Life and the G7

We've had a bumper crop of baby marmots this year.  We drove by a facility on Indian Trail Road, and their yard was full of them.   We've got one trying to establish a burrow in the front retaining wall.  This will not stand.  Lest you think I am unfeeling about critters, there are miles of basalt cliffs behind the neighborhood that are very tall, and they could all be happy there.  They do not need to be here digging.

There is not too much happening here.  The guy across the cul de sac is getting a new roof.  His crew keeps odd hours.  The house up the hill from us has a crew that worked until 9pm last night.  Different work ethic.  Across the cul de sac crew is doing other work along side the roof so they're part time, that would annoy the living snot out of me.  

It has warmed up.  We're riding.  There is a lot of this blooming in the park.

47 went to the G7 where he lost his way several times.  The other attendees would go get him and bring him back to the fold.  There was a fair amount of this, as well. 

We're not convinced he knew where he was, or why.

Macron invited him for dinner at Versailles.  That is where Germany signed the surrender papers after WWI.   While 47 was there, he signed surrender papers to Iran, as well.  We don't think he understood the optics of signing there.  Macron played him.

Meanwhile, the Reflecting Pool is full of algae, the blue coating is coming up due to the use of hydrogen peroxide to kill the algae, and the entire thing is becoming a lost cause.  Uniformed officers of some sort are arresting tourists who are reaching in to get a sample of the floating blue coating.  I have no idea what they're charging them with.

Other than that, life moves on and the ice maker has quit making ice.  I am very annoyed about this. 

The Lake and the Ongoing Turmoil

 Long time, no post.  I keep meaning to, but then something else needs doing.  

Jim has been busy prepping for the annual HOA meeting.  They hold it at Round Table Pizza, which gives me a window into how much pizza restaurants are charging these days.  It's just highway robbery.  It's not very good, so we never eat there.  Actually, I have quit going to the annual meeting, I've been hearing about it and proof reading what Jim is putting together, and so I don't feel the need.  The house hold is well represented.  Jim is VP of the board, and point of contact for entrance gate issues.  

It has warmed up enough to ride.  We went yesterday, there was a fresh little breeze in effect.  This is from a few days ago.  There was a huge logging of someone's yard.  The truck bed in the back is full, and there are more logs waiting to be removed.  We wonder why they took so many trees out.  

There is also this to wonder about.  Look on the right side of the photo, about midway between top and bottom.  What is that reflecting the light?  It's really bright.  I need to take my camera with the big lens and get a better image of this.

I can't think of the name of these plants.  Iris?  They're now past their prime, but they were pretty about a week ago.

This is from yesterday.  The boat ramp was busy, some people were not moving their boats to the outside of the ramp, thus making it impossible for other people to off load or pick up their boats.  These people are elderly and it was a struggle for them to walk the boat around.  Then the engine wouldn't start.  Eventually, they got it all together and were able to leave.

The Iran war continues to be off and on.  It's like Schrodinger's cat; is it dead or is it alive?  

The reflecting pool, which has been open for 2 or 3 days, is now full of algae.  The genius who had it painted drove his motorcade through it, which damaged the coating, he removed the filtration system Obama had installed, and now it is a stinking fetid swamp.

A pilot contacted the FAA about the lights on the cage for the UFC fights being blinding when landing at Ronald Reagan airport.  Apparently no one cares, and it was suggested that they contact the White House.  There will be a ground stop at Ronald Reagan for July 4, something that has never happened before.  47 must have have his stupendous fire works.  All the other administrations were aware of and careful of flight safety.

There has been interesting stuff on twitter this week.

AI is crashing because everyone has realized all it does is remix things that people have already done and there is no way to make it better because it doesn't actually do anything. They tried to build a castle on BS and now it is all collapsing into the shit.
Posted by Blade of the Sun

13 workers left Palantir and issued this statement. "Palantir is increasingly complicit, normalizing authoritarianism under the guise of a 'revolution' led by oligarchs. We must resist this trend."
Posted by Blade of the Sun

The real reason why the country is crumbling apart is because the elites of both parties just see America as an economic zone. The proletariat of the right think you can fix this by making the country only white. The proletariat of the left think you can fix this by embracing more racial diversity. Both sides fail to realize that the main problem is that elites (who are above left vs. right) see America as a corporation meant to be sucked dry at any costs possible for their personal gain. If you don’t believe me, ask any rich person you know if they culturally identify more with Paris or Pennsylvania. 
Spenser Hakimian

