Monday, June 8, 2020

He's honestly the most vile and disgusting thing I've ever seen.

He's honestly the most vile and disgusting thing I've ever seen.  Disagree?  Die mad.  Feel like standing up for your orange toddler?  Might as well unfriend me.  I don't have a single fuck left to give anymore.
I miss Obama.  I never felt more secure in this country than when he was in charge.

Shared from Tracy Wade Suhan

THIS WAS ON A FRIEND’S PAGE: An anguished question from a Trump supporter: ‘Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?’
 
THE SERIOUS ANSWER: Here’s what the majority of anti-Trump voters honestly feel about Trump supporters en masse:
 
That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought "Fine."
(https://www.usatoday.com/.../trump-university.../502387002/)

That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, "Okay." (https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hotel-paid-millions-in-fines-for-unpaid-work)

That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, "No problem." (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-trumps-accusers-allegations-sexual-misconduct/story?id=51956410&)

That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, "Not an issue." (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/22/donald-trumps-outrageous-claim-that-thousands-of-new-jersey-muslims-celebrated-the-911-attacks/)

That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't care, you exclaimed, "He sure knows me."
(https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/23/president-donald-trump-could-shoot-someone-without-prosecution/4073405002/?)

That when you heard him relating a story of an elderly guest of his country club, an 80-year old man, who fell off a stage and hit his head, to Trump replied: “‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. I couldn’t—you know, he was right in front of me, and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him. He was bleeding all over the place. And I felt terrible, because it was a beautiful white marble floor, and now it had changed color. Became very red.” You said, "That's cool!" (https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-howard-stern-story)

That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw. (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-criticized-after-he-appears-mock-reporter-serge-kovaleski-n470016?)

That when you heard him brag that he doesn't read books, you said, "Well, who has time?" (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/americas-first-post-text-president/549794/?)

That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, "That makes sense." (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/19/what-trump-has-said-central-park-five/1501321001/?)

That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, "Yes!"
(https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trump-campaign-protests-20160313-story.html)

That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, "What a great guy!"
(https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/donald-trump-orders-protester-s-coat-is-confiscated-and-he-is-sent-into-the-cold-a6802756.html)

That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, "Thumbs up!" (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/why-cant-trump-just-condemn-nazis/567320/?)

That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, "That's the way I want my President to be." (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-insult-foreign-countries-leaders_n_59dd2769e4b0b26332e76d57)

That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they're supposed to be regulating and you have said, "What a genius!"
(https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/12/29/138-trump-policy-changes-2017-000603/)

That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, "That's smart!"
(https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2018-03-05/how-is-donald-trump-profiting-from-the-presidency-let-us-count-the-ways?)

That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you have said, "That makes sense."
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/09/26/the-very-big-ocean-between-here-and-puerto-rico-is-not-a-perfect-excuse-for-a-lack-of-aid/)

That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, "falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, "That's statesmanship!"
(https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/02/politics/donald-trump-dictators-kim-jong-un-vladimir-putin/index.html?)

That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas - he explains that they’re just “animals” - and you say, “Well, OK then.”
(https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/more-5-400-children-split-border-according-new-count-n1071791?)

That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise.
(https://www.americanprogress.org/article/confronting-cost-trumps-corruption-american-families/)

What you don't get, Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also...hear me...charitable.
Because if you're NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.

- Adam-Troy Castro

Take a minute and learn something.

Take a minute and learn something.
Shared from Megan Fletcher

Statistical response to the “black on black crime” deflection:


Written description:
(Thanks Valerie Stewart for writing this out!)

Multiple tweet thread from michaelharriot @michaelharriot
Condensed into one post

I had a professor who always talked about "the necessity of existence." Basically, some things should be created just so that thing will exist in the world. So here's a thread the RT anytime some1 responds to @BlackLivesMatter [three fists with different skin tones] with "but black on black crime" like this yahoo.

