Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Second rate reporter says what?

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

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Pete ‘The Mucker’ King is Outraged!

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From Politico, c2:35pm Thursday:

Rep. Peter King went on an anti-New York Times tirade on Thursday afternoon, deriding the paper of record as a “disgrace” and calling on Americans to “reject” it for its editorial calling for clemency for Edward Snowden.

“Their editorial today and their whole pattern over the last several years, they’ve really made themselves a blame-America-first rag as far as I’m concerned, and why we exalt The New York Times is beyond me,” the New York Republican said on Fox News. “They go out of their way to be apologists for terrorists and go after those in law enforcement and military who are trying to win this war.”

King, who has long been a defender and proponent of the National Security Agency, called the editors “a disgrace” and said he wishes they “cared more about America than they did about the rights of terrorists’ appeasers.” King said NSA programs do not violate the privacy of Americans and that lives are saved because of them…

Not quite an hour later:

Update 3:25p.m.: As several of our Twitter followers have pointed out, King calling the Times “apologists for terrorists” is a little ironic, considering he was once “one of the nation’s most outspoken supporters of the Irish Republican Army and a prolific fundraiser for the Irish Northern Aid Committee (NorAid), allegedly the IRA’s American fundraising arm” as noted by this 2011 Mother Jones piece….

The NYTimes has since doubled down on its call for some form of clemency.

Greenwald’s fiercest competitor critic, Paul Carr, agrees “… Snowden might be an unlikeable sort, but justice rarely concerns itself with likable sorts. Phil Spector was offered a plea deal, OJ was offered a plea deal, as were Jack Abramoff, Scooter Libby, Bernie Madoff, Paris Hilton and Bruno Mars. Fortunately we — by which I mean Americans, and Brits like me — are fortunate to live in a country where being an ass, a hypocrite, or even a scoundrel, doesn’t deny one access to justice….For all of his arrogance and his muddled, me-me-millennial politics, there’s no denying that Snowden’s outrage at government spying (in the US at least) is authentic, or that, like Chelsea Manning before him, he at least made some effort to get his superiors to listen to him before he went public. Simply put, Snowden is proof that you can be both a whistle-blower and a blowhard: a whistle-blowhard.”

Personally, I like this guy’s suggestion:

… Bring him home. Sentence him to time served in Putin’s Russia. Make it as quiet and uncomplicated as possible. And let the debate — and real reform — go on without him. He deserves to live in this country in as much peace as Orlando Bosch did, and with as many career opportunities as have been afforded Elliott Abrams and Ollie North, who did not release information for free but, rather, some missiles to terror states for money.

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Open Thread: Tea Party Lament

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Via commentor Schlemizel. Thanks, dude!

Also, an update to Cole’s late-night rant, from Carolyn Bankoff at NYMag:

… In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Romney did the reasonable thing and accepted [MHP’s apology].

“Well, you know, I think people recognize, and the folks at MSNBC have apologized, recognize people like me are fair targets. If you get in the political game, you can expect incoming. But children, you know, that’s beyond the line, and I think they understand that, and feel that as well,” Romney told Chris Wallace. “I think it’s a heartfelt apology. I think for that reason, we hold no ill will whatsoever.”

When Wallace reminded Romney that Harris-Perry had floated the idea of Kieran marrying North West, forcing Romney and Kanye to become in-laws, he responded, “I hadn’t heard those and don’t have any comment on those,” possibly because he is not sure who Harris-Perry was talking about. See? Joking about adult Romneys is so easy that you really don’t need to bring the babies into it.

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Long Read: “The Waste and Corruption of Vladimir Putin’s 2014 Winter Olympics”

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(Jim Morin via GoComics.com)

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From Bloomberg BusinessWeek:

… At $51 billion, the Sochi Games are the costliest ever, surpassing the $40 billion spent by China on the 2008 Summer Olympics. The suicide bombings in the Russian city of Volgograd on Dec. 29 and 30 have heightened fears of terrorism and given a renewed focus to security concerns as well as questions of cost. How the Sochi Games grew so expensive is a tale of Putin-era Russia in microcosm: a story of ambition, hubris, and greed leading to fabulous extravagance on the shores of the Black Sea. And extravagances, in Russia especially, come at a price.

