Month: April 2018

Trump and his followers are up in arms about collusion

by digby

On Fox and Friends this morning:

Yes, they are seriously pursuing this.

If they could lock her up they would do it.

Donald’s unnatural disaster
by Tom Sullivan

They wanted it so badly. Planned for it. Stumped on it. Dreamed about their tax cut. Then finally they got it. Now the president has trodden it into the mud.

The Dow Jones average is already down 9 percent from its January high.

President short-attention-span has moved on from the GOP’s tax cut triumph. That win is old news. The buzz has worn off. He needs another fix. Orders, more executive orders he can sign and show off to the cameras like a child with a fresh finger painting. Republicans in Washington who expected to run mid-term campaigns boasting about their tax cut now find it eclipsed by Trump’s trade war.

Politico:

Trump announced plans Thursday for $100 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports, on top of $50 billion outlined last month, after the Chinese proposed their own $50 billion countermeasures.

The back and forth threats, none of which have been implemented, have nevertheless triggered dramatic fluctuations in the stock market and produced anxiety for American companies, consumers and farmers in red states, who are facing targeted duties on valuable soybean exports.

“If the tariffs raise prices on American consumers, then that will negate part of the positive impact of the tax cut. It’s the government giving the tax cut with the right hand and taking it away with the tariff with the left one,” said Stephen Moore, a distinguished visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation and one of the architects of the Trump campaign’s tax plan.

Andy Roth, vice president of government affairs at the conservative Club for Growth, called Trump’s trade war “a huge unforced error.”

A conservative tax lobbyist tells Politico, “The evidence of the tax cut working is getting yanked away. Conservatives and business groups aren’t sure what to do about it because no one wants to be the target of a Trump tweet.”

The Chinese have already responded to Trump’s trade threats with tariffs targeting “precisely those industries that are linked to states Trump carried,” writes Jonathan Tobin in the National Review.

The New York Times reports a trade war further complicates GOP strategy going into the mid-terms:

While the battle for control of the House will be waged in large part in the suburbs, rural districts in Southern Illinois, Iowa, Arkansas and Missouri could prove important. And control of the Senate could come down to Republican efforts to unseat Democrats in North Dakota, Indiana, Missouri and Montana — all states staring down the barrels of a trade war’s guns.

With farmers angry and worried as China vows to retaliate, many Republicans find themselves torn between loyalty to a president who remains broadly popular in rural states and the demands of constituents, especially farmers, to oppose his tariffs.

In North Dakota, a major soybean-producing state, Representative Kevin Cramer, a Republican who is running for the Senate, sounded restrained this past week when he urged Mr. Trump to “take a more measured approach” to China. By Friday, he sounded panicked.

Trump has directed the Department of Agriculture to implement plans to minimize the harm to framers using powers in the past used to mitigate natural disasters and wildfires — perhaps appropriate in describing this administration. But there are few details, and they could be costly at a time when deficits generated by the GOP tax cuts become manifest.

The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” was a staple cut played over the end of Trump rallies during his campaign. Red-state believers who paid no attention then may get another chance to pay soon enough. Investors ditched agriculture-linked stocks on Friday, the Times reports.

TV pundit Larry Kudlow, Trump’s new economic advisor, told reporters on Wednesday the threat of trade sanctions might just be a negotiating tactic. On Friday, Kudlow said the opposite, claiming he had just heard about the additional $100 billion in tariffs Trump announced on imports from China.

To give reporters and advisors fair warning the president’s mood has changed, someone at the White House might want to install a wind sock on the roof.

* * * * * * * *

For The Win 2018 is ready for download. Request a copy of my county-level election mechanics primer at tom.bluecentury at gmail.

Saturday Night at the Movies

Conviction of the heart: Outside In (***½) 

By Dennis Hartley

There’s a timeworn josh betwixt residents of Western Washington that we’re all D-deficient. Speaking for myself, after 26 years in these parts, I think I’m growing moss on my north side, if you know what I’m saying. Still, while chronic light deprivation does have its downside, there’s something about the prickly-piney smell of perennially soaked, verdant evergreen forests swaying under drizzly, steely-grey skies that pulls me back in.

