Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Come on, man.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

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

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

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Archives for 2020

When There’s Nothing Left to Burn You Have To Set Yourself on Fire

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Elise Stefanik is 35 years old. As a representative from one of the most rural, but certainly not the most conservative (R+4), districts in New York, NY-21, she would have had a long career as a Republican when Republicans were a little bit more sane. Unfortunately for her and the country, Republicans are insane, so she faced a choice: go crazy with them, or kiss your seat goodbye. We all know what happened next: her actions on the Intelligence committee were essentially indistinguishable from Gym Jordan’s, and her antics made her a Fox News star.

This is old news, but I thought those of you who enjoy old school (read: good) small town newspapering might enjoy today’s commentary from the editor of the Glen Falls, NY Post-Star, Ken Tingley. I don’t want to ruin it by giving an excerpt, but here’s the background in a pair of tweets from Stefanik’s opponent, Tedra Cobb:

You’ll need to answer an annoying question from Google to read the piece, but why not put 1/10 of a cent into their kitty? I think they need it. More on local news from Margaret Sullivan at the Post if the subject interests you.

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Election Year Open Thread: “Mike Bloomberg, Welcome to the World of Stop & Frisk”

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Hold onto your mail-in ballots?

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Florida voters who requested a vote-by-mail ballot received them this week. My husband was among them. (I prefer showing up at the polling place in person, so I’ll be doing that on March 17.) The Tampa Bay Times editorial board took the unusual step of asking its vote-by-mail readers to hold onto their ballots:

Florida Democrats, don’t mail that presidential primary ballot | Editorial
The race is too fluid and the stakes are too high to vote now for a candidate who may not be viable by the March 17 primary.

More than a million Florida Democrats have been sent their mail ballots for the March 17 presidential primary, but they should let those ballots sit on the hall table or the kitchen counter for a bit. The race for the Democratic nomination is too fluid for Florida Democrats to pick a candidate now who may not be competitive by Election Day. They should not waste their votes, and they should keep their eye on the goal: Backing the candidate who has the best shot at beating President Donald Trump in November…

The first two states are hardly reflective of Florida or the nation. They are small, overwhelmingly white and lack any urban area as large as Tampa Bay. In fact, Tampa Bay alone has twice the population of New Hampshire and matches the population of Iowa. More Tampa voters cast ballots in last year’s run-off for mayor than Bernie Sanders received as the top finisher in raw votes in the Iowa caucuses. So Democrats should keep the results of the first two contests in perspective…

Let’s see more election results. Let’s see who convinces more Democrats in more diverse states they can best challenge Trump. Let’s see who builds momentum and who fades. Florida Democrats, don’t mail those ballots yet.

The editorial board also declined to endorse a candidate as they usually do the week ballots are mailed; they say they’re in wait-and-see mode too. Fascinating. I understand why they’re doing this, but I hope FL Democrats who heed their advice don’t lose their ballots!

 

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Waiting-for-Spring Projects – Solar Food Dryer

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Solar Food Dryer

Thanks to the multi-talented, irreplaceable Ozark Hillbilly:

I bought The Solar Food Dryer some years back, and built my own. It’s an informative book and I recommend it. The book shows many different types but I built the one in the book and can’t imagine ever needing more than that.

The dimensions are 31″ wide x 26″ deep x 16″ tall (in back), 10 1/2″ tall in front. The legs are 24″ tall w/ dolly wheels on 2 at one end and a handle at the other for ease of dragging. For the glass I used a couple of old storm windows I got off a window replacement job. One can get them cheap. (caution: do NOT use solar glass)

Solar Food Dryer - Vented
In the Vented pic, one sees that there are two doors. The upper door is for ventilation and is screened to keep critters out. The lower door is where the trays slide in and out.

Temperature Gauge
The only time I ever close the vent door is when it is 70 degrees or cooler. On those days the 2 side hole vents are all that is necessary to vent moisture.