It is important to know that these people are deflecting by bringing up other shit. But instead of getting into opinions and feelings, let's just look at data and facts. Now , the first racist fact these people will say is: "13% of the people (Blacks) commit 50% of the murders"

But how can a fact be racist?
Well, I am part of that 13%.
I haven't' murdered anyone.
So let's look at the FBI data. But before we do, understand these stats are for ARRESTS. Some of these crimes were committed by the same person. Some of these people were proven innocent.

But I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt. I'll concede that every crime on the FBI data report was committed by a different black person. Here is the latest FBI data. Black people did commit 53% (5,025) of the 9,466 murders (Not me though, I swear) ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u...[link cut off]

Image:
Screencap of data from FBI listing the type of offence on the left and broken down by race across the top. Long description at bottom of text thread.

There are 47 million black people in the US. 
So, even if a different black person committed every murder, it means 99,989497% of black people DIDN'T commit a murder that year.
That also means 99.994923% of white people didn't commit a murder.
Image: Black Population in US breakdown
- 47,841,851 or 14.6%: Black Only and in combination with another race
- 43,804,319 or 13.4%:Black Only
- 44,085,665 or 13.5%: 'Black Only' and 'in combination (non-Hispanic)
- 40,902,226 or 12.5%: Black Only (non-Hispanic)

So its not 13 percent committing half the murders. .010% of black people are murderers and .005 percent of white people. Which means, if I'd have to meet 10,000 people before I met a black killer. So, Karen, I would DEFINITELY talk to black murderers if I knew one. 
AND...

If you add up all the crime, it means 94.6% of black people don't commit ANY crime in a given year and 95.8% of white people don't get arrested. So why are black people considered to be criminals?
Because you’re racist, Karen.

Also, sociologists know that crime is an economic phenomenon. Poor people commit more crime (It's a little more complicated because it correlates more to inequality) BUT...
Being that white wealth is 10x black wealth, it makes sense that black commit more crime, right?
Nope.

Image:
- Poor Hispanics 25.3 per 1,000) had lower rates of violence compared to poor whites (46.4 per 1,000) and poor blacks (43.3 per 1,000).
- Poor persons living in urban areas (43.9 per 1,000) had violent victimization rates similar to poor persons living in rural areas (38.8 per 1,000).
- Poor urban blacks (51.3 per 1,000) had rates of violence similar to poor urban whites (56.4 per 1,000).
- Violence against persons in poor (51%) and low-income (50%) households was more likely to be reported to police than violence against persons in mid- (43%) and high- income (45%) households.

That's according to the Bureau of Justice statistics, not me. So why do black people kill more black people than whites kill whites?
Well, actually, they don't.
The Black on Black crime rate is 63%
The white on white crime rate is 56%
Image screencap of a table describing Percent of violent victimizations, by race/Hispanic origin of victim and offender, 2012-2015. Left side indicates Race/Hispanic origin of victim and top lists race/Hispanic origin of offender with many symbols alongside the numbers and a key for those symbols below. I am not able to accurately differentiate the symbols with the resolution and thus do not feel comfortable trying to transcribe.

So, why don't we ever talk about white on white crime?
Now truthfully, it's because we live in a country where whiteness is the default. Black people are considered "black people" while white people are just considered "people"
But again, let's stick to facts and data.

Back to the FBI arrests.
The Black on Black murder rate is 89%
The white on white murder rate is 81%.
So, Karen, how often do you discuss white on white murders?

Now the next part is a little easier to explain:
When they wonder why we don't address black on black crime in our communities, there's a great explanation (Remember we're sticking to facts):
Because white people don't know shit.
Seriously, that's an actual fact.

MOST white people don't live around black people, so they'd have no fucking clue WHAT black people talk about in black communities.
According to the US Partnership on Mobility and Poverty, whites live in neighborhoods that are 75% white and 8% black, so how would they know?

