We got up at stupid o’clock and went fishing at a nearby salt marsh. The weather has been super clear lately — too much so since we need rain. But the lack of humidity revealed the stars before dawn. Venus was especially bright.
On the way out of the swamp, a big Barred Owl swooped down on an unfortunate rodent right next to the dirt road. It was about 15 feet in front of the truck, and the owl looked balefully at us when we stopped, but it didn’t startle and drop the mouse or mole or whatever.
My camera was out of reach. I tried to lower the passenger seat window to get a shot of the owl with my phone, but the child lock was on for no earthly reason. It took Bill a few seconds to figure out how to unlock it, and by then, the owl had secured its breakfast and flown away.
So we resumed our trip. Here’s sunrise in the salt marsh:
Here’s a view from a different spot after the sun came up:
Bill fished while I climbed around over logs and rocks, looking for birds and fiddler crabs and driftwood and what-not, as I’ve done in that particular salt marsh since I was a child. It was a nice way to start the day, even though Bill didn’t catch anything. (He said we should try with live shrimp next time rather than lures.)
***
Here’s some bad news for Trump, which is good news for people who prefer democracy over living in a shambolic right-wing kleptocracy:
Another one:
Yet another:
It sucks that we have to endure rule by a creepy authoritarian cult led by an evil, demented buffoon — all thanks to the malice, fecklessness and stupidity of 49.81% of voters. But we need people to wake up if we’re going to save our republic, and it looks like the ones who aren’t irredeemably lost are finally starting to say, “What the fucking fuck?” I’ll take that as a win.
***
Not sure what we’re going to do for the rest of the day. Maybe throw something on the grill? We’ll definitely be watching the baseball game this afternoon. (Go Rays!) What are y’all up to?
Open thread.
different-church-lady
So, little by little, Americans are starting to realize that having a hateful asshole who told them he was going to be a hateful asshole who then did the hateful asshole things he said he was going to do for a president isn’t quite what they thought it was going to be.
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady: I know. Sigh.
Grading papers. Never in a good mood on these days. But church was nice.
Wyliecoat
Wonderful sit-in happening on the steps of the Capitol by Booker and Jeffries and guests. Please do check it out… gave me hope.
https://www.youtube.com/live/5ceR90lihX8?si=-LZzcnoYsgMH33P3
mrmoshpotato
Lovely sunrise.
Go Cards! (Sweep those cheeseheads!)
Go Cubs!
The Audacity of Krope
Trump’s polls are sinking? Great!
And privately conducted opinion polls serve what role in administering our government?
Kelly
A month ago I caught this pic of a Northern Pygmy-Owl at Silver Falls State Park, Trail of Ten Falls. It was perched 6 feet from the trail with a fat vole. They often hunt in daylight.
https://bsky.app/profile/northsantiam.bsky.social/post/3ljqrire7i22u
Tom Levenson
What am I up to? Working on the next book (a short historical polemic on vaccines, due, FSM help me, this summer). (The current book, as previously discussed in this space, comes out on Tuesday).
That’s what I’ll be up to every day between now and submission.*
As for today…it’ll be that and figuring out what to do with four duck legs later on. I’d like to make the smoked duck with sorghum glazed vegetables recipe from Marcus Samuelsson’s The Rise. (Might substitute maple syrup for the sorghum syrum), but the timing might not work today.* An alternative would be this. I don’t have the duck back and wingtips the recipe calls for but I can come up with a workaround.
*Also, if anyone knows this particular recipe. Samuelsson calls for “slow smoking” the legs over charcoal and hickory chips at a temperature of 400 degrees…which doesn’t sound that slow to me. Thoughts?
*”Submission” is the perfect word to describe my current state of being vis a vis Logorrhea, God of Words.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady:
And there’re the four years of that orange shitstain before.
How stupid are the people of Iowa – and a ton of non-Iowans as well?
prostratedragon
Just wait:
I recommend basketball | baseball this afternoon.
