From desert gardener and intrepid front-pager Cheryl R:
Here are a couple of photos of a covey of metal quail I bought from an artist at a Roseburg arts and crafts show while I was in Oregon.
I am reworking my flowerbeds and plan to plant a trumpet vine behind them. The other side of the wall is a six-foot drop to the driveway. I removed several Russian sage. Nobody told me they send up suckers – ugh! I notice they’re not being sold as widely as they were for a while.
I am pleased with my quail.
What’s going on in your garden(s) this week?
***********
And for those among us who have ever been frustrated by the indigenous wildlife’s ‘landscape redecoration’, a bonus story from the Toronto Star — “Toronto built a better green bin and — oops — maybe a smarter raccoon”:
In January, as the city of Toronto rolled out its final fleet of new raccoon-resistant green bins, Suzanne MacDonald was flooded with emails from citizens fretting about the fate of the masked bandits known for pillaging our food waste.
The worried residents wrote to MacDonald, an animal behaviourist and known raccoon sympathizer, because they hadn’t seen the creatures creeping through their backyards lately, and were beginning to wonder: Where are they? Are they starving to death? Have they been forced to relocate in search of nourishment? What have we done to the raccoons?
Designed with a special raccoon-resistant lock, Toronto’s new organic waste bins, which the city began distributing to great fanfare in 2016, were perhaps the greatest human effort in what we like to call our “war” against the raccoons. The animals had been effortlessly pillaging our first-generation green bins for more than a decade, leaving morning messes for us to scrape from our driveways and sidewalks. The city’s search for a new-and-improved bin had identified animal resistance, “especially for raccoons,” as a top priority.
The $31-million contract gave us roughly half a million bins, a decade of maintenance and a promise: that raccoons would have great difficulty penetrating the clever new receptacles. City politicians called the bins “raccoon-proof.” The bin maker — and MacDonald, who ran field tests on the prototypes — used the term “raccoon-resistant” because, well, you just never know…
Twelve months before the rollout of the new bins in Toronto’s west end, MacDonald had started logging the body mass index of raccoons killed in traffic. “Very glamorous work,” she called it. Her goal was to find out whether the loss of a steady food source would make our famously fat raccoons leaner.
MacDonald said I was welcome to join her for the next weigh-in. I put the appointment in my calendar: “Measuring dead raccoons.”
Over several months, I followed MacDonald’s research, expecting to learn how raccoons were adapting to life without green bins. But as a long winter melted into spring, things got weird, and my simple inquiry turned into an accidental investigation. A viral video with a curious backstory and suspicious activity in my own laneway shifted my focus from whether the green bins were starving the raccoons, to whether the animals had found a way, once again, to outsmart us…
Death Panel Truck
Where I come from, when on the move the baby quail trail behind the mother, with daddy bringing up the rear, looking out for predators. California quail frequent my back yard.
NotMax
“Doin’ the Raccoon” (1928).
Steeplejack (phone)
Went to bed early (for me), and now I’m wide awake. The housecat was delighted to have an early breakfast.
I wonder if my TV is dead. It went out after a lightning blast in the storm last night, and it won’t come back on. (It was plugged into a surge protector, along with the cable box, modem and router; none of those was affected.) It makes the “on/off” click noise about every five seconds, but nothing else happens. I have unplugged it for varying lengths of time to no effect. I left it unplugged overnight.
If it is really dead, it seems like it wouldn’t be doing anything, but the clicking noise makes me wonder if there is something analogous to a fuse that needs to be reset. I think I’ve got a PDF of the manual; I guess I’ll have to do some research.
low-tech cyclist
From the raccoon story:
There ought to be a leopards/faces joke in here, but I’m not awake enough yet to come up with it.
Steeplejack (phone)
The metal quail covey is cute. When I go to Las Vegas next week I’ll see if I can get some pictures of my mother’s real quail that frequent her garden.
I’m going out for three weeks to house- and dog-sit while my RWNJ brother goes on a motorcycle expedition. Light duty and a bit of a vacation, although I’m not crazy about catching the tail end of the summer heat.
2liberal
@Steeplejack (phone): sometimes it isn’t the power cord that does the damage. In a lightning storm you can get an induced current in the other connectors like the coax cable for your cable.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
First, especially if the surge protector is more than a few years old, recommend replacing it. Even without extreme power events, surge protectors’ protection wears out over time from the accumulation of small but generally unnoticeable events but they still appear to be doing their thing.
As for the TV, you might try plugging the TV into a different outlet (not one in the same surge protector). If you’re lucky, that will be all that needs to be done to determine it works as intended. That said, however, the clicking but that’s all that happens is almost always a sign of one or more blown, compromised or worn out capacitors. Power is getting through but not enough to fully activate the TV properly. If still under warranty, shouldn’t involve much if any out of pocket expense. If not, it’s repairable – not an over the moon repair costwise but not dirt cheap either (maybe a couple hundred bucks).
If you’re handy and experienced with soldering and such like, the repair could be done DIY for probably under 20 smackers – there are tutorials online about that.
