The Trail is Open and the Administration

Today was a glorious day - the tree thinning project on the Centennial Trail is done, our favorite trail head is once again open.  We now have access to the two steep hills for our riding enjoyment.

There was a lot of logging.  Large swaths of the forest are gone.  What is left are slash piles.  You can't see it from this angle, but there is another pile equally as large behind it.  The logic escapes me, they thin the forest to decrease fire danger, and then leave combustible material on the forest floor.

This was growing by the parking lot.  It's odd to see it here.  There is a large stand of them, growing by the side of the lake, but this is out in full sun with no water source.

Not too long from now, the view will be obscured by the tree in the middle of the photo.  If the hill wasn't so steep there, I would consider cutting it down (strictly illegal), but it is, so I shall commit no criminal activity.

The first peony has opened.  The people across the street have some huge plants that bloom earlier and longer than ours.

 
 The rhodies are out, too.

So, now in news from the administration, we have these items in no particular order.

Wall Street traders started referring to 47's tariffs as TACO tariffs.  TACO stands for Trump Always Chickens Out.  Apparently 47 was unaware of this when asked by CNBC reporter Megan Massella how he felt about this new name.  He was angry, told her it was a nasty question and to never say that again.  Twitter, of course, is full of chicken taco memes.  Donald Trump’s doctors are reportedly worried his blood pressure is rising so high from "TACO" going viral that his heart might give up. 

He is still pardoning people.  Today he said he "would look at" pardoning Diddy.  What a classy guy.  He did do this.   Larry Hoover Sr. the "chairman of the board" of Chicago's Gangster Disciples, serving six life sentences tied to the drug trade and called "one of the most notorious criminals in Illinois history" has had his prison sentence commuted by President Trump. Article is here.

More from MAGA:  In a shocking moment, when discussing Medicaid and SNAP cuts, town hall attendees told Joni Ernst that people will die due to these cuts. Ernst responded by saying “well we all are going to die.” This is insane. She said it in public, it's recorded.  Hopefully what ever Democrat runs against her will use it for a campaign ad.

Palantir has been hired to create a comprehensive data base containing every US citizen.  DOGE opened the door to this by embedding back doors into the data bases of various agencies.  Now that the data is accessible, Peter Thiel will be doing this work.  There is an article in the New Republic on the subject.  NYT also wrote about it, but it's behind a paywall.  This is very disturbing to me.  Various agency data bases were deliberately kept separate so that if one were hacked, the hackers would not get away with everything about people.  Now they're combining all of that government data in a private entity to do who know what with.  

You know how you read something that brings you up short and stays with you?  Interim Arrangements said this in April, and it's still resonating with me.  "And a final thought, something that came up in a conversation a few days ago. You know why we Germans are so pedantic about data protection? Someone around 90 years ago went through all records available, selected people with certain criteria, with the help of IBM, and then killed them all."

RFK Jr released a report about some health related thing.  The content has not been discussed that much in the news media.  What they are covering is the fact that seven articles that were cited, don't exist.  This is high crimes and misdemeanors in the academic world.  If you turned in a report written by AI that made up citations, you'd be expelled.  The Press Secretary poo-pooed the seriousness and claimed it was a formatting error.  Not only is he intellectually challenged, he's lazy.  AI is notorious for making up citations, lawyers have discovered this the hard way.

So, that's it.    

Hand, CBP, and That Man

This is a scene from Spokane.  We drove down Monday looking for the new hand doctor's office.  Good thing we went to find it.  It's on the Spokane version of Pill Hill, and the area is chock full of hospitals.

Jim's trigger finger was recurring, and so once again he needed to be stabbed in the hand with cortisone.  I first discussed that here.  We also inquired if they performed Suture Suspension Arthroplasty.  They do, pretty much.  The method described in the journal article is a one incision procedure.  Theirs is two, because instead of using a suture, they take a small piece of tendon from the forearm, roll it up like a cinnamon roll and put it between the areas that are bone on bone.  We failed to ask, how important is that tendon.  Jim's thumb bone has no gap anymore between it and the bone below it.  We've been looking for a practice that does this for over a year.  We saw Jennifer Oliver who is the PA for Dr. Jennifer Bonneau who is the surgeon.  Ms Oliver was just a delight, very unlike the practice we saw last November.  Jim's position is that it will have to get a lot worse before he's ready to do surgery, but at least now we know where to go.

