Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

“But what about the lurkers?”

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

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

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / It’s Funny How A Little Place Like This Brought So Many People Together

It’s Funny How A Little Place Like This Brought So Many People Together

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Grapes of August

These are the first from my arbor. There are many, many more still green. I think I’m going to have to make jelly. They are too good to waste. I’ve never made jelly before, so it will be an experience at least. If I can get an hour to myself this afternoon there will be a recipe exchange tonight.

Until then, it looks like we could use a new thread. How are you winding down your Friday afternoon?

Reader Interactions

156Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    I’m in the Richmond airport heading home. This trip has been absolute hell in a lot of ways. But I did get to see a good friend and the University of Virginia campus is gorgeous.

  2. 2.

    Bex

    Since today is World Photography Day, check out Kelly Hofer, a young man from and unusual background with a book of stunning photographs he is trying to publish with a Kickstarter. You can find him on Facebook or kellyhofer.com.

  3. 3.

    Keith P.

    I went walking with some friends yesterday in some woods and came across several muscadine vines. Most didn’t have any grapes, but there were a few that did. Great taste, and not overly sweet like cultivated grapes (basically, the exact opposite of cotton candy grapes). too bad we didn’t find enough to make jelly.

  4. 4.

    karen marie

    When I was little, one of my aunts had a friend with a Concord grape arbor. My mother would make jelly with them. It was so delicious. But it is a pain in the ass because of the extra steps the processing requires to get the skins out, as opposed to my very favorite all time homemade jam – Raspberry – which is super quick (unless you have an aversion to the seeds, which I don’t). Do you know what kind of grapes these are, Tamara? The look like Concord but I’m no expert.

  5. 5.

    Roger Moore

    I spent the morning trying to get a friend in another state bailed out of jail. Not what I was expecting to do.

    If you don’t want to do jelly, you could make and store juice instead. Juice can easily be stored frozen, or it can be canned in mason jars if you have a pressure canner. Canning is better if you have a lot because shelf space is much less dear than freezer space.

  6. 6.

    MomSense

    My friend’s granddaughter just turned 3 and asked to play her favorite song at her birthday party. Just saw the video of her singing her heart out. Only problem is she cannot say “nk”

    Imagine a sweet, little voice singing uptown fuck you up. Sooo funny.

  7. 7.

    Lolis

    Trump is coming to Austin for a rally Tuesday, and I reserved two tickets. I feel compelled to see the shitshow in person.

  8. 8.

    debit

    @Lolis: Yikes. Stay safe.

    I’m trying to get shit done so I can get out of work and tackle my remaining boxes. I swear, I’m never moving again. Other than that, just making a mental list of things to pick up for Walter.

  9. 9.

    Mike J

    @srv: It’s pretty obvious you shouldn’t allow people to use “yankees” as a password. Yankees fans should just be fired. And shunned by all decent people.

  10. 10.

    Ruckus

    @Lolis:
    Only one question.
    WHY?
    It’s even in your description. Shitshow. Says it all. Or are you trying to understand how bad it smells?

  11. 11.

    satby

    Closed on my house, went to take possession of the keys and start considering what I need to get done. Every single room needs to be painted, and I’m going to fall out of love with that original woodwork pretty fast.

  12. 12.

    rikyrah

    @Lolis:

    Trump is coming to Austin for a rally Tuesday, and I reserved two tickets. I feel compelled to see the shitshow in person.

    Be safe in that Klan rally.

  13. 13.

    Roger Moore

    @karen marie:

    But it is a pain in the ass because of the extra steps the processing requires to get the skins out

    Is it really that much extra effort? I would have thought it would be pretty easy to get them out with a relatively coarse filter.

    My favorite homemade jam was the Seville orange marmalade I made last year. My local farmers’ market has a citrus farmer who grows all the weird citrus it’s hard to find at the supermarket, including Seville oranges. They’re very fresh and organic, so you don’t have to worry about what crap might be on the skins. And I can say that Seville oranges are by far the best choice for marmalade that I’ve yet tasted. I’ll have to think about making pummelo marmalade when they’re in season…

  14. 14.

    greennotGreen

    I’m spending my Friday afternoon in the ER waiting to be evaluated for a pulmonary embolism. I would have really preferred another activity.

  15. 15.

    Ceci n'est pas mon nym

    BJers will be unsurprised to discover that among his many other faults, Turtle Man is a terrible restaurant customer

    (CA Pinkham is a guy who collects horrible restaurant stories. His popular column, which was hosted for a while at Wonkette, currently appears at something called Thrillist)

  16. 16.

