The piece mentions term limits and an enforceable code of ethics.
Not directly related, also a constitutional amendment to undo the deranged decision to put a Convicted Felon above the law.
I don’t think either of these goals is something that can be accomplished in six months. On the other hand, it is the kind of thing a lame duck administration should try. This kind of pushes me into counterfactual territory, as it would have been better had Biden declined to seek a second term back in late 2022. I don’t want to go there.
So, assuming the report is true and that Biden goes through with this, how would it affect the campaign?
@Kathy: Biden is attempting to save the court from itself.
The question in my mind is “Will the court allow itself to be saved?”
My instinct is that the answer is “no”, and that the billionaires running this country won’t allow a constitutional amendment to fix things to gain any ground either.
It was clear, she said, that the nine years they had spent apart had changed Gizmo, too. The 8lb chihuahua had grown afraid of shadows, heights and birds, and he now walked with a limp. Monarrez said both of his eyes were severely infected, and some of his teeth were missing.
“Even though he looked so different, when I looked in his eyes I knew immediately it was Gizmo,” Monarrez said, recalling the moment they were reunited at the vet’s office. “And as soon as I said his name, he tilted his head and he didn’t stop staring at me.”
@Tony W: My instinct is that the answer is “no”, and that the billionaires running this country won’t allow a constitutional amendment to fix things to gain any ground either.
Yep. After all the years spent stacking the court they aren’t about to let DEMs undo it.
@Kathy: He wouldn’t be getting it done if Obama had started the reform in 2008. But it would have been a topic of discussion in Congress, and by extension the nation, for a decade or so. The JKBs and Jack/Drew/Guarneris of the world would have exhausted their protests about leading the nation to anarchy or whatever by now.
Like the adage about retirement investing goes, “…and the second best time to start is now.”
Assuming Harris wins and the R’s take Senate, I’d love to hear about D plans to get around the Senate bloackade vis a vis SCOTUS appointments. Shrug their shoulders and say “It is what it is” like Obama did?
I just read something that’s utterly bizarre yet makes perfect sense… People have been pointing out lately that Trump keeps bringing up Hannibal Lecter for no reason at his rallies and someone suggested it might be because he keeps hearing about immigrants being granted “asylum” and thinks that means insane asylums instead of political asylum…
Let’s not be too quick to assume we’ll lose the Senate. If we take the WH, we can afford to lose one – WV. Cook has us at four toss-up seats – MT, MI, NV and OH. We need to win all four. We have small but steady leads in all but MT.
Then, there are Texas and Florida. Both likely GOP, but latest polls for them shows a 2 and 3 point GOP lead. I don’t quite believe that, but Cook has those two as ‘likely’ but not solid.
If we hold the Senate – very big if – first order of business should be to dispense with the filibuster. I don’t think reform has much chance since the corrupt SCOTUS will simply overrule on separation of powers grounds. The better idea, IMO, is to add three justices.
“I love you. Get out – you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”
I have no doubt he read the book of Hitler’s speeches Ivana or Melania or Ivanka or someone said he kept in his nightstand. Also, too, he may have read all of Two Corinthians. And upside down to boot.
Hey, the Olympics have started. I got a big kick seeing SnoopDog with the torch. The greatest torch carrier image for me came at the end of the Unbroken movie when it showed Louie Zamperini carrying the torch in Japan. We are capable of overcoming evil and discord. I hope that the original Olympic spirit of reconciliation and peace gets a big emphasis at these games. I was thrilled to see South Sudan make a great showing in a preliminary game against the USA.
@Michael Reynolds: Trump is the sort of guy who when he was in high school would say “I saw the movie, books are for suckers”, but in reality was too lazy to even watch the movie. He probably heard people talking about Hannibal Lecter, thought he was an historical figure, and assumed he slept through that part of US History.
And the buzz for making planes less safe comes back again. Yep, again reducing cres to one pilot in commercial airliners.
It’s complicated, but there are many reasons for the two pilot rule. You may have come across the terms “pilot flying” and “pilot monitoring” on air accident reports. This means the former handles most flight controls, while the latter monitors most instruments and handles the radio.
