Spring and the Usual Badness

Well, the wretched cat is back.  It was gone for a week, and now it's back.  Its absence corresponded with the next door neighbors being gone, so maybe it's theirs.  Every neighborhood has a "difficult" household so we can't talk to them.  They won't answer the door, don't respond to emails, they're incommunicado.  They also drive too fast.  Anyway, it's stalking the quail and the turkeys.  Not happy about this.

Last Sunday (!) we went to Costco.  We were out of many things. We drove through the new development that's going in, Mead Works.  It's going to be an enormous thing, 1,400 homes.  There is a range in size of house, but all lots are small.  They're not making dirt anymore.  They're also not putting in any more roads.

The turkeys have decided to poop on the driveway.  Jim bought a pressure washer for the back deck.  The Bradford Pear leaves stain the deck.  It's too hard on Jim's hands to use the scrub brush anymore.  It's electric, it's not very noisy.  But it gets the poop up.

We're back to riding at the lake.  We'd been riding another trail to regain the fitness lost in the car while driving up here.  It was not so bad, the really steep section was ridden without issue.  The lake is still lovely.  

I think this is Quince, but what do I know.

This is crazy talking.  From Variety we learn, "Amazon is considering a potential reboot of the Donald Trump-hosted reality competition show “The Apprentice” for its Prime Video streamer, according to a report late Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal. But the newspaper added that instead of the President at the helm, it would be his son, Donald Trump Jr." It's amazing how much Bezos will humble himself to the Orange Cheeto and how much money he is willing to lose in the process.

Here is a First World problem.  Google is installing a 4gb AI agent on machines running Chrome.  I don't have it on my machine, so I'm not that excited about it.  What pisses me off, is that they didn't ask for permission, no one knows what it's doing there (I would guess spying) and if you delete it, they put it back.  You can get it off if it offends you, and you can prevent them from putting it back.  I really and truly resent this belief that even though we bought the hardware, they decide what runs on it.  Anyway, this is an understandable description of how to repel boarders.

The surveillance state is expanding.  Are you aware of the Flock cameras?  They are license plate readers, and they are everywhere.  Allegedly they are to keep us safe.  I think it's plain old spying and over time, they will keep the data forever, and it allows them to track people's movements.  Currently ICE uses the data to track down dangerous undocumented gardeners to deport them.  This article is good. 

Josh Hawley is pushing a bill that would require websites to verify the age of a user.  Additionally, he wants to ban VPNs, because surely hiding your location must be nefarious. The push back to this, is that now they have private information on everybody.  I personally believe it is the job of the parents to supervise their kids' online life, and not the government.  You can read more about this here.

Why does Utah need a 62 square mile data center that will require more than twice Utah's current total electrical consumption? Why does the country, for that matter?  The Box Elder city council approved this over the objections of the citizens.  They told the people to sit down, shut up and quit being whiners.  I hope they get recalled.  Anyway, examine this graphic.  

This seems sinister to me.  Between the Flock cameras, facial recognition photos, digital IDs,  and all of the other data collection, they have to have somewhere to store the data.  Sort of feels like 1984.

I don't know if the Strait is open or closed.  We may or may not be at war.  Main stream media is doing their usual job of poor coverage.  They are hampered by an opaque administration, but perhaps they could get out in the field. 

Putin asked Zelenskyy for a cease fire for the April 9 parade in Moscow.  Z. said yes, that night Putin bombed the crap out of Ukraine with drones and ballistic missiles.  There were a lot of deaths caused.  I hope they bomb the parade.  Ukraine can reach Moscow now, they've done it before.

So, on this happy note, I think I will quit typing.  

New Cat and the Administration

 I have not shuffled off this mortal coil, I've just been distracted.  There is a new cat in the yard, which displeases me.  It's stalking the birds, scaring the rabbits, and eventually will probably kill the baby quail.  It wasn't here when we went to Tucson.

 Maybe a coyote will eat it.


The attempted assassination has turned out to be a nothing burger.  Here are two paragraphs from Joyce Carol Oates on twitter.

They tracked him, observed him, a mentally ill person whose brother had informed on him the day before; they waited for him to "attempt to assassinate the US president" --(who was, in fact, on another floor & nowhere near)--firing shots wildly & one of these "friendly fire" shots striking the bullet-proof vest of one of their own; with much fanfare they tackled the mentally ill person whom they'd been tracking, charging this hapless person with "attempting to assassinate the president of the US." but all did not go perfectly on script since, in being hustled out of the ballroom upstairs, the US President had no time to raise his fist bravely crying "Fight! Fight" but tripped & fell heavily to the floor & several persons were required to lift his heft, & hoist away to safety backstage.

As a radiologist may set two X-rays side by side to examine, we can see now, placing Butler PA & the WH correspondents incident side by side, that the same scenario was planned in each instance; in the first, the would-be assassin was in clear view for some minutes on a rooftop, before violence broke out; more recently, the would-be assassin (for whom Secret Service officers were waiting) was apprehended before he could draw a weapon & shoot--before he was anywhere near his alleged targets. considering this, it might seem that Butler PA was bungled & that no one was intended to be shot let alone killed; the D.C. event may have been bungled too but at least no one died & of many present, only RFK Jr's abandoned wife suffered a public humiliation.

