May we all be blessed by a long and fruitful season!
From faithful commentor Raven:
Here are some pictures of the garden today. The garden girl is concentrating on flowers this year and having great success. You can see how we used the manhole from the sewer project as a centerpiece on the crushed brick patio. Also the shot of the garden from what will be the basement is nice. We’ll have big windows there and on the bedroom above that will overlook it.
J R in WV
Wow, first post! Coincidence in action
And major congratulations to you Raven, that is going to be wonderful. I think you should relax about when the work is done and enjoy the process of getting the new addition done.
If you haven’t even paid anything yet, and don’t have a strict contract but a real handshake instead, it all sounds good to me so far. I’ve built two new houses and a big (24×48 x 2 story) shop/garage with only one contract, for the site prep and septic install on the 2nd new house (I make everyone call it the cabin on the camp – cabins don’t get the same finish) in Arizona. You look to be about 25% done to me.
And it will be beautiful, you already have the landscaping done, which I’m not counting on the 25% done, I’m just going with under roof and interior finished. We moved into the white house in WV in 1994, and there was subsoil in piles and fragments of cinder-block littered around the exterior.
Looking sweet. Best of luck on the rest of the job!
NotMax
Flower in the Sun
Honeysuckle Rose
Aleta
Nice magnitude of greens, and flowers that hold their own.
I like the framing. Must have been fun to frame.
Aleta
@NotMax: wild.
wildwood flower
basement tapes
Tommy
Wonder pics from Raven. I’d love to share mine but we had so much rain the past week I couldn’t weed and although the garden is growing by leaps and bounds so are the weeds. From the pics people might think I am raising raised beds of weeds and not veggies and herbs. Oh and I don’t mow my lawn :).
Now I just need to get a small generator and a better wet vac today. Didn’t have power for a few hours here or there last week and the sump pump couldn’t keep up at other times and I have more than a little water in my basement. Not standing really but still a problem (oh and it is a finished basement).
Aleta
Red is the Rose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvS8KkzKTjQ
OzarkHillbilly
Beautiful garden. Some day I hope to do something similar around my place, but to be honest I have a hard time “seeing” what I want to do. It is really frustrating for me because all my life I have been able to ‘see’ what I was building long before I even broke ground. I guess with plants it is different.
raven
@J R in WV: Thanks! That’s funny, one of my buddies that supervised many large construction projects at the university urged me to get down into the foundation ditch and get all the debris out of there before they backfilled just in case they weren’t going to do it. I did. The time frustration is not bad considering we are coming up on 26 months since we started! When we get really bummed out we remember that the original sewer re-loaction would have destroyed the garden and probably the stand of pines that we planted 15 years ago to screen “Dixie Painting” and the other commercial businesses behind us. Anyway we meet with the contractor tomorrow to go over a bunch of details and make a payment for the work so far.
ThresherK
@NotMax: I can’t garden or lawn (is that a verb?) to save my life.
But old jazz? Now that’s something I know about!
However, on the gardening front, the second item “up next” in the Fats Waller YouTube is an hour of “Reefer songs from the 30s and 40s”.
Baud
Pop-up BJ party at Raven’s when this is all done!
The grave marker was bittersweet.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: That is something that my bride is so good at. Her and her day (the builder and SeeBee) planned all the original work that we did on the house and I was baffled. The first summer we had the entire back yard skinned an terraced and she went from there. This is what it looked like when we were just putting up the screened porch.
A view from below.
Aleta
Working on a Building
John Fogerty, Blue Ridge Rangers
raven
This is a rough drawing of the side view that does not included the big bay window that I salvaged, It will look over a small “sitting garden” she has planned.
OzarkHillbilly
Oh and it’s raining again.
raven
@Aleta: Besides carrying stuff taking pictures is my main contribution.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Go ahead, rub it in California’s face.
Aleta
@raven: I love salvaged windows. No one I know wants to put them in anymore because of building the frame.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah it rained all last week and he have a high chance of rain everyday this week but Wednesday.
Aleta
@OzarkHillbilly: Rain just got here and it settled in fast.
raven
@Aleta: That is one of the reasons we went with our guy. While he has built some very modern houses he’s way into preservation.