Notice the use of “most.” The pilot monitoring does things like handle flaps and gear. The pilot flying does watch certain instruments, like the flight director.
Most commercial jets began with a crew of three. Automation helped remove the position of flight engineer, without compromising safety. But I think two is the absolute minimum, until such time as technology advances a great deal more.
Besides, there are two matter not easily addressed by technology. One is the rule of having two people in the cockpit at all times. Remember the Germanwings crash, where the first officer shut the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed the plane? That’s why. It’s one thing to borrow a flight attendant for a few minutes while one pilot takes a bathroom break. Here you’d need one for the entire flight. of course, FA salaries are lower.
The other is what you do if the pilot is incapacitated. Granted both pilots might be incapacitated, but that’s very rare (I can’t offhand recall a case where it happened). But if you have a pilot and maybe one FA alone in the cockpit, and the pilot pases out, has a heart attack, or some other problem, what then? Does the AI take over? If it can, why have any pilots at all.
So you did. My apologies, I must have forgotten that thread.
I agree it has no chance of becoming policy at present. It may have a chance years from now if politicians and others keep pushing for it. Lots of thing that had no chance at the start, say marriage equality, have come to pass.
I was just perusing the news this morning and saw this ridiculous, and oddly enough, furtitively timed, article in Politico about TFG’s “humor” and how his rallies are full of laughter at the oh so funny “jokes” he makes. What a load of shit, and frankly given that the laughter of Kamala has been highlighted, seems a bit too coincidental to be, well, a coincidence. It’s not even a believable proposition – joy and laughter at this POS’s rallies. Like really. Cruelty and meanness and hostility are not funny, ha ha funny. They’re just cruel and mean. F’ing Politoco, what a joke.
The other is what you do if the pilot is incapacitated. Granted both pilots might be incapacitated, but that’s very rare
And the very common occurrence of a pilot nodding off. I suppose they’ll propose the sort of things not quite self driving cars use to pretend the driver, who has nothing to do, is alert and keeping his attention on the situation. Watching eye movement, hands on the wheel, whatever.
I do recall an incident many years ago in which a pro golfer’s Lear jet or something apparently suffered a pressurization failure disabling both pilots, and everyone else on board.
“Weird” seems to be a thing politically of late. John Cole does a video of Gov. Waltz calling GOPs weird.
This is such an effective line of attack and is just electoral poison. It’s a brilliant way to define these guys in the eyes of voters, and it has the bonuses of being true, something low information voters can agree with, something is easy to say, and it is versatile because there are so many weird things about these fucking guys and it’s something you can say to Trump supporters without having them descend into whataboutism with your beliefs.
“You voting for Trump?”
No, he’s so weird. All that face makeup and the ridiculous orange hair. Just a weird dude.”
He’s been so normalized by the media that people forget how fucking weird he is.
Kevin Drum adds a bullet list (no chart) on JD’s weirdness.
Political Wire notes it’s already reached the stage of GOP’s replying with their usual schoolyard jibe, “We’re not weird, you’re weird.” Joining “We’re not the racist, you’re the racists.” and “We’re not the fascists. you’re the fascists.”
I think this is great. Ds are making their major argument defense of democracy. They certainly should and it has the virtue of being true. But the low info voters get “fascist and racist” from us and “commies and groomers” from them and all they hear is, “Blah, blah, blah.” Even if they hear “democracy”, they have no grounding in poli sci and history. It means nothing to them. It’s like saying we must defend “entropy”. But they can grasp “weird”. Say, “They’re a threat to democracy.”, but also say, “Trump wears makeup.”, “Vance didn’t really jerk off in a couch, as far as we know, but isn’t he just the sort of guy who would.”, “A couple years ago Vance said Trump was like Hitler. I wonder if he meant it as a compliment.”, “Trump said he was eager to debate Harris, now he’s backing out.”, and “Oh Lord, they’re claiming Harris isn’t a citizen, they gonna do the whole birther thing again?” Make fun of them. They make it easy.