Asparagus Aspersions
I started off my day by repeated watching of the video where Macron ostentatiously avoids shaking Trump’s hand. It is like balm to my soul. I’m not a fan of Macron but I love his visible revulsion.
NotMax
Weekend watch (gearhead edition).
For the love of FSM, why oh why?
;)
Chief Oshkosh
Deporting a 4-year-old American citizen who has a stage-4 brain tumor, without due process, and without any of his medications, is what 49.81% of voters voted for. That news report should be printed out 77,300,000 times and stuffed down the throats of each of the horrid human beings who voted for it to happen. Then, to help them clear their throats, we perform the Heimlich maneuver on them using baseball bats.
Oh well, back to work, trying to help a couple of groups from getting DOGE’d (yes, that’s still a thing).
Butch
Although predictably the legacy media is ignoring it, if you read Tiedrich or Kos you will learn that Trump fell asleep during the Pope’s funeral.
mrmoshpotato
@Kelly: The tilt of the owl says “What you looking at, Willis?”
different-church-lady
@NotMax: Oh god, you just did terrible things to my algorithm…
The Audacity of Krope
But then there may not be room for the latest revelations about Hillary Clinton’s email server or Joe Biden’s son’s penis or Joe Biden’s grotesque insistence on continuing to exist through birthdays.
bbleh
@The Audacity of Krope: about their only use imo is to start to make SOME Congressional Republicans at least SOMEWHAT less reflexive in their support, which in turn can mean at least SOMEWHAT less bad budgets, laws, etc.
Whether they play much role in stiffening judges’ spines I don’t know, but as Mr. Dooley said, “no matther whether th’ constitution follows th’ flag or not, th’ supreme coort follows th’ iliction returns.”
prostratedragon
@NotMax: Car bombs.
Eduardo
It seems like by mid-May we will have serious shortages in the stores even if His Odiousness asks for forgiveness to the American people and the world for his stupid trade war in the next hour.
I thank them for being so stupid to act like not knowing that while you are installing a tyranny using electoral means you need to be popular, and as you consolidate more and more power you then can fuck people harder and harder.
I am increasingly optimistic that we will suffer much but avoid a full Orban regime here.
Kelly
@mrmoshpotato: Oh Yes that owl wasn’t intimidated by me at all. Tiny, the size of my hand.
Baud
That’s some beautiful scenery.
different-church-lady
@The Audacity of Krope: The lazy fuckers in the media who amplified all that shit are going to try to play innocent, and we are going to have to be relentless about saying, “No, you helped this happen, assholes.”
Gvg
If all the media organizations weren’t owned or captured by the too rich, we would have had constantly running old movies and history lessons from before and after WWII, the Great Depression, other depressions, Analysis of why other attempts to isolate or change culture failed, explanations of germ theory and what life was like before immunizations, with perhaps the mention of go into your family bibles and count the children who died. Reruns of old history including things like the OK corral and other westerns and the good guys were for gun control in town because the bad guys used to bully people who were trying to mind their own business.
Also some history of the European Christian wars and why religious freedom equals no state religion. It’s all been done very entertainingly and a bit old fashioned. I think if it was reruns of stuff from 60 years ago that was considered conservative or mainstream then, it would be harder for the current right to successfully argue it was propaganda from the democrats. It drives me batty that this stuff is not out there, countering the total myth stuff. And UFO’s built the pyramids is on the history channel is swallowed whole by gullible people I thought were educated.
sab
My BIL uses childlocks even on vacation when the grandchildren are a thousand miles away. Freaks me out. I told my husband I will never step in that car again, even if it means we will never vacation again.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
They don’t have to play innocent. They love all the new content they’re getting.
mrmoshpotato
@Asparagus Aspersions: Was this recently? Pope Francis’ funeral?
NotMax
@different-church-lady
Now vividly imagining an AI generated Ethel Merman warbling “AL-GO-RITHM.”
;)
sab
@mrmoshpotato: Ohioans too. And these people are my neighbors.
The Audacity of Krope
Is it enough to hang a hat on…?
