This:
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Moulding the Future (Veggie)
These molds turn fruit into fun shapes via @thisisinsider pic.twitter.com/Zu8c2FQah4
— Business Insider (@businessinsider) November 17, 2017
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This actually makes sense in a culture, like Japan, where individual perfect fruits are considered an essential gift for business clients or social visits — the way Americans treat wine or flowers. I suspect it would be difficult or impossible to make them profitably here, since we’ve been so conditioned to treat ‘unprocessed’ food as something that should be cheap. Although, given the upswing in “artisanal” every-damn-edibles, maybe that’s changing?
There are cheaper, no doubt much less durable versions of some of the simpler moulds available from American companies. I remember seeing an ad for an “ugly old man potato” mould from a Midwestern company some years ago. Which reminded me of the ending of a particularly unpleasant villain in Terry Pratchett’s novel The Truth…
So I checked out the website referenced in the video. Sure enough, an American contacted them about producing pumpkins in the likeness of a certain American politician, but the kickstarter to fund wider production failed rather spectacularly. I still like the idea of growing little ugly-dude potatoes, though: “That’s not the right type for boiling, it’s a fryer!”
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Apart from gearing up for the Thanksgiving Experience, what’s going on in your garden(s) planning, this week?
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Moulding the Future (Veggie)Post + Comments (126)
Late Night Russiagate Open Thread: Sometimes It’s What Doesn’t Get Said…
RNC stops paying Trump’s legal bills… https://t.co/8FSaP14Miy
— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) November 18, 2017
The RNC discovers the sunk cost fallacy, will stop throwing good money after bad:
… Trump defense lawyer John Dowd said that following payments by the Republican National Committee, the president began paying the bills and now wants to make the party “even.” The RNC confirmed it is no longer paying the bills…
Also, they’re not tearing up the IOUs until Trump’s check clears — assuming it ever arrives. Do newspaper classified columns still include those post-divorce announcements that Mr./Ms. X “will no longer be held responsible for any bills charged to [his/her] former spouse Y”?
The expenses cover personal lawyers representing Trump in special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s probe of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in last year’s election…
Special White House counsel Ty Cobb said the administration was working with others to establish a legal fund for current and former staffers. Dowd said White House counsel Don McGahn and campaign lawyer Ben Ginsberg of Jones Day are working to structure that fund, which would be subject to rules that prohibit staff from receiving gifts or pro bono legal service.
The president is exempt from those rules, Dowd said.
“The geniuses are working on it,” Dowd said. “If it passes muster with the tax lawyers and accountants, then it has to pass muster with the Office of Government Ethics.”
During former President Bill Clinton’s administration, private funds were raised to cover Clinton’s legal expenses related to the Whitewater investigation…
I think we may have uncovered the spark behind last week’s BUT WHAT ABOUT TEH CLENIS!!! noisy public kabuki. It’s not as though Donald “I Am So A Billionaire” Trump could count on his base to chip in for his legal bills… and his usual donors don’t want to draw further attention to themselves.
… In August, Reuters first reported that the RNC was paying Trump’s legal bills, which amounted to more than $230,000 that month. The payments were made to Trump’s outside legal team, which includes Dowd.
Additionally, Trump’s re-election campaign paid more than $300,000 this year in bills to lawyers representing his son, Donald Trump Jr., according to public disclosures. The campaign did not respond to a request for comment on whether it will continue to pay for Trump Jr’s legal expenses…
While previous presidential campaigns have used these funds to pay for routine legal matters such as ballot access disputes and compliance requirements, Trump is the first president in the modern campaign finance era to use such funds on the costs of responding to a criminal probe, said election law experts.
Upcoming Trump tweet: Once Again I have acheived UNPRESIDENTED accomplishment!!! — not like Crooked Hillary who had to Pay for Her own … (1/x)
A Brief Interlude
I’m sitting here, belly full, in a nice, warm, clean house, with three animals on top of me and one on the floor, watching the Punisher, and I just thought I would acknowledge how good I have it and stop bitching for ten seconds.
Ok, that ten seconds is over. Fuck motherfucking Donald Trump and everyone who voted for him.
What are you all up to tonight?
Uncivil Liberties Open Thread: Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III Feeling Pretty Good About His Chances
Sessions starts his #FedSoc17 speech: "Is Ambassador Kislyak in the room? Before I get started here. Any Russians? Anybody been to Russia? Have a cousin in Russia?"
