Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

In my day, never was longer.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Birdwatching / Circle of Life in Action (Open Thread)

Circle of Life in Action (Open Thread)

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Here’s a great shot of an osprey and its prey from faithful reader cope:

As cope pointed out in the email that accompanied the photo, if you look closely, you’ll see a bug on the unfortunate fish. In the great food chain of life, sometimes I feel like I’m that bug. Or maybe a mite on that bug. Or a bacterium on the mite on that bug. Anyhoo…

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

53Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    Betty, you’re the best.

    This is a far better thread for greennotGreen’s family to look in on. (Waving at green’s sister and niece.)

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    Eh, the bug is just a thrillseeker. It may live to fight another day. The fish, not usually found at those altitudes, no.

  5. 5.

    David Spikes

    SC just declined to hear appeal of NC voter id law.
    Roberts made a point of saying that decline does not mean the court agrees with the lower court decision.
    To me this means that Roberts was unable to put together a majority to reverse the lower court decision AT THIS TIME-but he’ll keep working on it-Jeebus, what a transparent asshole.

  6. 6.

    MomSense

    Had a setback so dad has gone back into surgery. We are just waiting. Thinking of gnG and hoping today is a peaceful day.

  7. 7.

    Elizabelle

    @MomSense: Oh wow. Sending you the best. He sounds like a feisty one. That will help.

    Only the best to everyone in struggles.

  8. 8.

    TenguPhule

    @David Spikes:

    Roberts made a point of saying that decline does not mean the court agrees with the lower court decision.

    Can we stop pretending he is anything less then a GOP fascist stooge?

  9. 9.

    randy khan

    @David Spikes:

    I saw it more as a signal to appeals court judges that they don’t need to pay attention to North Carolina decision, but your point makes sense, too.

  12. 12.

    hovercraft

    @MomSense:
    Oh I’m sorry to hear about your Dad’s setback. Keeping you and him in my thoughts, I know waiting is just awful, I hope he gets through it okay.
    Also sending out positive thought to gnG and her amazing family.

  13. 13.

    hovercraft

    @TenguPhule:
    But for the survival and good of the universe, couldn’t you bring yourself to consume this fetid pustule this once? No one is saying that you can’t purge it afterwards, you just have to help bring it down.

  14. 14.

    Corner Stone

    Speaking of Circle of Life in action:
    Down, Down, Down! Uber Going Down!
    “Judge orders Uber not to use technology taken from Waymo”
    “A federal judge has ordered Uber not to use technology that a key executive downloaded before he left Waymo, the autonomous car company that was spun off from Google. But he refused to order a halt to Uber’s self-driving program, as requested by Waymo.”

    The reason Uber was stealing the tech from Waymo is because they don’t have the capital to develop a program of their own. Can’t wait for this fucking abomination to be out of business, and Travis forced to pitch for money again.

  15. 15.

    burnspbesq

    @David Spikes:

    The standing issues that emerged when Cooper instructed the new AG to withdraw the petition and the Neanderthals in the Legislature went crazy in response are a perfectly sufficient reason to avoid this case. If Roberts is trying to send a message to the defendants in the Texas case (which is a plausible construction of his statement), it’s a dick move that’s unlikely to work. Unlike the North Carolina case, in which the Neanderthals won in the District Court, in Texas the District Court made bulletproof findings of fact that survived review by the Fifth Circuit.

  16. 16.

    TenguPhule

    @hovercraft:

    But for the survival and good of the universe, couldn’t you bring yourself to consume this fetid pustule this once?

    I’m not Ivanka or Tiffany. That line won’t work on me.

    /hands out brain bleach.

  17. 17.

    JanieM

    you’ll see a bug on the unfortunate fish. In the great food chain of life, sometimes I feel like I’m that bug. Or maybe a mite on that bug. Or a bacterium on the mite on that bug.

    Enshrined in song.

    ETA: fixing the link.

  18. 18.

    burnspbesq

    Speaking of Tiffany, wouldn’t it be a hoot if the Jesuits at Georgetown Law inspired in her a passion for public service, and she eventually ended up prosecuting her half-siblings?

  23. 23.

    p.a.

    Great photo!

    Need some advice from the commentariat: I had a full tox screen for a psychologist I had recommended to me: just 2 mouth swabs. They had my insurance info, but used an out-of-network lab. (I never had a screening done before, didn’t think to ask about the lab; how much could it be?). Well… $2,200. My Blue X threw me $700- their coverage for OoN. Am I fraked? Or is there some way to knock down my balance?

    (Also too, didn’t use the Psych: a pill-pusher. But I have a monthly with a therapist in the group, in network. A helpful blab-blab-waah-waah 45 minutes.)

