Hike and Badness

We had decent weather today.  The winds are gone, the sun was out, and there were high, thin clouds to moderate the bright sunshine.  Things always look better when there are a few clouds. More ocotillo are blooming, most are not leafing yet.  I think they're conserving water.

We took a trail that we don't remember well.  So, after walking for awhile, it started coming back to us.  It's the trail that goes up behind the big rocks in the distance.  It crosses the Yetman Trail just below the mountain bike turn around point.  Earlier, we'd lost the knowledge of where the trail behind the big rocks is.  Now we know.  I realize this is not that interesting to you all, but now I have a record of where the trail is.  It's a brutal hike, I'm not sure we'll do it this year.  It's long, there is a miserable descent, and then followed by more long walk.  Sounds delightful, eh?

Now I will talk about the depredations underway to our country.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team has been removed from the web, in order to not have any DEI showing.  “The motto of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was ‘Go for Broke.’ It is a gambling term that means risking everything on one great effort to win. The soldiers of the 442nd needed to win big. They were Nisei —American-born sons of Japanese Immigrants. They fought two wars: the Germans in Europe and prejudice in America.”  They came out of the Japanese internment camps, banished there by Secretary Simpson and FDR.  They were put there under the aegis of the Alien Enemies Act, of 1798.  The 442nd had 4000 purple hearts, 4000 bronze stars, 21 medals of honor, 5 presidential unit citations.  But, since they're not white men, they do not deserve any recognition for their efforts.  Hegseth and 47 totally suck. Update to post:  the page has been put back.

47 used the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans to Ecuador.  Many of these people are alleged to be members of the gang Tren de Aragua.  However, since there were no hearings, no investigations, no time spent in immigration court, who knows?  47 is on shaky ground here legally.  From NPR we learn:

Lee Gelernt, the ACLU's lead counsel on the case, said the administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act is illegal because it's up to Congress to declare a state of war that allows detention of so-called "foreign aliens."

"The Alien Enemies Act cannot be used during peace time for regular immigration enforcement," Gelernt said. "Congress was very clear in the statute that it can only be used against a foreign government or foreign nation. It has never in our country's history been used during peacetime, much less against a gang."

Beyond the question of the president's authority, Gelernt also questioned whether the hundreds deported to El Salvador were in fact gang members.

"These individuals did not get a hearing to show they're not members of a gang," Gelernt said.

Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., agreed to block the deportations of the five men on Saturday. He later broadened the order to anyone covered by Trump's proclamation. Another hearing in the case is set for March 21.

Despite the ruling, and the order issued to turn the plane around, the men on the plane are now in El Salvador in a terrorists prison.  Very bad people are in this place.  Any non-bad people swept up in this deportation will not last very long before being killed.  This is a shameful day for the US.

The NPR article is very good, as is the explainer on the Alien Enemies act.  AP also has a good piece.

Remember a few decades ago in South America, one of the dictators was disappearing people.  In the US, we were all judgy and disapproving of this, but now, that's who we are.  I'm cutting and pasting out of a twitter thread about the recent ICE activities.  These stories have been all over the internet, this guy has the most coherent list. 

• Fabian Schmidt, a German engineer with a green card, was detained for hours at Logan Airport in Boston, where he was stripped, put in a cold shower, sleep deprived, denied food and water and access to medication. He was hospitalized & remains in detention. Go here.

• Jessica Brösche, a German, was tormented for over a month, including 8 days in solitary (torture).  Go here.

• Rebecca Burke, a British backpacker, was picked up at the Canadian border (on her way out), and they held her just to torment her. She's still being held now. Go here.

• Onto ICE's usual diet of people of color. The most notable case is Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder and frankly model Palestinian (he worked with the British Embassy), abducted from craven Columbia and made an example of quite publicly.  Go here.

• Then there's Dr. Rasha Alawieh—a transplant doctor at Brown on an H-1B visa—abducted and disappeared from the Logan Airport. Then she was deported despite a court order halting the deportation, because laws have disappeared also. Go here.

Deportations are supposed to require a hearing before a judge in immigration court.  This does not appear to be happening.  47 has interpreted the Alien Enemies Act to mean that if he thinks they are bad people, even with no proof, he can have them deported.  So much for due process.

In other news of the bad, Black Lives Matter Plaza is being removed.  It may already be gone.  Here is a photo for remembrance.