NotMax
@NotMax
Modified for clarity.
surge protectors’ protection degrades over time from the accumulation of small but generally unnoticeable events but they still appear to be doing their thing
Amir Khalid
@low-tech cyclist:
Does it work like that on humans too?
raven
I’m recovering from a brutally hot football game yesterday. I woke up with a killer cramp in my calf and now will probably bypass lawn mowing today! I got “assigned” to a three day retreat on Sapelo Island this week so I should have some pics next week as we are staying in the beautiful Reynolds Mansion.
Steeplejack
@2liberal, @NotMax:
Thanks for the valuable input.
The TV did not miraculously heal itself during the night, so I did some research. I love the Google! I put in “TV lightning clicking noise” and got a load of spot-on information, including brand-specific (Samsung) videos on how to replace blown capacitors (the probable cause). I’m pretty handy, but I don’t see myself tackling that in the next week. I have descended into my pre-trip manic phase, in which things left undone that haven’t bothered me for months suddenly seem critically important to do right now! Sort of analogous to “clean up before the cleaning people come” syndrome. And there are a number of things that really do need to get done before I leave.
The TV is almost 10 years old, I think, so I am tempted to consider that it might be time for a replacement. Hmm. Well, no TV for me for a while, anyway.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
And thanks for the tip about the surge protector. It, too, is old, and probably due for replacement.
Ben Cisco
@Steeplejack (phone): I know the feeling – I’ve been at my mom’s place for two weeks, which isn’t long enough for me to adjust to the time zone change. I was going to suggest some things about the TV set, but the rest of the jackalteriat beat me to it.
satby
@NotMax: I didn’t know that either. Now trying to remember how old all my surge protectors are.
satby
I like the quail sculpture Cheryl! Thanks for sharing.
Good morning all ?
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
Great pictures ?
satby
@Steeplejack:
I get like that before I take trips too. I should travel more to get my house projects finished faster.
Baud
@satby:
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Cheryl Rofer
@Death Panel Truck: Good point. I’ve seen them both ways.
Steeplejack
@satby:
Inorite!
Raven
@satby: how was the market?
Ken
@Amir Khalid:
If the ads are to be believed… Come to think of it, no – according to the ads the main thing CK does is make people dress in expensive clothes and stand in weird poses. For a sure-fire fight-the-women-off-with-a-crowbar aphrodisiac, use Axe body spray.
satby
@Raven: it was ok, crowded with tons of people in Notre Dame swag but only average in sales. Which was better than I expected, because most of them were there for food for tail gate parties.
Immanentize
@Steeplejack (phone): Recently, the house across the street took a lightning strike on their big Cypress tree which was right next to their house. The tree exploded (because it was fat with water) and their house was half fried.
But the lightning was close enough to kill my router and the HDMI board on my stereo and one input on my TV. Traveled through other cords rather than the surge protected ones. Electricity is weird.
Quinerly
Love the pictures, Cheryl!
Raccoon piece was great (albeit long). For years, I have battled St. Louis city racoons since a now ex boyfriend decided to install a small goldfish pond while I was away on a trip without him. He was housesitting and used the “emergency money” I left… well, for emergencies. (main reason he is an ex?). The racoon (I’m convinced she’s the same one, over and over) usually raids the pond every other year on the hottest night in August around the fullmoon … after my 25 cent goldfish have become fat from the summer feedings and after the pain of wintering them over the winter prior, keeping them alive by running the pump and breaking the ice. Her raids are every other year and are brutal. Sometimes she only bites their heads off and leaves the bodies. Once after a raid, she went up the one story steps to the dog’s water bowl, washed off… leaving fish parts and scales in the bowl. The final insult was pooping in a chair near the water bowl. First year in awhile I didn’t bother with the ritual of nourishing an August buffet for her starting in April.
Immanentize
@NotMax:
Our electric company — National grid — just had a deal for a new super surge protector and two three way LED lights package for 10 bucks. Limit two. I got two.
Steeplejack
@Immanentize:
Yeah, I guess the TV took a side hit. The router and cable box didn’t go out for an instant.
satby
My last Mac pc was fried during a storm because I had forgotten to unplug the phone line from its internal modem. Long time ago, obvs.
Immanentize
@satby: and you had a Yahoo email address and were reading people’s Myspace posts? ?
Jeffro
Morning, folks!
I see in today’s Post, in Michelle Singletary’s column, there are a few websites devoted to helping folks find unclaimed property, accounts, deposits, etc. You can check it out here. Fun stuff – I didn’t find any in my name, but there are several friends and family members who are going to be quite happy once they check their email this morning. =)
Also via Twitter I see that Sarah Palin and Donna Brazile are putting on some sort of “bridging the divide” event and hey, seats are still available! Oh, no doubt they are…
Happy Sunday!
Schlemazel
@Immanentize:
The neighbors tree got hit 6-8 years ago & all the bark wa blown off it. The tree stood there naked but unburnt, it was quite a sight. I’ll see if I can find the photos & post them if I do. The strike blew the CPU out on our car which was 30 feet away.
ThresherK
@NotMax: It takes a bit to surprise my 1920s-loving ear. Congratulations; I never heard this one before.
satby
@Immanentize: it was mostly for my kids ?.
Never did Yahoo or Myspace, even back then. AOL was bad enough. In spite of almost 20 years in IT, I’m a closet Luddite. I only open the laptop now to print labels and packing slips.
HeleninEire
Morning, morning crew. Today is the All Ireland Football final. Dublin v. Tyrone. Being played here in Dublin at Croke Park right up the street from my house. The city is getting LIT!!
