From faithful Garden Commentor Marvel:
We’re clearly Autumn-bound, here in the Willamette Valley. The sun’s coming in at a good slant, the university (OSU — Go Beavs) is having its first home football game and we’re hauling & processing veggies to beat the band. There’s plenty left out there to harvest and eat/store in coming days/weeks (e.g., the late potatoes are ’bout ready to dig up; kale, cabbage & brocolli are looking good; the basil’s primed for the blender & pine nuts), but it’s the tasks at hand that have our attention.
The Summer was fairly mild and the tomatoes showed it — harvest was relatively scant & late…with none to waste, every precious one was brought in and lovingly prepared/processed.
We husked & dried the popcorn (first time we’ve grown it) and have, in the loudest, most kinetic operation my kitchen’s ever seen, wrestled the kernals from their respective ears. Whew. There are vintage hand-cranked shellers (looking much like medieval torture devices and hard to find) and modern, zippy-looking ones (w-a-a-a-y too expensive), but we used tools at hand (me = a sweet corn skinner; Jack = a gnarly pair of pliers). We may not plant popcorn again, given the wrestling required.
The apple crop was good (for us and our organic/no spray ways, anytime we lose less than about 85% to the various bugs [talking to YOU, coddling moth], it’s a good year) and I have a swell recipe for a savory chutney using crisp apples and green tomatoes (plenty of those around) — cooked up a double batch of it just this AM.
***********
This year was absolutely THE WORST for my tomatoes in the 20-some years I’ve been gradually expanding my “garden” from a plastic pot on a rental deck to a whole bunch of 15gal rootpouches on an asphalt driveway extension. Of course I overbought seedlings, but I got everything planted out & tomato-laddered & fertilized in good order and then… well, we’re currently under ‘extreme drought’ conditions. Which wouldn’t have been an issue, except that the humidity level hung between oppressive and unhealthy from July into September (all that water & none of it doing our poor plants, or my lungs, any good). I could not bear to spend more than an hour or so outside on any given day, which just about gave me time to keep the raised flower beds and lilacs from drying up once I’d watered the tomatoes. So at least three different varieties of blight hit early & hard, and the few fat green specimens I carefully nurtured got messily destroyed by some bird or small mammal despite the large saucer of water I carefully kept filled for just such visitors (another disaster that hasn’t happened in at least 15 years). And the whole yard looks like it was cruelly abandoned, ungroomed and dusty.
I’m trying to decide whether I should order a handful of “essential” heirlooms from my favorite California-based mail-order source right now, rather than waiting to look at multiple sites in February as a mood-lifter. Or if maybe I should just declare a moratorium, and spend next year’s green season doing some serious & desperately-needed spadework to revive the rest of the yard…
What’s going on in your garden(s) this week?
low-tech cyclist
No garden here, but fall has arrived here in southern Maryland. Friday was still summer, yesterday was fall.
My definition of summer is “that part of the year where, when I come home from work, I automatically change into cutoffs and t-shirt.” I was still wearing cutoffs and t-shirt yesterday, but partly because I was doing active stuff outside (including a nice bike ride) and partly because I’m stubborn and wasn’t ready to let go of summer quite yet. I never am.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@low-tech cyclist: It was only 97 yesterday and is supposed to get up to 101 outside the cave here in Glendale. Being that I’m cray-cray, I’m going for a hike.
OzarkHillbilly
Very nice Marvel. I am always impressed by your late season production. Also, I knew there was a reason for not planting popcorn. Thank you for telling me what it it.
low-tech cyclist
And also unrelated to gardens: AL, thanks for linking to Owen Ellickson’s Trump/Ryan/Christie/etc. tweets for the past month or so. I’ve been enjoying the hell out of them, and finally bookmarked his Twitter feed a couple weeks ago so I could keep up on the action.
HILLARY: So. You’re bringing Bill’s old fling.
TRUMP: You’re bringing a man who’s richer than me! Equally below the belt, if not more so
Wonderful.
low-tech cyclist
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You’re totally nuts, but nothing wrong with that. Enjoy your hike, but take along lots of water!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@low-tech cyclist: I have may camelbak, it’s a dry heat.
raven
Horrible year of maters here too. It has not rained in the almost 6 week since my hernia operation. It’s good because I haven’t had to pay to have the lawn mowed but it really sucks otherwise.
Felonius Monk
@raven: Wow, six weeks. Time flies. All back to normal?
rikyrah
Good Morning ?, Everyone ?
rikyrah
Beautiful pictures ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
Chinese Garden at The Huntington with the fisheye.