    MelissaM

    Ooh, are those concord grapes? How about a concord grape pie? My coworker brought one in a couple years ago and I’ve been day dreaming of planting vines ever since!

  17. 17.

    Germy Shoemangler

    We have a ton of blueberries growing in our backyard.

    But the squirrels and rabbits decided it was their food, not ours. So our blueberries (as well as our tomatoes and various other vegetables) started disappearing.

    Finally last week my wife came home with some netting, and covered her crop. Nothing’s been touched since. She also has three containers growing wiri wiri peppers. The critters stole one, said “What the fuck!” and have left them alone ever since.

    If you’ve ever tried a wiri wiri pepper, it’s a tiny thing, hot as hell with a ton of flavor. Perfect in soups or fish or beef, used sparingly.

  19. 19.

    satby

    Re:jelly, I make it often, usually this way, but I use low or no sugar pectin. I want to taste the fruit, not just sugar, so whatever I make never uses more than 1/2 cup sugar per cup of juice and usually less than that.

  22. 22.

    Starfish

    I am surprised that the squirrels and raccoons are not taking them all before they are ripe. Do you have defenses against such critters?

  24. 24.

    Keith P.

    @Lolis: I wonder how many people are going to be there just because they figured it would be cool to get really stoned/drop acid and go to a Trump rally.

  26. 26.

    debit

    @satby: Congrats!! Don’t rush to paint unless you absolutely must. I ordered test pots and painted swatches in various spots to see how they’d look in different light settings. Glad I did: one pale gray that looked warm in pictures is positively icy cold and depressing in the morning.

  27. 27.

    Elmo

    Since it’s summer, must be time for repeats. I am ONCE AGAIN sitting in an airport waiting on a flight delay to get me home. (5th time since July 4).

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    I think I told y’all about this time I went to the hair salon to get a TRIM for my just-above-the-shoulder bob ‘do, and the next thing I knew, the lady was shaving my neck, right? Well, I haven’t had a serious hair cut since, and that was a long time ago. I don’t know how long exactly — four years?

    Now my hair is so long that sometimes I accidentally slam it in the car door, which is painful. And it’s hot as hell down here in Florida, so it really sucks having the equivalent of a scarf hanging on my neck all the time. So I’ve been learning (via YouTube videos posted by high school girls, mostly) new ways to get all my hair piled up and out of the way without being mistaken for an Apostolic Pentecostal matron.

    So that’s what I’ve been doing — learning how to fix my hair, a skill that most women seem to master by 7th grade but which somehow escaped me all these years. Exciting stuff.

    @greennotGreen: Damn! Hope you’re okay!

  44. 44.

    Miss Bianca

    @Roger Moore:

    I spent the morning trying to get a friend in another state bailed out of jail. Not what I was expecting to do.

    Uhh…sounds like a lot of folks had a big ol’ can o’ WTF dumped on them today.

  47. 47.

    mike in dc

    My Samsung Galaxy Note 7 just arrived. I don’t normally fetishize consumer products but I want to make sweet, sweet love to this phone.

  52. 52.

    Ben Cisco

    Getting ready for a weekend-long ERP upgrade (take two).

    Found out that my oldest grandniece is having a little one of her own around the holidays.

    I’m seeing beverages in my near future.

  53. 53.

    Miss Bianca

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Good. Couldn’t happen to a nicer/nastier dirtbag.

    Reposted from dying thread, because genuinely curious: Can someone – anyone – out there explain to me how House Republicans leaking classified information in the course of pursuing HRC’s email trail is not, in fact, a crime and a security breach in and of itself? I know I’d hate to be sitting on a red-hot stove till anyone called Republican lawmakers to account for anything, but seriously…isn’t this type of thing subject to some kind of censure, at least, if not actual charges?

  54. 54.

    greennotGreen

    @Miss Bianca: It just so happens that I know someone who just got hauled to jail for a probation violation (low-level stuff.) He has a job, and his employer is willing to post bond, but bond has to be set by a judge. Apparently court in our rural county doesn’t convene until Sept. 12!

    So, here’s my question. If he had been arrested Sept. 11, he would have only had to spend one night in jail, but now he’ll have to be in there over three weeks! Is that unequal treatment even legal?

  55. 55.

