From faithful commentor Opie Jeanne:
I finally have some decent photos for you…
You can tell what all of these are without notes, except for this one. That is borage and I struggled to get a shot of one of the bees.
Annie sitting on the new deck, and while the contractor was here we asked about him redoing the stupid arbor. She is an indoor cat but we are letting her have a few minutes outside in the morning while we stand guard. The corn isn’t as high as an elephant’s eye just yet, but those weeds in between these two rows are corn poppies. Mostly.
The new arbor replaced a poor attempt at an arbor built by a landscaper, and it looked more like the entrance to the OK Corral. We have just been told that there will be a wedding held here, so we are glad we had that done.
***********
What’s going on in your gardens, this week?
raven
Your garden looks so much better than that golf course did last week!
We got a decent amount of rain so that should help our garden.
OzarkHillbilly
There is a fungus among us. The rains just won’t stop and all my tomatoes show blight. Also, my sweet peppers appear to have tobacco mosaic virus that I assume they got from the 6 banana peppers I bought to fill out what I started from seed. Really ticks me off ’cause I haven’t smoked in 5 years. Squash bugs arrived this week and seem to have killed a patty pan. I am hopeful that a close eye will avoid any more losses. I have managed a few zucchini so far. The eggplants look like hell but we did have some grilled for dinner last night. My Romanesco broccoli still don’t have any heads (tho 1 is showing the beginnings of one) but the Waltham are all done. My potatoes mostly look like hell, but the sweet potatoes are progressing as they should. My soft neck garlic has collapsed (too soon) but the hard neck is soldering on. I’ll dig up the soft necks today and see what kind of heads they have. The beans are the one thing I have no worries about (yet) and I am now picking every other day.
I have at least one of these moments every year where I think all is a disaster and almost a total loss. And then by the end of the year my pantry is bulging with canned goods and the freezers are over full.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Have the kudzu bugs made it there? For that matter, has the kudzu mad it there???
I guess this answers my question
http://www.kudzubug.org/index.html
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Had not even heard of Kudzu bugs till now. Oh joy. No kudzu either, I have been awaiting it’s arrival for 30+ years but maybe it just doesn’t like it in the Ozarks.
ThresherK
Hoping the rain doesn’t destroy the remaining strawberries.
Spousal Unit and I are going to an OppositeMarriage today. No, the bride and groom aren’t trying to Take Back the Chapel*; they’ve had this date reservedsince before Xmas. It’s at a shindiggery, not a church. And also, it’s in MA. So our chances of seeing some gay or lesbian couples getting married is slim.
My “straight but not narrow” claim to fame, if I have one, is that I knew these two married ladies in 2004, the year they got married. All of us were on the Cycle the Erie Canal tour that year.
(*Please, God, don’t let this be a thing.)
Pogonip
Good morning shaper-uppers! I did pretty well last week, how about you?
It is 28 June and I have the heat on to take off the chill.
raven
@ThresherK: I just hope this doesn’t lead to more weddings during football games!
satby
Opie Jeanne, your yard looks lovely. You’re way more ambitious than I am. The new arbor looks like a nice place for a wedding, congratulations to whomever is the lucky couple!
Schlemazel
@raven:
I had not heard of these before. It would be nice I suppose if the stuck to the kudzu.
We have had Japanese beetle invasions the last 2-3 years and they are voracious pests. They are beautiful to look at, little tiny rainbow jewels in the sun but they will strip leaves clean in a day.
We are going to the gay pride parade downtown today. Its been an annual trip for a few years for us. She who was foolish enough to marry me loves it, me not as much. I go because I want to support the cause but some of the units play right into the stereotypes or are displays of a sexual nature I would not be happy seeing in a public place from straights either. But overall its a good time.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: We’ve had rain more days than sun too, and I think my 3 biggest tomato plants are starting to show blight too. Someone suggested a fungicide in a previous garden thread that not only helped their tomatoes but the overspray helped their irises too, and I can’t remember the name of it. Anyone else remember? I want to get some.
satby
@Pogonip: It was supposed to go down to 58 here last night, but it will warm up fast enough that I have fans on to suck that cool air inside!
ThresherK
@raven: I’ll have to ask my lesbian mechanic* how badly she’d try to avoid any wedding on the Day of the Big Game.
(*For once, I’m not kidding about this part.)
Schlemazel
@raven:
Well, there is DB on the Vikings who will not be serving as best man at any of them I can tell you that.
Vikings CB: Same-Sex Marriage Ruling One Step Closer To Legal Pedophilia
http://deadspin.com/vikings-cb-same-sex-marriage-ruling-one-step-closer-to-1714178473
Aleta
@OzarkHillbilly: reading this made me hungry though
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel: Last year the squash bugs missed me. This year it’s the Japanese beetles I have had no trouble with. Tent worms too. I usually have to wage all out war with those bastards (I love the smell of burning tent worms in the morning).
Schlemazel
Opie Jeanne: Beautiful garden & the cats not bad either!
We let out cats out in the backyard as long as we are there and they learn that if they leave the yard they get put back in the house. It seems to be a nice compromise as we won’t let them run free and they do want out.
Are those Queen Anne cherries? The look great. This far north all I can get are tart pie cherries. We had a massive crop this year but I would kill for good sweet cherries.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have not seen tent worms in Southern MN but when we go up North to visit in-laws I see them. If we’re not on the highway we have stopped a few time to fry the buggers.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Probably Serenade.
Anne Laurie
@satby: I’ve had good results with Serenade, as long as I got my Round Tuit out there to re-spray after every rain… and it worked well to prevent downy mildew on my lilacs, which is unsightly even though it doesn’t seem to hurt the plants. Actinovate also has a good reputation, but I haven’t used it myself.
JPL
What a beautiful spot for a wedding! Your pictures are beautiful.
Randy P
@ThresherK:
Mine would be that I sat next to this lady every week the last couple years of her life in a chorus we both sang in. And, clueless and non-conversational soul that I am, I had no idea who she was until I heard the eulogies at her funeral (at which, as a member of the chorus, it was my privilege to sing).
Ferdzy
That photo of the borage and the bee is really lovely! Great garden. I’m having a bit of a day off as it is raining. Everything doing well, just behind on the weeding. We are about to be awash in shelling peas. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with a crossed pea I found in the garden last year (so F2 this year).
Randy P
On-topic: Does anyone know how to discourage carpenter bees? Or encourage them to nest somewhere other than the porch railing? Like other slow-moving bees, I don’t bug then when we encounter each other in the garden and they don’t really bug me, except for the damage they do to the wood of the aforementioned porch railing. They drill these neat little holes, leaving piles of sawdust underneath.
I wouldn’t dare show pictures of our garden in this company, we’re low-maintenance gardeners. My wife is pretty successful with container gardening of tomatoes, and they’ve been very happy with the wet weather. The main problem with them is that the squirrels are right there when the tomatoes ripen, so if we want any we have to pick them green.
I have a couple of (store-bought) blackberry bushes that seem to be doing well. At our old house we had a wonderful patch of wild raspberries which gave us a huge yield every year. I’d love to have a patch like that again.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: @Anne Laurie: Thanks! I’m going to get some today!
Germy Shoemangler
@Randy P: If you want to discourage carpenter bees, show them the front page of the NYTimes, for headlines like this:
Almond oil. Pour some of it around and in the holes and nests. Boric acid powder. Have you noticed a great activity of insects? Diatomaceous earth.
JPL
@Randy P: I made a paste of seven and water one time. That seemed to help. There are also sprays, not for the bees so much but for the railing.
jharp
In central Indiana most gardens are under water.
We have had an unbelievable amount of rain this June. Nearing an all time record.
All I can say is it is a hell of a lot better than when there is no rain.
JPL
@Germy Shoemangler: Yup… The republicans do a hell of a job on those issues.
Germy Shoemangler
@jharp: We’ve been having rain almost every other day. Today is a complete washout.
For a while, we had extremely dry conditions. Every day the weather guy would warn us about outdoor burn restrictions; danger of brush fires. I was hoping we’d get rain before July 4th because our county passed a law legalizing all sorts of home fireworks that previously were banned.
And now today I see an article in today’s local paper about firemen being worried about this year’s July 4th. They’re anticipating more calls because of careless idiots.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I had to order mine over the internet. Couldn’t even find any up in STL.
jharp
@Germy Shoemangler:
“Republican officials see an opening to turn the 2016 presidential election toward economic and national security issues.”
And why in the fuck should we trust Republicans more on economic and national security issues?
Because George W. Bush ignored the warnings and allowed the worst terrorist attack in our history? And then proceeded to crash our economy sending us into the worst recession since the Great Depression?
Republicans have got nothing. And we’ve got to remind everyone of that every day until November 8, 2016.
Germy Shoemangler
@JPL: I really think the folks who write these NYTimes “analysis” pieces believe that if they write something, by magic it will become so. College republicans who grow up to become NYTimes thinkers and engage in wishful thinking.
Germy Shoemangler
@jharp: Low-info voters have short memories. Carpenter bees remember more of the past.