The moody atmospherics inherent in those verdant evergreen forests and drizzly, steely-grey skies has not been lost on certain filmmakers. David Lynch filmed most of the exteriors for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and both iterations of his Twin Peaks TV series in this neck of the woods. And of course, the wildly popular Twilight franchise has turned the previously sleepy town of Forks, Washington into a Mecca for its rabid fans.

It’s not just fancy-pants Hollywood types who have “discovered” the Pacific Northwest as a backdrop for their projects. For some filmmakers, it’s more like playing in the back yard. For example, take Ohio-born and Seattle-raised writer-director Lynn Shelton (Humpday, Your Sister’s Sister) who has made 6 feature films since 2006, and had them all set in Western Washington. Her 7th and most recent effort, Outside In, is no exception.

The rain-washed, backwoods-y town of Granite Falls (population 3400) is a palpable character in this drama about a newly-released felon named Chris (Jay Duplass) struggling to keep heart and soul together after serving 20 years for a wrongful conviction. Only 18 when he got sent up, he has a textbook case of arrested development to overcome; not to mention catching up with a world fraught with iPhones and laptops.

Complicating his re-entry into society is his long-time platonic relationship with the only person who gave him moral support over the years. Her name is Carol (Edie Falco), his high school teacher. Not only did she visit him on a regular basis; tutoring him and helping him keep his spirits up, but advocated tirelessly to get him released. Once he’s out, it becomes obvious that Chris’ sense of gratitude has turned into something deeper.

Perhaps this was inevitable; the soft-spoken Chris is frozen at 18 years old emotionally and socially; he doesn’t feel that he has received much love and support from his dysfunctional family while he was locked up. On one level Carol is flattered, but as she is married and has a teenage daughter, her immediate instinct is to keep Chris at arm’s length. She is adamant that the two of them have always been, and must remain, “just” friends. Then again, there are hints that her marriage is troubled. Things get complicated.

Shelton has a knack for creating characters that you really care about, helped in no small part here by Falco’s presence. She is such a great player; she says more with a glance, a furrow of the brow, or a purse of the lips than many actors could convey with a page of dialog (and I feel very strongly…strike that, I decree that she and Frances McDormand must do a film together at some point…someone simply must make this happen). Duplass (who co-scripted with the director) gives a sensitive and nuanced performance as well.

I don’t know it was my imagination, but I think Shelton and Duplass (consciously or not) are paying homage to The Graduate. Not just the (virtual) age spread between Chris and Carol, but the interesting dynamic that develops between Chris and Carol’s daughter (a nice performance from Kaitlyn Dever). One short monolog in particular, in which Chris laments how he’s tired of everyone telling him that he’s got a bright future and offering unsolicited advice about what he should do with his life, strongly recalls Benjamin Braddock’s angst. Also, not unlike the late great Mike Nichols, Shelton always finds the sweet spot between dramatic tension and wry levity. One of the best films so far this year.

Previous posts with related themes:

Your Sister’s Sister
More reviews at Den of Cinema
On Facebook
On Twitter

–Dennis Hartley

About those sanctions

by digby

This piece by Robin Wright in the New Yorker about the latest sanctions against Russian oligarchs presents a more complex picture of what they mean than I’ve seen anywhere else:

On Friday, after months of internal deliberations and delays, the Trump Administration imposed tough sanctions on seven of Russia’s richest oligarchs—all of whom have ties to President Vladimir Putin—and seventeen top Kremlin officials. Many are major players in Russia’s security apparatus. Among those targeted is a young billionaire who married Putin’s daughter and an oligarch who has been linked to Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager indicted by the special counsel Robert Mueller. The new sanctions do not, however, target the Russian leader.
[…]
The announcement is the latest step in the Trump Administration’s gyrating and sometimes contradictory policy on Russia: overtures to Putin or boons to Russia’s foreign-policy goals one day, followed by punitive measures, including sanctions and the expulsion of sixty Russian intelligence agents, the next. Just this week, the President once again pondered warming up to Putin. “It’s a real possibility that I could have a good relationship. And remember this: getting along with Russia is a good thing,” Trump said on Tuesday, at a joint press conference with the leaders of three Baltic nations. “So, I think I could have a very good relationship with Russia and with President Putin. And if I did, that would be a great thing. And there’s also a possibility that that won’t happen. Who knows?”

On Wednesday, Trump also took a step that will effectively give Russia the military and political edge in Syria when he ordered the Pentagon to wind down the American military presence. The United States and Russia have backed rival forces during the seven-year civil war. The withdrawal of two thousand U.S. troops, now expected within the next four to six months, will clear the way for Russia and Iran to consolidate their hold on the country, which is the geostrategic center of the Middle East, and borders five U.S. allies, including Israel.
[…]
One of the most intriguing targets in the new sanctions is Kirill Shamalov, who married Putin’s daughter Katerina, in 2013. After the marriage, Shamalov rapidly “joined the ranks of the billionaire elite around Putin” in business deals with Russia’s energy sector, the Treasury Department’s statement said. Yet in January, Bloomberg reported that Putin’s daughter and Shamalov had actually split—at a whopping financial cost to Shamalov after he lost his position within Russia’s First Family.

The first daughters of Russia and the US sure do get a lot of perks. (Like this 30 million dollar state sponsored splurge on an “acrobatic rock and roll” center for Katerina’s personal “sport.”) This looks like a favor.

The timing of the Trump Administration’s decision is interesting because it comes nine months after Congress passed legislation—the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act—to impose sweeping sanctions on Moscow. Since it was veto-proof, Trump reluctantly signed it into law, in August—but criticized it as “seriously flawed.” In January, to meet a congressional deadline in the new law, the Treasury Department released a list of about two hundred Russian political élites and oligarchs who might be liable for sanctions. As was widely noted at the time, the U.S. list of ninety-six oligarchs simply replicated a list already published by Forbes magazine. The Administration waited until this month to issue sanctions—and then on only a fraction of the names on the list.

Another target of the new sanctions is Oleg Deripaska, a Putin adviser and billionaire who had ties to Manafort, now under investigation by Mueller. Deripaska figures prominently in Mueller’s inquiry, too. “Deripaska has said that he does not separate himself from the Russian state,” a Treasury communiqué reported. “He has also acknowledged possessing a Russian diplomatic passport, and claims to have represented the Russian government in other countries.” Deripaska has been investigated for money laundering and accused of threatening the lives of business rivals, illegally wiretapping a government official, and taking part in extortion and racketeering. “There are also allegations that Deripaska bribed a government official, ordered the murder of a businessman, and had links to a Russian organized crime group,” the Treasury Department said.

Viktor Vekselberg, a tycoon close to Putin who made a fortune in Russia’s energy sector and financial markets, is also on the list. His cousin, who runs the U.S. subsidiary of Vekselberg’s Renova Group, contributed a quarter-million dollars to Trump’s Inauguration fund, according to Mother Jones. The cousin, Andrew Intrater, also reportedly made a personal donation of thirty-five thousand dollars to a joint committee for Trump’s election and the Republican National Committee. In 2015, Vekselberg was at the Moscow dinner attended by the disgraced former national-security adviser Michael Flynn. In 2017, Vekselberg was in Washington for Trump’s Inauguration, the Washington Post reported. The details of Vekselberg’s connections to Trump, direct or indirect, were not outlined in the Treasury Department’s announcement.

