Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

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

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Republicans do not trust women.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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Two Posts In One

by | 104 Comments

This post is in: , ,

I was going to put up a post asking what the heck this is.  (scissors added for scale)

I found it in my garden.  No, not my vegetable garden – in the flower garden – growing on some vine.  It had a curvy(ish) younger sibling, but I tossed that one.  This looks really cool, and I would like to know what it is.

Now, of course, I have to add the news that Jack Smith is asking for some kind of specific gag order so Trump will stop pissing in the jury pool.

PDF of the filing.

Reader Interactions

104Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    This would be a good use of the term “gagging.”  For one, it is widely used and understood.

    ETA:  Gag the Bastard.  You know it’s tempting…

  6. 6.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Smith’s minions need to make plans for constructing Faraday cages at Bedminster and Merde-A-Loser to kill TFG’s access to the internet.

  9. 9.

    Dangerman

    scissors added for scale

    I dunno. Could be really tiny scissors. Shouldn’t there be something of known size to scale properly? Dime, quarter, small pets?

    /engineer

    Also, I’m in for some form of Alien life form.

    ETA: Looks like Not Max got there first and better.

    ETA2: Just realized those could be really big scissors, in which case, RUN.

  14. 14.

    Urza

    I really want them to put him in jail for 10 days every time he breaks the gag, or anyone remotely associated with him since he’s known to farm out the social media sometimes.  Would be hilarious to watch them all fail repeatedly to not be assholes and have their orange messiah in prison because of it.

  17. 17.

    MattF

    Looks like the Trump prosecution has decided to try to stop Trump’s game. I agree. One can only wonder how far the players in this drama will go. We shall see.

  21. 21.

    Scout211

    @Super DaveMy Picture This app says it’s Chinese Okra.

    I would send a pic but don’t know how to do that.

    picture in linked article:

    Chinese okra  goes by many names:

    This vegetable goes by many names: luffa, angled luffa, Chinese okra, and silk squash. Dark green with ridges that run every quarter inch or so through the length of the squash, Chinese okra does not have much in common with the little finger-length squash we know as okra in the States.

  30. 30.

    WaterGirl

    @WaterGirl: It seems really smart.  They aren’t just sending 900 questionnaires.  They are to send enough questionnaires to get 900 bodies to show up in person…

    where they have to fill out the questionnaires WHILE THEY ARE AT THE COURTHOUSE and turn them in before they leave.

  31. 31.

    dnfree

    @Suzanne: It IS decorative gourd season!  And I haven’t seen any at the farmers market.  I’m getting a little anxious.  I did buy three pumpkins to today to tide myself over.

  33. 33.

    SealDeal

    Definitely looks like chinese okra, quite tasty if it’s still young.  Cut up and toss into a stir fry. Once they get older they take on the characteristics of a loofah and they get tougher inside and stringy.  We planted ONE small puny plant a few years ago and once it got going took over my side garden and started vining up the side of the house.  After we ate what we wanted of the younger fruit, I thought ‘cool’ I’ll have loofahs to peel and give away, but these are a bit different than traditional loofahs and the skin was difficult to remove once they dried so I had a big pile of dried pods at the end.

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    @SealDeal: I will not be attempting to eat the strange vegetable that was growing in my flower bed. :-)

    I wonder if my neighbor – who lives kitty corner from the bed that was growing in – has a vegetable garden.

    I used to know the fellow who lived there, but I do not know the new people.

  39. 39.

    Yarrow

    The Texas senators (jurors) are “deliberating” in the Texas AG Ken Paxton impeachment trial. “Experts” seem to think a verdict will come today because the senators want to go to happy hour and don’t want to spend the weekend dealing with this. I am quoting.

    I think they’ll convict him on at least one count to get him out of there because the Republicans would not have brought charges on one of their own if they didn’t expect to convict him. But I could be wrong.

  40. 40.

    Jay C

    @Roger Moore:

    Actually, I think “Bibendum” is Latin, not French, and was first used by Michelin in an old ad, showing various tire-men worse-for-wear from drinking broken glass: except, of course, for the Michelin Man, raising his flute of shards and proclaiming “Nunc Est Bibendum” – roughly “drinks it all up”, or “it’s all drunk up”…

  41. 41.

    bbleh

    So she imposes a carefully crafted order, and he blows right past it because transgression is a central — even THE central — part of his image and something all his cultists absolutely love about him.