@different-church-lady: I’ve been waiting to be approached by major outlet reporter for my opinion so I might then call them a Nazi, but it has never happened. I’m practicing looking like a dipshit, that may improve my odds
Baud
As long as we don’t rely on China for sparrows and curtain rods, Trump will be fine.
different-church-lady
To keep kids from getting in, silly.
Melancholy Jaques
@Chief Oshkosh:
A percentage of them would laugh because they are sick, cruel people. The great majority of them do not care. Not one bit. Even if they say they do, they would still vote for Trump if the election were held again tomorrow.
Our problem was & seems always to be getting people who agree with us to vote.
different-church-lady
@The Audacity of Krope: Try voting for Trump and hanging out in a diner. They’ll flock to you.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@prostratedragon:
It’s such a good thing that Republicans voted to tie their own hands from stopping the tariff madness /s
The Audacity of Krope
I have a job. Makes the latter difficult and the former ill-advised.
Baud
Good reddit comments on media culpability.
Sometimes the echoes in the echo chamber speak truth.
Kristine
Beautiful photos, BC!
I hope TFG got the same brush-off from others as he did from Macron, while Joe was greeted like an old friend.
jonas
@The Audacity of Krope: As I’ve observed here before, if we were governed by opinion polls, we’d be living in a Swedish-style social democracy. Unfortunately we’re governed by whatever portion of the electorate can be assed to get out and vote every couple of years because they’re pissed about stuff they don’t understand. That apocryphal quote about the best argument against democracy being a five minute conversation with the average voter isn’t wrong. It’s that that’s what we have to work with.
different-church-lady
@The Audacity of Krope:
Not for long.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: It was the child lock on the window.
prostratedragon
@mrmoshpotato:
Yep. Also caught playing with his phone.
different-church-lady
@mrmoshpotato: THEY CAN CLIMB, YOU KNOW!!!
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
I actually forgot the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was still happening.
All of that kowtowing by the WHCA was for nothing; no admin officials, much less Trump, even attended
Baud
I’m just happy my gas stove is safe from the feds.
different-church-lady
@Kristine:
“Hey Joey, how’s retirement suiting you?”
Ella in New Mexico
Call me a nutty conspiracy theorist or call me Pollyanna I STILL do not believe Trump won fairly and squarely. I think we’ll find out some day he managed to get just enough votes for Harris dumped in just the right number of states to flip the Electoral College. Why he continuously thanks Musk for “so much help knowing those voting machines” is pretty much a stupid question, if you ask me.
These polls only serve to make he think this even more. How the HELL does he get 60-70% disapproval on so many issues that we all CLEARLY heard him say he was going to do exactly what he has done? In three months on the job? It means a large number of Trump voters have completely flipped against him right now. This quickly. Even before they have felt the crush of high prices and shortages hit the supply chain (Josh Marshall says mid-May is zero hour and we can’t do anything about it even if everything is reversed). Even when so much of he pain he is inflicting is not touching them–yet.
The Pollyanna in me says no, NOT that many of my fellow Americans endorsed this. WE are still the majority in this country, the ones who didn’t want this clearly dementia-addled con-man and his entourage of greedy, sociopathic, Opus Dei freaks running things.
TrumpCorp seems to not give a shit about the polling now that they are in power. They really think they’re going to get away with cukoo EO’s and ignoring the courts. This is discouraging but I really think that becasue they’re all high on the supply right now it’s not occurring to them what they’re going to unleash.
And that is the hope I cling to.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@rikyrah:
Good morning
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Yep. The media is pretty weak. They’ll attack Dems to make themselves feel better.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Was it made in the USA? If not, ICE might deport it.
NotMax
@prostratedragon
And filching from the collection plate?
//
The Audacity of Krope
@different-church-lady: Damn right, I’m terrified about the results of Medicaid cuts and especially work requirements.
I work in long term care pharmacy now. A lot of disabled and elderly folks would be put at risk by these cuts. Also, the people who serve them like group home managers.
