Conservatives never believed that. They think caring about others is a sign of weakness, not strength.

Is she a Russian Blue?

She looks like she might be, and if she is, there's a tradition of giving them Russian names. Natasha is a good name for her, in my opinion.

If she is a Russian Blue, you may have hit the cat-jackpot. I love cats, but Russian Blues are especially awesome. They're very friendly, curious and playful.

Two fun traits of Russian Blue cats.

1: The like water. My ex had a Russian Blue who would follow me into the bathroom to play in the sink. Whenever I'd brush my teeth, I had to leave the water running with a tiny trickle so she could bat her paw in the water for a drink. When I'd take a shower, she would jump up on the tub and walk along the edge between the shower curtain and liner. On the downside: any drink that was left unattended got a paw stuck down it.

2: Many people who are allergic to cats aren't allergic to Russian Blues.

Congrats on adding a new companion to your home. She looks adorable.

If it matters, yes I am legally blind. But it shouldn't matter. Wrong is wrong. And by admitting that I am legally blind, I'll probably get attacked here for that, because that's how this works. I don't expect you to understand since that's not something you have to deal with. Most of the attacks will come in private messages. I've already received a bunch tonight just for pointing out that it's low to mock disability. But mocking disability is pretty low.

I have a theory that many people try to boost their self esteem by trying to find somebody whose life is harder than theirs, and they knock them down so they can feel better about themselves. It's sad, but it is what it is.

It's still low. Using disability for a punchline is very very low... but it gets the laugh because there is no shortage of very low people.

The second "best" response is about mocking the disabled. That's pretty pathetic. And apparently there's no shortage of people dying to pile on.

That's pretty low.

I'll never understand why so many people think it's funny to mock the disabled.

But it won't be an obvious pattern since sunset times differ every day as they get earlier in the fall and later in the spring.

That being said... come on. If professional burglars are monitoring your house for days - literally days - so they can rob you, they're coming regardless of whether or not you have automated blinds. And they're coming armed. So losing some stuff is the LEAST of your worries.

The fact that the shades go down is more likely a signal to potential burglars that somebody IS home since, on the outside, the burglars see activity going on inside.

Indeed. He was, and still is, a scumbag.

On the same morning that at least 12 U.S. service members were killed in a bloody terror attack in Kabul, former President Donald Trump suggested Osama bin Laden wasn’t a big deal and only “had one hit.”

As they should be. GQP extremists GOP inspired Domestic Terrorists that illegally stormed the Capitol should 100% foot the bill instead of the taxpayers.

They are GOP inspired Domestic Terrorists. We have to start using the term Domestic Terrorists to describe people whose goal is to commit acts of domestic terror.

Oh yeah.

I can take 100 degrees in Dallas before 90 degrees in Houston.

Typically, Dallas is hot and dry. Houston is hot and humid to the point where it can feel soupy. Houston gets all of that humidity rolling in off the Gulf Of Mexico, but it's inland just far enough that it doesn't get a sea breeze. It's miserable.

Bravo.

This may not be about eating cheap, but it is absolutely about staying healthy.

Please get vaccinated.
Please encourage those you love to get vaccinated.

1985: Apple fired Steve Jobs.

I loved Christopher Loyd's cameo in The West Wing. He's such fun to watch. No one could have been more perfect than him for his role in Back To The Future.

Have you seen Christopher Nolan's first movie, "Following"? It is FANTASTIC.

It's barely an hour long and was made for $6,000. Seriously. It's in black and white, probably because it was cheaper, but B&W gives the film such a great look.

If you haven't seen Following, put it on your must-see list. If you can't find it streaming, it's worth buying on DVD.

Wow, that's very kind of you. It's just a hobby, but it's a hobby I love.

Thanks! My biggest regret from last year is that I didn't do a good job of sharing that stuff online. Anything I shared got attacked by the spray tan klan, so I just posted it on my own site and occasionally on FB.

That's really evocative, mate. Well done.

Thanks. I appreciate it.

I remember those late nights/early mornings and thinking the people who thought cops would eventually get violence fatigue must not have had a lot of previous encounters.

Speaking of not having a lot of previous encounters... I remember standing a few feet away from one of Trump's secret police goons last summer, and I could see the fear in his eyes. Well, I could see it through the camera lens anyway.