 
That's it, that's all the doom and gloom I have for one day.

Windy and Evil in the White House

It has been really windy today.  We discarded the notion of riding the bikes, so we hiked.  That got cut short because the gusts were high enough so that when stepping down a boulder, one felt they were being pushed over.  It was very unpleasant.  Phoenix is getting rain, we are not.  It's like Tucson has a protective shield over it. 

That chunk of cloud was moving fast.

So, DEI, the great evil.  It's a hiring thing, one tries to hire a diverse group of people.  Different backgrounds make for different perspectives, and improve decision making.  Now, ending DEI has become a tool to erase non-white men and all women.  Arlington Cemetery has a web site, they're removing non-white men and all women from it, to include Colin Powell.  From this Task and Purpose article we learn the following.

But in recent weeks, the cemetery’s public website has scrubbed dozens of pages on gravesites and educational materials that include histories of prominent Black, Hispanic and female service members buried in the cemetery, along with educational material on dozens of Medal of Honor recipients and maps of prominent gravesites of Marine Corps veterans and other services.

Cemetery officials confirmed to Task & Purpose that the pages were “unpublished” to meet recent orders by President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth targeting race and gender-related language and policies in the military.

Gone from public view are links to lists of dozens of “Notable Graves” at Arlington of women and Black and Hispanic service members who are buried in the cemetery. About a dozen other “Notable Graves” lists remain highlighted on the website, including lists of politicians, athletes and even foreign nationals.

This is disgusting.  Teaching modules are removed, maps to notable minority graves are gone.  To see the website now, you would think that only white men ever fought and died.  Apparently non-white men and women are bad, white men are good.

47 is reiterating his desires to take the Panama Canal, the military has been tasked with planning for an invasion and take over.  He's also still talking about Greenland.  In front of the head of NATO he blathered on about how the US needs Greenland for security purposes.  The stock market continues to express its displeasure with tariffs.  Tesla stock continues to plummet, if it gets low enough the people who put up the money to buy twitter, may call the loans. 

That's all I have the energy to list today.   

Update to post:  there is now a possibility of some rain here.

Random Stuff

The landscapers came this morning to trim the Texas Sages.  Somewhere along the line they were shaped into balls, and they don't grow out of that shape very well.  So, now they are balls again.  At present they look horrid, the inner leaves are dead, you can see through them.  If they don't look better by this time next year, I'm having all of them dug up.  We also had two bougainvilleas removed.  There is one left, and now I am really wishing it was gone as well.  If it's not better this time next year, I'm having it dug up and and something else planted there.  It hides the down spout extender, so something is needed. 

The rosemary bush also got a hair cut.

I have random stuff today.

Once a month for the past 13 years, there have been near misses between planes and helicopters at Reagan Airport.  13 years.  Some of the near misses have been as close as 75 feet of separation.  One wonders why no one thought to change the landing procedures until now.  67 people had to die in the collision between the Black Hawk helicopter and the Bombardier regional jet before this happened.

Grok is the twitter AI.  This would be the AI that consistently identifies Elon as the biggest source of misinformation on twitter.  Anyway, this is what is has to say about recent mortality data.

Young adult mortality rates have indeed spiked since the COVID emergency. Data from 2021 shows a 40% increase in deaths among working-age Americans (18-64), a rate called a "200-year catastrophe" by actuaries. By 2023, 34% more 35-44-year-olds died than expected. Causes? COVID’s long-term effects on organs and immunity are likely culprits, but reduced healthcare access, delayed diagnoses, and societal neglect of public health measures also play a role. Official stats often under count COVID-related deaths, blaming other conditions instead.

These are pretty terrible numbers.  The epidemiologists on twitter have been talking about this a lot.

Canada is working on a new covid vaccine, it's a nasal spray, and is looking very effective because of its entry via the nose, which is where covid comes in, and direct route to the lungs, which is where covid starts its path of destruction.  We will probably never see that in the US.

Elon and 47 spent today hawking Teslas in front of the White House.  This is a big screaming violation of the Hatch Act, but no one seems to care.  Tesla stock is in the toilet, pretty sure today isn't going to help that.  47 has also been berating people for the Tesla boycott. 

If any of you are Canadian snowbirds, staying 6 months 30 days or more, this will affect you if you come back to the US for the winter.  You have to register, then you have to carry your proof of registration on your person the entire time you're here.  The article is here.