Tommy
@Aleta: My best friend in DC had a 150+ year old row house on Capital Hill. One of the last wooden ones around. He did a ton of a work and a small expansion and there were specific regulations he had to follow. He found some Mennonites to reproduce the new windows on the extension by hand to match the others. They were flat out beautiful! He would have used reclaimed if he could find them, but he had no luck.
Aleta
@raven: harder to find someone with that knowledge or patience, it seems. Sometimes I think about the body of ‘common’ knowledge that is disappearing (seems so, at least) right now, like fixing your own car, building rock walls.
JPL
Thanks Raven for the pictures. The garden is lovely and hopefully you keep the pictures coming when they finally start framing.
How is the grass seed coming?
satby
Beautiful pictures and garden raven! I’m with OzarkHillbilly, I plant stuff but don’t really get spatially how it will work until it starts to grow, and planning a garden space the way your bride does is beyond me, but I love to look at results like yours. And Raven’s grave in the middle of flowers is bittersweet. All my guys that have gone over the bridge get their own space and flowers too.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: My son and granddaughter are here for the wkend. Spent all day touring flooded creeks and rivers to the south and west of us (Meramec, Courtois, Huzzah, Mineral Fork and tributaries). It’s really nothing new as we have flooding somewhere on a semi-regular basis anyway. I guess this time is different because it’s flooding everywhere all at the same time.
raven
@JPL: We are watering!
Betty Cracker
Wonderful garden — the lady clearly knows what she’s doing!
Aleta
My cousin was one of the last around here to repair slate roofs.
A carpenter I hired for an old building knew how to do what it needed. He was fairly young, no health insurance, died quickly after getting cancer. Similar story for some other independent workers in that community.
satby
@Aleta: It’s not disappearing, it’s just retained by people who do that kind of work. Most people don’t have the time after their full time jobs to tinker or build like that anymore, not when you put in a 50-60 hour week. So they hire someone else who can and that’s not such a bad thing.
Hell, the young man who used to be my handyman is an extremely talented carpenter and builder, but he’s going on year 4 of rebuilding and expanding his own house because he got a union job as a millwright with lots of overtime, and he’s a 30-something guy with a young family. He’s not going to let some other guy do the work, so the house sits, 1/2 finished.
Baud
@satby:
Yeah, I wish I could quit and spend my time learning how to do things.
OzarkHillbilly
@Aleta:
Our coming non-union world.
Valdivia
Beautiful garden @raven!
raven
@Aleta: He was a really good potter before he went into building. He and his wife have spearheaded the “backyard chicken” effort here and, a couple of years ago, them and their twins cut off their power for a month and wrote about it!
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: We’re around.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: One of my guys main carpenters is really good but he’s also in nursing school because he knows he can’t keep this up forever.
Aleta
@satby: I know only one person who works on his own cars. It’s not only time; for cars, it’s design that requires specialized tools, repair manuals that only dealers are allowed to access, computer timing where it used to be only mechanical. Not that the change should be resisted. Just that it’s a big difference from the last 70 years. Kind of like watching a big hunk of behavior that comes from know-how, and is one kind of independence, evaporate.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven:
Many years ago we were sitting around eating lunch, 3 journeymen and a cub. When lunch was up the 3 journeymen all groaned and creaked and cracked as we stood up. The cub looked at us and said, “I gotta get a different job.”
raven
@Aleta: I work on my 66 Chevy truck all the time!
Eric S.
Raven, that looks awesome.
We’ve had a lot of rain in Chicago this past week and my deck garden was in danger of drowning. During the Blackhawks game Monday I was going out every intermission to drain off excess water. All the pots have holes drilled for drainage but it was just coming down too fast.
I’ve created a photo album to track its progress.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: :). I always say that breaking my back in 1975 was one of the best things that happened to me. All my buddies were Union laborers and the money was so good at the nuke plant in Clinton that it was hard to turn down the dough.
Baud
@Aleta:
The rapidity of change is a large reason for the worldwide increase in fundamentalism and reactionary conservatism, IMHO.
OzarkHillbilly
@Aleta: I still work on mine… parts of them anyway. Truth is you can get all the tools and computers and manuals you need, they are all available, but the knowledge needed to work on today’s vehicles takes years and thousands of dollars to acquire. Comes down to the ever finer tuning of engines and transmissions and braking and steering etc etc in search of maximum fuel efficiency and safety. My first 30 driving years I did all my own maintenance including rebuilding engines and transmissions, and it was possible because I drove older vehicles. About midway through the ’00s I finally relented and bought a newer vehicle. Just knowing how an internal combustion engine works is no longer enough.