@Stormy Dragon: I’ve always assumed it was because he’s as unhinged as the people who go hear him speak, but this makes sense, too. Both about him and his audience.
I’ve no idea if airplanes have any sort of device to detect a drowsy pilot.
I do recall an incident many years ago in which a pro golfer’s Lear jet or something apparently suffered a pressurization failure disabling both pilots, and everyone else on board.
I think that was Payne Stewart. The same thing happened on a Helios Airways flight some years later. It’s gradual hypoxia, which usually people don’t notice and then lose consciousness. As you say, everyone on the plane winds up incapacitated as well.
It’s one thing to say you can stay awake at 0330 and quite another to do it when alone. I flew an entire winter of night freight ops in a Beech 1900. A freight dog stripped of everything not mandated by law, including an autopilot. Every device that is not needed is one more thing that can expensively break. One night it got so bad I stepped out of the seat and perched myself on the console behind and between the two seats, leaning over to nudge the wheel every now and again. The knowledge I might have to leap back into the seat kept me alert. I had been falling semi-asleep with my eyes wide open in the comfy-chair. The workload at cruise is practically nil.
The article isn’t really about single-pilot ops in airliners, but the removal of the required 3rd pilot on long distance hops, allowing occasional napping of the crew, one at a time. I would say it’s feasible with the some kind of device which requires the pilot on duty respond going off every five minutes or so…as seen on “Deadliest Catch”. Just a short nap can check the condition I described above. A half hour, 20 minutes even.
Women’s volleyball at the Olympics has ditched the bikinis in favor of yoga pants and sports bras. This is the mind virus of wokeness at its most pernicious. They’re killing the sport. I mean, tradition is a thing still.
From a non-US perspective a brief comment: the more I see of Kamala Harris, the more I like her.
She seems to have a good mind for assimilating detail (as might be expected from a prosecutor; see Keir Starmer), humanity, humour, compassion, and an appetite to be up for a fight if necessary.
I think you’ve got a good candidate there.
This came in my email yesterday. Not the first time I’ve gotten an ad from this magazine, and I’m curious (in a sort of watching the wreck in the third turn at Talladega way). Not enough to invest $20, you understand, but morbidly curious…
Got an offer for a magazine subscription today, I quote:
Garden & Gun is a dynamic Southern lifestyle magazine that captures the soul of the new South; the sporting culture, the food, the music, the art, the literature and the ideas. With lush photography and award winning editorial, this magazine appeals to everyone with a strong connection to the land, and all things Southern.
Nope, not making this stuff up. Fiction, after all, has to make sense.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
Well, I’m always interested in a gardening magazine.
And currently considering the possible utility of .50 cal in dealing with fekkin slugs, so maybe I’m in the target audience.
(Also must work up some puns re “slugs” and “target”, in due course.)
Been listening this evening to BBC Proms concert by Jordan Rakei.
I don’t know if you can access this in the US, but if you can, give it a listen.
I’d not heard of him before, despite his being a Grammy winner (showing how out of touch I am, lol)
It was really very good indeed.
I really do love the BBC Proms; highlight of the summer months, after Glastonbury is done.
Don’t know about the .50 cal, seems like the import taxes on the ammo would be prohibitive, but YMMV. Although given what little I know about your gun laws (mostly from reading some of your novelists), I suspect it’s easier than acquiring a handgun.
Personally, a moat of cheap beer around my plants keeps the slugs away. Ferdawgssake, use the cheapest swill you can find, don’t waste the good stuff. I’d recommend a recirculating pump setup to keep costs down.
ETA, let’s both pretend we’ve done all the slugs/target puns, and not punish our hapless audience, eh? /s/ (rimshot!)
@Flat Earth Luddite:
“Slug pubs” are useful; but I suspect that most just turn up, get a bit tipsy, then go for a late meal on my delphiniums. 🙁
.22 handguns used to be not that uncommon; I learnt to shoot with one, and a .22 rifle.
