93° in Seattle today, 100° in Portland. Almost August & I can say, without irony: Thank God I was on East Coast & out of that terrible heat.
— Billmon (@billmon1) August 1, 2015
Also figures if climate change was going to benefit anyone in US, it would be DC-NYC power axis. Probably rigged it that way. #justkidding
— Billmon (@billmon1) August 1, 2015
@PaminBB I said I was kidding. I didn't say Alex Jones will be kidding.
— Billmon (@billmon1) August 1, 2015
@PaminBB Although in Alex's case I think it's not so much kidding as cashing in.
— Billmon (@billmon1) August 1, 2015
@billmon1 Oh, maybe not; Washington is sinking, and the sea is rising fast in Chesapeake Bay: http://t.co/QtYvpY3Rn3
— Marv Clowder (@MarvClowder) August 1, 2015
***********
Apart from the Beltway returning to the muck from which it was born, what’s on the agenda for the afternoon?
Derelict
On the agenda for this afternoon: Watching fat puffy summertime clouds drift over the valley, to be followed by grilling some hamburgers, fresh sweet corn, and maybe a movie after dinner. Ahhhhh! Summer!
rikyrah
Mission Accomplished: Planned Parenthood Attacks Coordinated by High-Ranking Republican Operatives
…They Called Themselves “Groundswell”
Just after Barack Obama’s re-election in 2012, disappointed conservative thought leaders came together at the annual CPAC conference in Washington, D.C. to strategize. Demoralized but determined, they formed a plan to fight a “30-front war to fundamentally transform the nation.”
In early 2013, they formed an email group to begin the process of organizing for action and messaging coordination. Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’ key aide Danielle Cutrona was part of the group, as was Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Former UN Ambassador John Bolton, Breitbart News Editor John Nolte, Family Research Council officials Jerry Boykin and Ken Blackwell, Tea Party Patriots Founder Jenny Beth Martin, Washington, D.C. attorney and public relations expert Diana Banister, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, former Congressman Allen West, former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino, Frank Gaffney, and Ted Cruz staffer Max Pappas rounded out the top-tier of group participants, according to David Corn’s report.
They met weekly in the offices of Judicial Watch to hone their message and action plans. One meeting was secretly recorded, getting them on the record with regard to their desire to get a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attack, mostly for the purpose of obtaining unlimited subpoena power.
Their goal was not merely to function as a messaging machine, but to “sync messages and develop action from reports and information exchanged,” according to the minutes of their March 27, 2013 meeting. “Going forward there should be an action item accompanying each report,” they concluded.
The purpose of the group was to collaborate and coordinate strategy and action for their multiple “fronts.” Shadow government assignments were made, committees were formed, and strategies were developed. All of this was done with participation and input from key congressional staffers working in the House and the Senate. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), now House Majority Whip, was the head of the conservative Republican Study Committee at the time. His staff routinely dropped in to tip off the group as to upcoming votes on key issues. One of the most active participants on the email list was Danielle Cutrona, who was a key staffer for Sen. Jeff Sessions.
Whenever there was a need for support or for opposition to legislation, or an investigation or opposition to a judicial nominee, these staffers would reach into the group in order to recruit members for messaging or action support.
Immigration reform, religious liberty, and judicial appointments were high on their list of priorities, and they enjoyed some successes. They got their Select Committee on Benghazi, they successfully opposed one of the president’s judicial nominees who was not sufficiently steeped in their idea of Second Amendment interpretation, and they were wildly successful with their attack on the Internal Revenue Service’s procedure for approving nonprofit organizations.
Blueprint for Activism
After David Corn broke the story of this group two years ago and audio of one of their weekly meetings became public, a blueprint for how to track coordination to advance its agenda, via messaging and action with key congressional aides, emerged.
One such example can be found in their effort to push the idea that the president was putting “politics over public safety” with regard to immigration reform.
Corn laid out the pieces:
Frank Gaffney penned a Washington Times op-ed titled “Putting Politics Over Public Safety.” Tom Fitton headlined a Judicial Watch weekly update “Politics over Public Safety: More Illegal Alien Criminals Released by Obama Administration.” Peter List, editor of LaborUnionReport.com, authored a RedState.com post called “Obama’s Machiavellian Sequestration Pain Game: Putting Politics Over Public Safety.” Matthew Boyle used the phrase in an immigration-related article for Breitbart. And Dan Bongino promoted Boyle’s story on Twitter by tweeting, “Politics over public safety?” In a message to Groundswellers, Ginni Thomas awarded “brownie points” to Fitton, Gaffney, and other members for promoting the “politics over public safety” riff…
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/07/31/mission-accomplished-planned-parenthood-attacks-coordinated-high-ranking-republican-operatives/
rikyrah
tis true
Jimmy Carter: America Is Not A Democracy Anymore (AUDIO)
By SARA JERDE
Published JULY 31, 2015, 5:43 PM EDT
Former President Jimmy Carter called the United States an “oligarchy” with “unlimited political bribery,” on a radio program this week.
Responding to his thoughts on unlimited campaign financing, Carter told Thom Hartmann on the “Thom Harmann Program” that, “it violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system.”
“Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the President,” Carter said. “And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members.”
Carter’s comments are similar to the findings of a Princeton study released last year that the United States has morphed into an oligarchy from a democracy.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jimmy-carter-us-oligarchy-bribes
rikyrah
just finished my lunch of Chinese food, and put the laundry on. Will begin weekend cooking in a bit. On the menu: Chinese steak stir fry, fried chicken wings, round steak.
RaflW
I might be thread-jumping but I just started reading the NYT story about Hillary sucker-punching jeb. at the Urban League conference.
a.k.a. confirmation that the blow landed cleanly. If anyone knows about uncivil and uncalled-for, it is pretty much every GOP candidate in the past couple decades. I just think they’re shocked that Hillary would take the gloves off so fast and so well. I’m sure it’s unbecoming, but I am glad for some sense of seeking the upper hand by a Dem.
Other than that, I’m seeing what’s up on MH370 (the French say they won’t start detail examination till next Wednesday- no idea why).
And then heading outside soon – it is lovely here in MN these days, gotta get my pool days in.
Mike J
Spent 6 hours on Lake Washington yesterday and was wise enough to generously slather sunscreen on my arms, legs, and face, but my chest is red and burning.
Kind of neat being a part of the big Seafair fleet, even if we did intentionally go on a day when the fleet would be smaller than today and tomorrow. Very difficult to keep the genoa full in light winds with tons of wake, but we made it.