Image:
Screencap of the top of an article entitled Racial Residential Segregation and Neighborhood Disparities by authors Solomon Greene, Margery Austin Turner, and Ruth Gourevitch from August 2017 - text: Where people live matters for their long-term social and economic success. White the "How Neighborhoods Affect the Social and Economic Mobility of their Residents" memo outlined the detrimental effects of living in concentrated poverty, this memo focuses on the racial component of residential segregation -- primarily drawing on the data on black-white segregation. A typical white person lives in a neighborhood that is 75 percent white and 8 percent African American, while a typical African American person lives in a neighborhood that is only 35 percent white and 45 percent African American (Logan and Stults 2011). What's more, we continue to see people of color overrepresented in high-poverty census tracts. In the United States, a low-income African American person is more than three times more likely to live in a neighborhood with a poverty rate of 40 percent or more than a white person is, and a low-income Latino person is more than twice as likely to live in such a neighborhood (Jargowsky 2015). These statistics show that racial residential segregation and racialized concentrated poverty persist today.

Now the next part is trickier to do on Twitter. Whenever I explain this part to white people, I ask everyone in a room to raise their hands if they spend an hour doing on-religious community services this month.  2 hrs? 3 hrs? Hands start to drop.
Usually only black hands are left.

It turns out, I could have just used this peer-reviewed study that shows: "Specifically African American individuals show the highest rates of participation, followed by White persons, Individuals of other ethnicity, and Hispanic American Individuals."

Image:
Table 4. Community Participation rates (Percentages) by Gender and Ethnicity
African American: Males 51.2, Females 53.8 Combined genders 52.9
Hispanic American: M 28.6, F 34.4, C 31.3
White: M 38.4, F 43.8, C 41.3
Other Ethnicity: M 34.1, F 35.5, C 34.3
Combined Ethnicities: M 38.2, F 44.0, C 40.0
Well, who gives more money to charity? (We know whites have more disposable income, so let's base it on percentage)
There's a study for that, too!

Image:
Charitable Giving as a Share of Median Family Wealth, 2010-16, Bar graph for Black, White, Hispanic, and Other with 3 bars each for 2010, 2013, and 2016
Black: 6%, 11%, 8%
White: 2%, 2%, 2%
Hispanic: 5%, 7%, 5%
Other: 4%  5%, 4%
Source: Calculations from Survey of Consumer Finances. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Why do I bring this up?
Well, this is the part you do at home. And this part may be trickier now that COVID canceled everything. I once used Eventbrite for this part, but Facebook Events is way easier.
Go to FB and look up "stop the violence" events going on in your city...

Now look up "Black Lives Matter" protests. 
I BET there were more stop the violence rallies.
It is a verifiable fact that black people work harder to stop violence in their communities than they EVER blame police violence. They commit more money and time to the issue.

What does this have to do with anything?
Well, anyone who actually went to a black church, barbershop, cookout, grandmother's house, strip club or anywhere that black people exist, would know that black people talk about this issue INCESSANTLY.

There are black fraternities, sororities, church groups, mentoring organizations, fish fries, summer camps, after-school programs, community centers, athletic teams, science clubs, music groups and a whole motherfucking rap song dedicated to stopping violence in black communities.

There's a good reason white people don't know this:
BECAUSE WE AREN'T TALKING TO YOU!!!
Why the fuck would any black person talk to a white person about black on black crime?

Finally ,there's the biggest question of all:
If the black on black crime rate is damn near the same rate as white on white crime; if black people work HARDER and spend more money on it; if the insignificant differences in interracial crime can be explained by poverty...

Then why does this Vacation-Bible-School-sandwich of a myth persist?
I could tell you that people use it to deflect from the real problem of white supremacy. I could tell you that some people are idiots. I could even explain that "wypipo gon' wypipo" but we're sticking to facts.

See, it is a FACT that the people who are least affected by white supremacy and racism are the most likely to deny its existence.
It is a FACT that white people are the only demographic in America that thinks there is LESS discrimination that there is.