    And then what?  Increasing sanctions, possibly culminating in a limited jail sentence?  He’ll play the martyr to the hilt, his cultists will all but riot, and lots of Reasonable Centrist Media Personalities will start scratching their chins and asking — just asking, mind you — whether maybe That Woman Has Gone Too Far.

    I don’t see an easy way out.  For the court to back down would be a surrender of the rule of law to the mob.  And neither she nor Jack “Sure That’s His Real Name” Smith have backed down from difficult confrontations before. But the politics are going to be brutal, and at least half the Congress-critters who should be supporting the law will be hiding under their desks and not taking calls.

    Ain’t gonna be pretty.

  42. 42.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SealDeal:

    Definitely looks like chinese okra, quite tasty if it’s still young. Cut up and toss into a stir fry. Once they get older they take on the characteristics of a loofah and they get tougher inside and stringy. 

    And then you can soap it up and 🎶Splish splash I was taking a bath 🎶!

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl:

    I will not be attempting to eat the strange vegetable that was growing in my flower bed. :-) 

    What?  Is that living a bit too adventurously for ya? 😁😋

  45. 45.

    smith

    So, as I understand it, the term of Jack Smith’s DC grand jury runs out today, and they have been busy for the past week or so. I was hoping we might have another cake celebration, but no such luck. I guess if Smith did obtain more indictments, he will keep them under wraps until they are needed.

  46. 46.

    wjca

    what the heck this is.

    We get cucumbers like that occasionally.  Just bog standard cucumbers.  Depends on what the weather has been like.

  47. 47.

    bbleh

    Re the putative plant thing, have you cut it open, just to make sure it’s not an alien spy device or a transmitter for the 5G chips we’ve had implanted from the so-called vaccine jabs?  Can’t be too careful…

  49. 49.

    Yarrow

    Oh, good Lord. NBC News asked students at whatever university the VP recently spoke at about the Biden administration. One young woman says, “The difference between the Obama administration and the Biden administration is Obama was cool.” Good to know they’re focusing on the important policy issues and accomplishments. 🙄

  52. 52.

    wjca

    @Yarrow: The difference between the Obama administration and the Biden administration…

    Heaven forbid they should ask for a comparison to the Trump (mal)adiminstration.

  58. 58.

    Alison Rose

    @Yarrow: Well, they may have gotten better answers from others, but this one fits in with the media’s BIDEN IS SO OLD AND OUT OF TOUCH narrative, so of course they’re gonna use it. But if we’re talking about college students, this person could’ve been 18, and I can forgive an 18 year old for not offering profound and substantive remarks to an on-the-spot question.

  60. 60.

    bbleh

    @Yarrow: @Baud: @Alison Rose: part of it is just Silly Season, but I think the major part is, nobody other than us political junkies is really thinking much about an election in 2024 that probably will but might not be between Biden and Trump.  (Trump might die!  Not that I would EVER wish for such a thing.)  Ask about Biden, you’ll get a comment about Biden out of context, perhaps compared to whatever pops into their heads — Obama, Trump, their fuzzy vision of the Ideal Candidate, or maybe — as Biden himself has noted! — the Almighty.  And this is why I ignore the “approval/disapproval” polls.

  61. 61.

    Alison Rose

    @Baud: True! Also…if they think the ONLY difference is the relative coolness of the two men, that’s actually fine, because that would imply they think Biden has been just as good a president.

  62. 62.

    Yarrow

    @Baud:  One of the young men in the group said they grew up with Obama in the White House and saw Malia and Sasha there. And that they don’t see that in the Biden White House.

    I suspect there was a much longer discussion and stupid NBC News pulled those clips. To the students’ credit the reporter asked them if they were worried about Biden’s age and only a couple of them raised their hands.

  64. 64.

    Mike in NC

    Fat Bastard needs to be locked up pending trial and his idiotic social media taken down. Threats and intimidation are all he knows.

  65. 65.

    wjca

    @bbleh: Trump might die!  Not that I would EVER wish for such a thing.

    Only consider the pain a guilty verdict would give him.  Such a wish might even be a mitzvah.

  66. 66.

    Jackie

    Somebody just learned Special Counsel Smith has requested a gag order…

    “Biden Prosecutor, Deranged Jack Smith, has asked the Court to limit 45th President, and leading Republican Nominee (by more than 50 points, & beating Dems!) DONALD J. TRUMP’S, PUBLIC STATEMENTS,” Trump wrote on Friday. “So, I’m campaigning for President against an incompetent person who has WEAPONIZED the DOJ & FBI to go after his Political Opponent, & I am not allowed to COMMENT? They Leak, Lie, & Sue, & they won’t allow me to SPEAK?”

