I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!

oops

Ruth, I’m so surprised I did not know George Washington had no biological children of his own! I had no idea Martha had been married and widowed before George! Just wow! Thanks for the history lesson!

Not many news outlets seem to be covering Trump’s latest comments (mentioned by a couple memes here today). Tho I rarely make political posts on Facebook, I could not let this go unnoticed, especially since so much of the media seems to be ignoring it: Last night, speaking to Christians at the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump made his plans to become a strongman clear: “Get out and vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what: it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians…. Get out, you’ve got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”

I will always feel concern with this election, but I also have hopeful moments where I remind myself that Obama was elected twice, and he and Michele have officially endorsed Kamala. They will be out on the campaign trail which is highly in our favor. It also portends well if the polling is in fact right about zero black support for Trump in Michigan. What I would like to think is that we are at the very beginnings of a small rumble of momentum that continues to grow louder and louder and culminates in a massive groundswell of thunderous support for Harris on election day. The comment has been made that if Trump wins the election, there is no calvary coming to save us. Therefore, Let The Democratic Voters Be The Calvary Now!

It was the mumps which George contracted as a teenager. Martha's first husband and 2 of her 4 children had died before she met George. Her husband left her in control of his estate and business (very rare in those days). So she was a very rich widow and could do whatever she wanted (before marriage, girls were under the control of their father or guardian, after marriage all their assets were controlled by their husband). Martha had a happy first marriage and made an excellent choice by marrying George. He never, ever TOLD her what to do, loved her children as his own, and was completely honest. He kept 4 separate accounts. One of his money, one of hers, and one for each of the kids. And she supported him completely. A very great partnership.

Oh, a wonderful bit of history that took me down a rabbit hole! Mumps, small pox, and tuberculosis have all been blamed for Washington’s sterility, with TB seeming to be the prime suspect. I read an article that delves into posible causes and I now know more than I wanted to know about Washington 😉. You learn something new every day! Will try to link it but I continue to have trouble posting links.

And the irony of that fact in light of the anti-vax movement is clear!

Count me in on liking all the info on Washington.

Ummm, Vance sounds like he is trying to find a way to cheat! I remember when Republicans hated large families and blamed many for having babies just to collect more food stamps!

I believe vaccination for small pox in Washington’s day meant dabbing a sick persons sores and then making a small cut on the uninfected person and rubbing it with the same cloth/stick.

My DH got calls and mailings from GOP asking him to volunteer! No way would he do that! He hates Trump too!

Dear Republicans,

Joe Biden was the presumptive nominee. If you look closely at the word presumptive, you will see almost the entirety of the word presume. So, you presumed that Biden would be the nominee, but presumptions do not always become reality. Presumptions always involve a bit of a gamble…

Divine, what your DS had to say was great for you to hear, but great for us here as well. Messages are getting through and 'being understood' by people. We really are looking now towards the younger voters which it did seem we might be in danger of losing somewhat.

I do perceive Trump now (though always have to some degree) as the old man in the race, tired, confused, scared and as always so full of bully bravado that he is saying things which many are seeing as HUGE loser strategy.

VP Harris has not only massive money already, but all sorts of people in large numbers are volunteering to fulfill the needs of furthering her outreach everywhere. I read on the way here that every poison arrow used on VP Harris so far has just fallen to the ground. Get rid of her = hasn't worked. DEI = didn't work. Childless cat lady = so didn't work. Reps., Trump, Vance - none have scored as yet. Trumps leads over Harris have shortened considerably from the ones he had with Pres. Biden and in most places Harris is only one or at most 2 down and some of that is whether a third-party candidate was a part of the polling. All this in less than 2 weeks. To me that is outstanding. The wind is definitely favoring the Harris sails. Trump is going to have to 'campaign' which leaves room for him to wax himself poetically into some super blunders and I think he will do just that. What was clear with Pres. Biden is going to be Crystal clear with Harris which should make any blunders on the rt. far worse. I hope that the Reps. will end up having to spend most of their time cleaning up whatever aisle Trump is in at the time. Trump and Vance are going to keep selling their chaos to those who aren't smart enough to figure it is the road to ruin for them while benefitting political grifters.

Connie Schultz, wife of Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, wrote this humorous article.

Confessions of a Cat Lady

Connie Schultz

This was one of Winnie’s favorite places to keep an eye on us. We knew this to be her way of saying, “Approach me and today is the day you die.” She despised everyone but my daughter and me. Her way of making us feel special.

In 2021, the junior U.S. senator in my state—and now Donald Trump’s choice for vice president—had thoughts about Kamala Harris and women who own cats. In recent days, this segment of J.D. Vance’s interview with Fox News has resurfaced like a massive oil spill: 

“We’re effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”

He said what?

“It’s just a basic fact,” he continued. “You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC—the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people that don’t have a direct stake in it.”

There he is, the fellow that Donald Trump says reminds him of “a young Abraham Lincoln.”

Let’s compare.

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. - Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address 

We’re effectively run in this country…by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives. - J.D. Vance, Fox News

They’re practically twins.

Speaking of twins, but, again, not really. That’s Reggie on the tabletop. He was an easygoing fellow who galloped like a puppy whenever you called his name. Winnie, glaring at me from the floor, would latch onto your face like a Wilton bench vice if she didn’t like how you looked at her. We adopted them as the tiniest of kittens and both lived into their twenties. I loved them in equal measure. 

I share this to establish my credentials as a cat lady. I did have children, but I was a single mother when I adopted these kitties. Some candidates have had their opinions about that, too. For years, I had a 2012 quote from Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum taped to my desktop: “What we have is moms raising children in single-parent households simply breeding more criminals.” Twelve years later, my kids have yet to commit any crimes beyond the egregious offense of not soliciting my advice about everything. 

I am now wondering about all that power I could have had to chart the course of our democracy, had I remained child-free. I love my children and have never questioned my choice to have them, except for those two or three moments during their teen years. Just seconds, really, and I had the quickest of answers. Why did I have children? Because I wanted to feel like the worst mother in the world, to quote no one in particular. 

I do find it hilarious to suggest that parenthood is what qualifies a person to lead our country. Where is that energy coming from? I ask as a mother who once drove into the after-school line of waiting parents and promptly fell asleep. When the scowling car line commandant—this may not have been her title—banged on my window, I told her I was praying. 

To bring us into this century, there is plenty of research to show that the number of women in America who do not have children continues to rise. They have many reasons for being child-free, and not one of them has to do with the desire to own cats. I use the word “own” loosely, as anyone who has lived with a cat knows that to claim possession of a feline is to sound like a royal servant claiming the Queen loves them. We serve at their pleasure and hope for an occasional tail-twitch in our direction. In the rare times when Winnie deemed us worthy of a lap landing, we tried not to breathe. 

Yesterday, I opened my phone app to find pictures of Reggie and Winnie. I entered “cat” in the search and this was the first photo that popped up.

This tracks. His name is Walter, our cat-dog. Always crawling or climbing into the dark recesses of our house, frequently requiring a human’s rescue that he never appreciates. Every time we save him, we can almost hear his scoffing as he jitterbugs until he’s airborne to shake off the dust: “Like I needed your help.” 

Very cat-like. 

Also, look at the resemblance. That’s Reggie on the left, in his first week with us. Ditto, Walter, 28 years later. I’m not saying they’re the same soul, but I do sometimes wonder if Reggie is whispering trouble into Walter’s ear. That would be so like him.

Walter is always on the search for cat ladies walking in our neighborhood. I know this because, like all dog owners, I can read my dog’s mind. Yes, I can. There’s science to prove this, and as soon as I have time to do The Google I will share it