That "would be discussed at a later date" stuff reminds me of Ahnold.

Anybody remember when he was running for governor here in CA? He had all those groping/molestation/horndog scandals erupting around him. Doonesbury was caricaturing him as a disembodied groping hand. And he promised he'd discuss everything after the election.

So he gets elected. And what does he do about that promise after the election? He ignored it completely. Said it's time to move on. Not going to rehash old stuff or "look backward" and all those other trite little excuses.

The really infuriating part was - the media went along with it. Oh okay, Mr. Governor-elect. We won't bother you about this anymore. You're right... let's just move on... Nothing to see here...

So we never DID find out what he would have discussed and illuminated that whole sexual misconduct "Groper-gate" mess. It just ... went... awaaaaaay ...

Could you even imagine what the press would do if that were Hillary?

That's our former mayor! He can be pretty witty when he wants to be!

It was a flaccid release.

Welcome to DU, Big_K!

Got yer nose!

(I'm way late this week. Glad I went back and caught these before they disappeared. Another epic collection!)

What this helps bring forward is the reminder of who Hillary actually IS.

And NOT what the years of CON-schemed character assassination that WAY too many people have bought into. Including WAY WAY too many of the good guys we've known for years. They've done a fucking hatchet job on her. To the extent that now the talk among the chattering class is how hard she'll be to trust, as President. They're fucking up her Presidency ALREADY. Deliberately.

It's just astonishing. Why the need seems so damn great to diminish and demean a woman who's devoted her life to public service - both in office and outside of it, both high profile and low profile. So the overall effect is to hobble her efforts and prevent her from working for the greater good - including the greater good even of the bad guys. What they don't get is how her exhaustive efforts, practical problem-solving, and innovative thinking will benefit THEM as well. Sometimes I swear it almost seems like nobody gets that. WHY is there such a need to mess her up and get in her way and prevent her from doing what we are all going to need for her to do - to help solve ALL OUR PROBLEMS and address ALL OUR ISSUES, or as many as she can.

I don't get it.

It's so damn counter-productive. And blindingly stupid.

It's just fucking INFURIATING.

http://crooksandliars.com/2016/07/hillary-clinton-i-know

So they have their own "Trump Mini-Me," 'eh?

What I keep wondering is - WHO THE HECK thought this jerk was fit to be governor???

Who votes for these assholes?

Who finds them acceptable to hold high office, and be the face of their state?

Who on earth regards this as okay?

Somebody needs to help me out with this.

I love this story!

Thank you for posting it, Little Tich!

It isn't the first time I've heard of a therapy cat like this, comforting the elderly and the dying. There was a story awhile back about another cat like this - a different one, not an orange tabby - that somehow knew when a patient was on the verge of death. That cat would head toward that patient's room, jump up on the bed, and settle in, providing some final comfort and sweetness. Makes me get choked up just to think about it.

Cats are WUNNNNNNNderful. I've always gravitated toward them. We have three at the moment. Indeed, there's nothing like a good, purring, loving kitty cat.

They're the same assholes who excoriated him in past years because he was observed

in one photo NOT wearing a flag pin on his lapel.

He will meet you at the Rainbow Bridge someday.

Where you'll also meet Ernie, Mousetrap, Dub, Checkpoint, Bear, Stripe, Rao, Tugger, and other critters we've loved and who've left us.

It's VERY true. Trump gives it acceptability. Actually, more acceptability.

But he's just the latest in a long and rather hideous string of this shit.

I think it started with hate radio, that, itself, began when reagan started deregulating broadcasting, late in his reign of terror and proud ignorance. He started it by lifting ownership restrictions. There's a long-winded story about that but in the interest of not boring you, suffice it to say that reagan cleared the way for broadcast owners (read: greedy gluttonous corporations) to gobble up as many TV and radio properties as they wanted. Another part of that was that they no longer had to prove any sort of responsive programming to local interests, issues, and concerns. So that led to a feeding frenzy like fresh meat thrown to a roiling pool of hungry sharks.

Lots of my friends at the local level lost their jobs because business being what it is, the new bosses wanted to cut costs. And it was far cheaper just to pipe in some syndicated programming from New York or wherever else. It was cheaper to do talk radio, because you didn't need a music director, you didn't need a staff of jocks and their assistants, and on AM talk sounded better than music anyway. The AMs that played music were usually "full service" stations which usually included personality deejays (the morning drive jock was invariably some power talent or big cheese and cost a LOT more), as well as a working news department, live traffic reports, and more - including a public affairs department. All that overhead was expensive, and business being what it is, hey, let's do it as cheaply as possible. Besides, the government has now told us we no longer HAVE TO do a certain amount of news & public affairs per broadcast day or broadcast week, either! Deregulation ROCKS!!!