“But we can’t have people not working benefitting!” Another victory for superficial thinking.
different-church-lady
@The Audacity of Krope: I’m terrified of children climbing in through the car windows.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
In retrospect, it was a mistake for Harris to promise to give kids the ability to bypass childproof locks.
different-church-lady
@Baud: In retrospect, everything is a mistake.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
You sound like my parents now.
The Audacity of Krope
Then don’t let them catch you. And, if you feel comfortable, maybe get a little aggressive with the car if they get too close.
The Audacity of Krope
When your parents made the former statement, did they precede it with “you are our everything?”
Madeleine
@Wyliecoat: That rally on the Capitol steps is really great. Good energy, informative, and growing as the day goes on. Good start for the return of Congress.
lowtechcyclist
@Melancholy Jaques:
I don’t get this. In 2000, the U.S. population was 281.4 million, and 105.4 million voted in that year’s Presidential election. In 2024, the U.S. population was 340.1 million, and 155.5 million voted in the Presidential election. So while the U.S. population went up by 20.9%, voting participation at the Presidential level went up by 47.5%.
So we’re doing a lot better in turning out our voters than we used to; the problem is, so are they.
Chief Oshkosh
@prostratedragon: There’s some skepticism on that thread. Seattle is not the same level as the California ports, plus it’s unclear what historical cycling is for that port.
I have no expertise at all here, just noting that that thread includes.
oldgold
One group that appears to have turned against the Orange Menace are Hispanic voters.
Pew poll has Trump at 27% approval among Hispanics.
CNN poll has Trump at 28% approval among Hispanics.
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
There’s a Reddit thread that’s says shipments are down 30%.
So a slowdown but not complete stoppage.
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
I had seen that pop up on my YouTube feed but didn’t bother to check it out until your rec.
Not sure what to think.
sab
@Ella in New Mexico: You and my husband. Why in the swing states would they vote for Trump and then Democrats for senator and representative?
Baud
@sab:
Lots of voters are Trump only voters. He brings out people who don’t usually vote.
sab
@Melancholy Jaques: Voter suppression does work. Ask Jim Crow.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Uhhh… well, we’ve been meaning to tell you…
sab
@Baud: I couldn’t buy my brand of toilet paper yesterday. They were all out.
Cats might have to switch to deli meat, like they did with covid markets.
I might stock up on tuna. Expensive, but they will eat it.
different-church-lady
@oldgold: Oh gee, how nice the lightbulb has turned on JUST A LITTLE TOO LATE…
sab
@different-church-lady: OMG you are going there. Poor Baud. He hadn’t a clue.
raven
My wife has the closing of her show at the TinyAth Gallery today. It was the 45th Athens Criterium yesterday. It’s a series of bike races concluding with the men’s and women’s pro events.
prostratedragon
@NotMax: Only because they don’t pass those at funerals.
Chief Oshkosh
@Gvg:
Don’t forget the “documentaries” about Big Foot!
wenchacha
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): But they kept Amber Ruffin from telling the truth about him.
lowtechcyclist
@Chief Oshkosh:
He’s real! He comments here regularly.
Now whether he’s actually a professor….
lowtechcyclist
@wenchacha:
Yeah, that’s where we’ve been all this century: the comedians need to be the people telling the truth because the MSM won’t. So now the MSM doesn’t have comedians at its events.
sab
@raven: Her work is amazing. Thank you both for showing it to us not near Georgia.
lowtechcyclist
@The Audacity of Krope:
Let’s put it this way: if Trump’s public approval wasn’t sinking, any efforts on our part to resist anything he’s doing would be ultimately futile.
Trump’s sinking polls are certainly not a sufficient condition for halting Stephen Miller and Russell Vought in their tracks, but they’re definitely a necessary condition for it.
Baud
Interesting collection of old photos.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Agreed.
raven
@sab: tanks
StringOnAStick
@Kelly: Very cool shot! Silver Falls is one of my favorite parks here. We had a GHO fly from one yard to the next here a few dusk’s ago, it got everyone’s attention from the crew of neighbors sitting outside having a cold one. Seeing any owl is a treat, unless you’re a vole.
