Badness on All Sides

Happy Saturday citizens.  I have no new pictures, really all I have is badness.  So, let's dig in.

Putin and Zelenskyy agreed that Ukraine would not bomb Russia during their abbreviated parade, if there could be a prisoner exchange of 1,000 soldiers.  Zelenskyy said that those lives were more important than bombing the parade.  Today Putin cancelled the prisoner exchange, saying that Ukraine was not ready.  Liar, he never planned to do this.

The parade was pitiful.  There were no tanks, missiles any of that.  There was a group of war widows attempting a goose stepping formation in the parade.  This is what Putin looked like, he may have regrets.  His people are beginning to realize how bad things are.

The administration is going to let 47 fly to China to talk to Xi.  This would be the guy who can't walk in a straight line, has trouble with stairs, is carrying 20 or so pounds of water weight, has the back of both hands smeared with makeup, and a dreadful looking rash on his neck.  Other than that, he's fine.

The era of the anonymous phone number could be ending. On April 30, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved a proposal requiring telecom providers to verify customers’ identities before activating service.  Government-issued ID, physical address, legal name, and existing phone numbers would all be included. The stated goal is stopping robocalls. The result would be an identity-verification regime covering one of the last semi-anonymous communication tools available to ordinary Americans.  Article is here.  This will include the pay as you go phones that various companies cell.  Journalists use prepaid phones to protect sources, domestic violence survivors use them to avoid being traced, and whistleblowers, activists, or anyone with a reason to separate phone activity from legal identity relies on this.  I can not tell you how much this infuriates me.  I guess this is why we need all of these giant data centers.

Speaking of Box Elder,  "The project will actually produce more than 9 gigawatts of energy, Davies explained, because anytime a gadget consumes power, it also produces energy in the form of heat, whether it’s a toaster, a car or a sprawling rack of computer servers.  All the heat the Stratos Project emits will add up to another 7 to 8 gigawatts of energy in the form of waste heat.  Typically, waste heat is generated far from the power plant itself, in homes, businesses or on roads where it dissipates.  But for the Stratos project, it will get dumped into the local environment of Hansel Valley, in the same geographic bowl as the power plant. That actually makes the data complex a 16 gigawatt thermal load project, the “equivalent of about 23 atom bombs worth of energy dumped into this local environment every single day,” Davies said."  This is in the Great Salt Lake watershed, so that will probably get worse, as well.  What ever happened to environmental impact statements?  Why do three old white men get to force this decision on the citizens who do not want this.  The paper did an article, you can read it for free once, I think.

When the Supreme Court once again gutted the Voting Rights Act, they said it wasn't needed anymore.  Racism and Jim Crow are over, they said.  Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said he hopes the Supreme Court will overturn the 14th Amendment — the historic law that gave Black Americans citizenship and equal protection after the Civil War.  He wants to remove Black people's influence by diluting their districts.  Sort of like Jim Crow all over again.

Two good tweets from twitter.

DOJ wants to pay Trump's $83.3 million judgment to E. Jean Carroll. Taxpayers' money. Your money. Sometimes I feel like we're all watching a Netflix series.
Posted by Jesus Chrysler  

NEW: Iran is preparing to assert full sovereign control over the seven undersea internet cables passing through the Strait of Hormuz, with foreign firms required to obtain permits, pay transit fees, and operate under Iranian law, per Fars. The cables carry 15-20% of global internet and financial data traffic linking Europe, the Gulf, and Asia. Cable management and maintenance would be exclusively assigned to Iranian companies under the proposal. The IRGC previously warned of cutting the submarine cables passing through Hormuz, which Gulf states depend on for over 90% of their internet, banking, and cloud services. Iran relies on them for less than 40%, with the rest routed overland through Turkey. 
Posted by Hormuz Letter. 

And then there is this.

 

 

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.  

Bullhead City to Spanish Fork, Utah

Today was a long day, most of it was very windy.  Fortunately it was not a head wind.  The entire drive is on I15.  Traffic getting out of Las Vegas was backed up as it always is.  We did see an accident in which a red car had been pushed up on top of the jersey barrier and was totaled.  Hopefully the people in the car survived.  Traffic behind the accident was backed up for at least five miles.  What a start to the day.

