Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

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

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Come on, man.

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

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

After roe, women are no longer free.

I really should read my own blog.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

I was promised a recession.

He really is that stupid.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

It’s a doggy dog world.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Friday Night Open Thread (Shut Up I Know There is Already One)

Friday Night Open Thread (Shut Up I Know There is Already One)

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Before we get to anything else, let’s all keep commenter Tavernwench in our thoughts- she was run into by an SUV a couple days ago, and had to spend a couple nights in the hospital and is in all sorts of pain and still kind of in shock (mentally, not the physical shock), so let’s send her some happy thoughts and positive vibes.

In other news, this is my go-to excuse for not blogging in the future:

It’s been another rainy, crappy day here at Fort Steve, and it’s my birthday, so I went down to the big city and picked up Tammy. She insisted we take a picture and I smile but instead I acted like an asshole so this is all you get:

Fucking beauty and the beast. Also, LOOK AT ALL THE MOLD ON MY SIDING. The house was just powerwashed last summer. Ridiculous.

In other news, the back yard is still a god damned disaster, but everything is growing like CRAZY. Hell, some seedlings that I decided weren’t big enough to put into the raised beds and threw into the compost pile have decided to have the last laugh, and I now have tomatoes growing sideways out of my compost bin:

Get off on your bad self, renegade tomato plants. I am curious which variety they are. Peas are going bananas:

The tomatoes are also thriving (these are the ones I grew from seedlings):

And the ones I picked up at a local store in case my seedlings didn’t make it:

Peppers and watermelon are doing well, and could use a little weeding, which I would do more frequently if I DID NOT SINK SIX INCHES INTO THE BACK YARD BECAUSE IT IS A MUDDY QUAGMIRE:

And the onions and garlic:

In other news, I sprinkled all sorts of wildflower seeds in between the perennials I planted all over the place, walked on them to mash them into the mulch and soil, and they are popping up all over the place, so hopefully I will have some blooming late in the season.

That’s it. I’m off to eat tacos and cake. Not together. I’m 48. How did I get so fucking old?

Reader Interactions

193Comments

  2. 2.

    MelissaM

    Happy birthday, you curmudgeon! And you’re younger than me, so don’t whine that you’re old.

  4. 4.

    Mnemosyne

    The Pale Scot recommended that you add willow and/or mulberry trees to your backyard since they love water and will soak it up.

  5. 5.

    hellslittlestangel

    How did I get so fucking old?

    If you dropped dead today, what would literally EVERYONE say? “He was so young.” Go figure.

  7. 7.

    efgoldman

    I’m 48. How did I get so fucking old?

    Go fuck yourself, youngster.
    Fucking kid….
    How do you keep the squirrels, groundhogs and deer from eating your veggies?
    Mrs efg has to keep our tomatoes inside what used to be a breezeway.

  11. 11.

    HinTN

    Time JC, time. Turned around the other day and discovered I was on Medicare. Shit son, you ain’t old.

    ETA fixed the autocorrect that I thought I fixed before publishing. Sigh

  12. 12.

    jl

    Happy Birthday to Cole. I thought that was how Cole smiled. Why did Cole wreck if for me?
    Thnx for garden pix. Looks great.

    Thanks in advance for the rain garden pix!

  17. 17.

    jl

    I dunno, I think that IS Cole smiling. He’s lying to us. Yet another blogger scandal on BJ.

    Edit: Someone tell Cole if he smiles, it will make him look even grouchier. That will do the trick.

  18. 18.

    CaseyL

    @efgoldman:

    How do you keep the squirrels, groundhogs and deer from eating your veggies?

    Well, see, he has this lake in his back yard…

    Happy birthday, John! Thanks for all you do to keep us jackals happy non-homicidal!

  20. 20.

    TenguPhule

    Nearly 75 years after federal officials shuttered a Japanese-American internment camp in Rowher, Arkansas, the Trump administration is examining a site about 2 miles away as a potential temporary shelter for immigrant children.

    The Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that the government is considering an unused Department of Agriculture property in nearby Kelso as an immigrant shelter, as well as a possible shelter at Little Rock Air Force Base.

