LIberation Day

He's imposing tariffs on all countries except Russia and North Korea.  Make of that what you will.

The penguins are not happy about this.

For once I agree with something Mike Pence said.

The stock market has spoken.

This will be bad.  We're going to be sick and poor when this administration is done with us.

Windy Hike and More Badness

Today was a very windy hike.  We got close to the top of the trail, but turned around, too windy.  The gusts were bad, it raises hell with my contact lenses.  So, we surrendered and went back.  It's a good hike.  It's all up hill on the way out.

This is some sort of left over rock formation from Tucson's volcanic era.

The ocotillos are still blooming, all except for ours.  This is a particularly good specimen.  The hummingbirds love these things.

Senator Cory Booker filibustered for 25 hours and 4 minutes, breaking Strom Thurmond's old record.    I'm not sure if it was a standing filibuster, or a floor speech, I've seen it  called both .  Doesn't matter, he made his point that what's being done is wrong.

This is a substack you should read, it will acquaint you with the horrible people who will be running "health care" in this country.  We are well and truly doomed. 

RFKJr laid off a lot of people out of HHS today.  Food inspection, vaccine development, cancer research, and much much more have been gutted. The lead FDA veterinarian working on bird flu - gone.  A scientist developing a Parkinson's treatment - gone.  Europe and Canada have noticed that scientists and doctors are heading for the doors.  Our loss, their gain.  We lost a devastating knowledge base today.  Given what's happening with the universities, I don't know how we're going to recover.  Soon, they'll be teaching that the world is flat.  47 and his friends do not seem to understand the monetary value of research and being a world leader in science.  That will move somewhere else, and we'll be a back water.

It's very depressing today, usually I can keep it at bay, but the HHS cuts really ripped it for me.  As a parting gift, the released people were given a name and phone number to call if they felt their dismissal was unjust, the person to call died a year ago.  

In news of the good, Susan Crawford has won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, NBC News projects, allowing liberals to maintain their narrow majority on the battleground state’s highest court — and defying Elon Musk after he spent millions of dollars to oppose her.  Unfortunately, the two Florida races were won by the republicans. 

Cactus and the Stupid

It looks like we're leaving for the frozen north April 14.  We still have two teeth cleanings and a trip to the dermatologist to accomplish.  These things are not readily available in Spokane.  Today we hiked, we had planned to ride, but there was a really strong wind out of the west, so we wimped out.  There are photos.

This is actually from the back yard.  It's the bloom of a Fairy Duster plant. Now that he's getting water regularly, he has grown and bloomed a lot.

Today we hiked out to the trail that takes one to the dreaded StairMaster trail, which we did not want to do.  We bushwhacked through a couple of washes, because we thought we could see another trail, but we were mistaken.  So, we then bush whacked back to a known trail and continued on. 

This is a dead soldier out there.  Sad, just sad.

This guy is not dead yet, still making an effort despite losing his head, and his arms twisting to the ground.

Look at the little nubs on the end of the arm.  He's preparing to flower despite his precarious health.

I collected some interesting things on twitter.  Here are a few.

Americans may have moved on from Covid, but I can assure them, it's still with us.  Acute Covid still kills people, and Long Covid is on the rise, as are "mysterious" deaths.

I did not know that Mark Wahlberg is a lunatic as well as Mel Gibson and Elon.  These should be some astoundingly bad movies.  Since Elon's 14 children were all conceived via IVF, and sex selected for males, I'm not sure where he fits on the spectrum of family values.

RFKJr is just the gift that keeps on giving.

Remember Operation Warp Speed, when the vaccine for Covid was developed in very short order?  Dr. Peter Marks oversaw that effort.  He ran the teams that did the science, the development and the human trials.  RFKJr has pushed him out of HHS.  In a line from his resignation letter he says "... it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies."  The link to the full letter is here.  His was an amazing career, and his departure is a great loss to science.

Finally, here is a link to Pete Buttigieg eviscerating JD Vance and Peter Thiel.  It's about three minutes, and worth every second of your time.

A Neighborhood, Perfidy and Weather

Today we drove over to Mercado San Augustin to see what was happening.  We used to ride our bikes through there before we quit riding on the road.  We're too old to get hit by a car, so we don't ride with them anymore.  We visited our favorite neighborhood, I first blogged about it years ago.