Roger Moore
I’m going to go grocery shopping and then do some cooking. On tap is my weekly batch of sourdough bread, starting a batch of naturally fermented pickles, and maybe starting some ginger beer.
Kropadope
I can assure you that it’s plenty hot on the East coast.
@RaflW:
rikyrah
So sad. Of course she was not the target. Most never are. Seems for every gangbanger taken out, there are at least two, if not three people who contributed positively to the community….which is why I feel the soul of the community crying with each of these deaths. For we know what loss we have . We know the imprint that they will never make.
…………………………………
Death of a Young Black Journalist
BY SARAH STILLMAN
JULY 30, 2015
On the night of May 27th, Charnice Milton, a twenty-seven-year-old journalist, was heading home from an assignment. She’d stopped to transfer buses in Anacostia, in Washington, D.C., after covering a neighborhood meeting for a Capitol Hill paper called the Hill Rag. According to police, Milton took a bullet aimed at another passerby, in a neighborhood that’s seen much of the twenty-per-cent increase in homicides in D.C. from this time last year. Her killing remains unsolved.
At Syracuse University, where Milton received a master’s degree in journalism in 2011, one professor remembered her unusual response to his question of where each student hoped to land in the next ten years. “Some said the New York Times, some said Esquire or Rolling Stone,” hetold Syracuse.com. “Charnice said she wanted to be writing stories that mattered in the community where she grew up.” After graduating, she churned out copy as a stringer for the Hill Rag and its hyper-local sister paper, East of the River, covering her native southeast D.C., including Anacostia.
The most basic instinct of a local reporter is to take the importance of her neighbors as a given. In a community like Anacostia—where more than ninety per cent of residents are African-American, one in two kids lives below the poverty line, and incarceration and unemployment rates are among the nation’s highest—this is another way of saying that black lives matter. Sometimes, for Milton, that meant writing up community meetings, where neighbors protested shoddy development projects or called out the predations of banks. Other times, it meant documenting the impact of mass incarceration block by block. Milton covered the “Ban the Box” campaign to keep employers from freezing out applicants with criminal records, and the launch of a support group to help people leaving prison. She laid out local battles over funding for city fire and emergency medical services and plans to build the city’s first Wal-Mart, on the block where she was later shot.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/death-of-a-young-black-journalist
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@RaflW: that would be the same Jeb Bush who regularly calls Obama “divisive” (translation: You can’t articulate why you don’t like him, Bubba? You’re not racist, he’s “divisive”) and sent the Swift Boaters a thank you note on official FL Gov stationary?
ETA: does anyone who follows Jeb know if he has an Atwater/Rove type? Or since he’s the Sarmt One does he do his own dirty work?
rikyrah
Republicans slam brakes on voting rights bill
By Mike Lillis – 08/01/15 06:00 AM EDT
House Republican leaders are slamming the brakes on voting rights legislation, insisting that any movement on the issue go through a key Republican committee chairman who opposes the proposal.
House Democrats are pressing hard on GOP leaders to bring the new voter protections directly to the floor.
That would sidestep consideration in the House Judiciary Committee, where Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) has rejected a bipartisan proposal to update the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) in the wake of a 2013 Supreme Court decision that gutted a central provision of that law.
http://itk.thehill.com/homenews/house/249959-republicans-slam-brakes-on-voting-rights-bill
OzarkHillbilly
Slow cooking a pork shoulder on the grill. Maybe I’ll drink a beer too. Haven’t decided yet.
Germy Shoemangler
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’ve been curious about that myself. Poppy had Atwater, W had Rove… who is ratfucking for Jeb? I doubt the Bushes get their own hands dirty.
Perhaps in this day and age the Ratfuckers prefer to keep a profile low enough to achieve invisibility.
Mustang Bobby
Just watched the remake of “Godzilla” on HBO. Since I won’t be in town for the debate this week, I thought I’d take in the prelim.
ThresherK
@Mike J: I have a bit of pink there as well, after a few days at a beach.
The odd thing is I have been lap swimming, freestyle, for a bunch of weeks, and I’m trying to figure out if the non-pinking of my shoulders, arms and neck and back are from them being a bit better protected this week, plus being pointed up to the sun somewhat while swimming in weeks prior.
MattF
Reading the new Sandman Slim novel. This is number… (goes to check)… seven. The first few were better– Kadrey has killed off the most interesting characters, except for Sandman Slim himself. This one has an interesting premise, that someone trapped Death in a human body– so no one is dying anymore, which is a disaster-in-the-making. But it’s all still a mystery and I’m more than half-way through.
Ridnik Chrome
@RaflW:
What did Hillary say that wasn’t true?
the Conster
I know this is old, but I only just saw it and think it’s a brilliant analysis. If you’ve seen it before, it’s worth another watch.
First Follower: Leadership Lessons From Dancing Guy
Kropadope
@Ridnik Chrome: Nothing, that’s why they attacked her on tone.
dmsilev
@Mustang Bobby: The Giant Lizard Anti-Defamation League left a message for you. They said they’d be back in touch, and you’ll definitely hear them coming.
Bonnie
The difference between the Pacific Northwest having 93 degree temperatures and the east coast and it’s ghastly heat and humidity is that most of us in the PNW don’t have air conditioning.
MattF
@RaflW: As if ‘uncivil and uncalled for’ wasn’t the calling card of today’s Republican Party.
I usually avoid links to Slate/Will Saletan, but he’s got a post that’s irresistible. Saletan listened to the Congressional hearings on the Iran deal, and was horrified:
Well, d’oh.
TheMightyTrowel
It’s my last weekend in Berlin. Cleaned the flat I’ve been Subletting today and spending tomorrow touristing one last time. Been a great summer, Berlin is a pretty fucking cool city.
burnspbesq
Just spent 45 minutes at the school playground across the street, breaking in a new lacrosse stick (wallball = meditation). Pondering the order of events for the rest of the day. Ninety minutes of cardio at the gym sounds like a good next step. After almost three months of working out 5-6x/wk and being more careful about my diet, my blood sugar and blood pressure are both way down, and I feel really good except for the occasional sore left hip, but I’m not dropping weight as fast as I’d like and I’m the slowest runner in the known universe.
Tree With Water
There was a time in this country when this statement by a former POTUS would have shocked people. and would have rated front page headlines. No longer. It’s a lot like the Bush-Cheney plot to War in Iraq, i.e., most everyone understands our country was betrayed, but a majority still refuse to speak that truth aloud (TPM.com):
“Former President Jimmy Carter called the United States an “oligarchy” with “unlimited political bribery,” on a radio program this week….. Responding to his thoughts on unlimited campaign financing, Carter told Thom Hartmann on the “Thom Harmann Program” that, “it violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system.”
“Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the President,” Carter said. “And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so all this dowager-countess sour-pussing from Team Jebbie is because Hillary turned “right to rise” around on him? I think those saying it’s a sign of a direct hit are right. I think it’s also a sign of thin-skinned princeling who’s been out of the game too long.
Then again, he’s got a hundred million dollars, and that’s after he told his donors to hold some back for later.
ruemara
@MattF: Don’t say any more. I didn’t get a reader copy and they were such douches at Comic-Con, I didn’t splurge to buy it but I really want to read it.
RaflW
@Ridnik Chrome: Uncivil and uncalled-for are not, to my ears, words claiming untruth. Just words that make jeb. cry. And we all know that jeb. crying is a sad, sad thing. Boo hoo.
Redshift
@Bonnie: Ah, that makes much more sense. I had a wtf reaction reading those tweets.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Where was Saletan in 2002-03 (04, 05, 06…)? Or is he backdating “the Obama era”? Jonathan Chait, I’m guessing speaking from some kind of personal knowledge, linked to that piece referring to Himself as “ex-Republican” Will Saletan
RaflW
@MattF:
Well, it is dismaying that it has taken this f*ing long for people to notice. Particularly people whose job it is to pay attention.
Oh, wait, their job is actually to blather, not to notice. Sorry, I got all idealistic for a second there.
Redshift
Since this is an open thread, and I put to much effort into this to leave it in a dead thread, I’m just going to copy it here.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m not. I think it’s one of the persistent myths on our side that our problem in midterms is caused by the purity ponies. In fact, it’s because our coalition has a large contingent of people who don’t have the leisure time and resources to pay much attention to politics, so it’s harder to get them out to vote when there isn’t saturation coverage, like there is in presidential years.
Dean supporters were bitterly disappointed when his campaign ended, and had plenty of gripes with the mainstream party over it. But the Deaniacs went on to provide a big infusion of energy and volunteer labor to Democratic organizations all over, in part because Howard Dean made a big point of telling us it was important to do that. I think Bernie can do the same, and since he seems to get that we need a movement, not just a candidate, I think he will.
One of my few actual disappointments with Obama is that, after he won, he didn’t tell his supporters to stay involved, to join their local Dem organization, and to commit to vote in every election. Sadly, it seems you’re more likely to remember you need to build a movement when you lose than when you win. A lot of Obama campaign volunteers did, of course, but I’m convinced there were a lot of first time and sporadic voters were like me after Dean — despite having worked on a presidential campaign, I had no idea that party-building to win elections was something someone like me could do.
Roger Moore
@Ridnik Chrome:
Noting, or they would have pointed it out. Complaints about tone are a tacit admission that you can’t win on the facts.
burnspbesq
@RaflW:
Well, don’t let it happen again. This is Balloon-Juice. We don’t go for that shit ’round here.
Redshift
@RaflW: Saletan claims to be a historian. I guess that means something has to be ancient history before he notices it.
cmorenc
Relatively few houses in the Pacific Northwest had air conditioning when I lived out there from the mid-70s through the mid-80s, and it’s also much less common for houses to have modern air conditioning in the less southerly regions of the inter-Mountain region (e.g. Salt Lake City, Grand Junction, Co), although some houses there have “swamp coolers”, which work purely by blowing air over water to cool via evaporation. By contrast, the southeastern and lower elevations of the southwestern U.S. only became tolerably livable for non-natives with the advent of air conditioning units (particularly central air conditioning) powered by more potent coolants such as freon (and its purportedly less ozone-layer damaging successors). “Swamp coolers” only work to any significant extent when the atmosphere is relatively dry – it’s hard to get much evaporative cooling when the relative humidity is as high as it often is in the southeastern U.S. in summer.
RaflW
@Redshift: Not long ago I was at a fundraiser for Keith Ellison that also featured Russ Feingold, here in Minneapolis.
Keith talked about why he fundraises hard in a nearly safe seat (Keith says he never views his own or any seat as safe, that’s a dangerous complacency). He does it to build a voter turnout machine. Our House Dist votes overwhelmingly Dem, and it is incredibly unlikely that he or other down-ballot district dems would lose except in a few western periphery state house seats.
But we have statewide races of course, like Sec’y of State. We know how messed up elections can be with a GOP SOS. So Ellison used his warchest to mobilize and we beat the statewide turnout numbers significantly, and Simon won the SOS by a margin of 22,000 out of 1.9 million votes cast, and I believe his win was really all about higher than statewide margins in Ellison & McCollum’s districts.
Keith went on to say that he is working with the US House Democratic caucus to teach other Dems about his turnout model. Apparently this is news to most other House members, which I find appalling. No wonder we suck in non-presidential years. Lets hope Ellison can teach his colleagues to think at least a little bit about someone other than themselves.
mai naem mobile
Cecil the lions brother Jericho got killed by poachers. Just really sad especially for the cubs.
Tree With Water
Is Schumer kidding? Sadly? I believe the destruction of the GOP as a national power to be a worthy goal. Yet it appears the future leader of senate democrats is made sad by the thought. Too, coming as it does on the heels of republicans denouncing Cruz on the floor of the senate, his remarks are tantamount to aid and comfort for the mortal enemies of the democratic rank and file. When the time comes, Shumer should not be the senator chosen to replace Reid (and Elizabeth Warren should cite this remark when withdrawing her misguide endorsement).
“If Republicans continue to follow the hard right — Donald Trump, Ted Cruz — they’re going to fall right off a political cliff,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a news conference Thursday after the Senate was forced to pass a stopgap measure to fund highways. “And sadly, that looks like where we’re headed.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Redshift: Like I said in my original post, I suspect most–most– Sanders supporters are more engaged and vote more regularly than most Dems and Dem leaners. But the Sanders campaign, like the ‘draft Warren’ boomlet, gives me a whiff of the cult of the presidency that I think, purely in terms of voter turn out, hurts our side more than the other.
Sanders himself understands that politics is a long, hard slog. Does he communicate that to his supporters? He said something yesterday about the ACA being a small step. That’s true in the broadest sense, I sure as hell would have liked a stronger bill, and Sanders was pretty blunt at the time (IIRC) about taking half a loaf, but it came off as dismissive, and not the kind of rhetoric that’s going to inspire people to defend the ground we’ve gained in the last eight years, which is going to be a big part of the 2016 campaign. That’s why I liked what I heard of Clinton saying recently “we don’t need to go back”– I think she’s smart to run against what actually happened in the Bush years, not what could have happened (and didn’t) under Obama.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
slow grilled shoulder? how could you not pair that with a good beer? :)
jeffreyw
Thread needs moar pickles.