    Truegster

    Off work early & was looking forward to being an Intergalactic Space Pirate all friggin weekend, but No Man’s Sky is a total letdown. I know, virtual first world problems…but still

  56. 56.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    I ran across something on Buzzfeed UK the other day about things we Brits can’t get in America and one of them was Ribena, which is a delightful Blackcurrant cordial that most Brits grew up drinking as a child. I often wondered why I can’t get Blackcurrants over here (I love them) can’t even find the plants, turns out the growing of them was banned for some time because of some disease. My Dad grew some of the best blackcurrants and one of my favorite things to do when home on leave from the navy was grazing on his blackcurrant and raspberry bushes. I miss that.

  59. 59.

    CaseyL

    @greennotGreen: Yikes! Hell of a way to start the weekend – hope all goes well!

    @mike in dc: I think my ancient LG clamshell dumb phone – talk and text, for $6.00 a month – has finally been permanently kidnapped by poltergeists. I might have to get a smartphone, after refusing to do so lo these many years. Can’t decide if I want an actual phone, or a mini-iPad with Skype. If you want to sing the praises of your Galaxy, I’ll be all ears.

    @Betty Cracker: I have a lot of very thick, long, curly hair. What I do in hot weather is make a high-riding ponytail, then curl the hair around itself and secure it with another scrunchy. Instant bun. Perfect.

  61. 61.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): That’s on the failure to register and illegal lobbying. There are, apparently, other issues. The IRS is going to want to talk to him. And there’s the question of whether an American citizen inciting a violent riot against US military personnel on foreign soil is a criminal offense in the US. It has also been reported that he came up with the strategy to annex Crimea back to Russia sometime between 2005-2007.

    I expect that by Monday we’ll find out the no one is quite sure where Mr. Manafort went when he left Trump Tower yesterday. And shortly after that he’ll quietly resurface in Moscow or some other place we wont be able to extradite him from. If the DOJ is being diligent, and given the way the Foreign Agent Registration Office within DOJ works that’s a very big if, they’ve begun to move to freeze his assets and place a travel hold on him through DHS. I doubt this will happen, because its just too many moving pieces all at once. More likely he has been quietly moving his liquid assets beyond US reach – or what he thinks is beyond US reach – for the past several weeks. And is in the process of moving himself beyond US reach as well. Now we pop corn, watch, and wait.

  62. 62.

    Schlemazel

    The Mdewakanton are having their annual pow-wow this weekend. It is a large affair with hundreds of participants. We will be there. While it will be as noisy and rambunctious as the Drumpfenstein monster in TX I know it will be more fun and less risky with the Sioux.

  64. 64.

    ? Martin

    I would like to point out that the Dead Milkmen were decades ahead of their time.

    RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): Have you heard the latest Democrat scam? Have you heard about the Agriculture Department’s financial grants to lesbian farmers? You think I’m making this up? See, this is how they do it. All right. I hadn’t intended to get into this right — let me find it here in the stack, because it’s something that’s happening. It’s actually real, and there is a strategic reason for — here it is

    […]

    This is part of the disinformation campaign. “White, rich male” is how the left describes pretty much any constituency group that they’re opposed to. But what the point of this is, folks, it’s not about lesbian farmers. What they’re trying to do is convince lesbians to become farmers.

    You sit in there and laugh. OK, go ahead and laugh at it, but I’m telling you what they’re doing. They are trying to bust up one of the last geographic conservative regions in the country, and that’s rural America.

    The latest leftist plot is to undermine the flyover states by transplanting lesbians to raise hogs and grow corn, thereby turning Nebraska deep blue.

    Now, Stuart, if you look at the soil around any large US city,
    There’s a big undeground homosexual population. Des Moines, Iowa,
    For an example. Look at the soil around Des Moines, Stuart.
    You can’t build on it; you can’t grow anything in it. The government
    Says it’s due to poor farming. But I know what’s really going on,
    Stuart. I know it’s the queers. They’re in it with the aliens.
    They’re building landing strips for gay Martians, I swear to God.

    Limbaugh is close but has it wrong. Those martians will fly in right over Trump’s wall, and vote Democratic because nobody can check their ID. And we know this is happening because Obama went to Mars in the 80s to start the alliance.

    FORGET KENYA. NEVER mind the secret madrassas. The sinister, shocking truth about Barack Obama’s past lies not in east Africa, but in outer space. As a young man in the early 1980s, Obama was part of a secret CIA project to explore Mars. The future president teleported there, along with the future head of Darpa.

    WAKE UP SHEEPLE!

  65. 65.