— Todd Ruger (@ToddRuger) November 17, 2017
Perjury is hella-funny in 2017. https://t.co/39LjpsUaTX
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) November 17, 2017
The only truly appropriate punch line to this joke is an orange jumpsuit. https://t.co/F4dO6dTBEY
— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) November 17, 2017
I piously hope that Mr. Mueller’s investigators are taking notes at the Federalist Society, because the Malevolent Leprechaun spelled out why he’s going to all that trouble playing Blanche DuBois in front of unsympathetic Democrats…
… Sessions had a bounce in his step Friday as he took aim at “judicial activism” of judges legislating from the bench and took a moment to tick through the changes he’s made to return Justice Department to the “rule of law” in a wide-ranging speech at Federalist Society’s national convention.
“Elections really do have consequences,” Sessions said with a smile…
Despite the fact that four of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees have received a rare “not-qualified” rating by the American Bar Association and come under fire for controversial blog postings, Sessions said Trump has been appointing “extremely well-qualified” lawyers who will be “neutral umpires, calling balls and strikes.”…
“I get frustrated, too,” Sessions said, but vowed his “department will not make decisions based on politics” and will not confirm investigations to get a few “cheap headlines.”…
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Per the Washington Post:
… Sessions has been under fire in recent weeks for his shifting account of his and other Trump campaign aides’ dealings with Russia. On Tuesday, he spent more than five hours before the House Judiciary Committee answering questions about the matter.
Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s former ambassador to the United States, is a key figure because Sessions had long ago denied having any communications with Russians, only to have The Washington Post reveal he had twice met with Kislyak during the campaign.
I wake up screaming
Jake Tapper used to show up here and I always respected his attitude. I didn’t always agree with his positions, but it seemed like he gave a fuck. And giving a fuck is the most important thing. I like this a lot:
Jake Tapper sometimes wakes up angry. This may be a good thing for America.
Amid the chaos of the Donald Trump presidency, and the deep partisanship that filters through seemingly all aspects of American life in 2017, Tapper is motivated by the same forces that have animated much of his career in journalism. He can’t stand hypocrisy. He can’t stand unfairness. He can’t stop talking about it.
“I recognize that it’s probably a pain in the ass for a lot of people now,” he told The Atlantic. “But it is just who I am.”
“I’m just like, I don’t want any of this to be happening,” he added. “There are so many lies and so much indecency, and I’m not only talking about President Trump. There is just a world of it exploding—and we are, I fear, as a nation, becoming conditioned and accepting of it. And it’s horrific.”
For the good times
Many of you seem like good, virtuous people. You live responsibly, making economical dishes in your slow cookers. You volunteer, you probably canvas for candidates you support, you may already be in local government in some capacity. You do all of these things even when they seem like a grind.
I’m not like that at all, unfortunately, but I spent a ton of time working with local candidates for the House and State legislature from 2006 through 2008. It was a lot of fun! It was fun because we had the winds at our back and because that was when blogging was new and exciting. I got into huge fights with other local activists, felt betrayed by a charismatic candidate who turned out to be a sex harasser (Eric Massa), and burned out on the whole experience.
The next few years are going to be like 2006-08 on steroids, though maybe “on crack” would more accurate. The generic polls have Dems up by 10 and on average Dems are outperforming Hillary 2016 by 10 points in special elections. Democrats in Virginia gained 15+ seats out of 100 in State House elections. That’s the equivalent of 65+ seats in the US House.
Things are likely to get worse for Republicans. They’re either going to fail at all attempts at major legislation or, much worse, pass wildly unpopular legislation. There will mostly likely be more indictments. Trump will probably pardon several people and/or fire Mueller. The economy is unlikely to keep going like this for another year.
The potential for Democratic gains is immense. It’s also going to be nuts, completely fucking nuts. Breitbart will be throwing crazy shit against the wall to try to tar Democratic candidates. There may be bogus DOJ investigations of Democrats. Russians will be trying to hack our elections to help Republicans, and in some cases Republicans officials will be working hand in hand with them.
It’s so exciting that I wish I could throw myself into it, but this is the busiest time of my life professionally plus we are having a baby next month. So I can’t. But you should. It’s going to be a blast. You don’t have to be the kind of person who is naturally good. You can just go into to it to have a good time. You will. Start a local blog. Have a ton of coffee or a different beverage of your choice and knock on doors. Whatever you do, it’ll make a difference. And this is probably a once in a lifetime cycle. It will make for a lifetime of good stories.