WTF-Beta

@wtg Thanks. Yes! I made it a point to save all plant tags in a notebook (although I admit, some have been lost).

It's called Charmaine(TM) and I see it wasn't cheap, $36.88 as a small plant and that was 4 or 5 years ago.

The tag says, "A strong growing brightly colored plant that produces single, semi double and double flowers on the same plant at the same time, as long as some stems from the previous season remain after winter. Excellent for growing through other wall trained shrubs and climbers, good strong healthy foliage."

Ice

character

A couple early Clematis.

A velvety burgandy colored one. This one has been slow to establish itself but it's coming right along now.

A lovely dirty lavender...

I'm letting some Marguerite Daisies come back this year, I've missed them. They were sprouting up in the middle of the lawn and I was mowing them. I spared one, and this one is out of the way. Cheerful flowers.

@RealPlayer That's fine... as long as 6 feet ... isn't followed by ... under!

wii

One minute I'm reading the title of this thread, "Feeling old yet?", next minute I'm reading about 6 to 7 feet! Egads.

Since I started making my own, I'm just not interested in store bought. Very difficult to find good store-bought that doesn't break the bank and isn't full of fillers, or air, or excess sweetness. On the other hand I still have a soft spot for soft-serve, a real summer treat.

Vanilla. That's what I think ice cream should be. If I want to add the flavor of chocolate: chocolate sauce. Butterscotch? Butterscotch sauce. Strawberry? Strawberries. I don't like cookie pieces or dough in my ice cream and if I did I'd sprinkle cookie chips. I guess when it comes to certain foods, I like mine basic. It's easy enough to jeuje it up at serving time.

Not that I'd ever pass up ice cream, no matter what!

@AndyD Wow, you've done a lot of work on it. Very nice.

@jon-nyc said:

I have a feeling they’ll imagine a presidential candidate should also be this way too.

A presidential race is an entirely different matter and that's not what I've been addressing. Personally, I can imagine a charismatic DSA candidate that would appeal to a broad spectrum of the electorate, but we all know that's not going to be 2028.

The Dem candidate for 2028 needs to welcome the progressive flank of the party and be friends with them. Biden was--and in some areas too much so--so we know it can be done. And whoever they are, I hope they ignore Carville.

I hope this link will allow entry beyond the paywall... from Josh Marshall. Basically, if you want to win in November, you can't be sitting on purity tests... (but I disagree with him on whether or not Chevalier belongs in Congress. Of course she does, and now has an opportunity to prove that her sincere apology for past comments holds water.)

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/centrists-this-is-on-you/sharetoken/98f7e831-921e-4ca7-8eeb-e4abccebec76

@jon-nyc said:

After all, Isn’t that their theory of the case for nominating far left candidates?

No. The theory for nominating progressives/DSA/left candidates is to get something done about the utter failure of late stage capitalism to ensure a decent life for all the citizens of the US. It is to get independently minded politicians who won't bend the knee to today's fat cats or sit in a corner wringing their hands because they might be seen as too 'socialist', because what a horrible word that is.

@Mik It won't work this time. It worked with Sanders, but times have changed.

@jon-nyc said:

Surely they’re not thinking that people like this racist hater of western civilization are going to win over maga voters, normie republicans or centrists.

I'm surprised by this argument. I don't think they're so naive as to think they're going to win over anyone from MAGA. No one is going to win over MAGA. They are beholden to only one person. We shouldn't waste any of our time or efforts on them. This much should be obvious by now. What is a "normie" republican? Centrists? Politicians in moderate areas should tailor their messages and campaigns towards the electorate in those districts. But they most certainly don't need to piss on progressives to do so. Unless that's all they have, in which case it's pretty pathetic. I think we saw many successful campaigns in other districts that don't lean as far left on moderate terms. I don't see any problem here except the one that has-beens like Carville are intent on creating. For what? So they can "own" the progressives? Playing with fire to say the least. Could be the downfall of the Democrats. There are too many people fed up with the status quo.

B.S. on hating Democrats. But there is a lot of anger. Does the Big "Beautiful" Bill portray values of the Democratic party? Yet, 7 (or was it 9?) Democrats in Congress voted FOR it. So called "normal" Democrats have betrayed the party more than once in the past 2 years. And not least of which was Biden reneging on his promise to serve a single term thereby causing a hand-picked candidate that way too many people were unhappy about. (I was not one of those unhappy about her, but I was unhappy about the whole boondoggle.)

Despite what you may wish for, polls show a majority of Americans across the nation in favor of policies like Mamdani's. I'm here for it. We are so past the time for tackling obscene inequality.

Democratic strategist James Carville thinks some critics of Tuesday’s results are being overly dramatic, calling their reactions “90% hysterical.” But he told NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas on Wednesday that he doesn’t understand or appreciate these candidates’ efforts to use the Democratic Party to advance their socialist ideals.

“All of these people hate Democrats,” Carville told Vargas. “Why do you want to run as a Democrat? Start your own movement. If it’s such a powerful, sweeping movement that’s got momentum everywhere, then go ahead and be at the head of it. Don’t use the Democratic Party to advance it.”

Carville specifically called out Chevalier, saying Democrats shouldn’t seat her if she wins in November. He said her views were against anything Democrats support.

“We believe in pluralism. She doesn’t even believe in interracial dating,” Carville said.

“All of these people hate Democrats,” Carville told Vargas. Sounds like something MAGA would say. He's not helping unify the party, he's divisive. Democratic leadership currently enjoys only 25% favorable opinion from Democrats. Most of them are fed up with the DNC. The party had better wake up to the fact that there is broad support for Mamdani's ideas nation wide.

It is people like Carville tearing this party apart.

@jon-nyc said:

Carville complains that the press can’t stop talking

That's not messaging. Sure, he points out a fact--one that needs to be taken into account. But he's complaining about it. How about he celebrate it instead of causing division? He is out there, in the press, saying she is not a Democrat. He is out of step and causing fissures.

Moderate Dems should be elected in moderate districts if that what the electorate wants. Progressives should be elected in progressive districts. To say otherwise is to brush aside the electorate. If the Democratic party continues to brush aside (shit on) different factions of the party, they will continue to lose, or worse, splinter.

I don't think many people care what Carville says any more. He's from a different era. Times are changing. I'd almost say he's irrelevant.

peanuts

The Dutchman's Pipe is blossoming.

What the vine looks like:

@jon-nyc said:

Chevalier’s win was more of a surprise to me - the guy she took out leads the Hispanic caucus in the house. She isn’t well known outside NYC but I suspect she’ll be starring in a lot of GOP ads. She took the most extreme positions on defunding police which haven’t aged very well.

A couple of things that went against Espaillat: He's already a 5 term incumbent, people want change. His campaign got nasty with racism; wrong political climate for that from a Democrat against another Democrat. What is it with establishment Democrats getting all racist!?

She did take very far left positions on defunding the police. It's surprising that Espaillat's camp went nasty with racist comments when they had legitimate fodder. She has repeatedly stated that she has moved on from those positions and she has apologized more than once for some other things she said. It remains to be seen how well she moves on from there.

But her seat is assured in November.