    Origuy

    I was at a party last weekend. (I know! I have friends IRL!) The hosts have an Asian pear tree in their back yard. One of their neighbors brought a small keg of hard cider that he had made from the juice of its fruit. Delicious!

  67. 67.

    Miss Bianca

    @greennotGreen: yuck. you *and* your friend also had cans of WTF dumped on you today, as well! Hope things turn out OK for you!

    As for your friend…unless it’s something purely punitive to mess with him, I have no idea why the local gendarmerie would want to have him enjoying (?) being put up at the county jail for three weeks instead of overnight. NO idea, Obviously, IANAL – or LEO.

  68. 68.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Ribena in the British foods aisle of the Winn Dixie that’s on the edge between Palm Harbor and Dunedin, FL. As you may surmise by the name of the latter, it was founded by Scottish ex-pats and there are a lot still living there. I don’t go in their often, but next I do, I’ll give it a look. We may, perhaps, be able to arrange a humanitarian assistance drop.

    Also, Americans don’t even know what a currant is – black, red, or otherwise. And cordial is being polite, not something you drink.

  69. 69.

    Schlemazel

    @greennotGreen:
    I take it as positive you are commenting here so that is good. Hope you get good news from the test.
    NOTE good news, not positive. Unlike Trumps “doctor” I know the difference!

  70. 70.

    Miss Bianca

    @Litlebritdifrnt: ooh, you can make cordial from black currants? I have black, white, *and* red currants growing wild at the house I’m living in. Next year I may just have to harvest all the berries before the critters get to ’em and try it!

  72. 72.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Miss Bianca: Anything a member of Congress does as part of their official duties – and historically this has included bludgeoning other members on the House floor near to death – can’t be prosecuted. Obviously taking bribes, sexually assaulting people in one’s office or other parts of the capital, leaking classified information is a bit different, etc. This type of leak, even though it seems to violate the Privacy Act of 1974 will be considered covered under part of the official duties. Even though it isn’t and shouldn’t be. The larger problem, however, is that Congressman Chaffetz has likely just pissed off Secretary Colin Powell. While we will most likely never know what happens as a result, there will be a reckoning. The types of gatherings where this advise was given – allegedly a dinner hosted by Secretary Albright with all the living Secretaries of State invited as a welcome to the club and here’s what you need to know regardless of ideology, partisanship, and/or party – are governed under Chatham House rules. Chaffetz, of course, could care less about that (hell, he can’t even protect the classified information he’s briefed on, but his leak wound up on CSPAN while in open committee session, so official duties…), but other very important people do. Like I said there will be a reckoning, though we will most likely never know what it is.

  75. 75.

    The Golux

    @Roger Moore:

    …Seville oranges are by far the best choice for marmalade…

    Mainly because they are bitter compared to other oranges. Proper British marmalade is made from them. When I was growing up, I’m pretty sure there never was a day when we didn’t have Keiller’s Dundee marmalade in the kitchen.

    PB&M sandwiches are excellent.

  76. 76.

    Jeffro

    David Frum today in Commentary magazine, in a piece well worth reading: Is It 1968?

    “The work that preoccupied people of conservative temperament after 1968 is work that calls again after 2016: to defend this country’s institutions, alliances, conventions, and Constitution against all challengers…When the verdict is delivered in November, the work does not stop. If anything, that work becomes more demanding and urgent. We of the center-right have learned something alarming about the susceptibility to extremism, not only of American democracy in general, but of our political coalition in particular.”

    Snark all we want, that is a sea change. That is most definitely not “both sides do it”.

  77. 77.

    Mary G

    @Miss Bianca: IOIYAR. They’ve been doing it since Issa ran the first Benghazi committee and Elijah Cummings was screaming like a stuck pig about it to no notice whatsoever. Then he did it once himself to prove the point and the Village was all OH NOES HOW COULD HE?

    If you are the majority you are in charge of the ethics committee, which means you might as well not have one.

    TaMara, that picture looks like an Old Master’s still life. It’s beautiful. All that househunting was worth it.

    @greennotGreen: Eek. Hope it’s a false alarm. I flunked all my heart tests and am going in Tuesday for an angiogram and possible stent or bypass procedure. I’ve been trying not to freak out, but it’s not easy.