The route took us through the always lovely Virgin River Gorge.  I was driving, so no photos of that.  If you'd like, refer back to this post for photos. 

We are once again at the Hampton Inn and Suites in Spanish Fork.  It's a nice, if somewhat over priced place to stay.  They're doing this with the roll of toilet paper now, which is adorable.

Tomorrow we are up and out for Butte, Montana where it is cold and snowing.  Not looking forward to it.  It's also a long travel day.

Today 47 has issued directions to Hegseth to get a nuclear reactor orbiting the moon before the end of his term.  Right then.  Yep, the directive involves other agencies, but it was directed to the Pentagon, in the form of Hegseth.

This was dinner.  We didn't hate either one, but we didn't like them much, either.

Also when leaving Las Vegas, forego the Flying J at 93 and 40.  Getting out of there and back on the freeway is a confusing bear.  Ten miles south of the Flying J there is a Terribles (that's the name!) gas station that is easy on, easy off.  

Tucson to Bullhead City

Today was Tucson to Bullhead City.  The weather today has just been delightful, in the mid-70s.  The last two days in Tucson had high winds and it was not delightful.  

We're looking for a new route between Bullhead City and Tucson.  We would like to not go through Kingman.  They have significant traffic and frequent accidents.  So today we went I10 to US95 in California and up that way.  As a new route, this is not the one.  Once you get off I10, it's all two lane roads and zero passing lanes.  It's also a truck route.  I drove most of the two lane roads and it's exhausting.  So, please make a note of this, and don't do it again.

This is Picacho Peak.  It's north of Tucson.  It's kind of weird how it just sticks up out of the ground, with no surrounding mountains.

This is how much of the drive looked.  There are some really desolate parts of the state. 

Safeway had the frozen Indian dinners again, so we got those.  I'd like to not eat at Subway on this trip.  Their quality has really declined, and everything is too salty.   Some of the Indian dinners are high in sodium, but these two are not bad.

So, we're back at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites, it's still a nice hotel.  They have raised their prices some.

Update to post:  The chicken curry is good, but it's hot.  If you're a hot food wimp, like I am, it's hot.  I like the chicken Tikka Masala better.

The Healing

We ride at dawn tomorrow.  Actually we're driving, and it probably won't be dawn, either.  Our first stop is Bullhead City, and yes, it's actually called that.

Who saw this before it was deleted?  47 put it up after his pissing contest with the Pope.  

 The back lash was swift and furious.  This guy has totally lost his mind.

Orban is Defeated

Oh happy day.  Orban has conceded defeat to Péter Magyar.  Hopefully Orban and Putin will not launch into a "the election was stolen" a la 47, and they'll just go away.

I believe my father's mother was Hungarian.  She came to the US alone at age 17.  I don't know if she had people here to help her, or what happened after she arrived.  Eventually she married and had eight children.  My grandfather died before I was born.  I'm pretty happy about the defeat of Orban.  This will be good for Ukraine, and bad for Putin and 47.

Witkoff, Kushner and the VP spent 12 or so hours "negotiating" with Iran yesterday.  Iran said no to every proposal offered by the US side.  As you no doubt recall, the JCPOA took two years to negotiate.  The people from the US went home after one session.  Today 47 is threatening to blockade the Strait.  I'm reading that the helium will be gone in six months in the US, if you need an MRI, get it now.

We're leaving Tuesday morning.  The car is impossibly full.  At this point, I'm not sure it's all going to fit, which is fairly depressing.  We'll see. 

Here is a lovely trichocerus.   It's sort of an unusual color.

That's it!  

Kindles

 Here is a first world problem for all of you Kindle owners.

Amazon is discontinuing support for Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier, effectively "soft-bricking" them by blocking access to the Kindle store and new content downloads after May 20, 2026. While existing locally stored books will remain, devices cannot download new content, rendering14-18 year-old, working units into, in effect, paperweights.

For more information, google "Amazon bricking Kindles."  I can not tell you how much this pisses me off.  

Cactus from yesterday.