Other than this hodge podge of stuff, I have not too much to say.
 

 

 

Blood Pressure and the Current Crises

It rained today.  Now it's cold and the wind is just howling.  The radar was fairly impressive.  There was snow in the high country.

I have no pictures today, yesterday was pretty much absorbed by seeing my PCP.  While at the ENT's office, my blood pressure readings were in the stroke region.  I sent a portal message about this to my PCP, and her office said to come in.  So, I did.  She did a manual blood pressure measurement, as opposed to the increasingly popular machines where the patient sticks their arm in the cuff, and the medical assistant stands there and watches it.  BP was fine, was what it always is.  So, I wonder, how many dentists (where I had a high reading) and ENTs are getting these terrifying numbers and then ignoring them, or saying nothing.  Did my blood pressure actually hit 190/63, or was it a machine error?  I'm thinking machine error.  The whole thing does not seem to be a worthwhile activity.

It turns out that I am really not a conspiracy theorist.  I'm referring to the paper on the neoreactionary (NRx) movement that I posted last time, that I believe is in the process of destroying this country.  

Yarvin is the guy that thought up the neoreactionary movement.  Remember that name.  Notice the names associated with him.  If 47 dies, I'm not sure JD Vance is going to be much of an improvement.  Wikepedia article is here. This is a brief description of their desired outcome.

Several prominent Silicon Valley investors and Republican politicians have expressed their influence from the philosophy, with venture capitalist Peter Thiel describing Yarvin as his "most important connection".^[10] Political strategist Steve Bannon has read and admired his work, and there have been allegations that he has communicated with Yarvin which Yarvin has denied.^[11][12][13] U.S. Vice President JD Vance has cited Yarvin as an influence.^[14][15][16] Michael Anton, the State Department Director of Policy Planning during Trump's second presidency, has also discussed Yarvin's ideas.^[17] In January 2025, Yarvin attended a Trump inaugural gala in Washington; Politico reported he was "an informal guest of honor" due to his "outsize influence over the Trumpian right."^[18]

The modern solution devised by Yarvin in "A Formalist Manifesto" advocates for a form of neocameralism in which small, authoritarian "gov-corps" coexist and compete with each other, an idea anticipated by Hans Herman-Hoppe.^[24][12] He claims freedom under the system would be guaranteed by the ability to "vote with your feet", whereby residents could leave for another gov-corp if they felt it would provide a higher quality of life, thus forcing competition. Nick Land reiterates this with the political idea "No Voice, Free Exit", taken from Albert Hirschman's ideas of voice being democratic and exit being departure to another society:^[12

The Guardian has an article that is very readable, and horrifying.  You really should read it in its entirety.

"One of the venues in which Yarvin has articulated the strategy include a podcast hosted by Michael Anton, a writer and academic whom Trump last week appointed to work in a senior role under secretary of state nominee Marco Rubio.""Although Yarvin once described Vance as a “random normie politician I’ve barely even met” in a July Substack post, in October the Verge reported that “no one online has shaped Vance’s thinking more”. The growing parallels between the incoming administration’s actions – especially Vance’s views – and Yarvin’s suggestions raise questions about his influence."

For years, Yarvin has consistently held to a number of explicitly anti-democratic beliefs: republican self-government has already ended; real power is exercised oligarchically in a small number of prestigious academic and media institutions he calls the Cathedral; and a sclerotic democracy should be replaced by a strict hierarchy headed by a single person whose role is that of a monarch or CEO.

“Essentially, you have to be willing to say, OK, when we have this regime change, we have a period of temporary uncertainty which has to be resolved in an extremely peaceful way. What that means is basically a state of emergency in the White House,” he said.

“It means the president is basically taking direct control over all law enforcement authorities, a state of emergency in basically every state,” he added.

In September, on the campaign trail, Trump said that “one real rough, nasty” and “violent day” of unrestrained policing would end crime “immediately.”

“One rough hour – and I mean real rough – the word will get out and it will end immediately, you know? It will end immediately,” Trump added.

It's hard to know how far this has progressed.  I am reading that the thing to watch for is if 47 declares martial law.  I look at the words I have just put on the page, and I wonder how the hell did we get here?