I just saw this on twitter.  It's just appalling.  @DemsAbroadCan put it up and the tweet is here if you're interested.

Americans living within 100 miles of the US border OR the coast… You are now officially inside the 100-mile “border enforcement zone” - a legal gray area where Customs & Border Protection (CBP) operates with expanded powers that override basic constitutional protections.   Under federal regulations, CBP asserts the authority to stop, search, and interrogate people without a warrant, or even probable cause, within 100 miles of any international border or coastal line. Buses and trains can be boarded without notice.  And if this sounds dystopian, that’s because it is. And it’s already happened before. In 2020, the Trump administration unleashed CBP tactical units into Portland (for instance) to crush protests with military-grade force.

How did we get here article is here.

Another article is here. 

The enforcement zone has been this way for awhile, but now that CPB has mass quantities of money, and ICE is likely hiring Proud Boys, it looks a whole lot more sinister.  Jim and I are not the targets of this, but Tucson is heavily Hispanic.  200 million people live in the zone, 66% of the US population.

In other news we have more pardons.

Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, convicted of fraud and tax evasion, pardoned by 47.

Less than three weeks after his mother attended a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner, 47 pardoned Paul Walczak, a Florida healthcare executive and convicted tax fraud felon.  This guy stole $10 million from the employees of his nursing home to buy himself a luxury yacht and Cartier watches. He PLED GUILTY. Because his Mom gave Trump $1 million, he just got a pardon. And this story barely makes the news today.The pardon application explicitly mentioned his mother’s donations to 47. 

A jury found former Culpeper County, Virginia Sheriff Scott Jenkins guilty of accepting more than $75,000 (£55,000) in bribes last December, in exchange for making several businessmen into law enforcement officers without them being trained.  Pardoned! 

Barry Croft and Adam Fox, the men convicted of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the summer of 2020, could be on a list for potential presidential pardons, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s new pardon attorney.  The comments came from Ed Martin Jr., a conservative activist who had been nominated as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia before having his nomination withdrawn earlier this year. Martin is now a pardon attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice.

The corruption and self dealing marches on.

So, that's it.

Hedge Trimming and the Usual

Yesterday 47 gave the commencement address at West Point Military Academy.  He was unable to locate the podium and had to be guided to it.  Once speaking, he digressed to his new story about a rich guy who retired, divorced his wife, got a trophy wife and a big yacht.  Very inspiring.  He also said, to a graduating class who all started school during the Biden administration, that "no one joined the military" on Biden's watch.  Liar.  After speaking he up and left saying he had to go deal with Russia and China, to go play golf.  Obama and Biden stayed and shook every graduating cadets' hand.  

We trimmed the hedge.  I think it was too early, the new growth was still pretty soft and often bent over rather than being cut by the hedge trimmer.  I think I'm going to wait a couple of weeks before attempting another pass.  Here is me with the weapon.

Here is yard waste.

From a distance, it doesn't look too bad.  I don't know how people get these things perfectly straight and level.

We rode to the lake today, first time in two weeks.  Although we have diligently rowed and used the spin bike, there was still loss of bicycle fitness.  Nothing crosses over with anything. It hit the upper 80's today.  It may finally be time to uncover the air conditioner.

These guys are committing a major violation of boat ramp etiquette.  One does not, under any circumstances, get in the ramp line with out having one's boat ready to go in the water, especially on a holiday weekend.  People get very testy when their launch is delayed by unprepared people.  That boat cover should have been removed prior to getting in line.  The camp hosts had a busy day marshaling the boats coming and going.  I do not miss owning a boat.

The Senate is beginning to push back on the Big Bad Bill.  They are upset about the increase to the deficit.  That's good, but there are other, more important things to be upset about.  Here are a few.