JPL
@Germy Shoemangler: They read to many memos from the republican party.
Randy P
@Germy Shoemangler: There’s a popular tourist destination called New Hope on the Delaware River north of Philly. They used to have regular fireworks on a barge on the river (every Friday night as I recall) as well as a big show on the 4th, and you could stand on the bridge and get a great view.
For the last several years every fireworks show we’ve tried to attend there has been canceled due to high, fast water due to excessive rains.
River towns have never been strangers to the occasional severe flood, but I think it’s getting much worse.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Yeah, I welcome their desire to focus on those 2 issues.
jharp
@raven:
This past week I had an encounter with bed bugs on Thursday, then a deer tick on Sunday, and then chiggers on the next Tuesday.
That and the emerald ash borer is killing all of the ash trees in my woods.
And now kudzu bugs? Keep them in the south please.
p.a.
Very nice garden photos. My minimalist gardening attempt this year is going alternate universe on me; the potted stuff is doing better than the real earth plants. That’s a first. No sign of critters either, just a goateed Spock year.
scav
Day gazillion of the current death to garlic mustard campaign. Also, if anyone is missing the state of Wisconsin, it’s currently been dug up and wrestled into place as a flagstone, but the UP is still on walkabout. The other state serving as flagstone could be any of the vaguely rectangular ones. We really hope no one claims them: they’re honestly rather handy in their current locations.
ETA. Those cherries are making me frightfully jealous and hungry though. Congratulations on a fine tree(s)!
Mary G
Beautiful garden, Opiejeannie! The Rainier cherries have been great this year. We even got them at the 99 cents store this week, which I’ve never seen before. Love the new arbor. Are you going to plant a vine on it, like wisteria or clematis?
Michael Bersin
Caught a local insect feeding on a cone flower in the front yard yesterday evening:
Your Summer evening moment of Zen
Germy Shoemangler
@Randy P:
My wife & I have been gardening together for over twenty-five years. The weather is definitely changing. Things are blooming earlier, growing season is longer. That sounds like a nice thing, but it’s not, because we’re getting more infestations and more flooding.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Michael Bersin:
I see the page but no picture—just a little icon.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Weather forecast for Detroit shows pretty much rain, right off the end of the calendar. But it’s sunny this morning so I’ll dash out there with the mower and try to knock down the grass a few inches before it’s too late.
Then pull some weeds. The soil should be really soft since it’s saturated with rain water.
I’m leaving some wild milkweed plants in place and hoping the neighbors don’t complain. The flowers smell amazing and the bees just go nuts over them.
Then go through my suitcase to make sure it’ll pass security at Mexico City Benito Juarez Airport Monday morning.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (phone): It works for me.
Baud
@Germy Shoemangler:
As everyone has pointed out, the GOP isn’t any stronger on those issues. But the real story here is the NYT shilling for the GOP. There is no new “opening” fit Republicans. The GOP has always been able to focus on economic and national security issues, and the last two presidential elections were in fact focused far more on those issues than culture war issues. What this reporter is trying to do is get voters to think of social issues as settled and to reagrd Democratic efforts as ancient history, because he knows that the GOP’s views are increasingly unacceptable to most voters and would prevent them from having even a fighting chance next year.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: The horse race must be created.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@satby: That was me, and it was Actinovate. I need to get pics of the difference between the oversprayed iris bed and the untreated one. It’s still dramatic just in the foliage.
Sorry I didn’t see the question earlier. I’ve been listening to the tale of a straight marriage that has been destroyed by gay marriage.
And giggling madly.
A friend’s semi-psycho ex has been dumped by the second wife for a woman.
Cue Friends jokes.
Germy Shoemangler
@Baud:
Yes, and that’s what bugs me about the NYT. Because they present stuff like this with a straight face, as if they’re simply reporting, when in fact they’re attempting to shape reality.
And yet to the average wingnut, the NYT is a liberal rag.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Screw your neighbors.
sacrablue
@Randy P: New Hope was my teen-age hangout place back in the late 60’s. I was there every weekend and most summer days off, mostly people-watching sitting while slightly stoned.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@OzarkHillbilly:
Unless they squeal to the code inspector. Last year I got a fix-it citation for my purple bellflower and milkweed.
I removed the plants visible from the street. Apparently native flowering plants are weeds, but if you pay a landscaper thousands to plant varietals it’s a garden.
the Conster
@Germy Shoemangler:
I was going to post the same nonsense. The GOP base is fueled by hatred of Obama who represents their worst fears writ large. Full stop. Not a single one of the tea party morons give a shit about policy – they are pure id. The media refuses to acknowledge this reality more than the candidates do, to their everlasting shame.
satby
@Omnes Omnibus: Hey Omnes, I never read the night threads till the next morning, can’t stay up that late. But I wanted to say how happy I am to hear of your happiness!
And may I suggest Singulair for the cat allergy.
You may remember I suffer from many, many allergies and animals are one (well two, dogs and cats both. Cats worse). That’s not good for a rescuer, so I was started on Singulair, which is an anti-leukotriene and made me feel almost like I wasn’t allergic at all.
WaterGirl
Gorgeous cherries, beautiful arbor! Not to mention the kitty!
What makes an arbor an arbor? Is it any open structure or only something at an entrance? How is it different than a pergola?
OzarkHillbilly
@Germy Shoemangler:
@Baud:
Hmmmmmm…. Just reading what was excerpted, why do I get an entirely different impression of what the reporter was doing?
As Left Wins Culture Battles, G.O.P. May Gain Opening
By JONATHAN MARTIN
As Democrats earn victories on deeply divisive questions of race, sexuality and broadened access to health care, some Republican officials see an opening to turn the 2016 presidential election….
Take all the slaps you want at the headline writer, but I see the reporter as being innocent of the charges being leveled against him. I have to add the caveat that, as I don’t subscribe to the NYT I am loath to use up one of my 10 articles per month on horse race garbage, so maybe later in the article he commits the sin. Also, I suspect the headline writer was just lazy and used those words because of space issues.
Aleta
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve committed crimes against tent worms, but I learned something last fall that made me feel better about the ones who live on. I think it applies to the type that show up in the spring, too. Where I am, food for migrating birds available at the right time is critical, because some are traveling over water without resting for awhile. Apparently the tent caterpillars are high protein easy pickings for birds. Last fall, I saw migrating orioles landing on roofs overhung by trees, and at the time fall tent caterpillars were dropping from the birches and maples onto the roofs. Suddenly it made sense.
satby
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Yes, I remember that it began with an “A”. Thanks! As I have both tomatoes and iris, I wanted to get what worked for both, though it looks like Serenade will too. But I remember how pleased you were with it.
MattF
Not my garden, but the farmer’s market this morning was in overflow mode. I got red and black raspberries, cherry tomatoes, blueberries, mushrooms and a nice chunk of salmon– which will be pan-fried tonight. Plus pastries. Blackberries, soon, I think.
Aleta
@Ultraviolet Thunder: You’ve got to be kidding me. (Someone just told me milkweed is the only thing that monarchs eat when they are young. Besides, around here coneflower and milkweed are critical habitat for rusting car bodies.)
rikyrah
Always enjoy the garden pictures.
Valdivia
@Baud: Was just coming here to report on the “It’s all good news for John McCain” trope in this morning paper (and no coincidence since JM was the Politico reporter who covered McCain in 2008)
This on the other hand is very good, from a surprising corner. How Obama has not gotten the respect he deserves.
Butch
We’ve planted borage for years and love it, even if we’re not sure how to pronounce it. The thing about “self-seeds readily” is very true, but the bees swarm over it and it’s beautiful.
JPL
OT.. Space x launch just failed.
Valdivia
@Valdivia: I should add, if you ignore all the Bush fluffing in the piece, or the castigation of liberals.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Yes. It would be nice if you had the time to lobby the city to grant a variance on endangered species grounds for at least the milkweed, maybe enlist a reporter from the weekly local rag to publicize it.
Ahhh, pipedreams…. I got a thousand of them.
satby
@Valdivia: Is that the link you meant? I get a movie article.
Germy Shoemangler
♫•*(¯`v´¯)¸.•*✿
*◦.(¯`:✿:´¯) ✿
✿.(.^.)*•.¸¸.•`*•.
MomSense
Beautiful gardens. We are getting rain and howling winds today. The power keeps flickering. Going to be a quiet day.
OzarkHillbilly
@Valdivia: link goes to a wiki article on “Rome and Jewel”.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Valdivia:
Link goes to Rome and Jewel?
Kay
Here’s John Kerry explaining that people who (understandably, based on the past performance of John Kerry, among others) worry the US will negotiate another crappy trade deal are fearful and stupid, while the people promoting the trade deal are innovative and brave. He goes on to imply that the law they just passed to grant fast track authority allows congress power over the substantive provisions of trade deals which is incorrect. It allows Congress to set “negotiating objectives” which are so broadly worded literally any deal could satisfy them.