I’ve been told the wildflowers are amazing on the iron Mountain trail between where you and I live; I’m hoping my Achilles is healing enough that I can hike this summer.
sab
@lowtechcyclist: Good. White House Correspdents Dinner needs to go back to being the secret little insiders club it used to be. White House Corresponents ne3d to go back to being unknown reporters doing reportimg, not the media stars they think they are.
Baud
@sab:
Agree.
The Audacity of Krope
@lowtechcyclist: I might be being a bit cynical, but to my mind poll-centric reporting is a huge part of the problem that got us here.
When did what people believe was happening matter to the point of excluding what is actually happening?
Another Scott
Beautiful shots, BC.
Meanwhile, ….
What does it all mean? Seemingly that 47 is still more popular than either party, with Democrats still being less popular than the GQP. Why is that the case? Dunno. Part of it must be “you can’t fight something with nothing” and we don’t have a “leader” yet. Part of it is the 40+ years of demonization of the Democratic party. Part of it is “not fighting enough”. Part of it is “fighting too much, gotta give 47 a chance”. Part of it is the media landscape being against us. Part of it is “throw the bums out”. Part of it is “things aren’t too horrible, but I don’t like them, gotta shake things up”.
I do agree that deciding to run hard left everywhere (which AFAIK nobody sensible is advocating) would probably be a big mistake, but we always have to tailor the message to the voters.
Smarter people than me have to find a way to tailor messages to all the local, state, and national races that are coming up to turn things around.
(via CultureOfTruth.bsky.social)
Best wishes,
Scott.
prostratedragon
@Chief Oshkosh:
Seattle Times: “Tariff tit-for-tat has Seattle waiting for the ships to come in “
The Audacity of Krope
They want Dems to fight, presumably against Trump’s goals, but not for opposing goals…
Hmm…maybe voters are calling for Dems to fight each other. A cage match does sound fun.
Or maybe polls suck and aren’t as informative as the media likes to treat them.
StringOnAStick
@Ella in New Mexico: I agree with you. I see the hand of Musk and Putin in it.
Eduardo
@oldgold: there have been so much disinformation for years and years on Spanish media, the socialism/communism stuff, etc. But the finding out has been so swift so terrible so in the open. Frankly, even me didn’t think it was going to be so swift. Most people thought they were going to deport criminals and “bad people” in general because the information they target at them is criminals and ISIS crossing the borders, etc. I know they should have listened to HIM but OK, they so much wanted to buy that shit.
Then a long parade of horribles. The latest of which is a letter from Marco Rubio, dated on 1/31 — 10 fucking days after 1/20 — telling DHS that yeah, Venezuela was OK now and sure, cancel TPS for Venezuelan. I mean, things have never been worse there. You can’t cut the feeling of betrayal with a knife.
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
This sure seems to be the case, but it didn’t work in 2020 when he lost Georgia & Arizona. My theory is that all the mail in voting made it easier for our laziest voters, while Trump was dissing mail voting, so the morons who love him didn’t vote. I could be wrong.
Harrison Wesley
I’ve started doing a daily Niemoller Catechism as a reminder that being a white male Old doesn’t make a difference if you don’t have money. You’re just lower on the list.
They Call Me Noni
While perusing the news this morning I saw a sign that says:
You can’t spell HATRED
without RED HAT
Hadn’t seen that one before.
lowtechcyclist
@The Audacity of Krope:
???
How else are you going to measure whether people are in favor of how Trump’s running things, other than by polling them?
Baud
@Another Scott:
Comparing an individual to an organization is pretty meaningless.
Chief Oshkosh
@prostratedragon: Thanks for the follow-up.
The Audacity of Krope
@lowtechcyclist: I could give a rat’s ass about the daily temperature on Trump’s approval.