Graham and McConnell are currently talking a good line, but they'll cave.  It's that whole lack of a spine and a moral compass.

This is cool.

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

Still Cold and Wet and The Big Bad Bill

Another wretched weather day.  It rained off and on all day, and was cold.  I guess May is not spring anymore.  The first year we were here in May it was delightful, but that appears to be over.  The guys that cut the grass come today, they're schedule driven.  Hopefully it won't be too hard on the grass.

Yesterday we went for a hike starting from the parking lot we've been parking in to ride, since the trail is still closed.  It is not a repeater, at all.  Much of it is full of baby heads, I hate walking on them.  A baby head is a mountain bike term to describe rocks that resemble babies buried in the ground so that only the top couple of inches of their heads are exposed.  Plus there were mosquitoes.

The rhodies have started to bloom.  We need to cut those back this year.

Here is the walkway with the new boxwood, and the terrible Rose of Sharon gone. 

With any luck, that's the last tree we'll be removing.

Today, the White House took down all of the transcripts of things 47 has said.  All they're putting up now is edited video clips.  Clips where he's not mangling the language and grammar.  Seems like this would violate the Presidential Records Act.  Of course, laws have no meaning in this country.  They're trying to disguise his disordered speech patterns.

The was today from Trump: "It’s going to be massive numbers… it's going to have a huge impact. So big that nobody can calculate it. So it will affect everything. It will affect your whole life. The amount of money you're going to be saving is going to be incalculable. Nobody can believe I had the courage to do it. I think it would have been courage not to do it."

He's talking about reducing pharmaceutical prices by threatening other countries.   This is a big problem for other countries who order transcripts and translate them into their languages.  

This morning the administration removed Harvard's ability to host foreign students.  Their visas will be revoked unless they transfer to another school.  Ten minutes later a federal judge put a hold on that.  Also blocked today, 47's plans to do away with the Department of Education.

Lawrence H. Summers, who is a big deal in the finance commentary space had this to say,  "The U.S. country risk trade is back as bonds, stocks and the dollar all fell sharply today. A few more days like today and recession will be likely. And financial accident risk is rising as well. President Trump needs to retreat on taxes just as he did on tariffs."  Mortgage rates are up to 7% or so, which is as high as they've been in years.

The House passed the Big Bad Bill by one vote..  If Gerry Connolly, Raul Grijalva, and Slyvester Turner had not died while in office, we wouldn't be here.  Instead we will have terrible things put in place, and huge cuts to food subsidies, Medicare and Medicaid.  Such a deal.

So that's it, another great day in the US of A.

46 and 47

Here is a picture of the failing and faltering 46th President of the United States, taken March 23, 2025.  Notice the lack of a cane, walker or wheel chair.  Yes, the man is old, yes his stutter is a little more apparent than it used to be.  However, go out to Youtube and play this video, or this one.  The second video was made on the 100th day of 47's horrible administration.  I haven't read it, but I don't believe Jake Tapper's book.  I do believe he had it in for Hunter Biden, and by extension, Joe, because Hunter would not agree to call Tapper immediately upon Beau's death so he could scoop the other networks.  There's history there.

As to the cancer diagnosis.  "Aggressive cancer" has a specific meaning.  It's not like normal prostate cancer that's slow growing, and can take a decade to kill you.  The Gleason score of 9 tells you it's a poorly differentiated cancer.  That type of tumor does does not secrete prostate specific antigens like a non-aggressive tumor.  There are less.  So, the last PSA Biden did in 2014, in accordance with guidelines for older men, would not have shown this cancer.  I don't know, because some of  the literature is opaque to me, if it would have shown the tumor before he left office.  Here's the thing.  He's a private citizen now, and I am sick and fucking tired of people trying to make this a scandal and throw shit on what was a very successful administration.  

Biden was not perfect, I believe his premature declaration that Covid was over bordered on criminal negligence.  Currently one person dies of Covid every 11 minutes, so no, not over.  Likewise, I think Obama's failure to stop Putin in Crimea was a terrible, wrong headed decision.   Democrats are not perfect, but they are way better than what we have now.