Things are still terrible in the Middle East, with no signs of improvement.

47 is dismantling the Forest Service.  Decades of knowledge and research will be dumpstered, fire seasons will be worse, post fire landslides will be worse.   They're planning to sell off vast swaths of land for logging.  Good bye little woodland creatures.

That's it!  Gotta start packing in earnest.

Nuclear War Put on Two Week Delay

Welcome to Tuesday.  Today would have been my brother's birthday, but he died young.  Really early onset Alzheimer's took him.  

This is how today started.  This level of destruction would probably require nuclear weapons.  This would be bad.  However, he TACOed.  He's given the Iranians a two week extension on extermination, IF they open the strait.  No word on how that's going.  Current negotiations are being held by Pakistan and Iran, and then China entered the conversation.  China and Pakistan really need the strait to be open.

As always, it is astonishing to me that Congress is not impeaching or applying the 25th Amendment to get this guy out of office.  He should not have the nuclear codes any more.

Last night, Iran attacked Jubail Industrial City,  Saudi Arabia's largest petrochemical complex: the zone that produces 60,000,000 tons of petrochemicals a year which is 6 to 8 percent of EVERYTHING the world makes.  This was unfortunate, pretty much everything is petroleum based.  Read all about it here.  

We rode this morning, it was very pleasant, not too hot.  We both had a good bike day.  A good bike day is when you feel strong on the hills, and not like you're dying.  We've both had a recent spate of feeling like death on the bikes.  I'm hoping it's over for awhile.  Figures we'd get better now, we're leaving next Tuesday.  

Examine the spines on this cactus.  They're extraordinarily long.  The plant is barrel shaped.  The flowers are what first caught my eye, very pretty. Google identifies it as an Astrophytum ornatum cactus.

That's it.  I did want to document the two week extension of nuclear winter.  47 is diluting his ability to be threatening because he keeps backing down.

Day After Easter

This is from yesterday.  The first is the President of the US publicly threatening to commit war crimes.  Why is he still in office?  I can not believe he or his office put this out. "Iran" is calling him out for it.

Snippets from twitter.

If the sitting president repeatedly threatening to use our military to commit war crimes doesn’t meet the threshold for removal from office, then nothing does.
JoJoFromJerz

Russia spent a decade and billions keeping Assad in power to hold its naval and air bases in Syria. Today the new Syrian president welcomes Zelensky in Damascus. Ukrainian flags flying. Embassies reopening. Strategic collapse in real time.
Nazel Nhaze

“If the spread of reading represented the greatest transfer of knowledge to ordinary men and women in history, the smartphone revolution represents the greatest theft of knowledge from ordinary people in history.” I compress James Marriot's new book into one tweet.
Tom Holland

47 went missing again for 4 or 5 days.  He came back spitting bile and hatred today.  How much longer until congress takes this guy out of office?  I'd like this to happen prior to the use of nuclear weapons.

Happy Easter

It suddenly occurred to me that it's Easter.  I knew that this morning, but then we rode, and then I caramelized  onions in a cast iron skillet and sort of forgot the whole thing.  If you celebrate, I hope you had an excellent day of it.

Good Friday

Greetings Earthlings!  How are you doing in these troubled times?  I think the deaths in the wars in the Middle East, the dreadful economy and the certain knowledge that things will never go back to the way they were is wearing on me.

Yesterday we went for a hike.  First time since February 28, which was a terrible day for Jim.  As you no doubt recall, he was having significant pain in his legs.  Things are better now.  The GP put him on prednisone, which he has now tapered down to 4 mg per day.  The pain management doctor put him on gabapentin.  The gabapentin has made a difference.  There is much less pain than there was.  The theory is that there is a slightly bulging disk at L3, and the steroids and the gabapentin are helping with it.  Generally the only permanent fix for a bad disk is surgery.  Jim has done that twice now, and things will have to get SO MUCH WORSE before he does it again.  Laminectomies and spinal fusions are quite painful and require three months of recovery.  So, we're hoping that this will hold the pain at bay for awhile.  