    Unlike at the base, the site in Kelso has very little infrastructure and would require tents for housing, said Democratic state Rep. Mark McElroy, who is “adamantly against” the proposal.

    Among his concerns are the heat, humidity, mosquitoes and cottonmouths that he said would threaten anyone who lived in a tent.

    “There’s no infrastructure, there’s no sewer, there’s no water to it, there’s no gravel,” said McElroy, who lives directly across from the federal site. He added that the land is prone to flooding.

    There are no words.

  21. 21.

    Mnemosyne

    @HinTN:

    I’m pretty sure it was meant as advice for future years, not an immediate fix. ?

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    He actually made a joke about his cockney accent not allowing him to visit England anymore. ?

    Though apparently Americans rib him more for it than the Brits do.

  22. 22.

    dmsilev

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    48? Horseshit. I’ve been alive–technically–two more years than you have, but I’m only 23

    Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years. Lady Dumbleton is an instance in point. To my own knowledge she has been thirty-five ever since she arrived at the age of forty, which was many years ago now.

  23. 23.

    encephalopath

    John McAfee believes himself to be living the life of Sam Lowry. It all makes sense now.

  24. 24.

    TenguPhule

    if I DID NOT SINK SIX INCHES INTO THE BACK YARD BECAUSE IT IS A MUDDY QUAGMIRE

    Just think of it as a chance to relive basic training.

  25. 25.

    TenguPhule

    @efgoldman:

    How do you keep the squirrels, groundhogs and deer from eating your veggies?

    2 dogs and a mountain lion pretending to be a cat?

  28. 28.

    TenguPhule

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It’s simple. You continue to not die.

    The Reaper is still confused as to how John survived that last incident with the car and the field.

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    as people have been saying, Arnold is a goof who’s been claiming to have dirt on trump for months, but I’m pretty sure Michael Cohen really does have dirt, like fill in Cole’s backyard amounts of dirt

    Manu Raju @ mkraju
    Tom Arnold, after bluntly warning Trump about what Michael Cohen has on the president, refuses to say to PoppyHarlowCNN on outfrontcnn whether Cohen is cooperating with the feds. He says he’s spending the weekend with Cohen.

    Jeet Heer @ HeerJeet
    Hey, it’s Roseanne Barr’s ex-husband on CNN, acting as a mouthpiece for the president’s former lawyer & making veiled threats about having “tapes” on the President. A normal day in the Bananapants Republic.

    he will also be on MSNBC this evening, per a chyron I saw a few minutes ago. The Very Serious (But Not As Serious As Joyce Vance) Former US Attorney who comments on MSNBC says Cohen is hurting his credibility as a witness, but I suspect the documents will overpower any attempts to smear him by association (IANAL)
    ETA: Barbara MacQuade! sounds like a mid-seventies procedural about a tough-as-nails, but good-hearted, cop or DA. In Boston.

  33. 33.

    debbie

    Bet those peas will be a whole lot better than the ones I just had from Whole Foods. Yuck.

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    Oh my god, after all these years of BJ reading and I did the math and I’m a half year older than you, Cole.

    Happy birthday but let’s pretend you’re turning 49 ok?

  35. 35.

    TenguPhule

    What exactly is the new policy? Where are the separated children? When will they be reunited with their parents? Migrants, advocates and law enforcement officials are struggling to interpret the new landscape amid a mix of hope, fear, confusion and frustration.

    At a border crossing in Nogales, Abel, a school bus driver from Guatemala, and his 17-year-old son sat in the 100-degree heat Thursday, hoping to be allowed into the United States to seek asylum. Abel said gangs had been recruiting his son, so they decided to flee.

    They had no idea that families were being separated at the border until Wednesday, when they heard other migrants talking about it. They said they hoped not to be separated, but they responded “si” in unison when asked whether they would be willing to spend months in detention together.

    “What other option do we have but to come?” Abel said. “We can’t go back. If they see us, they’ll kill us. . . . We trust in God, and in the laws of the United States.”

    Irresistable force meets impenetrable object.

  38. 38.