Back in 2007, when Russia was bidding to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, the huge amounts it was willing to spend were a point of pride, an enticement meant to win over officials at the International Olympic Committee. Putin traveled to Guatemala City to give a rare speech in English, with even a touch of French, to the assembled IOC delegates, promising to turn Sochi into “a world-class resort” for a “new Russia” and the rest of the world. His pledge to spend $12 billion in Sochi dwarfed the bids of the other finalists from South Korea and Austria.

But since then, as costs have increased, Russian officials have grown less eager to boast about the size of the final bill. “In the beginning, money was a reason and argument for Russia to win the right to host the Olympics,” says Igor Nikolaev, director of strategic analysis at FBK, an audit and consulting firm in Moscow. “But it turned out we spent so much that everybody is trying not to talk about it anymore.” Dmitry Kozak, deputy prime minister in charge of Olympic preparations, has argued that the $51 billion number is misleading. Only $6 billion of that is directly Olympics-related, he says; the rest has gone to infrastructure and regional development the state would have carried out anyway. That may be true, though it’s hard to imagine the Russian government building an $8.7 billion road and railway up to the mountains without the Games.

Bent Flyvbjerg, an expert on what are called “megaprojects” at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University, says the costs for Olympic host nations have on average tripled from the initial bid to the opening ceremonies. In Sochi, costs rose nearly five times. That these Olympics should be the most expensive in history is all the more improbable, says Allison Stewart, a colleague of Flyvbjerg’s at Oxford, because compared with Summer Games, Winter Olympiads involve fewer athletes (2,500 vs. 11,000), fewer events (86 vs. 300), and fewer venues (15 vs. 40)…

Many, many more colorful details at the link.

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The Kardashian of Virtual Currencies

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Behold Bitcoin’s latest competition, Coinye:

Launching January 11 with the catchphrase “WE AIN’T MININ’, WE PICKIN’”, the system promises “no premine, no screwed up fake “fair” launches, shyster devs, muted channels, and f**ked up wallets”. Just like Kanye West, CoinYe West won’t be taking any shit.

Is this a real thing or an elaborate ruse to part suckers with their money? You could ask the same about Bitcoin as far as I’m concerned.

While we’re discussing Mr. West, can someone explain why his latest album got such great press? I’d rather listen to two cats fucking in a plastic shopping bag filled with bubblewrap.

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NFL Wild Card Games Open Thread

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Looks like the Bengals and Chargers are knotted up at 7-7 now with around five minutes left until the half. I’m utterly indifferent to both teams and am hoping for a good game, which apparently we have so far (just came in from running a bunch of errands).

The 49ers-Packers game is at 4:40. I’ve never liked the 49ers, and I admire the Packers’ blatantly socialist team ownership model, so Go Pack!

We’re smoking a couple of racks of ribs. One of my favorite Christmas presents this year was a remote thermometer and food temperature thingy, which can be set up to sound an alarm if the smoker or food temperature falls outside of set parameters.

Today, I’m just using the smoker thermometer part since we’re smoking ribs. But here’s the weird thing: One of my dogs gets extremely distressed at the beeping noises the receiver thing makes when you’re setting temperatures and freaks out every time the alarm sounds.

She whines and whimpers and then comes and rests her chin on my knee if I’m sitting down and looks at me with pleading eyes. The other dog (same kind of dog, same approximate size) is completely unaffected by the sound. She looks at the affected dog with concern but isn’t bothered by it herself.

If freaking-out-dog’s ears are hurt by the noise, wouldn’t that affect both dogs? Anyway, I feel bad for her and try to minimize the sound, but it’s strange. I don’t understand why she doesn’t just leave the area if it hurts her ears. On the contrary, she comes toward it.