I am amazed about how seriously Ireland takes their sports. Y’all think the US takes the Superbowl or the World Series seriously? You have no clue. And the best is it’s always a friendly game. The losers and the winners will all drink tonight in the pub.
All that to say “UP THE DUBS” Yeah, the are sucking me into this! UP THE DUBS!!.
OzarkHillbilly
Gotta love garden art.
@NotMax:
Same can be said for circuit breakers in one’s electrical panel and GFI outlets (tho those events are always noticeable) Every time one trips it becomes a little easier for it to trip again, eventually being unable to carry electricity at all.
satby
Talking about trees and storms reminds me that it was two years ago yesterday that I moved into this house after the tree fell on my old house in Michigan.
Guess I better plan a trip somewhere to push me into finishing the painting.
Immanentize
@Schlemazel:
The neighbor’s tree was 50 feet tall, now it is half that. Never saw anything like it, huge pieces and splinters went 20 plus feet. I’d love to see the naked tree.
And I am so thankful my car’s computer didn’t blow. Never even thought of that possibility.
rikyrah
@raven:
Get better??
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I never knew that about circuit breakers! The things I learn here. I have a chronic tripper which I had the electrician fix the wiring. But it still easily trips. Easy fix.
Steeplejack
@Immanentize:
AOL e-mail. Which my RWNJ brother still has. And is one of the markers of him being an RWNJ.
Immanentize
@raven: But was it a good game?
rikyrah
@HeleninEire:
Morning Helen. Sounds like it’s a great time for sports fans?
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning to Poco and the tribe ??
Schlemazel
@Immanentize:
Well, the pictures are not in my online storage so I will have to pull out the portable disk. Could be a while. Some day I will get this crap organized – I promise
rikyrah
It’s a Damn shame that this family continues to have to deal with this shyt from the GOP trying to pimp their child’s death for hate.??
https://twitter.com/PatrickW/status/1036013182823944193
Quinerly
@rikyrah: Tail wags, meows and waves back at you! Hope you have a great day. Off the thread for awhile… stuff to do before I meet my Sunday breakfast group for an Irish brunch at Riley’s Pub. It’s a fundraiser held every year… food, drinks, traditional Irish music. We are forgoing our usual dive breakfast haunt for this. And to everyone… have a great day! Maybe rest up for our upcoming Infrastructure Week!
Immanentize
@Schlemazel:
We should do a Sunday morning weather disaster thread some day. I’ll send pictures of the huge tree that was blown over during Sandy which crushed my car. And the random pecan tree limb that fell in a windstorn in Texas and crushed my wife’s car. See a theme?
HeleninEire
@rikyrah: The pubs are gonna be MAD, both during and after the match.
UP THE DUBS!!
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: I had an oak in my woods get hit a couple years ago. Found one 7′ splinter app 100′ away.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: 35 years working along electricians, plumbers, HVAC, etc etc, allowed me to learn a few things, a small side benefit anyway.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@HeleninEire: A few years back we did a trip to Dublin and Edinburgh. We never really got a chance to hear Irish music during our short stay in Dublin, so our first night in Edinburgh we decided to stop in at a local Scottish pub that promised live music.
And we were greeted with: Irish music and a pub full of drunken Irish football fans.
Turns out it was the weekend of the Scotland-Ireland match.
Elizabelle
Respect the quail. Love them, live or metal.
Happy Labor Day weekend, jackals. Hope you are resting from yours in excellent fashion.
rikyrah
Aretha Franklin ‘s biggest legacy wasn’t singing… It is social justice
https://theundefeated.com/features/aretha-franklin-funeral-detroit-biggest-legacy-wasnt-singing-it-was-social-justice/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Thank you. I will read that.
Am a little taken aback by all the criticism of the pastor. Saw that incident in real time, and it just did not seem so bad. Winced at the time at the Taco Bell joke, but that was as much about the pastor being out of touch with youth culture as it was any slam on Arianna.
I couldn’t tell about the “groping” — which I would guess was not, since it was on stage at a televised funeral viewed by millions. With his wife sitting on that stage too. Wondering how much it was camera angles, or if the pastor did take any liberties. People on the internet are so quick to gripe and take offense. (Present company included.) But be fair.
BruceFromOhio
That article was a treat, and MacDonald sounds like she would make a fine jackal.
Cute quail!
debbie
@Steeplejack:
Ha! I do that all the time: “If I leave it until tomorrow, it may just fix itself!” You may want to leave it unplugged for a few hours (or a day) to see if it resets itself. I have to do this with my modem from time to time.
debbie
@raven:
Whatever you did to fix it last time, you should probably just start doing every day. You seem to be prone to calf cramps.
Elizabelle
@raven: Look forward to the pictures. Never heard of that place.
And, uh, take a real good plastic “drinks” cup.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Immanentize: Whoa, I didn’t think about lightening frying vehicle electronics. Cars now are computers with wheels. When we bought a new vehicle last year, I noticed the dash board is just a computer screen (yes, we keep our vehicles a long time). Paid extra for an unlimited warranty on the vehicle electronics, including the fobs. And since one of the fobs stopped working after 6 months, the warranty is already 1/4 paid off.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Last night I watched a documentary on Amazon Prime called “The Flaw,” meaning the flaw in capitalism that led to the mortgage crisis. I’d heard most of the info before from “The Big Short” but I still recommend it. It emphasizes that the real problem is that most money is being sucked up by a few people and everyone else struggles to get by on credit. Income distribution is the root cause.