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

In other news, the Big Bad Bill will increase the deficit to the point that there is likely to be 500 BILLION dollars cut from Medicare over the next ten years.  Medicad will suffer more cuts.   All this while adding $4 trillion to our current $37 trillion debt.

Today 47 hosted the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa.  He spent the press time talking over Mr. Ramaphosa and accusing him of committing genocide on the Afrikaners. This is not true.  It's a lie pushed by Elon Musk.  South Africa does have a high crime rate, but white people are not victims of genocide.  They still own just about everything.  There is an NPR article that did fact checking.  47 made a complete ass of himself.  He told Peter Alexander he was not smart enough to be a reporter when asked about the gift 747 from Qatar.  Once again, I am embarrassed to be a citizen of the US.

 

Spring and Malfeasance

This spring totally sucks!  It's cold, it's rainy, and we're bored spitless.  We did get a new boxwood for the side yard after our nice neighbor dug out the Rose of Sharon that was dead.  Home Depot did not have a good distribution of sizes, the pots were either really big, or smaller than we wanted.  Our dirt lies upon a significant layer of clay-like soil which is a pain to dig in, so we went with the smaller plant.  It will grow.  We got it planted in between rain showers.  It was a dismal day, as is today. 

There have been wild life sightings.  

This is a female turkey that's roaming the neighborhood.  It's odd, she's the only turkey we've seen this year.  Usually there is a flock in the area.  She's a big bird.  The lady up the street thinks she must have a nest somewhere.  What do turkeys eat?  Anything they can get into their mouth.  That's according to the internet.

One of the murderous robins.  They locate worms by sound.  He's listening for them to move through the dirt.

The always adorable rabbit.  He chewed a shoe sized hole in the grass, right down to the ground.  We may have to start shooing him.  I wouldn't mind it if he'd keep moving while eating, but he likes to remain in one place and chew.

So, former President Biden has prostate cancer that has moved to the bones.  It's amazing how many MAGAts just have to weigh in on stuff they know nothing about.  They should all have a plague of boils and hives.  It should be enough to wish him well and zip it.

From twitter we learn The Big Beautiful Bill which is moving through congress does the following, in addition to taking healthcare away from 14 million people.  It's way more than a budget bill, it's an end to the world as we know it bill.

- Closure of the U.S. Department of Education 

- 25% expansion of logging in national forests, bypassing environmental reviews and fast-tracking timber production 

 - Rollbacks on clean energy incentives, cutting tax credits for EVs and renewables, gutting key climate provisions

 - More public lands opened up for drilling, mining, and logging, with royalty breaks for fossil fuel companies 

- Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, ending U.S. participation in global climate efforts  

- Executive Order 14215, forcing independent federal agencies to follow White House legal interpretations and centralizing authority under the presidency  

 - Pension changes for federal workers hired before 2014, cutting take-home pay by raising required contributions, reducing future payouts, and eliminating early retirement supplements

 - REINS Act-style regulation repeal, where major federal rules expire unless Congress re-approves them every 5 years allowing Trump to quietly erase protections without rewriting laws  

- Expanded executive control over agency budgets, allowing the White House to move federal funds internally without explicit congressional approval

 - Restoration of impoundment powers, giving Trump the ability to block or delay spending already passed by Congress reviving powers stripped after Watergate  

 - Creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), placing White House–aligned teams inside every federal agency with access to internal systems and influence over hiring and daily operations 

 - Sharp cuts in regulatory enforcement, with agencies like the EPA, CFPB, and Labor and Transportation Departments halting enforcement of key safety, environmental, and anti-discrimination rules  

 - Trump’s personal control over economic policy, strengthening his power to direct tariffs, pressure private companies, and dictate pricing with little resistance treating the U.S. economy like his own business

Sounds great, does it not?

This is funny, in these days one must take funny where one finds it.

That's it, that's all I've got.