The senior officials who have been sanctioned reach into the Kremlin’s inner circle. They include a prominent Putin aide; the Minister of Internal Affairs and General Police; the secretary of Russia’s Security Council; the head of the National Guards; a governor who previously headed Russia’s Special Operations Forces; and senior officials in Gazprom, Russia’s energy giant. The new sanctions also name a dozen companies owned by the oligarchs, a weapons company, and a bank.

The question is how much impact the new sanctions will have. The Treasury list was first released in January, giving the oligarchs four months of advance notice to move their billions, Russia experts told me.

That was convenient.

Putin shrugged off the list as meaningless when Treasury originally published it. “As they say, ‘a barking dog cannot hinder a caravan’s journey,’ ” he told the Tass news agency. He described it as an act generated more by domestic U.S. politics. “What’s the point of this? I don’t understand,” Putin said. “This is of course an unfriendly act. It complicates already complicated Russia-U.S. relations and harms international relations in general. Those who engage in this are basically engaged in their own domestic politics. They are trying to attack their elected President.”

It’s so nice of him to defend President Trump. Why would he do that?

Well, maybe it’s actually another favor:

The sanctions send a warning, but they may produce little change by either the financial or political élites anytime soon, Russia experts told me. Moscow could even benefit. Oligarchs not on the list may decide to pull their money out of the West for fear of facing sanctions down the road, and put it back in Russia. One of Putin’s greatest vulnerabilities is a weak and corrupt economy, which is about the size of Italy’s.

These sanctions are better than nothing but it appears they are less than meets the eye as far as American foreign policy is concerned.

.

Parody or prediction?

by digby

This was a parody front page of the Boston Globe from 2016:

If you click the link you can read the actual stories. Oy.

Huffington Post:

The headline screams: “Deportations to Begin; President Calls for Tripling of ICE.” A center photo of Trump features a quote from the president: “DEPORT ILLEGALS ‘SO FAST YOUR HEAD WILL SPIN.’”

The eerie mirror of reality doesn’t stop there. The story in the right-hand column of the newspaper is headlined: “Markets sink as trade war looms.” The story begins: “Worldwide stocks plunged again Friday, completing the worst month on record as trade wars with both China and Mexico seem imminent.”

Other front-page stories have the headlines: “U.S. soldiers refuse to kill ISIS families” and “New libel law targets ‘absolute scum’ in press.” Another: “Bank glitch halts border wall work.” That story starts: “Construction on the new border wall with Mexico stopped suddenly on Friday, dealing a major setback to one of President Trump’s key campaign promises after Mexico refused to pay.”

The front page also notes: “Trump on Nobel short list.” In reality, Trump has been nominated — twice — in the past two years for a Nobel Peace Prize for his “ideology of peace through force.” But the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that both nominations were forged, and officials launched an investigation.

One thing the paper got wrong: A story about Trump’s new pet, a wrinkly shar-pei puppy he named after the Chinese first lady.

An editorial note on the mock front page alerts readers: “This is Donald Trump’s America. What you read on this page is what might happen if the GOP front­runner can put his ideas into practice, his words into action.”

The page was created during the presidential election and published April 10, 2016 (though it’s falsely dated April 9, 2017). A real editorial inside called on the GOP to “stop Donald Trump” and characterized his campaign as “deeply disturbing” and “profoundly un-American.”

Eeery. And they didn’t even capture the rampant, over-the-top corruption in the White House and cabinet.

Or Russia.

So, it’s actually worse than they thought.

.

Ann Coulter is our first woman president

by digby

And Fox News pundits are the cabinet. The man in the White House is their puppet:

We can’t overstate the severity of President Trump’s buyer’s remorse from signing last month’s spending bill. It could even be a turning point in his presidency, on the issue of immigration and his level of cooperation with Republican leaders; Sources who’ve discussed it with Trump say it freaked him out to see the array of usually friendly faces on Fox News’ opinion shows ripping into him for signing a bill that spent a ton of money, but gave lots away to liberal priorities and did little for his signature promise to build a wall.