    My mom had the same thing and it turned out all her arteries were free and clear, but the nurse who took care of her after the procedure didn’t put on the little girdle to keep the incision shut because another nurse told her not to bother. Then they didn’t answer the call bell when she had to pee and of course she insisted on getting up. I heard “uh oh” and looked in to see her femoral artery spraying blood all over the walls like a firehose or a horror movie. I plan to pee in the damn bed if I have to.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: Eye am always watching…
    (bad OMAC/Brother Eye reference)
    Here you go (link, with excerpt):
    http://fusion.net/story/338016/trump-manafort-marines-nato-protests/

    Lt. Colonel Tom Doman’s introduction to Ukraine, at 4 a.m. on May 27, 2006, was not a warm one.

    “We had rocks thrown at us. Rocks hit Marines. Buses were rocked back and forth. We were just trying to get to our base.”

    Doman and his 112 reserve Marines and sailors were boarding the buses after dark, with backup from Ukrainian special forces, to get to a compound where they would lay the groundwork for Sea Breeze 2006, a larger international training exercise set to involve 3,500 troops from the U.S., Ukraine, and 12 NATO partner countries. But hundreds of protesters seemed to have come out of nowhere to confront them.

    The Marines ended up hemmed in by angry locals in Feodosia, a Ukrainian resort city on the Black Sea. “We had people jeering us and protesting against us until we basically left the country,” Doman says. The Americans couldn’t go outside; they couldn’t reach their supply ship in the town’s port. Some protesters wielded what Col. Bill Black, the Marines’ commanding officer, jokingly called “Ukrainian cocktails” — plastic bottles filled with diesel fuel.
    …
    A memo leaked to the Times of London on Wednesday suggests Ukrainian prosecutors believe Manafort actively helped to foment unrest in the incident, one of a long line of provocations they say may have contributed to Eastern Ukraine’s secession from the country and Russia’s interference in the region, known as Crimea. The reason for the protests, prosecutors say, was to give Manafort’s clients a domestic political advantage. If that was the aim, they succeeded spectacularly.

  80. 80.

    Miss Bianca

    @Adam L Silverman: I don’t think I’d better cop, even anonymously on this yere blog, what kind of “reckoning” I’d like to see come to that smug little SOB Chaffetz. Caning on the House floor might come close. But thanks for that clarification on the legalities involved!

  82. 82.

    Miss Bianca

    @Major Major Major Major: follow some of those other stories on Fusion for a really hair-raising picture of what Manchurian Candidate Manager Manafort was up to over in Ukraine. Scary, scary shit. I really hope he gets nailed over this.

  83. 83.

    Gravenstone

    @Mike J: The Patrick Warburton live action version? Or has something else new come along in the intervening years? The first season of the animated series was a classic.

  85. 85.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jeffro: The question that Frum, and other’s, need to be asked is: what has the Conservative Movement actually conserved in regard to your stated goal of the Conservative Movement “to defend this country’s institutions, alliances, conventions, and Constitution against all challengers”? Until Frum and Charlie Sykes and George Will and Rick Wilson and Erik Erikson and others can answer that question, they have no business being involved with the conversation. A center right movement and party, such as Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union has merit, but that’s not what the Republicans have been since becoming the party of American conservatism.

  86. 86.

    Gravenstone

    @Truegster: Can you expand on your impressions please? I’d been looking at the game but the initial PC reviews have not been kind from a technical aspect. A couple patches in now, I was going to look it over again.

  90. 90.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Miss Bianca: It is what it is. Despite some folks unwillingness to accept the reality, we have a system based on process. And that process can be used as both sword and shield by those who are cunning, even if they are not particularly wise.

  92. 92.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: Well please be more specific in your requests.// Here’s the autonomy for Crimea reporting. My apologies for misstating it as annexation of.
    http://theweek.com/speedreads/643450/paul-manafort-may-have-hand-russias-annexation-crimea
    http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/trump-campaign-chief-linked-to-secret-kiev-cash-payments-npsg79ccj

    The memo says: “It was [Manafort’s] political effort to raise the prestige of Yanukovych and his party — the confrontation and division of society on ethnic and linguistic grounds is his trick from the time of the elections in Angola and the Philippines. While I was in the Crimea I constantly saw evidence suggesting that Paul Manafort considered autonomy [from Ukraine] as a tool to enhance the reputation of Yanukovych and win over the local electorate.”

  93. 93.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    I see Trump is visting the Lousania flood today and making hay about it. I am curious why Obama hasn’t said anything because I sense someone is setting a trap for Trump or the GOP on this.

  97. 97.