Anyway, then we went to Costco, which was abnormally not busy.  So we got Covid boosters.  Generally Covids don't bother me, this one did.  I woke up in the middle of the night and my arm was just killing me.   Between that and the birds waking me up at 5:30 this morning, I've been pretty much of a basket case all day.  So, there was no riding and there will be no rowing today.  It'll be better tomorrow.

The cactus are starting the bloom.  The first two are from 2018, but I really like the images.  This is a Buckhorn Cholla.  

Here is a bee in the pollen.  That is a prickly pear blossom.

The ocotillo in the side yard is blooming, but has no leaves yet.

Another prickly pear in the desert.

Jim took this the other night from our back patio when the moon was coming up.  It's not bad for a cell phone camera.

Hegseth fired  U.S. Army Chief of Staff Randy George Thursday.  He also asked that General George retire immediately.  No reason has been given for this action.  Hegseth has also removed four well respected, well qualified officers from the promotion list for general.  Two are Black men, two are female.  Bastard.  Apparently there is much dissension within the ranks of senior officers at the Pentagon about these decisions.

Today the US asked Iran for a 48 hour cease fire.  Iran said nope, we'd rather keep shooting at you and your allies.

Here are a few bon mots from twitter.

Russia has supplied more weapons and support to Iran - to help kill Americans - than the Trump administration has provided to Ukraine to help it defend itself.  Russia is literally proving to be a better ally to Iran than America has been to Ukraine lately. Let that sink in.
Richard Woodruff

Kristi Noem rigging the property appraiser’s exam while governor so her daughter could get her license, killing a puppy, & giving her boyfriend a powerful job in govt while cheating on her cross-dressing spouse is not that unusual on the spectrum of Republican politician behavior.
Ron Filipkowski 

Saying you're no longer a Trump supporter is like saying you're no longer a cannibal. People might believe you, but no one is ever going to ask you to babysit their kids—or eat at your house again.
Lucifer

Other than this, I have not too much to talk about. OK, there is this.

 

New Refrigerator and the Present Administration

It's still hot, but at least it's out of the triple digits.  Riding still has to occur earlier than I would like, but there you go.

Our new refrigerator arrived this morning.  I think the old one was original to the house, twenty some odd years ago.  The water dispenser died right after we moved in.  It occurred to us that without a water dispenser, changing the water filter in the frig was going to be an issue.  Much water must be run for a new filter.  So, we bought a new side by side, and they brought out this morning.  All of our food is still in styrofoam coolers, I'm hoping the frozen stuff will survive.  

It's blooming here.  I have photographic evidence. This is a Palo Verde up the street from us.  This variety has the pretty blossoms.  All Palo Verdes are a complete mess when they drop their petals on the ground.

A prickly pear in the desert.  This is my favorite color.

Look at the height of the flower spike on the yucca.  It's growing inches by the day.  These don't die after blooming like the agaves do.

Oleanders in the back.  They're pitiful bloomers.

Fairy Dusters.  This one is growing as nature intended it to, it hasn't been shaped in to a ball.

The war drags on, no one knows what's going on in Dear Leader's head.  He claimed that talks were going very well with Iran.  Iran responded with we're not talking to Kushner or Witkoff anymore, and there have been no talks.  Liar liar, pants on fire.  Today he was advocating for former President Biden and former VP Kamala Harris to be required to take IQ tests.  He thinks he's smarter.  Right then.

The Treasury Department has announced that the US is insolvent.  What could go wrong?

Notable quotes from twitter:

Janice Hough
As much as I hate Trump's idea of sending ICE to fill in for TSA, as someone in the travel industry I can't think of another move he can make that would so turn Americans against GOP before the 2026 elections....

Sen Chris Murphy on Meet the Press: "We're giving Iran $14B to fund its war with the US? We're giving Russia billions to fund their war with Ukraine? We're literally giving money to the very nations we're fighting right now! We've never seen this level of incompetence in war-making in our history, and quite frankly we've had a LOT of incompetence in war-making!"

The Strait of Hormuz remains closed to the US and Israel.  Hopefully, helium and nitrogen will be on the other boats and available for the US to purchase, no doubt at inflated prices.

So that's what I have to say about things. Also there is this that I swiped from Facebook.