Two Trees Gone and That Man

Yesterday and the day before were spent removing two Roses of Sharon.  The winter of 2022/23 finished them off.  Last year they looked like hell, this year they were not sprouting anything.  This is the big one.

We had to take it down in stages.  It was extremely tedious.  It had to be cut up in small pieces so it would all fit in the green can.  The reciprocating saw was used on the larger bottom branches.  Fortunately, our nice neighbor has a chain saw, and he came over and cut it off at ground level.  We had no way to do that.  Then our other neighbor dug the small Rose of Sharon out for us.  That neighbor is a very strong guy, he digs up pine tree stumps for fun.  So, we're probably not planting in the corner, the fireplace exhaust will be visible.  If it bothers the next owner, they can plant something.  Yet another boxwood will go in where the small hibiscus was.  I don't know why people plant those trees here, it can get really cold.  The HOA president lost 6 of those trees due to the extreme cold. 

The branches foreground are what was removed.  That's where the new boxwood will go.  I love those plants, deer don't eat them, they're always green, and they're cold hardy.  What more can you ask for?

The weather is bad.  It rained all night, and just recently stopped.  It's cold, it's gloomy.  I feel Seasonal Affective Disorder coming on.

47 went to the Middle East and thoroughly humiliated himself.  He fell asleep, then he got up and walked past the table where he was supposed to sign something, and had to be led back to the chair.  It was just sad.  At one point he launched into a riff about we're going to add an engine to the F35 airplanes, because he likes two engines.  There is no possible way that can ever be done.  He's just making up stuff.

47 has directed Federal Departments to purchase and erect huge banners of his face on all federal buildings at an estimated cost of $184 million. Trump says: "they do it in North Korea and China to show respect for their supreme leaders, so why shouldn't we."  And yet we can't fund Meals on Wheels.

This is what dictators do.

Click the link, play the video.  It's a brief news report on how 47 got hornswoggled with the "free" air plane.  Such a master deal maker, that one.

SCOTUS has returned yet another 7-2 decision that Venezuelans may not be deported without a trial.  Presently they are hearing arguments about doing away with birthright citizenship.  That one is huge, hopefully another 7-2 will uphold the constitution.

Moody's has downgraded US credit.  This is bad.

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

The New Air Force One

In the first administration of the orange one, it was decided that two new Air Force One planes for the president were required.  Boeing quoted the price, and 47 went ballistic at the cost.  They're complicated airplanes, they have inflight refueling, electronic war counter measures, chaff and flares, secure encrypted communications and like that.  Boeing's normal process was to build the air frames and turn them over to the company that does that kind of work.  Because it's an empty air frame it's a lot easier to install the specialized mission equipment.  But no, 47 went for a deal with Russia and bought two used, fully stuffed, passenger 747s.  Cheap!  These things have been a nightmare to customize; and yes, they're late.  Zero money over all has been saved due to the complexity of retrofitting the planes.  Boeing would have been better off sending 47 to Airbus.

So, enter Qatar, they're going to "gift" the US Air Force with a flying palace, a 12 yr old 747-800, business jet.  It, too, will have to have extensive modifications, paid for by tax payers, to the point the 47 will probably not fly on it as president.  It will take some time to remove the listening devices installed in the walls.  Then, when he leaves office, ownership will transfer to the Presidential library, which is controlled by the National Archives and Records Administration.  47 sees this as "he gets a free airplane."  The rest of us see this as a blatant violation of the Emoluments Act and just plain corrupt. 

This was said today.

President Donald Trump on Monday defended Qatar’s offer of a Boeing 747 aircraft for him to use, dismissing concerns about the ethics and constitutionality of such an arrangement.

“We’re very disappointed that it’s taking Boeing so long to build a new Air Force One,” Trump said, complaining that the current presidential plane is not in the same “ballgame” as those used by leaders of other countries.

Trump claimed Qatar offered to donate a 747 to the U.S. Defense Department for Trump to use temporarily while Boeing completes the two Air Force One planes it has a contract to build.

It's a beautiful airplane, who wouldn't want one?  However, this is wrong.

So, this is what we're outraged about today.

