Blood Pressure and the Current Crises

It rained today.  Now it's cold and the wind is just howling.  The radar was fairly impressive.  There was snow in the high country.

I have no pictures today, yesterday was pretty much absorbed by seeing my PCP.  While at the ENT's office, my blood pressure readings were in the stroke region.  I sent a portal message about this to my PCP, and her office said to come in.  So, I did.  She did a manual blood pressure measurement, as opposed to the increasingly popular machines where the patient sticks their arm in the cuff, and the medical assistant stands there and watches it.  BP was fine, was what it always is.  So, I wonder, how many dentists (where I had a high reading) and ENTs are getting these terrifying numbers and then ignoring them, or saying nothing.  Did my blood pressure actually hit 190/63, or was it a machine error?  I'm thinking machine error.  The whole thing does not seem to be a worthwhile activity.

It turns out that I am really not a conspiracy theorist.  I'm referring to the paper on the neoreactionary (NRx) movement that I posted last time, that I believe is in the process of destroying this country.  

Yarvin is the guy that thought up the neoreactionary movement.  Remember that name.  Notice the names associated with him.  If 47 dies, I'm not sure JD Vance is going to be much of an improvement.  Wikepedia article is here. This is a brief description of their desired outcome.

Several prominent Silicon Valley investors and Republican politicians have expressed their influence from the philosophy, with venture capitalist Peter Thiel describing Yarvin as his "most important connection".^[10] Political strategist Steve Bannon has read and admired his work, and there have been allegations that he has communicated with Yarvin which Yarvin has denied.^[11][12][13] U.S. Vice President JD Vance has cited Yarvin as an influence.^[14][15][16] Michael Anton, the State Department Director of Policy Planning during Trump's second presidency, has also discussed Yarvin's ideas.^[17] In January 2025, Yarvin attended a Trump inaugural gala in Washington; Politico reported he was "an informal guest of honor" due to his "outsize influence over the Trumpian right."^[18]

The modern solution devised by Yarvin in "A Formalist Manifesto" advocates for a form of neocameralism in which small, authoritarian "gov-corps" coexist and compete with each other, an idea anticipated by Hans Herman-Hoppe.^[24][12] He claims freedom under the system would be guaranteed by the ability to "vote with your feet", whereby residents could leave for another gov-corp if they felt it would provide a higher quality of life, thus forcing competition. Nick Land reiterates this with the political idea "No Voice, Free Exit", taken from Albert Hirschman's ideas of voice being democratic and exit being departure to another society:^[12

The Guardian has an article that is very readable, and horrifying.  You really should read it in its entirety.

"One of the venues in which Yarvin has articulated the strategy include a podcast hosted by Michael Anton, a writer and academic whom Trump last week appointed to work in a senior role under secretary of state nominee Marco Rubio.""Although Yarvin once described Vance as a “random normie politician I’ve barely even met” in a July Substack post, in October the Verge reported that “no one online has shaped Vance’s thinking more”. The growing parallels between the incoming administration’s actions – especially Vance’s views – and Yarvin’s suggestions raise questions about his influence."

For years, Yarvin has consistently held to a number of explicitly anti-democratic beliefs: republican self-government has already ended; real power is exercised oligarchically in a small number of prestigious academic and media institutions he calls the Cathedral; and a sclerotic democracy should be replaced by a strict hierarchy headed by a single person whose role is that of a monarch or CEO.

“Essentially, you have to be willing to say, OK, when we have this regime change, we have a period of temporary uncertainty which has to be resolved in an extremely peaceful way. What that means is basically a state of emergency in the White House,” he said.

“It means the president is basically taking direct control over all law enforcement authorities, a state of emergency in basically every state,” he added.

In September, on the campaign trail, Trump said that “one real rough, nasty” and “violent day” of unrestrained policing would end crime “immediately.”

“One rough hour – and I mean real rough – the word will get out and it will end immediately, you know? It will end immediately,” Trump added.

It's hard to know how far this has progressed.  I am reading that the thing to watch for is if 47 declares martial law.  I look at the words I have just put on the page, and I wonder how the hell did we get here?

Here is a transcript of an interview with Elizabeth Sandifer done in 2022.  It covers a lot of the same ground, but it was an interesting read.  She's been watching this develop for years.