Kerry also says the US has to be the lead to set “high standards” but the US isn’t the “gold standard” on labor and environmental protections in the world The US isn’t even the “gold standard” among the parties to this deal- Australia or Canada might well be the “gold standard” among these parties.
Look at the difference between Kerry’s language on labor and environmental protections and the protections for business interests:
“It’s important” that they comply with labor and environmental standards but they have to comply with the provisions put in place to protect property. A suggestion versus an enforceable demand.
This is reflected in the proposed deal. If it’s a property rights issue it goes to a special “fast track” (and very business friendly) tribunal process. If it’s a labor or environmental issue it goes on the slow, winding track where the petitioner has to convince a state to intervene on their behalf. That second “as slow as possible track” never seemed to end in enforcement or sanctions in past trade deals, so if they wanted to make this one better why didn’t they create a level playing field at least as far as access to process? Give them at least a fighting chance.
http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2015/04/241019.htm
Amir Khalid
@Valdivia:
Your link goes to the Wikipedia entry on Rome & Jewel. I’m not sure what the connection is between a little-known film based on the Romeo and Juliet story, and President Obama.
JPL
@Amir Khalid: Your home! How you feeling?
Valdivia
@Amir Khalid: Yikes.
Here: http://mobile.philly.com/news/opinion?wss=/philly/opinion&id=310213051
This is what happens when you use a previous link from research you were doing, which in and of itself is reason enough for me to be blushing.
@satby: @OzarkHillbilly: & @steeplejack
I know guys, I am now off to hang my head in shame
Valdivia
Because my comment went into moderation for too many links: here is the article
http://mobile.philly.com/news/opinion?wss=/philly/opinion&id=310213051
@Amir Khalid: Hope you’re doing better.
Amir Khalid
@JPL:
On the first day I was very weak. I had what my brother (a doctor) tells me was postural hypotension and fainted; I hit the floor hard enough to bloody my chin, but no lasting damage was done. Today I am not so weak, but I’m taking it easy with regards to regaining mobility. Easy does it. Still not sure if I feel safe to resume fasting. I’ll wait at least another few days before I decide that.
Kay
They also present “Fast Track” as only one option, but Fast Track is just a law. Congress can write laws any way they want. They could have, for example, extended “fast track” on just this deal and that was actually proposed and rejected. “Fast Track” only means “this exact version of fast track because we did horse trading with Republicans and that was one of the conditions” because that’s what they negotiated in Congress.
Ruckus
@Germy Shoemangler:
Most cities in southern CA ban fireworks, mainly because of the fire danger. After 4 yrs of drought it amazes me that some near the foothills still allow selling. Mind completely boggled. Of course the last two 4ths I lived in a no fire works area but for about 2 weeks before and on the 4th it sounded like a battlefield. On the 4th two of the neighbors would spend the night trying to out do each other. And we aren’t talking sparklers.
Germy Shoemangler
@Ruckus: That’s why I didn’t understand the recent law in my county “legalizing” certain fireworks for home use. Because for years I had neighbors who would make their yards (and ours) sound like the battle of the bulge. What more can they possibly do?
Now that we’ve moved to a larger city, there’s less hobbyists, probably because there’s a beautiful display downtown.
Yesterday I saw a tent set up in the parking lot of an auto mechanic. Guy was selling all sorts of fireworks. The folks that pulled up and walked away with boxes of the stuff were an interesting-looking cross-section of the population.
I’m glad we’ve had rain, and the ground and brush are wet.
Steeplejack
Semi-garden-related: Any tips on getting rid of, and discouraging the return of, those tiny black ants? Occasionally a solo scout will turn up in the kitchen, but a couple of days ago there was an uptick in activity—maybe five or ten in random places at different times . They haven’t gone into full supply-line invasion mode, and, aside from dealing with these, I want to nuke their chemtrails or whatever it is they use to let headquarters know they’ve made a score.
Germy Shoemangler
@Steeplejack: I’ve had the exact same ant problem. I’ve been spot-spraying with Ra1D, making sure all counter tops are wiped obsessively.
I feel like what I should have done was spray all around the outside of the house earlier in the spring.
I’ve been seeing them in the kitchen (even in the dishwasher!) in the bathroom and around the windows. It’s worse this year than it’s ever been.
Kay
So if we have to have investor state tribunals which I think is a horrible idea- the last thing business interests need is more government stacking of the deck in their favor- I am as sure as one can be they will abuse this- can we at least get a reciprocal and equally friendly process for the public interest in matters other than property?
I want a private court too, stacked with my own lawyers. That seems reasonable.
Ruckus
@Germy Shoemangler:
I’m glad we’ve had rain, and the ground and brush are wet.
We don’t have that.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Admittedly, I’m basing my opinion just on the short excerpt and past experience with the NYT. But I see the “see an opening” phrase as propaganda-ish. There has always been that “opening,” and the GOP has used it repeatedly. And it paints the GOP as victims of the culture war rather than combatants in it. Subtle, sure, but all good shilling is.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Glad you are home, Amir! Still not sure if it’s safe to resume fasting? Let me make it easy for you – Dr. WaterGirl says it is most definitely not!
And no, I am not a doctor, but I am someone who cares about you. No god worth his salt would want you to risk your health in order to participate in the fast.
Aleta
@Randy P: Ask the Bug Man used to be a column on insect control at the SF Chronicle, and the column is still up. (Now I think Richard Fagerlund has a book instead.) Here’s one thing he wrote about boric-type products for carpenter bees (he also advocates orange oil), and there are more from a diff source at SFgate. http://homeguides.sfgate.com/kill-carpenter-bees-household-items-82096.html Desiccants are said to be better than spraying. (Salt worked once for me.) (I’ve found with other bugs, drying out their environment or bodies/eggs where they nest worked really well.)
satby
@Amir Khalid: Hope you’re feeling better Amir!
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I had them in my kitchen years ago, and I did two things. I bought the sticky syrup-y ant killers and put them outside the house at various possible entry points I think they come in packages of 6.
The other thing I did was sprinkle cinnamon all over my counters. I don’t recall why that works, but you could google it. I sprinkled the counters before i left for a one-week vacation, and when I returned there were no more ants.
OzarkHillbilly
@Steeplejack: Whenever I had this issue I would set up bait stations. Worked very well.
opiejeanne
@Schlemazel: those are indeed Royal Anne cherries.
Thank you. This is our fifth Spring here and when we started it was chest deep weeds with trash and big rocks along the edges
Xenos
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
This happened to a right-wing Catholic family friend.
He has been railing about the dangers of normalizing homosexuality for years, and I guess he knew what he was talking about.
Liberals don’t seem to worry about this sort of thing because they are not hiding out in codependent relationships with overcompensating authoritarians. At least most often they are not…
WaterGirl
@Baud: I read somewhere that many, many people only read the first sentence or two of an article but they still feel like they have “read” it. If that’s true, it only takes that sentence or two for the propaganda to take hold.
WaterGirl
@Germy Shoemangler: I cringe every time I read that you are using RAID.
satby
@Germy Shoemangler: Ant bait traps. They carry the bait back to the nest and the entire nest gets wiped out. I use them when I first see the ants, takes a couple of days total, but clears them out for the season.
Edited to add: these are Raid, but the only ones exposed are the ants. Way easier and safer.
Aleta
(reposting 1st part of a comment that had too many links)
@Randy P: Ask the Bug Man used to be a column on insect control at the SF Chronicle, and the column is still up. http://www.sfgate.com/columns/askthebugman/ (Now I think Richard Fagerlund has a book instead.) Here’s one thing he wrote about boric-type products for carpenter bees (he also advocates orange oil), and there are more from a diff source at SFgate.
http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/Don-t-listen-to-state-choose-not-to-fumigate-3200391.php
Elizabelle
@Valdivia: Smerconish does not get props from me. He wraps his column too much in a sh*t sandwich (W was treated badly too; I don’t think he lied us into war; look — Keith Olbmermann! both sides!)
It’s a problem when Smerconish has to hedge his praise so much. Demonstrates his own point, since he was afraid of how his audience (“professionals. Mostly white. Largely male. Older. And all Southern”) would respond. He takes us down the winding path of “Bush Derangement Syndrome” — W was even dissed by Kanye West!) before answering the question.
Nut of his column is the last paragraphs (first part is just squid ink):
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20150628_The_Pulse__Obama_denied_the_respect_he_deserves.html#h4tRiZXiKmKRkLg7.99
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: This is what I used:
http://www.amazon.com/TERRO-Killer-Liquid-Baits-pre-filled/dp/B000HJBKMQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435505343&sr=8-1&keywords=ant+killer
Germy Shoemangler
@WaterGirl: I know. I finished my last bottle. I asked my cat for forgiveness after spraying that stupid ra1d flea stuff downstairs. It gave me a headache and she didn’t like it either.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I see it as accurate reporting of the delusions under which the GOP are operating. How else does one say, “The GOP thinks…” The GOP always thinks something, so do the Dems. Would it be propaganda-ish to say “Dems think they can beat up on the GOP for Iraq, the Great Recession, gay marriage, the Confederate flag, Black Lives Matter, equal pay, minimum wage, etc etc etc”? or just accurate reporting?
