Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

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

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Second rate reporter says what?

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

People are complicated. Love is not.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / WE HAVE LIFTOFF! I REPEAT, WE HAVE LIFTOFF!

WE HAVE LIFTOFF! I REPEAT, WE HAVE LIFTOFF!

by | 131 Comments

This post is in: 

I had to head down to the big city to pick up Tammy, who is coming up with Samantha to visit, hang with my parents, and mess around in the garden (we’re sharing it since she has no room at her place), and before I left, I checked on the birds. I couldn’t get a good picture, so I delicately picked up the fern by the bottom, and took this:

As I slowly placed it back on the hook, he flew off and landed on the wire right next to my house, and sat next to what I am assuming are his mom and dad. Four hours later, I came back to check on them again, and as I approached the fern, two more flew out, and this happened (Gerald’s wife and daughter are the other two you hear in the background asking what we are doing):

Not every nest of house finches gets a cheering section! I missed the exact moment #4 took off, but you can hear the wings ruffling:

There is now one little fellow/lady left in the nest:

That’s a bad picture, but it is alive, breathing, and it’s eyes were open. I’m going to leave them alone for today- that was enough human interference, but I bet tomorrow the nest will be empty. I’m just going to pretend they hung around for me to see them take off for being such a good host and putting up the completely unnecessary Birdslide 9000x. When I came in side there were were birds on the wire and one hopping around on the ground, so I am hoping they stay around here and make this their HQ (is it obvious I have no idea what the habits of house finches are?).

I’m off to take a nap, this was too much excitement for one day.

Reader Interactions

131Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    We were due for some good news.

    Hope all is well with the little timid nonflyer. Tomorrow will be her day.

  6. 6.

    Yarrow

    Excellent! Glad they’re all okay. I can’t get any of the damn videos to play.

  10. 10.

    Brent in PA

    Watch out for cats roaming the yard. Baby birds aren’t all that smart and are very vulnerable for the first few days.

  12. 12.

    Gravenstone

    So the neighbors are aware that you’re certifiable. That’s always good.

  14. 14.

    Mnemosyne

    Today has been full of petty annoyances, so I’m glad to have good news about the peeps. ?

  17. 17.

    maya

    (is it obvious I have no idea what the habits of house finches are?).

    They will come into your house and finch everything you got. Forewarned.

  18. 18.

    Schlemazel

    Years ago we had a family of cardinals nest in a bush right in front of our bedroom window. I was stunned how quickly the eggs flew off. But it was fun watching them. For two days after we would see the adults with 3 little ones sitting between then on branches in our backyard & then they were gone, Good times.

  19. 19.

    Amir Khalid

    That is good news indeed. After this week’s disappointments, starting with Liverpool’s goalkeeper handing Real Madrid two free goals in the Champions League final and my former PM not getting arrested (yet), I am glad to lear that your house finches are out of the nest. You seem as proud as their mum and dad should be.

  20. 20.

    geg6

    FLY BIRDIES, FLY!

    You kill me, Cole. I needed this and the laugh over the Birdslide 9000x. Just found out that the hole in my muffler is going to cost me over a thousand dollars to fix. Not my happiest day.

  22. 22.

    debbie

    @Steeplejack:

    The next thread down helped me understand your reference. I just listened to a tape of a phone call where Michael Cohen threatens a Daily Beast reporter (with much swearing and bleeping) from running a report about Trump. Where’s Michael’s apology?

  23. 23.

    Redshift

    We had house finches that nested in the tree outside our front door for quite a few years. I’m not sure how long they live, but it may have been more than one generation.

    So if you leave the fern in the same place, they may we’ll come back to it.

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @geg6:

    Just found out that the hole in my muffler is going to cost me over a thousand dollars to fix.

    Crikey! That’s painful.

    I just noticed last night that my right headlight is dead, so if I’m out after dark I drive perdiddle or with high beams on — either of which might get me pulled over, depending on how hungry any given Johns Creek or Duluth cop is. And I’m terrified to find out what it will cost to replace.

  28. 28.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Out of the blue today I remembered there was such a thing as a bear cam (watching a favorite salmon-fishing spot in Alaska) and googled it. No bears but there were links to other wildlife cams.

    Spent a very relaxing timeless time watching a pile of walruses on a shore somewhere.

  29. 29.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Should be relatively reasonable. Might want to price what a replacement for your make/model goes for on Amazon so you go in armed with some knowledge to judge an estimate and haggle if necessary.

    Or if there’s a high school or community college nearby with an auto shop program, you could pop by and see if anyone there be willing to do it (not gratis, of course), provided you order and supply the part.