Felonius Monk
@rikyrah: Good morning to you.?
JPL
Wonderful pictures.
Mary G
Marvel, your photos are works of art. I have apples. Nothing much got planted, because of the ruptured tendons in my hand. The succulents are going into the front yard finally!
Raven
@Felonius Monk: Yea, I’ve been pretty careful to follow the docs orders on not lifting anything heavy. I’ve been in the water and walking a couple of miles a day since week 2 . I have been thinking about engaging one of the trainers at the Y to get me started on some resistance work and this may be a good time.
satby
I only planted three tomato seedlings and an eggplant seedling, and blight got them all, for basically the same reason as AL’s failed. Too hot at night to set fruit, killer humidity and mosquitoes kept me inside whenever I wasn’t house hunting after the tree landed on my roof. I went back yesterday to lift and move some of my irises to my new place, and the roses in my former front flower bed never looked so good all year now that the humidity dropped and the nights are temperate.
I wonder if they would survive a transplanting…
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning to you too!
Ceci n'est pas mon nym
You don’t need to remove popcorn kernels from the cob. We had some we bought from somewhere or other, and just threw them in the microwave in a paper bag, cob and all.
Immanentize
Hello All! Just back from Denver — what a great foody town. I’m stuffed! TAG, Tamayo, Linger and Little Man for the locals in BJ land….
Great pictures, Marvel. I’m jealous — but I know how much real work that represents. We had the same weather as AL but my tomatoes and peppers did really well. I have a few straggler sun gold cherry size, tomatillos and poblanos still on the vine.
Raven, glad to hear you are almost done with your doctor probation sentence.
FlyingToaster
We got a pitifully low yield on our tomatoes in the general viciity of AL (well, south and west). But my tomatillos dealt with the drought well and we’ve got a bumper crop. Godzilla Sage made out just fine. The big-leaf basil suffered as well, but the globe basil is fine. The pots (peppers, cherry tomatoes, herbs, flowers) did fairly well. We’ve been feeding WarriorGirl on her potted cherry tomatoes and lunchbox peppers. I’ll have to break down today and buy some, since it’s getting cold and we’re nearing the end of our yield. The non-greens pots empty out in mid-October; the greens hang on until early December.
The house is painted, barring for 4 vinyl expansion slots in front (I’ll send them the photo and someone will come by this week; they got all of the others yesterday morning). Now to repair the retaining wall, and replace the stair treads.
And we’re planning on having a bunch of scrub removed from above the terrace. Keep the lilacs (and interstitial honeysuckle), kill the rest. Put in shrub roses above the driveway, and think about what happens after the bend.
Breezeblock
This was my worst garden year in, oh probably 30 years. Mostly because of Mr. Groundhog coming from next door and decimating zucchini, radish, lettuce. Tomatoes did OK, though the chipmunks got their share. Peppers did OK, though in past years they were awful, so I wasn’t even really serious about peppers this year. It was more like a “whatever”, and lo and behold, they did great. Of course, they are all hot peppers, because…
germy
This summer my wife planted a variety of tomatoes I’ve never seen or tasted before. They’re red and purple. Extra flavor. She saved the plastic mesh nets that store potatoes come in, and she covered the tomato plants. This discourages the squirrels and rabbits who are persistent in our yard.
Just saw this:
germy
@Ceci n’est pas mon nym: We’ll need plenty of popcorn for the Monday night debate.
satby
@germy: Booman addressed this guy’s predictions.
germy
@satby: Thank you. A good counterpoint to the Esquire article’s “Look at this guy who is always right!!”
germy
This comment from Nobdy at LGM sums it up:
Face
OT, but Jose Fernandez killed in boating accident.
Punchy
@germy: Cleek’s Law. Always. Dems and many Indys believe Trump may literally shred the Constitution, therefore Republicans must support him. Its unreal and disgusting, but tribes and skin color and Jesus reasons….
Elizabelle
@satby: and germy:
Thank you. Will check out Booman.
Allan Lichtman (sp?) is a reputable source, but I think his “keys to the White House” won’t work this time because (a) Trump is such a genuinely alarming candidate, no matter how many Republicans go home to roost [in shit] and (b) does not take into account how sick people are of the do nothing congress. A lot of people realize it is Republicans, solely as obstructionists. Plus, for the more politically aware, Citizens United is a horrible, wretched decision, and sentient people are not going to hand the Supreme Court to the GOP to turn it more conservative.
We do not live in normal times. And one party has gone absolute whackjob. Got to be a ceiling below 50% for that ridiculousness. That is not figured into the “keys” business.