A buddy of mine is still driving the same ’70s model Blazer he bought in ’82. It’s on it’s 4th engine and 3rd or 4th tranny, 2nd body and has about 750,000 miles on it. Says he’ll never give it up ’cause “I can work on this one.”
jharp
@Eric S.:
I enjoyed your photos album of your deck garden.
You now have 2 views.
One of these days….. .. I am going to have a rooftop garden. I all need is to buy the right house that has one.
HinTN
@raven: Tell your nursing student to go right through to BSN / MAN or maybe nurse anesthetist because the system just chews up floor nurses.
Eric S.
@jharp: I’ve been seriously considering moving the tomatoes up on the roof. They’ll get a lot more sunlight up there. I’ve decided if I do it I’m not going to seek out approval of the condo board. I’ll just ask forgiveness if anyone gets upset.
satby
@Aleta: my kid is 30 and works on that stuff all the time, but it is his job. Others skills take the place of ones that fall by the wayside, but if it’s still useful in a community or area it won’t fade. My old neighborhood in Chicago is a historic one, and plasterers and slate roof repairmen are available. More than a couple, because there’s a demand.
debbie
Love the repurposed manhole!
OzarkHillbilly
“Remember Satan was the first to demand equal rights.”
satby
@Eric S.: 4 views, and it looks great Eric! You have more tomato blossoms than my plants do.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
“The retirement age should be 70” – some guy who really doesn’t work much at all, has staff to do most stuff and certainly never does anything demanding physical exertion.
Raven: Wow! what a transformation. I have been reading about this project for a couple of years & that wore me out, can’t imagine having to live it. Gorgeous gardens, thanks for sharing.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
So our hetero WASP friends see themselves as God?
satby
@Schlemazel: One of my (many) pet peeves; that the retirement age should be raised is always, ALWAYS suggested by people who have easy jobs with loads of staff and no job insecurity. No one working a job involving physical labor or a sedentary but very high stress job would suggest raising the retirement age because we know lots of us would never be able to live long enough to see that age. And that’s the point, isn’t it? That more of us would die in the harness rather than enjoy a few years of retirement.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: The new Jews, God’s ‘chosen people’. They never watched Fiddler on the Roof tho where Tevya says, “I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can’t You choose someone else?”
MomSense
@Baud:
Yes! I’ll make pies.
Raven the garden is beautiful. Congratulations to you and your bride who clearly has vision.
I was supposed to spend the day in the garden but it is pouring rain. Guess that means no excuse not to do the vacuuming and (fully clothed) mopping.
satby
@MomSense: we had about 10 minutes of sun barely peeping out of clouds before the grey skies and more rain rolled in.
I’m getting worse seasonal affective disorder now than I had in winter, we had more sun then!
Baud
@MomSense:
MomPies!
debbie
@satby:
It’s definitely been a very gray summer in Ohio, much grayer than winter was. Today, in a couple hours, it’ll be the 10th straight day of monsoon rains.
MomSense
@satby:
When it is sunny in winter, it can be so bright and beautiful.
@Baud:
I was thinking wild blueberry. Moms are too tough.
Elizabelle
Raven: looks like an Eden. Gorgeous place to sit with a cold drink or coffee.
The “raven” stone is poignant. Will catch up reading comments now.
Kay
It’s funny, because Romney could be a way forward for them. They’ll get the south in a general election, so it’s about the devotion of one part of the base. They have a decision to make, just like Democrats had a decision to make in the 1960’s. This decision is actually a lot easier than the one the Democrats made because that part of the base (now) has no where else to go. They won’t “lose” the racist vote although it has implications outside the south because there’s absolutely a GOP-aligned racist vote in the midwest. I kmow that to be true.
Since the “states rights” Democrats then all became Republicans after the CRA I don’t know where they go if Republicans stop pandering to them.
All alone. Potentially. How tragic! :)
WereBear
I totally agree.
Due to a combination of considerable adverse circumstance, Mercury in a pivotal house, and sheer cussedness, I am told I display a level of adaptability that people find ridiculously swift and flexible.