Brachiator
Heading out to only cool places today. It’s projected to be in the high 80s today, and 52 percent humidity.
I see a news report that a city in Iran has a heat index of 165 degrees, a near world record.
I saw “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” yesterday. It was pretty good. I will defer saying much more because the movie is just opening and I would not want to throw out potential spoilers. I will say that I liked the titles, which threw in a nod to the original tv series by showing little snippets of sequences from the film itself.
Cruise is good, but man, he is trying a little too hard to give the audience a hard time.
And I really liked Rebecca Ferguson as a kick ass agent. I give Tom Cruise props for showcasing her character. This really highlights Marvel’s stupidity in not putting female heroes more front and center. In Ant Man, the screenplay stupidly falls all over itself in pushing female characters to the side.
It was a little disconcerting to see how much Chinese money is behind the production of this Mission Impossible movie.
Kropadope
@Tree With Water: Well, it would be nice to have an opposition party that still works for the interests of most American people.
different-church-lady
Myself, I always enjoy people who are not climate scientists talking about climate with authority.
There should be a DCL rule: any remarks made about climate within 60 seconds (or four sentences) of a reference to the local temperature should be automatically disregarded.
Amir Khalid
@mai naem mobile:
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
ETA: The cubs that Cecil and Jericho fathered — 12 of them in two prides was the number reported, I think — are now doomed.
Kropadope
@different-church-lady: Wait, but isn’t the very definition of climate “the local conditions; right here right now; disregarding long-term trends?”
Schlemazel
@Redshift: THIS!
I was not an Obama supporter in summer of 07 but I busted my butt knocking on doors & calling for him. I will caucus for Bernie but expect to put in at least 100 hours for HRC next fall, maybe more. We have our share of petty angry people over on this side too but they talk a lot more game than they play. The vast majority of us know that the alternative is much worse but refuse to allow just barely good enough be acceptable. SOmeone has to keep pulling leftward.
THe problem is not the hard left, the problem is the swishy middle & the uninformed who can’t be bothered.
Origuy
By the way, Anne Laurie, Happy Lughnasadh. Since the music thread got taken over by politics, here’s a tune by Lúnasa, the Irish band.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
That’s interesting, and depressing. I wonder if they just don’t see that as part of their job? If they don’t get the idea of GOTV?
Mike Grunwald wrote a book on the stimulus (a very good book, btw) and said in or while promoting it that he had to explain the difference between “stimulus” and “bail out” to a lot of the pols he interviewed. Ezra Klein also said he often found himself explaining the ACA to Dem pols he was interviewing.
@Tree With Water: God knows I got my beefs with Schumer, but I suspect he’s talking about them taking the gov’t over a cliff with them, and the people who suffer from gov’t shut downs, however long they last, tend to be the same who make up the Democratic rank and file.
(if I keep posting here, my bathroom will clean itself, right?)
Schlemazel
Do we have any juicers from ski country in Colorado? My baby just took a job in Vail & rented a place they told her would be $1000/month. When she went to sign the papers they informed her they could get $1700 in the winter so her rent would of course go up to that in December. They can’t afford that sort of money & are looking for something at a grand or under in Eagle County Colorado. Anyone have knowledge of the area & housing?
Kropadope
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes, same applies to my term paper.
Ridnik Chrome
@Roger Moore: My point exactly…
Schlemazel
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Should I write a letter to my Congressman?
Every Congressman has two ends, a siting end and a thinking end.
Since his whole success depends upon his seat, why bother friend?
Y.E.Harburg
It almost never surprises me what Congresscreatures do not know. Keith is my Congressman & a genuine good guy, I hope he kicks some ass & wakes some of those clowns up. The ones in the safe seats should be running interference for those who are not.
Roger Moore
@Kropadope:
That’s more or less how I read what he’s saying. The Republicans going off the cliff of crazy is bad, both for the people who want to vote for non-crazy Republicans and for the country as a whole. I’d rather have an opposition party that I could feel comfortable voting for if the Democrats ever nominate somebody who’s obviously corrupt or incompetent.
RaflW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They get the idea of get themselves re-elected. That’s all some of them get. IF they have more cash than they need to return themselves to office, they give to other House Dem campaigns (this is more PAC money than hard money, I think. I’m not that up on all the rules/tactics).
What Ellison is suggesting is to shift the focus to having crushing wins in the safe districts to tip statewide races. We have far to many states with GOP governors, states that really shouldn’t. We hear a lot about gerrymanders and how that ruins the states – well, not for Governor, or SOS, or state A.G. So get off your butts and blow the turnout off the charts in safe House districts to at least get constitutional officers to put the brakes on shitty state legislatures.
Is Kay around? I wonder if her networks are up on this in Ohio and elsewhere?
Brachiator
I ran across a great essay looking at the GOP candidates in a recent issue of the London Review of Books, written by Chris Lehmann (On the Republican Candidates). Really essential reading.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n12/chris-lehmann/the-candidates
He concludes that they have all been adult failures.
Jeb! is not the smarter Bush, and like some younger brothers with a confident eldest sibling, Jeb seems have an insecurity that leads him to fall in with fraudsters. Not something you want in a president.
Walker has conspicuously weak private sector experience:
Rubio is bad with money and has a political sugar daddy:
So, back in June 5, Lehmann presciently concludes:
God bless America.
Redshift
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I just don’t see any evidence that campaigns like this have ever hurt Democratic turnout. The Dean campaign had just as much of the “cult of the presidency,” and it didn’t. There’s no evidence the PUMAs had any effect except in their own minds.
I can’t find the Sanders quote you mention, so I can’t comment on that. The only thing a search turns up is a Sanders op-ed in the Guardian from 2013, and the only mention there of a “small step” was done by the headline writer, not in the text of the op-ed.
Redshift
@Roger Moore: And an opposition party that doesn’t consider compromise itself a dirty word. Even Republicans I would never consider voting for used to accept that it was worth giving in on things they didn’t like to get what they wanted, instead of being complete nihilists who would rather have nothing than give a crumb to the other side.
bk
Do I have to be the first to say that the lyrics are actually “Hot TOWN, summer in the” etc.?
tybee
@Brachiator:
that’s fall weather around here.
shell
There was a recent report that DC is sinking. When they mentioned ‘Some city’, I thought they were talking about Venice.
trollhattan
Oddly, in my typically hot part of California (108 Wednesday) it’s a mere 92 today. Sweater weather.