    A Ghost To Most

    Happy birthday, John.

    I see George Effing Will is urging people to vote against the GOP. Strange days.

  42. 42.

    WaterGirl

    @Mnemosyne: Mulberry trees are a nightmare, but Willow is a good idea. As long as it’s not planted anywhere near the foundation of the house. But that’s a big yard, so that wouldn’t have to be a problem.

  43. 43.

    efgoldman

    @debbie:

    Bet those peas will be a whole lot better than the ones I just had from Whole Foods

    This time of year, local farm stands are open beside the road
    @TenguPhule:

    2 dogs and a mountain lion pretending to be a cat?

    Alas i have neither. Local leash laws keep the dogs home, and the cats that wander thru our yard are old and lazy and don’t stalk anymore – they just want the sunny rocks.

  45. 45.

    nicdanger

    Happy Birthday Mr. Cole.Turning 48? pshaw,that was me 15 years ago.Hope you had a great day,and that the tacos and cake are delicious.

  46. 46.

    TenguPhule

    @WaterGirl:

    Mulberry trees are a nightmare,

    Mulberry grow fast AF, don’t plant them unless you want them to try and take over the whole area.

  48. 48.

    efgoldman

    @TenguPhule:

    Your greenery large enough to justify a fence?

    Not practical, uneven granite ledge. Could be done, but way too expensive.

  50. 50.

    Ohio Mom

    Happy Birthday and many more, John. Look how much you have accomplished in these four plus decades, including and not limited to this fabulous blog. The world is a better place for you being here.

    On another note, maybe if you didn’t have those soil dikes lining the fences, the rainwater would have some place to go?

  52. 52.

    TenguPhule

    @efgoldman:

    Not practical, uneven granite ledge.

    If you’re really desperate, you could borrow a neighbor’s dog to mark their territory around the garden. It should discourage some of the pests. But you’d have to make sure to get frequent reapplications weekly.

  59. 59.

    smedley the uncertain

    Happy B’Day OM!!! I’ll slow down a bit so you can catch -up. Hit my natal day in August to start my NINTH decade.
    The Sail boat goes in the water this weekend. My Plan is to be sailing on my 80th. May be the last year but it’s been a glorious ride…

  60. 60.

    japa21

    Happy birthday John. Mine was yesterday. They devised June 21 (most years) to be the longest daylight of the year (here in the Northern Hemisphere) just for me. That is how old I am, so don’t moan about being 48.

  61. 61.

    trollhattan

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Standard California landscape fast-grow tree is the fruitless mulberry, which are fast green and murder on sidewalks and drains. But no fruit.

  63. 63.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    I don’t know if the Cleveland Plain Dealer is a liberal paper, but the headline on the front page isn’t good:

    “Confusion reigns after Trump acts”. Talks about the children being separated. Feds seek longer lockups; no clear plans to reunite families.

  68. 68.

    Jeffro

    I know what was bugging me from Trumpov’s scummy presser earlier today: who set that event up, that quickly? Who wrote the script, had the “Angel Families” on hand, paid for all of it?

    Inquiring minds want to know!

  70. 70.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    @The Ancient Randonneur:

    Here’s a taste:

    7) And what is evident, @jack, is that while the giants of our digital revolution are masters of the universe when it comes to the technical challenges of the information age, they are — by and large — moral midgets when it comes to the ethics and responsibilities of speech.

  77. 77.

    cthulhu

    Happy birthday!!

    John McAfee a great example of the highly differential outcomes for people with mental illness comparing those with money and those without. Seen the same demarcation many times in LA.

  78. 78.

    NCSoder

    Happy Birthday John! Here’s to many, many more assuming we make it through this Administration. I’m not quite old enough to be your mother – but close. It gets better in many ways – but then your knees and back and vision start to go.

  81. 81.

    NotMax

    How did I get so fucking old?

    48? You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

    Trust me on this.

    May both you and @japa21 have a jazzy birthday weekend.

  83. 83.