Schlemazel
@Immanentize:
Sounds like a great idea!
danielx
Scheduling conflict last night…..got tickets months ago to see Robert Randolph and the Family Band at an outdoor venue. It transpired that this became the weekend of my high school class reunion, never mind which one. So – attend the concert with the spousal unit, or go to the reunion? Being no fool, I chose option #1.
I got the better end of the deal, by far. If you have a chance to see Robert Randolph, go – you won’t be disappointed.
Schlemazel
@Cheryl from Maryland:
The car with the fried brain was a 2001. The CPU did not interface with people much it mostly handled fuel mix and security (which it did badly anyway). Replaced that car last year & know what you are talking about with the new face of the technology.
Jeffro
This deserves its own thread…How Big is the GOP’s Trumpov-Can-Shoot-A-Guy-On-Fifth-Avenue Caucus?
It is possible to view this optimistically…maybe…
schrodingers_cat
@Jeffro: I think the percentage in the R congressional caucus >> 15% to 22%. Because they are cowardly and afraid of the T base.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Schlemazel:
Anne Laurie sent you an e-mail with my e-mail address, but your e-mail address did not work. You need to send her a message with an address that does work.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jeffro: the crazificztion factor reaches a new low?
-12 percent say it’s “acceptable for a presidential campaign to obtain information on a political opponent from a hostile foreign power” (Quinnipiac University)
-26 percent say Trump should be able to shut down news outlets for “bad behavior” (Reuters)
-12 percent say it’s not a “big deal” if Russia interferes to help Republicans (Yahoo-SurveyMonkey)
-22 percent say if Trump shot someone on Fifth Avenue, they would approve of his job performance (Democratic pollster Public Policy Polling)
-15 percent say there is almost nothing Trump could do to lose their support (Public Religion Research Institute)
Schlemazel
@Jeffro:
Odd, I would have guessed 27%
Dorothy A. Winsor
I think Trump is just catching up to Aretha’s funeral. Tweets from a few minutes ago
Schlemazel
@Steeplejack (phone):
Done. If that does not work let me know & I will take a leap and post it here.
If is a puppet account I use for some work I do in IT security when I don’t want people to be able to track me back.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor: So someone told him about the recent poll showing him with 3% approval among AAs.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: Small % of Americans = large % of GOP voters.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: And even larger % of R officeholders. The strongest, most concentrated percentage of hatemongers or those who profit from hate mongering.
Robert Sneddon
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Scotland-Ireland in Edinburgh would have been a rugby match at Murrayfield stadium. The big football internationals happen at Hampden in the barbarian-infested Western reaches of the nation. Was this trip in February? That’s when the Six Nations rugby competition takes place and Scotland plays Ireland at home every other year or thereabouts. Next year’s Scotland-Ireland game with be on the 9th of February.
satby
Of I had known my neighbor was out of town I would have started mowing my lawn as soon as it was dawn. Now it’s already too hot and humid for me.
Hurry up fall.
Bemused senior
When we put bungee cords on our garbage cans a few years ago, we woke up to find the can with food scraps on its side, rolled clear across the yard. Lid still on, but the racoons gave it their all.
rikyrah
Alex Mallin (@alex_mallin) Tweeted:
[email protected] hasn’t briefed on camera in 9 days. During all of June, July and August she briefed on cam just 13 times for a combined 3 hrs and 58 mins.
Obama WH in same period in 2016: 35 on-cam briefings for approximately 39 hrs combined.
Our story: https://t.co/ka7sEsueta https://twitter.com/alex_mallin/status/1035632146583576576?s=17
debbie
@rikyrah:
Maybe she’s on vacation and they don’t trust anyone else at the podium.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
First of all, Tiger is not Black. He’s Cablinasian.
And, the rest of them listed have been told, in complete certainty, to go phuck themselves in trying to shill Dolt45 to us.
MomSense
@satby:
I’m thinking of repainting some interior rooms. It’s only been 7-8 years but the trim gets so scuffed and magic erasers only clean so much of it. In the south facing rooms, the colors have really faded and changed.
I also need to figure out how to make a bottom up blind out of durable fabric like canvas. I want to let the light in but block the dog’s view out of my front window. She barks at every dog that goes by and it’s driving me crazy.
rikyrah
Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) Tweeted:
A source close to Susan Collins’ office tells me she pre-approved Kavanaugh before Trump ever nominated him. Don’t count on her to be the savior of Roe v. Wade https://t.co/ZAdXNNju3P https://twitter.com/LEBassett/status/1035587302788136960?s=17
rikyrah
NBC Latino (@NBCLatino) Tweeted:
Over 15.2 million Latinos between the ages 18-24 are eligible to vote in this year’s elections, according to @WeAreUnidosUS. They “have the potential to drastically change the narrative, the political landscape,” said @votolatino’s Brandon Hernández. https://t.co/UIo7VmFZlm https://twitter.com/NBCLatino/status/1035935314085171200?s=17
Amir Khalid
@Jeffro:
Even in that group, I suspect that not everyone is actually so depraved. Few of us are actually able to kill in cold blood. If Trump did manage to get a gun (while in Reno, say) and shoot a man just to watch him die, some of his supporters might come to rethink and maybe disavow their support for him. But Trump’s claim is an empty boast. It was never tested and never will be. It’s impossible for POTUS, surrounded by security officers 24/7 as he is, to get his hands on a gun anyway. And in his post-presidency, that won’t get any easier.