 
Yesterday 47 signed an executive order to create a strategic bitcoin reserve.  Allegedly it will be funded with previously seized bitcoin from criminals.  Why is this bad, you know it's bad because 47 did it.  This is from a man I follow on twitter who grasps this better than I do.  "The moment the US government touches Bitcoin like this, you know the game is over. It’s not about innovation, freedom, or some “crypto revolution.” This is straight-up asset laundering on a global scale, using Bitcoin like a mafia safehouse for all the dirty money Trump, Musk, and their cartel pulled out of public funds, government contracts, and global corruption pipelines."  So there you go.

47 is pissed because Canada will not bend the knee.  We import a lot of lumber from Canada.  Today 47 signed an executive order to clear cut the national forests (280 million acres).  This was his justification to do this. "What we're doing is freeing up our forest from the environmental nonsense that they put on 'em where you can't cut down a tree. We have to cut down trees to build the firewalls, and those trees are sold...Canada has been ripping us off for years."  We wonder if he meant fire breaks instead of fire walls, but it's tough to tell with him.

AP is reporting purges of images in the military photo archives.  Women and non-white men are being removed.  The word Gay, no matter where or how it appears is being purged. Hegseth has ordered this to remove any traces of DEI.  History is being destroyed, WASPS, begone.  Tuskeegee Airmen, away with you.

This lady is purged.

So are these guys.

Say good bye, Enola Gay.  She's currently in the Udvar-Hazy museum in Virginia.  If you haven't been there, go soon.  It's a magnificent museum, and since it's government owned as part of the Smithsonian, Musk may be wanting to sell it.  I wonder if they're going to spray paint over her nose art.  Enola Gay was the name of the pilot's mother.  Enola Gay is the plane that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.  There was another plane, Bock's Car, but apparently that name is not objectionable.

I could go on, but I won't.  Everyday I think we've reached peak awful, and everyday I am wrong about that.

Ok, one more thing.  This is an article about whistle blowers who are saying Musk is indeed hollowing out the government.  

The Ear, the Ride, and the Ugly

Yesterday was pretty cool and windy.  I had a hearing test and a visit with my Otolaryngologist.  What genius decided it would be a good idea to change the name of the specialty from Ear Nose and Throat to that.  Blogger spell check does not recognize it as a real word.  Anyway, my hearing has not declined since last year, the hole in my ear drum has not enlarged, and unless I'm sick of the water restrictions on the ear, there's no real reason to do a third surgery.  I'm going with do nothing. 

A view of the Catalinas from the roof of the parking structure.  It's not a great photo, I was too lazy to get out of the car to take it. 

Today was a ride day.  It started out cool, but quickly warmed up.  It's interesting how quickly it goes from cool to warm.  I think this is a giant aloe blooming in front of someone's front yard.  It's a big plant, it has been there for awhile.

Some of the ocotillos are blooming, many have not put out leaves yet.  They all seem to march to their own drummer on that.  The big one we have in the yard is not doing anything, we're hoping it's not dead.

Who watched the 100 minute deranged speech the deranged president did last night?  I did not, couldn't stand it.  It was full of lies and insults.  47 said that no matter what he did, the Democrats would not clap.  I wish they all would have walked out after Rep. Al Green was escorted out, or not shown up at all. 

DOGE is cancelling building leases.  To date, they've cancelled the building where the NOAA Doppler radar inputs are processed, the building where nuclear waste is processed before being put in deep tunnels in the ground, and the jewel of the FDA, which is the lab where bad pharmaceuticals were investigated.  All this while federal employees are being ordered back to the office.  400 some odd buildings are on the list for closure.

Anyway, in news of the horrible, there is Ukraine.  There was a plane in the air, taking weapons to Ukraine, the shit gibbon ordered it turned around.  They're cut off from weapons.  They are also cut off from intelligence.  The US was feeding them data from satellites and listening stations.  That's been cut off, as well as 47 ordering the UK not to share, either.  So Ukraine has no visibility of Russian movements.  At present, Putin is bombarding cities with ballistic missiles, 47 is complicit in this, up to his ugly neck. 

This is a really long piece, I have not been able to make it through all the way.  It explains one theory of what is actually happening here.  It's not about republicans vs. Democrats, it's about the uber wealthy wanting own everything, and some weird theory that democracy is bad, and that the people need to be ruled by autocrats.  This has been circulating in the background, this is the first explainer I've seen.

