Wednesday 5 August 2026

We just came back from taking Eddie to the vet to have his teeth cleaned. What a ruckus. The cats were everywhere, saying “What’s up?” “Mom, why are you up?” “Why is everybody walking so fast?” “What did Eddie do?” “You’re taking him away without even giving him a last supper?” “Why are you walking towards me?” And I spilled cat food all over the floor. Every time they started eating, something would happen and they would scatter.

Eddie is our autistic cat. My friend Mitzi says he’s definitely “on the spectrum.” She was an elementary school teacher, so she should know. Another reason we know is that we knew his father, who was Jake’s brother. Jake and his brother showed up at our house, tall and lanky, needing food.

We fed them, but if you even opened the door, they scattered and disappeared. We wound up with Jake because right before we left on a vacation, Jake showed up with a facial abscess. I told the cat sitter to try to trap him and take him to the vet. Amazingly, he did, and Jake got fixed up. We thought we’d never see him again, but we did. His brother came around now and then after that, I suppose not wanting to be trapped himself.

Jake came closer and finally let me pet him, and then he quickly moved onto the front porch. But we had fixed him when we took him in to take care of the abscess, and he domesticated quickly But, Elrod (what we named the brother) didn’t. He was still out there roaming and fighting. He even got into a terrible fight with Errol Flynn one of our cats.

Nobody seemed to like Elrod except his brother Jake. He had a strange look in his eyes all the time, squirrely, I suppose is the right term. And Eddie has that same look.

We know Eddie is his son because he looks exactly like Elrod, the exact same markings. None of the other kittens have that marking and none of them are autistic. So, have I convinced you yet?

So, when we take Eddie to the vet, I have to try to convince them that even though he is enormous and in as good a shape as an athlete, he won’t bite and he won’t scratch, he just needs some extra reassurance because he’s just a little bit confused all the time.

So, we left him. I hate leaving them at the vet. I want to sit in the waiting room, even if it’s hours, but they frown on that, so we will have to wait for the phone call telling us he’s out of surgery. They are going to do some blood work as well to make sure his kidneys are working fine. There’s some blood indicator that is a little bit over normal. Being a parent is a thankless job.

It’s almost 10 AM, and the Michigan race is still too close to call. El-Sayed is supposed to be on Morning Joe this morning. Joe and the dreadful Mika are nowhere to be seen. Strange.

I’m watching the recording of Morning Joe and El-Sayed is next. It’s just after 7 AM on the recording.

He is being called the “likely nominee” by the desk at MSNow. $70 million dollars was spent against him. Good God. El Sayed wants money out of politics, Medicare for all. You got me already. He’s got a great class line. A lot of Republicans think he will be easy to beat. He’s running against Mike Rogers.

El-Sayed says that Rogers served special interests, pharmaceutical interests. “He never saw a corporate dollar he didn’t use.” “You actually have to stand for something.” Why is Rogers supporting Trump on the Iran war? El-Sayed supports abolishing ICE, got me there. You can’t reform or retrain an agency like that. “You have to start from scratch.” Supports making Medicare whole, including visual and dental. The power of “big medicine” is what’s holding us back. We need to get money out of politics.

APIAC spent a lot of money against El-Sayed. Unconditional foreign aid is not acceptable. “I believe in international law.” “Israel has conducted a genocide.” “…treat Israel the way we treat any other country.” We have to follow our own laws, the Leahy laws, with all countries.

Divisions in the Party. How are the fences mended? “We’re against the way that outside money can buy politicians.” Take our democracy back from huge corporations.

NEWS NOTES

EL-SAYED WINS PRIMARY FOR SENATE SEAT IN MICHIGAN.

LIFE AND NEWS NOTES

· Collective bargaining rights for everybody.

· Universal healthcare

· Abolish ICE

Artile: Cappelletti, Joey et. al., (8/5/26) “Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan Senate primary in major victory for Democratic’ progressive wing.” AP News.

· The news media is calling this a “bruising primary.” El Sayed is a former health official campaigning on an end of aid to Israel, and campaign finance reform. He has support from Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez.

· Sen. Chris Van Hollen, another progressive leader called it a “wakeup call to the Washington Democratic establishment.”

· Democrats consider Michigan a must-win if they are to flip control of the Senate this year. Stevens, El-Sayed’s competition, benefited from the largest investment in a race ever from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

· El-Sayed says he is not a Democratic Socialist but received support from some of the group’s members.

· One of the voters interviewed said that he voted for El-Sayed because is willing to fight a party “on the road to an oligarchy and authoritarianism.”

ARTICLE: Somasundaram, Praveena (8/5/26) “Takeaways from a big primary night…” Washington Post.

· In Michigan’s 7^th Congressional District, voters chose a progressive over two centrist candidates. William Lawrence, Sunrise Movement co-founder, said in a statement: People are “…tire of Silicon Valley billionaires and D.C. insider determining the future of our towns and our country…..They want an unbought representative who isn’t afraid to stand p to leaders of both parties and fight for working people.”

· In Michigan’s 13^th District a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Donavan McKinney, won.