Truth is that Trump had little clue what was in the largest spending bill ever passed. Conventional wisdom on Capitol Hill has been that nothing will happen on immigration after the early failure to cut a deal this year. Republican leadership sources were telling us that the court decision to keep DACA alive took away Trump’s deadline and removed the pressure on Congress to act. But now some of those sources are nervous, realizing that Trump won’t let the issue fade into the background.

Trump wants action to toughen immigration laws, and he’s hopping mad that it hasn’t happened. He’s grasping at whatever executive tools are available. But watch for him to force action before the end of September, when the government funding expires.

A lot could change between now and then. But based on what Trump has been telling confidants, we expect a showdown — and possibly a shutdown — then.

Be smart: An election eve fracas that forces Republicans to contemplate a government shutdown vs. harsher immigration laws will motivate some Republican voters. But it could further endanger vulnerable Republican incumbents in swing seats, in a campaign year already stacked against them.

It’s not necessarily Trump who wants action on immigration. Immigration is a hard issue and he doesn’t really have a clue what to do about it. It’s the wingnuts who enslave him who want to see Latinos suffer. He’d be happy to exercise his hatred against the Chinese or Muslims or get tough on drugs and put a lot of black people in jail. He’ll be happy to declare victory against ISIS and stage his big parade with machines that go boom. Whatever makes it look like he’s “winning” is what he wants.

But hate radio now runs the most powerful nation on earth and they want to see some Mexicans get put in their place and Trump is failing to get that done. They want their wall. They want their mass deportations. He’s not delivering. And that has got him nervous.

.

The family is exempt

by digby

A sweet portrait of father and daughter posed atop copulating parrots

Of course:

The steel and aluminum industries in China will soon be slapped with tariffs up to $50 billion by President Donald Trump. On Thursday, after China announced their intentions to retaliate against the United States with $50 billion in tariffs of their own against U.S. goods, Trump warned that his administration would respond with another set of tariffs, this time targeting $100 billion worth of Chinese goods.

Exempt from the proposed tariffs against China, however, is the clothing manufacturing industry.

U.S. officials say they used an algorithm to determine which goods to exclude from new tariffs. According to the Washington Post, the list was drafted to achieve “the lowest consumer impact,” ensuring goods like clothing and toys were excluded so as not to raise the cost on domestic consumer goods.

Exempting clothing from the tariffs provides a big break to American clothing companies that hold trademarks in China. One of those clothing companies belongs to the First Daughter of the United States, Ivanka Trump.

A recent report by the Huffington Post found that the president’s daughter and closest adviser rakes in a total of $1.5 million a year from the Trump Organization while still working at the White House.

Her dual role as adviser to the president and private business executive has continuously raised ethical red flags. No one can be entirely sure that public policy by this administration isn’t being driven by business motives, or whether countries may pursue business deals with the Trump family as a means to curry political favor with the administration.

Actually, I’m entirely sure that any public policy that could help or hurt her and the rest of the Trumps is very much at the center of presidential decisions. Anything that would help or hurt them today is certainly going to be taken into consideration. But I can’t even imagine the scope of the deals that are quietly being made today and held in abeyance until Trump is out of office. They are undoubtedly planning for a windfall in the billions.

.

Keep their feet to the fire

by digby

I just wanted to point out something about Tom’s post below which references the new polling showing that the Resistance is real. It’s also non-violent and it crosses all demographics and ages. And most reporting shows that women are doing most of the organizing.

I just hope the Democrats keep this in mid as they fashion their electoral strategy and perhaps even more importantly, their approach to governing should they win one or both houses of congress. The people taking to the streets are doing so mostly out of a sense of total horror at the presidency of Donald Trump and what his administration is doing to this country. They will not be voting for Democrats to appease him or spend the next two years modeling themselves on him in order to win over his voters in the 2020 election. Don’t think they won’t. It actually will take tremendous pressure to keep them from doing it. The pressure to appease is tremendous for a whole host of reasons.