Felonius Monk
@Steeplejack: @Germy Shoemangler:
Get a product called “TERRO” liquid ant killer — works like a charm – no spraying – pretty safe to use.
ETA: Sorry. I missed Watergirl’s comment already suggesting this.
Germy Shoemangler
@satby: I bought a bunch of those several years ago for ants we had downstairs. I placed them in a room the cat does not have access to.
This year I was worried about putting them in our main rooms where she’d find them. Because she is a girl who insists on investigating everything and everyone who comes through our door.
But I suppose it couldn’t be any worse than the damn spray.
WaterGirl
@Germy Shoemangler: I have been biting my tongue, trying not to say this because I don’t want to worry you, but I think it might be a good idea to take your kitty in for blood tests. I would do it now and then again in about 6 weeks. (or whatever timeframe your vet thinks would be good)
Kay
@Baud:
The GOP has used exactly that strategy before though – the bullshit fake on social issues to the base and then the quiet reassurance to the money people- the people who actually run the Party- that the “social issues” (which means civil rights) will be handled by Democrats.
Low, low taxes AND civil rights, and the people they’re hoping to attract don’t give a shit about income inequality or wages anyway. That’s why those people are “centrists” because that’s the accepted meaning of the word- center on “social issues” (which don’t cost them any money) Right on economic issues. That’s the definition of the business base.
It’s key to holding their coalition together. It’ll just be (somewhat) overt instead of in “quiet rooms”.
WaterGirl
@Germy Shoemangler: @Steeplejack: @Felonius Monk: The TERRO liquid that Felonius Monk just recommended is the one I used.
Just remember to put it OUTSIDE the house – not INSIDE.
Germy Shoemangler
I had a problem with some ant traps the previous owner of the house left for us: I opened them up, left them in various rooms…. and they attracted a million ants! It was like if I had spread honey all over the floors… ants who never cared about entering our house before decided to join the party.
Watergirl, I had our girl checked by the vet; so far so good. And she forgives me.
Felonius Monk
Jake Tapper is kind of an ass, but his interview with the Donald was pretty funny.
Short version: Trump: “I favor traditional marriage.”
Tapper: “What’s traditional about being married three times?”
Pogonip
@Amir Khalid: Get well soon!
Kay
@Baud:
What I want from Democrats, Baud, what I think Democrats need, is not a list of bullet points like “preschool” or “the minimum wage” but a clear, coherent over-arching commitment on a set of shared goals on income inequality and wages and economic insecurity. I don’t think the technocratic approach cuts it. I don’t think it;s equal to or speaks to the magnitude of the problem, a problem people feel very acutely and personally. Republicans have one. It sucks and it doesn’t work but they have one.
Amir Khalid
@Pogonip:
I plan to. Thanks everyone for the good wishes.
debbie
@Germy Shoemangler:
Traps are the surest way to attract ants. You have to disrupt their path. I sprayed a few times with Formula 409 and that got rid of them.
WaterGirl
@Germy Shoemangler: WHEW!!! So glad to hear it.
As to the traps the previous owners left, see my previous OUTSIDE vs. INSIDE comment.
P.S. They always forgive us, that’s part of what makes them so amazing.
Elizabelle
@Valdivia:
Looking more at Smerconish’s column, and it’s appalling, at its core. Nine black people murdered in a Charleston church by a white supremacist. The confederate flag becoming radioactive in the general population.
And Smerconish does not see a change in how Obama will be treated? Is that not something in Americans’ power to do? Really?
FWIW, my CEO brother in law, who was shocked Romney did not win (I know, I know), put a link to Obama’s eulogy for C. Pinckney up on FB with an approving comment. I guess he can hear Obama better when he sings.
And the last line: if Scott Walker gets installed as president, or Jeb!, is that person “deserving of more deference?” No. Absolutely not. Especially if Citizens United chooses our president.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
opiejeanne
@raven: Thanks. Those bozos that run the golf course probably didn’t water it. As natives of SoCal, it took us a couple of years here before we started letting the lawn dry up and die in the summer. It really pains us.
This is a shot of the house before it was painted and had a front porch added. The gardens are out of the picture to your right. The property is about an acre, the front lawn is about a quarter of an acre:
https://flic.kr/p/8JSB6j
Baud
@Baud:
Blockquote fail.
Aleta
@Randy P:
Desiccants are said to be better than spraying. (Salt worked once for me.)
(I’ve found with other bugs, drying out their environment or bodies/eggs where they nest has worked really well.)
The SF Chronicle site also mentions spraying white vinegar in a hole when it appears and then filling it with steel wool. I think the timing might be what is effective — you’d want to weaken the egg or larvae stage and prevent any emerged creature from crawling out.
A neighbor I know with wood borers in a log cabin tried pesticide spray over and over but they kept returning. I think that for insects that mature deep in a hole, pesticides don’t reach, and/or some individuals are always resistant. It seems like pesticides are never a 100% fix–they have to be used every year because there is always some survival, and the ones who survive produce hardier offspring.
Bugs that lay eggs in a hole are vulnerable to humidity and temp changes when they are larvae. The effectiveness again might lie in the timing. If you can, dry out or freeze the holes (salt, dry ice nozzle, etc) when their bodies are vulnerable. Air flow (even a fan blowing over the railing) can deter them from returning to the same spot to lay eggs because they choose less windy places.
Valdivia
@Elizabelle: Yes, fair points.
I think it’s an interesting contrast though, that he at least tries while you have Jonathan Martin in the NYT fluffling the GOP for the triumphs of the progressive coalition during the Obama era. Fits nicely into the disrespect story he is telling no?
Also, I just think it matters that someone who is not a liberal is saying this. The thing that bothers me the most is that he wishes the next president gets the respect Obama never got. A little more shaming his side of the aisle for being such asses would have gone a long way for me. But I think someone even saying this is a win, since except for a couple of MSM voices no one dare acknowledge how Obama has been treated. Gets in the way of the narrative.
@Elizabelle: I think you and I see this more or less the same way, but I feel even someone saying this in the most miniscule way possible is a win because *no* one says it, ever, in our media. Think about that, how horrible is it that he is really the first (after a couple of New Yorker writers who don’t really count since its The New Yorker)
newdealfarmgrrrlll
Beautiful garden & photos!
My garden is a mess, haven’t gotten any veggies planted and have given up on that this year. I started seedlings from Prairie Moon Nursery’s PollinatorPalooza Seed Mix and now have thousands of seedlings that need planting. Pain has prevented me from getting any of those in the ground – I may have to have a garage sale for plants. The reason for all this pain and garden disarray is that I need a hip replacement, as I recently found out. Not pleased when the doc told me that!
raven
@opiejeanne: They said it wa fescue and the grass was fine, just “golden”!
Aleta
@Steeplejack: Once I spilled a very little apricot seed oil on the bathroom floor. The little black ants arrived, drank and and drowned, arrived and drowned, arrived and drowned. Almond oil is similar I think. If they ever came back I was going to try it again, but they seem gone. It seemed to drive them wild though.
Baud
@Kay:
As I’ve said before, I believe the Democratic party adopts the messaging of others; it does not create it’s own. And IMHO, liberals in recent history haven’t done as good a job as conservatives in unifying around an economic message that can win Dems elections.
ETA: Hopefully, that is starting to change.
PurpleGirl
@Amir Khalid: Glad you’re feeling better. Glad, too, to hear you will not resume fasting right away.
I have an epileptic Jewish friend who has never done a Yom Kippur fast. It is the one thing she really wants to do and her family and her husband don’t let her. Her parents even went so far as to get a determination from a Rabbi that she shouldn’t fast because of her health; not that her doctors ever told her she could do one.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: I think given that Shmerconish is (IIRC) a heavily right-leaning libertarian, it’s a good column, better than you’d get from a lot of columnists/pundits who consider themselves and are considered by their peers and employers to be left-of-center– off the top of my head: Ruth Marcus, Dana Milbank, Richard Cohen, Tweety depending on who he’s talking to and the phase of the moon, Harold Ford, Maureen Dowd.
But fercrissake, how does a grown ass adult whose job is to follow and cover politics not see the absurdity of equating Keith Olbermann, a TV ancho-pundit whose maximum audience was probably around five million, and Mitch McConnell, the fucking leader of the Republicans in the Senate, and the successful strategy he managed to impose on everyone from Dick Lugar to Olympia Snowe, and drove Arlen Specter out of the fucking party. I think Smerconish lives in PA, too.
And Bush didn’t lie us in to Iraq. The Gospel of Broder: The dear lad didn’t lie, he was honestly confused. Makes you wanna give up.
GregB
All of these judicial decisions and political victories for the Democrats and the left are good news for John McCain and the Republicans.
Baud
@GregB:
That seems to be the media’s theme this week. They all got the memo.