There is still a lack of clarity of about when SS was notified about a possible shooter.  There are other questions.  Cole Thomas arrived in the area where law enforcement was hanging around, picking their cuticles.  Cole arrived, walked through a door that did not go to the screening area.  The K9 in the area alerted on Cole twice.  In each case, the handler pulled the dog off and apologized to Cole for the dog's response.  Then Cole came back out, and sprinted through the security area.  Law enforcement was able to wound one of their own, and Cole tripped and fell down.  Cole never fired a weapon.

This is a photo of 47 after SS was yelling "shots fired."  Does he look in the least bit concerned?

47 has confirmed that it was him watching the performative evacuation of the Correspondents' Dinner.  It's not credible that SS allowed this.  They always check for more shooters.  

This was faked.  I really believe this. 

In other news, the Supreme Court said gerrymandering for partisan purposes is fine.  Louisiana's governor cancelled the House primaries that were already in progress for the mid-terms.   This was a stupid decision, and will have long term bad results.

The Strait of Hormuz is still closed.  A large percentage of US farmers do not have fertilizer for spring planting.  It's not available, it's in the strait.

The kill switch is coming.  Surveillance on the driver of cars built after 2027 will decide if the driver is fit to start the car.  If it doesn't like what is sees, the car will not shift into drive.  

The controversy over "kill switch" technology began in 2021, when Congress passed the HALT Drunk Driving Act as part of the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. The provision requires that "advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology"—which the bill defined as a system that can "passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired" and "prevent or limit motor vehicle operation if an impairment is detected"—be installed in new cars. Such systems could involve driver eye tracking, a feature already built into some cars.  

This is kind of bad if you're fleeing a rapist, a tornado, or a fire.   This is not getting a lot of coverage in main stream media.  Call your congress critters and yell at them.  Article is here.

I would like to close with this.

Landscaping and That Man

Thursday C&C landscaping came out and removed a four year old juniper we stupidly placed too near the house.  It grew a whole lot faster than we thought it would.  The president of the HOA is good at getting grant money to pay for tree removal and thinning of the woods behind us.  This trip he had hoped for more people with trees too close to the house to sign up for removal.  We were the only ones to do so.  We have three evergreens that are too close to the house, but they've been there for 20 years, and the thought of getting them out is more than a body can bear.

The juniper in question.  When we planted it, it was about 3 feet tall, and 18 inches wide.
 

Now it looks like this, the short box wood is the new one.  We recently learned that box woods are used in firescaping because they don't burn quickly.  So, in addition to hardy to -20F, deer won't eat them, they're less flammable.  I have to say, planting it made me very aware of my advancing years.  There was a lot of squatting and standing up.

The woods are looking sad.  Many trees have been put through the chipper, and the whole area is looking bedraggled.  I understand the reason, they're trying to prevent crown fires, but the aftermath is pretty sad.  It will never look good up there.

This is the neighbor's yard.  His yellow plants are always so dang cheerful. 

So, this week in the asylum gave us the following.  

Former Secretary of the Navy Phelan was fired.  47 desires to have a battleship.  These were a big deal in the past.  Lots of big guns, could pummel the shore, wreak havoc.  Now they're known as a drone target.  You can't land planes on them.  They're obsolete.  However, 47 has been watching movies again and he wants one.  He wanted it in two years, Phelan told him it could not be done that fast, and so he was fired.  Think about design, finding a yard, finding enough people to work on it, and etc.  Maybe in S. Korea, but maybe not.

The Assistant Secretary of the Navy is a lunatic.  In this clip he's talking to another religious person about how Monterey CA has become a very dark place.  It's full of Wiccans and witchcraft and we just can't let it spread to Virginia.  One wonders when they start burning women at the stake.  So, yeah, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy is concerned about Wiccans.

This week 47 had the reflecting pool drained.  Now he's having the bottom painted blue with swimming pool paint.  The pool will no longer reflect, instead it will look like a resort pool.  He got no permission from any planning board, he just up and did it.

Last night was the White House Correspondents' Dinner combined with another fake assassination attempt.  Fake, fake, fake, fake.  The guy with the gun was definitely on a different floor in the building, and now there is a question about was he in a different building entirely.  (Update, he was in a different building.)  So, where was the danger?  Thirty minutes after the event, 47 did a press call in which he said this is why we need the ballroom, so events can be safer.  Nope, he just wants a ballroom.  

Iran continues to mess with 47's head.  They are not negotiating. They do not care.  47 painted himself into a corner and now he has no real path to getting out of this.  Meanwhile the rest of the world will be seeing famine and high energy prices. 

In news of the good, a big game hunter wandered into a group of forest elephants and calves while hunting a rare antelope and was promptly trampled to death.  Article is here. 

That's it, that's all I've got. 

 

 

Re-entry and the Administration

Well, we're back and pretty much settled in.  There has been much yard work and laundry.  The weeds are here.