A Ride and More Chaos

Today we rode, it was the last good day for awhile.  Warm, breezy, overcast.

Spring is taking its own sweet time this year.  It did the same last year, it was cold into June.  Then it went straight into the 100s.  

Yesterday we went to Lowe's to buy new blades for the reciprocating saw.  There are two dead Roses of Sharon, one we're going to dig out with the help of our neighbor, the other we're just going to cut down.  It's been there for 20 years, I know there is a huge root system, and there are pressurized sprinkler lines somewhere in the area.  Now the vent from the gas fireplace will be visible from the street, but I guess I just will not look there.  They had a really pretty peony in the garden department.  It's a huge plant, the label was covered, so I'm not sure what it is.

Google lens is of no help, there are hundreds of similar plants returned by search.  It's a peony.

In no particular order, I have these topics.

The Catholics have a new pope.  He has dual citizenship, Peru and the US.  Some of the magats are already suggesting he could be arrested and deported to Peru if he comes here.  Good luck with that. Louisiana State Archives records also show the pope's maternal grandmother identified as being from New Orleans and his grandfather identified as being a native of Haiti. The pontif's maternal grandfather, Joseph Martinez, was later listed as being from the Dominican Republic.  Some people are pretty excited about his multi-cultural background.  The magats are not. Already he has come out strongly against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  That's refreshing.

As you no doubt know, RFK Jr wants to start a database of autistic people.  Why does that need to be done?  Who will collect the data, who will safe guard it.  Currently DOGE wants to merge HHS, Social Security, and IRS data into one database.   This is a terrible idea.  Currently they're separated for additional security.  Making one giant file opens it up to hacking.  Once that's combined, they know everything about everybody.  I really hate this.

Dr. Oz has said repeatedly that “It’s patriotic duty of Americans to take care of themselves. It’s important for serving in the military & healthy people don’t consume healthcare resources”  as well as "70% of the money we spend is on chronic illness and we are not getting our money's worth."  So, what does he want the chronically ill to do?  Go die?  He's verging on Nazi ideology.  Google on "useless eaters." 

The nominee, Casey Means, for Surgeon General does not have a medical degree.  She dropped out during residency, and started a company that convinces people who do not have diabetes to buy glucose monitors.  Here is part of a Slate article about her.  I think it covers the bulk of her awfulness.  She's a wellness grifter.  Par for the course for this administration.  She's been chosen because RFK Jr likes her.

47 continues to be a nutbag.  What we're seeing as a result of 47's tariff policies is traffic in the US ports is dropping off to nothing.  Currently there are no Chinese ships on the way to here.  Thousands of dockworkers and truck drivers are worried about their jobs.  47's response to this slow down of trade, "That means we lose less money ... when you say it slowed down, that's a good thing, not a bad thing."

There was also a digression into the country of Mattel.  He threatened the "country" of Mattel Toys with a 100% tariff if they counter his policies. "Mattel— they’re the only country I’ve heard saying they’re going to go some place else. That’s okay. Let them go and we’ll put a 100% tariff on his toys. He won’t sell one toy in the US."

So, he doesn't understand trade imbalances, he thinks it's good that we won't be getting anything from China, businesses that resell stuff from China will go under, people will lose their jobs, it's all fine.

Earlier today, European leaders issued a 30 day ceasefire ULTIMATUM to Putin. Either he negotiates an end to the war, or Europe will unleash “massive” sanctions against Russia and supply Ukraine devastating weapons. Putin has 36 hours to respond.  He responded, nyet.  He's countering with direct talks between Ukraine and Russia on May 15.  However, this is also happening: "The US embassy in Kyiv put out a public warning late on Friday night that it had received intelligence of a “potentially significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next several days”. It did not give further details, but it later emerged that Russia will close its airspace over the Kapustin Yar missile testing range on Monday and Tuesday, which could indicate the potential launch of ballistic missiles."  This is bad.  It's unfortunate that mass shipments of arms were not made at the beginning instead of being doled out with restrictions on what could be targeted.  I had hope earlier today, so much for that.  Good coverage here.