Kay
@Baud:
Because the conservative message is a fantasy that pretends public services are free, that no one ever has to pay for anything. It isn’t just a “failure of messaging”. Their message is easier to sell because it involves no shared sacrifice. That’s the reality to me and continuing to sink money into “better messaging” isn’t going to change that.
The DC word they use is “agnostic”. Democrats have these goals but they are “agnostic” on how to get there. I don’t think agnostic speaks to people when we’re talking about stagnant wages. I just don’t sense any urgency in Hillary Clinton saying we’ll address that with preschool. Okay, so today’s 3 year olds will be curing this with innovations or something? I don’t know: could it get any more back-burner than “education for opportunity”? Do they care about this or are we doing another endless series of roundtables on the Earned Income Credit versus the minimum wage?
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
Hope you continue to feel bettter. Take it slow and easy.
opiejeanne
@Mary G: clematis and Sally Holmes roses are already planted next to it. They are young still and will eventually cover it.
opiejeanne
@Michael Bersin: beautiful!
gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
What’s wrong with Amir Khalid? I haven’t been able to follow the blog much lately. I hope he’s okay.
Steeplejack
Thanks to all for the ant tips. I will use some combination of these and see how it goes. It may just be a one-time thing because it has been unusually wet here the last week or so.
I live in an apartment building, so I can’t spray outside. And I’m not eager to nuke the whole nest, wherever it is. (I presume outside.) The ants are doing good work, presumably, and I just want them out of my place. I need to nip this insurgency and get the message out: “Don’t go up there—nobody ever comes back!”
Baud
@Kay:
Agree with that.
As far as the rest of it, if the Democratic Party asked my advice, I honestly couldn’t help them. You’ve said that bullet point policy proposals aren’t sufficient and that better messaging isn’t sufficient, so what is it? If there’s something out there, I haven’t heard it, or if I’ve heard it, I haven’t recognized it as something that we can build a party around.
Steeplejack
@gogol’s wife:
There was a comment earlier in the week about Ramadan fasting interacting badly with his heart drugs, leading to dizziness and dehydration. And I see he has updated above.
Kay
@Baud:
In other words, Baud, I think it’s more than messaging. Clinton has an appealing sort of practicality that may carry her- that’s her strong suit in my opinion if her campaign people don’t fuck it up, but if this evolves into “9 days of sick leave and $10.10 for federal contractors and 450 million dollars on job training to mitigate the effects of the trade deal that we won’t admit has any downside” that is going to be a tough slog.
They need to be advocates, not agnostics.
Amir Khalid
@gogol’s wife:
I had a bad reaction between Ramadhan dehydration and heart meds. Put me in hospital with low BP and pulse. I’m back home and still continuing my recovery.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Glad you’re feeling better.
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t think it’s that hard. What do they stand for? Solid public education. The health care law. Labor regulations and rights to collectively bargain. Strengthen and maintain public programs and infrastructure without privatizing or fragmenting public support for them by splitting off the middle class from poor people, which dooms public programs and hurts both classes of people. Guarantee those things, just like the GOP guarantees reducing taxes and favoring business interests.
dmsilev
I’m sitting in a departure lounge at LAX and am sort of half-overhearing adjacent conversations, and I have no-shit found an actual Donald Trump for President supporter. “He’ll run this country like a business, instead of all that politically-correct bullshit.”
So, they exist, and are allowed out in public without minders.
Elie
Opie Jeanne — Your garden is AMAZING. I live in the NW and appreciate its bounty but marvel at how you have shown this so well in your garden. It is clearly showing your love!
Brachiator
@Germy Shoemangler:
The NYT is a liberal rag. For example, they have endorsed the Democratic Party candidate for president since 1960. Most would take this as a hint of bias. Bit the NYT is just not consistently liberal enough for some, and, as one of the official mouthpieces of the establishment, they have played into the hands of those in power.
By the way, I liked their summary of FDR in 1932:
Good breeding, very important back then.
debbie
Has the Toddster been listening to you?
http://egbertowillies.com/2015/06/28/chuck-todd-decimates-gop-presidential-candidate-bobby-jindal-video/
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: Oops.
Baud
@Kay:
I guess I’m not so sure about that. Individually, each thing may not be all that hard. But putting it all together in a way that can win an election….I just don’t know.
Steeplejack
@debbie:
Brave Sir Chuck, punching down at one of the jokiest of the Republican pretenders. Get back to me when he gets tough with Jeb!, say, or Lindsey Graham or Mitch McConnell. About anything.
Mike J
@debbie: Why it’s fun to see him be mean to somebody who deserves it, that’s a really stupid attack.
Chuck Todd really has become a moron ever since they told him he didn’t need numbers any more.
Baud
@debbie:
I like neither Todd nor Jindal, but, based on that snippet, that sounds really unprofessional on Todd’s part.
Germy Shoemangler
@Steeplejack: I’d like to see him try that shit with Dick Cheney! The villagers are all scared of that guy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Germy Shoemangler: To be fair, he is scary as hell.
Kay
@Baud:
To me Baud they make assurances they can’t keep while not making assurances they can keep.
John Kerry has no earthly idea how many jobs will be created by his trade deal. Saying “650,000” or “1.4 million” is bullshit and John Kerry knows it because he said the same thing about NAFTA except it was “2 million”. It’s too complex a system to offer guarantees.
What they can guarantee is “Social Security will remain public and fully funded” or “we will vigorously enforce wage and hour laws because wage theft is unacceptable” or “we won’t cut Medicare”.
People are much more likely to follow them off the cliff of 21st century opportunity with a guarantee that they will not lose X, Y or Z because economic insecurity is grounded in fear of loss, not promise of gain. That’s the difference between economically secure people and those who aren’t: capacity for risk. It’s easier for some people to take a risk.
Democrats have to feel that not just think it and I don’t get any sense that they do feel it, since they respond with scolding (bad cop) or fairy tales (good cop) rather than guarantees.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: An OT aside. You noted that you were listening to the British History Podcast. Wow, a lot of stuff there. I’m going to sample a few episodes.
You might also like ReX Factor, a shorter and more irreverent podcast series. They focus on the great rulers and the line that leads to Elizabeth II, and like kings who won a lot of battles. But they often know how to get to the essentials, and do a very good job on how the Vikings came to be so influential. Another episode in which they offhandedly match early kingdoms with current British regions is very enlightening. The current episodes are taking a fun detour into Scotland and its kings.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I’m sure it was all intended to be jokey good fun! Did Russet introduce that phony bonhomie to the Sunday shows? “Go Bills! Did you know I’m from Buffalo? Heh heh heh” I used to watch Brinkley, and the closest he came to jocularity was “Thank you, Senator”
On JIndal: I think it was Larry WIlmore who played the painful and I think real video of Bobby telling his kids that “we” (I hate that shit) are going to run for President. Did no one tell Jindal, was the Rhodes scholar not smart enough to figure it out, that “reality” TV is scripted and staged?
Germy Shoemangler
@Omnes Omnibus: He is personally frightening, and he also gives off the impression that he could ruin a person’s life forever with one phone call.
Wasn’t W even uncomfortable around him?
I can imagine Dick sneaking up behind W and saying “Mr. President!” and W getting all flustered and nervous “heh heh heh, Mr. Cheney; I didn’t hear you walk in”
Steeplejack
@Germy Shoemangler:
Srsly.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Just a bon mot between friends.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Brachiator: Thanks! that sounds right up my alley. Podcasts, specifically history podcasts, help me get through the un-air-conditioned summer, with my neighbors’ kids’ trampoline to east of me (and after three years, they have not gotten tired of it, though the older boy now is getting into basketball– Ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-thunk, Dude! Shit! ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-thunk… I wanna buy them whatever the latest video game thing is so they’ll get off their own lawn, and driveway and go inside, Pace, Mrs Obama) and to the west of me the guy who owns one of every gas-powered yard tool ever invented, and boy does he love to use them!
opiejeanne
@raven: yeah, well, some water would have turned it green. We haven’t had much rain this year and they knew they were hosting that event; they were lazy and cheap. We are having a drought but western Washington has been told not to cut back on water usage. Yet yet
Amir Khalid
Slate is putting up a firewall for non-US readers. I’ll miss reading Dahlia Lithwick.
Timurid
@Randy P:
When I had a problem with paper wasps constantly building nests in my mailbox, I finally stopped them by spraying the inside with air freshener. The strong scent apparently kept them away. So you might try covering the burrows with something nasty smelling (assuming you don’t want to kill the bees).
MomSense
@Germy Shoemangler:
He is scary but I think Rumsfeld may actually be even scarier. He’s like Lord Palpatine to Cheney’s Vader.
We watched Unknown Knowns last night and wowza that guy is arrogant.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: Sweet christ, I just re-read that, it wasn’t even Jindal saying he liked the fried foods, it’s his kids. I’m at an age where I often regret fried foods after an hour or so, but I love em. And kids loving fried twinkles? Not exactly a stretch of the imagination. Pandering, Chuck, is when a man with a BS in biology says evolution is just a theory, or a Rhodes scholar says we should just get rid of the Supreme Court.