Then I think of the type of reporting; “57 percent of Americans don’t believe in climate change,” “Plurality of voters think COVID was caused by a lab leak,” “Viewers split on whether Elon Musk zieg healed.”
These are all matters with verifiable facts surrounding them. But it seems our entire media would rather pontificate on what people think about these things then remind people of and update the verifiable facts.
Polls also drive the subject matter they decide to cover. Polling is right at the center of our mainstream media problem. They have an addiction; as, clearly, do the folk who regularly supply these goofies with clicks.
lowtechcyclist
@Melancholy Jaques:
Yeah, he got 11 million more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. Seems like a strange definition of ‘didn’t work in 2020.’
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Moderation. I see, I think I have better things to do with my time that waste it with some moderator on a power trip.
geg6
I’m doing laundry and getting ready to make a nice easy marinara, which should be enough for dinner and have some to freeze. I’m going to brown up some ground sirloin from the freezer and put that in half the sauce. Some roasted zucchini and my go-to Pinot noir and that’s that.
My unnatural and slight optimism of the last couple of weeks seems to be rewarded in the polls. I’m going to try very hard to keep that up. Yesterday, Macron made me happy. It’s the small things these days.
lowtechcyclist
@The Audacity of Krope:
That’s nice. You asked why it mattered, I told you, you’re saying that doesn’t matter to you, so you’re changing the subject. Gotcha.
Central Planning
@Betty Cracker – I know this is a little late, but I just saw this article in the WaPo about Dyngus Day, the Polish celebration the day after easter: https://wapo.st/42UxDZF
That’s a gift article, but here’s the fun section, and maybe can be come part of your butter lamb next year:
I went to Dyngus Day in Buffalo this year. It was cold and rainy so we didn’t stick around long. Next year, we will go for longer, and probably make some customer Dyngus Day shirts.
jame
Your photos look like home to me.
Phones are never ready to take a photo when you are.
The Audacity of Krope
@lowtechcyclist: I’m inveighing regarding the useless media’s obsessive circle jerking over useless polls.
Daily updates on any politician’s approval ratings are about as useless as tits on a gecko. Knowing a very current approval rating doesn’t inform any decisions I’m making…ever…even on election day. It certainly doesn’t inform any practical life decisions.
We’d be better off if they chose one Trump executive order per day and went in-depth on that. Granted, they’d still be covering the orders from just day one. Or if they spent more time tracking outcomes on Trump’s deportation and tariff policies.
Fuck, the daily migration patterns of beetles has more influence in daily life than these polls. It’s all just so much naval gazing.
prostratedragon
Household appliance review
Matt McIrvin
@jonas: The polls were pretty accurate in calling the 2024 election. People here just assumed they had to be wrong. The disconnect is asking people about policy preferences vs. asking them about voting behavior.
Another Scott
@The Audacity of Krope:
Hey, watching ships go by can be quite relaxing.
Best wishes,
Scott.
The Audacity of Krope
@Another Scott: Dammit. Thanks for pointing that out.
cain
@Ella in New Mexico:
Apparently, Monday Trump is going to announce the continuation of the tariffs and replacement of the income tax. This man is chaotic in ways that no other leader has been since Mao or Stalin.
Trump even at his worse probably could never reach the heights of those two when it comes to killing your own people.
Tim C
Current Mood is influenced by a re-read of Lord of the Rings:
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
Steve LaBonne
@The Audacity of Krope: The fact that Trump’s approval is cratering is actually pretty significant news, because you can bet that vulnerable Republican congresscritters are nervously watching those polls. And it’s quite a lot harder to set up a durable authoritarian regime when a sizable majority of the electorate thinks you really suck.
cain
@oldgold:
I hope they will never again listen to right wing spanish language voices on the radio ever again. If he starts getting ICE to get any hispanic looking person as part of a quota I guarantee you that the hispanics are going to arm themselves. Because at that point if there is no court of law involved they might as well make it very very difficult to go after them.