Laws have changed: and for good reasons.
I don’t miss them very much.
(A rifle license is still easy enough to get, if you have reasonable grounds as a target shooter or hunter; hand guns: nopety nope. Shotguns: every farmer has several.)
As for slug control, I’m currently inclined to opt for a napalm air-strike on the tree line. “It smells like victory!”
@JohnSF: Salt kills slugs. I used to live in a more temperate zone, and I had no problem sneaking around in my garden at 2 am with a salt shaker to kill the invaders. It doesn’t take much, either, like…..you’re not salting your ground.
No slugs OR snails, here. Also no gardening without a greenhouse, too cold, but it is what it is.
@Jax:
Salt works, indeed.
But, trust me, I’d need a salt cannon.
And at 2pm the sods are hiding. 2 am, they are out there.
Hmm.
.50 cal salt shells?
Maybe I could get one with IR sights for a 2am shooting session set up on the terrace; I’m sure the neighbours would be understanding. 😉
What’s the growing season in your parts?
I miss having a greenhouse; had one at my old house, and my father always had one.
It’s tricky to grow things like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc in UK outside SE England if you don’t have a greenhouse.
One reason I always liked the idea of moving to southern France when I retired:
grow Mediterranean veg outdoors!.
Fat chance of that now, thanks to brexit.
Grrr. 🙁
@Grumpy realist:
“Slug pubs” work for a lot of slugs
But I’m coming to the conclusion that many in my garden have signed the pledge; “We slugs shall abhor alcohol, and instead will munch upon John’s plants!”
Snigger while you can, slugs, the salt cannon design is being perfected!
I do recall seeing a commentator/host on one of your shows advocate using a 12ga double as a garden weeding tool. This was sometime before he was fired for abusive behavior towards staff.
Slugs aren’t smart enough to be scared, but in my experience, homo sapiens generally react with caution when the shotgun clicks shut or cycles to battery.
Good luck in the eternal battle between slugs and romaine!
@Jax:
Wow!
That’s pretty high up, must be said.
More than twice the height of Yr Wydffa.
Higher than any cultivated highland in Europe I can think of, offhand.
Must be a bit like Tibet.
At no point in my life have I ever felt the unalloyed joy our dogs express when we just come home from a dinner out. There’s no welcome home like a doggie welcome. OMG you’re back! Yay! Best day ever! Thank you Jesus! They’re back! Taylor Swift does not get fan love to equal that of dogs.
The cat has a much, much, much more muted response. I think ‘indifference’ would be le mot juste. I’m sorry, do I know you? Oh, that’s right, you open cans.
@Michael Reynolds: Every day I roll out with our dogs to go do ranch work, and their unalloyed, absolute JOY is something to witness. I wish I woke up that happy every day.
@Flat Earth Luddite: My wife — a native Californian turned New Yorker — has subscribed to Garden and Gun for a few years now and really likes it. She’s anything but a gun person, but the food, garden and general lifestyle articles and photos are first rate…
@Michael Reynolds: I know some cats who are like: “You spend the day away from me and then come home and sit and look at that screen thing? Really!?!. NO! Look at ME! Pet ME!”
Reposting this because late yesterday it wouldn’t have been seen much:
Biden to announce plans to reform US supreme court
The piece mentions term limits and an enforceable code of ethics.
Not directly related, also a constitutional amendment to undo the deranged decision to put a Convicted Felon above the law.
I don’t think either of these goals is something that can be accomplished in six months. On the other hand, it is the kind of thing a lame duck administration should try. This kind of pushes me into counterfactual territory, as it would have been better had Biden declined to seek a second term back in late 2022. I don’t want to go there.
So, assuming the report is true and that Biden goes through with this, how would it affect the campaign?
@Kathy: Biden is attempting to save the court from itself.
The question in my mind is “Will the court allow itself to be saved?”
My instinct is that the answer is “no”, and that the billionaires running this country won’t allow a constitutional amendment to fix things to gain any ground either.
But I would love to be wrong about that.