Schlemazel
@rikyrah:
We are screwed for 2 generations at least. One to get this disease out of the judicial system & another to re-adjudicate the crimes they will have committed. COllins will be a faint memory of only a very few but the damage she will have caused (IS causing) will live long after her
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: He is looking to recreate the black employment figures last scene in the 1850s.
rikyrah
Follow the money… always
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) Tweeted:
Chris Christie’s admin reportedly funneled $500,000,000 of N.J. workers’ pension cash into the owner of American Media, the media biz that allegedly helped bury negative stories about Trump. Christie’s PAC also got a big donation from the same media biz. https://t.co/COrqSLiquv https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1036237314631053320?s=17
Another Scott
@Dorothy A. Winsor: He lies about everything, as we know.
DDale8 on Twitter:
‘morning everyone. 64 days to go!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
I am not convinced they would abandon him
They are OK with his secual assaults
They are OK with his support for the murderous KKK and Nazis
They are OK with his selling out the nation to Putin
They would find a justification for his murdering someone
OzarkHillbilly
@Amir Khalid:
Dick Cheney did it all the time and what is more, he did shoot a man and got away with it. ;-)
rikyrah
Yep??
Dan Rather (@DanRather) Tweeted:
Remember when those now aiding and abetting Trump demonized Obama as un-American, a Manchurian candidate, allied with criminals, racists and enemies of America, out of his depth, who couldn’t be trusted to lead the United States with steadiness, wisdom, and decorum? https://twitter.com/DanRather/status/1035886771286855686?s=17
schrodingers_cat
@Amir Khalid: @Schlemazel: Some of these “die-hard” T supporters in news stories have been discovered to be R officeholders. Media wants to push a narrative that the Don in the WH is untouchable. I say we don’t fall for it.
sdhays
@Amir Khalid: In his post-Presidency, the best he can hope for is a shiv.
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: … and the victim actually apologized to him!!
:-/
We’ve seen this movie before –
“I’m sorry, God Emperor Trump, for getting in the way of your bullets!!11”
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) Tweeted:
Neo-Nazis stood outside a Muslim American convention in Houston armed trying to intimidate attendees but then Black armed activists show up to say NAH. ✊?✊?✊? HELL YES!
Solidarity is beautiful
RETWEET THIS!
Via (Linda Sarsour) https://t.co/qjMJgpebNT https://twitter.com/_SJPeace_/status/1036141469768269826?s=17
Schlemazel
@schrodingers_cat:
First we need to drive those people out of office. But they are just a symptom, the disease will remain a cancer on out body politic and we need to figure out how to stop its spread
debbie
@sdhays:
The only thing I want to think about his post-Presdency is that it start as soon as possible.
Elizabelle
@Schlemazel: Who cares? Not that much we can do about the die-hard Trumplorables. They are the Bob Ewell** set. Their type has always been with us, but we need to get them back under their rocks. They are Joseph McCarthy types, they may have no decency (toward those not in their set), and their 15 minutes is way past over.
We outnumber them, and we can outwork them.
** father of Mayella, in To Kill a Mockingbird. The lying racist set (although both had human qualities, too.)
danielx
Bacon kitties approve of bacon!
Another Scott
DDale8 on Twitter (as Steeplejack (IIRC) pointed out, he’s a great resource on all things Donnie):
Trump is brain damaged and pathological. It seems likely that he will get even worse as the days get shorter (sundowning, etc.)
We need to start to rein him in on Tuesday November 6.
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack
@Schlemazel:
Will look for Anne Laurie to relay it to me. I think she is out of town this weekend.
Platonailedit
@rikyrah:
Pure rethug projection at all levels. The rethug accusations are their open confessions.
rikyrah
Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) Tweeted:
Trump and his allies are the largest national security threat facing the country and basically everyone knows it. Turns out to be a big problem. https://t.co/HX0uo40Gjc https://t.co/Av4qCygQvN https://twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/1036258361044611072?s=17
sdhays
@rikyrah: Texas is such a sick place. Gun laws allow Neo-Nazis to run around with automatic weapons intimidating people, and so that provokes a response from non-Nazis to show up with their automatic weapons to intimidate the Nazis, and that then increases the probability that some non-zero number of people are going to end dead or maimed. I’m glad that didn’t happen this time.
Open carry laws are simply government encouraging people to shoot each other. They’re barbaric.
The Dangerman
OK, cat, dog, and animal loving community, I’ll toss this out here (on my first cuppa Joe; you are warned) and see if there’s anyone out there with any ideas or maybe even in my area that can help solve a cat mystery.
There is the most beautiful Calico Cat that I see in my area; it’s full grown, not a kitten, but looks young (and somebody’s feeding her; she looks well enough). She doesn’t have a collar but is friendly as can be (but I haven’t a clue is she’s had shots so I try to avoid her).
