narfcake

Except 230 were for yourself, so the question now is:

Is 50,000 the “true” number?

@PlacidPenguin I don’t know, and I’ve since been on a clicking spree.

@narfcake

Click click click.

/giphy clicking

@Lurker Yeah really, I getting tired of this used car salesmen need love too.

@cranky1950 Oh the other hand the winners never seemed to get over Obama winning. And look what the party of Assholes is doing in NC.

@Lurker You didn’t have a problem with ‘Crooked Hillary’ and ‘Lock her up’ and punishment for women who had abortions, though. Get over it.

@Lurker - One needs a certain level of intelligence to recognize the sinkhole we’re being pulled into. Time to emulate your username now.

@KDemo I like Martin Sheen’s pithy explanation of why he will now become more politically active:…“in the same way as the Nazis had to be stopped in Germany in the Thirties, this thing that is on the rise has to be stopped.”

@Lurker

“Get over it” has not been operating policy in American politics for more than 20 years, and it’s not the centrists or the progressives who have set the bar on that.

@OldCatLady - So astute. And close as we’re getting to President Bartlet.

@f00l - There are so many, but let’s just hang McConnell out there as an example . . .

@KDemo

After WWII and during the Cold War, “country before party” and “patriotism before megadeals with our enemies which profit their readiness” were convictions one could assume in almost everyone, even in people one despised. Even if bad or corrupt judgement were common in the execution of policy, and venal conduct was often the norm once you were not explictly on a Cold War map, and the Cold War was used as a continual cover for corporate power.

I don’t wish to excuse the many horrors of that era. But the better souls from both parties, and from the corporate world never went far off those ideals when the grand struggles lay, even if the strategies were sometimes or frequently beyond horrible (for ex Central and South America). And these people who routinely cooperated across party lines had power and weight and game.

Trump could not have been elected in that world. He would have been flushed from the Republican primaries so quickly.

I wonder if the whole idea that the US is more than the sum of its conflicting power and apparent struggles over interests, and the idea that country matters more than partisan gain is gone for good. That could be one of the historical cusps toward which we might be tending.

I was hoping for another sort of cusp.

@Lurker Well, ya know, there door is right over there. No one’s holding a gun to your head to make you read this.

Speaking of guns…

Trump supporters will be waiting for Trump to keep his promises (like making America great again) as long as they’ve been waiting for Obama to come take their guns.

@f00l - The whole Russian hacking thing is a perfect illustration of party over patriotism. It is an ominous direction, and in the short term it does not appear there is much we can do to stop it.

@lisaviolet - well said.

@KDemo I believe I am the only person on earth who has never seen a single episode of ‘West Wing’. During most of its run, I was in a job with insane time demands and lots of travel, so I just never started it. Now I have time, and it’s available, so it’s in my queue.

@KDemo

The Republican party’s historical stance on our allies and on our Soviets/Russia relations must not fit well with Newspeak.

I understand why Romney endured his ritual humiliation at Trump Tower. Not that he’s my political sort, but afaik he has honorable and realistic intentions in foreign policy. I believe he thought it was his duty to take the post of State and do his best to be level-headed were he offered the job.

And what of all the other Republicans who are in such a hurry to scramble on board? Will they trade just any fundamental historical policy that’s proven bi-partisan sound over decades, just so they will have Trump’s support in gutting the govt and ballooning the deficit and “making deals”? Or will any part of that party stand against Trump and for what have been claimed to be fundamental Republican party foreign policy and economic principles for most of a century?

Doesn’t seem so.

@OldCatLady Make that two of the only people. Three if you throw in my husband.

@f00l I posted this earlier today on Facebook. I think it fits here.

My husband used to be in construction. He’s self-employed, worked for someone else when he was a teen, then went off on his own company (he’s almost sixty now). It was in construction and he made damned good money. And we spent it as fast as it came in. Good times. No regrets.

But then Bush’s recession hit. And people weren’t having fancy glass installed by high priced contractors, even if their work was superior. And, of course, there was the toll the work took on his body. And it certainly didn’t help that clients quit paying what they owed. “I’m only going to pay you this much, not a cent more, I don’t care what the contract is.” (Sound familiar?)

So, he started up another company and gradually phased out the construction job and started doing something he really enjoyed. But this doesn’t bring in nearly as much money as the construction work did.

He was a Republican when I met him. And he was a Republican until it became obvious all the Republicans were doing was filling a clown car in the run for president. He was a Republican until May of this year. Forty-one years. Now, he’s a Democrat.

And it’s amazing how his outlook has changed since he’s not making the big bucks and working in the homes of rich folk. How people he used to see as “entitled” really weren’t, they were just people trying to live. To get by. He found his empathy.