Gizmo the missing dog reunited with Las Vegas family after nearly a decade
Yep. After all the years spent stacking the court they aren’t about to let DEMs undo it.
@OzarkHillbilly: Yup. The billionaires can now simply “tip” any public official who votes against these reforms.
@Kathy: He wouldn’t be getting it done if Obama had started the reform in 2008. But it would have been a topic of discussion in Congress, and by extension the nation, for a decade or so. The JKBs and Jack/Drew/Guarneris of the world would have exhausted their protests about leading the nation to anarchy or whatever by now.
Like the adage about retirement investing goes, “…and the second best time to start is now.”
Assuming Harris wins and the R’s take Senate, I’d love to hear about D plans to get around the Senate bloackade vis a vis SCOTUS appointments. Shrug their shoulders and say “It is what it is” like Obama did?
@Paine:
Vote for her and see.
@Paine: You have any thoughts about how to do it?
I just read something that’s utterly bizarre yet makes perfect sense… People have been pointing out lately that Trump keeps bringing up Hannibal Lecter for no reason at his rallies and someone suggested it might be because he keeps hearing about immigrants being granted “asylum” and thinks that means insane asylums instead of political asylum…
Trump is so dumb he can’t tell the difference between a fake novel and objective reality. He thinks Silence of the Lambs was a documentary.
Let’s not be too quick to assume we’ll lose the Senate. If we take the WH, we can afford to lose one – WV. Cook has us at four toss-up seats – MT, MI, NV and OH. We need to win all four. We have small but steady leads in all but MT.
Then, there are Texas and Florida. Both likely GOP, but latest polls for them shows a 2 and 3 point GOP lead. I don’t quite believe that, but Cook has those two as ‘likely’ but not solid.
If we hold the Senate – very big if – first order of business should be to dispense with the filibuster. I don’t think reform has much chance since the corrupt SCOTUS will simply overrule on separation of powers grounds. The better idea, IMO, is to add three justices.
@Gavin:
Dude, Trump didn’t read the novel. I doubt Trump has ever read an entire book.
@Stormy Dragon:
That is a funny observation. I doubt its accuracy. But it is funny.
From McSweeney’s: Every page of Goodnight Moon, ranked.
Captures the pointlessness of Internet filler content.
Trump at a rally last night:
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/27/trump-speech-no-need-to-vote-future
@Michael Reynolds:
I have no doubt he read the book of Hitler’s speeches Ivana or Melania or Ivanka or someone said he kept in his nightstand. Also, too, he may have read all of Two Corinthians. And upside down to boot.
@Kathy: @Tony W: I wrote about this when it was floated ten days ago. I think it’s all for show, as it has zero chance of becoming policy.
Hey, the Olympics have started. I got a big kick seeing SnoopDog with the torch. The greatest torch carrier image for me came at the end of the Unbroken movie when it showed Louie Zamperini carrying the torch in Japan. We are capable of overcoming evil and discord. I hope that the original Olympic spirit of reconciliation and peace gets a big emphasis at these games. I was thrilled to see South Sudan make a great showing in a preliminary game against the USA.
@Michael Reynolds: Trump is the sort of guy who when he was in high school would say “I saw the movie, books are for suckers”, but in reality was too lazy to even watch the movie. He probably heard people talking about Hannibal Lecter, thought he was an historical figure, and assumed he slept through that part of US History.
@Lucysfootball:
Cliff Notes
And the buzz for making planes less safe comes back again. Yep, again reducing cres to one pilot in commercial airliners.
It’s complicated, but there are many reasons for the two pilot rule. You may have come across the terms “pilot flying” and “pilot monitoring” on air accident reports. This means the former handles most flight controls, while the latter monitors most instruments and handles the radio.
Notice the use of “most.” The pilot monitoring does things like handle flaps and gear. The pilot flying does watch certain instruments, like the flight director.
Most commercial jets began with a crew of three. Automation helped remove the position of flight engineer, without compromising safety. But I think two is the absolute minimum, until such time as technology advances a great deal more.