    Truegster

    @Gravenstone: the game would make a good fit for kids, but not adults. There’s no depth to No Man’s Sky, no fundamental differences between civilizations, or ships or worlds. Yes, you may end up on a cool looking Dr. Seuss planet, but the plants and animals will all act the same as all others throughout the galaxy and the resources are all the same. You can’t even become a space raider, or trader, it’s not lucrative, etc. The tech tree ends quickly, find it all in about 10 planets or 30 hours. For under 15 years old, probably a fun game.

  98. 98.

    piratedan

    @Adam L Silverman: ty for stating that so succinctly. I’d love to know what ideals, principles, institutions that we, as a country, are supposedly in danger of losing. What has them so incredibly scared that they’re willing to turn away from science and ethics (and morals) to preserve?

    I think what it comes down to is that they are inherently selfish, too selfish to share wealth, knowledge, power with anyone that doesn’t look or act like themselves.

  99. 99.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Major Major Major Major: Sowing the seeds of division on the language issue. Up until around that time, your primary language was really not an issue in Ukraine. Some people spoke primarily Ukrainian at home, some spoke primarily Russian. The official language since independence was Ukrainian, and nobody was fazed by that. Russian-speakers knew they’d have to speak Ukrainian for official government business, and they did so without issue, then went home and back to speaking Russian. Once Manafort started advising Yanukovych, it became a tribal wedge issue, particularly in Crimea, where Russian-speakers were a large majority. Yanukovych himself, and his whole Donetsk crew were/are Russian-speakers, and the “splittism” was a major factor in Yanukovych’s 2010 election.

    I don’t think anyone considers Yanukovych or his goons to be smart enough to use this issue to his advantage, as in the 1990’s and early 2000’s it wasn’t an issue at all.

  101. 101.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Enhanced Voting Techinques: Governor Edwards has made it clear he wants the President to visit, but not for ten days to two weeks. He doesn’t want to have to pull the resources off of the ongoing flood response, several areas in south Louisiana are just not getting flood because the water is flowing and flooding, of course, north to south. So every possible responder is needed for disaster management and emergency response. If the President shows up they have to close the interstate, pull significant state and local law enforcement and other personnel because of the security requirements for a traveling President. Governor Edwards has also made it clear he’s getting everything he needs from the President and appreciates all of the attention from the appropriate principles and deputies within the Administration, including the several who have come to meet and observe on site in Louisiana.

  105. 105.

    Adam L Silverman

    @piratedan: If you scratch enough I think you’ll find, especially because of the repeated attempts to link back to the development of British conservatism in response to the Enlightenment and the revolutions that resulted, that its been about defending, preserving, and conserving power, status, and prestige. But what these deep thinkers have also not seem to have paid much attention to is the deeper and nihilistic anti-liberal democracy movement that has been attached to them, and to the Republican Party, as a parasite.
    http://www.stiftungleostrauss.com/bunker/why-the-movement-is-more-dangerous-today-than-1993/

    Why The Movement Is More Dangerous Today Than 1993
    2009/09/29 By Dr Leo Strauss 12 Comments

    Bill Clinton is wrong. The anti-liberal democratic Movement comprised of various ideological strands poses a greater danger today than it did after his first calamitous year in office.

    Clinton Of All People Should ‘Get It’
    Three premises underlie the observation. First, the Movement’s necessarily amorphous political power is a separate and distinct phenomena from institutional presence. The common wisdom that the Movement is weak because of institutional losses misses the boat entirely. (Though to be fair, our best political commentators are just discovering in 2009 that the Movement was the parasite controlling the enfeebled Republican Party. We, Dear Readers, together explored those ramifications five years ago while Tweety was still giving DeLay ‘a happy finish’ under the desk).

    Second, because the Movement never focused on institutionalized, governing existence until 2001, its permanent residence was and remains AgitProp. Priorities are to control the zeitgeist, frame ‘acceptable’ discourse, expand its perceived existential comfort zone from challenge. This state of being is true both for movements in the Old World after 1789 and ours in the New. Only understanding this primal state of origin allows one to see the Movement’s often mocked circular firing squad is internally an energizing purge in all sense of meaning. Casting out dissenters — or those painted as such — reifies the sense of self beyond just stifling cognitive dissonance. Humanity has not changed this ritual since Calvin’s Geneva.

    The Movement is therefore from birth essentially negatory. What it perceives as creative impulses are inescapably destructive. All the ‘creation’ involves the repealing, the eradicating, the cleansing, the returning, the removing, the banning or the unleashing. Our political public so-called intellectuals ask ‘Why didn’t the Republicans [sic] propose solutions for X or do Y when they held all three branches, etc.?’ The very question screams they need a clue. The Movement inherently can not do so; it’s true animating impulses are unquenchable nihilism and destruction.