    Gravenstone

    @Mnemosyne: My whole yard is a mix of native and weeping willows, aside from the token spruce line. I hate the fucking things. Willow is a very brittle wood and there are constant downed branches any time the wind gets above a modest breeze. Already had about a third of them removed and will likely trim back, if not drop several more.

    Oh, and the worst wet spots are right where the fucking trees are. Soak up water, my ass.

  86. 86.

    Adrift

    Happy birthday youngster! All I have to add is ‘WEAR BOOTS’ Wellies if you got ’em. And yes, you can get by one only one piece of cake.

  87. 87.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: Willow has a reputation for seeking out water pipes.

    E.g. CBC:

    When a storm drain backed up in Osoyoos, B.C., over the weekend, a 12-metre tree root was the last thing crews expected to find.

    “We just wrestled that anaconda out of there, two hours, one inch at a time” said Grant McCulloch, property manager of Village on the Lake, a condominium complex on Lakeshore Drive.

    McCulloch said the area backed up with water after a recent heavy rainfall and he thought the drain might have been clogged with sand or a dead animal.

    When crews realized it was a willow tree root, he says everyone was shocked at the size.

    The two-hour job was “exhausting,” he said.

    [ video]

    It took crews two hours to remove a giant, 230-kg willow root from a storm drain in Osoyoos, B.C. 0:32

    ETA: Happy Birthday, whippersnapper.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  88. 88.

    dexwood

    Happy Birthday, John. I can almost remember 48, hazy and distant, but not entirely forgotten. Truly, thanks for this place. It’s a daily gift to us.

  89. 89.

    jharp

    @WaterGirl:

    Willows are worse than mulberries in my opinion.

    Try Bald Cypress.

    And I’m currently at war with a new found enemy. Golden Raintree.

    God I hate that fucking tree.

  94. 94.

    NotMax

    A smattering of folks who share your birthday:

    Billy Wilder
    Prunella Scales
    Cyndi Lauper
    Bruce Campbell
    Dianne Feinstein
    Elizabeth Warren

  95. 95.

    Adrift

    @TenguPhule:

    The Reaper is still confused as to how John survived that last incident with the car and the field.

    Naked mopping accidents run a close second there.

  96. 96.

    Beeb

    Happy, happy birthday, JC! I am considerably older than you are and I still can’t figure out how my grandmother’s arms got attached to my shoulders. It’s a puzzlement.

  99. 99.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Happy Birthday, John, and positive vibes to Tavernwench!

    Not so positive vibes to McAffee, OTOH.

  101. 101.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    Speedy recovery to tavernwench!

    Happy birthday to the whippersnapper.

  102. 102.

    Mary G

    I know a lot of the people around here don’t love Charlie Pierce, but his last paragraph in a column this week struck me:

    The dysfunction is massive and general. Nobody in a position of authority in the Republican Party seems to have the faintest idea how to govern the country. And, on the border, children who once were hostages to political gamesmanship have traded that status for being hostages to political incompetence. Cruelty has many faces. This one is the one wearing a clown nose.

  103. 103.

    PPCLI

    Sorry to graft in a long rant. I had written it for the earlier open thread, but the thread became moribund before I was finished my cri de coeur

    Commenting on:

    @JenniferDokes
    5h5 hours ago
    More
    Great. Time mag gave forces of evil legit reasons to gloat, preen and be indignant. Very bad day for journalism. The nation can’t afford mistakes like this. Not now. The crying Honduran girl on the cover of Time was not separated from her mother