Besides, there are two matter not easily addressed by technology. One is the rule of having two people in the cockpit at all times. Remember the Germanwings crash, where the first officer shut the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed the plane? That’s why. It’s one thing to borrow a flight attendant for a few minutes while one pilot takes a bathroom break. Here you’d need one for the entire flight. of course, FA salaries are lower.
The other is what you do if the pilot is incapacitated. Granted both pilots might be incapacitated, but that’s very rare (I can’t offhand recall a case where it happened). But if you have a pilot and maybe one FA alone in the cockpit, and the pilot pases out, has a heart attack, or some other problem, what then? Does the AI take over? If it can, why have any pilots at all.
@Sleeping Dog:
Cliffs notes for dummies.
@just nutha: I’m in favor of the Thanksgiving resignations of Sotomayor and Kagan, and slamming through younger Justices in an insanely fast process.
@James Joyner:
So you did. My apologies, I must have forgotten that thread.
I agree it has no chance of becoming policy at present. It may have a chance years from now if politicians and others keep pushing for it. Lots of thing that had no chance at the start, say marriage equality, have come to pass.
I was just perusing the news this morning and saw this ridiculous, and oddly enough, furtitively timed, article in Politico about TFG’s “humor” and how his rallies are full of laughter at the oh so funny “jokes” he makes. What a load of shit, and frankly given that the laughter of Kamala has been highlighted, seems a bit too coincidental to be, well, a coincidence. It’s not even a believable proposition – joy and laughter at this POS’s rallies. Like really. Cruelty and meanness and hostility are not funny, ha ha funny. They’re just cruel and mean. F’ing Politoco, what a joke.
@Kathy:
And the very common occurrence of a pilot nodding off. I suppose they’ll propose the sort of things not quite self driving cars use to pretend the driver, who has nothing to do, is alert and keeping his attention on the situation. Watching eye movement, hands on the wheel, whatever.
I do recall an incident many years ago in which a pro golfer’s Lear jet or something apparently suffered a pressurization failure disabling both pilots, and everyone else on board.
“Weird” seems to be a thing politically of late. John Cole does a video of Gov. Waltz calling GOPs weird.
Kevin Drum adds a bullet list (no chart) on JD’s weirdness.
Political Wire notes it’s already reached the stage of GOP’s replying with their usual schoolyard jibe, “We’re not weird, you’re weird.” Joining “We’re not the racist, you’re the racists.” and “We’re not the fascists. you’re the fascists.”
I think this is great. Ds are making their major argument defense of democracy. They certainly should and it has the virtue of being true. But the low info voters get “fascist and racist” from us and “commies and groomers” from them and all they hear is, “Blah, blah, blah.” Even if they hear “democracy”, they have no grounding in poli sci and history. It means nothing to them. It’s like saying we must defend “entropy”. But they can grasp “weird”. Say, “They’re a threat to democracy.”, but also say, “Trump wears makeup.”, “Vance didn’t really jerk off in a couch, as far as we know, but isn’t he just the sort of guy who would.”, “A couple years ago Vance said Trump was like Hitler. I wonder if he meant it as a compliment.”, “Trump said he was eager to debate Harris, now he’s backing out.”, and “Oh Lord, they’re claiming Harris isn’t a citizen, they gonna do the whole birther thing again?” Make fun of them. They make it easy.
@Stormy Dragon: I’ve always assumed it was because he’s as unhinged as the people who go hear him speak, but this makes sense, too. Both about him and his audience.
@Gavin: That works, too.
@Gustopher: Have any ideas for how to get THAT to happen? Short of hiring 2 executions, that is.
@gVOR10:
I’ve no idea if airplanes have any sort of device to detect a drowsy pilot.
I think that was Payne Stewart. The same thing happened on a Helios Airways flight some years later. It’s gradual hypoxia, which usually people don’t notice and then lose consciousness. As you say, everyone on the plane winds up incapacitated as well.
This is very rare, though.
@just nutha: Perhaps a crowd funded tip jar for justices retiring in November?
Also, we call the other interventions “official actions”.