What are y’all up to today?

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Drunk at Noon

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I’m on vacation in an undisclosed third world country, and I’m conquering my liberal guilt over the divide between rich and poor here by drinking. Imagine a hispanic, male Peggy Noonan with gin instead of vodka, and, after the nausea passes, you’ll have me pegged.

So, let’s talk guilt. If you accept that the world is a vampire, then America is the Eric Northman or Bill Compton of that fucked-up analogy. Those of us with souls–which leaves out people who think that the way to keep up attendance at the ballet or opera is to imprison any person of color caught with a joint–at times ponder the fate and justice of those who we push into the muck on our ascent to the exalted position of top turd on this shitpile. When we think of the vast majority of the world whose annual income is far exceeded by, say, my bar tab, many of us come up with some reason why we’re here and not packaging happy meal toys in a factory outside Shenzen.

At this point, and maybe it’s just the gin talking, I’d say that a lot of our political discussion is dominated by one group fixated on rationalizing and justifying our position in the world. The group that requires the most fervent and heartfelt rationalizations forms the current rump of the Republican party. And, really, there’s no rationalization, reason or rhyme why my major concern at the moment is a spotty WiFi connection rather than how I’m going to pay for my next meal. So any attempt to attach your position in the world to some ideology is going to end up being even more senseless than my Tom Collins-inspired blithering on a blog containing umpteen dozen pictures of a Maine Coon and the writings of an imaginary (though hilarious) 90-year-old woman.

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Aquaponics

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From commentor MB:

One of my personal boycotts is against blog posts that are listicles or that are entitled “Why…” The listicle “thing” has gotten seriously out of control and I am sick to death of posts that purport to give a final explaination of some great (or not-so-great) truth (Ezra Klein, I’m looking at you.) With that in mind, here are A Bunch of Reasons Why I Love Aquaponics and So Should You.

First a thumbnail sketch of aquaponics (AQ) in general and as practiced in the above pictured greenhouse. AQ is the process of growing plants in water like hydroponics but the fertilizer is (mostly) provided by fish who live in the water used to flood the plants. It is, at it’s heart, a symbiotic relationship wherein the plants feed from the fishes’ effluent which cleans the water that is returned to the fish who then, frankly, shit in it again. Fish gotta do what fish gotta do. The good news is that fish poo is just about the best poo you can use for plant food.

My AQ setup is housed in a 12×40 greenhouse and is comprised of a 600 gallon fish tank containing ~200 fish, four 4×7 gravel planting beds and a sump which runs most of the length of the greenhouse. I use one pump to pump water into the fish tank and the dirty water from the tank runs by gravity to the four planting beds. You have to have at least a 1:1 ratio between the volume of your fish tank and the total volume of all planting beds. You can support up to a 1:2 ratio. I have a 1:1.33 ratio. I have a total of about 1200 gallons in the whole system. The water is used over and over again and only lost to the system through evaporation and plant use. It it generally thought that AQ uses 1/10th the water needed for traditional gardening. This was a big selling point for me as I hate paying water bills and watering plants.

aquaponics loop siphon

The water enters the bed relatively slowly but exits quickly through the use of a siphon (shown above) similar to the siphon used to evacuate your toilet bowl. The orange arrows in the above picture indicate the direction the water flows. When it reaches the top of that pvc gooseneck and begins to drain over, it kicks off the siphon. It takes nearly 30 minutes to fill the bed but less than 5 to empty it. This is important because it sucks oxygen into the root zone. This also helps clean the water as the gravel “polishes” it removing all solids which remain in the bed available to the plants. A lot of aquaponists use the bell siphon system but I found it to be very, very temperamental whereas the loop siphon works pretty consistently. The pvc piece in the upper right hand corner helps the siphon stop when the water level is low enough to suck air into the siphon.

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