It’s as Tom says in his post. This is a fight and these people getting into the streets want to see someone stand up for them against this misbegotten horror show of a president. I just hope elected Democrats have the stomach for it.

.

Stand Up, Fight Back!
by Tom Sullivan

Dressed and ready for school.

It has been 73 years since the world overthrew fascism in Europe, Madeleine Albright reminds New York Times readers. Long enough for the zombie to reassert itself slowly and on the periphery of our collective vision, until lurching into view hungry for brains. (I’m paraphrasing.) The forces of freedom and democracy, once triumphant and ascendant, must reassert themselves now if they are to keep the zombie plague from spreading. “We did it before and we can do it again,” went the song recorded days after Pearl Harbor.

Amid “terrorism, sectarian conflicts, vulnerable borders, rogue social media and the cynical schemes of ambitious men,” democracy is once again tested, writes the former U.S. Secretary of State. The threat is global. Her recommendations are general: defend truth, reinforce the rule of law, re-energize the democratic process. More specificity in the details might have been helpful.

Yet Albright delivers a bill of particulars against the sitting U.S. president that echo those in the Declaration against George III:

Instead of mobilizing international coalitions to take on world problems, he touts the doctrine of “every nation for itself” and has led America into isolated positions on trade, climate change and Middle East peace. Instead of engaging in creative diplomacy, he has insulted United States neighbors and allies, walked away from key international agreements, mocked multilateral organizations and stripped the State Department of its resources and role. Instead of standing up for the values of a free society, Mr. Trump, with his oft-vented scorn for democracy’s building blocks, has strengthened the hands of dictators. No longer need they fear United States criticism regarding human rights or civil liberties. On the contrary, they can and do point to Mr. Trump’s own words to justify their repressive actions.

Greatness is more than marble hotel lobbies and Soviet-style military parades, Albright offers. And she is inspired by students marching for “the right to study without having to wear a flak jacket.” But her op-ed comes as there is marching already underway elected that leaders have been too slow to join.

The Washington Post looks at “Rallying Nation.” For millions, November 8, 2016 was a kind of Pearl Harbor:

One in five Americans have protested in the streets or participated in political rallies since the beginning of 2016. Of those, 19 percent said they had never before joined a march or a political gathering.

Overwhelmingly, recently motivated activists are critical of Trump. Thirty percent approve of the president, and 70 percent disapprove, according to the poll. And many said they plan to be more involved politically this year, with about one-third saying they intend to volunteer or work for a 2018 congressional campaign.

The Post-Kaiser poll examines who they are and why they march. Rallygoers are more likely to be Democrats, college graduates and to disapprove of Trump, findings show:

Nearly 4 in 10 said they plan to become more involved in political causes in 2018. Among the one-third who planned to work or volunteer for congressional races, 64 percent say they will do so for Democrats, and 26 percent plan to work for Republicans.

“I will vote. I will give money. I will go to marches,” said David Orelowitz, 59, a software engineer from New York City.

To fix problems, he said, people need to be heard beyond “arguing at dinner parties.”

Or on Facebook or Twitter, I might add.

Everywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy

* * * * * * * *

For The Win 2018 is ready for download. Request a copy of my county-level election mechanics primer at tom.bluecentury at gmail. (If you are already on my email list, check your in-box.)

Friday Night Soother

by digby

When it comes to feeding and caring for a newborn, if a new mother can’t — or won’t — do it on her own, keepers at the Dallas Zoo are more than ready to step in and lend a hand.

In fact, as soon as zoo staff confirm that an animal is pregnant, they start planning to do so. Of course, the animal experts prefer to leave it all up to the parents, but occasionally it’s a necessity, they say.

Sometimes hand-rearing means preparing bottles and formula, and other times it means chopping up mice to feed to baby birds.

Before the animal is even born, Kerri Slifka, curator of nutrition, thumbs through her files to see if the zoo has a diet planned for that breed. If not, she’ll check with colleagues and research the best option.