@gVOR10:
It’s one thing to say you can stay awake at 0330 and quite another to do it when alone. I flew an entire winter of night freight ops in a Beech 1900. A freight dog stripped of everything not mandated by law, including an autopilot. Every device that is not needed is one more thing that can expensively break. One night it got so bad I stepped out of the seat and perched myself on the console behind and between the two seats, leaning over to nudge the wheel every now and again. The knowledge I might have to leap back into the seat kept me alert. I had been falling semi-asleep with my eyes wide open in the comfy-chair. The workload at cruise is practically nil.
The article isn’t really about single-pilot ops in airliners, but the removal of the required 3rd pilot on long distance hops, allowing occasional napping of the crew, one at a time. I would say it’s feasible with the some kind of device which requires the pilot on duty respond going off every five minutes or so…as seen on “Deadliest Catch”. Just a short nap can check the condition I described above. A half hour, 20 minutes even.
Women’s volleyball at the Olympics has ditched the bikinis in favor of yoga pants and sports bras. This is the mind virus of wokeness at its most pernicious. They’re killing the sport. I mean, tradition is a thing still.
Margaret Atwood re: pussies
https://x.com/MargaretAtwood/status/1816978967066477040
https://x.com/taradublinrocks/status/1816999839491920040
Margaret Atwood re: pussies
https://x.com/MargaretAtwood/status/1816978967066477040
https://x.com/taradublinrocks/status/1816999839491920040
From a non-US perspective a brief comment: the more I see of Kamala Harris, the more I like her.
She seems to have a good mind for assimilating detail (as might be expected from a prosecutor; see Keir Starmer), humanity, humour, compassion, and an appetite to be up for a fight if necessary.
I think you’ve got a good candidate there.
@charontwo: So good I liked your duplicate comment, too!
This came in my email yesterday. Not the first time I’ve gotten an ad from this magazine, and I’m curious (in a sort of watching the wreck in the third turn at Talladega way). Not enough to invest $20, you understand, but morbidly curious…
Nope, not making this stuff up. Fiction, after all, has to make sense.
@Slugger:
Am I the only one who thought he was watching Snoop Dogg emulate a scene from Up In Smoke? Man, don’t bogart that joint, my friend!
@Flat Earth Luddite:
Well, I’m always interested in a gardening magazine.
And currently considering the possible utility of .50 cal in dealing with fekkin slugs, so maybe I’m in the target audience.
(Also must work up some puns re “slugs” and “target”, in due course.)
Been listening this evening to BBC Proms concert by Jordan Rakei.
I don’t know if you can access this in the US, but if you can, give it a listen.
I’d not heard of him before, despite his being a Grammy winner (showing how out of touch I am, lol)
It was really very good indeed.
I really do love the BBC Proms; highlight of the summer months, after Glastonbury is done.
@JohnSF:
Don’t know about the .50 cal, seems like the import taxes on the ammo would be prohibitive, but YMMV. Although given what little I know about your gun laws (mostly from reading some of your novelists), I suspect it’s easier than acquiring a handgun.
Personally, a moat of cheap beer around my plants keeps the slugs away. Ferdawgssake, use the cheapest swill you can find, don’t waste the good stuff. I’d recommend a recirculating pump setup to keep costs down.
ETA, let’s both pretend we’ve done all the slugs/target puns, and not punish our hapless audience, eh? /s/ (rimshot!)
Exacalackly 150 years ago yesterday, the telephone was conceived.
@JohnSF:
Ducks eat slugs. Grandma used to keep a few around for that specific purpose. FWIW.
@dazedandconfused:
Yes, ducks are THE slug killers.
Unfortunately, a small suburban garden of c 60 x 60 ft is not really suited to a flock of ducks.
🙁
@Flat Earth Luddite:
“Slug pubs” are useful; but I suspect that most just turn up, get a bit tipsy, then go for a late meal on my delphiniums. 🙁
.22 handguns used to be not that uncommon; I learnt to shoot with one, and a .22 rifle.
Laws have changed: and for good reasons.