Once I noticed it, so many other things about the goons became obvious. They had little experience and they weren't well trained. They may not have had any training for the job they'd been sent here to do. Hell, they may not have even known why they were sent here. They were often jumpy, and if you got the chance to look them in the eye, they often looked scared. They were in way over their heads, and in my opinion, that made them more dangerous.

I got the feeling they expected to arrive in Portland and be treated like liberating heroes. Instead, they were faced with their fellow citizens treating them like traitors, night after night.

I was fascinated by the goons. The Homeland Security guys moved in unison, in formation. They moved with purpose. Even the Border Patrol guys had a sense of order to the way they acted as a unit. Not the goons. The goons were just heavily armed, bumblin' stumblin' idiots. Look at them.

You're right, but my fear is there may come a point where the PPB stands with militia, actively fighting with them against Portlanders.

Imagine if, on 1/6, the Capitol Police had joined the mob storming the Capitol to attack congress.

I assume the goons for hire who served as Trump's secret police will return in the 2024 presidential election cycle to support whoever the Republican candidate is, but instead of working for the federal government as they did under Trump, they'll be working for whoever funds the militia.

Oh my god, don't I know it! We were so young, weren't we? And so naive, no matter how much we thought we knew. We had no idea how bad it was going to get. And the worst part is, we still don't.

Last summer, I used to come home late at night (early in the morning, actually) and write about what I'd seen... mostly because I was too wound up to go to sleep. So, I'd go through the photos I'd taken that night and find one to write about.

This is one of my favorite stories from last year... not that it's a great story. It's just a memory that really stuck with me:

The NEW New Normal

(Sun, 02 Aug 2020)

"Jesus. Is it really that bad?"

It was Wednesday evening. An older gentleman sat next to me on one of the concrete barriers along the reinforced fence surrounding the federal courthouse, and he looked worried.

"Is what that bad?" I asked him.

"I passed at least twenty guys in gas masks and, I think, some ninjas."

"They're not ninjas. They're dressed like that to hide their identities. From the cameras, I mean. We've got cameras, the feds have cameras, the press, the streamers, the ACLU folks... Everybody's got cameras & everybody's on camera."

The speed at which all of this became normal is astounding. Earlier in the evening, I saw a group of people wearing gas masks slip into the entrance of a parking garage. A year ago, that would have horrified me. But now? I didn't even flinch.

Things become normal so fast.

One day, we were all watching Tiger King on Netflix. The next: we're watching secret police stormtroopers use chemical weapons on peaceful protesters in the heart of an American city, and the only thing more infuriating was how quickly everyone got used to it & even started to shrug it off. Last weekend, there was a cloud of CS gas blowing into the park at Lownsdale Square, but people didn't want to lose their spot in line at Riot Ribs, so they stayed. I heard a voice say "It's fine. It'll pass." A week later, the protesters are even more used to it. All of it. Meanwhile, the rest of the city seems to have fallen into an almost indifferent whatevs. "It's fine. It'll pass."

Things become normal too fast.

Secret police with chemical weapons should never be something people get used to. Never. But they did.

Welcome to the homestretch of the 2020 presidential election cycle.

As August begins, there's already a new New Normal downtown. Trump's stormtroopers haven't left, but they're standing down. No one knows for sure what it means, but the violence has stopped.

So that's... something.

During the last four years, I cleared most of that nonsense out. Unfriend, unfollow... I pared down the number of people I actually wanted to be in touch with or see updates from.

I will absolutely fight for the things I care about... but I think it's wise to take a step back and ask oneself: "How much time do I really want to waste on other people's negativity?" If I were you, I'd clear that clown out of your newsfeed.

Years ago, I had a racist uncle who always forwarded me bigoted bullshit. I created a rule in my email that automatically marked anything from him as read and deleted it. I didn't even want to be notified... just clear it and delete it. Life is too short for that garbage.

And you move up in the draft before the season even begins.

I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve had people from outside the city explain to me what’s “really going on in Portland”.

Same.

Last year it was especially infuriating. There were times last summer when I could open my windows and hear the protests, meanwhile I had a load of laundry going to wash the remnants of tear gas from Trump's unidentified secret police goons out of my clothes from the previous night... yet some clown from Alabama wants to tell me what's really going on in Portland.

Fuck. That. I was there. I still am. This is my home.

Edited to add: The same Portland Police who didn't protect Portlanders from Trump's secret police then won't protect us from right wing militia now. At some point, they may even join forces with the militia.