That cat propaganda is hilarious. I especially like "Kitteh is my homeboy."

But to where???

To the third floor... SO THEY SAY.

Vibing "stop swelling" vibes at ita's hands, with a side of "calm down, play nice, please don't fall apart on her" to the entire rest of ita's body.

ION, I'm feeling Allyson-like levels of smiting rage--just got the first of what I expect will be many, many political emails over the coming months, this one from a friend whom I know personally to be sweet and funny and loyal and endlessly generous, but who has jumped on the "If Hillary's the nominee I'm voting third-party" train; in trying to formulate a response, I stuttered through a crazy mishmash of:

• thoughts on the truly nastier sexist assumptions (some thinly veiled, some buck naked and right out front) behind a lot of the criticism of her candidacy so far
• reflections from a biography I just read about a politically astute, passionate Regency-era English duchess who might have been a major statesman if she'd been a man, and who's instead mostly a wacky fashion footnote
• worries about another four or eight years of a nakedly right-wing president making judicial nominations from the Supremes on down
• thoughts about Matilda and all the other Buffista babies growing up in a country where hospitals, doctors, even goddamn pharmacists can, in many jurisdictions (with no penalty and no avenue of recourse) refuse treatment and medications
• thoughts about gender politics, the Norm and the Other, the ones with power and the ones with exactly such privileges as the powerful ones deem appropriate and non-threatening and how damaging and limiting all this is to all of us, no matter what gender or class or race

and then I got totally incoherent. I tried, but my response was mostly an emotive "these are my bone-deep fears" mess. To which his response was a lame joke about Diana Ross and the Supremes, followed by whining about how the Democrats co-opted the Populist platform back in the '30s.

And now I seriously want to rip his nuts out and shove them down his fucking throat. This really, really bodes ill for the entire rest of the year, doesn't it?

reflections from a biography I just read about a politically astute, passionate Regency-era English duchess who might have been a major statesman if she'd been a man, and who's instead mostly a wacky fashion footnote

Georgiana?

Do what I do send an email along the lines of "I love you, I really do. But, I don't want to discuss politics with you or anyone else. So, please refrain from sending me propaganda, news, jokes or anything else related to the election. My head is in the sand right now and I like it that way"

That's her! An amazing life, and one in which she managed to wield a lot of power and influence, and yet one that's almost completely hidden from the history books.

I think you should write back.

"I cannot write coherently to you now as I want to rip off your nuts and shove them down your throat."

ION - hard parental thing for my moment - trying to explain African American history issues to mac. What does slave mean? Why would they do that? - it is like dying a little bit.

Oh, man, msbelle. Many hugs to both of you.

"If Hillary's the nominee I'm voting third-party" train

I don't really get this at all. He means instead of Obama?

ION - hard parental thing for my moment - trying to explain African American history issues to mac. What does slave mean? Why would they do that? - it is like dying a little bit.

I feel your pain. I had a complete "huh" moment with Nilly when I was explaining how and why Howard University was created and she said "but, why couldn't the black people learn with everybody else?"