After Mexican officials confirmed a case of screwworm in Nov. 2024; USDA, under Joe Biden, closed southern ports of entry to live cattle imports to prevent spread of screwworm into U.S. Move also strained supply of cattle in Texas.... USDA reversed course in Feb 2025, after Trump took office, announcing opening of ports.
From the Texas Tribune

The average lifespan of a female screwworm fly is 10 to 30 days, once they lay eggs in an open wound they hatch and the maggots feed for 7 days before dropping to the ground, burrowing into the soil and emerge as adult flies. Tell me then how can the first screwworm case detected in the US on day 498 of the trump presidency be Joe Biden's fault???????

Posted by Covie

And there is this.  I love this for 47,
Cocchiarella: There’s a 100% chance of bugs. That’s a real stat. So Trump’s acolyte, Dana White, has literally lined the cage with industrial fans to blow the gnats off the fighters. For this octogenarian’s birthday, the failing, aging king—decaying in real time—has decided to throw himself a giant blood-sport party on the palace lawn to prove that he is still strong. And heaven responds by sending a heat wave, a thunderstorm, and a literal plague of insects down on top of him.  There is also a chance of hail and a tornado.  

That's it!  

 

The Roof is Done and the Climate

 It's June 7 - the sun is out, the wind is up and it's cold.  I would really like it to warm up a little.

This is the house before the roof.  It's not a beige house, it's a slight yellow.  The roof was green.

After.

This morning they came and took the trailer away out of the driveway.  Now both cars can live inside.  We are very happy about that.  We took the Jeep out to Spokane Valley to the no-touch car wash out there, it looks much better for being washed and waxed.

Yesterday we made pot roast.  We went to WinCo  on Friday, and they had a decent looking pot roast in the counter.  Yesterday it went in the crock pot.  It's a simple recipe, I'm not sure how I make that much mess on the counter.

Jim browned it in a cast iron skillet on the grill.  He does a better job at that than I do, I get impatient.

It was good, but the first one we did was better.  There's no fat rising to to the surface in the fat separator so I suspect this was a Select grade of meat, while the Safeway meat was Choice.  It had a lot of fat.  The WinCo roast was also $2.50 a pound less money.  It's always a trade off.  Anyway, two more meals are available from this, and we're going to eat them.

There is currently a stink about a provision in the NDAA, National Defense something something.  It's Section 224.  Thomas Massie has this to say about it: "If the provision in the NDAA to integrate/synchronize the U.S. and Israeli militaries (section 224) makes it out of committee, I’ll offer an amendment to strip it from the bill on the floor."  There is also section 622 that wants to do the same with intelligence.  It also proposes that future presidents can't undo the changes.  The US intelligence agencies are issuing red alerts on Israeli spying as it is, I don't think we need to make it any easier.  These bills are  disturbing me.  Netanyahu has confirmed that this was his idea and his plan all along.

The Super El Nino is coming.  The climate scientists are up in their hair about this.  Saying things like, "The only effective response is climate action equal to the crisis — ending the addiction to fossil fuels, accelerating the shift to renewables, protecting the most vulnerable, and delivering early warning systems for all."  Right then, 47 is giving money to run coal fired plants, and he outlawed new wind turbines in the US, and he pulled up all of the sensor buoys.  There is an article here.

This is a model generated map of how it will be.  Look at the Arctic and northern Canada.  Hopefully this model is wrong.  Interestingly enough, the South west of the US will not be all that hot.
 

In other terrible news that you can't do anything about, there is concern the the AMOC is slowing down.  Too bad someone pulled all of the ocean sensor buoys out of the water.  I talked about AMOC here.

That's it!  That's all I've got.

Roofing and Screw Worms

Wednesday the shingles and other roofing stuff were delivered to the roof.  That required a giant crane.  Here is a short video.

It was unfortunate timing.  The delivery company is swamped because it's roofing season, so everything was deposited on the roof prior to any tear off being done.  One guy handled all of those packages of shingles by himself.

This guy drives the crane with a body worn controller.