SiubhanDuinne
@mai naem mobile:
I just saw that. Is there confirmation? Seemed to be a slight uncertainty in the brief article I read.
If true, it’s just terribly sad. And maddening.
NotMax
@MattF
During the 1930s both Death Takes a Holiday and On Borrowed Time toyed with similar premises.
Kropadope
@NotMax: Also an episode of Family Guy.
trollhattan
@mai naem mobile:
Are you kidding? These rich-ass rednecks are DARING us (whomever “us” is) to outlaw big game huntin’. Asshats.
rikyrah
Honest question:
who, at Headquarters, thought it was a good idea to resurrect Colonel Sanders to try and sell KFC?
Tree With Water
@cmorenc: The patch of coastline that borders San Francisco (to the south) was marked ‘unfit for human habitation’ by the Army Corps of Engineers as late as the 1880’s. It still is as far as I’m concerned. But a steady supply of water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, gas, and electricity was all it took to convert pig farms and artichoke fields to suburbs. I was nearly 20 years old the first time I ever truly appreciated air conditioning, and even then I was on the other side of the continent when it happened. San Franciscans idea of air conditioning is still to open a window, consequently few sprang for air conditioning in their cars way back when. It took the heat and humidity of an early Virginia summer, and the A/C unit of a rental car, for me to understand its appeal.
rikyrah
another honest question, as I watch tv this afternoon, and am not able to ff the commercials:
who, at Lays, thought that someone would want GYROS or RUBEN flavored potato chips?
how does this go from a bullshytting session to actual research and production, to bagging it and putting it on shelves. I saw it at the store and went WHAT DA PHUQ?
Redshift
@Schlemazel:
I have a little more empathy for the uninformed on our side (not the willfully misinformed on the right), and I think if we’re going to solve our midterm problem we need to do more than call the people who don’t turn out lazy. I’ve read some research on why we have such low turnout levels in this country, and a lot of it points to the fact that we have a lot of levels of elected government, and that a lot of people don’t vote if they don’t feel like they can make an informed decision. (Part of the evidence for this is the very high turnout in Oregon’s all vote-by-mail system — it gives people a chance to get more information between when they see the ballot and when they have to respond.)
The Democratic coalition has a lot of people with extremely little leisure time and little control over their schedules, working multiple jobs, etc. We have a lot of good ideas for increasing turnout, among this group and overall — vote by mail, expanded early voting, automatic registration, making Election Day a national holiday or having elections on Sunday, etc. Republicans don’t want more turnout, so they do whatever they can to block or reverse these. They have no problem enacting blatant voter-suppression laws in any state they control; so for a start we should be pushing these expansion measures in any state controlled by Democrats.
Beyond that, we have a chicken-and-egg problem, how to increase turnout in less effective ways that don’t require legislative action so that we have the ability to enact legislation that will be much more effective. Ellison’s work points to one way. But in general, I don’t know the answer. If I did, I’d be making big bucks as a Democratic campaign consultant.
MomSense
@Redshift:
OFA started between the election and the nomination and has never actually stopped. We worked on getting senate support for the Recovery Act, healthcare, and lots of other things. We even made calls on campaigns in the midterms. The President had conference calls with us to encourage us to keep up the pressure in health care reform. I remember being asked to stay involved and I did.
SiubhanDuinne
@MattF:
@NotMax:
See also a wonderful (but abruptly truncated) British TV series, Mulberry.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry_(TV_series)
Schlemazel
@rikyrah:
When all else fails try what used to work. Ignore the criminal lack of quality in your product or the trend away from fried foods and try to get peoples attention with gimmicks. Hell, it works for the clowns.
CaseyL
Erasing a double-post. Sorry, folks!
CaseyL
@mai naem mobile: @Amir Khalid: Later reports are saying Jericho is alive, which I very much hope is true… but that means some other lion’s been killed. Trophy hunting needs to be outlawed. NOW.
gelfling545
@Ridnik Chrome: It was the true part that disgusted them. They don’t go for that truth stuff. Very unseemly.
Bobby B
@OzarkHillbilly: In my neighborhood everthing is getting slow cooked. 110 degree temps day after day really tenderizes us. And we’re getting smoked by pyrocumulus clouds for savory outdoor flavor!
Knittingbull
@Amir Khalid:
this might not be true, the dodo website said it might be another lion that was killed, and a ranger at the park said Jericho was still alive.
Schlemazel
@Redshift:
You are not entirely wrong but, through door-knocking & calling, I end up talking to a lot of people who should be anxious to vote Dem. The number who don’t think it matters because “they are all the same” and “my one vote doesn’t matter” astounds & irritates me to no end. Sure, work & life makes voting more of a challenge for many people in my neighborhood but not nearly as big a challenge as just not bothering to try. Many do not understand the importance of the SoS for instance & that is why Ellison had to work so hard to prevent the election of someone who would make voting more difficult. The exact folks who would be hurt most by them are the ones who most often tell me that it just does not matter.
Linnaeus
Heading out to the lovely Great Lakes on Monday. 70s and low 80s all week. Not bad.
Schlemazel
@CaseyL:
The sad truth is trophy hunting supplies a large amount of the money that preserves the animals and provide income for people who might see killing game as a way to provide for their families. We need to end the practice but to do that we need to provide money to make it happen. Here in MN we have a wildlife checkoff on our income taxes, you can donate any amount to maintaining non-game wildlife & habitat. Something like that could make it through the House if all the folks on FB posting lion pictures would write their COngressperson.
CaseyL
@Schlemazel: You know, I’ve been hearing that argument for years, and I used to think it had merit. But the black rhino is now extinct, African elephants are deeply endangered, and there are only 3000 lions left in the wild.
So, no, I don’t think that argument is valid anymore, if it ever was.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@cmorenc: Ugh! You just reminded me of the insanity of people (family and friends) in Missouri in the 50s and 60s, trying to cool their houses with swamp coolers. This morning it was 66F and 78% humidity, before it started warming up. There is no breeze. It’s heading to 93, depending on which weather service, and the humidity is hovering in the 50s.
Considering adding AC to this house* if this becomes the new normal, because this is Not Nice. We have a couple of fans we carry around to cool us off enough to not die, but this is seriously interfering with the ability to sleep at night.