The screen for the two food trays is food grade polypropylene and they sure are proud of it. It cost me $20 for a single 32×84 roll from Sunworks. One can get it for a cheaper by the foot price as long as it’s a 250′ roll (or something like that). If I ever decide to try and sell these at a farmers market I would buy it that way, but until then…

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Update – Saturday / Sunday

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Good day for getting all panicky, but only ‘theoretically’…

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Late Night Election Year Open Thread: Luring the #StillVotingYang Participants

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The hashtag #StillVotingYang was at the top of Twitter’s ‘Trending Topics’ column when I was looking for coronavirus news last night. Given the hour, I assumed it was Russian bots and/or native trolls… but while that may have been the original spark, the idea seems to be popular with ‘real’ potential voters, now.

To tell the truth, a lot of these YangGangers sound like me aged 21, voting for John Anderson as a protest against Jimmy Carter’s refusal to defend pro-choice policies. Nobody owns my vote! Show my why I should vote for your candidate! If we won’t defend our positions, when will we ever see things change?

In my defense, I didn’t have the atrocities of the Reagan/Bush/Trump regimes to warn me how poor a tactic that would turn out to be. In their defense, a lot of these folks are drawing a distinction between the primaries and the general election, which is perfectly reasonable — the primaries are when policy differences should be fought out.

… Many tweeted using the hashtag to say they still believe his policies are what the U.S. needs now, while others remained unconvinced by the platforms offered by the remaining Democrats.

Yang, whose campaign promised that every eligible American would receive $1,000 a month as part of a Universal Basic Income, officially withdrew from the race just as the New Hampshire primaries were announced.

Yang finished in eighth position in New Hampshire, receiving just 2.8 percent of the vote, having finished sixth in Iowa with 1 percent.

“His democracy dollars policy is the only policy that brings the power of money in politics back to the people,” tweeted Leony Marks.

“#AmericaneedsYang because all the other candidates would just continue and play along with the old system of oppression.”

“No vote that is cast thoughtfully is wasted, and your candidate is not entitled to my vote. @AndrewYang earned my vote, your candidate will have to do the same if you want me to change my mind.”

Eric Quach tweeted: “TO BE CLEAR: #StillVotingYang ISN’T about voting @AndrewYang in the GENERAL election. IT’S about voting @AndrewYang in the Democratic PRIMARY election.

“If you want our vote, then you need to earn it & those who are attacking #YangGang, you definitely don’t deserve it.”…

However, others also used the hashtag to describe their dismay that Yang supporters aren’t now backing one of the other candidates still in the race in order to achieve the overall goal of removing President Donald Trump from the White House.

“If you’re #StillVotingYang, you clearly don’t give af about removing the single biggest threat to democracy this country has ever seen. Do us all a favor and open your eyes before you find yourself complicit in Trump’s reelection,” writer Jack Wallen tweeted.

“This #stillvotingyang has really cemented that we are too stupid a people to deserve anything but Donald Trump as our president for the rest of his life or until the country literally explodes, whichever comes first,” added author Ivan Brandon…

I know a lot of people assumed, when Yang officially dropped out, that of course his supporters would switch to Sanders, because ‘they have so much in common’. Quite a few people, not all of them Bernistas, said that Sanders would / should offer Yang the VP slot immediately. That… doesn’t seem to have happened. Seems like Buttigieg should be attractive to YangGangers, as well.

But of course what I’m hoping — especially at the Nevada caucuses — is that the Warren voters can persuade the YangGang, one by one, that Elizabeth has a plan for them, too, if they’re willing to look at it. She’s really good at motivating people, and I hope my fellow supporters in the Silver State can follow her lead.

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Semi-Respite Open Thread: Divided Attention

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This is indeed heartwarming! It is also, to me, hilarious — because the dog is obviously glad to see Mom again, but she has to keep going over to reassure Daddy that she still loves him best.

Our rescue bitch Gloria… well, I’m not saying she’s intensely competitive, but she does lift her leg to pee. She also makes a point of letting me know, on the regular, that she could do a much better job as Alpha Bitch than I do, given the chance.

Like Dr. Koch’s dog, she’s incredibly happy to see me if I go away for a while, but still.

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