I don’t see that in Trump supporters. I see absolutely no empathy for others. “I got mine, screw you” type of thinking.

People who call themselves “Christian”.

And I just don’t get it.

@lisaviolet @OldCatLady add me in as well. I don’t even know what the show is about.

@OldCatLady - Hope it holds up. I’m sure it will. but then I’m a huge Sorkin fan, love his writing. Now I want to watch it again.

@OldCatLady - Aaron Sorkin

@f00l - I see them as the 1%, mainly focused on lining their own pockets and those of their cronies, with no regard for the consequences to the rest of us. They used their wealth to buy power, and they want more of both. It’s their base/voters that have me baffled - how can they be so gullible? Guess they’re in for a very rude awakening.

And I agree, @lisaviolet, I was thinking @lurker and others are devoid of empathy. The pres-elect has unleashed America’s demons.

@KDemo @lisaviolet

Not sure which is worse; national news before the election, or international news about us after the election.

@PlacidPenguin Here’s a little goat gif.

@PlacidPenguin That’s true. I used to read Der Spiegel, The Times, and some Italian & Spanish papers online. Now I just cringe. I’d hate to be a U.S. citizen living in Europe now.
/giphy cringe

@KDemo The problem is the rest of us, who saw and now see that rude awakening coming, are going to be just as screwed too - some of us more than others, but unfortunately we are all on the same screw those who aren’t the 1% ship.

For the first time in my life I wish I was older - old enough to get medicare (well presuming he doesn’t ruin that too). I can’t even let myself think about the health insurance situation. It already is unaffordable if you do not make enough to get a subsidy and live in a state that did not expand medicaid (my situation). My premium is now, in 2017, going to be $1119.19/mo with a total of $6100 deductible/out of pocket. And office visit copays don’t count towards the deductible or out of pocket either. That is $19,530.28/yr + copays (every year I hit the limit). And that is just for me. And I get food stamps (so that bill is way more than I make). And I have had a pile of cancers, one with no cure - so I am really screwed if they can dump me for pre-existing conditions again (especially since we are doing a bit of watch and wait on a likely relapse). And how will a voucher program of, what did someone say he suggested $2500/yr? do to help this? And then dump deductions from taxes? I already have to beg to cover some of the costs of medical care each year and so my tax refund each year is really useful - goes right to med stuff. Of course I guess this is a really good cure for poverty. Maybe that is actually the plan. Sigh.

@Kidsandliz

That’s one reason I wondered if you ever wanted to leave MS. To go to a state with a more affordable or helpful situation regarding healthcare. I also don’t know which states that don’t have expensive cost of living would be better.

Altho moving is incredibly expensive and finding work, esp finding academic work; I dunno.

Your situation appears (from the ourside) to be close to impossible, unless you can find part time work with good health insurance for not so many hours put in per week.

@f00l I can’t move until I have a better job in the new state or get into public housing in the new state (am on several lists). Puts a crimp in my geographic mobility. Already had to play the homeless game once. Don’t really want a repeat of that (which is what will happen if I move without a better job already lined up or don’t have a spot in public housing). 19 months was long enough thank you. Can cross that off my bucket list. Oh wait bucket lists are for what you want to do… LOL

@Kidsandliz Medicare? I’ll be able to get it in three years. But will it still be there at that point? Repubs want to gut it or privatize it (seriously, when has privatizing EVER been a good thing for the customer?).

It’s something I worry about. For the first time in my life, I’m worried about the future. Because this is something completely and totally out of my control, in the hands of white greedy men.

@PlacidPenguin http://americannewsx.com/humor/trump-mocked-globe-baldwin-tame/

@lisaviolet
The Republicans seem to feel they are about to have the freedom to run the table in a way they never did with either of the Bushes or with Reagan.

@f00l I know. I know. I just wish those of us who didn’t buy tickets to this shit show weren’t going down with the ship.

@lisaviolet - I’m petrified about changes to Medicare and Social Security. At least Bernie is still in there pulling for us.

@lisaviolet IRT Medicare: 2016 was the first entire year I had it, and it’s awesome. However, I also kept a policy through the Federal Employee Program as a retiree. If I ever drop out of it, I can never get back in- and now I’m more than ever glad I slogged through all the decades. I believe Medicare will be gutted.

@OldCatLady

Check out the video. They just don’t get it. They don’t understand what they have to lose. Until they lose it. And the sense of entitlement is strong with these people, but it’s different because they’re special.

https://www.facebook.com/OccupyDemocrats/videos/1347765261983191/

@lisaviolet Ick. Their cousins live next door to me. They too have a shortage of teeth, jobs, nonwhite friends, and brains. Their birth certificates feature names like ‘Gator’ and ‘Missy’. They will blame all the coming disasters on this administration, because they can’t understand numbers.