Elizabelle
@Face: Who is Jose Fernandez?
satby
@Elizabelle: Marlins ballplayer. Only 24 years old, that’s such a shame.
satby
@Elizabelle:
We’re all hoping so, and working to make it so.
P.S. I put a link in the previous thread with the listing pictures of my new place. So that’s how it looks pre-the stuff I’m doing.
Elizabelle
@satby: How sad. About to check out the zillow links on your new old house. Good to hear you’re able to produce the soaps in a bedroom; was wondering about that.
Also: I love any glimpses of Marvel’s world.
Marvel could have a shelter and gardening magazine or site, and we would all subscribe.
Face
@Elizabelle: He’s a star baseball player. Was going to make hundreds of millions over his career. Very, very popular in the Cuban-American community. It’s just devestating.
AliceBlue
@Elizabelle:
In his article, Lichtman said that the 13 Keys consider generic candidates and he admitted that he could be wrong this year.
Iowa Old Lady
I may have to give up on my theory that the Flowers invitation is a hoax. My new theory is that Trump tweeted about inviting Flowers and the Clinton campaign jumped on that and contacted Flowers, urging her to publicly accept an invitation Trump hadn’t really extended. They saw it as a chance to undercut any reference Trump might make to Bill’s infidelities.
One of you is going to quote Trump’s Razor at me, aren’t you?
bemused
@satby:
What a sweet looking house. Hope you have loads of fun with few frustrations making it your ideal nest.
JMG
@AliceBlue: That’s the problem with all these prediction models. They assume generic party candidates, but candidates are never generic. They’re individuals. They’re unique, some more than others, but their personas always have an impact.
SenyorDave
I know policy doesn’t seem to matter anymore, but I do think Clinton has an opening on Trump’s tax proposals. Costed at aout at between $4.4 and $5.3 trillion over 10 years, with majority, as usual, going to upper income people. Paid for by dynamic scoring, AKA the Laffer Curve. You now, the economic engines will be firing on all cylinders and magically pay for all tax cuts. In other words, complete fantasy. Whereas Clinton targets lower income and middle class mostly, and pays for it by taxing very high incomes. Press that point, and tie it into Trump’s refusal to release tax returns.
Procopius
That’s odd. My grandfather used to grow a little popcorn every year, and most years a little sweet corn, too. The sweet corn was good with butter and salt. The popcorn looked different from what is shown here. The cobs were shorter and the kernels were white and longer, narrower, and sharper than these. My memory is that the kernels came off the cobs easily. Maybe you didn’t let them dry enough first. Ours made small white — I dunno, what are they called, nuggets? puffs? I’ve seen that yellow kind in cans and it makes big yellowish nuggets. Kind of tough when you chew them, too.
germy
Here is Beck’s reaction to the Ted Cruz endorsement
Face
@SenyorDave: Except it wont cost trillions during the debate. It’ll produce quadrillions in wealth and 300 billion new jobs, because Don says so and therefore the Wash Post must write that up. Sides disagree, both sides do it, and Benghazemails.
Only clearly librul thinktanks like non-partisan tax groups, and economists, and academics, and everyone with at least 2 brain cells say it costs $, but because Trump says otherwise, it’s a wash. Welcome to the new debate format!
piratedan
I guess you could consider Trump a generic know-nothing racist narcissist, but unsure if that’s really not applicable to a subset of politicians
ceece
Marvel, there are decent organic ways to deal with codling moth, but it may take a couple of seasons to really knock the population down. Check out the UC Davis site here . I have had good luck by raking up the soil under the tree to get the pupae and using paper traps for the adults, but I only have one apple and one pear tree.
Procopius
@Procopius: Ah, my friend Google has just informed me that a popped kernel of popcorn is called a “flake.” Learn something new every day.
Elizabelle
NY Times: Buckwheat of Buckwheat Zydeco has left the building.
Lung cancer. His children include Sir Reginald and Tomorrow Lynn.
RIP, Buckwheat/Stanley Dural. How do you convey RIP in French?
Dork
@Face: this is exactly why I cant watch the debates. Literally everything he says will be a demonstrative lie. Every single thing. So many that the news orgs will give up fact-checking, and those whoppers will become “truths”. The media just doesnt know how to handle a politican who lies this brazenly and openly.
bemused
MN Native Americans pop wild rice. It is tasty.
Elizabelle
@germy: Beck is nuts. Carnival barker who helped issue in the age of Trump. It’s sad that either has an audience. If he’s sad, how bad can that be?
Elizabelle
@Dork:
They’re starting to discuss that, among themselves and in print.