  32. 32.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SiubhanDuinne: In modern cars, the light bulb can be easily replaced. My dealer did it for me today. On the house. OTOH, I am having the air conditioner fixed next which may be quite expensive.

  38. 38.

    Jak

    We have had housefinches nesting on the top of the porch columns for 8 years. Sometimes two batches each season. The same birds seem to come back for several seasons. Haven’t lost a bird yet.

  42. 42.

    Amir Khalid

    @Sloane Ranger#41:
    The excuses were unbelievable when they were new, too.
    (By the way, the reply button in your comment appears to have been captured in your link. Hitting the button made my browser try to go to the page.)

  44. 44.

    Steeplejack

    @M. Bouffant:

    Wow, that’s weird. I presume that means you got censored by a front-pager for what seemed to be a fairly innocuous comment. Adam?

  45. 45.

    Shell

    Hope all is well with the little timid nonflyer. Tomorrow will be her day.

    Naah. That last bird is thinking, “Finally, the nest is mine. MINE, I tells ya! Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

  46. 46.

    Gbbalto

    @Roger Moore: Not always! Had an 02 Altima that required some expensive disassembly from inside the engine compartment. Of course Murphy ensured that I had several rounds…

  48. 48.

    MomSense

    Yay birdies!

    In trump’s America you can’t even take a nap without all hell breaking loose.

    I don’t give a crap what Sam B called Ivanka. Even the worst is too kind for that sociopathic trump crime family spokesmodel.

    No way Ivanka’s tweeted photo with her toddler was innocent on the day that decent people were reeling about the news that children were being ripped from their parents arms at our borders.

    Ivanka’s photo was Nazi fucking propaganda and I’m sorry but I have zero sympathy for her.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    @Sloane Ranger:

    You have to close your link after you put in the URL, or else it eats everything to the bottom of the comment.

    The “link” button will show as “/link,” which is a tip to put your cursor where you want the highlighted text to end and then press “/link”. That “closes” the link.

    ETA: Trying to fix it in edit mode is probably not worth the trouble.

  52. 52.

    Betty Cracker

    Go birdies! Congrats, Mr. Cole. Don’t be surprised if you see the baby birds hanging around and harassing the parents for food for the next several weeks. Like human families, there can be “failure to launch” scenarios.

  54. 54.

    SFAW

    Weird. I thought eagles would be bigger. I guess West Virginia is a different kind of place.

  55. 55.

    debbie

    @MomSense:

    Absolutely. She has to be a monster of a mother to stand by and do nothing while this crap is happening to little kids.

  60. 60.

    Catherine D.

    House finches? The beaks are not finch-like. They look like starlings to me.

  61. 61.

    Sloane Ranger

    Thanks for the advice everyone. I’m going to leave it and hope it doesn’t start some chain reaction that crashes the entire thread or worse, thereby denying everyone the news that John’s wards are ready to fly the nest.

  62. 62.

    TenguPhule

    I give up. Evacuate the Democrats from Florida and then burn it all down. Its the only way to be sure.

    A Florida family is “heartbroken” after a jury awarded $4 in damages for funeral expenses and pain and suffering in a case in which a St. Lucie County deputy fatally shot a father of three through his garage door, the family’s attorney said Thursday.

    Deputy Christopher Newman killed Gregory Hill Jr., 30, in 2014 after a mother picking up her child at a school across the street called in a noise complaint.
    Newman and another deputy responded to Hill’s home, Hill partially opened the garage door, closed it and Newman fired four times, hitting Hill three times, including once in the head, according to court and police records.

    It gets worse.

    After 10 hours of deliberation last week, a jury found that Newman was not liable in Hill’s death and that Mascara was 1% liable. Hill was 99% responsible for his own death, the jury ruled, according to court documents.
    In deciding damages in the case, the jury awarded Bryant $1 for funeral expenses, and $1 for each child’s “loss of parental companionship, instruction, and guidance and … mental pain and suffering,” verdict forms show. Hill’s children are 7, 10 and 13.

    And even worser.

    Because the jury found that Mascara was only 1% responsible, the verdict was reduced to 4 cents, and then, because the jury found that Hill was drunk at the time, the final payout was nothing.

    These jurors can’t be redeemed or saved. They can only be put out of our misery.

  65. 65.

    MomSense

    @debbie:

    It’s worse than doing nothing. Her only area of expertise is marketing her copy cat shoes, bags, and dresses. She understands how messaging works and had to have known exactly how her photo would be received.
    She does not care about the women who work in the sweatshops that produce her crappy couture. She didn’t give a crap about the Palestinians being gunned down for protesting while she did her unveiling ceremony. She doesn’t think for a moment about women who have lost reproductive health services. She thinks unpaid internships are a good thing.

