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.