Last night, I spoke to someone that, as best I can tell, gave me the background story. Or, what I assume is the background story; no reason to doubt him. Cat’s name is Matilda and the owner moved away and left without her (potential grrrrr here; it could have been a lost cat but, with the no collar thing, I’m fearing the worst).
So, good news; she’s about as safe as can be (in this area. at least) from natural predators; she won’t be coyote food any time soon. And people around here are great with animals generally (you should see all the dogs that come out for their walks around sunset, which is when I see Matilda). And, again, appears as if someone is feeding her.
I figure I’ll start watching the shelters and make sure she doesn’t get picked up by Animal Control (though she’ll be adopted quickly; this is a gorgeous cat) or the local Feline Network (I guess this is wide spread, but there’s a local group that traps ferals for spaying and I think they are no kill).
Anyone near me (call it San Luis Obispo) with other ideas? I’m not into doing the door to door knocking thing to find out who is feeding it. That is so not me.
tobie
I gather Lindsay Graham is on FOX News this morning claiming that the DOJ and FBI were in the tank for Hillary and out to get Trump. How low can this guy go? He’s willing to grovel on TV — for what? To be appointed Attorney General? Inviting Jarvanka yesterday to the memorial service for McCain, and doing yeoman’s work for Trump today before his best friend is buried indicates something is going on here.
Amir Khalid
Rats. The scroll wheel on my mouse just died.
Schlemazel
@Elizabelle:
They are not going to go back under the rock willingly. We should expect some “Bundy” action, Some “Erik Rudolph” events and probably an Oklahoma City or two. And don’t think for a minute that the GOP, aide by Fox & radio demon will be shocked when these things happen & dial back the insanity.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@rikyrah: One interesting place to watch the Latino vote will be Florida, where the Cuban vote (older Cubans traditionally Republican, younger Cubans more mixed) may be outnumbered by votes from Puerto Rican Hurrican Maria refugees (probably not strongly Republican would be my guess, though the 3000 death toll has to be weighed against the throwing-out-paper-towels stunt)
Schlemazel
@Steeplejack:
It is a google account so you can guess what comes after the ampere sign.
Before that is, ne7minder,
rikyrah
PragmaticObotsUnite (@PragObots) Tweeted:
RT @chefjoseandres: To Every young Latino; it’s your destiny to vote. Now more than ever. Vote against hate. Against the ones that say we d… https://twitter.com/chefjoseandres/status/1035959326341521408?s=17
sdhays
@tobie: Maybe he’s trying to “Michael Wolf” his way into Spankee’s good graces so that if/when the Preznit fires Sessions, old Lindsey will be the nominee. And then after he’s installed as the new AG, Spankee finds that his new AG is even less cooperative than the old one.
It’s a stupid and cliched theory, but “stupid and cliched” is how this story has been going so far, so it’s not nearly as implausible as it should be.
EZSmirkzz
@tobie: It has been reported by reliable media outlets that Lindsay Graham is so desperate for media coverage that he is sucking DJT’s butt so hard that when DJT wags his tongue Lindsay will show.
This could, of course, be an internet hoax, started by violent Democrats and/or trolls in the tubes. YMMV
Elizabelle
A hiking dreamscape in the Czech Republic. Found this on the REI website today. Start in Vienna, end up in Prague, with 3-4 hour daily hikes through a landscape dotted with forests, castles, medieval towns … had never heard of Český Krumlov, but it goes on the near-term bucket list.
REI wants about $350/day per person for the 8 nights and most meals, and hiking support; airfare not included. Bit more than I spend, but a jackal might want to consider this for later this month or next April. (Says it’s sold out, but that could change…)
The itinerary:
Might have to try to replicate this myself, maybe with a car and hike. Looks divine.
Elizabelle
@Schlemazel: Agreed. But they cannot continue the outsize influence (albeit, I think a lot of it has been cheating).
Steeplejack
@Schlemazel:
Just sent you a message.
Matt McIrvin
Once I dropped a full glass jar of peanut butter on the ground and shattered it, the pieces of broken glass sticking to the wad of peanut butter they surrounded. The whole thing was unusable, so I threw it in the garbage and put the trash bag in the garbage pail outside.
That turned out to be the most powerful raccoon attractant imaginable. Every single day after that, some strong creature would knock the pail over, open it up and shred the plastic bag and most of the trash inside so it could pull out the broken peanut butter jar. The only solution I could find was to keep the broken jar inside until trash day.
rikyrah
PragmaticObotsUnite (@PragObots) Tweeted:
RT @NBCNews: The father of Mollie Tibbetts, the Iowa woman allegedly killed by a Mexican man living in the United States illegally, implore… https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1036211166199132160?s=17
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This is fucking laughable. He was also on CNN this morning with Lonesome Joe Lieberman (and denied having weaseled the Jarvankas into the funeral). Did Dana Bash have these remarks (I don’t know)? If she did, did she ask him how the FBI’s secret pro-HRC plot worked with Comey’s torpedo and the fact that it’s nearly two years after votes were cast that we’re learning a little bit of what the FBI knew? Good christ. Dana “the angels are weeping” Bash aside, none of LG’s media pals should ask him anything else from now on.
tybee
@raven: if they repaired the bridge to cabretta island, wander that way…
Amir Khalid
My guess is that Matilda’s benefactors haven’t taken her in themselves because they can’t. Maybe they already have pets who’d have an issue with a newcomer. So you could, if you want to, or at least foster her pending some more permanent arrangement.