Baud
@Kay:
I tend to agree that Dems generally can come off as overly cerebral (pointy-headed even) in discussing these issues. But I still come back to the fact that this is a very big country that holds a lot of elections. And if our side can’t point to more than a handful of examples of the type of policies and messaging and style we’d like to see, then I don’t see how the Dems in general will improve except at a glacial pace.
opiejeanne
@Elie: and my husband’s labor. Ok, I did a lot too.
This year it looks great because we’ve had so much sun but it takes a while to water it.
Valdivia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Not only that. While Jindal is laughable as a politician and a candidate. Isn’t funny that Chuck gets all blustery confrontational with him, but all the other candidates–cough, white, cough–get a pass?
Baud
@Valdivia: Just proves that (1) Chuck Todd is a liberal and (2) all liberals are racist.
debbie
@Baud:
My thought when I read it was that Todd’s plan was to show he wasn’t a GOP kiss-asser and he jumped (blindly) at the first opportunity.
Poopyman
@Baud:
Well, at least he’s consistent at something.
Baud
@debbie: Makes sense. Jindal isn’t a big enough fish to go after as part of some conspiracy to support to front runners.
Valdivia
@Baud: Of course! How could I have missed the so blindingly obvious. Same line of thinking that produces an NRO piece today saying the Democrats invented and own the Confederate Flag.
Head.Desk.
I just can’t.
Baud
@Valdivia:
Cool. Then we can tell everyone else what to do with it.
Valdivia
@Baud: That little bit of logic seems to have totally escaped them, as they are prone to. I am totes cool with telling everyone to blast the darned thing into outer space.
Poopyman
@Germy Shoemangler: Not photoshopped.
Poopyman
@MomSense: Don Rumsfeld is a complete idiot. I’m surprised he hasn’t hurt himself walking into glass doors.
Germy Shoemangler
@Poopyman: Aaahhhhh!
Cervantes
@Poopyman:
Do we know that he didn’t?
Botsplainer
So youngest daughter called us from Greece in a panic at our 5 am (try going back to sleep on that). We’ve been beating the drum on “get more Euros”, she’s got about €300 to tide her through till next Sunday, and I think she’s been helping some less financially healthy archaeology students. Anyway, it appears that all the local ATMs are now dry when she went to get more.
On her outbound stay in Athens, she’s no longer going to stay near Syntagma Square over riot fears – she, her prof and other outbounds are going to stay pretty close to the U.S. Embassy, and the prof is pre-emptively reaching out to colleagues already in Greece for Plan B in the event that transit to Athens falls apart or if they otherwise get stuck for a few days.
Germy Shoemangler
@Botsplainer: they are closing the banks? According to the nytimes it is to stem the tide of withdrawals.
Germy Shoemangler
@Poopyman: A glass door without a little bird safety sticker is a known unknown.
MomSense
@Poopyman:
He’s a total nightmare with dagger eyes.
SWMBO
@Botsplainer: Good news. At least she’s got contingency plans and backups it seems. Here’s hoping that it all works out with as few bumps as possible. Keep us posted. As we used to say when friends or family were traveling, “We have to worry you home safely.”
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
So glad you’re home. I spent one night at the hospital, didn’t sleep a bit even on post-op pain meds. Had second (left) shoulder replacement. First one went well, this one was more difficult the surgeon reports, I hope rehab works it all out OK.
Best wishes for a full and quick recovery!!
PurpleGirl
@dmsilev: Idiots diregard that Trump has had 4 — 4 — business bankruptcies. Yeah, he really knows how to run a business.
opiejeanne
@J R in WV: so that’s where you’ve been. Get well soon.
Elizabelle
@opiejeanne: Your garden, cat, trellis, cherries and pics are just wonderful. Thank you for sharing them.
divF
@Poopyman:
I actually did that once. Of course, I was 17 at the time, and trying to keep a glass door from closing by pushing on it with my foot.
Three stitches in the leg, and they charged me for the door.
Elizabelle
Did we ever find out if Little Dan’s (?) runaway dog is back? Pup took off, got out of yard and collar, but was chipped. Fourth escape.
Hoping the pup is back safely.
chopper
@Botsplainer:
yeesh. bad week to be there. good on her being close to the embassy tho.
Germy Shoemangler
@PurpleGirl: And a casino owner! Isn’t that a license to basically have people walk through your door, hold them upside down and shake them until all the money falls out of their pockets?
How do you go bankrupt doing that?
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
Slate’s solution is so stupid. It reminds me of how both the Democrats and the Republicans insist on trying to solve current economic problems with old fashioned, irrelevant solutions.
Slate notes how popular it is with international readers, but then continues with this:
But we’re talking about the Internets. Is it really so hard to customize ad inventory by region?
Paywalls are stupid and counter-productive. They reduce visibility geometrically. It is also possible that some international readers might be considered a premium advertising market (do these people travel, are they trendsetters, are they influential in recommending brands?) What a bunch of dopes.
And it reminds me very much of the worst of our political leaders who have an old bag of solutions that have nothing to do with actual problems.
ETA: glad to hear that you are doing better.
Tommy
@Brachiator: I use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to connect to the Internet. Got an amazing deal. $49.95 for three years. When I start up my computer I get to choose what server I connect to. I have a choice local in St. Louis or Chicago or all over the world.
Changes my IP. So if I want to see something on Der Spiegel where they only let German IPs access to the video, well I connect to a server in Germany. Not sure you want to go to all the trouble just to connect to Slate but the option is there. Oh and it is about as secure of a connection as you can get.
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: I was half paying attention when Graham was on today, and Todd asked him direct questions which, to his credit and to my surprise, Graham answered directly. And on the Charleston massacre, he said (paraphrasing) “the grace and dignity shown by the families of the victims represent South Carolina better than I could ever hope to.”
There’s a lot not to like about Graham, but I thought he answered well.
Gin & Tonic
@Tommy: What service do you use?
PurpleGirl
@Elizabelle: Yes, the puppy was found. Dan posted the details of him being found (involving FB, the chip and the hospital or shelter that uses that type of chip). Dan is supposed to pick up the puppy today sometime.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Elizabelle:
Yes, dog reported in custody last night, Dan to pick up this morning.
Kay
@Baud:
I disagree. I think there’s a lot of Democratic politicians who won’t commit to Democratic programs because they are not actually ready to guarantee them.
Democrats could adopt a line in the sand on some of these issues, just like Republicans do with taxes- it could be substantive – “the effort you just saw to push the trade deal thru? that is nothing compared with what we’ll do if they go after Social Security which is one of the security guarantees we offer people like you to rely on in a rapidly changing economy.so you can take some risk with the big boys..”
That isn’t difficult Baud, as far as “messaging”. Some of them won’t do it because they won’t do it, but it’s not that they lack rhetoric or bumper sticker production capacity.
“You know what we stand for? Making sure you get paid for hours worked without a lawyer and a lawsuit and we’ll also make sure you don’t die at work in a chemical spill or falling off a cellphone tower because we’ll lock people up when they flout regulations and they’ll immediately start complying”.
Elizabelle
@PurpleGirl: @Steeplejack (tablet):
Good to hear. I wonder what the next scheme to keep the puppy at home will be.
Iowa Old Lady
@Botsplainer: It sounds like she and her colleagues are planning ahead, which is good. How’s she holding up?
MattF
@Amir Khalid: Lithwick is, by far, their best contributor. Her work is unaffected by Slate-contrarianism.
And about their paywall– aren’t there companies in Europe and Asia who are willing to pay for advertising? I’m a little provincial, but I don’t think that concept is an American invention.
Cervantes
@Botsplainer:
Sorry to hear of the anxiety — but what am I missing? If it’s a matter of her having Euros in hand, American Express (no matter the “level” of “membership”) should be able to take dollars from you here and give most of those dollars to her in Euros. Western Union does the same thing.
If it’s something more than making sure she has physical Euros in hand, then the Embassy in Athens is worth a try.
Also, do you have any relevant travel (or emergency or evacuation) insurance? Might it cover your daughter? Does she have her own? If so, now would be a great time to ask the insurer to tell you again what you paid for.
opiejeanne
We are traveling North on I-5, just entered the port of Stockton. The weather here is gorgeous, in sharp contrast to the miserable heat we encountered in SoCal.
No rain to speak of yesterday and today the skies are a pretty blue. You’d never know so much of the state is on fire.
Tommy
@Gin & Tonic: VPN Unlimited. I buy a ton of my geek stuff from StackSocial. Just went to see and they have a lifetime member ship for $39. I don’t mean to totally geek out on you but if you spend a lot of time on the Internet and not using a service like this you are missing out. They are dirt cheap and easy to use. I mean really easy to use. It is a point a click app. You don’t have to understand tech to use it. They make it stupid simple.
Tommy
@Gin & Tonic: VPN Unlimited. I buy a ton of my geek stuff from StackSocial. Just went to see and they have a lifetime membership for $39.