Meantime, less news & public affairs mean listeners who aren't as well educated about local and national goings-on because there's less coverage overall. But that syndicated crap is great! And a lot of it was talk-show related. This fellow Jeff Christie started rising out of somewhere in America, kicked around the deejay scene in various small markets around the country, changed his on-air name to rush limbaugh and somehow wound up at the local AM in Sacramento. Where he did talk. CONservative talk. Which back then was WAY new. It got ratings. And when something proves to be a hit, as you see on TV all the time, suddenly there are many many clones of it.

What I think was really happening was - ol' rush tapped into something that had been locked away in a closet. Like that proverbial wacko reactionary uncle you keep in your attic til you kinda have to bring him down to share Thanksgiving dinner with the rest of the family. But otherwise, he's kept away from normal people, and thereby muzzled, because of the jerky-ass things he says and believes, that you really can't or shouldn't say in polite company. Like why you hate Jews and those individuals described using the "n-word," and why you think women are the "c-word" and you think every Latino currently breathing oxygen is dismissed as "Mexican." Because "Mexican" is somehow a derisive word, too. As is "liberal." As are the words "women's libber" and all manner of disgusting labels for the gay community. But hate radio, captained by the likes of rush limbaugh and all the other little junior limbaughs he spawned from coast to coast, brought all that shit out into the open. It was no longer closeted. It was no longer not okay to say in polite company. You not only could still think that way and hold onto those views, but now you could be out in the open about it. You could be loud 'n' proud.

And the GOP, ever the opportunistic infections that they are, noticed that this was an under-served demographic - one from which could be harvested LOTS of votes, and so there they went, with slobbering chins and bibs on.

Hate radio and its eventual devil-child, Pox Noise, brought all of that shit out of the closet, out of hiding, and made it respectable. Gave it not just a seat at the table that it had been denied (because, honey, we don't say those things in public, or honey, that's not nice - you're not supposed to think that way). Hate radio and Pox Noise made it acceptable, respectable, and financially rewarding. It was okay not just to spout that shit, but to believe it with all your heart, because rush said so on the radio and bill o'really says it on TV every night, just adding to its validation.

This utterly demonic shift in public policy starting with fucking reagan not only did NOT admonish those who thought or felt that way to keep it to themselves, don't say that in public - they told you it was okay to do so. That you had GOOD REASONS to feel that way. And no, you shouldn't have to get over it and come into modern times. You DON'T have to accept changing times and conditions and demographics if you don't want to. It's not only okay, we have your back, and we'll shout it to the rooftops! It's OKAY to be racist! It's okay to be sexist! It's okay to be homophobic! It's okay to be anti-Semitic! YOU'RE the victim here! You're being told to shut up just because it's not politically correct. But you don't have to! And I agree with you, too! So shout it! Loud and proud!

Anyone notice how, at the Trump rallies in particular, many of his fans love how politically INCORRECT he is? My mother kept company with one of them while she was still alive and he knew she might leave him something. He'd send emails around complaining - "why can't I say the 'n-word'?" Disgusting.

Unfortunately, seems to me this is bad behavior that's encouraged and reinforced. You're entitled to say any ol' "n-word" you want! That's OKAY! YOU'RE okay, too! SO shout it! Be in their faces - all those nanny-staters who tell you you can't say that shit in public because it isn't nice. If YOU think it's nice, well, that's your right! You're entitled!

It used to be "you can't say that on the radio" (or on TV). Now, though, it's become - "go ahead and say ANYTHING you damn well want! It gets ratings! So be as bad and as shitty and nasty and mean-spirited and bullying as you think you can get away with being! And be damned proud of it! You're entitled! Besides, it's gonna get ratings! And we can charge more for commercial time! There's money to be made! Or as CBS chieftain Les Moonves said not too long ago about how this election season has just deteriorated to shit and allowed the rise of Donald Trump: "it's bad for the country, but it's GREAT for business!"

THIS is the mentality that reagan seeded, deregulation and greed watered and fertilized, and hate radio and and its devil child Pox Noise have been harvesting with great joy ever since. When you start with that sickly recipe, you wind up with a toxic cake.

T for Toxic.

T for Teabaggers.

And T for Trump.

(Aw, crap, I was gonna avoid being long-winded... sorry)