Shelves are stocked at the zoo’s William M. Beecherl Animal Nutrition Center with all kinds of animal milk replacements, vitamins and electrolyte solutions.

“I’ll mix and match to get part of this one and part of this one,” Slifka said. “I don’t pay attention to who it says it’s for, I just pay attention to the nutrient content.”

The specialist says she’s paranoid and when an animal’s delivery is near, she carries around her food plan much the same way an expectant woman may cart around her hospital bag.

“If we’re going into the weekend and I know we might have a baby born, I make sure I’ve got that information with me because sometimes you have to do things on the fly,” she said.

Birdkeeper Dana Isaacs feeds ground hornbill chicks chopped up mice dipped in Pedialyte at the Dallas Zoo. The chicks, which were four and nine days old, were being hand-reared by zoo keepers.

To replicate the regurgitated slurry some birds feed their chicks, the zoo makes a shake with fish.

“Smells bad, works great,” Slifka said.

Other birds have different diet and are fed meals to match.

Dana Isaacs, a bird keeper who specializes in hand-rearing, cared for the chicks of a ground hornbill who couldn’t feed her young because of a beak injury.

Isaacs mixed up chopped pinky mice and a soft pellet feed for extra nutrition. The small mice were microwaved then dipped in Pedialyte for hydration before Isaacs fed them to the birds with little tongs.

At one point during hand-rearing, the chicks were on a strict schedule that meant feedings every two hours, seven times a day.

As the chicks grew, the parents were able to feed them without help from keepers, the zoo said.

Proper nutrition is only one concern Isaacs dealt with; she also had to ensure that the birds did not begin to mis-imprint or confuse their human caretakers for their parents. To avoid that, keepers sometimes feed them in silence and from behind a screen with a black glove, Isaacs said.

Read: What does it take to keep more than 2,000 animals at the Dallas Zoo fed and healthy?

As with most animals on a special diet, how much food they get depends on how much they weigh.

When it comes to birds, keepers have to make sure the animals don’t gain more weight than their small legs can support.

But keepers aren’t always worried that their young animals will gain too much weight; they’re worried that they’re not gaining enough.

When staff determined Bahati, the zoo’s first lion cub in 43 years, wasn’t putting on the pounds as she should have been, she was put on Slifka’s special diet — the same meat fed to the older lions, but watered down with milk to get the correct fat and protein content.

The Dallas Zoo’s lion cub Bahati eats meat baby food — a mixture of the same meat fed to the older lions and milk to get the correct fat and protein content. Bahati was put on the special diet last year because she wasn’t gaining weight as she should have been.

She wasn’t on the new diet for long, but “it was a very stressful week,” Slifka said.

Bahati, who turned 1 last month, now weighs more than 160 pounds.

“I’m so proud of my baby,” Slifka said.

Not all new parents behave the same way, and the keepers have to be ready to respond.

Reptile parents don’t nurse and typically aren’t providing active care.

In those cases, keepers can provide mini versions of adult diets or smaller-sized adult foods. In some cases, young reptiles start eating more insects and switch to more adult diets.

Part of Slifka’s preparation for new arrivals is researching the mother’s milk, sometimes checking the Smithsonian’s milk depository to see how to match the protein, fat and water as closely as possible.

“We can’t replicate mom’s milk. It’s not just the nutrients in it; they’re also getting the normal bacteria,” Slifka said.

A couple of years ago, the zoo had to bottle-feed a dik-dik named Dasher when his mother did not provide the proper care. Keepers figured out how to comfort the animal during frequent feedings of evaporated goat’s milk, and soon he was weaned onto solid food and back with his mother.

“We really, really want to make sure they stay with mom.

And here’s a cute story of ordinary house pets:

This mama dog was keeping her puppies warm inside a doghouse when someone else decided to join her 💞 pic.twitter.com/AOHKosQNa3— The Dodo (@dodo) April 1, 2018

Enjoy your Friday everyone!