    Those are easy words: unquenchable, nihilism, destruction. They are, however, precisely accurate. Many Movement intellectuals (real or imagined) at least pay lip service to Schumpeter’s book, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy: from whence came the now-hackneyed phrase ‘creative destruction’. Like usual, most peddling the meme never read the book. But the phrase is now a bland short hand for Dow 36,000ism and ‘destruction is creative’. The subtext appropriately is as Martha says, ‘it’s a good thing’. Don’t be fooled. Creative impulses in the Movement can only result in destruction ultimately because its boundaries of secure identity require the absolute elimination of any perceived threat. So-called creative utopian constructs or proposals offered on the horizon require first a wasteland devoid of others. Simply put: it really is war without end.

    I highly recommend clicking across and reading the whole thing. I know Frum, Will, Erikson, and others won’t.

  106. 106.

    Miss Bianca

    @Adam L Silverman: It’s just Chaffetz’s face that does it to me. His nasty, weaselly, smirking face really got under my skin during that last round of hoo-haw with Comey. Like the captain of the football team who knows nobody is going to do jack about him tripping kids in the hallway or using unnecessary roughness on the field.

  108. 108.

    Peter

    @TaMara (HFG): I grew up in Concord, MA. My mom and I picked wild grapes every September and made jelly. I planted some under my garden pergola two years ago; it looks like we’ll get a little fruit this year.

  109. 109.

    piratedan

    @Adam L Silverman: ty for that link…. trying to process what I just read…. guess the best equivalent I can make is that of puppet masters with the US as the mandatory audience.

  110. 110.

    mike in dc

    @CaseyL: All I’ll say is to check out Samsung Galaxy series phones. Even those from 2 generations back will seem fantastic compared to an old flip phone.

  113. 113.

    1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)

    @Betty Cracker: Betty, being in possession of long hair myself, I make hairsticks. Let me know if you’d be interested–I can guarantee that a bamboo hairstick decorated with a smiley-faced glass bead a la Rorschach won’t be mistaken for anything worn by a Pentecostal lady by anyone who actually looks at it.

  114. 114.

    Miss Bianca

    @muddy: heh heh heh…love that the guy wrote a book called “Booze for Free”. That’s my kind of reference tome! Because come the Great and Glorious Survivalist Revolution that certain of my neighbors seem convinced is imminent, comrades. my homemade Ribena is going to go to barter for ammo and surplus MREs!

  120. 120.

    satby

    @Adam L Silverman: Hey now, my grandma used to make red currant jelly from a neighbor’s bush. I liked it so much I grew 2 currant bushes myself, though the first crop was this year and I was otherwise occupied with trees and HS graduation stuff.

  122. 122.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Adam L Silverman: I have read some Schumpeter, mainly in the context of econ. When he spoke of creative destruction wasn’t that in regard to perfect competition. That firms should be allowed to enter and exit market without a lot of barriers.

  123. 123.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    @Adam L Silverman: Ok, that makes sense.

    Curious to see if the Press is that fed up with The Donald enough to call him on disturpting a rescue by political grandstanding.

  124. 124.

    Ben Cisco

    @Miss Bianca: Thanks. It’s weird, thinking about her actually having a baby of her own when it feels like she was just one herself. Mrs. C. and I helped (and I am still) helping to raise her younger brother and sister. I guess this is how a full-time parent feels?

  126. 126.

    Jibeaux

    I can’t wait for my muscadines to be ripe. I eat them until my stomach hurts, like a small child or Winnie the Pooh.

  127. 127.

    JanieM

    Just got back from a long afternoon of errands and haven’t read much of the thread, but the sight of those grapes sent me swooning. Concord grapes are ambrosial…there’s really nothing else to compare, maybe only expensive dark chocolate with sea salt or nibs, or first run homemade maple syrup. Certainly not those pitiful things that show up in the grocery store year-round with signs on them that allege they are “grapes.”

    I live far enough north into cold country that Concord grapes aren’t even grown around here, at least not on any kind of scale. The season isn’t long enough to let them get sweet. We had a tiny arbor when I lived in Watertown Mass….I loved being able to go out and pick some for breakfast every day for a few short weeks in the fall.

    Just eat them!

  128. 128.

    1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)

    @satby: I can see about putting up some pictures on Tumblr or Pinterest–I don’t usually make them to sell so I don’t have anything at Etsy; I use them myself and give them as gifts.