This is from twitter.

Here is a good thing.  "People who receive the shingles vaccine have a 23% lower risk of health problems like stroke, heart failure and heart disease."

Also good.  If you have a pacemaker, you can put it in your Will to have your pacemaker donated to a dog in need after you pass. Pacemakers cannot be donated to another human, but they can be donated to dogs with cardiac issues who would depend on it to stay alive.

If you would like to see Senator Chris Murphy take Kristi Noem to the wood shed, go here and play the video.

Spring and That Administration

Life at home has been ... shall we say, uninteresting.  We walk, we ride, we do laundry.  It's difficult to think of anything scintillating to say.  I'm having difficulty with the horror that is the current administration and their lawlessness and cruelty.

There are a few photos.  This is a Mugo pine.  They're slow growers, I think this one is probably 20 years old.  It's making yellow things, which I am assuming are part of the reproductive cycle. 

The red maple.  Someone ruthlessly pruned it a long time ago.  I'm going to have to take a little off of it because it's touching the house.  Look at that grass.  Last winter was mild, so we did not come home to patches of dead grass and some sort of fungus the neighbors call smut.  So, we have not had to plant grass seed and beg it to grow.  Once it gets hot, the grass will look bad, it always does.  PNW grass is weak.

It amuses me that I'm commenting on the beauty of the grass, since it is a stupid mono culture with few redeeming values, that wastes water and puts fertilizer run off into the environment.  The rabbits like it, they'll sit out there for hours eating.

The neighbors up the street have their usual display of blooming things.  Their yard looks very cheerful.

Moving on.  47's use of the Alien Enemies Act has been ruled unlawful, and they've been told to stop kidnapping people.  Jim heard a piece on NPR radio about how no one on that first flight to El Salvador was a terrorist or cartel member.  Their crime was one of skin color.  Despite being told to stop it, 47 turned to Libya to put people in their terrible prisons.  Libya, however, declined.  Good for them.

Nearly all of the remaining staff at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health were laid off Friday (5/3/25), multiple officials and laid-off employees told CBS News, gutting programs ranging from approvals of new safety equipment to firefighter health, to curbing the spread of measles.  NIOSH  was also responsible for testing and certifying respirators like N95s; ensuring they could provide adequate protection from smoke, hazardous debris and viral threats. Gruesome details can be found here.

The administration has shut down CDC's infection control committee HICPAC, which issued guidance about preventing the spread of infections in health care facilities.  The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) crafted national standards for hand-washing, mask-wearing and isolating sick patients that most U.S. hospitals follow. The committee is now dead; long live hospital infections.  More is here.

If you're eligible for a covid vaccine, go get it now.  Vinay Prasad has been appointed the next director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, after Peter Marks was forced out.  It will not surprise me if we never see another covid update because of him.  This is from wikipedia.

In October 2021, Prasad prompted social media controversy when he published a blog post comparing the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic response to the beginnings of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. Bioethicist Arthur L. Caplan said that Prasad's arguments were specious and ignorant, and science historian Robert N. Proctor said that Prasad was "overplaying the dangers of vaccination mandates and trivializing the genuine harms to liberty posed by 1930s fascism".^[26]

In November 2021, Prasad expressed his opinion that pediatricians should warn parents about risks of COVID immunization such as a mild form of myocarditis.^[27] However, physician Jonathan Howard noted that Prasad was selectively omitting the risks of COVID disease^[28] which would not be consistent with the tenets of medical informed consent. 

Prasad is famous on twitter for blocking doctors, and there are many, who disagree with him.  From what I have read, my opinion is that he's a wing nut.  So, of course, he's in charge of vaccines, gene therapies and the blood supply.  The fact that he's closely aligned with RFK Jr should be disqualifying.  More is here.

There is a new nominee for Surgeon General.  "Casey Means has written about how, after attending Stanford Medical School and training to become a surgeon, she opted to leave "traditional medicine" to devote her life to "tackling the root cause of why Americans are sick." She co-founded Levels, a health app that can connect to glucose monitors, and built a large following as a health and wellness influencer." She's also aligned with RFK Jr.  The CBS article is here.

