Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Everybody saw this coming.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

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

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

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

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

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

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

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

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Archives for June 2021

Bill Barr Tells All Or Maybe Not

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A need has been expressed for more general threads on Sunday morning. And the Atlantic obliges with subject matter. I haven’t read it yet, but some of the commentary is hilarious.

But of course it’s no laughing matter how Barr contributed to the destruction TFG wrought, even if now he assures us he was keeping him from worse. Wink, wink.

It’s the requisite apology tour before Barr takes up his post at the Heritage Foundation or whatever democracy-undermining place he winds up at.

And this is your Sunday morning political and whatever that’s not garden open thread.

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Shapely in Seattle

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Shapely in Seattle
From commentor Dan B:

Our back garden was a turf covered shallow slope when we moved here in 2009. It was too much slope to stand on comfortably and too steep for a chair. We fixed that by moving 90 cubic yards of soil, concrete pavers, and sawn Columnar Basalt.

In the top pic, the Alstroemeria ‘Aztec Gold’ mid-photo is starting to bloom with a “dwarf” Catmint on the right.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Shapely in Seattle 1

This is the view from the top of the stairs back to the toolshed. It has a clear plastic roof, great for sitting out on a drizzly or chilly day when we fire up the woodstove. This is how to cope with Seattle’s typical weather. It came in handy during Covid.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Shapely in Seattle 2

Above the steps a variegated hardy Banana is going to go nuts. Behind it the creamy flowers of a Viburnum I believe is yunnanense has finally come into its own, nine years after planting.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Shapely in Seattle 3

Here’s the view from the shallow reflecting pond in front of the toolshed to the landing and upper terrace. The fluffy inflorescense is Rodgersia pinnata, named after a Mr. or Sir, Rodgers. It’s in a huge celadon pot in the pond, likes moisture. Underneath the pond is a water storage tank that collects water from the roof of the shed. It’s used for our summers that get 1/7th the rainfall of New York and 1/10th the summer rainfall of the Ozarks.

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Horrorshow Open Thread: The Florida Condominium Collapse

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John D. MacDonald’s novel Condominum — which contains some memorable descriptions of dangerously shoddy construction fueled by political corruption and the greed of local developers — came out in 1977. Just before the Champlain Tower South was built (it opened in 1981).

Report from the AP — “‘Deep fire’ slowing rescue effort at collapsed Florida condo”:

A “very deep fire” hampered rescue efforts Saturday at the collapsed oceanfront condominium tower near Miami where authorities are racing to recover any survivors beneath a mountain of rubble, officials said.

Rescuers were using infrared technology, water and foam to battle the blaze, whose source was unclear. Smoke has been the biggest barrier, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said during a news conference…

The news came after word of a 2018 engineering report that showed the building had “major structural damage” to a concrete slab below its pool deck that needed extensive repairs, part of a series of documents released by the city of Surfside.

While the report from the firm of Morabito Consultants did not warn of imminent danger from the damage — and it is unclear if any of the damage observed was responsible for the collapse — it did note the need for extensive and costly repairs to fix systemic issues with the building…

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We Have Agency, Pilot Program, 7 States

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Repost from Thursday evening:

The two previous ‘We Have Agency’ posts laid out an idea and asked for volunteers who are interested in participating.  We got something like 50 volunteers.  So great to see!

Both of those posts can be found under this link in the sidebar.  Going forward, all posts related to this project will be available at that link.

We Have Agency, Let’s Use It

Nyms of the people who volunteered a week or two ago are listed in the first comment on this post.

If you are on that list and are still interested in participating, the simplest way to start is for you to send an email to me.  Then I can reply, I’ll have your best email address, I can add you to the list, and we will go from there.

If you are interested but you are not on that list, please chime in with a comment, and then send me an email.

⭐️  ADOPT-A-STATE

We are starting with a pilot program for these seven states.   A proof of concept, if you will.

  • Arizona
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Michigan
  • Ohio
  • Pennsylvania
  • Texas

Starting with these states will accomplish two things: 1) get a jump-start on action in critical states, and 2) work out the kinks early, before we move forward with a large number of states.

⭐️  WHAT ARE WE ASKING PARTICIPANTS TO DO?

Decide to get involved.   Take action.

We can form a team for each of the 7 high-priority states.

Different people have different skills and interests, so we are not asking every participant to do all of these things.  You can make a difference by choosing to do even one of these things – choose the activities that best suit your strengths and your interests.

Decide to adopt a state.

Nyms with a ? indicate that the person has volunteered for one of the 7 states in the pilot project.

Choose your state(s) carefully.

State teams will allow people who don’t live in states under consideration to play an important role.

If you are going to make contact with elected officials, adopting a state where you live is best – elected officials  will care less about you than they might about one of their own constituents.

But for other research and roles, out-of-state is fine.  Maybe you want the role of compiling your team’s information once it has been gathered – you most certainly don’t have to live in-state in order to do that!

Once you have chosen a state (and hopefully others have chosen your state, too!)

We are asking you to to the following (collectively, within your state team).

  • collect and share information
  • research anti-democratic efforts to limit access to voting in any way
  • research anti-democratic efforts that allow the will of the voters to be overturned
  • research anti-democratic efforts that will serve to intimidate voting officials
  • use social networking if that’s your thin, and be the “eyes and ears” of the project
  • identify elected officials to contact
  • establish contact with elected officials
  • establish contact with state and local Democratic party chapters
  • identify potential organizations to contact
  • establish contacts with other organizations/activists
  • share that information with the blog in whatever way suits you (and we will enter it into a spreadsheet)

This is most definitely not a one-person job, particularly because time is of the essence.

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