Raven
@tybee: “The campground on Cabretta Island is currently closed due to damage from Hurricane Irma.” Is on their site now.
The Dangerman
@Amir Khalid:
Wish I could; long story.
I’m gonna have to get a picture.
OK, it’s first Sunday of the month and I gotta hit the local pancake place (community nonprofit). All the pancakes and, more importantly (not even close), all the coffee you want. I used to live in Seattle; I sure do miss the jetfuel blends served up there.
Mike in NC
@Elizabelle: Best trip ever was a Blue Danube river cruise with Tauck that began in Prague (3 days) then went to Chesky Krumlov, Linz, Passau, Vienna, Salzburg, Bratislava, several other stops, and then wrapped up in Budapest. It was ten years ago but seems like just yesterday.
rikyrah
How Republicans get it wrong everytime.
They have no profiles in courage ??
https://twitter.com/JamesFallows/status/1035996377866821632
Yarrow
@tobie: I saw him doing a scripture reading yesterday at the funeral and he just looked broken. Can’t tell if it’s because he lost his buddy or he’s sold his soul or something else. He walked up there with his head hung down and fled the pulpit the instant he said his last word.
I speculated yesterday that he could be owned via kompromat and that’s why he’s done such an about face on his comments about Trump or he could be working as a sort of double agent maybe has his phone set up to record conversations with Trumps so Mueller has ongoing info. Or maybe some combination of those or something else entirely.
J R in WV
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Amazing how Trump knows the names of all of his Black supporters!
tybee
@Raven: well, damn.
we’ve spent a couple of long weekends staying in Hog Hammock. had a jeep and bicycles and wandered all over the island. the church at racoon bluff is an interesting visit.
tybee
@tybee: as is the UGA institute on the south end.
tobie
@sdhays: It could be that Graham’s being devilishly devious and trying to work his way into the Trump circle to undo the Trump circle…but I’m inclined to believe, like @EZSmirkzz, that he’s just sucking up to power. My biggest fear right now is that we’re doing nothing to protect the integrity of the voting rolls and the ballot. Why would someone as brazenly ambitious as Graham align himself with Trump before the midterms, which look like they will be a rout for his party, unless he knows there’s nothing to worry about?
tobie
@Yarrow: Yep, we’re all scratching our heads.
DCrefugee
John McCain is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.
JPL
@tobie: Blackmail is a powerful drug, or he wants to be Attorney General.
Raven
@tybee: We’ll be in the Mansion for our retreat. The put me in a room on the 3d floor that has not head so I’ll take a bottle or negotiate the stairs in the middle of the night.
Yarrow
@tobie:
This is what a friend of mine suggested yesterday. Earn their trust and then betray them.
Yarrow
@Raven: Maybe someone with a better room won’t show or would be wiling to trade with you. You can always check when you get there.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JPL: and paring back to still another layer with Ockham’s Razor, he at the very least desperately wants to be reelected in a state where the Rs are one of the trumpiest, tea-baggerist clusters in the country, and his decades long cultivation of an Establishmentarian Sunday morning VSP image is a bad fit. Which does not exclude all the other possible explanations being true at the same time.
debbie
@tobie:
Why would he turn on his very longterm amigo the way he turned on McCain after his death?
J R in WV
@Quinerly:
Regarding your wintering over goldfish… we never did anything to overwinter our goldfish, and they did fine anyway. Evidently once they get really cold, their metabolism is so slow they don’t need anything until they thaw out in spring once they hit the bottom of the pond. Ours were three in the beginning, and one died the first week in the woods.
Another one bit it some time that summer, but the third one lasted through several winters and was pan-sized when a nephew picked up and threw a fossil I collected into the pond during one Thanksgiving visit. After family all hit the road, I got a shovel and pulled the fossil out, as it was pretty cool to a rockhound. That also pulled the goldfish up near the surface from his hideout in the bottom of the pond, and he passed that winter, but I got my $0.35 out of him.
Steeplejack
@J R in WV:
Well, there aren’t that many, so they’re easy to memorize.
debbie
I declare:
But suh, ah say, ah say, ah say:
Raven
@Yarrow: Nope, this ain’t that kind of gig. I can hack it for 2 nights.
efgoldman
@Steeplejack:
We, too, are old FWIW.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Amir Khalid:
What’s to stop the president from legally purchasing a firearm and carrying it on his person?
debbie
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Have you seen the photos? He can barely cross his arms over his thick torso. He’d hurt himself just withdrawing the weapon from his pocked (or whatever).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack:
Depending on the size, new TV’s are pretty inexpensive and most are UHD now.
Steeplejack
@debbie:
Jeez, she’s 33 years old—will be 34 in October—that would be a “matron” in the antebellum South of Graham’s fevered imagination. Yet he’s gushing over her as if she’s some dewy debutante. Has anyone checked him for a snuff box and a lace handkerchief up his sleeve?
Steeplejack
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Couldn’t resist doing a little window-shopping on line while waiting for my friend’s kitten to get some shots at PetSmart. My current TV is 46"; that size is openly derided now, and one article described a 49" screen as “tiny.”