I think the media and the pundits they enable are way behind the public this year. To find out.
All the shootings of black men, and Charlotte and only releasing police video, begrudgingly? Huge topic. You can’t reach those who respond “blue lives matter” but I think a lot of eyes have opened.
Miss Bianca
@Elizabelle: Oh, no, Buckwheat Zydeco gone too? This is a shitty year for great musicians’ deaths. Hadn’t seen him since my college days, but he always put on a great show – he was my first real introduction to Cajun/Zydeco music, him and Queen Ida.
Qu’il repose en paix.
Mike J
@Elizabelle: CNN, living up to their journalistic standards, said he died Sept. 26th.
SenyorDave
@Face: Well she could point out that GWB tried the same thing, took a budget that was producing a surplus, and left office with a $1 trillion dollar deficit. Also, when he tries to defend his proposals, she can ask him how much he would save in taxes. And then follow it up by saying, it doesn’t matter when someone pays no taxes, which could be the case since he won’t release his returns.
germy
germy
Not as widely known as some others, but 2016 is also the year we lost John D. Loudermilk. A fine songwriter who was covered by artists like Eddie Cochran, Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers and many others.
germy
@Miss Bianca: And I learned yesterday that Terry Jones (Monty Python) has been diagnosed with dementia. He can no longer give interviews.
Lizzy L
Beautiful tomatoes!
I don’t have a garden, but my persimmon tree, as usual, is bearing a massive crop of gorgeous fuyu persimmons. What isn’t usual is the timing: they’re ripe 3 weeks early. That was true of the plums in June as well.
This afternoon I’m taking my laptop and my phone to do a couple hours of phone banking for Hillary. I won’t be able to watch the debate tomorrow — I’ll be teaching a class. I get home a little after the debate ends. I expect to show up here within six minutes of kicking off my shoes.
germy
@Elizabelle:
Any day Glenn Beck has a sad is a good day for me. He contributed to the mess, now he can soak in it.
Elizabelle
@Mike J: LOL.
[email protected]Miss Bianca: “Qu’il repose en paix.”
That’s lovely. They bury in him in Cajun Country, though, they might have to put a barcode on his coffin.
Another reason to stay with the NYTimes (although fuck them for their Hillary coverage; endorsement notwithstanding):
We Built an App’: Keeping Track of Louisiana’s Flood-Tossed Tombs, from last Sunday
Miss Bianca
@germy: Amir posted a link to a BBC article on that a few days ago. that’s how I found out.
@germy: “Who was the author of “Ebony Eyes” who died recently?” was the Vintage Voltage trivia question last night – one of my favorite radio shows. John D. Loudermilk, of course, the answer – and if I’d been quicker on the draw with it I could have won tickets to see Jackson Browne!
Mike E
@germy: I really want to punch 2016 right in the dick…fuck this year
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: have you been sprung yet?
debbie
@germy:
He was so enamored of Cruz that when Cruz was briefly at the top of the dog-pile, he fancied he’d be asked to be a presidential advisor. Comedy gold!
NotMax
@Elizabelle
What broke the dam on that was the NYT pairing the word Trump with the word Lie in a front page headline earlier this month.
Story was about his birther nonsense. Don’t have it in front of me at the moment, so not an exact quote but roughly, from memory, it read: Trump Drops One Lie And Replaces It With Another.
Regardless of what we may think about NYT’s coverage, the place it holds at the top of the pyramid within the business of journalism and among its practitioners signaled by that one headline that it was okay to stop pussyfooting around or employing euphemisms.
Whether that direct and clear signal ought to have been conveyed earlier is eminently debatable, yes, but that’s a different bone to pick.
Elizabelle
@Mike E: 2016 can redeem itself by giving us President Hillary Clinton and a Democratic Senate. Period.
Other than that, it’s a year of infamy.
Heard “Little Red Corvette” on the car radio last night, and felt such a pang of loss.
NotMax
Moderated comment. Liberation required, please.
germy
@debbie: I remember when Glenn used to rub vaseline into his eyes to get the tears rolling. No longer necessary.
germy
@NotMax: I’m in moderation for linking to an article about a new cat leash law.
Miss Bianca
So, garden mavens, anyone had any experience/success growing Rugosa roses? I’m looking for a hardy, relatively pest- and disease-free rose, and the bonus to this one is that it apparently bears bumper crops of nice fat rose hips, and very fragrant (and tasty!) petals (homebrewer here, anxiously waiting for my first batch of rosehip-hop mead to clarify so I can taste it!).