    The then added, “How else would I explain that Jack Smith is DERANGED, or Crooked Joe is INCOMPETENT?”

  68. 68.

    bbleh

    @Jackie: fortunately, the waitstaff have learned to keep an eye on the news and discreetly remove certain condiments when necessary.  The house staff are most appreciative.

  71. 71.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @bbleh: Something I would advice with respect to all clowns.  They might be French, existential, and mostly harmless, but is that a chance you want to take?

  72. 72.

    wjca

    @bbleh: the first Ronald McDonald was definitely someone I would cross the street to avoid.

    Crossing the road to avoid McDonald’s (or Burger King or Taco Bell or Jack in the Box) is merely good nutritional practice.  Not to mention a blessing to your sense of smell.,

  78. 78.

    bbleh

    @WaterGirl: hmm, well, if you lack easy access to an x-ray, may I suggest a Faraday Cage?  You just know those aliens already have the access codes for the 5G chips …

  82. 82.

    KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))

    @Anyway: Bitter melon was my guess, so I did a word search on comments to see if anyone else IDed it. Since you’re unsure, I’m going to second your guess.

  85. 85.

    E.

    Jackal pedants should enjoy a current cnn.com headline about Ashton Kushner resigning from the board of an “anti-sex abuse group.”

  89. 89.

    stinger

    @Yarrow:

    “The difference between the Obama administration and the Biden administration is Obama was cool.”

    The Obamas had two little girls, slightly older than today’s college students would have been at the time of that administration — in other words, just enough older for the interviewees to have talked about in school and looked up to. The Bidens don’t have young children living in the White House, so from that perspective, no cool factor. The opinion is understandable, if shallow.

    ETA: Or what Yarrow said at #62.

  91. 91.

    buddhacat

    It’s a common gourd, a loofa; we make curry from it (as all Indian veggies eventually end up as curry anyway.) Gets mushy if cooked too long.

  93. 93.

    rekoob

    @oldster: To hazard a guess, I believe the original ad in that article reads, as you say, “Now it’s time to drink”, and then the French copy then reads, “That is to say, Michelin drinks (or soaks up) all obstacles”. That fits in with the idea that the tires reduce the hazards (punctures and surface irregularities). Fond of Michelins, but also a big fan of Nokian Hakkapeliittas for the snow.

  96. 96.

    SomeRandomGuy

    @WaterGirl: Well, nothing was *going* to happen until you issued an open invite to every horror movie ever made. Want to sneak around and have unprotected sex with your new boyfriend (I’d add “for the first time” but that sounds vaguely insulting in context….)?

    Oh, yeah, and have a friend around who likes to pop out and scare people, just to make sure your doom is as swift as it is certain!

    Oh, fine, don’t listen to me on a Friday night, just, if you’re holding on to a shotgun (that you vaguely remember the salesman at S-Mart calling a “Boom Stick”), don’t come crying to me! (Also, it’s Klaatu, Barada, Nicto.  Make sure *one* of you says it right.)

  97. 97.

    Betsy

    @Scout211: that article says okra are squash.  Not!!

    Okra is in the mallow family, with cotton, marsh mallows (yes, really, they are just mallows that grow in the swamp), and hibiscus. And the roselles from which Jamaica tea is made.

    I know.  It’s a compulsion.

  100. 100.

    sempronia

    It is a ribbon squash or loofah (we call it 絲瓜 in Chinese). You eat it when it’s young and tender like yours appears to be. When they’re much bigger and harder, you can dry them and use the fibrous skeletons as bath sponges. If you want to eat this one, you would use a vegetable peeler to take the skin off, especially the stiff, hard ridges. Slice it up and stir-fry with a little gravy. They have a delicate, vegetal taste. I like to add dried scallops, rehydrated and shredded between your fingers.

  102. 102.

    Rugosa

    @WaterGirl:

     Hi WaterGirl, Gourds and squash are close relatives and cross-pollinate with abandon. A random cross popping up like that could well have a bitter or otherwise unpleasant flavor.

  104. 104.

    WaterGirl

    I appreciate all the knowledge and information hared in this thread!  I will continue to admire my loofa, but it will remain a thing of beauty, not to be eaten.

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