Hope you all are having a lovely day today, whatever this day means to you (or doesn’t). Consider this an open thread, to discuss whatever, from presents to politics to cats to whatever holiday stress you might be feeling.
And here’s some stuff I found on the Twitter.
— David, who is hanging in there
Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎄🎅 pic.twitter.com/YfyTsQ95de
— Maggie Serota (@maggieserota) December 25, 2017
At this time of year, take a few moments to remember who Christmas is truly about… pic.twitter.com/TQ9tSP5EED
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) December 24, 2017
I haven’t laughed this hard in a while. I needed this. pic.twitter.com/2aQFpugdis
— deray (@deray) December 7, 2017
Brian Eno, Paris, 1973 (with Christmas 2017 augmentation) pic.twitter.com/hRwMDTOUKv
— Brian Eno News (@dark_shark) December 25, 2017
“Fun” pic.twitter.com/tsAdsZeez8
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 24, 2017
#MerryChristmas 🎄🤶🏻 pic.twitter.com/IahMZhf5gc
— Melania Trump 45 Archived (@FLOTUS45) December 25, 2017
Same. pic.twitter.com/kcNPdrLy6R
— Adrenalin (@adrenalindenver) May 24, 2017
🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅
All of a sudden …
🐾🐾🐾🐾 pic.twitter.com/fza8NZioI0
— The Cult Cat (@Elverojaguar) December 25, 2017
Human: My cat has an easy life
Me: pic.twitter.com/e8kvlVhUdR— Curious Zelda (@CuriousZelda) December 20, 2017
https://twitter.com/awwcuteness/status/945193410662682624
10/10 Would seed for 72 hours. 😛
@Everyone
Sorry I got angry. I’m still rather sore. I’m taking a break before I come back. You all have a good weekend. 🙂
I don’t think any of the people who criticized (abusively, IMHO) you and mrex were parents. And this is MY last comment on the matter.
Valentine:
I grew up in a town that was primarily of French, Irish, and Polish ancestry. The top student in my high school class was of Polish, French, and Native American ancestry. There was some ethnic discrimination from older people but I don’t recall any major ethnic prejudice among my classmates. (There were some Catholic-Protestant issues.) I don’t recall the Polish people being considered inferior to any of the other ethnic groups — except, of course, that older people of Anglo ancestry tended to have some prejudice. There was a lot of anti-Russian feeling — this was a time, after all, when Russia was regarded as the Great Satan by almost all Americans. But most of the people of Slavic ancestry (including the small number of Russians) were from countries that were under Soviet control, so there was a lot of positive feeling toward them. I’m not claiming that there’s no prejudice against Slavs, just that it’s not a strong prejudice — there’s far more prejudice against several other groups. And I think it’s primarily found among the sort of xenophobes that enthusiastically support Trump. And obviously it would be useful to pro-Putin right-wingers to convince Ukrainians that anti-Putin Liberals are actually prejudiced against Slavs or Russians rather than against Putin and his gang of thugs and crooks. It seems to me to be a very important point, because making Ukrainians distrust Liberal Americans would serve Putin’s interest quite a bit.
Incidentally, I have always been critical of anti-Russian (as distinguished from anti-Putin) sentiments. I think the US made a terrible mistake by gloating and rubbing the Russians’ noses in the hard times following the collapse of the USSR (do people remember the US “experts” claiming that Russia needed “shock therapy”?). I thought we had a chance to help Russia move toward being more a part of Europe and western democracy, and we threw it away, and Putin is our reward. Russia has always been one of the most backward nations in Europe, for a lot of reasons, including the persistence of the totalitarian rule of the czars and legal serfdom, a form of almost-slavery that didn’t end until the early 1860s. The huge distances and the unwillingness of the czars to delegate authority to a bureaucracy made Russia almost ungovernable — and the response of the czars was to wage nearly endless wars to conquer even more territory. The Communists inherited a conglomeration of ethnic groups that was almost certain to have irresolvable conflicts. For anyone interested in how Russia got to where it is now, I recommend Edward Crankshaw’s book about Czarist Russia, In the Shadow of the Winter Palace.
Charlie Pierce made a great comment on the Shithole remark
By the way, one of the interesting things about the Czars is that they were German, not Russian, and I don’t think any of them spoke Russian. (I’m not sure of that.) The last Czar, Nicholas II, was AT MOST 1/64th Russian, depending on who you think impregnated Catherine the Great — the only thing that is certain is that it was NOT her husband the Czar-in-Name-Only. Thus, somewhat ironically, there was a built-in anti-Slavic prejudice in the government of Russia itself.
*pops her head up*
Holy shit it is 5 am and this has been going on since 1 am, but kittens are happening now!
Well they’re not coming out yet, but Carisma is clearly doing that “very soon and oh my god they are rolling in my tummy and when are they going to do it!” thing and I need to stay awake and stuff.
@Skiriki
Exciting! I hope it all goes smoothly for mama cat and cat mama.