*Our house is a nice one, about 15 miles east of Seattle in an expensive neighborhood. Most of the houses here are about a $Million but ours is worth a bit less, as it’s a little smaller than most at 2500 sf; and most of them do not have AC, but I’m betting they all will after this summer. Whew!
burnspbesq
@rikyrah:
They are most likely trying to keep up with Kettle, which drops unlikely flavors approximately every month. Maple bacon potato chips? Yup. Sriracha? You betchum.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@jeffreyw: Recipe, please? We are swimming in pickling cukes and could use a good recipe.
Schlemazel
@CaseyL:
assuming facts not in evidence.
Perhaps paid hunts kept those animals on Earth longer than they would have otherwise been. I assume we will eventually wipe out elephants, rhinos and lions but the millionair hunters are providing moeny for conservation and for alternative to native hunting to sell on the black market.
Either way cash hunts need to end and the money be supplanted with larger amounts from places, like the US, that can afford to give.
J R in WV
My neighbor gives me a deer each hunting season. We let him hunt on land we own, so I’m sure he feels like he should pay us back. They’re mostly does, small, really tender for venison.
I’ve started slicing the bigger pieces and slipping them into baggies with red wine, and freezing them with the wine. You can use those slices in any way you could use a beef tenderloin, if you do something to help them not be too dry. Tho the wine helps a lot there.
We have so many deer in the woods they’re a terrible hazard driving in the evenings, and gardening in any way requires a really big high fence to keep them off your plants. They eat our flower gardens too, hostas, ferns, you name it, they eat it.
Except for the invasive plants, which they won’t touch. We have to take care of the invasive plants ourselves, no help from the deer at all. But the neighbor is a good guy, all in all, and we appreciate his help with the deer. I don’t really care to hunt them and having a stranger doing it wouldn’t be as traditional as a neighbor doing it.
Schlemazel
@burnspbesq:
Yeah, those are designed to attract attention, sell a few extra bags to idjets who say “Those sound like they really suck, I have to try them to see if they suck as badly as I imagine. Yup! They do” They never return to shelves after they disappear.
Amir Khalid
@Schlemazel:
@CaseyL:
That argument might be true, if the savannah were well enough policed so that only legal hunting took place. But there are a lot of illegal kills. I’m pretty sure that there aren’t enough wildlife rangers in Africa, and that they have to do a dangerous job while under-resourced, under-paid, and outgunned by the poachers.
Schlemazel
@J R in WV:
I used to hunt. Mostly small game, squirrels, grouse and racoon. I love the flavor of all of those & venison even more. But I don’t any more & the reasons are complicated. I don’t see it as a moral issue, we have more than enough of those animals and if done correctly it is no more inhumane that what we do to cows and pigs (hell, it is more humane and healthy for every being involved!). One thing is I realize there is no nobility in killing, it is just a function of population control. I live in a suburb of 16,000 right on the boarder of a citty of 35,000 and we have deer eating our gardens & getting hit by cars regularly. Unless we are willing to live with wolves & pumas we don’t have many choices.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
Hence the need for larger amounts of money.
Amir Khalid
@J R in WV:
As i understand,ere are too many deer in places like yours because human ranchers killed off nearly all their natural predators, the wolves and cougars that were eating their cattle and sheep.
A guy
Lol! At Amir? Ranchers in west by god. Spare me the insult
Keith G
So, Joe Biden is beginning to consider a run for president , per NYT.
Amir Khalid
@Schlemazel:
Ah, but did any of Walter Palmer’s fifty large go towards Zimbabwe’s wildlife service? I’m guessing every penny of it stayed in the pockets of Mr Bronkhorst and Mr Ndlovu.
Keith G
Link for Biden story
FYWP
Major Major Major Major
So I’m sitting here enjoying a bloody mary in my little bolt-hole and I check the news and start reading about Cecil’s brother, and some jackass puts The Show Must Go On on the jukebox (possibly the saddest song ever recorded, if you know the backstory), and now I’m weeping in a fucking bar.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
We did worse here in Minnesota. A very large portion of the state was known as “The Big Woods” and it was said squirrels could travel hundreds of miles across the state without ever coming close to the ground. That is not prime country for deer who need fields. Our antecedents cleared those forests creating prime land for deer and also wiped out predators. We brought this on ourselves.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
I tried to volunteer for the Obama campaign and never got back one answer. I did phone calling out of the local office for the 2008 election but that was because I went there on election day. I tried in 2012 to volunteer again in different places and got no answer. I can be a pretty motivated person and work hard but the lack of responsiveness astounded me. And in 2012 I was not working so I had plenty of time.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
This is true to some extent. Here in the middle of the Appalachian Mtns the wolves have been gone for a long time – a century or more. There are still a few lions, very rare, but they show up from time to time.
The DNR swears the lions we see are escapees from captivity, not really native. This is because if they admit there is a reproducing population, they would be highly endangered, and thus would have a strong effect on timbering, mining, oil and gas drilling, etc. But I worked with mining inspectors who saw them in the back country commonly.
A neighbor had a horse attacked one night, and the vet who came the next morning was convinced it was a lion attack. But they’re so rare they don’t have any effect on the deer population. Really the biggest factor on the deer population is probably auto accidents. They tear up a car if you hit one, and they are inclined to jump onto the road mere feet in front of a fast car. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage and injuries from deer – auto collisions.
But DNR’s budget is from hunting licenses, and if hunters don’t at least see some deer, they’ll stop buying those lilcenses. Then how will DNR pay their staff? So sad, but so stupid!!
Major Major Major Major
@Schlemazel: Eagle County? Check Carbondale.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
The theory being that the money would keep them from poaching for resale. I’m sure it works sometimes with some people but not everywhere with all. The problem is what are you going to replace it with? If there is no incentive not to poach how is that better than some incentive? I am not arguing for trophy hunting only asking what your alternative is. Mine is more government money, I’d kick in $5, if everyone that posted a picture of Cecil on FB would do that then we might be able to replace trophy money. Till we can do that what is your alternative that will make the situation for the animals better?
Amir Khalid
@Keith G:
Probably too late, especially if he’s waiting until September to decide. And consider the byline: it’s a Maureen Dowd story. She would have us believe that Beau Biden, from his deathbed, implored his dad not to let that Clinton woman become president. Did Beau really think so poorly of Hillary? And how does MoDo happen to know Beau’s dying wshes?
MomSense
@Ruckus:
Wow, that really surprises me. Which state are you in?
Keith G
@Schlemazel:
@CaseyL: Poaching is vile. Legal hunting may be a help in that if done right, that money can help convince the locals not to use more and more land for grazing etc.