At such people I want to scream that word processors are better than typewriters and people’s lives are saved with cell phones and where would you be without dental anesthetic?
Not that some changes don’t suck; they do. But you have to get through that part to get to the better part, and the better part is always worth it.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: Day-um. What a mindset. “God wants some people to be oppressed, and that’s you, not me.”
Kay
@Kay:
And by “Romney” I don’t mean Mitt Romney, the candidate, I mean Mitt Romney’s bet that he could lose the southern primaries and win the nom.
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: Mincemeat!
@OzarkHillbilly: I kind of like that Lucifer guy. He makes some valid points.
raven
@Elizabelle: A friend made it about a year after he died. It’s a nice little spot.
Corner Stone
@Kay:
I’ve said it before but I’ll repeat myself, I am not counting out Mitt the candidate until they drive a stake into him.
Brandon
@OzarkHillbilly: I used to feel that way. I wanted to plan everything to accommodate all variables: sun, seasons, creating relief with height and size. And then select the right plants with an emphasis on natives. It was beyond me. Then I just decided screw it. I started picking up plants I liked here and there and planting them whoever made sense at the time. Now I realize that it’s okay to make ‘mistakes’, it’s not a big deal. I now move stuff around when they have grown to maturity and give away plants and flowers I don’t like. You just gotta go for it. The hardest part of gardening is the planning (well and weeding and mulching). Mother Nature and photosynthesis take care of the rest. Once you make the planning part easy by not planning and jumping in, it becomes easier than you would’ve imagined. The only thing you really have to be is patient, because you really only get one shot a year.
JPL
@Eric S.: Your pictures are beautiful.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
It was a given in 2012 because there was literally no one else. None of those other people were winning a major Party nomination. This one is different- Walker or Bush COULD win a major Party nomination.
I think he’ll be great as the unoffocial Party leader, actually. They had no one else because they obviously can’t use Bush (and he’s probably too lazy anyway) but Romney is smart. He’s a smart person. They could do a lot worse.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
I thought it was amusing when it became clear they were elevating Mitt Romney to “former fake-President, Party leader” because Mitt Romney is so competitive as a person and he keeps “winning” these GOP “leader” slots because there is literally no one else to fill them.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus: I wonder if he has a newsletter to which I could subscribe.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
ha!
Baud
@MomSense:
How Stephen King.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
I’m interested in this: Bush made some deal with Romney and took him out, but Kasich will be the new threat. Does that mean Bush didn’t realize that? Kasich is like the more electable Jeb Bush. They’re essentially the same candidate, except one is slightly better and it isn’t Jeb. Jeb Bush missed that?
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: I’ll ask Aleister.
@MomSense: I’m not kidding.
JPL
@Kay: Kasich has a medicaid problem, so I’m not sure he’s acceptable, to those who just want people to die.
Kay
@JPL:
He also has a labor union problem. He lost on opposition to public sector unions and he dropped opposition to private sector unions. He’s dropped union-bashing.
I actually think that’s why the far-Right Koch brothers elevated Walker over Kasich. They want to destroy unions. Job One. Kasich is a better general election candidate. The stuff about “winning Wisconsin so might win the general against a Democrat” is bullshit. It’s a relatively small state and he didn;t move the needle at all in the 2012 Presidential in Wisconsin. He won;t carry his own state. Kasich could.
opiejeanne
Raven, your garden is lovely and it looks like the addition will be very nice. I like the use of the manhole cover, but how did you move it? Wasn’t it terribly heavy?
MomSense
@Baud:
Our winters are very long and dark.
@Omnes Omnibus:
I better make a few practice pies.
WereBear
Self-awareness must be sought. And it’s even more difficult if you’ve been surrounded by ass-kissers since birth (who don’t give a flip about you) and the people who are supposed to give a flip about you are… Barb.
And W was his older brother.
Gee, I’d almost feel sorry for him. Almost.
ThresherK
The Pat Boone thingy on CBS Sunday Morning is on now.
I guess I’m getting a bit weary of battling in my old age, but I can’t find it in my heart to hate him.
Even with a clip of him dressed like late-era Elvis in a fringe jacket, singing “Ain’t That a Shame”, in what I take to be Branson, but is actually Indiana.