  129. 129.

    muddy

    @satby: They had 3 colors of them at the farmers market a couple of weeks ago. My first home harvest, I dried half for scones and made the liquor out of the rest. After I tasted the result, I no longer dry any for scones. Who wants stupid scones. This stuff is wonderful, and so easy to make. I like that blackcurrants taste almost medicinal, I was telling someone you could taste the vitamins. Then it occurred to me that since the vitamins went in the bottle, they must still be in there, making the booze healthier. :)

  130. 130.

    Adam L Silverman

    @piratedan: If you read through to the bottom and click on the movement tag, you’ll see his other posts about this. I highly recommend them.

  131. 131.

    Miss Bianca

    @Ben Cisco: So, you will be a “great-grand-uncle” now? : )

    ETA: I wouldn’t know about the “full-time parent” stuff. Did get to help with the raising of some friends’ kids.

  132. 132.

    Adam L Silverman

    @satby: Congratulations on graduating from high school! Any college plans?
    (ducks, covers, jungle crawls away…)

  133. 133.

    1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)

    @Betty Cracker: I use bamboo knitting needles in a small size–it’s not hard to work bamboo but I’m lazy, and since I don’t make these to sell, picking up a pack of double-pointed needles on sale isn’t going to break my economic model. Add an interesting bead–I prefer superglue over hot glue–on one end and you’re done. Shorter ones can be made by splitting double-pointed aluminum needles.

  134. 134.

    Adam L Silverman

    @schrodinger’s cat: Its been a very long time since I’ve read Schumpeter, but that sounds about right. Of course the problem is that in reality we don’t have perfect competition, we don’t have perfect information, so we don’t have perfect markets.

  138. 138.

    Miss Bianca

    @Adam L Silverman:

    in reality we don’t have perfect competition, we don’t have perfect information, so we don’t have perfect markets

    However, I did see a werewolf in a Chinese restaurant that had perfect hair…does that count?

  141. 141.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Adam L Silverman: No we don’t, but its a useful abstraction like massless pulley and weightless strings. Markets for commodities are closest we come to perfect competition. Most businesses like markets where they are the price setters not price takers. Most businesses love monopoly power. Profit margins are razor thin or close to zero in perfect markets.

  142. 142.

    Brendancalling

    My kid goes back to his mom sunday after his 6 weeks of summer with me. It was an interesting year: we spent our time between philly and nashville, with an extra week in philly thanks to my bout with lyme.

    So how are we winding down the Friday? Hanging with friends, Voltron on Netflix, and fixing a flat tire.

  147. 147.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    We have a ton of blueberries growing in our backyard. But the squirrels and rabbits decided it was their food, not ours.

    Blueberries must be especially enticing to rodents. One of my sister’s hamsters was insanely fond of blueberries. He would stuff his cheeks full of them like a chipmunk, probably 20 or 30 or more at one go, and then would carefully take them out, place them in his cage, and painstakingly peel each one before eating it. I can’t remember whether he ate the skins or left them behind, but I do recall noting with surprise that blueberries are blue only on the outside; their innards are pale green.

  150. 150.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Not far from where I live there is a shop that has only British imports (everything from Queen’s 90th birthday tat to Weetabix and Bird’s Custard Powder to gorgeous hand-painted teacups). I stop in once or twice a year to indulge my Inner Brit, and I know I’ve seen Ribena there.

  151. 151.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mary G:

    Good luck to you on that! Have you ever had an angiogram? They’re really easy, and kind of fascinating if you like to follow along on the TV monitor. That said, I’d rather NOT go through it if I had a choice. I hope everything goes very well for you. Please keep us posted.

  152. 152.

    bmoak

    A bit late, but if you have or will have a mess of concord grapes, I would strongly recommend finding a recipe for concord grape pie, a specialty of the nearby Finger Lakes.

  153. 153.

    WaterGirl

    @Mary G: Hoping all goes well for you on Tuesday! Let us know if you start to worry too much, we could always conk you on the head to stop the worrying if we need to. :-)

  154. 154.

    WaterGirl

    @greennotGreen: It’s been 4 hours since you posted last, so maybe that means you’re no longer sitting in the waiting room of the ER. That would be progress, anyway! Hoping for good news for you.

  156. 156.

    No One You Know

    @greennotGreen: In a fit of romanticism, I planted a vine over an arbor. Sweet joy, and a leafy refuge, until someone told me the roots would damage the foundation of the house! And it’s harder to kill than it looks. :_(

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