Have collected hips from the wild roses hereabouts, but really wanting to cultivate some as well. At 9,000 + feet, hardy is a must! I think I’ve found my rose!
SenyorDave
Anf drom today’s news, Jill Stein plans protests outside Trump-Clinton debate.
Well, I’m glad she’s being productive. What sort of horse’s ass do you have to be if you are a progressive and you are voting for Jill Stein. She’d rather have Trump as president because Hillary is more dangerous, since she presumably will get more things passed through Congress. Either Stein is stupid, a liar, or delusional (or maybe a little of all three). I hope she can explain to people of color how a Trump presidency is better for them than a Clinton presidency.
Elizabelle
Caught a little of Bernie Sanders on Face the Nation (?), and he said this year is not the year for a third party candidate.
Hope that gets repeated.
Shame on fucking Gary Johnson and fucking William Weld. They have no business running a “what me, a candidate?” vanity campaign when you have Trump up as GOP nominee and the Supreme Court hanging in the balance. The opposite of patriotic.
Amir Khalid
I’m following the Guardian’s live-blog of the West Ham Utd-Southampton match. There is a discussion going on about fans sitting or standing (the latter is an old fan tradition in English football — or was, until the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 led to all-seater stadiums in top-fight football). It seems more interesting than the match itself.
SenyorDave
@Elizabelle: I would think that Johnson is going to take more votes from Trump thank Clinton. I’m still hoping that the during the debates Clinton is able to give more independents a reason to vote for her.
Amir Khalid
@SenyorDave:
What does Manic Pixie Dream Girl for President plan to protest about? That the debate commission didn’t let her in?
Mike J
@Amir Khalid: Are they discussing the piped in crowd noise?
germy
@Amir Khalid:
Mildred: Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?
Johnny: Whadda you got?
Miss Bianca
@SenyorDave: She can’t explain that, of course, because it’s not a Dank Meme, baby. But I think it’s safe to say, when you’re dealing with the White Wing on either the right or the left, that the concerns of people of color are not, to put this as delicately as I can, taken very seriously. I tried to explain to the White Wingers in my cohort what a vote for a third-party candidate would mean to people of color in this country – as part of an exhortation to think of what a Trump presidency would mean for POC, and voting Clinton for *them*, if they couldn’t bring themselves to do it otherwise – but nope, nope, nope. Nothing mattered to them but their little whitey purity tests. Fuck ’em all.
hitchhiker
Thanks for the beautiful photographs! I’m taking a hiatus from the news cycling; turns out I don’t have the stomach or the nerve to witness whatever’s going to happen.
I’ll be doing my canvassing and registering voters and keeping good thoughts.
Iowa Old Lady
And ha! CNN reports Trump team says they didn’t invite Flowers.
germy
Kathie Bleeker: Where are you going when you leave here?
Johnny: [he pauses and just shrugs]
Kathie Bleeker: Don’t you know?
Johnny: Oh, man. we’re just gonna go!
germy
Sheriff Singer: I don’t get you. I don’t get your act at all, and I don’t think you do either. I don’t think you know what you’re trying to do or how to go about it. I think you’re stupid. Real stupid and real lucky. Last night you scraped by, just barely; but a man’s dead on account of something you let get started even though you didn’t start it.
germy
The Wild One (1953) mashed up with the Stein campaign.
Amir Khalid
@Mike J:
Not today. But it can only be a great embarrassment to have to fake that. It would be like Anfield playing a recording of fans singing You’ll Never Walk Alone because there weren’t enough fans at the ground to do it live.
germy
@Iowa Old Lady:
It was all our crazy imagination.
Shell
I am sooooo envious. Wasn’t able to put in a garden this year, but I remember the nervous strain, waiting for that first big t omato to ripen. Thank goodness for the cherry toms.
Hal
Someone in the booman article also pointed out there was a different guy in 2008 and another in 2012 predicting Obama losses and obviously both were wrong. Plus, this is a generic Republican the professor is talking abiut. In a normal election year, I can see where dems would be hard pressed to win a third term against a normal Republican candidate, but that is not this year. Now, if Hillary bombs out in her first term and Republicans nominate someone normal, Jon Huntsman or Kasich maybe, then I’ll be worried. But that’s years away.
piratedan
@germy: yup. it was Chris Cillizza and MoDo who invited Flowers, because they wanted the debate to be about the issues!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brooks suggested Lewinsky but the others thought she would cost too much and there’s only so much in the per diem food budget..
Brachiator
@SenyorDave:
Polling suggests that Johnson is attracting Clinton leaning voters. However, now that Cruz has endorsed Trump, it’s time to look at Johnson’s polls again.