 The ongoing restructuring of U.S. digital and administrative systems must be understood in the broader context of the neoreactionary (NRx) movement, a “Dark Enlightenment” ideology advocating for the dismantling of democracy in favor of centralized corporate or monarchic rule. Nick Land and Curtis Yarvin are the foremost proponents of this ideology. Touted as the “godfather of accelerationism,” Land has argued that democracy inherently leads to societal decline and proposed that societies should be run more like corporations, with competent elites at the top, akin to CEO-style governance rather than electoral politics. Similarly, Curtis Yarvin also known as “Mencius Moldbug,” has extensively written about his vision for replacing democracy with an “efficient” autocratic regime controlled by a CEO and technocratic elite:

Elon is a true believer.  Anyway, it's here, I'm reading it off and on.  I promise, I have not become a conspiracy nut.  I'm just really hoping this doesn't come true.

Cactus, Bugs and the Bad

Day two! of windy weather.  It was also kind of cold, made worse by the wind.  The garage door guy came today, the sensor eyes were off.  We also learned that if you run this elderly Genie through an open/close cycle more than four times in a row, it over heats and starts smoking.  News we can use.  Anyway, he adjusted the eyes so it closes smoothly instead of balking.

The big cactus is putting out buds for flowering. 

Here is a bug on a bud.  I have no idea what kind of bug.

The wind yesterday pretty much cleaned the rest of the lemons off the tree.

This is from Saturday's ride.  I love this view.

There is much that is terrible in the world. 

There are tons of peanut paste similar to Plumpy'Nut, sitting in warehouses in the US, waiting to be shipped to starving children.  DOGE has put an end to that.  I really hate the administration for that.  Article is here if you need to know more than children are starving to death, and we could have helped them.

Yesterday WAPO had an article up detailing Putin's statement that the US is now aligned with Russia, sharing Russia's values.  I thought it was interesting that he put that out, although it's true, it seemed like a presumptuous statement.  The Guardian also covered it, and you can skirt their page asking for money.

47 is going to stop new weapons from shipping to Ukraine.  He'll probably stop the weapons from leaving the stockpile, as well.  This does not bode well for Ukraine.  He's still on a tirade about how the war needs to end immediately and he's going to dictate the terms.  His dementia seems to be accelerating.

Tariffs go into effect tomorrow.  The stock market tanked today on that news.  Surprisingly enough, the republicans are blaming Biden for the stock drops.  Premier Ford of Ontario, Canada is telling 47 if he does it, they're cutting off electricity  to the US.  "If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do anything, including cutting off their energy, with a smile on my face."

Apparently we're going to have a cryptocurrency reserve, with five different flavors.  It's a pump and dump.  The price will go up, then the oligarchs will sell, prices will drop, and the tax payer will have to bail it out.  47 is behind this, thinks it's going to be great.  His crypto advisor just happens to have holdings in all five of those entities.  I don't know what to call them, companies? currencies?  What?

As if it wasn't bad enough that DOGE is laying off a significant number of NOAA and NWS employees, now they want to cancel leases on two of their buildings.  These contain super computers that run the models for forecasting, and a network of servers that send out alerts.  This is bad. 

Looks like we're going to war with Mexico. 
Brian Allen reports: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly warned Mexican officials that if Mexico doesn’t crack down on government-cartel collusion, the U.S. military is prepared to take unilateral action. A direct military intervention in Mexico? If true, this would mark a seismic shift in U.S. policy—one that could escalate tensions fast. Buckle up.

The Ukrainian Review has thoughts: The U.S. has finally forced Europe to spend trillions on weapons. But in doing so, they have effectively pushed themselves out of this market. European defense companies, which until recently played a secondary role, are now receiving record-breaking orders, and the U.S. can no longer impose its defense contracts as easily as before. The American military-industrial complex has long considered itself the main beneficiary of any military escalation. But now we are witnessing a new reality: European countries are developing their own defense industries, creating an alternative to the American defense sector. This is certainly not what Washington would call “the art of the deal.”

And finally, I have this nugget.

That's it, there's more, but I'm becoming too depressed about it.

A Windy Day on Twitter

It was really windy today.  It was the kind of wind we usually get in April due to convective heating.  Since there was so much dust in the air, we did not go outside to bike or hike.  Instead we had a restorative trip to Home Goods and Trader Joe's.  Home Goods here is interesting, they do not sell any skillets with lids.  No, none, not any lids.  They also did not have any non stick 3 quart pans.  Everything is stainless steel.  I find this odd.  So, I got another 15 inch sheet pan to take back to Spokane.  Both of ours up there are sticking, I won't miss them because they warp like crazy.

This was today in twitter.