Image description:
Graph titled Nonwhites are more likely to say discrimination is overlooked: % saying, when it comes to racial discrimination, the bigger problem for the country is...
Yellow - People seeing racial discrimination where it really does NOT exist
Green - People NOT seeing racial discrimination where it really DOES exist
Each group has as horizontal bar with left in yellow and right in green with percentages listed
All adults: 42 Y, G 57 White: 52 Y, G 48 
Black: 14 Y, G 84 
Hispanic: 30 Y, G 67 
Asian *: 28 Y, G 72
picture does not show what * indicates

It is a FACT that whites [don’t] really believe or don't care how police treat black people.
Image description: Graph titled Blacks are about half as likely as whites to have a positive view of police treatment of racial and ethnic groups or officers' use of force: % saying the police in their community do an excellent or good job when it comes to...
Green color denotes Whites, Yellow color denotes Blacks
Protecting people from crime: G 78, Y 48
Using the right amount of force for each situation: G 75, Y 33
Treating racial and ethnic groups equally: G 75, Y 35
Holding officers accountable when misconduct occurs: G 70, Y 31
Note: Whites and blacks include only on-Hispanics.
Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Aug. 16-Sept.12, 2016.
"The Racial Confidence Gap in Police Performance"Pew Research Center

So, knowing that the whole "Black on Black crime" thing is not rooted in truth or evidence, why would anyone bring up a doctrine based on a provably false assumption?
Well, there is no logical explanation for this besides ignorance, a belief in the inherent superiority or:

Image description:
screencap of dictionary definition for racism
racism noun
Phonetic pronunciation Definition of racism
1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 a : a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles
b: a political or social system founded on racism
3: racial prejudice or discrimination

Screencap of profile information for michaelharriot @michaelharriot 
Profile pic is of a Black man, bald, with short goatee faced slightly to the left, he is wearing a black hoodie with "BlackAF" in all caps and black in bold lettering.
Background pic is a 3 panel combined picture of a Black man lying on his back on the ground holding up a large sign that states "I am a man" in all caps.

Sr. Writer at TheRoot.com, board-certified Wypipologist, master race-baiter. His pen is mightier than your sword. Last real Negus alive
Location: The Southside of Wakanda
Link: kinja.com/michaelharriot
Calendar: Joined December 2009
75 Following
262K Followers

Long description of first chart:
Type of offense charged on left: Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, Rape^3, and Robbery all broken down by total arrests by Race: Total, White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and total percents listed on right
Total arrests by race listing down column:
Total of all racial groups: 8,162,849
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter: 9,468
Rape ^3: 18,063
Robbery: 73,764

White total: 5,626,140
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter: 4,188
Rape^3: 12,187
Robbery: 32,128

Black or African American total: 2,221,697
Murder and nonnegligent homicide:5,025
Rape^3: 5,182
Robbery: 40,024

American Indian or Alaska Native total: 196,908
Murder and nonnegligent homicide: 108
Rape^3: 322Robbery: 679 

Asian total: 97,049
Murder and nonnegligent homicide: 127
Rape^3: 307
Robbery: 664

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander total: 21,055
Murder and nonnegligent homicide: 20
Rape^3: 65
Robbery: 269

Broken down by percent listing down column
Total: 100
Murder and nonnegligent homicide: 100
Rape^3: 100
Robbery: 100

White total: 68.9
Murder and nonnegligent homicide:  44.2
Rape^3: 67.5
Robbery: 43.6

Black or African American total: 27.2
Murder and nonnegligent homicide: 53.1
Rape^3: 28.7
Robbery: 54.3

Friday, June 5, 2020

All of these. Every bit of this.

All of these. Every bit of this.

Also, see my previous post. I'm serious that you're dumped if "black lives matter" is not something you can say and mean. You might still be on my friends list because I don't have the energy to comb through every profile to see what's being said, but no one gets my love, friendship, time, attention, or gifts anymore without me knowing where they stand. Period.

I feel this deep in my bones:

All mothers were summoned when George Floyd called out for his momma.

That being said:  I might be scarce on social media for a few days. I am emotionally tapped out and need to do some self care. I am not ok.

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

I've done quite a lot of thinking.

I've done quite a lot of thinking.  I'm now ready to share my thoughts.

