Monday, January 23, 2023

signs of life, signs of lunacy

Second day in a row of cold windy overcast Saturday. I'm a warm blooded creature. When it's cold, when there's no sun, my activity levels plummet. At least I'm not falling out of trees.

I did take a little stroll around the yard to see what was putting out new growth. It wasn't as cold out as it looked from inside. The porterweed, the confederate roses, the altheas, the night blooming jasmine, the firespike, the leopard plant, the gingers, the azaleas, the crinum lilies, the mock dogwood, the holly ferns all putting out fronds, stalks, or little green leaves on branches or from roots. Not showing any new growth so far are the gardenia, the camellia, the bougainvillea, the beauty berry, the hummingbird bush, the shrimp plants, the yellow bells. I might have lost the big yellow angel trumpet even though I covered it. It's frozen all the way to the ground and hasn't shown any signs of life yet but the cuttings I took just in case are sprouting roots.

Yesterday it cleared up and with the sun shining it was tolerable outside and after two days of inactivity I got out there and finally cut back the dead shell ginger and hauled it over to the burn pile which is getting too damn big. Since I was over there, I finally used the FlexSeal paste and gooped up the collar with the crack. I'll let it set for a few days before I try turning the water back on.

I've finally cut back everything in the home yard so now I've started on the shop yard.

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And now from the Republican Bizarro World Three Ring Circus Department:

McCarthy appointed Jim Jordan Chair of the House Judiciary Committee. What a joke. The guy who turned his back on the sexual abuse of athletes, the guy that ignored a subpoena from the J6 Committee, the guy implicated in the planning of the J6 insurrection, this guy, in a fishing expedition, demanded that the DOJ turn over information on the FBI, the DOJ, and the investigation into J6 which the DOJ has refused to do without specifics of what Jordan hoped to find. Jordan, of course, accused the DOJ of 'stonewalling'.

McCarthy appointed election denier, Qanon believer, white nationalist, Putin supporter, J6 conspirator, and all round wacko Marjorie Taylor Greene, who plans to file retaliatory impeachment papers against Biden for just existing I guess since she hasn't said what the charge of wrongdoing is, to the Homeland Security Committee. What could possibly go wrong.

George Santos, the man who tells one lie after another about himself and his family, is on the House Science Committee. A report surfaced that he was a drag queen in Brazil which he denied but turned out he posted the info and picture himself on Wikipedia so as HCR wrote in her newsletter, “the party that has spent months grabbing headlines by attacking drag queens is now represented by one in Congress”.

Georgia Representative Earl Carter introduced the 'Fair Tax Act' which is anything but fair. The bill would repeal all current income, payroll, estate, and gift taxes replacing them with a flat national 30% sales tax on all 'purchased goods, rents, and services' and would abolish the IRS and make the states responsible for levying and collecting it. They claim this will bring 'freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity' but as usual with republican policies the only people who will benefit from this are the 2% who will pay even less in taxes than they already do while the poor and the working poor who are barely making it will be slammed, the middle class will pay more, and without payroll taxes there will be no Social Security or Medicare.

And still not a single bill put forward to combat all the things they have been yammering on about, blaming Biden's policies for...inflation, crime, the price of gas, the border. It's as if they really didn't care about those after all. Go figure.


 

22 comments:

  1. And they won't do anything about all that stuff they have been yelling about, not one damn thing. They don't care, and they never will. The next two years in the House will be nothing more than a performative bullshit shitshow.

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  2. The political news is sickening, sobering, and sad.
    Your yard news, however, is heartening.

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  3. How you can stand to live in that state is beyond me! But, on the other hand, I am pleased there are still some people there who have a brain!

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    1. Well, I was born here, my kids are here, my grandkids are here. and I hate snow and really cold weather. Plus at soon to be 73 I can't imagine pulling up roots and moving...where? So I stay and vote democrat.

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    2. You have wonderful reasons to stay in Texas!!! The best! Sorry if I seemed a little harsh Didn't mean it that way!

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    3. You were fine. It's a legitimate question.