At least he seems to be a good professional, re the anecdote about the one time a very young Elvis opened for him, and after Elvis’ rocking “Blue Moon of Kentucky” went over big with the live audience, Boone says (now) “After that night, I had the sense to never try to follow Elvis on a stage again”.
ETA: TV says he’s a Tea Party Conservative. Guess nobody in his entourage has told him that this isn’t Eisenhower’s GOP, and hasn’t been for decades.
Kay
@JPL:
I think part of the reason they want to destroy unions (although they’re only like 7% nationally) is because they know that if it gets worse for working and middle class people those people will turn to a non-state alternative for power and there is only one non-state alternative and that’s organizing and collective bargaining (whatever you call it-‘union’ or something that looks a lot like a union).
There’s employer, state action (regulation) and a non-state collective entity like a labor union. There is nothing else. If 1 and 2 don’t work people will be left with door number 3. I think the Koch brothers want to close off that possibility.
JPL
@Kay: That makes a lot of sense.
gelfling545
Last week I mentioned how my garden benefited from the freezing temps & constant snow cover of last winter. Here is but one example of it bursting out in our so far very damp spring.
satby
I have been remiss: Happy Father’s Day to those of the Juicitariat that are fathers!
Baud
@Kay:
Wisconsin voters:
Obama 2008: 1,677,211
Walker 2010: 1,128,941
Obama 2012: 1,620,985
Walker 2013: 1,335,585
Walker 2014: 1,259,706
So Walker’s best showing was in the recall battle, but like many governors, he never had to face the voters in a presidential election year.
Baud
@satby:
I forgot as well. Good day to all the BJ daddies!
Corner Stone
@Kay:
Whether Jeb did or not, I feel very sure the people who want Jeb elected have factored past Kasich.
IMO they told Romney they would cut his nuts off with the big funding guys (outside the Kochs), and Mitt decided he would not burn early money. This way Mitt can continue playing the leadership role and wait to see who in the field gets desperate enough to turn their guns and focus on Jeb. IMO, Mitt has made a bet that it will be Jeb left standing but Romney’s hope is that Jeb’s so beat up he looks weak and the money guys come home to Mitt.
IMO, Kasich has zero shot. No name recognition, not nutty enough of a record to gain TP traction. He would have to be too moderate during the primaries, so I don’t think he’s going anywhere. And who’s paying him to run?
JPL
Clyburn was on MTP and mentioned that it takes 2/3’s of the vote to remove the battle flag, but it only takes a simple majority to change that law.
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: Yes, you’d best get started.
Corner Stone
“You were expecting a horse and you got a goat. And nobody wants a goat.”
Welp, it’s obvious the people making this commercial have never met or heard of Mickey Kaus.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: This is disturbing.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: Overly average minds think alike!
To be fair, among this self-selecting population there’s really only two ways to go with a goat joke, Red State guy or Kaus.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: If we can’t stand together, they don’t have to let anybody else stand at all.
Poopyman
@Corner Stone: @Omnes Omnibus: It’s all good, so long as Google keeps pairing Mickey Kaus with goats.
Corner Stone
@Kay:
I think this is pretty on for the most part. I would also add that it’s the collective part they want to remove. Their goal is to set all against all, so that free market competition seeks out the most desperate, the one who will cut their ask down *just* a little farther than the other guy.
ETA, I agree with the previous para in comment #82 that I didn’t quote, just wanted to push it a little farther to what I see as their desired outcome.
Poopyman
Well shit. After the previous comment I decided to Google “Mickey Kaus”. and lo and behold, no mention of goats. I guess we’re falling behind in linking the two.
Corner Stone
@Poopyman: Google is a dating service now? I thought they just did doodles.
Corner Stone
MHP has been a fascinating show so far today.
PurpleGirl
@WereBear: Agreed. Having worked with both typewriters and computer word processing, I have to agree.Typing on a computer is a lot easier, especially the correction process. Even with the tendency for bosses to want more and more corrections, I wouldn’t go back to a typewriter for anything.
OzarkHillbilly
Not to mention the fact that even using the Republicans Magic Math,
No Matter How You Slice It, Obamacare Reduces the Federal Deficit
JPL
@Corner Stone: What did Huck have to say? I just couldn’t listen to him.
Corner Stone
@JPL: I must’ve been in the shower for that segment because I didn’t see it.
Probably because I was naked. And soapy all over.