The tulip is up again this year.  People in Spokane like tulips a lot, they're everywhere.  This one comes up every year, blooms, and then generally a rabbit will eat the leaves to the ground.

When we arrived this was growing in one of the big pots on the driveway.  Google identifies it as a Prickly Lettuce.  They grow quite large.

I took this on the 18th, with my phone pointed out the kitchen window.  It's a sharper photo than I expected it to be.  That's Venus on the left.

Moss, I think, growing on the boulders in the front yard.  Google can not identify it.

We rode the bikes yesterday, it was a warm, really nice day for it.  We can tell we've been off the bikes for a bit.  Today it was in the 50s and it rained most of the day.  It was good that we went yesterday.  That's the Spokane river.

47 is like a barking mad dog.  Apparently he's going to the Correspondents' Dinner, and plans to have a rage filled speech, and then he'll depart.  He doesn't want to be there for the reporter receiving the Katherine Graham award.  Such a guy.

From twitter I have some things.  The first is from a few days ago, I can't find it again, so I don't have a date.

This morning, Canadian PM Mark Carney sat in a living room, looked into a camera and delivered a message which is summarized thusly: The United States — our neighbor, our largest trading partner, the country whose economy has been braided into ours for the better part of two centuries — is no longer an ally we can count on. They are compromised by a conman. America is breaking, and yes, that special relationship isn’t just over; it’s a liability. The ties that made us strong have become the ties that make us vulnerable because America is a non-functional, malevolent nation.
Posted by The Shallow State 

In a sane administration, the FBI Director doesn’t go on the morning news to prove he’s not a drunk, the Defense Secretary doesn’t quote Tarantino to prove he’s a man of God, and the President doesn’t take multiple cognitive exams to prove he’s not insane.

JoFromJerz

 

From the Daily Adda we learn the following.  Their source is the Wall Street Journal, which is paywalled.  The entire article can be found here.

The crisis began on Good Friday when a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Iran and two American airmen went missing behind enemy lines. When Trump received the news, he screamed at aides for hours. The scene inside the West Wing, according to sources, was not one of calm leadership. It was one of a president who had completely lost his grip. 

He was removed from the room.  His screaming was so distracting, they had to take him out.  

I don't know what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz.  Apparently it's not open, and apparently the US and Iran have been shooting at some ships.  Other than that, one just does not know.  As Ron Filipkowski posted, "We are currently in the 3-5 day pause on the 14 day extension of the initial 48 hour hard deadline for the ceasefire."

 

There is news from the candy world.

 So, there you go.

 

Butte to Spokane, Washington

Today's morning had an inauspicious start.  The hotel supplied alarm clock went off a 5 am.  It took forever to get back to sleep.  Then, I forgot to turn on my alarm the night before, so Jim was up rousting me 20 minutes after we were supposed to be up.  We managed to eat the terrible hotel free breakfast and get out fairly quickly, but we weren't done yet.  We have a high zoot Lexus.  What do you think its tire pressure management system provides?  It's an idiot light.  It doesn't tell you which tire, or how low.  The Jeep Renegade we have, which is made by Fiat tells you about each and every tire, and what its pressure is.  So we had the low pressure idiot light.  In the car was a tire inflator, but no tire pressure gauge.  We stopped at a mini mart and wonder of wonders, they sell them.  Jim tested the tire pressure, all four were at 30 pounds.  Our theory is that it was so cold last night it confused the sensors, or the air shrank, or something.  About 15 minutes or so down the road, the light went out and all was good.  

The route takes you across the top of Idaho, the handle, so to speak.  Idaho is digging up much of I90 and replacing it, pretty much across all of it.  There will be new bridges, as well.  There is no signage, but it's probably due to Biden's Build Back Better money.  Idaho is pretty red, so their tongues would catch on fire before they would admit the source of the money.  We're wondering if we should reconsider the Oregon route, because that construction is going to be there and be worse than it is now.

Montana has fabulous skies.

My wonderful husband went down to the local high zoot grocery store, they sell lettuce by the pound (who does that?) and got a frozen pizza and a bag of salad.  I am extremely happy about this.

 

There will be a mass grocery shopping tomorrow.  

Spanish Fork to Butte, Montana

It was a cold and windy drive.  About half the day was a fairly stiff head wind.  Then it switched around to a tail wind.  The wind in both directions was really cold.  It snowed off and on.  It wasn't a lot of snow, and it didn't stick much.  The entire drive was, again, on I15.

Today in Tucson it was 85F and partly cloudy.

Eighteen miles south of Pocatello there is much construction going on.  They've got some very huge cranes.  I think it's bridge replacement.  They're going to be there for awhile.

The clouds in Montana were interesting.  They looked like virga and fog.  Here is the one photo that turned out half way decent.  The cloud, or fog, or what ever it is, touches the ground.  We've been here about an hour, and it's snowing sideways.

Internet is a little slow tonight.  We're at a Hampton Inn and Suites that we always stay at.

Dinner was the Chicken Tika Masala we had on Tuesday.  We like that a lot.

Tomorrow is the last day, Butte to Spokane, which is a short day.