Daily Life and That Man

Well, welcome to the Fourth Reich. There has been riding and biking and going to Lowe's and Home Depot.  We have sorted out the down spout issues through an application of gutter extensions.  I think they're actually down spout extensions, but who am I to argue with marketing.  Hopefully the extension will move the water into the dry stream instead of digging a hole in the bottom of the stream and depositing dirt there.  Prior to our arrival, there was not so much as a splash block there.  Hopefully it will rain someday and we'll be able to see if it's working as designed.

We rode Sunday, and holy cats that was a cold ride.  It's hard to dress for, it's warm going uphill and upwind, and then freezing into the wind down hill.  Poor us.  It was a good ride, both of us were feeling good and we did not suck.

Saturday was a restorative hike in the desert.  For the first time I wore a light weight long sleeved capilene shirt and it was a good choice.  Again, sun and wind makes it difficult to dress appropriately.  We went back up to the saddle of Golden Gate and Bren.

Here we have a giant broken rock sitting out in the desert.  One wonders how it got there.  Was it a lava bomb at some point?

As I have previously mentioned, these are not pleasant trails.  There is loose rock, two foot, or more, high steps, loose sand on the rocks, all things which make life difficult.  On foot, not so bad.  We saw two guys ride it.  I am just astonished at their strength, balance and courage to attempt such a thing.  The first guy we saw told us his girlfriend was doing a 10 hour mtb race, so he had come here, looking for a good ride.  Anyway, the rider is at the bottom of the blue arrow.

All scenery is scene coming down the hill.

I have no more pretty pictures, so I guess it will talk about 47.  That will be his new name, orange ectoplasm has too many letters.  He had himself a day.

As expected his speech was an Airing of Grievances.  Full of bluster, braggadocio, and out right lying.  What we've come to expect.  What was chilling and not good was the seating arrangement in the Rotunda.  The first row was the oligarchs, Bezos, Musk, and others.  The second row was the cabinet.  The cabinet was seated behind the tech bros.  I guess we know who this government will serve.

There are Executive Orders, this is not a comprehensive list.

•     We're out of the Paris Climate Accords.  That aligns us with Iran, Yemen and Libya.
•     We're out of the World Health Organization.
•     A National Energy crisis was declared. 
•     A National Border Crisis was declared.  This allows him mobilize active military and send them to the border.
•     Sets up machinery to investigate past "weaponization" of govt.  So, imaginary weaponization of public power will be punished by real weaponization, including targeted investigations.
•     He declared that there are only two genders.
  

He paused the TikTok ban, continuing to provide the Chinese Communist Party with free access to US data.  The military is banned from installing this app on their phones, it truly is spyware. 

1,600 Afghan refuges that had been previously approved for resettlement, including family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel, are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump's order suspending U.S. refugee programs, a U.S. official and a leading refugee resettlement advocate said on Monday.  These people will be murdered by the Taliban.  Article is here.

At the festivities following the swearing in, that would be the ceremony where 47 would not put his left hand on the Bible, Musk took to the stage to say a few words.  And then he did this.  Yep, that's a Nazi salute. 

The Irish Star headline is bad enough, but wait, it's worse on this side of the pond.  One of these is New York Times, and the other is Washington Post.  This is why I no longer subscribe to either paper.

Ostensibly, you guys are reporters, report!  It was a Nazi salute.  I'm not sure where news will come from over the next four years.

Two days prior to the inauguration, 47 issued a meme coin, whose value increased to $56B.  This made 47 very wealthy.  Then Melania issued a meme coin, which tanked the value of 47's coin.  I can't understand bitcoin or any of that make believe crap, but what I can spot is money laundering.  Any foreign entity can dump money into this unregulated slush fund to curry favor.  Bad, this is bad.

This is funny, 47 fails geography and general knowledge.  Very short read here. 

That's it, I've made this long enough.