Beautiful people.
Archives for September 2016
Belated NFL Thread
I’m half-assed watching the Bucs. Winston is throwing interceptions again.
Here’s a photo of Ray-Jay Stadium I took the other day at a USF Bulls game:
The Bucs aren’t there; they’re in Arizona, losing 10-0 at the moment.
Earlier, we were out in the country. Saw a canoe launch that led to a pretty pond:
We got some fresh veggies and produce for a salad. I made an orange vinaigrette based on this one from Giada. Got any good salad dressing recipes?
Open thread — football or other topics. Except politics.
Open Thread: The Balls on These Repub ‘Birtherists’ (Racists)
I think after this morning it's pretty clear that Trump didn't renounce birtherism so much as the GOP has clumsily tried to weaponize it.
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) September 18, 2016
In this bit, @reince literally says birtherism is the fault of Clinton, her staffers, interns and supporters. Wow. pic.twitter.com/KwWQhBUPyd
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 18, 2016
This is a good reminder that it's not just Trump – the head of the RNC is a liar too https://t.co/jmduUSiPoH
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) September 18, 2016
Conway on MTP: "It makes a huge difference as to who started [birtherism]." Totally agree. It was Trump. pic.twitter.com/0JhRBvkIj3
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 18, 2016
"There is an 'otherness' to this President"
—@alexcast on @MeetThePress, sinking to sickening depths to try to defend Trump's birtherism— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) September 18, 2016
Putting Trump aside for a sec. It should be a bigger story that the official Republican position is to push a new debunked conspiracy theory
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 18, 2016
Mark Halperin 2/25/08: "Emphasize Barack Hussein Obama’s unusual name and exotic background through a Manchurian Candidate prism." #Birthers
— Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go) September 17, 2016
OBAMA: "Hope is on the ballot, and fear is on the ballot too." pic.twitter.com/cnF0mOkScH
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) September 18, 2016
Election 2016 in a nutshell. Go vote people. This shit matters. A lot https://t.co/UqtA1AYFPi
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) September 18, 2016
Open Thread: The <em>Balls</em> on These Repub ‘Birtherists’ (Racists)Post + Comments (125)
Open Thread: (Some of) The Kids Are All Right
Bernie to non-voters: "Ask your friends why the Koch brothers are spending hundreds of millions of $ if this election is not important."
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) September 17, 2016
We haven’t had a good “Bernie fans boo when he asks them to vote for Hillary” clip in awhile. High hopes today! https://t.co/c9cNJshCpx
— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) September 17, 2016
Anecdote as data: millennials outside the Bernie event trying to get middle-aged Stein voters to back Hillary pic.twitter.com/Y8pI5yqoTO
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) September 17, 2016
it's not anecdote
it's small batch, artisanal data https://t.co/JNny8OZgC2
— Seth Trueger (@MDaware) September 17, 2016
Farm-to-table data https://t.co/A98CFLfbGo
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) September 17, 2016
Open Thread: (Some of) The Kids Are All RightPost + Comments (92)
Electile Dysfunction (Open Thread)
After getting pantsed by Trump repeatedly, the Beltway media might be in the process of remembering how to do their jobs, but this still made me laugh:
Trump: “Someone please kill my opponent!”
Clinton: “What the hell!”
Media: “Hillary, stop swearing!”— Scott Slemmons (@SSlemmons) September 16, 2016
As of this posting, the cops in NYC are still trying to sort out who set off the bomb that injured 29 people. They’re calling it an “intentional blast” and have found a second device that may have been another bomb that failed to detonate.
The Washington Post has an interesting article authored by Terrence McCoy. It’s about a dangerous explosion of another type: the proliferation of open carry laws nationwide. It focuses on one Trump-supporting dude in Georgia who is too afraid to shop at Walmart without his AR-15. An excerpt:
Jim [Cooley] goes everywhere now with a gun — if not the AR-15, then his sidearm — and is so reliant on one being close by that it surprises him to think the majority of his life was lived otherwise. He was raised in a working-class family in Chicago, where he can’t imagine living now because of its strict gun laws. But they didn’t bother him then. He didn’t hunt. He didn’t fear for his safety. If his dad had a gun, no one knew. He grew up without a gun, went to church without a gun, married Maria without a gun, began raising two children without a gun, and settled into a life that felt as safe as it was dependable.