    Comment:
    It’s frustrating when the left rushes to self-flagellate in response to right-wing phony outrage, after accepting without any critical reflection the right-wing framing. Does the Time cover say the girl was separated from her mother, or depend for its message on that claim? No. It says “Welcome to America”. That is all. Is this young girl going to be detained? She will be. Is the experience going to be made more traumatic because of intentional acts resulting from consciously designed policies by Trump and his people? It will indeed be made far more traumatic, because by design they want to punish people who have done nothing to deserve the harshness that they are being hit with. So, yes, the picture of the young girl with Trump towering over her, with the message “Welcome to America” is 100% appropriate. THE COVER CAN BE PRESENTED AS MISLEADING ONLY IF YOU BELIEVE THAT THE ONLY BAD THING BEING DONE BY THE ADMINISTRATION TO ASYLUM SEEKERS IS FAMILY SEPARATION. BUT THAT IS NOT THE ONLY VINDICTIVE THING THE ADMINISTRATION IS DOING, IT IS ONE OF MANY. THE ENTIRE PROCESS HAS BEEN SET UP SO AS TO CAUSE AS MUCH PAIN TO ASYLUM-SEEKERS AS POSSIBLE. So I repeat: the cover is 100% appropriate and accurate. It isn’t Time’s fault if Trumpists insist on reading the issue with a perversely narrow focus that the Time cover itself nowhere indicates. True, family separation as the administration has been handling it is a particularly grotesque manifestation of the administration’s cruelty and malevolence toward asylum-seekers. But it is far from the only one. So again: Why should we accept the Trump propaganda claim that the cover refers to separation when it doesn’t?

    Let’s pause a moment over the Trumpist framing of the issue of the Time cover. Again: The cover doesn’t mention separation, and the most natural interpretation is that it is talking about an entire, inhumane process that has been initiated. But the Trump-propagandists want to insist that family separation is the only thing the cover could possibly have meant. Why? Lots of reasons, but here are two in particular:

    i) Because they can then claim that everything is fine if they can just (implausibly) claim that families have been reunited, or (implausibly) that they are going to be reunited real, real, soon..

    ii) Because they are desperately grasping for some reason, any reason, to dismiss the picture of the crying toddler. This is a group that has a visceral urge to conjure up a “Camp of the Saints” nightmare vision in order to sell what they are doing. And they are profoundly aware of the need to control the images to make that vision stick. Why are there no pictures of girls or girls’ quarters coming from the government, or even any information from government sources as to the whereabouts of the girls? People are demanding to know and see. Why not tell them and show them? Where are the babies and pictures of the babies? After all, the government has had no hesitation about giving out photos of older teenage boys sitting around wearing dark jackets, so that Steve King can tweet out comments about how threatening they are, and how they will be terrorists in no time just because of where they come from. It is part of the Trumpist strategy to smear asylum-seekers as violent criminals. So they can’t afford pictures of infants, of toddlers and little girls, of loving parents and children facing horrific tribulations, etc. to get out. The rare picture that does make it through the embargo on gentle images has to be sent down the memory hole somehow.

    So please: be aware of how propagandists try to get you to accept a way of setting up an issue not only to put you on the defensive but to ensure that the subsequent “argument” will actually have conceded the point they want you to concede, before any discussion even begins.

    Bear in mind Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, on how you can be lost before you even begin:
    ” The first step is the one that altogether escapes notice…But that is just what commits us to a particular way of looking at the matter… (The decisive movement in the conjuring trick has been made, and it was the very one that we thought quite innocent.)”

  104. 104.

    Adrift

    @efgoldman

    the cats that wander thru our yard are old and lazy and don’t stalk anymore – they just want the sunny rocks.

    I would be comlpetely satisfied with that.

  106. 106.

    Gravenstone

    @Another Scott: Oh yeah, and the guy I (stupidly) bought this place from actually planted a fucking willow right on top of the septic tank. Fortunately, the pre-sale inspection found the roots infiltrating the tank so he had the tree yanked out prior to the sale. Actually ended up having the same septic service clean me out one year and they noted that they were pulling roots out by the wheelbarrow full at the time they discovered his folly.

    Fuck willows.

  109. 109.

    tomtofa

    Happy birthday, John. I’ve got 20+ years on you, and thinking about it, in those 20 years I’ve added into my life:
    -wife (with pre-existing kids)
    – 3 grandkids
    – advanced degree
    – professional career
    – extensive world travel
    – house (with enough fruit trees, vegetables, bushes, and upkeep to make even you feel like you had it easy)
    Things don’t necessarily settle down as you get ready to leave your 40s…

  113. 113.

    bluefish

    Happy Birthday! 48? Spring chicken. No more complaining on that score, please! Sorry to learn of the poster’s accident. Super scary.