    Her tweeted photo was a big signal that the beautiful life is only for some and that is just fine with her.

  67. 67.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    We had the Sam B episode recorded and just watched it. They bleeped the C word. If I hadn’t seen the controversy ahead of time, I wouldn’t have expected it. It’s Trump, punching down as usual, looking for a liberal scalp. I don’t want him to have it.

  68. 68.

    Mike in NC

    @TenguPhule: We got home today from a week in soggy Florida. Our friends there warned us that the state has more than its fair share of dickish drivers who will resist any attempt by others to safely merge or even make a simple turn. We found out exactly what they meant: no quarter asked or given on the roads, where everybody is in a big hurry. We’re safe from Florida drivers for about two years.

  71. 71.

    jl

    ‘Terms of Venery’ entry in Wikipedia says that a bunch of finches is called a CHARM of finches.
    Also, ‘chirm’, but forget that, a charm of finches is way better.

    I hereby wish that Cole gets his wish of his own personal charm of finches, who look at him as a kind of godparent, for his obsessive nattering around about their well-being when they were chicks and fledglings, and that his charm of finches is truly charming.

    Make sure Cole knows, since he hates me, and only notices my comments once every three or four years when I make him made and he yells at me. Which if probably for the best. But Cole should know he has a CHARM of finches.

  72. 72.

    Dan B

    @geg6 Sorry to hear about the muffler. It reminded me that we only have one vehicle, the pickup, that has a muffler. We’ve leased a Leaf for three years and the lack of parts, like mufflers and fuel pumps, that need repairs is a great blessing. The downside is we do psychological warfare to determine who gets the Leaf… When they start selling EV pickups our problems will be solved.

  73. 73.

    satby

    I still think the Birdslide 9000x was genius, even if it didn’t end up saving any not ready for flight young’uns.
    Congrats bird grandpappy!

  79. 79.

    Another Scott

    Nice. Thanks, and congratulations John!

    In other news, TheHill:

    […] House Democrats on Thursday launched an anti-poverty tour designed to highlight the plight of the poor under Republican control of Congress and the White House.

    Led by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who heads the party’s anti-poverty task force, the members are making the case that the growing economy has affected America’s classes disproportionately, showering the wealthy with handsome benefits while leaving lower-income people behind. The trend has only been exacerbated by Republican economic policies, contend the Democrats, who are seeking alternative legislative solutions aimed at boosting the financial fortunes of the country’s poorest people.

    “When you look at many of the budget cuts that they’ve proposed, more people would fall below the poverty line,” Lee said Thursday by phone.

    “Their trickle-down theories on economics, it doesn’t work.”

    Lee has a high-powered partner on the tour in Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the Democratic whip, who’s pointing to the Republicans’ tax reform law as evidence that Republicans are less concerned with deficit spending than they are with cutting federal programs, many of them designed to help the poor.

    […]

    Democrats, eying a House takeover in November, have hoped to build on those anxieties with a 2018 platform focused on fundamental pocketbook issues such as creating jobs, training a modern-day workforce and lowering the cost of prescription drugs. Their anti-poverty tour, while not falling directly under their “Better Deal” banner, is nonetheless an extension of the message that they’re the party fighting for the little guy.

    “We’re trying to elevate this whole issue of poverty, in Congress, and bring communities living really shamefully, below the poverty line because of wage and economic inequality to the forefront of our policies,” Lee said.

    After Dallas, the Democrats will continue their tour in the coming weeks with other stops around the country.

    [ Because it’s TheHill, they have to put their slant on things, so, ] Hoyer acknowledged that, with Republicans controlling Congress, any legislation arising from the listening sessions has no chance of moving this year. But the hope, he said, is that the tour will guide the Democrats’ agenda if they win back the House in 2019.

    “I do expect this to be a foundation for seeing what legislation needs to be suggested for the next Congress,” he said.

    Good, good. More please.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  80. 80.

    TenguPhule

    Canada’s Trudeau says NAFTA talks broke down after Pence made ultimatum

    Months of intense trade negotiations imploded Tuesday when Vice President Pence demanded that any deal expire automatically in five years, the Canadian prime minister said.

    Via Wapo.

    Dense did it.

  83. 83.

    eclare

    @Another Scott: Agree, this is a simple message. That, plus Democrats don’t want to take away your health care, and Democrats don’t want you to be shot in a church, mall, school, or movie theater, are simple messages that the majority of the American people believe. And let each candidate tailor it as appropriate to their district. This should not be difficult.

  85. 85.

    TenguPhule

    Lenín Moreno, the president of Ecuador, has said Julian Assange’s asylum status in the country’s London embassy is not under threat – provided he complies with the conditions of his stay and avoids voicing his political opinions on Twitter.