So that was yesterday.  Today there has been incessant pounding as they take off the old roof.  They're having to move the packages of shingles as they advance on their location.  They're picking them up, and dropping them in the new location, which makes the house shake and rattles the glasses.

Mid-day we were able to get a ride to the lake in.  The climate was interesting, cloudy, sunny, and windy with a cool air mass.  We guessed correctly on the clothing and kept it all on.

We recently learned the following.

Located in the far eastern part of the state, Spokane and the surrounding Inland Northwest are among Washington's notable eastern tick areas, especially for Rocky Mountain wood ticks and western dog ticks. The region's dry climate, rolling hills, and open pine forests create a favorable habitat for Rocky Mountain wood ticks (Dermacentor andersoni) and western dog ticks (Dermacentor similis).  One illness associated with tick bites in this region is tularemia. Symptoms include a sudden fever, headache, swollen lymph nodes, and a skin ulcer near the bite. Early treatment of tularemia with appropriate antibiotics is essential. 

We are not walking through tall grass anymore.  It's safer just to stay in paved areas or wide gravel paths.  There had been discussion of new mountain bikes for riding trails up here, but I think that's off the table.  Riverside Park, which is where we ride, was specifically called out in the linked article.

Screwworm has been detected in Texas, USDA confirmed - marking a serious threat to US cattle and other animals Larvae of the parasite were found in the umbilical cord of a 3 week old calf. Screwworm was eradicated from the US in 1966.  Unfortunately, screening and surveillance was discontinued and now they're back.  This is not good. 

Meriweather Farms posted this: Three counties in Texas have declared local state of disaster declarations on the New World Screwworm: Kinney, Jim Webb and Uvalde Three others are pending: Webb, La Salle and Val Verde The reasoning behind these declarations is because they feel they are not getting the federal nor state support needed to combat this crisis Its long past due for the President to declare a National Emergency Declaration so local officials on the front lines are getting the support they need.

If the inspector shows up in a timely fashion, tomorrow will be putting on the new shingles.  They'll be running a compressor and using a nail gun.  It will be good when this is over.

Window Wells and the Administration

Greetings Earthlings. We have spent the last four days doing maintenance on the window wells.  Spokane is the only place I've ever seen this style of building, which is not to say no one else does it.  There are two bedrooms downstairs, there has to be emergency egress in case of fire, so they put in windows that are partially below grade.  I have to tell you, the idea that a little kid will be able to open the windows, boost them selves out of the window, and then climb up the rusting metal ladder unaided is just stupid.  

Anyway, we've been recaulking and then painting the ancient window frames.  The worst part of all of this, is getting in and out of the well.  This is me moving dirt away from the window.  New gravel was added to keep dirt from bouncing up when it rains.  Notice the ladder on my right.  It's not secured to anything, there's nothing to hang on to when climbing out.  I hate ladders as it is.

Here is Jim painting.  He's 5 foot 11, you can see how deep these suckers are.  Thus far we've had one baby rabbit fall in (twice) and one quail chick.  Both were successfully rescued.

 Today was probably the last good day for the fried egg peonies.

Who knows what the AMOC is?  It's this.  The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a massive system of ocean currents in the Atlantic Ocean that acts as a global climate conveyor belt. It transports warm, salty surface water from the tropics northward to Europe, and sends cold, dense deep water back south.  It's critical to maintaining temperatures in Europe, and the tropics.  Currently the rate of flow is slowing.  How do we know this?  Science.  The US spent many years and dollars putting buoys in the oceans to keep track of temperatures, salinity, flow rates, and the AMOC.  47 in his infinite wisdom is having all of the buoys removed.  Now NOAA can't surveil the oceans.  This is just devastating for the US and the rest of the world.  Here is an unlocked article from NYT.  Of all the things that man has done, this has hit me the hardest, stupid just stupid.  Here is an AP article that's slightly better.

This is what NSF had to say about the reasoning behind this.  “…aligns with N.S.F.’s wider strategy to have a nimbler approach to prioritizing support for evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies as well as a deliberate approach to smart life cycle management within its portfolio of research infrastructure.”

Iran has quit talking to the US.  They have the Strait of Hormuz, we have nothing to threaten them with.  When asked how he felt about this, 47 had this to say.

"I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less."

That's also what he said when asked about how he's feeling about the current US cost of living and people struggling to pay for gas and food.