But then it began unraveling, starting when he was fired from a trucking job days after telling Maria, who was pregnant with their first child, to quit her job and focus on the baby, that he could support them both. Their first bankruptcy filing wasn’t far behind, then the second, and the third, and then they were moving to Florida, where Maria had family and where Jim got a job with a grocery chain. It transferred him to Winder, and he moved the family into a middle-class neighborhood struggling with crime and drugs.
So here’s at least one Trump supporter who actually is dealing with “economic anxiety.” The article alludes to “crime and drugs” in his Georgia neighborhood but doesn’t elaborate on any actual dangers Cooley faces other than money woes. Those suck for sure, but they aren’t something you can shoot.
The article suggests Cooley is living on disability checks and that he went broke when he incurred huge hospital bills after having a heart attack while uninsured. Trump and the state and local-level GOP knobs this dude probably also supports want to slash the social safety net and kill the ACA, thus ensuring millions more Americans go broke from medical bills.
But these facts probably don’t enter into Cooley’s calculus. He’s afraid, so he arms himself with weapons of war, and he supports a racist, sexist, xenophobic demagogue who promises “change,” even though the few changes Trump has articulated would negatively affect Cooley.
It’s not a rational choice, any more than the decision to carry an assault rifle into Walmart is. Oddly, Trump and the gun both seem to function as penis extenders.
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Florida Vignettes
From “Loyal lurker Shar from NE Miami-Dade”:
Top pic, from this Spring: a Phalaenopsis orchid that I perched in the low crotch of a Peltophorum tree so many years ago. I forget it’s there until I happen to pull into the drive at a height low enough to see it in bloom.
Volunteer Staghorn fern pup on Triangle palm trunk
“Lobster Claw” heliconia with first bracts opening
Fully opened Lobster Claw heliconias
This guy has been hanging out at a house a few blocks from mine in the last few years. Then one day I tooled down the alley behind my house on my way to whereever and…
***********
What’s going on in your garden(s) this week?
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Florida VignettesPost + Comments (32)
Walter Update
I was actually in bed and realized if I did not post this I would have hell to pay. From the other day:
So, Walter had his evaluation for the clinical trial I’d mentioned. He was not a good candidate, since he has issues in basically all of his joints and this trial only treats one. The good news is that he’s an excellent candidate for the stem cell trial, which will treat multiple joints. The even better news is that even if he winds up in the placebo group, at the end of the trial he’ll get the same treatment as the control group. I can also keep him on the Rimadyl, so yay.
Before the trial starts he’ll get a full work up; blood, x-rays of his hips, elbows and knees, etc. Today they diagnosed him with a moderate case of laryngeal paralysis. It’s not a super huge thing, but it was another reason he was not a good candidate for the injections trial, as that required anesthesia and laryngeal paralysis complicates matters. It also explains the excessive panting and his lack of barking. It won’t be an issue this winter, but next summer he’ll have to be kept cool and quiet so he doesn’t overheat. They also kind of want to poke the tumors and biopsy them. The vet in charge examined him and afterward looked him in the eyes and said, “Is there anything normal about you?” Walter wagged his tail.
He had stress shedding, and an increasingly pungent odor about him that I also attribute to stress (like a wet dog rolled around in popcorn). It’s a good thing I have an appointment with the groomer on Saturday, as I’m pretty sure my dinner guests on Sunday won’t find his particular fragrance an enhancement to their appetite.
And from today:
Took Walter to the groomer and he got a bath to get rid of the aforementioned order. His coat, despite some bare patches, actually looks really thick and glossy where it’s fullest, so I have hopes it will fill in nicely.
I’m scheduling him with a canine massage therapist. She specializes in sporting and agility dogs, but also works with a lot of geriatric dogs, so I think she’ll be a really good fit for Walter.
He’s making it up the stairs every night now, and sacks out on one of his orthopedic beds next to mine. I’ve caught Julian sleeping next to him, but I’m never fast enough with my phone to get a picture.In short, he’s doing good. He’s on track for the stem cell trial, is getting bloodwork done this weekend to make sure the Rimadyl isn’t fucking him up, and will probably get a full body massage twice a month.
I don’t get a full body massage twice a month, the lucky bastard.