I don’t mean to totally geek out on you but if you spend a lot of time on the Internet and not using a service like this you are missing out. They are dirt cheap and easy to use. I mean really easy to use. It is a point a click app. You don’t have to understand tech to use it. They make it stupid simple.
PurpleGirl
@Botsplainer: Sounds like she’s paying attention to what you are telling her and to what is happening around her in Greece. This is good. Also sounds like the supervising professor also is paying attention. Getting them to be near the US Embassy is a good move, hoping they don’t actually need that closeness.
opiejeanne
@Elizabelle: thanks. I was careful to point my camera at the more attractive bits, avoiding the weeds and the area where the lawn is dying.
MattF
Current NYT article on Greek crisis. Hadn’t known the hedgies had dived in. The report that Greek bonds have gotten ‘hard to trade’ means we’re in the twilight zone.
Gin & Tonic
@Tommy: Thanks. You’re not geeking out, and I, um, understand technology. I was just curious about your choice of provider.
Tommy
@MattF: It is hard for me to follow what is happening in Greece. But a few of the super liberal news programs I watch now on Hulu have been covering it far more than the mainstream press. It is very clear, via the recent elections, the Greeks are done with the EU and all the cost cutting they want. Done with it because it is crushing their citizens and all the social programs they had in place. They will default and raise a huge middle finger to anybody that tells me they should be doing this or that if they feel it isn’t in the interest of their citizens.
Keith G
The are a lot of great photos form this year’s Pride celebrations, but this one from London is one of the best and says so much about the different policing culture.
It is so awesome.
opiejeanne
@Cervantes: good advice. On our first trip to France we ran short and had cash sent by one of those services.
MattF
@Tommy: I confess to being a Krugman-bot on questions of international finance. Here’s his latest.
Tommy
@Gin & Tonic: No worries. I am very happy with their service. Not had a single problem with it. Works as well as anything I own, meaning it works and I don’t even realize it is there.
I work online for a living and anal about security. I run two anti-virus programs. Three spybot programs. If I would send my client a virus, like a client did to me last week, well my business would be harmed.
For well under $200 you can lock down your computer and be about as secure as you can get not being like the NSA.
opiejeanne
@Keith G: look at their smiles.
PurpleGirl
@Tommy: This reminds me of what Ireland and Iceland did to work on their financial crisis. Ireland gave in and went into austerity mode and it hardly helped the situation. Iceland, on the other hand, told the foreign banks to shove it. They weren’t going to do anything that would hurt their citizens more. It seemed like by defaulting and not giving in to calls for austerity, they actually worked out longer term solutions. (I’m writing this from memory, it might not be quite accurate.)
Tommy
@MattF: I am a HUGE Krugman fan but in that story you linked to he didn’t really say anything. Greece is done with the austerity their creditors want. Krugman did say they don’t want to leave the Euro. From what I have seen that is clear. But they also will not continue to do what their creditors want. They just won’t!
John Revolta
@MomSense: @Germy Shoemangler: This is a man who, when he shoots you in the face with a shotgun, you apologize. ‘Nough said.
MattF
@Tommy: Well, he pointed directly at the ‘democratic deficit’ in Euro-land and noted that the Greeks are actually trying to do something about it. This is the elephant stomping around in the European drawing room, and really, really shouldn’t be ignored.
Tommy
@PurpleGirl: I do not really know what Iceland or Ireland did to be honest. But as I’ve said here Greece is so not down with any more austerity methods.
I am a stickler for paying your bills but I am not for doing so on the backs of your citizens. IMHO there is a “social compact” you as a government enter with your citizens. Like Social Security in the US. I pay into it and you can’t and/or shouldn’t change the rules mid-game. That just isn’t right.
That is what is happening in Greece and the interviews I see are clear the citizens are not cool with it!
opiejeanne
@PurpleGirl: it’s pretty accurate. I have a book written by an economist, I think a British woman who may have been involved in advising them at the time.
I also have a short book about Iceland written by an American who lives there and both books talk about how naive the Iceland banks were and how they were essentially bamboozled by the slick foreign banks.
Keith G
I know that I am not supposed to be an Obama supporter, but have y’all seen these very cool behind the scenes photos from the White House at the moment the King decision was announced?
This link gets you to a page summing up the week in US politics and you then click through to the photos (after looking at the rad political cartoon).
Botsplainer
@Germy Shoemangler:
Where she is, there’s not a full ATM to be found, not at the moment. For some reason related to bank or austerity problems, the site laborers aren’t being paid. Kid does know how to swing a pickaxe and work a shovel, so the work on the dig goes on.
Botsplainer
@chopper:
I’ll feel a helluvalot better when she gets there – she’s got to get from the pinkie finger to the thumb first, that’ll be Friday or Saturday.
Cervantes
@Keith G:
I saw that bit of silliness.
Tommy
@Keith G: Amazing pics when you click through to Medium.
There are more than a few stances Obama takes I don’t like. But I voted for the guy, when nobody thought he might win a Senate seat in Illinois, long before the rest of the nation knew him.
I have always felt he was a person that cared. That if he was in my house we’d talk and talk and he wouldn’t ask me for money. We’d just talk about the world around us. A caring person. A human not a political machine.
Looking at those pics I think I am/was right about this.
opiejeanne
@Cervantes: was that the nonsense on Daily Kos?
Cervantes
@opiejeanne:
Don’t know about that, but what I was referring to happened right here.
Botsplainer
@Cervantes:
Right now, she’s out in the boondocks; she’s supposed to get transport from Pilos to Kalamata, Kalamata to Athens Friday or Saturday. Thankfully, her supervising professor will be with her outbound (she was alone going in), so that’s two people making decisions. I think things should be fine as far as available service once she hits Athens, it’s just the before part that bugs me.
Haven’t looked at the Travelex policy on civil unrest evacs – it may cover extras.
opiejeanne
@Cervantes: unless you’re talking about the trade deal discussion, I saw that. If it was a purity pony thing I missed it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Huh????? The GOP think they have an opening. How do say “The GOP thinks they have an opening….” without saying “The GOP thinks they have an opening….”?????
Cervantes
@Botsplainer:
Spain, Chile, and the Netherlands have consulates in Kalamata. You might send her the phone numbers, etc., if you’re worried about that part of the exit trip.
Typically, the Dutch speak English fluently. Does your kid speak Spanish?
Capt Seaweed
@Tommy:
I have Hide My Ass. Use it to watch NHL games on CBC that aren’t available to the US. Don’t use it all the time but it’s handy…
Cervantes
@opiejeanne:
It was a nothing that you missed.
opiejeanne
Apologies for being a little incoherent. I’m using an iPhone in the wilds of Yolo county, navigating to lunch at the In’n’Out in Woodland and have been distracted by a large trout on an on/ramp as well as bad drivers the past few miles.
Tommy
@Botsplainer: I know my parents if I was in your daughter’s situation, they’d be stressed out. Like you my parents, even at 45, they watch over me like hawks. What I guess parents do :).
But your daughter has a US passport, and that matters. She’ll get home. When she does both you and her with have a story to tell for generations.
I’ve read this thread and not had anything to say, but bet she has a smartphone. If things do go sideways, have her find a US Embassy or Consulate. Walk into one, and I have some experience here, and say you are a US citizen and you need help, well they will help and keep her very safe.
Gimlet
What will the common Greek do with all those worthless Euros when the Drachma becomes the currency of the land?
Cervantes
@Tommy:
Keep in mind that in many countries these days, you can’t just walk into the U.S. Embassy. Even for Americans forms and telephone interviews and appointments may be required.
Botsplainer
@Cervantes:
Thanks – I’ll do that. She’s conversational to the point of fluency in French, but very little Spanish. She does speak/read Ancient Greek (along with Latin and Mayan – she’s got a flair for archaic forms), and has undoubtedly transitioned to modern forms and usage while there.
Tommy
@Cervantes:
I did not know that. Been years since I was in another country and walked into a US Embassy. I was 12 and lost in a foreign nation. My grandparents were not the best at keeping track of me. All I saw was the American flag and I walked in and asked for help. Said I couldn’t find my grandparents, help me. They did!
Redshift
@PurpleGirl: Iceland also had its own currency, which have them a lot more flexibility.
JPL
@debbie: Wow.. Wow is what Chuck tweeted after the eulogy that the President gave. I think he’s lost patience with the panderers. I’m not sure how long it will last though.
Suzanne
Is anyone else seeing a headline crossing their Facebook feed about Michele and Marcus Bachmann getting divorced? My mom says she sees it, but I don’t see that anywhere else.
ruemara
@Keith G: No one said that. It’s just most things you post are disappointment, critique, wrong. It’s distinctly rare for you to actually say something happening is positive. But, if you want to take it that way, hey, free country.
@Suzanne: Oh mighty Isis. I hate for a moment schadenfreude to overtake any good characteristics I have, but… these tears are delicious. I had to make this
Cervantes
@Tommy:
Well, even today a child by himself may be cared for first and interrogated second.
Iowa Old Lady
@Suzanne: I see this:
https://lockerdome.com/nationalreport/6988895774576660
ETA: I believe that’s a satire site.