The GOP is pushing hard on the idea that all GOP voters should come home because Trump has a good chance of winning. If Cruz can hold his nose and vote for Trump, then other “never Trumps” should do so as well.
It would be good to see the Democrats try to do more to attract independent and third party voters.
gogol's wife
I just stormed out of an after-church discussion in which people were saying they “don’t trust Clinton” and might write in a name and it doesn’t matter because we’re not in a swing state. And some of these people opining were fourteen years old (the minister wanted to get the youth perspective on the election).
We’re screwed.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
Does any pollster have a handle on what missing the cut for the debates will do to Stein’s and Johnson’s chances?
WaterGirl
@piratedan: It’s a sad state of affairs when I can’t figure out if your comment is reporting fact or if it’s something you made up that is still believable.
This is how I feel after watching every Oliver Stone movie. I don’t actually know if it’s true, but I believe that it could be true.
Miss Bianca
@piratedan: Monica Lewinsky would have far too much class to accept. She’s been hurt very badly, and unlike Flowers, she really seems to have learned something and grown from that experience. (Good interview. Plus, FWIW, she’s looking way hotter now than she was 15 years ago. Living well and doing good being the best revenge, apparently).
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
Not sure how that argument will play with GOP voters whose fear is precisely that Trump might become President. In fact, I can’t imagine any argument that will persuade them to come home.
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
Haven’t seen any speculation on this.
shortribs
I expect the Clinton camp will have a “trumps lies” page on their website post debate that line items every thing he said, why it was a lie and links to prove it. I also expect Hillary knows more about Trumps policies than he does and will be able to call him out on a few of them which will go over extremely well, the media likes it when people do their job for them.
bemused
@gogol’s wife:
Having political discussions after church, even if outside after services, is a really, really lousy idea. The minister was in on this?
gogol's wife
@bemused:
She wanted us to discuss how we wanted to behave in this contentious election season. I didn’t want to attend, she twisted my arm. I knew it would end in tears.
bemused
@gogol’s wife:
And she thought this would end well? Scratching my head.
Miss Bianca
@gogol’s wife: Did you have any words for the congregation before you stormed out? I sure would have, wisdom and discretion be damned.
Chris
@gogol’s wife:
Currently at candidates’ Q&A session at the local synagogue. Somehow have managed not to leave in disgust at the repeated ovations for “fuck the Syrians, let them die” policy suggestions.
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
Cruz has said that he would vote for Trump because of his loyalty to the GOP and because he fears potential Clinton Supreme Court appointments. But significantly, Cruz would not say that he believes that Trump is fit to be president.
And a Guardian story perhaps indicates the depth of the dilemma that Republicans face.
Trump says that he is happy that Cruz now supports him, but there are still problems, and Clinton can pounce on this if an opportunity arises during the debates.
piratedan
@WaterGirl: WG, I most assuredly just made that up, but upon reflection, based on the coverage seen thus far, it almost sounds like truth doesn’t it? It is kind of scary that these folks really don’t think that much of politics that they’re more than willing to be so cavalier to believe that policy doesn’t affect lives. They’re just keeping score.
@Miss Bianca: is happy for her and to be brutally fair, she won’t be the last person to find political power to be sexually attractive and speaking as a guy, I think its a common failing for many of my gender to be susceptible to the rush of being found to be sexually attractive to another person. It may just be a human thing, versus a gender thing but I am not an expert on such matters.
gogol's wife
@Miss Bianca:
Oh yeah.
scav
@Chris: Well, apparently those denying entry to the St. Louis are alive and well. And then they will go home, eat lunch and publicly mourn a technically legal (because politically convenient) immigrant / refugee.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
What the fish does that answer even mean?
scav
@Amir Khalid: That they replaced his heart, soul, brain and pancreas with a magic-8-ball and it’s finally showing?
Elizabelle
@gogol’s wife: Those kids were just repeating what they heard at home, and from their badly informed peers, no doubt.
Although I notice that TV talk shows always bring up the “Hillary is so unpopular and so untruthful” every chance they get. Today, with Bernie Sanders, if memory serves, to get him to rebut it, but the interviewer has just put that statement out there, as well. Gets absorbed, like the 95 times you have also heard it.
What state do you live in?
Does your church skew conservative, or are these kids you’d expect to be more idealistic?
I’d have a good talk with Ms. Minister, maybe later today.
Elizabelle
@Brachiator: We knew Cruz is full of it, several forms of “it”, but
That implies that Hillary is likely to be a threat to freedom of speech, to the bill of rights.
Goddamn preposterous.