Then there is this from Larry Ellison, supreme ass hat of the entire universe.  I'm not sure exactly who gave him the job of global surveillance.  

There is just so much about which to be outraged, but I think I'm just going to give it a rest.

Weather and Stuff in Washington

There was riding.  While we were at the lake, the park employees had removed some old algae encrusted buoys and were replacing them with new, pretty buoys.  This is a new pretty one they're putting in the Sheriff's boat.  The hand truck has the concrete block which will anchor the buoy in one place.

Last night we had an amazing thunderstorm.  Spokane doesn't do that very often.  There was lightning, the kind of thunder that makes the glasses rattle on a glass shelf and much wind.  A big tree has been downed up the street.  It fell between two houses, so that was good.  Power went out for 16,000 Avista customers.  It came back on about 90 minutes later, which was really good.  We had head lights and camping lanterns, and we also had enough AA batteries to power the lanterns.  I ordered more today.

Here is Jim and his Kindle in the dark.

The peonies are blooming.  They got pushed over pretty thoroughly in last night's wind.  The fried egg is having a good year.

The pink peony buds are still not fully open.  The flower on this stalk was too heavy to stand up.  Here is his picture so he can live on in our hearts and minds.  They really are pretty flowers.

This is from The Hill.  "The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) said in a yet-to-be-published proposed rule Friday that it’s drawing up plans to radically crack down on mail voting by sending ballots only to voters who are registered with the federal government.  The proposed rule, which will be formally published next week, is an alarming step toward implementing President Donald Trump’s sweeping attack on mail voting ahead of the 2026 midterm election. And it would represent a massive expansion of federal control over voting, without congressional authorization."  This is wrong on so many fronts.  States run their own elections, it says so in the Constitution.  This also counts as mail theft, if they're not sending me my ballot.  Washington and Oregon no longer have polling places.  Washington allows you to register when you get a driver's license.  Oregon registers you by default.  This will end up in court, and with any luck, the constitution will be upheld.

47 is planning to renegotiate existing trade agreements with Mexico and Canada.  Basically he wants what he wants, and plans on putting tariffs on everything.  Canada is moving on to new trade agreements, so the US may be left out in the cold.  Here is how the F35 is assembled.

47 is really pissed because Canada is buying the European Saab Global Eye and not the Boeing version.

From twitter we read the following.

I think it’s hilarious that the State Dept. told Iran to disregard what Trump puts out on social media.

Texas Radio Dude  
 

"To call Paxton 'ethically challenged' is to call Jeffrey Dahmer suffering from an eating disorder. He's gonna be an anchor on our caucus"
Tom Tillis (R) Senator South Carolina

 

James Talarico said “God is non-binary” in 2019 and that offended my Christian ears. Therefore, I will vote for the serial adulterer who steals from thy neighbor and who will most certainly abuse his power once in office.

Adam Mockler

For those of you not immersed in US politics, James Talarico is running against Paxton for US Senator.  He's not vegan (the republicans are telling lies again) and Ted Cruz is mocking his breakfast choices and calling him a "soy boy."  So mature.

There is more, but I need to go ride the spin bike since we didn't go to the lake today.

Daily Life and the Administration

Greetings Mellow Citizens.  How are you all doing in your respective locations?  After a grisly nine or so days of clouds, wind and not warm, the weather has finally rallied.  We rode to the lake today.  For some reason, zero photos were taken.  Sorry about that.  However, I think all of you have seen the lake before.  

I went to an eye clinic specializing in painful eyes, which I have.  One of the things they told me to do was buy a Bruder eye mask.  You nuke it for 20-25 seconds, place it on your eyes and lay there for 10 minutes.   Then you get up and massage your Meibomiam glands, in the direction of your eyelashes, to attempt to unplug the glands.  My first thought was yeah sure, you betcha, but it's making a difference.  I'm doing it twice a day.  Worth a shot if your eyes are painful.

We're getting a new roof June 4.  We got 6 estimates, it's amazing how much roof reps' ability to make a case for their company varies.  First guy lied by omission, third guy was good and informative, but we went with the last woman.  She's the business owner.  We spent two days watching her crew do the house across the street, and they did excellent work.  Roofers are now using a crane to put shingles on the roof.  The color is Pewter.  It goes with the color of the house, which is barely yellow, and it's not green like the current roof.
 