    You have some kind of mad green thumb. And the lady in the picture with you is to be commended. Good to see a photo like that. Cheers.

    Plus … I looked and looked for that mold but no it simply wasn’t there.

  115. 115.

    efgoldman

    @Adrift:

    It’s frustrating when the left rushes to self-flagellate in response to right-wing phony outrage, after accepting without any critical reflection the right-wing framing.

    Long rant not necessary. This would have been enough.
    I don’t know how many times I’ve said this:
    STOP FUCKING COWERING!!
    Te RWNJ noise machine is gonna’ do what it does, truth, lies, whatever. There’s nothing we can do about that, but the WORST thing we can do is validate their bullshit by trying to parry it with logic.
    The flying monkey mouth breathers won’t be persuaded; nobody else much believes them UNLESS WE HELP THEM

    Stop cowering

    Fuckem

  116. 116.

    DanF

    On the plus side you’re punching above your weight (Beauty and the Beast indeed). Happy Birthday you old goat!

  121. 121.

    middlelee

    Happy Birthday!
    If there is a Permaculture designer in your area might be she or he could help you with your back yard. they are water miracle workers. Granted, it’s usually where there is very little water but they do know how to move it around.

    Hope the taco and cake was tasty as hell.

  126. 126.

    Ruckus

    @Gelfling 545:
    If I’d had kids at 21 and they had kids at 21 and they had kids at 21, my great grandkids would be 5.
    In a few days I will be hopefully celebrating being 21 yrs old(er) than John.
    Does that count as being 21?

  127. 127.

    Mike in NC

    @Adrift: What a sap Trump is. Probably figured out the North Koreas weren’t interested in his protection racket.

  128. 128.

    weavrmom

    My goodness, I didn’t realize you were such a cutie! I’d never seen a pic of you–must have missed them before. And first thought: “OMG, he’s CUTE!” And you look young to me, bc I’m really old.

    So anyway, Happy Birthday! Enjoy your day!

  131. 131.

    Josie

    Happy Birthday, John. Let me just say you don’t know shit yet about being old. You are only getting started. There are lots more surprises waiting for you out there. Heh.

  133. 133.

    No Drought No More

    Cole: Nice job, beautiful veggies. I’ve actually given some thought to landscaping your yard since you posted photos of the flood plain the other day. So I run this by you now free of charge: why not raise those beds 2-3 feet, and build a plank walkway running their entire length, i.e., all built above the pooled water? For example, if it were practical to grow veggies on both sides of the yard (considering sun, shade, etc.), you might place two rows off each side off the porch stairs, with both running, say, 10-15 yards (or another length altogether), with planking raised above the water line at high tide as well. At the spot where the beds and planking ended, you might then plant an equal number of small fruit trees on either side, and even, perhaps, plant a line of trees against the back fence to enclose the entire yard with trees you can also eat. The space that’s left over (between the two rows and trees and the bak fence) could then be planted as you choose.

    Like I said, I just gave it some thought. I don’t say it’s necessarily good thinking..

    Or should you decided to more intensively farm your land, you could run the beds and the planking along the entire length of yard. Here in Sonoma, that’s how people raise their cash crops. Your lucky, you know, in any event. You’ve got a ton of space to do a lot of cool things . .

    And, oh yeah: happy birthday, and many happy returns..

  134. 134.

    Adrift

    @efgoldman: I can’t remember the last time I used the word flagellate. I am going to assume you aren’t addressing me and made some type of error. Unless you didn’t which would make me completely insane and possibly senile. All things considered that wouldn’t be so bad.

  137. 137.

    Mary G

    Charlotte Clymer did a photoshop of the famous jacket, but instead of I don’t really care, do U? it says “November is Coming.” A company that makes jackets contacted her and wants to produce them, with 100% of proceeds to RAICES. Order information coming soon.

  141. 141.

    Adrift

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Thanks, Bill I was doubting my own sanity for a moment although the older I get, the more things slip through the old colander.
    ETA: I read PPCLIs comment and completely agree. The picture of the child could have been a cartoon and the point is exactly the same. There is no room for wavering here. And damn, to think this started out about cats and sunny rocks!