@KDemo @lisaviolet I hear you on the medicare and social security. I blew a heck of a lot of my retirement fund to keep up with cancer expenses over the years (first time I had it was grad school and there was no out of pocket limit - I had gone back to school after being out nearly 15 years). What I went through recently was bad enough. I can’t imagine doing it again when/if I ever get lucky enough to hit 70 and am dying of cancer. Those asshats have no compassion… a bunch of high functioning sociopathic, borderline personality disorder jerks who have had empathy lobotomies.

@OldCatLady I have seen some of it. It’s all Sorkin-talk, with political people who resemble pet animals in a way that I found distracting but not unpleasant.

@Cranky1950 Party of Assholes? How can you tell which that is? The whole lot of the political system is filled with elitist assholes who don’t get (and don’t care to get) what it’s like to be a real, working American.

@Pantheist - The extension? It works for me, but it takes a couple of beats to kick in after you open the page. Perhaps the reviewers were impatient?

@KDemo alright I’ll try. Only because my current strategy of getting all of my news from animaniacs has the disadvantage of it still thinks bill clinton is president.

@Pantheist Install it in Chrome, then close and reopen. It still took half an hour, but it’s very good for my blood pressure.

@OldCatLady done and done!

@OldCatLady it works!

@OldCatLady -
http://www.snopes.com/harvard-professor-wants-electoral-college-to-reject-trump/

I know it won’t work. And even if it did, the House would likely elect Pence - not a lot better. There is one last night to live in denial, though.

@KDemo It’s a nice thought(not pence, but that we could somehow change the actual result), but they got the job because people trust them to vote on party lines- I doubt they’ll change.

@OldCatLady

Amusing search results.

@Pantheist @OldCatLady - Just found out - we won’t know the results of the EC vote for a few weeks, until Jan 6th, I think.

Denial lives on!

@KDemo I’d hate to be one of the people doing the counting. The weight of the world will be on their shoulders.

@OldCatLady - I was wrong. It’s a done deal. I’ll be under the bed if you need me . . .

@OldCatLady Well if you figure out where to find one and get it to work, look down the food chain because there are a couple in line for the throne that are, in my opinion, at least as dangerous - they just are sneaker… might as well go for a volume test of the thing…

@Kidsandliz I don’t want to do the work necessary. I want a magic wand. Until one arrives, I will depend on my imagination. Wouldn’t it be loverly?

@Kidsandliz @OldCatLady

Surely there are easier ways to take care of people. Although they may not be as fun.

@OldCatLady What??? I was depending on you to follow through LOL And yeah… I could use a magic want and not just for that either.

@PlacidPenguin @OldCatLady Yeah - I like the magic want method OldCatLady proposed… except the easy part will only happen after someone figures out how to make one of those… Too bad star trek isn’t reality TV. Then we’d have one. LOL

@DrunkCat

@lisaviolet That’s a great show.

@DrunkCat - Oops, thanks for pointing that out. Should have said crises.

@KDemo We’re certainly lowering the bar one notch down every day.

@DrunkCat - At the very least.

@DrunkCat He’s descended into the catacombs and is still digging. Or drilling.

@OldCatLady - Thanks, I think.
I read it. The writer doesn’t pull any punches. Just wish the actions suggested at the end were more detailed and forceful. Cause if someone doesn’t find a way to block the corruption . . .

omg @OldCatLady - I feel so helpless. I wish we weren’t on opposite sides of the country, because we need a hug.

@KDemo I know. Have you joined any of the FB pages that have sprung up? Some of them provide good information as well as support. If you’re interested, email me at alurawilson at gmail.

@OldCatLady

That sits is so obnoxious on mobile that I can’t read it. But I get the idea.

@f00l The auction site has just been taken down. Screenshots exist for precisely this purpose.

@OldCatLady - The article you linked is still there - I am having trouble believing it’s real?!?

@KDemo It is indeed. Late night news had even more details; the foundation that offered the trip was established within the last week, by Eric Trump and Donald Jr. The campaign has now issued a statement that the sale was totally not connected with the sons, and in future they would have nothing at all to do with it. The new revised site refers to ‘campaign connected’ people, and more verbal fluff. I know what this is like- the proverbial way to cook a frog. You just keep turning the temperature of the water up and before the frog realizes it, it’s soup. Except we’re toast.

@OldCatLady - Groan. Great analogy. Hope Samantha Bee gets a hold of the story.

@somf69
Ok I’ll just look that stupid now.

Fine by me.

@somf69 - Cats in crocs sounds worse than it looks.

@OldCatLady - I had to look up Horcrux, that’s good. (You haven’t seen West Wing, I haven’t seen Harry Potter).