Lindsey Graham said this:

 The Danish ambassador to the US responded thusly:

Then Gunnar Gran who owns Haltbakk Bunkers said this:

No gas for you!  Gossip has it that a US sub was turned away today, wanting to get diesel for their generator. Update to post: Apparently The USS Delaware (SSN-791), a Virginia-class nuclear attack submarine, found itself stranded off Norway’s coast after Haltbakk Bunkers (HB), one of the country’s largest marine fuel suppliers, refused to refuel it.

After yesterday's disaster in the White House, JD Vance took his wife and three children to Sugarbush, Vermont for some skiing.  It did not go well for them.

The Vance family has retired to an undisclosed location.  Apparently skiing in jeans is a mortal ski sin.  Who knew? 

Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy went to the UK where he was received by Prime Minister Keir Starmer with a big hug.  He also got to say hi to King Charles.

47 played golf at Mar a Largo.  I believe child rapist and sex trafficker Andrew Tate is visiting this weekend.

It's likely that no more weapons will be shipped from the US to Ukraine.  Before he was elected, 47 got the republicans to put a hold on a shipment authorized by President Biden.  Money is flowing to Ukraine, so hopefully they will not lose any forward momentum.

That's it, that's all I have.

Grapefruit and Corruption

Here is the photo of the day.  The rest of it is about the absolute disaster that was today.  Read all about it!

We are so screwed.  CISA is a cyber security agency in the US Government.  Two DOGE people are now on staff there and have access to it all.  Today CISA was told to stop any and all work related to Russia.  They can still look at Iran and China, but Russia is off the table.  CISA does a lot of work ensuring election integrity.  

This article is not paywalled.  Hit Continue at the bottom of the first page, then when you're on the donate page go back to the first page to read.

I'm going to excerpt some of this in case you can't navigate the begging.

The Trump administration has publicly and privately signaled that it does not believe Russia represents a cyber threat against US national security or critical infrastructure, marking a radical departure from longstanding intelligence assessments.

The shift in policy could make the US vulnerable to hacking attacks by Russia, experts warned, and appeared to reflect the warming of relations between Donald Trump and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

Two recent incidents indicate the US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cyber security threat.

Liesyl Franz, deputy assistant secretary for international cybersecurity at the state department, said in a speech last week before a United Nations working group on cyber security that the US was concerned by threats perpetrated by some states but only named China and Iran, with no mention of Russia in her remarks. Franz also did not mention the Russia-based LockBit ransomware group, which the US has previously said is the most prolific ransomware group in the world and has been called out in UN forums in the past. The treasury last year said LockBit operates on a ransomeware-as-service model, in which the group licenses its ransomware software to criminals in exchange for a portion of the paid ransoms.

In contrast to Franz’s statement, representatives for US allies in the European Union and the UK focused their remarks on the threat posed by Moscow, with the UK pointing out that Russia was using offensive and malicious cyber attacks against Ukraine alongside its illegal invasion.

“It’s incomprehensible to give a speech about threats in cyberspace and not mention Russia and it’s delusional to think this will turn Russia and the FSB (the Russian security agency) into our friends,” said James Lewis, a veteran cyber expert formerly of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. “They hate the US and are still mad about losing the cold war. Pretending otherwise won’t change this.”

The US policy change has also been established behind closed doors.

A recent memo at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) set out new priorities for the agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security and monitors cyber threats against US critical infrastructure. The new directive set out priorities that included China and protecting local systems. It did not mention Russia.

A person familiar with the matter who spoke to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity said analysts at the agency were verbally informed that they were not to follow or report on Russian threats, even though this had previously been a main focus for the agency.

End excerpt.  There is more here on the subject.

The CISA news is on top of today's ambush of Zelenskyy by 47 and the VP.  If you haven't seen the footage, here is a short clip of 47 being an ass-hat.  After they withdrew for lunch, 47 and the Secretary of the Treasury decided they didn't want to talk anymore, and ordered the Ukrainians out of the building.  They did not get lunch.

The labor department is laying off a lot of their contract compliance office.  They will now be concentrating on discrimination against veterans and disabled people. Women and POCs are just out of luck.  From the WAPO we learn the following, "Plans obtained by The Post show the office will maintain 50 employees to enforce discrimination law for veterans and workers with disabilities, but it will no longer be staffed to audit companies for pay and hiring disparities for women and minority workers. Much of that work had been halted since Trump last month overturned an anti discrimination order signed by Lyndon B. Johnson, which established the office’s primary mission 60 years ago."  