Here is a transcript of an interview with Elizabeth Sandifer done in 2022.  It covers a lot of the same ground, but it was an interesting read.  She's been watching this develop for years.

Update 8/24/25:  A succinct summary of the thing.

 
Yesterday 47 signed an executive order to create a strategic bitcoin reserve.  Allegedly it will be funded with previously seized bitcoin from criminals.  Why is this bad, you know it's bad because 47 did it.  This is from a man I follow on twitter who grasps this better than I do.  "The moment the US government touches Bitcoin like this, you know the game is over. It’s not about innovation, freedom, or some “crypto revolution.” This is straight-up asset laundering on a global scale, using Bitcoin like a mafia safehouse for all the dirty money Trump, Musk, and their cartel pulled out of public funds, government contracts, and global corruption pipelines."  So there you go.

47 is pissed because Canada will not bend the knee.  We import a lot of lumber from Canada.  Today 47 signed an executive order to clear cut the national forests (280 million acres).  This was his justification to do this. "What we're doing is freeing up our forest from the environmental nonsense that they put on 'em where you can't cut down a tree. We have to cut down trees to build the firewalls, and those trees are sold...Canada has been ripping us off for years."  We wonder if he meant fire breaks instead of fire walls, but it's tough to tell with him.

AP is reporting purges of images in the military photo archives.  Women and non-white men are being removed.  The word Gay, no matter where or how it appears is being purged. Hegseth has ordered this to remove any traces of DEI.  History is being destroyed, WASPS, begone.  Tuskeegee Airmen, away with you.

This lady is purged.

So are these guys.

Say good bye, Enola Gay.  She's currently in the Udvar-Hazy museum in Virginia.  If you haven't been there, go soon.  It's a magnificent museum, and since it's government owned as part of the Smithsonian, Musk may be wanting to sell it.  I wonder if they're going to spray paint over her nose art.  Enola Gay was the name of the pilot's mother.  Enola Gay is the plane that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.  There was another plane, Bock's Car, but apparently that name is not objectionable.

I could go on, but I won't.  Everyday I think we've reached peak awful, and everyday I am wrong about that.

Ok, one more thing.  This is an article about whistle blowers who are saying Musk is indeed hollowing out the government.  

The Ear, the Ride, and the Ugly

Yesterday was pretty cool and windy.  I had a hearing test and a visit with my Otolaryngologist.  What genius decided it would be a good idea to change the name of the specialty from Ear Nose and Throat to that.  Blogger spell check does not recognize it as a real word.  Anyway, my hearing has not declined since last year, the hole in my ear drum has not enlarged, and unless I'm sick of the water restrictions on the ear, there's no real reason to do a third surgery.  I'm going with do nothing. 

A view of the Catalinas from the roof of the parking structure.  It's not a great photo, I was too lazy to get out of the car to take it. 

Today was a ride day.  It started out cool, but quickly warmed up.  It's interesting how quickly it goes from cool to warm.  I think this is a giant aloe blooming in front of someone's front yard.  It's a big plant, it has been there for awhile.

Some of the ocotillos are blooming, many have not put out leaves yet.  They all seem to march to their own drummer on that.  The big one we have in the yard is not doing anything, we're hoping it's not dead.

Who watched the 100 minute deranged speech the deranged president did last night?  I did not, couldn't stand it.  It was full of lies and insults.  47 said that no matter what he did, the Democrats would not clap.  I wish they all would have walked out after Rep. Al Green was escorted out, or not shown up at all. 

DOGE is cancelling building leases.  To date, they've cancelled the building where the NOAA Doppler radar inputs are processed, the building where nuclear waste is processed before being put in deep tunnels in the ground, and the jewel of the FDA, which is the lab where bad pharmaceuticals were investigated.  All this while federal employees are being ordered back to the office.  400 some odd buildings are on the list for closure.

Anyway, in news of the horrible, there is Ukraine.  There was a plane in the air, taking weapons to Ukraine, the shit gibbon ordered it turned around.  They're cut off from weapons.  They are also cut off from intelligence.  The US was feeding them data from satellites and listening stations.  That's been cut off, as well as 47 ordering the UK not to share, either.  So Ukraine has no visibility of Russian movements.  At present, Putin is bombarding cities with ballistic missiles, 47 is complicit in this, up to his ugly neck. 