More and more of the health care system in this country is now aligned with RFK Jr.  We're all going to die.

As for the future of work, what with on shoring and all, there is this.  Go to the article, watch Lutnick celebrate the future of work.  He is so excited, saying "It's time to train people not to do the jobs of the past, but to do the great jobs of the future. This is the new model where you work in these kinds of plants for the rest of your life and your kids work here and your grandkids work here. We let the auto plants go overseas."  Yep, we're all going to be working in factories for the rest of their lives.  The republicans really need some help with their messaging.

This is what's happening in Memphis.  Elon built a new AI training center or something, and is powering it with 35 methane powered generators.  There are no air pollution controls on the generators.  This is in a primarily Black area, their health is already compromised from other industries, now this.  EPA does not care.  It's fine, they're doing away with regulations and unleashing the power of capitalism.  Meanwhile, these people are suffocating.  It's a long and depressing read.

 I will end with a cool thing from Ukraine.  This is a drone that has been used to ram ships, explode, and sink the ship.  The Ukrainians have now reworked it by putting SideWinder missiles on it, and shooting down MIGs from the water's surface.  Well done.

Riding and That Man

It made it into the 80's today.  We may or may not have hit a new record high for this day.  Yesterday and today we rode.  We've cobbled together an acceptable alternative to the trail closures that has a paved parking lot (baby heads are hard on the feet), time at the lake, the two switch backs we like and a trip down a residential street that doesn't feel like we'll be killed.  It's a dead end, so there is not much traffic.  We don't have the terrible hill up to the gate, because that is behind the crime scene tape.

It's really annoying, their project plan says they're closing the trails because they occasionally have to move equipment.  How about if they put flags in the logging crews hands and make safe passage when it's needed, instead of 2.5 months of closures.   

The lake was pleasant to look at.   There is a new camp host.  He's a big, imposing looking guy, and he's very nice.  His wife is a retired police officer, so the two of them are ideal to run a boat ramp. 

Look up the hill in the distance.  They appear to be cutting a road down the hill to put houses on the waterfront.  One wonders how they will stabilize that hill, once the vegetation is off.

 

There is a quince growing on the camp host's site, it's an impressive shrub.

This is what we see driving home. 

47 has been busy.  I'm short on time, so I will give us the Cliff's notes on some of the awfulness.

The president's executive order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS” and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. Article is here.

 

The Trump administration has discussed transferring migrants with criminal records held in the United States to two African countries, Libya and Rwanda, multiple sources familiar with the talks told CNN.  The Wall Street Journal previously reported this month that several countries, including Libya and Rwanda, were considered as potential partners to receive migrants deported from the U.S.  An article is here.

Trump just shut down all the school mental health programs and neighborhood anti-violence programs funded by the 2022 gun bill. Millions of kids just lost their mental health worker or after school program.

This is one of the most egregious things yet.  60 minutes did a story awhile back on people in Alabama, mainly Black people, who do not have functioning sewer systems.  Raw sewage pools up in their yards, ditches, and sometimes into their homes.  Money was appropriated to fix this and put in either septic tanks or a sewer system.  47 has cancelled that project because it's DEI.  Article is here.  The Alabama health department doesn't feel like they need to address this, now no one does.

The government under President Donald Trump is bending the arc of US history in a new direction, away from the civil rights focus of the past 60 plus years.  Addressing or even acknowledging racial injustice toward people of color is out.  Separating church and state is out, according to Trump.  Exposing anti-Christian bias and being ‘anti-woke’ is in.  The Department of Justice division created by the landmark 1957 Civil Rights Act to defend American’s rights has a new mission: rooting out anti-Christian bias, antisemitism and “woke ideology,” the head of the division, Harmeet Dhillon, recently told conservative commentator Glenn Beck.  The CNN article I borrowed this from is here.

There is much much more, but I think I will stop here. 

OK, one more thing.  Judge Ketanji Brown spoke at a legal meeting and had things to say.  Go here, and read what she said.