I don’t miss them very much.
(A rifle license is still easy enough to get, if you have reasonable grounds as a target shooter or hunter; hand guns: nopety nope. Shotguns: every farmer has several.)
As for slug control, I’m currently inclined to opt for a napalm air-strike on the tree line.
“It smells like victory!”
@JohnSF: Salt kills slugs. I used to live in a more temperate zone, and I had no problem sneaking around in my garden at 2 am with a salt shaker to kill the invaders. It doesn’t take much, either, like…..you’re not salting your ground.
No slugs OR snails, here. Also no gardening without a greenhouse, too cold, but it is what it is.
@Jax:
Salt works, indeed.
But, trust me, I’d need a salt cannon.
And at 2pm the sods are hiding. 2 am, they are out there.
Hmm.
.50 cal salt shells?
Maybe I could get one with IR sights for a 2am shooting session set up on the terrace; I’m sure the neighbours would be understanding. 😉
@Jax:
What’s the growing season in your parts?
I miss having a greenhouse; had one at my old house, and my father always had one.
It’s tricky to grow things like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc in UK outside SE England if you don’t have a greenhouse.
One reason I always liked the idea of moving to southern France when I retired:
grow Mediterranean veg outdoors!.
Fat chance of that now, thanks to brexit.
Grrr. 🙁
@Michael Reynolds: Dude, I too am a dirty old man, but I hide it much better.
@JohnSF:
A salt cannon would be fine.
Just don’t try to use uranium salts.
@JohnSF: aren’t slugs supposed to be attracted to beer? They get in, get intoxicated, and float off to slug heaven.
@JohnSF: Zone 2, for the US. We’re over 7,000 ft, in Wyoming. It’s super hard to find friendly plants to grow here.
@Grumpy realist:
“Slug pubs” work for a lot of slugs
But I’m coming to the conclusion that many in my garden have signed the pledge;
“We slugs shall abhor alcohol, and instead will munch upon John’s plants!”
Snigger while you can, slugs, the salt cannon design is being perfected!
@JohnSF:
I do recall seeing a commentator/host on one of your shows advocate using a 12ga double as a garden weeding tool. This was sometime before he was fired for abusive behavior towards staff.
Slugs aren’t smart enough to be scared, but in my experience, homo sapiens generally react with caution when the shotgun clicks shut or cycles to battery.
Good luck in the eternal battle between slugs and romaine!
@Jax:
Wow!
That’s pretty high up, must be said.
More than twice the height of Yr Wydffa.
Higher than any cultivated highland in Europe I can think of, offhand.
Must be a bit like Tibet.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
The Romaine Empire shall never fall!
“Ave, Caesar salad! The slugs about to die salute you!”
@Kathy:
Uranium?
Hmm.
Foolish sluggies, meet your nuclear doom!
@JohnSF:
That’s a nice anachronism.
@JohnSF:
Uranium salts may not match the properties of table salt, and are not really very radioactive. They are highly toxic (at least uranium is).
And I doubt you can get that gun legally anywhere other than Texas.
At no point in my life have I ever felt the unalloyed joy our dogs express when we just come home from a dinner out. There’s no welcome home like a doggie welcome. OMG you’re back! Yay! Best day ever! Thank you Jesus! They’re back! Taylor Swift does not get fan love to equal that of dogs.
The cat has a much, much, much more muted response. I think ‘indifference’ would be le mot juste. I’m sorry, do I know you? Oh, that’s right, you open cans.
@Michael Reynolds: Every day I roll out with our dogs to go do ranch work, and their unalloyed, absolute JOY is something to witness. I wish I woke up that happy every day.
@Flat Earth Luddite: My wife — a native Californian turned New Yorker — has subscribed to Garden and Gun for a few years now and really likes it. She’s anything but a gun person, but the food, garden and general lifestyle articles and photos are first rate…
@Michael Reynolds: I know some cats who are like: “You spend the day away from me and then come home and sit and look at that screen thing? Really!?!. NO! Look at ME! Pet ME!”