The US State Department has terminated a program that has been helping Ukraine rebuild its energy grid after Russia bombs it.  Very important in the dead of winter.

This has been the worst day yet.  However, I'm sure there is more to come.  That is all I have to say about things.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Today was a ride day.  We rode well, I think we're getting stronger.  Once you're old it's difficult to add strength.  It takes awhile, but can be done.  The important thing is not to have breaks in the fitness program, which both us of have caused over the years.  Fortunately, we're good at the moment, it's all working according to spec.

Yesterday we decided to drive downtown and see what we would see on the St. Mary project.  I blogged about this here.  According to their website the following work was done.

From the article we learn, "The complete reconstruction of mainline I-10 for the segment between St. Mary’s Road and 29th Street included 6 new bridges, 17 retaining walls totaling nearly 14,000 linear feet of walls, drainage structures paralleling the corridor, and pavement design. The field investigation program conducted by NCSG included 122 borings for the various structures. A combination of drill rigs was required, including conventional truck mounted, track mounted for drilling on slopes, and difficult access rigs for the sides of steep embankment slopes."

The post was from January 2023.  Apparently, we missed most of the I-10 work before we came back in 2023, we left in 2021.  The remaining work seems to be the new St. Mary's underpass.  That is still closed, maybe next year.

This is heading under the railroad bridge downtown.  The yellow store is a bike shop.  This is really old Tucson.

There used to be an empty lot in front of the mural, we were always afraid it would be obscured.  However, road widening has taken care of the vacant lot, and the mural is saved.

There is a large defunct building that I think used to be cold storage.  They have a very long wall, which is painted with a mural of cows and cowboys.

It has been there forever.

Today was a beautiful day, warm and the wind wasn't bad.  We saw this yucca in some one's front yard.  I love these things, they look like aliens.

In news of 47, he hosted Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the UK, today.  When Mr. Starmer postulated that there was no bad blood between the US and Canada, 47 looked at him and said "that's enough."  That's not how one generally treats allies with whom we have a special relationship.  Mr. Starmer also countered JD Vances' statement that the UK and EU don't have free speech with a "yes we do."  JD just needs to stop talking.

Enough of them, they give me a headache.

Toasty, Stupid and Corrupt

It's 85F today, it was fairly toasty towards the end of the ride.  We're going to have to stop reading the horrible news of the day in the morning, and get up and get out of the house earlier.  It's a terrible habit that we've fallen into.  

I have written before about the beauty of a straw bale wall.  One has recently perished, more than likely due to water intrusion.  This is what they look like on the inside.

Once water gets in there, they start to rot and lose structural integrity.  The owner of this house is replacing it with cinder blocks.  It will be much more durable, but less pretty.  You don't get the surface irregularity.

Here is one that has been redone, and is currently standing. 

Other than that, we've taken out two bougainvilleas, and have not too much to say for ourselves. 

Today there was a runway incursion on the part of a small jet and a South West airlines plane.  No one was hit.  Play this youtube, in the first 15 seconds you can see the small jet ignore an order to "hold short' and move from the left to the right across the active runway, into the path of the landing South West jet.  The SW jet does a go around, it's amazing how much power these planes have to get back in the air.  One wonders what the pilot on the tiny jet saw looking out the right window.

Other than this, I have nothing interesting to say, that doesn't include the current administration.

The first two paragraphs are plagiarized from the internet.  For some reason, I did not go back and get the names associated with the text.  It's good text, so I'm going with it and asking for forgiveness.

After Monday's U.N. General Assembly vote, the United States has officially aligned itself with Russia, Belarus, Burundi, Eritrea, Mali, and Sudan. Yeah, you read that right—America just put itself in the same category as some of the world’s worst authoritarian regimes. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, Israel also joined the ranks of dictatorships by voting alongside them. This is a historic disgrace. The U.S. just threw away its last shred of credibility on the global stage and cemented its place as a declining, rogue state. Welcome to the Third World Order.
The UN has adopted Ukraine’s resolution condemning Russian aggression and demanding the immediate withdrawal of Putin’s forces, marking the war’s third anniversary. The U.S. joined Russia, North Korea, Belarus, and Hungary in opposing the resolution.

U.S. President Donald Trump has reportedly ordered the shutdown of the U.S. military base in Alexandroupoli, Greece, according to Greek newspaper Dimokratia. According to Greek media, Trump’s decision to dismantle the military presence in Alexandroupoli came after a joint request from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The base in Alexandroupoli has been a key logistical hub for U.S. and NATO operations in southeastern Europe. Its presence had been a point of contention, particularly with Turkey, which has long opposed U.S. military operations in the region. 