But
Habitat encroachment is the mega killer of African (and South American) wildlife. Are we to tell the folks there that they cannot exploit their land (the way we exploited ours) just because we want moar lions. Are we willing to pay them for that trade off? I need to get to Africa before “it” is gone – as surely will happen.
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
thanks, she works in Vail so thats a pretty long drive though.
Tree With Water
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You might be right. But if you are, then Shumer should choose his wording more carefully. I measure any democrat by their willingness to “chew and attack” the GOP. Beyond the democratic rank and file, the republican party represents a threat to the entire planet. They should not be accorded the respect due an “honorable opposition”, and Schumer should not have singled out Cruz (et.al.) as being an anomaly within republican ranks. He’s not, as Schumer damn well knows.
Schlemazel
@Keith G:
Hell, the way we exploited their land too.
Yeah, that is exactly what it is going to take & that sort of effort will not be cheap. In the meantime all we are doing is noodling around the edges. Those animals will not survive without extraordinary efforts & I don’t see the people enraged about Cecil putting forth the money or effort.
jeffreyw
@Pie Happens (opiejeanne): I went with this recipe but I may have overdone it with the red pepper flakes – Mrs J won’t eat them. I started another jar today sans pepper flakes, and added dill seed in lieu of celery seed. No onions this time, minced garlic rather than razor sliced.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Amir Khalid: I haven’t read it because MoDo, but the story that Beau was encouraging Joe to run has been around a while. This is almost two weeks old, quoting a report from June
For the record, I also think my dad would be a great president, but considering he’s 85, an atheist, would suffer fools about as gladly as Barney Frank does, and doesn’t want the job, I’m not gonna bother urging him to run.
Keith G
@Amir Khalid: That is a sourced news story by reporter Amy Chozick, FWIW.
Major Major Major Major
@Ruckus: Huh. I was a field organizer for 2008, and the offices weren’t super well-run, especially towards the end. We broke out into three or four groups of volunteer-run precinct offices, managed by deputized volunteers, and it was all we could do to keep the printers in ink. So you could very well have run up against that log-jam, depending on when it was.
Right to Rise
Notice the lack of global warming comments from the wingers.
Major Major Major Major
@Schlemazel: Doh! I read ‘Aspen’.
All the snow bums (read ‘ski instructors’) from Vail stay in Copper in the summer.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: I was thinking of the Frisco/Silverthorn mega-village, but I can’t remember how long a drive that is. And Vail Pass can get nasty. As a rule I think the people who actually work in ski resorts, the liftes and the servers and the bartenders, either have a long commute, a lot of roommates, or what used to be called a “private income”
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
Thats a lot closer! If that is where the bums hang out than prices are probably closer to her range. I told her when she said she wanted to cook that money would be an issue. She did OK around Winter Park as the resort itself is only billionaires not millionaires but Vail is a whole ‘nother world. But all those sorts of places have to have ghettos for the help.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
yeah, that scares me as it is just the two of them though they had a roomie for a few months. She mentioned a couple of towns nearby & I know we have been to Frisco but didn’t try to get to Vail from there.
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: In the winter they have to have all three.
Redshift
@MomSense: Yes, he called on people to stay involved in OFA, but not to get involved in state and local elections or vote in them. (To be clear, I’m sure Obama has called on people to vote when elections come around, but that’s not the same as telling everyone who voted for him, while they’re still feeling the glow of victory, that they need to commit to voting in every state, local, and congressional election if we’re going to make this change happen.)
I’m not sure how OFA could have officially organized calling for the midterms, because it became an issue-advocacy organization after the election, not an electioneering organization. The type of 501c they chose to reorganize it as is explicitly not allowed to campaign for candidates. I was on the call when it was announced, and it’s why I dropped out (other than clicktivism) not too long after.
Supporting the president’s agenda is a fine thing, and necessary, but it’s not what gets people out to vote or builds local party organizations.
J R in WV
@jeffreyw:
My grandma made great green tomato pickle relish. Cubed up, with onions, a little garlic, red peppers for color, lima beans for whatever reason. dill pickle spice, simmered in vinegar and salt a little bit, then canned. Good stuff! Traditional with beans here locally.
It was always made in the fall when you picked the last green tomatoes that weren’t going to have time to ripen before the first frost.
I think she got recipes from sisters-in-law as she married a pennsy-dutch blacksmith while she was from Kentucky, and had mostly southern recipes. So his family sent her recipes from their family, so he could have home-cookin’ kinda. How it was back in the 19-teens and people moved for work from a farm where generations grew up.
Redshift
@Keith G: The BBC had an interview with an activist in Zimbabwe, who said that none of the money from hunting fees (and not much from wildlife tourism) makes it down to the local people. In countries where it has, they are invested in preserving the wildlife, and can be a very effective part of preventing poaching. (It also is an answer to the charge that we’re making demands about what they should do with their land because we like the wildlife.)
From what I understand, Zimbabwe is just way to corrupt to make that happen, and consequently, the argument that hunting is supporting the preservation of wildlife there also rings pretty hollow.
RaflW
@Major Major Major Major: Carbondale would be a terrible commute to Vail. Prices there are pretty high becsuse the trip to Aspen is “reasonable.”
Quite a few folks commute from Leadville, but it can suck in the snow. Frisco/Dillon/Silverthorn are c. 30mins to Vail but Vail pass can be a pain in storms too.
The whole region has a lack of workforce housing.
mai naem mobile
@CaseyL: I hope you’re right. I got off twitter as soon as I read that Jericho was killed because I just didn’t want to see the gruesome pics that follow.
@Amir Khalid: there was an article in the English Daily Telegraph where Bronkhorst said he had been a farmer but because of Mugabe’s land grab he was just trying to make a living hunting.
I’m just surprised Bronkhorst didn’t immigrate to the UK before Mugabe came in. Lot of Zims did that.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
CA. It surprised me as well. Election day 2008 was a madhouse. 2-3 people at computers madly making lists of phone numbers/names for people to call, another couple making sure people had lists. Probably 75 or so people in 2 rooms, one an entire store, phoning. Some stayed for a short time, some till their batteries died, longer if they could find a plug. I took a break at one point, walked past the republican shop and there were 3 people inside, looked like a waiting area for a retirement home card game.
trollhattan
@J R in WV:
California outlawed (by vote) cougar hunting more than a decade ago and they’ve made a steady comeback since. Saw my first and only one last summer (backpacking cross-country in a remote corner of Yosemite) an item I didn’t even know was on my bucket list. (also, too, a true “holy crap!” moment).