**Tl;dr = See yourself out.  This is important.**

I am generally a peaceful person and I have always prided myself on being able to get along with anyone.  I learned at 17 years old when I had my half-black son that love can change minds and that exposure to the "other" can show that it's not so different after all.  I have lived by this lesson for 20 years and I like to think that my family and I have changed lives because we are good, kind, and helpful people.  But I've decided that not everyone deserves us.

Rather than saying "If you disagree with me, fuck off," what I am saying right now is:  If you are choosing to remain willfully ignorant on the topics I'm writing about below, I'm breaking up with you. If you disagree with me, we can absolutely have a conversation and let me be clear:  I think every one of you are worth having a conversation with (either in comments or direct message, it's up to you).  The caveat is that if you don't have an open mind and just want to argue, I'm not doing that.  It means your mind is made up and I'm not wasting my time trying to educate someone who doesn't want to be educated.

**1)  BLACK LIVES MATTER.**

For those of you who say:  All lives matter, I will agree that yes, they do.  Including black ones.  Here is #blacklivesmatter broken down, though:

"Imagine that you're sitting down to dinner with your family, and while everyone else gets a serving of the meal, you don't get any. So you say "I should get my fair share." And as a direct response to this, your dad corrects you, saying, "everyone should get their fair share." Now, that's a wonderful sentiment -- indeed, everyone should, and that was kinda your point in the first place: that you should be a part of everyone, and you should get your fair share also. However, dad's smart-ass comment just dismissed you and didn't solve the problem that you still haven't gotten any!

The problem is that the statement "I should get my fair share" had an implicit "too" at the end: "I should get my fair share, too, just like everyone else." But your dad's response treated your statement as though you meant "only I should get my fair share", which clearly was not your intention. As a result, his statement that "everyone should get their fair share," while true, only served to ignore the problem you were trying to point out."

For anyone who says "blue lives matter," I'm sorry, but I thought it was common knowledge that people aren't born blue.  If you mean that cop lives matter, sure.  But they chose their career path; no one chooses the color of their skin.  Those two things are not equal.  One can be changed; the other cannot.

**2)  IF YOU ARE WHITE, YOU HAVE PRIVILEGE.**

If you are white or white-passing then your skin color has not made your life harder.  It is as simple as that.  Yes, you may be poor, you may be a woman, you may not have had fun experiences with cops (but you're still alive, aren't you?), your life may not be easy for various reasons, but none of those reasons are your skin color.

It is not racist to recognize that we are different.  It *IS* racist to pretend that privilege doesn't exist and that we're all on a level playing field.  We're not.

**3)  THEY SHOULD PROTEST PEACEFULLY, NOT RIOT.**

Black people tried that and nothing changed; in fact, when Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem, white people were outraged.  There are other examples of black people using whatever platform was at their disposal to peacefully make a statement, yet every time the answer to that was "That's wrong!  Don't do it like that!" rather than "I see you and I hear you and we'll change."
Since peaceful displays fell on deaf ears, things have escalated.  It sure is a lot harder to ignore a riot, isn't it?

Riots are akin to this situation:  You tell a loved one about a behavior they have that really bothers you.  Like, REALLY, REALLY hurts you.  And they keep ignoring it or brushing it off or kind of doing something to pacify you temporarily until BAM!  One day they do it again and you blow up at them and maybe it causes a fight and they see how big of a deal it really is, after all.  That is where we are regarding our black brothers and sisters and their allies.

By the way, here is footage of the police harming peaceful protesters; video evidence of the cops being the ones to escalate, which is the opposite of their job.  If I'm not mistaken, it was even a cop who set fire to that Target.  So in a lot of these cases, peaceful gatherings are being turned into more violent displays *by the police.*  If these videos don't upset you, then I don't know what to say to you.
https://slate.com/.../george-floyd-protests-police...

And if your response to this is "Not all cops are bad!" then I would like to say in response:  Not all black people are bad, but they are treated like they are without the benefit of the doubt.  They are murdered in broad daylight by cops like they are expendable.  IT IS NOT OK.

**4)  BLACK ON BLACK VIOLENCE**

Short answer:  Systemic racism.