  142. 142.

    phein58

    @jharp: We have some kind of tree-like lifeform in the buffer strip behind our fenceline, grows 20 feet high and up to six inches across the multi-trunks. No matter what we do to the aboveground emanations, it doesn’t affect the plant system itself, which apparently exists as an underground root system covering about a quarter acre. My colleagues who do biology research say you’ve got to poison the roots, not just cut down, poison or burn the trees themselves.

    Good luck.

  143. 143.

    Another Scott

    @Mary G: The latest I’ve seen is that RAICES has raised over $18,000,000 in the last week or so, after hoping to raise $1,500.

    I hope they raise even more.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  147. 147.

    B.B.A.

    So what was the status quo before Trump’s order to imprison babies? I thought CBP/ICE were just immediately deporting anyone they found without papers, whereas now they’re arresting and jailing them until a court date (which since kids can’t go to grown-up jail, meant creating the current kindergulags). The wingnut argument I’m seeing is that they used to just give them a summons to appear in immigration court and let the immigrants stay in America until then, which gave them a huge window to jump bail and flee to the interior. But that doesn’t sound like the workings of our Einsatzgruppen at all, even during the “sanctuary” Obama years.

    Obviously I want open borders. Instant unconditional US citizenship for anyone crossing the Rio Grande, because FUCK THE FASCISTS. But I know this is a pipe dream, and I want to know what the border situation is “supposed” to look like.

  150. 150.

    Dan B

    John
    Happy birthday! Wishing you a good digestion outcome from your gustatory choices.
    In drier climates willows and mulberries remove water from soil. In humid summer climates they do squat. There ate dwarf willows but that is relative, 20 feet by 20 feet… A permaculture expert might work.

  151. 151.

    jl

    @B.B.A.:
    ” The wingnut argument I’m seeing is that they used to just give them a summons to appear in immigration court and let the immigrants stay in America until then, which gave them a huge window to jump bail and flee to the interior. ”

    That is not true. Check out this link from full service BJ blog post earlier today:

    @Chrislhayes
    If only there was some alternative to family detention. Wait: There is one! A successful case management pilot program that the Trump admin shut down.

    Check out this statistic: “99 percent of participants successfully attended their court appearances and ICE check-ins.”
    https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1009567580288438278

    Die hard Trumpsters will just say those are bogus Deep State statistics from Nobama’s secret time machine police, though.

    Edit: link to article describing the program is at the bottom of the linked tweet.

  152. 152.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @B.B.A.: Anyone who showed up asking for asylum was given a hearing – people were paroled until their hearings.. Kids on their own could not be held for more than 20 days without being paroled to family or foster parents. 99% showed up for their hearings.

    ETA:

    Einsatzgruppen

    Yeah, they are fascists, but you may want to save that term. You do know what they did, right?

  155. 155.

    Mandalay

    @PPCLI:

    But the Trump-propagandists want to insist that family separation is the only thing the cover could possibly have meant.

    Sorry, but in your thoughtful post (which I mostly agree with) I think that you may be missing a key element of the story: putting the matter of the cover to one side, the Time article itself incorrectly claimed that the child was separated from her parents. There is a correction at the very end of the long article (which should have been much more prominent IMO):

    Correction: The original version of this story misstated what happened to the girl in the photo after she taken from the scene. The girl was not carried away screaming by U.S. Border Patrol agents; her mother picked her up and the two were taken away together.

    That is why the journalist’s tweet you quoted stated “Very bad day for journalism”, and it is entirely reasonable to ask why Time (hardly a left wing publication) reported that the girl was “carried away screaming by U.S. Border Patrol agents” when that never happened.

    Regardless of the brouhaha over the cover, it was the factual error in the article that was the core problem, and gave the right the ammunition to claim “Fake News!”.

  156. 156.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    Tom Arnold just said p***y on MSNBC live. This interview is fucking futz.

  158. 158.

    B.B.A.

    @Omnes Omnibus: Paroled where, and with what kind of monitoring? And where were those not claiming asylum held?

    You do know what they did, right?