Trump's obedient Treasury servant Scott Bessent has published an op ed in FT, calling for US seizure of Ukrainian mineral assets without offering Ukraine anything whatsoever. These ruthless predators have no shame & no morals.

Apparently there is now a Memorandum of Understanding that gives the US 50% of Ukraine's mineral wealth, but with not security agreements on the part of the US.  Much of the minerals are in Donansk, which is currently controlled by Russia. 

After firing the Chief of Staff, Hegseth fired three senior JAG officers.  There is a dark reason for this, the ending of "posse comitatus."  That's the law that forbids the use of the military against US citizens.  JAG officers would be the ones who tell the military if an order is legal or not.  Clearly 47 is looking ahead, to when he wants to unleash the military on all of us.  Can't wait.  More is here.

So, that's all I have to say about things.

Odds and Ends

I had planned on writing a well reasoned, and organized post, but it's late in the day and I am unmotivated.  So, here is what I've put in my "to be blogged" file in no particular order.

One of the crypto currencies was hacked, $1.5B was stolen.  This is why it probably should nor replace gold as the basis for our currency.  Here is an article on that subject.  I personally find the whole thing astonishing and ridiculous.

Why you might need a measles booster.  It depends on what type of original shot you got, and how old you are.  I got the MMR a few years ago, and am happy about that.  This is from the article, "But public health experts say there are some adults who should consider getting revaccinated. That includes older adults who were born after 1957 and were vaccinated before 1968.  That's because early versions of the measles vaccine were made from an inactivated (killed) virus, which didn't work particularly well, Offit says. That's why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone vaccinated before 1968 get at least one dose of the live attenuated vaccine."

Read this, we've become jackals.  

We saw this the last time we rode the mountain bikes.  Pretty cool, eh? 

These are known as jellyfish clouds. They're altocumulus clouds with virga "tails". There's just enough moisture for those clouds to produce rain, but it evaporates quickly.

Musk put out an edict that government workers must send a list of five things they did that week.  Twitter users and bloggers are rising to the challenge.

Liam Nissan is a parody account.  However, it's amazing how many republicans think he is Liam Neeson.  He apologizes to Mr. Neeson about once a month.

Welp, blogger just quit wrapping text again, so I guess I'm done typing.

Plants and Stupid

This morning I had the thought that it was a beautiful day, the sun was out, the birds were chirping, and perhaps I would write a cheerful post that did not include anything about that man.  Hah.  Hah Hah Hah.

I'll start with the pretty photos.  Parts of our back yard, and the neighbor's to the south of us do not have irrigation.  Only the hardy plants survive.  Yesterday I noticed a large swath of these plants.  Google Lens identifies it as a Kalanchoe, but I don't know what kind.  It amazes me that something this fleshy can grow back there with no water.

This is a tall cactus that grows in the front yard.  If you look at the top, you can see flower buds emerging.

At the base, you can see four new arms growing.  The one on the right is hard to see, but he's there.

The cheerful Brittle Bush is blooming.   He's on irrigation, he's happy.

So, that was the nice stuff.  

47 is a firm believer in the unitary executive theory, meaning that he alone controls the executive branch.  He can hire and fire at will.  We're starting to see him manifest this.  DeJoy has stepped down from running USPS.  47 is planning to dissolve the board of directors, and fold USPS into the Commerce Department.  What could go wrong?  All of the people who actually know something will be fired, service will suffer.  This will really impact the people who live in small rural towns.  It will hurt e-commerce, drugs by mail, and the mailing of baby chicks.  Vote by mail will no longer be reliable.  This is bad.  Here is a short article, and here is a WAPO article which is better, but is pay walled. 

Park Service employees are being laid off in staggering numbers. Wait times at the Grand Canyon are awful, and it's still cold up there.  Wait until summer.  Alec McGillis on twitter reports that at California’s Yosemite National Park, the Trump administration fired the only locksmith on staff on Friday. He was the sole employee with the keys and the institutional knowledge needed to rescue visitors from locked restrooms.  Lines to get in Arches are going to be horrendous.  Forget ranger led hikes, that's over.

There there is this from the Wall Street Journal.