  25. 25.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    So sorry to hear this, MomSense. Waiting is very tough. Looking forward to more soothing news from you later in the day, and hoping your dad is comfortable in body and emotions.

    Love, too, to all else who are frightened or hurting, grieving or confused. You know who you are. ❤️?

  27. 27.

    Mnemosyne

    @MomSense:

    I hope all goes well. We had a couple of setbacks after my mom’s open heart surgery because of her pre-existing COPD, but she pulled through okay and is now rarin’ to go. I hope things turn out just as well for your dad.

  29. 29.

    Mnemosyne

    @p.a.:

    It may depend on your state. In California they can’t fuck with us like that as much anymore. If you have employer health insurance, see if your employer has an in-house advocate you can talk to. Sometimes a stern letter from your employer can pressure the insurer into covering more.

  30. 30.

    TenguPhule

    All human life on earth depends on a Trump staffer not feeding him the wrong internet hoax. Warning, Politico link.

    I wish to all the gods I was joking.

    White House chief of staff Reince Priebus issued a stern warning at a recent senior staff meeting: Quit trying to secretly slip stuff to President Donald Trump.

    Just days earlier, K.T. McFarland, the deputy national security adviser, had given Trump a printout of two Time magazine covers. One, supposedly from the 1970s, warned of a coming ice age; the other, from 2008, about surviving global warming, according to four White House officials familiar with the matter.

    Trump quickly got lathered up about the media’s hypocrisy. But there was a problem. The 1970s cover was fake, part of an internet hoax that’s circulated for years. Staff chased down the truth and intervened before Trump tweeted or talked publicly about it.

    HT: Atrios.

    Someone make the hurting stop.

  31. 31.

    hovercraft

    @p.a.:
    Paging Richard or David, but it seems to me you gave them your insurance info in good faith, they should have informed you that they were going to send the sample to an out of network lab. I know you sign those forms at the beginning saying you will be responsible for any expenses incurred, but I think they also have an obligation to inform you that something they are doing will incur additional costs. Informed consent and all that. But I’m just a a layman who doesn’t play an insurance expert or lawyer on TV, but I did spend last night at a Holiday Inn Express. Good luck.

  33. 33.

    hovercraft

    @TenguPhule:
    I saw that earlier, every time you think that it can’t be as bad as we think it is it gets worse. The man is a ignorant incurious buffoon surrounded by ignorant buffoons with their own agendas. Now a smart person would want to see further proof but not Twitler, it reaffirms his preconceived notions so he just runs with it.

  34. 34.

    hovercraft

    WARNING: NY TIMES
    Trump’s Madness Invites Mutiny

    Charles M. Blow

    ……………..Legal and ethical questions abound about the impropriety and even legality of attempting to strong-arm, and then dismissing and threatening, the law enforcement official leading an investigation into your circle of associates.

    Many of those questions rise not from clandestine sources, but rather from Trump himself. He is talking and tweeting himself into legal jeopardy. He can’t seem to help himself. Something in the man is broken.

    He is insecure, paranoid and brittle, jostling between egomania and narcissism, intoxicated with a power beyond his meager comprehension and indulging in it beyond the point of abuse.

    Some people are ebulliently optimistic that the abomination is coming undone and may soon be at an end.

    But I would caution that this is a moment pregnant with calamity.

    The man we see unraveling before our eyes still retains the power of the presidency until such time as he doesn’t, and that time of termination is by no means assured.

    Trump is now a wounded animal, desperate and dangerous. Survival is an overwhelming, instinctual impulse, and one should put nothing beyond a being who is bent on ensuring it.

    Banking on an easy impeachment or resignation or a shiny set of handcuffs is incredibly tempting for those drained and depressed by Trump’s unabated absurdities, perversions of truth and facts and assaults on custom, normalcy and civility.

    But banking on this is, at this point, premature. I share the yearning. A case for removal can most definitely be made and has merit. But there remain untold steps between plausibility and probability. Expectations must be managed so that hopes aren’t dashed if the mark isn’t immediately met.

  35. 35.

    Mike J

    Re pic: go seahawks!

    Saw an osprey flying over the dock, fish in talons, on Saturday, and three bald eagles were putting on an air show, one adult and 2 juvies.

  36. 36.

    Msilaneous

    cope, the observer, the osprey, its prey, and the bug reminded me of a line from a song by George Harrison:
    “And to see you’re really only very small and life flows on within you and without you.”

  37. 37.

    ruemara

    @MomSense: Hmm. Keeping the healing vibes going your way. Keep us updated.

    Wow, what a cool shot! I love pictures like that. Not quite so much the red in tooth & claw nature of it, but the capture of that elusive perfect moment. It requires so much patience and sheer luck.