Bam! Take that, Sunday morning!
raven
@opiejeanne: The manhole cover is heavy but the piece we used foe the patio is TWICE as heavy! I rolled it and told the boss that it was getting moved ONCE! It was downhill so that helped.
Elizabelle
@Corner Stone: You drove us all away with that image!
I kid. And Happy Father’s Day.
JPL
@Elizabelle: Speaking about wet, are you drying out after last nights rain?
Elizabelle
@JPL: Happy to say the living room floor looks great. It’s dry and looks like nothing ever happened.
Described situation to the friend in Denver (with the leaking basement from all the rain they’ve gotten) and she thinks this could have been a one-time event where the rain fell just so and overwhelmed the windowframes. Does seem that’s what happened.
Shall be watching (and worrying a bit) during upcoming weather, though. Will get brother in law up to take a look in next few weeks …
Today is gloriously breezy and shady out on the (moist) deck. I have about two loads of towels to wash and dry.
Happy Father’s Day to all.
JPL: how is your day going?
JPL
@Elizabelle: Pretty good!
A son is going to come over and grill salmon and broccoli, so that will be fun. His dad and my ex is in WV, so he misses out.
Germy Shoemangler
@ThresherK: He has made some hideous statements against marriage equality and Obama. He was/is a very minor talent who got lucky during a time when parents refused to have “race records” in their houses. He supplied mediocre cover versions that got airplay, and gave him a career.
You could find more talent in the choir of any black church in any part of America.
raven
@Germy Shoemangler: He’s fucking pig.
Germy Shoemangler
from rightwing watch:
WereBear
@Germy Shoemangler: And then there’s his heavy metal covers. Those were actual crimes.
Germy Shoemangler
@WereBear: I enjoy the CBS Sunday morning show. It’s quieter than the other a.m. network shows. I like the classical music theme and the thoughtful essays on science and culture.
I didn’t see the Pat Boone segment (I walked around the corner to buy beer) but I assume no mention was made of his ugly views.
On another topic, our little girl is doing better after I gave her the topical flea medicine. I’ve been vacuuming every day, sprinkling salt and baking soda on the carpets. For a few days she had no appetite and I was worried about her. I think that was the result of all the RA1D flea spray on the carpets.
rikyrah
@Kay:
I still believe he’s laying low, waiting for Jeb to flame out.
rikyrah
@Kay:
You are on point with the Union thing. Absolutely on point.
Germy Shoemangler
@rikyrah: I’ve read so many contradictory things about Rmoney. First I read that he wasn’t interested in being POTUS, but his wife pushed him. Then I read that he was the one who was burning to be president, but his wife was against it. Then I read an interview with one of his sons who said he didn’t really want it.
So I honestly don’t know what’s going on in that family. But I know I find him odious.
opiejeanne
It’s Father’s Day and our lovely daughters are taking us to lunch. At a place that does shows. With men dressed as women*. It’s a surprise for my husband. I think he’ll be surprised.
*It is my everlasting regret that I never went to Finocchio’s when it was open, and when it announced it was closing the tickets to the place sold out immediately. My dad always wanted to go, too, but Mom wouldn’t let him. She had some strange idea that they would kidnap him and do things to him.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Doesn’t it feel like it? Particularly with the big success of Fight For Fifteen. It’s like they have to get rid of the idea of organizing, the possibility, even if remote! :)
This was nice:
They had their convention in Detroit last week. It’s the second annual. I only saw it on labor sites. I give the US Dept of Labor huge credit for giving the strikers credit for the work that the strikers did in raising the minimum wage.
http://blog.dol.gov/2015/06/16/a-word-from-the-wise-union/
beltane
The internets tell me that Jeb! has now followed Romnney’s lead in voicing opposition to the confederate flag. Now that the first class section of the clown car has spoken, it will be interesting to see what the clowns riding in coach do.
Germy Shoemangler
This is for all the teachers in our balloon-juice community:
http://zenpencils.com/comic/124-taylor-mali-what-teachers-make/
WereBear
@beltane: Wow. I feel the earth shifting.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
I disagree. It could happen. Walker is too far Right and he has horrible dead eyes and a slack face. He looks both dumb and mean. I just think when they roll him out nationally he’ll start to stumble. He’s also a liar, and a reckless one. That slap he took at Obama where UK leaders “told him” Obama was a weak leader was just dumb. He thought that would go unnoticed?