But I don’t need a big TV, and from what I’ve read 4K resolution wouldn’t be worth it in my cozy viewing environment (8-10' from screen). I guess I would be looking—not that I’m looking, mind you!—for a late-model non-4K TV around 46-49". “Late-model” to get the latest “smart TV” features. Some apparently have Roku built in now!
B.B.A.
@Schlemazel: the justification, as always, is that he’s the only thing stopping Hillary Clinton from forcing them to get gay married and drive Priuses and give all their money to the savage hordes of illegals and druggies on welfare out to rape their daughters, etc., etc.
The delusions of the 27% know no bounds. The only comfort I can take is that they used to be even worse, and a majority of the populace.
Another Scott
Several years ago I was walking through a local park (Huntley Meadows in NoVA) on a foot trail. I had to stop for some reason, did whatever I needed to do, and looked down at my feet and there were about 6 quail about 2 inches from where I stepped. They were “bathing” in the dry soil when I walked up on them, and just sat there. They hardly moved as other people walked by as I continued to stand there looking at them.
It’s kind of amazing how well camouflaged they were, and how well they depend upon that to survive…
Cheers,
Scott.
Amir Khalid
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
The Secret Service. They don’t let POTUS drive a car. They certainly won’t let this one buy a gun.
Quinerly
@J R in WV: thanks for piping in! Rather shallow small pond. Freezes solid in St. Louis winters if the water isn’t circulated by the basic pump. Still will freeze solid sometimes and burn up the motor on the pump if ice isn’t broken up in January. Froze and killed 6 plus fish the first year… Block of ice.
Aleta
Good short article for those interested pieces of US-reporter-told Vietnam war history. It’s fashioned around McCain’s 1974 trip back (1.5 years after his release as a POW) and his request to talk with reporter Arnold Isaacs.* It’s also about Isaacs himself as a reporter; the suffering at that point in time in the ROV; and McCain’s insistence on visiting South Vietnam’s infamous prison for suspected communists on Con Son Island.
https://warontherocks.com/2018/08/john-mccain-in-1974-back-in-vietnam/
* Isaacs covered Vietnam 1972-1975. He writes at TomDispatch about Islamaphobia, and at War on the Rocks. This is from a few days ago at WOTR and his website arnoldisaacs dot net.
Isaacs’s books are Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia and Vietnam Shadows: The War, Its Ghosts, and Its Legacy. Also From Troubled Lands: Listening to Pakistani and Afghan Americans in Post-9/11 America. One of his short pieces at TomDispatch is In Present Wars, Repeating Past Mistakes — Reading about Iraq and Afghanistan, Remembering Vietnam
Aleta
@Aleta: for those interested in pieces of US-reporter-told Vietnam war history.
Aleta
@Another Scott:
That sounds beautiful. Sometime I realize that those unexpected and rare sights are around me much more than I notice, probably always there, if I slow my eyes down and let them in. That directing the eyes via muscles and editing/selecting by the brain are part of vision, but the other part (absorbing light) is purely receptive.
Domestic short hair tabby (fka vheidi)
@Amir Khalid: worked with someone who used it, had to ask her to stop – it’s vile
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: Great article!
Robert Sneddon
@Steeplejack: 4k is worth it, whatever. There are all sorts of erudite analyses about how much detail the human eye can resolve and how that proves 4k is a “waste” unless you’ve got a 100″ display in an Odeon-sized cinema room but if your eyes are ageing (like mine) then 4k is a wonder of the age at any distance. I’ve been using a 4k monitor for several years now for computer work up close and personal and it’s great. It’s not just the resolution, it gets rid of jaggies and pixelation you don’t notice except subliminally when displaying regular HD video from a streaming service or Blu-ray. It’s also future-proofing to a certain extent. You don’t have to super-size it either, if 46″ – 49″ fits your lifestyle then stick with that size display, you don’t have to go to 55″ or bigger.
4k isn’t that much of a price premium compared to regular HD displays these days, if at all. Comparison-shop in a few stores but remember they are set up in shop-floor displays to look specifically good there, but a set that works for you in the store will generally work OK for you at home.
Steeplejack
@Robert Sneddon:
Really appreciate the “real world” feedback. My eyes are aging too, and as a former copyeditor and typographer I probably pick up on a lot of those “subliminal” details—whether I want to or not.
I did a little further research, and it appears that 49" with 4K might be the sweet spot for me. Definitely not going to do anything until I get back from my trip, so I’ve got until mid-October to meditate/marinate on this.
satby
@The Dangerman: actually, the car is better off if she’s picked up b y a rescue group like Feline Network. Can you call them and give them the details of where she’s usually seen and that she was abandoned by her owner? She deserves a home and to be cared for.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Good place to start is always Consumer Reports.
Personally, as I watch a lot of old movies I bring along a DVD of a B&W film* when go TV shopping and insist the salesperson put that on the screen. Display of truer blacks has reportedly improved since plasma sets, which provided that best on larger screens, went away, however contrast can vary widely among TV brands/models, and even in the unnatural lighting of TV sales departments one can spot better and worse in that part of the display.
Full disclosure: Have a 52″ plasma set, non-smart. Truer blacks and greater range of watchability when am off to the side or otherwise not viewing screen straight on.
*The acid test is a DVD of Betty Boop cartoons, of all things.