Long answer:  https://www.vox.com/.../rudy-giuliani-black-on-black...

**5)  CIVIL WAR ISN'T GOOD FOR ANYONE**

Yes, this was said in a comment recently.  My reply:  It was good for the slaves who were freed.  (Screencap in the first comment.)

If Civil War is where we're headed as a country, then so be it.  I'm proudly a black ally.

*****************************************************************************************
If my stance on any of those things upset you then we should talk.  I'm happy to explain any of these points further if you are open to learning, but I'm no longer tolerating people who are blindly refusing to acknowledge the struggle of our black brothers and sisters.  And you don't get to give Shadow a free pass because of my whiteness.  He is black, too.  If you are our friend or family member, then black lives need to matter to you, period.  Those are my terms.  ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/george-floyd-protests-police-violence.html

Monday, June 1, 2020

So this kid has had a cold or something...

So this kid has had a cold or something for a couple of weeks. I kept thinking it would pass, but it hasn't. He got meds from the vet today. He doesn't seem to be on death's door, thank goodness, but he sounds congested and I can tell he feels bad. I hope my buddy Balthazar feels all better soon!


Sunday, May 31, 2020

I was on here earlier and I had to get off.

I was on here earlier and I had to get off.  I felt overwhelmed.  I'm very happy to see so many people - especially white ones - sharing and caring and standing up for our black brothers and sisters.  But there is unfortunately the other side to that coin and it is ugly and ignorant.  I haven't in years had the mental energy to fight people on the internet the way I used to (yay for sketchy mental health), but I did talk to someone who I thought could be reasoned with.  He stopped replying so either he's thinking or just turning a blind eye to my replies.  In any event - I gave what I could today.

I'm only back because I want to post about my animals because it makes me happy to talk about them.  Shaun and I revamped Tort Baby's house the other day.  I also clipped his nails.  He didn't seem phased by it, but they ended up super sharp so I'm going to see about using the Dremel on him in the next few days.  We also changed out Bruce's (ball python) bedding and spent a little bit of time with him.  He's as sweet as ever.  I'm planning to spend a good bit more time with the reptiles now that I'm dogless.  I honestly feel very lonely.  Cats just aren't the same.

More on that:  Yes, we have two dogs outside (Cubba and Rose).  I guess we aren't technically dogless as a household, but neither of them were meant to be MY dogs and I never bonded with them like I did my pack.  I'm not saying that I won't ever, but I'm definitely not ready yet.  I don't think I'll be fostering or planning to get another forever dog until we can do better by Cubba and Rose.  That isn't fair to them.  I've trained Cubba before and he's smart as hell so I know he could be an inside dog, but Rose is a whole 'nother story.  She's wild and we never spent any time with her.  She is Cubba's dog.  😂😂😂  I legit got her so he wouldn't be lonely and escape the fence.  I'm aware that's shitty but she needed a place to go and we had a purpose for her and a safe space, so it is what happened.  I don't think it makes her untrainable, though.  She will just be WORK.

Aside from that we got a fountain for the cats.  You would think they've never had water with as much as they drank yesterday.  Needless to say, it's a hit.  We like it, too.  It's quiet, it's clear so we can see when it needs to be cleaned or refilled, and it's got two levels so more than one cat can drink at the same time.  And so far, no one has stuck their feet in it - THANK GOODNESS.

Since I no longer have a buddy to share my bedroom with I have more floor space since the trundle isn't pulled out.  I'm still really sad about my dogs.  The timing of their deaths was so close together that I still worry it was something I did or something in my bedroom.  It just doesn't make sense, though.  But anyway, I've put a bit of work into my room over the last few days and I think I finally have enough space to bust out my yoga mat.  I've never done yoga at home but I won't be going to the gym anytime soon, so I'm making my space as nourishing to my mind and body as I can.  It's beautiful with plants and light.  It's warm, cozy, and colorful.  It'll make a great office space when I get a job.  I don't know; I'm just happy with it and wanted to say so.

I guess I'm off.  I hope you all are staying safe and doing well.  Please don't be racist.  I love you.