I will feel less confident on Clinton if Kasich gains ground, because I think Democrats are weaker than people think in the Great Lakes states. At some point the state-level bleeding there comes into play in national elections. I bet Kasich knows it.
rikyrah
@Germy Shoemangler:
The only reason I believe he’s just waiting patiently:
WHITE HORSE PROPHECY.
He actually BELIEVES IT.
Germy Shoemangler
@rikyrah: Ahh yes, the white horse prophecy. His beliefs are fierce. He has his mormon tales plus the daddy issues that W carried.
WereBear
@rikyrah: I agree. He certainly acts like it!
chopper
@beltane:
given that none of the low-rent schmucks in the back of the car want to risk losing any southern primary, not much.
it’ll be fun as shit to watch the confederate flag double down into an even bigger shibboleth among conservatives. maybe us liberals can help this process along a little.
Kay
I saw my first anti-Clinton bumpersticker. It was funny because I have actually canvassed this person and he told me he’s a former Democrat. I don’t know when he was a Democrat- 1980? Maybe he’s the elusive “Reagan Democrat”. The car was in his driveway anyway, so I bet it’s him.
“Monica Lewinsky’s boyfriend’s wife is running for President”
I thought “too long! too much punctuation! try harder” :)
Corner Stone
@Kay:
I agree on Walker, every time they show him in static repose I ask myself who the hell could possibly look at this guy and not recoil?
But I think it’s a little misleading to directly compare him to Kasich based on them both being mid-west R Govs. Kasich is a lot smoother, and you know all his background as to why that likely is. But K is still too moderate to get any traction in the early going and he’s going to get buried by the money guys just about right away if he jumps in. Among the whales that can one-man fund a campaign, who buys his stock?
Ruckus
@Kay:
About a week ago I saw my first and I hope only Carson 16 sticker. It was on the bumper of a well used econobox here in socal. I couldn’t think which would be better, getting the hell away or pointing and laughing.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
I don’t know, but there’s potential there because he’s an experienced DC person (they want reliability- a track record) and he’s also a finance industry guy. Or he brushed up against finance industry people when he left DC and cashed in, anyway.
They could even kind of trump up an implosion. Bush/Walker could say something ordinarily stupid and they could make it into a Deal Breaker- “well, now Bush/Walker CANNOT win”.
They really, really want to win. They will do just about anything to win, I think it’;s safe to say. Don’t give them too much credit for adherence to Conservative Principles- we know that’s BS anyway at the higher levels.
Germy Shoemangler
@Ruckus: Just saw my first anti-HRC joke:
I’m sure this is trending like wildfire on wingnut social media.
beltane
@Germy Shoemangler: I first saw that joke in New Hampshire in 2008. Even then, it had probably been making the wingnut rounds for a decade or more. They need new jokes.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
Rupert Murdoch.
Fox basically ran campaign ads as “content” in Kasich’s first governor’s race. It was appalling. He’s one of their own. A former FOX media personality.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/murdoch-says-kasich-friendship-influenced-1-mil-donation.html;_ylt=A0LEVv5v8oZVnXQATtonnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTEzNDhnY25tBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDRkZHRUMwXzEEc2VjA3Ny
Omnes Omnibus
@Germy Shoemangler: Speaking of bad jokes, apparently this one is out there too. As the person who pointed it out to me said, WTF?
WereBear
@Corner Stone: I couldn’t believe anyone would let Nixon in to clean the pool, much less run the country. But here we are.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Well, then he’s screwed himself again by calling for SC to take down the confederate flag.
beltane
@Omnes Omnibus: The casual racism that exists in modern Israeli society is such that that this woman was probably completely caught by surprise that anyone could find her joke to be lacking in the humor department.
chopper
@Germy Shoemangler:
that’s an old one. usually referencing KFC. why they’d change it to mcdonald’s i have no idea but then again the sort of yardsleepers who push this dreck around the internet are not known for their clever joke craft.
Germy Shoemangler
@Kay:
Very true. Every one of their stated principles (deficits, taxes, etc) is the sheerest gossamer. They’re all about victory.
Ruckus
@beltane:
They need
newactual jokes.Fixit for you.
Corner Stone
@debbie:
Romney could not care less about the SC primary. And he’s probably not too worried about a handful of other Southern states either.