We also had a tiny wolf incursion in far NE California and to listen to the ranchers you’d think ISIL had declared jihad on all cows. “Ah’m askeert; kin ah kill it?” Fact is the feds kill tens of thousands of coyotes yearly to “protect” those same cows and a wolf population would cut down the coyote population as a matter of course. One wolf and possible cubs don’t a local population make, unfortunately.
Unlike a lot of places our deer population continues to dwindle, mostly to habitat loss (per the biologists).
Schlemazel
@RaflW:
What I have seen is as bad as you might expect. She is doing better than average but average is in the low teens per hour and not 40 hours. You’d think some of those places would make some small effort to take care of the serfs but you would be wrong.
Amir Khalid
@A guy:
There are farms with livestock in all of the 48 states, aren’t there? Substitute those for ranches as appropriate.
@Schlemazel:
It doesn’t help that sub-Saharan Africa includes some of the world’s poorest countries. But you can’t bribe criminals not to do criminal things like poaching; the crime will always pay better.
My own feeling is that these countries are only the supply side of the equation. The nations on the demand side need to discourage their Walter Palmers, and the people (mostly Asians) who want things like powdered rhino horn and tiger bile as “medicines”.
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan: We had a cougar walking through San Francisco just the other day!
Major Major Major Major
@RaflW: Yeah I had mistakenly turned ‘Vail’ into ‘Aspen’ between clicking reply and typing the initial comment :-/
@Amir Khalid: 48?
Amir Khalid
@Major Major Major Major:
Okay, 50.
Redshift
@Amir Khalid:
That’s part of it. There’s also the fact that the natural habitat for deer is the edges of woods (open land to graze, woods to hide from predators.) There’s much less deep forest than there once was, and more edges than there were before Europeans came to America. Suburbs are deer habitat.
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Awesome! Where the heck do they think it came from?
They darted and relocated a young male last year a couple miles from my house–figured he’d been driven out of mom’s territory and was looking to make his own. We have a river parkway that runs about thirty miles to the foothills which provides a transportation corridor of sorts but still, there were freeways to cross and such.
Few things kick one down to second link of the food chain quite like being near a really big feline.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: You’d think that the “little blue pill” and similar treatments might make a dent in that market.
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan: Nobody’s quite sure, but it was making its way south. First spotted by the golden gate, then the richmond, then like right by city hall, then by the lake, then gone, so it must have made it to the hills.
You can google it, there’s security camera footage and stuff. Crazy!
trollhattan
@BillinGlendaleCA:
At this point I think it’s straight from “The Freshman” and the Truly Rich are vying to eat the very last one in existence. “Suck it, everyone else.”
Tree With Water
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: My grandfather worked at the Tomboy mine above today’s ski resort of Telluride, Co. He worked there until the ore ran out. That was in the mid-twenties, when the town was a working class hole-in-the-wall. And then, with family in tow, he then moved west to the logging and paper mills of Oregon- a move that worked out pretty well for me.
J R in WV
@Redshift:
I’m pretty sure there’s actually more deep woods now than a century ago, as it became impossible to make a living from a mountain-side farm. They have mostly returned to forest cover now.
I was stalked by a lion in Cochise county AZ a couple of winters ago. There was a huge fire in the mountains on the east side of the valley, and it drove both the game animals and the lions into the valley floor where the farms are.
After dinner with my cousin and chatting and such, I went out to the RV we had in the back yard, and when I passed the corner of the house I smelled the most essence of feline odor ever, and broke into a run for the RV door, inside which laid my pistol, useless away from my hand.
I saw the lion a few days later crossing the highway – it was huge!
Very scary to feel the role of prey in the dark of the high desert…
Amir Khalid
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Lots of people still prefer the older remedies (ETA) to that newfangled Western stuff.
Major Major Major Major
@Amir Khalid: I don’t exactly see the Party banning or managing to enforce that sort of ban in the PRC.
Major Major Major Major
Have I ever mentioned how much I love the (usually) intelligent and wide-ranging discussions these comment threads have? No, I’m not drunk :)
ETA: This sentence is in a rec’d diary at GOS, directed at kos: “You need to read Scandalous One’s diary titled “Thank God for White Liberals” to get yourself up to speed on how liberal white voters have kept the GOP out of the White House”
We are better than them! Yay.
J R in WV
How have liberal white voters kept republicans out of the White House?
By nominating a black guy to run for president to attract all the minority folks who put him over the top for election!!
rikyrah
@Brachiator:
I saw it yesterday, too, and had a great time. Loved it.
Amir Khalid
@Major Major Major Major:
Nor, alas, do I.
ms_canadada
@Major Major Major Major: I’m weeping right along with you.
Major Major Major Major
@ms_canadada: It might not be true!
realbtl
@Schlemazel: This is the fate of almost all of us if the 1% get their way; shitty jobs and no place to live near them. This started happening in Aspen in the early 80s. The rich want our services but don’t want to see us at the local grocery/bar/restaurant. You will take this terrible job and be grateful to us for it.
trollhattan
@J R in WV:
Pretty sure you meant to write, “Yooge! And classy!” ;-)
Gets one’s attention. In Calif we’ve had runners and cyclists killed and eaten by the things. Have seen pawprints many times but never expected to spot one.
debbie
@Tree With Water:
Schumer, as is the custom in New York, is using the word “sadly” ironically. Trust me, he’s anything but sad about this.
debbie
@Schlemazel:
Nostalgia always sells. Ah, for the good old days when an AA wasn’t in the White House.
A guy
Amir- ummm no ranchers. Not in West Virginia. Where r u from and where do you live?
Peale
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yep. LOL. They can’t help referencing this “Obama” fellow as if he is the cause of this. The old guard got old and died and what was left is the looniness that old guard purposefully cultivated. Nothing to do with Obama. It’s been what they’ve been preaching in their churches for generations now.
RaflW
@Schlemazel: I’m glad she is cooking. What I’ve heard about first year Vail ski/snowboard instructors is horrid. Minimal wages, must report for duty on all holiday days & spring break but can be cut from the saily roster each day if demand doesn’t meet expectations.
If the customer doesn’t tip, they’re basically screwed.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@jeffreyw: Thank you. We also have a nice supply of onions; they were my husband’s project the past two years and he is inordinately proud of them. I will think over the changes you made, and I’ll probably avoid the pepper flakes.
Quaker in a Basement
It’s “Hot town,” not “Hot time.” Goddammit, Nuke, I hate it when people get the words wrong.