This is projection again.
debbie
@gogol’s wife:
I have family members like that. Instead of storming out, I ask them point-blank to name something both factual and provable Clinton did that made her so untrustworthy and then point out how everything they say she did is based on lies, smears, and innuendo. If they come back with Benghazi, I point out that it’s hypocritical to blame Clinton for lack of attentiveness which led to the loss of four lives in a single day, but not Bush for lack of attentiveness which led to the loss of 2,900 lives in a single day. If they point to her staying with Bill after his infidelity, I remind them they’re still friends with their friends (and they each have some) who have been unfaithful to their wives. I focus on hypocrisy, and that is a very rich mine to field from.
Then I waltz out of the room.
Miss Bianca
@gogol’s wife: Well, that is just all kinds of suck.
There’s a reason that in the British Navy, the “gunroom” (or officers’ mess) had strict rules discouraging all discussion of politics and/or religion – ether one was considered bad enough, but the combination was deemed too explosive for men who were forced to spend time in close proximity for months or even years on end.
I can’t imagine what possessed your pastor. I guess there’s also a reason I tend to avoid going to church.
Elizabelle
Maybe it was a teachable moment for the minister. Hope she learned the better lesson to draw from it.
It would be lovely if you found out she spent the session talking to the youths about the perils of bearing false witness.
Jeannet
Garden report from west Michigan: Late blight has hit my black cherry tomato vines, but my volunteer cherry tomato (descended from Sweet 100) is still going strong. My midsummer planting of kohlrabi is starting to form bulbs, my lacinato kale recovered beautifully from an early summer attack of aphids and I’ll have enough to dry the leaves for adding to winter soups. I have two soft ball sized Sugar Baby watermelons left to pick for a last taste of summer. Flower-wise in the back yard my zinnias, marigolds and nasturtiums are bursting with color, happy that the first frost is coming late this year. In the front yard, my sedum and asters are making a nice display, accented by dwarf white zinnias. It was a better summer for flowers than for veggies!
Locally, west Michigan is a big apple producing area. This year’s early apples are picked and done, and the early-mid season varieties are being picked. I’ve been looking for the varieties that don’t make it to the store shelves. So far my favorites this year are Ginger Gold and Blondee. The Blondees I bought were especially good, crisp without being brittle, juicy, and with a sweet classic apple flavor. I’m buying more of those while I can find them!
Gvg
@Miss Bianca: where do you live? In Florida, rugosa’s are actually not disease resistant. They get spider mites and look dry leaved and some of them catch black spot etc. in other climates they are considered great and in some area’s they are considered invasive. You need local knowledge. Local clubs vary a lot in what they know according to their members own choice of interests, but you should check them out. Also look up the heritage rose groups online, gardenweb, American Rose Society specialty groups, etc. Sorry I have so little direct knowledge. In Florida I grow antique roses and here the best ones are Tea’s, which are not the same thing as hybrid teas.
Another Scott
@debbie: You’re right that that’s one way to win the argument, but I don’t know if you’ll convince someone to actually change their minds and their vote that way. People are really, really stubborn about their beliefs and change is really, really hard.
I don’t know a better way – after all, if there were a sure-fire way to get people to change their minds, then it would be a standard practice. But maybe something like, “I think I understand where you’re coming from, but what bothers me is that everyone says …., but when I’ve looked into it it just looks like her political opponents making stuff up. Imagine being in her shoes and having to put up with that for decades. It would be really tough, right? What, specifically, convinced you that she’s such a bad person? Help me out?…”
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
@Gvg: Colorado. Central mountain region. Elevation approximately 9500 feet – high and dry.
ETA: IN other words, pretty much opposite of Florida in every way! : )
hovercraft
@SenyorDave: @Amir Khalid:
She was just on msnbc and is still crazy. She is protesting the commission, which is protecting the two party system, and suppressing third party candidates. The corporate media is in the can for Clinton and Trump. When asked why she’s still running when out of the over 70 polls conducted since May she is averaging just 1 %, she disputes that and says she’s at 2 – 4 %, and Trump got $4 billion, Clinton $2 billion in free media, and Stein and Johnson have been frozen out. There is no difference between the two major candidates, they are both going to lead us to our deaths. Cray cray.
@Iowa Old Lady:
We’re back in Bizarro World, Trump was just kidding and he successfully trolled Hillary. Huh you say. Well see they got her and her campaign to take the Gennifer Flowers bait. Unfortunately there was no follow-up. So there will be no Flowers according to Conway and Pence, Trump made a funny, and Clinton overreacted. But Her Trump has not yet taken it back, but since Lucretia is now out of her cone of silence, so she should be able to slap some sense into him.