Here is yet another complaint about Safeway pricing.  Safeway is a chain in the west.  I don't know if they're in the east.  Anyway, compare and contrast pricing.  On the left we have the Safeway house brand, 1 lb. 2 oz of oatmeal for $9.  On the right we have 10 pounds of Quaker Oats from Costco  for $7.  Yes, Costco is a warehouse store with a yearly fee, but really, $9 for oatmeal?  

Things are blooming.  These are in the neighbor's yard.

These are our rhodies.  This year we're not dead heading, it's just too tedious.

Did Amazon brick your Kindles on May 20? 

Amazon has officially ended support for Kindle devices released in or before 2012, including the 1st-5th Gen Kindle e-readers and early Fire tablets. While these older devices aren't completely "bricked"—you can still read previously downloaded books—they have permanently lost access to the Kindle store and cloud services.

Jim downloaded a book on my Kindle this morning, so I guess I've been spared.  

47 continues to deteriorate.  

From twitter we have the following.

China’s population is 1.4B people, America has 320m people. China has been under a surveillance state for decades- 600M surveillance cameras, they can identify citizens w facial recognition w a 98.5% accuracy and they record every move by their citizens Yet China only has 450 data centers What data is the US gathering that would justify the US to need 5,000 data centers - 15x what China has, with only a quarter of the population?
Posted by Mimi J

It is batshit crazy that Texas officials are openly admitting the state is in a major water crisis and facing huge grid issues, but they are still turning around and green-lighting these massive data center projects that suck up insane amounts of energy, drain millions of gallons of water.
Dr. Alex Zeck

Our Republican priority will always be to put government ahead of Americans.
GOP Vice Chair Blake Moore 

Oh yay!  Jim is back from the grocery store.  Tomorrow it's pot roast in the crock pot for dinner.  Jim has cried an anguished "enough chicken" and so there will be a pot roast.

Weather and the Continuing Rise of Stupid

Greetings Earthlings!  We are currently no longer having spring, it's been raining, windy and snotty.  Today the sun is out, the wind is up, and the air mass is cold.  Looks like we're back on the spin bikes for awhile.

We cleaned the deck with the pressure washer.  It was not as great as I thought it would be, of course, I've never used one before.  Here is Jim.

After several hours in the position, it takes a toll on the back.  My biggest complaint is the handle.  The washer is either on or off, you can't feather the pressure.  On/off.  But you must hold the trigger fully, after awhile it hurts the hands.  Since it's on or off, push buttons would have better for the user.  But nobody asked my opinion.  It takes awhile to remove the mold and mung.  This is what the Bradford Pear leaves on the deck.

It's better than doing it with a scrub brush, but it's not a magic bullet.

The red twig dogwoods are having a good year.  When we planted them we thought they would be more tree-like, but they've become a sprawling bush.  They're an excellent screen from the neighbor's yard, which is close.

 Here is an excellent view of price gouging.  On the left is California olive oil, 1 liter.  Safeway wants $34.99 for it.  I bought it last year for about half as much.  On the right are 2 liters of olive oil from Tunisia.  Costco is charging $17 for the pair.  I swear Safeway has just lost their damn minds on pricing.  

We had a sunset last night.  We were late getting there with cameras.  It petered out with a pretty cloud.

Soooooo, 47 is in China.  After Xi spoke, 47 got up and free associated on how many Chinese restaurants there are in the US.  Such a statesman he is.

There is a disturbing trend in the US of newborns dying from brain bleeds.  Why, you wonder?  Their parents are declining the Vitamin K shot, which helps with clotting.  Newborns don't have any.  But, the parents are trusting their research over decades of science and refusing.  It's tragic.  Article is here.

This is a good substack on the death of a superpower.  We are well on the way to irrelevance.  Article is here.

The gold phones sold by the administration have finally shipped.  For awhile it appeared that the people who put down the $100 deposit had been scammed.  But no, a quality product is on the way.
 

It's a refurbed Cricket phone, with a gold sticker on the front.  What could be better?  I think they're charging $500 total for the phone.  P.T. Barnum was right about a sucker being born every minute.

Well, the wifi seems to be unstable, so I think I'll publish while I can.

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.