D58826
I’m not an expert in intl finance by any means but there is an article on AP saying that Greece has a debt payment of 1.8 billion dollars (1.6 euros) due on Tue. Is that right? 1.8 billion dollars ? the Pentagon wastes that much money every year in greens fees. Surely the amount of money lost on various stock exchanges due to this charade has to be much greater than 1.8 billion. Is this about the money or teaching Greece a lesson. I remember not so long ago when the masters of the universe decided to let the markets teach the world a lesson and they let Lehman go bust. That worked out real well didn’t it.
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly:
Incidentally, that is one of my favorite sentences in this thread today.
Works for starting off a scifi story, or talking about malignant politics. Multipurpose. Mellifluous.
Suzanne
@Iowa Old Lady: That’s gotta be a spoof site.
Suzanne
@ruemara: LMAO.
Gin & Tonic
@Botsplainer: Since it is now Monday morning in Asia, here is how the markets are valuing the Euro.
debbie
@JPL:
Oh, the minute they push back, he’s sure to fold like a cheap suit.
ruemara
@opiejeanne: Wave as you drive past. I’m way too close to woodland.
Edited to reflect: Hey! I’m coming over to take cherries! Your garden is fantastic.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: I wish I could call it mine, but I stole it. Don’t remember who from, just that it has been around for a while. Could be a buddy of mine, or someone on TV.
D58826
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s been around for years, Not even sure where I first heard it
Iowa Old Lady
@Gin & Tonic: We’re going to Europe in the fall. Maybe I should buy Euros while they’re cheap.
Poopyman
12 hours without a new thread? I knew the scotus threads were gonna wipe out the FPers.
At least I got the grass cut in the interval. Now on to fixing the canoe.
Capt Seaweed
@Suzanne:
It’s a parody site. Fools a lot of people:
http://nationalreport.net/marcus-bachmann-files-divorce-fresh-heels-scotus-ruling/
Cervantes
@ruemara:
So what you’re saying is … you much prefer a clear-eyed view of the President, balancing negatives and positives?
Botsplainer
@Gin & Tonic:
Those dumbasses are crushing their own currency to “teach Greece a lesson”.
Her last purchase of euros just a couple of days ago was at something like $1.13. Now it’s down to $1.10 and dropping.
opiejeanne
@Iowa Old Lady: and so many of these sites do not understand the difference between satire and just makin’ shit up.
This site seems to fit the second category.
Germy Shoemangler
@Capt Seaweed: I’m guessing the gag here is…. since gay marriage is now legal, Marcus files for divorce from Michelle so he can marry… (wait for it!) a guy.
Foxx newz has been fooled many times by this parody site. Just goes to show foxx standards.
ruemara
@Cervantes: Yes. It hasn’t happened very often. Hence the other person commenting on it. And your next attempt at snark?
Germy Shoemangler
@opiejeanne: I prefer the Onion. McSweeneys is another favorite of mine. The New Yorker’s “shouts and murmurs” never gets a chuckle out of me unless it is written by Jack Handey.
Cervantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
And vice versa.
Suzanne
@Capt Seaweed: Yeah, it tripped my BS detector when she told me. I looked on other news sites, then came here.
Germy Shoemangler
@ruemara: Have you seen this? Article about Obama’s recent appearance on Marc Maron’s podcast
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/sarah-larson/wtf-with-barack-obama
I liked the way he had to hide his cats because secret service dogs checked his house.
opiejeanne
@D58826: I think I heard it on Laugh In in the late 60s.
A Ghost To Most
CNN reports Sweat shot and captured.
Cervantes
@ruemara:
Never mind my attempts, yours right there is unbeatable!
Cheers.
cckids
@Germy Shoemangler:
I will never forget the spectacle, during the 9/11 commission, of the 2 of them refusing to testify unless it was: A) together, and B) off the record. And the commission went along with it. And the press really didn’t make much of it, at the time or later.
Just amazing, the fear Cheney seems to generate.
opiejeanne
@Germy Shoemangler: Andy Borowitz skates close enough to the edge sometimes that the unwary are taken in. I see his headlines posted on Facebook without attribution and people go nuts.
The one on Thursday, though, that was great. Something about republicans worst nightmare comes true: health care for all! What’s next? Clean air and Water???
ruemara
@Germy Shoemangler: I listened to the podcast and it was a really good interview. I have to admit, I thought Maron would be a little bit more interrogative on trade issues. I’ve listened to him since his Air America show, so I was definitely looking forward to it. That being said, he’s a better interviewer than the WHPC mouthpieces.
@Cervantes: Yes, I’m sure.
Germy Shoemangler
@cckids:
And none of the villagers batted an eyelash! So much weird shit happened in those eight years, and only a few lefty websites made a fuss. If a fraction of that stuff happened with Obama, there’d be front page headlines and mass hysteria.
Police have a technique; if two people are suspects they separate them and question them individually. They know their stories/alibis will contradict each other. Then they tell each suspect that the other one ratted them out. That’s when the confessions come spilling out.
Busch & Chaney should have been compelled to testify separately. Then they each should have been told that the other one “spilled the beans” and that the jig was up.
Chaney: “It was all that little bastard’s idea! He’s the one that ignored the warnings. Spent all his time clearing brush on his ranch. Stupid fuck!”
Busch: “It was all him… I just went along for the ride! He said not to pay attention to all the warnings… said they didn’t have the balls to attack us.”
JPL
@Germy Shoemangler: It went along the lines, that now we can bomb Iran.
Keith G
@Tommy:
Indeed. Look at the way the President was running that meeting. A thoughtful man evidencing an intelligent authority.
@ruemara: How am I doing, Ma?
+ 2 for today?
Another Holocene Human
Dose cherries.
Cervantes
@cckids:
And C) not under oath.
Another Holocene Human
@Botsplainer: I feel like I missed all the news. What’s going on?
dogwood
@Germy Shoemangler:
I imagine the article is good, but you can get every detail about how the interview came about and all the preparations necessary straight from the horses mouth in this week’s podcast. It’s a hoot.
Poopyman
I’m watching Dick Nixon’s tweets on the Greek crisis. Good to have the old bastard weighing in. A thanks to whomever it was that linked to it last night.
@Germy Shoemangler: How did you manage to misspell both Bush and Cheney?
Germy Shoemangler
@dogwood: You’re right! And it’s even on youtube
Germy Shoemangler
@Poopyman: I did it on purpose. I honestly don’t know why.
I do the same thing with foxx newz and Lush Rimbaugh and Hean Shannity.
Another Holocene Human
@Capt Seaweed: It’s not spammy?
opiejeanne
@Another Holocene Human: dem is et.
Another Holocene Human
@Keith G: I’m told the commander is letting servicepeople march in uniform in San Diego Pride this year.
Another Holocene Human
@opiejeanne: Got a miserable sunburn at Torrey Pines. Wife is peeling and she never burns. (Well, almost never.) San Francisco was just wonderful weatherwise. My cousin’s girlfriend was complaining that it was a drought and they were all doomed.
Back home now. Swaaaaaaaamp.
opiejeanne
@Another Holocene Human: the doom is that the 9% of water used by homeowners is considered extravagant while industry like Nestle’s water bottling facility in Sacramento, fracking, and farmers not so much.
I read somewhere that s single almond needs as much as a gallon of water to grow. Maybe we should ration almonds.
opiejeanne
@Another Holocene Human: I’m sorry about your sunburn. I visited Florida in August 2006, had a ball, but I had trouble with the weather.
Well, August, of course.
Yatsuno
@Gimlet: Burn them, hopefully. And Greece needs to get its act together and get the fuck out of the Euro like they should have done when the ECB came down on their heads in 2013.
Cervantes
@opiejeanne:
A single walnut can take 5 gallons.
Another Holocene Human
@opiejeanne: Are you … are you serious?
satby
@Another Holocene Human: Yeah, she said upthread she’s not a fan of hot weather
Another Holocene Human
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Unsustainable and sometimes invasive lawns are a founding tenet of the Suburban Code.
Another Holocene Human
@satby: I mean the bit about wanting lawns watered every year.
Another Holocene Human
Creeping Bellflower is a highly invasive European plant and a look-alike for a non invasive American species
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/creeping-bellflower
Anne Laurie
@OzarkHillbilly: As I remember it, “There’s a fungus among us!” started as the tag for a radio ad by a company shilling its athlete’s-foot cure(s). It was picked up by rude children for bullying purposes almost immediately, and migrated over to MAD Magazine — and, later, Laugh-In — which is where us baby boomers mostly picked it up.
Another Holocene Human
@Schlemazel: Those meat market bars and dance clubs who sponsor the skimpiest-dressed dancers floats have a somewhat different role in our community than yours.
Aleta
@Another Holocene Human: Thanks for this.
opiejeanne
@Another Holocene Human: well, normally it rains so the grass doesn’t die until August. We have been warned not to conserve by King County. I think all of western Washington has because there are ample supplies and they would have to raise the rates.