This is a really long piece, I have not been able to make it through all the way.  It explains one theory of what is actually happening here.  It's not about republicans vs. Democrats, it's about the uber wealthy wanting own everything, and some weird theory that democracy is bad, and that the people need to be ruled by autocrats.  This has been circulating in the background, this is the first explainer I've seen.

 The ongoing restructuring of U.S. digital and administrative systems must be understood in the broader context of the neoreactionary (NRx) movement, a “Dark Enlightenment” ideology advocating for the dismantling of democracy in favor of centralized corporate or monarchic rule. Nick Land and Curtis Yarvin are the foremost proponents of this ideology. Touted as the “godfather of accelerationism,” Land has argued that democracy inherently leads to societal decline and proposed that societies should be run more like corporations, with competent elites at the top, akin to CEO-style governance rather than electoral politics. Similarly, Curtis Yarvin also known as “Mencius Moldbug,” has extensively written about his vision for replacing democracy with an “efficient” autocratic regime controlled by a CEO and technocratic elite:

Elon is a true believer.  Anyway, it's here, I'm reading it off and on.  I promise, I have not become a conspiracy nut.  I'm just really hoping this doesn't come true.

Cactus, Bugs and the Bad

Day two! of windy weather.  It was also kind of cold, made worse by the wind.  The garage door guy came today, the sensor eyes were off.  We also learned that if you run this elderly Genie through an open/close cycle more than four times in a row, it over heats and starts smoking.  News we can use.  Anyway, he adjusted the eyes so it closes smoothly instead of balking.

The big cactus is putting out buds for flowering. 

Here is a bug on a bud.  I have no idea what kind of bug.

The wind yesterday pretty much cleaned the rest of the lemons off the tree.

This is from Saturday's ride.  I love this view.

There is much that is terrible in the world. 

There are tons of peanut paste similar to Plumpy'Nut, sitting in warehouses in the US, waiting to be shipped to starving children.  DOGE has put an end to that.  I really hate the administration for that.  Article is here if you need to know more than children are starving to death, and we could have helped them.

Yesterday WAPO had an article up detailing Putin's statement that the US is now aligned with Russia, sharing Russia's values.  I thought it was interesting that he put that out, although it's true, it seemed like a presumptuous statement.  The Guardian also covered it, and you can skirt their page asking for money.

47 is going to stop new weapons from shipping to Ukraine.  He'll probably stop the weapons from leaving the stockpile, as well.  This does not bode well for Ukraine.  He's still on a tirade about how the war needs to end immediately and he's going to dictate the terms.  His dementia seems to be accelerating.

Tariffs go into effect tomorrow.  The stock market tanked today on that news.  Surprisingly enough, the republicans are blaming Biden for the stock drops.  Premier Ford of Ontario, Canada is telling 47 if he does it, they're cutting off electricity  to the US.  "If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do anything, including cutting off their energy, with a smile on my face."

Apparently we're going to have a cryptocurrency reserve, with five different flavors.  It's a pump and dump.  The price will go up, then the oligarchs will sell, prices will drop, and the tax payer will have to bail it out.  47 is behind this, thinks it's going to be great.  His crypto advisor just happens to have holdings in all five of those entities.  I don't know what to call them, companies? currencies?  What?

As if it wasn't bad enough that DOGE is laying off a significant number of NOAA and NWS employees, now they want to cancel leases on two of their buildings.  These contain super computers that run the models for forecasting, and a network of servers that send out alerts.  This is bad. 

Looks like we're going to war with Mexico. 
Brian Allen reports: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly warned Mexican officials that if Mexico doesn’t crack down on government-cartel collusion, the U.S. military is prepared to take unilateral action. A direct military intervention in Mexico? If true, this would mark a seismic shift in U.S. policy—one that could escalate tensions fast. Buckle up.

The Ukrainian Review has thoughts: The U.S. has finally forced Europe to spend trillions on weapons. But in doing so, they have effectively pushed themselves out of this market. European defense companies, which until recently played a secondary role, are now receiving record-breaking orders, and the U.S. can no longer impose its defense contracts as easily as before. The American military-industrial complex has long considered itself the main beneficiary of any military escalation. But now we are witnessing a new reality: European countries are developing their own defense industries, creating an alternative to the American defense sector. This is certainly not what Washington would call “the art of the deal.”

And finally, I have this nugget.

That's it, there's more, but I'm becoming too depressed about it.