 Cactus on a small balcony.

A mural of Freida Kahlo on the side of a house. 
 

It's designed to be a walking neighborhood.  Now that I'm older, that translates to unless I have a unit with a garage I have to haul groceries a long way.  Apparently they are having issues with large photography groups coming through and plugging up the sidewalks.  One house has a sign up that it's a private residence and don't use a flash on your camera (so you can see in to the courtyard.)  It's a cool idea, but it's still to close to student housing.  UofA students are notorious for bad behavior. 

These are large apartment buildings about a block away, I'm not sure where they will all park their cars.  I suspect the hope is that the residents will use the modern street car.

The blue thing in the lane in front of us is the Modern Streetcar.  It's fun to ride, but it's in the traffic lane, so when the cars stop, it does, too.  Note the paint scheme on the overpass.

What is now being called SignalGate has been discussed mightily today.  The Press Secretary has been telling many lies.  She did not wear her cross today, maybe she's afraid it will go up in flames from the lying.

This is from twitter.

The New Republic has an interesting transcript of a discussion of the event.  It's a good read.

Seattle is getting weather.  The ferry service is warning that the rides across the sound may be bumpy.  Hail and a possible tornado are in the forecast.  This is not typical for the area, generally they just get months of gray skies and drizzle.

So, that is what I have to say about things.

This was the radar later on.

A Big Agave and the Usual Perfidy and Malfeasance

It was 95F today.  95!!!  We were out of the house at 9:30 on the bikes, it was a warm ride.  It's going to cool back down in the coming days and happy we are about that.  Apparently I have quit taking photos, I guess there is nothing interesting in my line of sight.  Here is an agave growing in the back yard.  He's different from the Paryii strain.  This strain is susceptible to Agave Snout Weevils.   Our old neighbor lost three large plants to the weevils.  They burrow in, lay eggs, and the off spring hollow out the plant.

By now, we all know about the Signal call that Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in Chief of Atlantic Magazine, sat in on.  Apart from the astonishing fact that he was added to a top-secret, need to know chat stream, is the fact that it was held AT ALL on Signal.  Talking about imminent bombing of a foreign country is supposed to occur in a SCIF.  We know that the people on the chat were using private cell phones, because Signal is never installed on government computers.  Witkoff was in Russia while on the call.  Russia!  The people who snoop everything.  An undercover CIA agent was on the call, and was referred to by name by Ratcliffe, the head of the CIA.  I hope this person is brought home, they're blown as an agent.  Europe now knows the degree to which the US government feels disdain for them.  I do hope they're smart enough, and efficient enough, to quit talking and start making weapons.  We can not be trusted.  A week before this call, the Pentagon put out a mass mailing that Signal is not secure, and don't use it.  They're using Signal because it self deletes in one to three weeks.  So much for the Official Records Act.

Greenland recently held elections.  Currently they have a caretaker government, and while they are forming new coalitions, they don't want visitors.  The US administration tried to say Usha Vance had been invited by the Greenland government, they posted on Facebook that no such thing happened.  Now JD Vance is going up on Friday, he says:  "We want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it’s important to protecting the security of the entire world.” “Unfortunately, leaders in both America and in Denmark, I think, ignored Greenland for far too long. That’s been bad for Greenland — it’s also been bad for the security of the entire world. We think we can take things in a different direction, so I’m going to check it out.”  I am so certain Greenland and Denmark are interested in Vance poking around in their defenses.  The Hill article is here.  The Greenlanders are planning to protest the visit.

47 has been writing executive orders.  The Constitution gives the states authority to run their elections.  47 has decided to ban mail in voting.  That will end up in court.   He's also going after law firms that he thinks were after him.  

So, same day, different shit from the nation's capitol.

 

Go Read This Now, Please.

This is a must read on how an Atlantic reporter got on a Signal chat group with Hegseth, JD Vance and others, discussing OPERATIONAL DETAILS of bombing the Houthis.  It's a gift article, I don't know how long it will be free.  It's worth your time to go read it.  Just the sheer stumbling incompetence of the whole exercise is amazing.

 

 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/?gift=J_CNpt7Ar1nKEXqJWVh1ulEUSzqbExa4Kxm41rX0EQA&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share