47 has said that Ukraine started the war with Russia, they should have "taken the deal" and let Russia take what they wanted.  Treasury Secretary Bessent took a contract to Zelensky to sign that would have given the US 50% of their mineral wealth, in perpetuity.  He gave him an hour to think about it, Zelensky said no.  47 has decided that he wants the money that Biden spent on Ukraine back.  So, Putin and 47 will concoct some horrendous future for Ukraine.  Europe needs to stand up right now.

Housing and Urban Development has always been a mystery to me as to what they do.  One of the things they do is rebuilding after disasters.  This is from a Housing Wire article.  They're paywalled, and this is all of the text I could get, but it lays it out pretty well.

The Office of Community Planning and Development inside the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is poised to be drastically reduced in size through cuts to a vast majority of its staff, according to a report published Thursday by The New York Times.

Citing a document obtained by the outlet, the office that helps communities rebuild following natural disasters — most recently and visibly observed in the federal response to hurricanes Helene and Milton in North Carolina and Florida, respectively — would see its headcount shrink to about 150 workers, down from 936 immediately prior to Donald Trump’s transition to the White House last month. This equates to a staff reduction of 84%, the Times reported.

This is so bad, Helene left so much damage, and now there will not be money to rebuild.

Finally, here is an article from The Bulwark, about how bad things are and how much
worse they will get. 

Blogger is doing something weird with text wrapping and spacing, so I am now giving up. 
Sorry about all the white space at the bottom.  I don't seem to be able to delete it, even after
deleting all the breaks out of the html.  Very weird.

Walks in the Desert and More Stupid

It's been since the 12th that I've posted.  I feel like my life force is being drained, as well as my intellect, by the stupid that currently inhabits our government.  Just like the first time he was president, every day I think it can't get any worse, and every day it does.

There has been riding, there have been restorative hikes in the desert.  What there has not been is much mingling with our fellow citizens.  Have you been keeping track of this year's flu?  Apparently it's horrible, people in the hospital are being proned, or put on vents, or in a couple of cases on ECMO.  This is not your father's flu.

Today we hiked, it was eerily warm.  Up until today, the sun would be out, but the air would still be cold.  Today the air was warm, it's only February.  We walked up to the saddle between Golden Gate and Bren.  It's a stair master hike, goes straight up, and then back down.  This is a pile of rocks on a big rock we saw as we started up the climb.  It's a nice job of balancing rocks.

Here is a large rock formation.  It looks like it flowed here.  Tucson is in a caldera, so it's possible.  In the Tucson Mountain Park there are many different types of rock.

Look mid-photo.  Those are cholla, backlit by the sun, glowing.  They're really pretty when they do that.  Still deadly, but pretty.

View from the top.

This hillside is a Saguaro rich environment.

So, while we were on the way up, we saw a couple of young men going the opposite direction.  We both acknowledged what a beautiful day it was.  One of them said, Jesus gave me another day, so I'm going to enjoy it.  Ok.  They were the only people we saw on the trail.  When we got back down, the nicely balanced pile of rocks had been knocked over.  I wonder if they did it, and if so, why.  Jim rebuilt it a little. 

It's not nice to knock over other people's efforts, no matter how inconsequential you think it is.

I can't make rice.  We don't have a rice cooker here, won't fit in the car.  My rice is a complete and total failure, I am a rice fail.  However, you can buy this at Costco.  Twelve packages for about $10.  Nuke for 90 seconds, and there is rice.

President Musk continues with the purge.  The investigative staff at CDC, gone. A large part of the Despartment of Education, gone.  His minions are now into the IRS files, doing who knows what.

From an Associated Press article we learn, "The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal mid-air collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Probationary workers were targeted in late night emails Friday notifying them they had been fired, David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, said in a statement."

Note the use of the word "probationary" in the second sentence.  Musk and his people think that word means they are new employees, who can be let go easily.  That's one meaning.  It also refers to people who were recently promoted, they go into probationary status so that in the event the promotion doesn't work out, they go back to their old position.  Due to this lack of understanding, many senior people, with decades of experience, have been let go.  This has happened a lot in the NIH.  

Secretary of Transportation Duffy is very concerned about our current Air Traffic control system.  That would be the one that just lost radar techs, controllers and other people due to Musk.  So, today he said this on twitter.

America deserves safe, state-of-the-art air travel, and President Trump has ordered that I deliver a new, world-class air traffic control system that will be the envy of the world.  To do that, I need advice from the brightest minds in America. I’m asking for help from any high-tech American developer or company that is willing to give back to our country.
Tomorrow, members of the

SpaceX team will be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in VA to get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision how we can make a new, better, modern and safer system.