Steve LaBonne
As I headed to the grocery store after church I saw that there were a lot of protesters on Medina Square. I wish I had known there was a protest today. I will try to keep better track.
Matt McIrvin
@cain:
It’s early days. Trump has nuclear weapons and may be willing to use them on Americans.
jonas
@sab: They wanted Trump to send the migrants home and lower the price of groceries. They wanted Dem reps to protect Medicare and SS and all that stuff. Instead they got Trump slapping tariffs on everything and DOGE blowing up the federal workforce and Dems in the minority where they can’t protect critical gov’t programs from all the ways Trump is trying to dismantle them. So, worst of all worlds.
The question is whether Trump’s popularity heading down the shitter will result in voters turning on Republicans more broadly. I don’t think most people understand that Trump is doing all this because the Republican Congress is sitting back and *letting him.* Some folks with a clue have been showing up to town halls and giving those clowns a piece of their mind, but it’s not clear how representative those have been of those districts as a whole. I haven’t seen many reps seem all that concerned, tbh.
cain
@Another Scott: Only the vocal left are doing that. The MSM coverage always looking for ways to reduce the power of the Democratic party. So, of course the voices they are going to seek are the loud left.
The loud left though are now targets of the Trump administration. They are going after the pro-palestinian movement people. For anti-semitism of all things while being anti-semitic themselves. Classic rove/fascism, use the most powerful things the left has against them. I knew Jews are pissed. I’m glad they are standing up. We need a much bigger movement with Jews in the lead.
Steve LaBonne
@oldgold: The cult members will swallow any lie, but otherwise when your people are being rounded up, or less dramatically but very clearly, when grocery prices are going up when Trump says they’re going down, people quickly get tired of Trump pissing on their leg and telling them it’s raining.
Harrison Wesley
@cain: If he drank, he’d tell you “Hold my beer.”
Kelly
@StringOnAStick: Prime time for wildflower at Silver Falls until mid May. I haven’t hiked Iron Mountain. I plan to start exploring trails in the Middle and South Santiam this year. I’m still a bit melancholy so many of my favorite North Santiam trails burned in 2020. Silver Falls has the only nearby, low elevation trails. There’s 35 miles of trails away from the waterfalls to explore. Those trails are open to dogs and Daisy will be a year old in June so I’ll start taking her on longer hikes.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
That would surely lower his approval by at least a couple of more points.
cain
@The Audacity of Krope:
We’ve been decentralizing everything including twitter and so on. We need to start doing this with journalists. I hate saying this but maybe we should be looking at how we can use crypto-currency despite it’s criminal uses.
I was reading some thread on reddit about open source AI for generative images (so called Adult AI) and apparently VISA is going after AI companies because the religious nutters are going after them and the banks. Apparently and I don’t know if this is true but a lot of mormons are in banking and are using their influence.
I’m on the fence on this. Adult AI can easily be used to create dangerous situations for women, trans, and the lbgtq+ and it must be regulated. But not like this in the shadows by religious nutters.
The Audacity of Krope
@Steve LaBonne: I can see that, though there are other ways that information could break through to legislators. Angry constituents do show up at public events.
And this is about more than just approval ratings. These news outlets report on polls showing public misperception on facts rather than work harder to report those facts.
Even what they choose to cover is poll-driven, though those polls don’t get splashed across the front page. So if people are more interested in hearing about Hillary ‘s emails than Donald’s pornstar payoff, the emails get covered. Even if they were already covered into the ground and no new information has emerged.
It’s maddening. Polls are a blight on our news media landscape. We need to get back to editors and ombudsmen exercising individual discernment instead of this polling circle jerk.
mayim
@Central Planning:
One of the things I miss about Buffalo. When I was growing up, my father worked for a company owned by Polish Catholics, so he got Good Friday and Dyngus Day off. This helped my U.U. parents take us to visit my mother’s family in Boston rather than end up at Dad’s fundamentalist relatives who lived in Buffalo’s white-flight suburbs.