    They killed everyone in my great-grandfather’s hometown. I use the term very intentionally.

  160. 160.

    Mandarama

    Happy birthday, John Cole. We’re about the same age. May you find a good drainage solution, may your tacos be plentiful, and may your compost tomatoes soon bring you BLTs.

  161. 161.

    Study pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    Happy Steve Day (since everyday Is Steve Day, I’m sure), Cole, on this, your 48th birthday, which just coincidentally is also today.

  164. 164.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @B.B.A.: Paroled. And they showed up for hearings. People not claiming asylum were admitted or not based on their visa status, etc. Don’t try to push any of this onto prior admins. There was no border crisis until Trump created one.

  165. 165.

    WaterGirl

    @jharp: After the silver maple fell on my house, I put in a bald cypress. Shawnee Brave, which is skinnier than the standard bald cypress. I am very happy with it. After 4 years, it has grown quite a bit.

  168. 168.

    frosty fred

    @Omnes Omnibus: Me too. My grandmother had a tree that was good for climbing, and the fruit was a bonus. But fruitless mulberry is a well-known thing at least in the west; I read years ago, so the details may be off, that it was planted so much in Arizona the pollen became hazardous to asthma etc. subjects who’d moved there because of the clean air.

  169. 169.

    Mnemosyne

    @B.B.A.:

    There’s a link to the story that explains the parole system in detail directly above the comment of OO’s that you replied to. Do you need to me re-link it a second time so you don’t hurt your scrolling finger?

  171. 171.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: We get volunteer mulberry trees here – I have no idea if they are different than a regular planted mulberry tree, but they are like weeds here. Messy, disgusting trees with berries everywhere on the ground and purple bird poop everywhere.

    I have never eaten a mulberry, but I do love pretty much all berries except blackberries.

  172. 172.

    Tams

    Worst pic of me ev-ah!!! Regardless, Happy Birthday. You’re my forever bestest and I love you.

  174. 174.

    satby

    Best of luck to Tavernwench, get better soon!

    Happy Birthday John! For all you do keeping this pub open for the jackals, thank you!

  175. 175.

    satby

    And for all our sanity, just say no to willows or mulberries, both of which are lovely in fields near streams but are nightmares in regular sized back yards. Do the rain garden, and maybe see if a small deep pond would collect enough of the water.
    Though you’d probably be fishing Thurston out of it every day.

  178. 178.

    jacy

    Happy Birthday, Cole! I was out with The Boyfriend eating Caribbean Tacos, drinking rum punch, and watching dinosaur movies. so I am late and a little tipsy.

    Take comfort in the fact that you are still younger than me!

  179. 179.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    Happy birthday Cole. Hope you enjoyed your night, and that you know where to get a machete if those unruly tomatoes really do launch a full scale Glorious Revolution

  184. 184.

    cain

    48? I thought you were already 48 and going on 49? Well shit. I’m older than you. 49 is doing okay for me thus far. It’s only been about 5 weeks though. Not much change.

  187. 187.

    Nancy

    John Cole, you actually look kinda, not too unfriendly, tolerable in the picture. I wish you many future years of wondering how you got to be whatever age. I do it whenever I notice my age. If it weren’t for the arthritics and the cataracts, getting older would be easy to ignore. I feel like the same person I was way back when I was 48.
    Happy days.

  188. 188.

    Miss Bianca

    Meanwhile, In Colorado it is dry as toast. We could use a little of that rain that’s flooding your garden, JC…

  190. 190.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    Happy birthday, John! From where I sit, you are a badass mofo at 48, still on your feet and in your “right “ mind. Big love, mi hermano.

  191. 191.

    Exurban Mom

    Happy birthday, blogfather, from a long time lurker. Wishing you many more years of cranky blog output!

  192. 192.

    JenJen

    Thanks for the support and the kindness, John and Balloon-Juicers. And Happy Birthday!!

    – JenJen, aka TavernWench

  193. 193.

    Baquist

    @JenJen:

    Best wishes TavernWench, sorry to hear of your incident. Miss a day on this site and you never catch up.

    Happy Birthday Cole!

Comments are closed.