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    4. I’m in Florida and I often ask myself the same thing. Mary😊

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  4. It's always so wonderful after a few days of gray cold lousy weather to have sunshine. Makes all the difference.
    The republican House of Reps is crazy. I'm blown away by their blatant BS and dumb-ass absurdity. Such scary stupidity.

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  5. Does "Qanon" really mean "queerlyanonymous?" Our country is skidding to the edge of the world. How did we get here? These people used to be called Tories. They fought against a united states after leaving England for the same reasons they're trying to turn the US. Do they think a Putin-esque rulership will make their lives better than a democracy will? Sometimes I want to understand them but then it all sounds too scary. What even scarier is believing how many Americans side with them. Why in hell do they want another civil war? Did they forget who lost the first one? Or do they want to do what McCarthy did and keep trying until they succeed? Lordy, lordy.
    Waving from Katy! Be well.

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    1. They never got over losing the civil War, not really. they'd go back to slavery if they could I do believe. With their personal arsenals they think they will succeed this time like the Purge. Just get to go out and kill everyone they don't like or have a grudge against.

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  6. Gloriosky! Google finally allowed me to log in with my account, so I don't keep showing up as "anonymous." We'll see if it holds. Speaking of holding, I hope you're not getting the same weather predicted for here tomorrow: gale warnings, with 50-60 kt winds along with the rain. It looks like it's going to move through fast, so we'll see. It was glorious here on Sunday, and pretty nice today, although it started cooling off pretty quickly -- as early as 3 p.m. The news about your porterweed has me excited. I'm going to stop by the butterfly garden in a nearly nature center and see how theirs is doing. There was a gorgeous purple variety there last year.

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    1. Checked the weather for today and no, nothing like that predicted. It's rainy but not windy. I had a small specimen of the purple porterweed but it stayed small and didn't reseed. I like the coral because it gets so big. I had to cut it back to about 12", wrapped a towel around it, put a bucket over that and a plastic bag over the bucket. Or maybe the plastic bag first and then the bucket. I don't remember. Anyway it still froze to the ground but not the roots so I'm seeing new growth. This is the second winter I've been able to keep this one through.

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    2. the wind did pick up since zI checked this morning, sustained 13 mph, gusts 20 mph.

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  7. I remember Jim Jordan from back when he sold used cars for another used car salesman who wanted to be president of the USofA. They were Ohioans, like me. That was long, long ago. Jim stuck with McCarthy and wound up a bit of a kingmaker, able to steer his bit of the GOP into supporting McCarthy. And Trump, during MAGA. Now he's waiting to see what he can do with Biden's tax returns.

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  8. Ah, those Republicans - and all the people who voted for them. If Nero was in Washington his fiddle would be red hot. Have you read Chris Hedges' "America, the Farewell Tour"? Highly recommended.

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    1. No, haven't read it. I don't see how this country can survive. We have glorified guns and personal armories and have turned on ourselves. Who needs outside terrorists coming in when we are doing such a good job of killing ourselves and that's besides the political battle going on fighting off authoritarianism. I wonder if the US will be intact in 100 years or if it will have broken up into smaller countries.

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  9. Oof Jim Jordan - I used to be so embarrassed to live in Ohio... Then again I'm from NC & we had Jesse Helms (plus the lawsuit currently before the Supreme Court that would turn election practices on their head was filed by a NC dude. Yay us!).

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  10. Well done on an impressive job with the pipe.

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  11. Elle, hope you guys are safe. Katy fared well. Hoist a flag to let us know you’re high and dry.

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    1. All is well here. Rained hard for a while but not even any water in the ditch. High winds though.

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  12. Regarding the MAGA philosophy , I am extremely intrigued by Pence's recent reveal and cooperation. Yes,he is a coward, but his duplicity may save us all.

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    1. I read something that said everything in the White House is marked confidential, so not necessarily secret. The only difference between Pence And Biden is that Biden didn't make it public right away though he did alert the proper authority as soon as they were found. Both these instances are completely different from what Trump did and the republicans know it. Doesn't stop them from lying about it and trying to turn it to their advantage.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.