Kay
@Germy Shoemangler:
“they’ll never vote for a Mormon because they are Christian conservatives!” Of course they will, and did. Obviously not happy about it, but Romney doesn’t give a shit.
Kay
@debbie:
Romney won without winning any southern primaries. He’s the first GOPer to do that in the “modern era” which I guess is 1976 because that’s when SC early primary started.
Corner Stone
@Kay:
I see it as much more likely the Bush Crime Family’s people will push a hard line about how Kasich CANNOT win. I definitely see Jeb inserting foot in mouth several times but I doubt anything will be actually fatal. Fox News may try a couple memes but IMO they won’t catch.
And I have no illusions about the people who want to win. They have no principles, conservative or otherwise. But those guys aren’t the ones controlling who gets oxygen early on among TP’rs. I think it’s pretty interesting to note that Jeb has basically cut in half the polling for “could NOT support” among potential R voters. He was way down and now mysteriously has vaulted higher in favorability in recent polls.
Corner Stone
@Kay: Yeah, that Kasich/Fox thing was incredibly despicable. I get Murdoch likes him but I wonder just how much?
Iowa Old Lady
@Kay:
@Germy Shoemangler:
The many layers of misogyny there already make my blood pressure spike. And they’re willing to put this stuff out there because they don’t know how sexist they sound. Or maybe they don’t care and don’t think anyone else does.
Germy Shoemangler
@Iowa Old Lady: They let their racist freak flags fly in 2009 and 2012.
2015? The year of the pig.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
I’m comfortable with Bush v Clinton. I just don’t want any crazy “replacing” going on :)
Settle down, rich people. Don’t panic.
Corner Stone
@Iowa Old Lady:
C’mon, it’s a joke! It don’t mean nothing. Geez, what’s wrong with you libtards? Always so PC you can’t even just let a guy have some funnin’ around.
Corner Stone
@Kay:
Fine with me as well. Now if we could only get the very liberal TV channel MSNBC to stop calling Clinton a dynasty candidate…
beltane
@Corner Stone: Jeb can put his foot in his mouth all he wants and the Villagers will continue to look the other way. His brother’s entire political career was spent with his foot firmly jammed into his mouth, a condition the media assured us was due to his leadership qualities and plain-spokenness.
Kay
@Iowa Old Lady:
I had a horrible Charleston shooting encounter yesterday.
Woman I know “I feel so bad those poor people got shot for no reason”
Me: (tense) “he shot them for a reason. Because they’re black. That’s what the shooter said”
Her: “I just meant they weren’t doing anything wrong”
Me: “why would they be doing something wrong?”
Ugh. Not good.
Iowa Old Lady
@Corner Stone: You’re right. That’s exactly what they’ll say.
Iowa Old Lady
@Kay: Oh lord. People reveal themselves all the time without knowing it.
Kay
@Iowa Old Lady:
It ended with “I think we’re all upset about this” – the traditional patronizing fake-kind closing-off of touchy subjects whch really means “you’re over-reacting”
WereBear
@Kay: I expect to cringe every time it comes up. Recent events have taxed my diplomacy skills to the max.
Corner Stone
@JPL: Oh, think I just figured this out. I was watching Melissa Harris Perry on MSNBC, MHP. Not Chuckles Todd on Meet the Press, MTP. That may be why I didn’t see the Huckster. Of course I was also naked and soapy around the same time, so…
Bam! Take that, Sunday afternoon!
Elizabelle
@Corner Stone: Crickets.
And a new thread!
Elizabelle
@Iowa Old Lady: Ugly, yes, but hearing this might motivate younger folks to vote Democratic. Stuff like this can backfire.
If I saw (and could read) that ridiculous bumper sticker, I would think “someone should tell that driver that the 1990s are over.”
satby
@WereBear: I’m about out of diplomacy skills. Not that I had that many, but I just don’t care who gets upset if I call out their racist stupid thinking any more.
satby
@Corner Stone: Soapy is always good in my book ;)
Just sayin.
Edited because comments on Kindle always have a word substitute I didn’t plan on.
debbie
@Kay:
Well, there are plenty of Tea Partiers throughout the country who support states’ rights and hate anyone telling other people what to do. But Romney, locked as he is in the GOP of the past, wouldn’t have thought about that.