He's asking for volunteers!  Hey, come on down, write some code.  Air Traffic Control is one of the most complicated systems there is, and he thinks he'll just get some guys in, drink a little Mountain Dew, and make a new one.  I can't stand the stupidity.

Today a Delta flight from Minnesota crashed on landing in Toronto.  Notice the wings are off that plane.  Anyway, no one died, there are injuries.  If you google "cabin attendants walking on the ceiling of the delta airplane" you can see footage of cabin crew herding people towards the door on Instagram. Or you can go here, footage starts at about one minute.

So, that's it for me, for now.

End of Painting and Stupid

Painting is done!  Yay!  For the first time ever, I got no, none, not any paint on me or my clothing.  Yay me.  Here is Jim painting, under the overcast sky, next to the grapefruit tree.  I find it amazing that we have citrus trees that are producing fruit in our yard. 

The orange tree appears to be winding down, but there are many grapefruits left to eat.

Ok, on to the nightmare that is our current administration.

Things are going well in our nation's capital.  Secretary of Defense Hegseth has been interfering with the recruiting process.  From The New Republic we learn the following:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to withdraw Army recruiters from the nation’s top Black engineering event has ushered blunt criticism from military leadership.

“It’s fucking racist,” one active duty Army general told Military.com on the condition of anonymity. “For the Army now, it’s ‘Blacks need not apply’ and it breaks my heart.”

The Baltimore-based Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) has historically been a key event for the Pentagon to recruit high-caliber STEM talent. One Army recruiter told the service member news outlet that BEYA is one of the “most talent-dense events we do,” and that the branch “need[s] the talent.” BEYA, in turn, recognizes on its website that the “U.S. military is one of the largest STEM employers in the nation.”

The military is having difficulty making their recruiting targets as it is.  This will not make things better.

This will not improve things, either.  From Task and Purpose we learn: 

Air Force officers who have volunteered their own free time to make life in the service safer for those on active duty and less daunting for families during and after deployments say they are watching years of work be wiped away by the current crackdown on diversity initiatives.

At one of the Air Force’s largest bases, an annual Family Readiness Summit scheduled for Feb. 20 was canceled, according to emails obtained by Task & Purpose, even though it was funded, like the one held in February 2024, by the Air & Space Forces Association, an independent non-profit that receives donations from its members. Discussions about addiction at the 2024 Summit led the Air Force to begin selling Narcan, which can reverse an opioid overdose within minutes, at base exchanges.

This is being done under the guise of doing away with DEI and being woke.  It's hurting families, it's hurting service people, and it's just flat out wrong.  The military has a long history of being a difficult place for the families, these people were going the extra mile to help out, now they're shut down.

But here, is the worst thing I have read today.  This fills me with dread and makes me wonder if the republic really is going to fall.  I don't know if the article is behind a paywall, I subscribe to Wired.  So, I will cut and paste some of it.  Musk is bringing in people from Silicon Valley and making them CIOs of various departments.  The article is here.

The Trump administration is replacing some of the nation’s top tech officials with Silicon Valley talent tied to Elon Musk and companies associated with Peter Thiel. This could make it easier for Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) engineers to gain access to sensitive government systems, sources and experts say.

Over the past few weeks, several Musk-aligned tech leaders have been installed as chief information officers, or CIOs, at the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Department of Energy. CIOs manage an agency’s information technology and oversee access to sensitive databases and systems, including classified ones.

"Federal agency CIOs have authority over all agency asset management, which includes software used to monitor civil servant laptops and phones,” a former Biden official with firsthand knowledge of a CIO’s capabilities tells WIRED. “CIO shops manage and control IT access to all agency databases and systems, and have oversight over all the IT contracts per FITARA [the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act]. They have lots of IT budget and head count that Musk might want to take over. In agencies, CIOs are functionally as powerful as OIGs [the Office of Inspectors General].”

So, they're bringing in adults, and giving them this much power.  Palintir is a software platform that does data analysis, and is already tightly integrated with the military.  What could go wrong?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been closed.  They were put in place after the 2008 financial disaster caused by unregulated credit default swaps.  We were lucky not to lose the country that time.  Anyway, President Musk wants twitter to get involved in payment systems.  This would bring it under CFPB oversight, they over see things having to do with money.  So, just like that, they're toast.

 

There's so much more, I think this is already long enough.

That's it!  That's all I've got.