  38. 38.

    TenguPhule

    @hovercraft: Worse, an ignorant incurious baboon who is easily fooled by the first bright headline with really big words in it. He has no reality filter.

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    It’s not “populism”; it’s racism
    Liberal Librarian
    May 9, 2017

    John Legend wrote a great tweet:
    I would like the media to stop using “populist” as a synonym or euphemism for white nationalist or racist. They’re not the same thing.

    — John Legend (@johnlegend) May 9, 2017

    In a few words he makes a very telling point.

    As we’ve seen a wave of “populism” sweep the West, one thing we haven’t seen is large numbers of people of color join this great wave. One would think that a truly populist movement would incorporate exactly those people most harmed by “neo-liberal” economics and a “global elite” which favors it. However, we don’t see that.

    People of color, by and large, are excluded from these populist movements. (One can argue that Bernie Sanders brings some in, but even there they are exceptions.) What we’ve seen with Brexit, Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, and so on, is that these populist movements are comprised almost entirely of people of European descent. In other words, these movements are movements of white grievance.

    Sure, you’ll have your tokens: Killer Mike, Ben Carson, the black politician which the Front Nationale trotted out for the media this past Sunday. But their presence just reinforces the fact that this is a movement of whites for whites, and any people of color present are just window dressing to obscure that fact.

    What “economic anxiety” is being displayed by the Klansmen and Neo-Nazis “defending” Civil War monuments in New Orleans from being removed? What “economic anxiety” weighed on the mind of English and Welsh voters as they voted to exit a bloc which had brought them peace and prosperity?

  42. 42.

    Roger Moore

    I can’t believe nobody dug up this quote yet:

    Big fleas have little fleas,
    Upon their backs to bite ’em,
    And little fleas have lesser fleas,
    and so, ad infinitum.

  43. 43.

    gvg

    @burnspbesq: being a spoilsport but I think she would have to recuse herself from any case involving relatives though it’s because people would expect her to favor them. Even if she didn’t, then they would be able to challenge under an appearance of personal animosity. However, she may well learn to be a decent person. Her Aunt, the judge has not been attacked for ethical reasons, that I have heard.

  45. 45.

    Roger Moore

    @TenguPhule:

    Worse, an ignorant incurious baboon who is easily fooled by the first bright headline with really big words in it. He has no reality filter.

    I’m not sure which is a more terrifying idea: that his staff is knowingly presenting him with lies to manipulate him or that they’re unknowingly presenting him with lies because they’re incapable of recognizing them.

  46. 46.

    p.a.

    @Roger Moore: For the wingnuts I am unfortunate enough to know, there are 2 information filters only, and they are passive filters: never updated, never revised. Filter 1- if they like the info, they believe it. 2- if it seems to prohibit abortions, they’re for it. Nothing else matters.

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne

    @p.a.:

    2- if it seems to prohibit abortions, they’re for it. Nothing else matters.

    And for most of those people, the only that matters is making abortion illegal. They’ve dropped any pretense at being “pro-life” and openly say that they’re against any kind of social programs — including healthcare — for pregnant women or women with small children.

    They’re already seeing the results in Texas, where their defunding of Planned Parenthood has caused a spike in maternal mortality and infant mortality, but Texas’s legislature doesn’t give a shit because they showed Planned Parenthood who’s boss.

    Any “pro-life” voter who thinks that there’s going to be any support for mothers and babies after abortion is outlawed is living in a dream world.

  49. 49.

    MomSense

    Thanks everyone. Surgery went well. Back to waiting with a little less worrying.

    One of the families we have become very close to here in the waiting room has had to turn off life support on their loved one. He has a wife and three young children. Life is precious. Lots of tears today.

  50. 50.

    TenguPhule

    Yet another edition of: You just can’t make this shit up.

    Donald Trump is embarking on a week of diplomacy and preparation for his first foreign trip as president, aimed at demonstrating that his personal charisma can override longstanding global divisions and conflicts of interest with old allies.

    I expect Germany and France to both declare war on us within 48 hours of him touching down in Europe.

  51. 51.

    stinger

    Yesterday I saw a hummingbird, early for the season where I live. A few tree species are in bloom, but in the garden by my front porch there was very little for him/her to feed upon — a few columbines, some ratty tulips, and the earliest bearded iris. So today at lunch I went to a local garden store. I just meant to get an agastache or two, but thinking of that hungry little bird I ended up with salvia, catmint, veronica, foxgloves, buddleia, sage, pinks, penstemon, delphinium, and, in honor of Yarrow, yarrow. ETA: And, in memory of my mother, sweet William.

    I hope the hummer returns and brings the whole family!

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