    However, in an interview with Deutsche Welle on Wednesday, Moreno said his government would “take a decision” if Assange didn’t comply with the restrictions.

    ohpleaseohpleaseohplease.

  87. 87.

    eclare

    @TenguPhule: Why the demand? Seems odd, since the bigliest dealmaker ever would have gotten the bestest deal that could never be surpassed.

  92. 92.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    I’m listening to Michelle Wallace’s show from earlier today. She has Michael Steele on. He says Republicans in congress need to stand up and set Trump straight, and not just the ones retiring. So then Wallace asked him if he’d vote for a Democrat instead of one of the complicit Rs. He said that might be going too far.

    So he wants congress people to stand up to Trump in public and take everything that’s associated with that, but he’s not willing to go into the voting booth and privately vote D.

  93. 93.

    Ruviana

    @TenguPhule: And I am utterly unsurprised. Shall we do a Gofundme to evacuate Adam, Betty, amd their assorted entourages and then torch the place?

  95. 95.

    Aleta

    Odd, but I have an ad for a nest-like bowl full of hard boiled eggs.

    Do baby birds ever return to a nest after the first flight, or is it cold turkey?

  99. 99.

    Steve in the ATL

    @eclare: I would agree with what you said here, but I pied you after you admitted to watching “the bachelorette”

  100. 100.

    Gravenstone

    @debbie: But it doesn’t involve her little monsters, so why should she trouble her precious Aryan wannabe mind about it?

  107. 107.

    Steeplejack

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    So then Wallace asked [Steele] if he’d vote for a Democrat instead of one of the complicit Rs. He said that might be going too far.

    They are all fucking nuts. After 30 years of the propaganda loudspeakers blaring the message that Democrats are illegitimate—nay, un-American!—even the apparatchiks at the top have succumbed to their own brainwashing. It’s not just the rubes in the base.

    That’s why when I hear any of the pundits talk about “reasonable Republicans” I roll my eyes. There aren’t any left. They all went to sleep and the pods took over.

    I’d love to see John Boehner get a special smack in the face for his comment today: “There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump party. The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere.”

    No, asshole. You could have stopped after the first sentence. The Republican Party is the Trump Party now. And you set it up with your complete obstructionism against Obama and attempts to delegitimize him.

    The only way the Republican Party “wakes up” from Trump is if they successfully pull something like the “It was all a bad dream, right?” thing they did after the Dubya fiasco. But I don’t think it will be nearly as easy this time.

  110. 110.

    joel hanes

    @John Cole:

    worms

    They’re finches, Cole.
    They eat seeds, preferably oil sunflower or safflower or niger or cracked peanuts or actual thistle.
    Worms are for robins.

  112. 112.

    TenguPhule

    @joel hanes:

    They’re finches, Cole.
    They eat seeds, preferably oil sunflower or safflower or niger or cracked peanuts or actual thistle.
    Worms are for robins.

    This is John Cole. We expect hilariously inept ill thought actions.

  115. 115.

    TenguPhule

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Do you think Trump knows the difference?

    Trump couldn’t tell the difference between Italian loafers and Italian sandwiches.

  120. 120.

    Aleta

    The whole police dept/dispatch should be sued for a system that responds to a loud music call with bullets and tear gas. They could have killed kids in the home, is the sky the limit for what the jury thinks they can do?

  122. 122.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Aleta: I’ve seen signs saying, “I trust the badge.”

    My s-i-l, who is a solid D voter but also works in the sexual assault and domestic violence prevention field, won’t hear a word against the police. It can be a source of family discord.

  126. 126.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steeplejack:

    After 30 years of the propaganda loudspeakers blaring the message that Democrats are illegitimate—nay, un-American!—even the apparatchiks at the top have succumbed to their own brainwashing. It’s not just the rubes in the base.

    The Russians were able to lead the Trump campaign into treason because Don and Don Jr. actually think that Hillary has been committing crimes for decades and just hasn’t gotten caught.

    Ironically, the only people in 2016 who didn’t reflexively assume that Hillary is dishonest were the Russians. Everyone else involved — Republicans, “independents,” the MSM, even many people on the left — have bought into the 30 years of anti-Clinton propaganda.

  130. 130.

    CaseyL

    Now i am terribly worried about that last baby bird.

    I’m also surprised they just up and flew off. I thought for sure there’d be lessons first.

  131. 131.

    Gindy51

    We’re on our second brood of house finches The first stick around while dad feeds them and mom incubates the next set. We have feeders, black sunflower, so they never leave. The babies are very noisy when pestering dad to shove food down their throats.

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