Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

When we show up, we win.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

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

Bark louder, little dog.

Everybody saw this coming.

People are complicated. Love is not.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

The National Guard is not Batman.

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

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

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

You are here: Home / Archives for 2024

Archives for 2024

On The Road – Albatrossity – The Birds of the Palouse

by | 16 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Happy Monday!

(click on image below to see bigger, non-blurry schedule for the week)

On The Road - Albatrossity - The Birds of the Palouse 8

Albatrossity

This will be the last installment of the account of a trip to the Palouse in 2015; next week will probably be images from the quickening spring migration period. In May we are headed to Costa Rica (I’ve never been there, but I hear they have some nice birds), and I am greatly looking forward to it. So there will be those in the future as well. But for now, springtime birds from eastern WA are the menu today.

On The Road – Albatrossity – The Birds of the PalousePost + Comments (16)

On The Road - Albatrossity - The Birds of the Palouse 7
The PalouseJune 26, 2015

There was an image of the Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus) in a previous installment, but I think these guys are pretty enough for a re-run. Interestingly, I have quite a few images of this species, but very few pictures (and no good ones) of our local congeneric, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. I do have this amusing low-res video from my bird-banding days, where a grosbeak would seemingly rather chomp on the bander’s hand than fly away free… Bloodthirsty, they are! Click here for larger image.

Sunday Night Open Thread: The Media Horserace Touts Are *Very* Unhappy. Good.

by | 147 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

The Media Horserace Touts Are *Very* Unhappy. Good. - STOCKPILE

It’s actually a whinge post by his partner Mike Allen, with bylines by three other Axios ‘reporters’ — “How Biden, Trump favor safe spaces”:

… Why it matters: Call it the safe-space election. Biden is more likely to talk to mainstream outlets, and Trump to echo chambers. But both pop up for questioning with sycophants, supporters and sympathetic journalists.

The big picture: It wasn’t always so. Biden and Trump not long ago loved mixing it up with more serious reporters. But whether it’s age or bitterness about coverage, they’re hiding in their own witness protection program…

Case in point: This is the first time in 60+ years that the sitting president has stiffed the newsroom of The New York Times for a formal interview. (The White House regularly engages with the paper behind the scenes.)…

Reality check: New York Times readers aren’t the voters who’ll decide the election…

show full post on front page

Sunday Night Open Thread: The Media Horserace Touts Are *Very* Unhappy. Good.Post + Comments (147)

War for Ukraine Day 789: Russia Continues Its Bombardment of Ukraine

by | 31 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , ,

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

The Russians are continuing their bombardment of Ukraine.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

show full post on front page

War for Ukraine Day 789: Russia Continues Its Bombardment of UkrainePost + Comments (31)

Medium Cool – Music!

by | 134 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Let’s talk about music.

Music that gets you fired up.  Music that gets you through.  Protest music that inspires you.  Music that helps you heal.  Music that makes the rest of the world disappear.  Music that reminds you of another time.  Music that’s a balm for your soul.  Music that helps you connect with other people. Music that helps remind you of who you are, who you used to be, who you want to be.

Or is music just music?  And you like a piece or you don’t.

What’s your relationship with music?

 

Medium Cool – Music!Post + Comments (134)

I’ll Take Someone With Faith and a Plan, Any Day of the Week

by | 138 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

I am reminded of what we used to chant when marching or picketing: “People, united, will never be defeated.”  The Democratic party is united (mostly) and the Republican party is not.  Case in point.

I think I’m a fairly patient person, mostly, but Biden has me beat by a mile.

If this dithering  and lack of Ukraine funding was maddening for all of us, it was surely worse for President Biden, but Biden and the rest of our leadership must have been endlessly planning, pushing and pulling to get us to this point.  Biden, Jeffries, Schumer and more.

You can’t tell me that Republicans came up with the rules to vote on and the method to get there without a filibuster and sabotage being possible.  Democrat leaders were thinking and strategizing and planning, and brought along Republicans as they could.

I imagine it was breaking Biden’s heart to leave President Zelenskyy and Ukraine hanging.  Things take as long as they take, sometimes, and this took too damn long, but Biden hung in there, working to move things in the right direction.  While the middle east was exploding.

Planning and preparing for the moment there would be a breakthrough.  A good portion of weaponry stored just across the border in Poland.  That takes faith and good planning, and a willingness to see a possible positive outcome.

Proud to be a Democrat.  Open thread.

 

 

I’ll Take Someone With Faith and a Plan, Any Day of the WeekPost + Comments (138)

Climate Solutions: Upgrading the Energy Grid

by | 72 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

A reminder as we come up on Earth Day:

Climate scientist Michael E Mann & historian Timothy D Snyder define doomerism:
Doomerism is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.
It is how authoritarians win. Let’s try to fight the doom.

I’m going to start this post out with a caveat, while I’ve been a long time proponent of examining the United States electric grid and revamping it – everything about electricity traveling over long distances is way above my limited technical knowledge.

I have pulled together some experts I trust and am sharing their opinions on what needs to happen to the grid in order for alternative energy sources to be viable, and to meet the 2030 and 2050 climate goals.

From Dave Roberts’ Volts Podcast:

Getting More Out of  Current Transmission Infrastructer

Audio Here

One of the primary threats to the clean energy buildout spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act is a lack of transmission. Models show that hitting our Paris climate targets would involve building two to three times our current transmission capacity, yet new lines are desperately slow to come online. Meanwhile, existing lines are congested and hundreds of gigawatts of new clean energy sits waiting in interconnection queues.

Wouldn’t it be cool if there were some relatively cheap and speedy ways to get more capacity out of the transmission infrastructure we’ve already built? To ease some of that congestion and get more clean energy online while we wait for new lines to be completed?

As it happens, there are. They are called grid-enhancing technologies, or GETs, and they can improve the performance of existing transmission lines by as much as 40 percent. Full transcript here

Another from David (he has several you can search for more on his website):

Upgrading Current Powerlines 

Audio Here

Utilities are not under constant pressure to improve their products, and consequently, power lines haven’t improved much over the years. The standard design used in the industry dates back to the early 1900s. The more “modern” design dates back to the 1970s.

Now, at long last, some companies are popping up with new power lines that can transmit more power, and leak less of it, than traditional lines. Simply replacing old lines (or “conductors”) with the latest technology — or “reconductoring” — could, according to some recent studies, double the capacity of the existing grid, or more. But that would involve persuading utilities to actually deploy the latest tech, which is no mean feat. Full transcript here

show full post on front page

Climate Solutions: Upgrading the Energy GridPost + Comments (72)