@Kupo
There’s a lot of kittydrama going on!
There was a delicate, tender grooming session between sisters, and then they turned it into a fight and then it went back to grooming and fight and Carisma has been running to the litterbox to turn it upside down with pawing (and I had just cleaned it and put in clean litter) and and and…
OMG this is tense.
And kitties have been effectively banned from the bedroom so they can’t hide under the bed and Otter’s workroom too, so they can’t have accidents with his desktop.
GOM
I feel like you misunderstood again or didn’t read properly what I said, and again make same argument ‘I didn’t see it so I don’t believe it’ just with different words. I already said everything I want to say about this topic. I will only repeat same things if I continue.
Poor kitty, she’s having quite intense and repeated contractions and it is probably very soon when she’s gonna pop and aggghhhh will I live if I chug down third mug of tea or is my heart gonna splode!?
PS: this is really terrifying Didi again.
this is not ironic. in fact, it is mentioned in what article I shared. Russian government is russophobic against its citizens. it tells them they need this treatment, they deserve it.
I suggest, read Russian & Ukranian writers. there are English translations. also there at Russians who write English books. like masha gessen – Russian-american. Andrey Kurkov – Russian-ukranian translations of his books in english, German and French. he writes fiction and factual books.
serfs is well known history and also imperial Russia well known. “backwards” is not acceptable to say. this is little bit what I mean. you will call people backwards because they suffer actions of unelected leaders? comment on your own country, but please educate yourself and listen to Russians who lived and born in USSR and read writings of those who lived in imperial times. I feel like from what you say, simple facts and stereotypes, you didn’t read plenty on this subject.
I can know difference between critisism of putin and dangerous russophobia and ignorant stereotypes. this is what I tried to say every time! no one ‘convinced me’ this is like your other comment where you try to say I believe ‘right wing lies’ when what article I shared is from pro-ukrainian blog.
I didn’t talk about all liberals, I talk about problem with what some liberals saying and that they refuse to discuss this problem or talk about it. even deny it exists.
I am too young to remember this. but, this also is what Russians saying at this time. they need solution. they need something. some chose nationalism like new national Bolshevik movement and idiots like Alexander dugin who call themself ‘philosopher’ and associate with people who kill Muslims in Yugoslavia and then Yeltsin who makes his speach that Russia must know what horrible things done in her name and that unity is important. so many ideas from everyone – not just America. when USSR fell, occupied states gain their identity, but Russians realised – they don’t have any identity. this is 100% more complicated that when you write so simply what you believe is a reason, it is insulting.
http://readrussia.com/2015/06/09/vatnost-–-why-the-west-cant-understand-russia/
another article from same guy. he is not Kremlin supporter or right wing.
Re: Norwegians not wanting to emigrate to US – Trump seems to be echoing the sentiment of Groucho Marx:
“I wouldn’t accept immigrants from any country that’s shitty enough that people want to come here”
Still no sign of kittens.
This is TBH a bit worrisome at this stage, since she’s been panting heavily and stuff since 5:30 am or so.
The first kitten was born dead 🙁 It was born bottom first and something went wrong 🙁
@Skiriki
I’m so very sorry. Blessings to the dead kitty. It’s all fields of catnip for that one from here on out.
Do you think you should take her to a vet (an emergency vet if it’s night where you are)?
I hope the other kittens are all born by now and healthy.
Clarification: By “take her to a vet,” I meant the mother cat. Of course, if any of the kittens have been born and are unwell, maybe they should go too.
We’ll have to wait and see, Kat. Right now Carisma is resting — not a lot, because she’s behaving in a manner that says a second one is going to come out soon — but she seems to be feeling a whole lot better than before.
She licked the dead one clean, tried to poke it alive couple of times and then just bluntly abandoned it, was over and done with it.
It wasn’t coming out like at all, but turning inside her, and by the time I saw one hindleg, it was pretty much game over for the wee furry one. The placenta had been torn loose during turning, but by the time foot popped out, birth was regular-fast. So… much sadness.
Urg, sorry for first kitten. Hoping for the second for you.
So sorry about the kitten. Hope the others come out fine and that mama cat is ok.
@Skiriki
I’m sad too. I’m hoping for the best for Carisma and you and any other kittens.
Could everyone who has been arguing in this thread just take a step back? I think you’ve all made your points and continuing the discussion isn’t doing anyone any good.
skiriki!
oh no that’s really sad(( same happened to my friend when her cat have kittens but 3 survived out of 5. I hope she gets another healthy one ?
Just popping on super quick to send warm fuzzies to Skiriki and the beautiful kittehs, especially Mumma Carisma.
So sorry about the first wee one; hoping very much that things go better now ???
She has been having some sort of break, nommed on gooshy food and right now maybe next one? There’s still a bit of a bulge and she’s behaving like there’s still a new one but..?
We’ll see.
PS she’s also herding me back to bedroom and is cross if I don’t go, so… I’ll drop a message later.