Elizabelle
I saw Kellyanne Conway on Face the Nation this morning? Maybe it was ABC. Anyway, I could not last more than a minute under the firehose of lies about “Mr. Trump.”
She’s a deathray.
Iowa Old Lady
@hovercraft: Stein infuriated me with her claims she was being shut out and the people were demanding she be allowed to debate. First, BS. Second, is she saying everyone running for president should be on the debate stage? How many people would that be, including Deez Nuts? If she thinks there should be limits, what should the criteria be? She’s all about herself.
hovercraft
@Amir Khalid:
I haven’t seen anything specific about any current polling, but the general consensus is that Ross Perot was only able to get 20 % of the vote back in ’92 is because he was in the debates. So the expectation is that as we get closer to the election, their numbers will drop off, and if you look at the polls it’s already happening. I think that having Johnson in the debate would have actually helped Clinton, right now he is splitting the millennial vote with him, if she had him up on stage and showed he knows nothing, and he doesn’t believe that we should do something about Global Warming, that would kill his vote with them.
hovercraft
@shortribs:
Between the ‘fact sheet’ she put out yesterday, and the two lists of his lies published in both the NY Times and the WaPost yesterday, I expect to see Tuesday’s post debate commentary dominated by his lies. Yes the predominant story will be villager bullshit, but then it will be all about the lies.
debbie
@Another Scott:
I don’t think anyone’s mind can be changed at this point, but I can shame them at every opportunity.
Amir Khalid
@Iowa Old Lady:
Stein’s no loss to the debates. She hasn’t done the intellectual prep for the Presidency — she doesn’t even seem aware that there is intellectual prep to be done — and the debates would only expose that. In fact, she seems poorly connected to reality.
Elie
We are in a time of rampant narcissists who are getting exposure due to technology and the absence of a mass media that has been weakened by the same IT forces and the diminishment of expertise, knowledge and science compared to belief systems of the masses. It doesn’t seem to matter if you have facts on your side. People align to people and causes that affirm what they want to believe. Jill is a beneficiary of this. Otherwise she and Larry Johnson would be at home impressing their friends with their erudite vision of how they think that the world should work. Many of those friends would be tuning them out but instead they get the max ego stroke of sharing their vision with masses of people — bound to be a few that agree in a crowd that size, right?
low-tech cyclist
@AliceBlue: I’ve been aware of Lichtman’s keys since the 1988 cycle, and I think they’re crap.
Maybe 7 of them are matters of incontrovertible fact, such as whether the incumbent’s running for re-election. But nearly half of them are judgment calls, like whether the incumbent administration has made any major policy changes. Lichtman calls that one a ‘no’ because the ACA was passed back in 2010 (the *first* Obama Administration), even though it largely took effect – and sent the uninsured rate plunging into the single digits – during the past three years.
And if you flip that key to a ‘yes’, his keys say Hillary will win. So the keys themselves don’t say jack shit. All we have is what Lichtman says the keys say.
And look at how late he is coming out with a key-based prediction. Other than 2000, we pretty much knew how each election from 1984 on would come out by this point in the year.
Anne Laurie
@Miss Bianca: I don’t have much experience with rugosa roses, but this I will recommend: thick gloves, preferably rose gauntlets! The ones I’ve known were ‘furred’ with millions of tiny unavoidable thorns, all up & down their stems… and those stems were really vine-y, sprawling & twisting, eager to snag flesh. All roses tend to demand blood sacrifice, of course, but the rugosas in particular give no quarter to us frail mobile units.
On the other hand, there are folks here in New England who cultivate rugosa hedges specifically to discourage ‘strays’ (human or canine) from cutting across their yards, or wandering into their gardens…
maurinsky
We had and still have so many tomatoes. Most of my friends who garden weren’t so successful, but I credit my husband for digging down a foot or so, building a raised bed coming out of that, and putting fencing material down at the bottom, as well as a fence all around the raised bed, for that – no groundhogs, moles, squirrels or rabbits were able to get in.
We have about 5 gallons of tomato sauce in the freezer, and there are a ton of fruits still ripening on the vines.
Last night, for a change I made tomato soup, it was delicious, and I made grilled cheese to go with it.
Jack
@Ceci n’est pas mon nym: There’s a good youtube w/Martha Stewart doing that – looks great, makes a great present wrapped in the paper bag it’ll be popped in – our problem was that the corn was slightly too dry (discovered by trying to pop a small amount) so had to be rehydrated, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to do that while the corn is on the cob…