My day today? Had planned to go to several quilt shop hop stores today but stress <from my lay-off notice from my dream job, due to IMLS being DOGEd> and rainy weather have triggered a fibromyalgia flare, so comfort read of a favorite cozy mystery and a cuddly purring Scout are the actual events happening.
cain
@Matt McIrvin:
If he does, he would have crossed a threshold that would make him public enemy #1. Also, he would have ruined the entire country and the globe and have made it unlivable because of the fallout.
The Audacity of Krope
Tell me more, please. I would like to know how you think crypto can be leveraged to improve this situation.
cain
Many dems are doing the right thing and holding public townhalls. The republicans won’t show up but we can and we need to do this across the entire U.S. it’s our opportunity to show voters that the Republican party holds the keys to stopping this.
This is the only message Dems need to push to the public. A singular message that is non-stop in multiple language. Do we know they are talking about this?
All we need is one person in each state to take up the challenge.
cain
@Kelly: I need to start doing that. I always hike Dog Mountain for my birthday. I’ve been to silvers springs. I’m having trouble leaving the home because my wife has a concussion or rather got concussion again because she was trying to stop a fight at school. I have some very hard thoughts on Oregon education system. I wonder if I could take the time to write a front page blog on it.
cain
@The Audacity of Krope: I don’t know.. it’s just a thought that came into my mind. Trump has been attacking institutions like ActBlue trying to stop Dems from getting any money.
As I said I find my own thoughts on this troublesome. I’ll get back to you after doing some research.
Steve LaBonne
@The Audacity of Krope: I generally agree with this, but right now I will happily take those widely publicized 39% approval ratings. Just now they’re the best thing we’ve got going.
Steve LaBonne
@cain: All the blustering about ActBlue has gotten them is a big surge in contributions to ActBlue. If they actually try to prosecute, or take some kind of illegal action, they’ll be crushed in court.
Soprano2
@mrmoshpotato: Rooting for both Cards and Cubs could cause a rip in the time/space continuum.
We’re eating a late breakfast. My concert is at 3:30, my call is at 3:00. Anyone want to come fix my toilet that picked today to start not flushing again? It was my mistake to not have the cause found after the second time it happened. Something to deal with later.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Tom Levenson: if you have access to bitter oranges, duck a la orange is nice: https://www.simplefrenchcooking.com/recipe-entry/easy-classic-french-duck-lorange-recipe
This has lemon juice mingled with regular orange juice.
If you can find them, you can make the original, historic recipe without lemon juice using bitter or sour oranges, which is what oranges were before they were bred to be sweet. I’ve found they are sold at both the very top end & low end of grocery markets, as they’re used in Dominican cooking.
Delicate Butterfly
Trump’s declining poll numbers might be bad news for his 2028 election campaign.
The Audacity of Krope
@Steve LaBonne: I suppose I can see that, but it just makes little sense of me when these approval numbers aren’t something we can act on.
mrmoshpotato
@Soprano2:
Haha!
Brewers are in 2nd place. A sweep by the Cards puts them further out of first. Go Cards!
Steve LaBonne
@The Audacity of Krope: Other than protesting there’s not a lot we can do before November 2026. Meanwhile whatever weakens Trump is a step in the right direction.
japa21
@mrmoshpotato:
Actually, they’re in 3rd. Worried about your Cubbies, I see.
jonas
@Matt McIrvin: I think that’s right, but I wasn’t just talking about campaign polls. Polls generally show that the public is overwhelmingly in favor of things like gun control, higher taxes for the wealthy, strong public education and a host of other progressive priorities, but then either don’t vote, or vote R despite favoring those things because one or two other issues (like abortion or something) override them all.
Craig
‘Bill fished while I climbed around over logs and rocks, looking for birds and fiddler crabs and driftwood and what-not, as I’ve done in that particular salt marsh since I was a child.’
Such a beautiful sentence. I love reading what you write.
cckids
A couple of decades ago, we had spent the day at the north rim of the Grand Canyon, and were driving back to our rental cabin after dark. It’s a windy, two-lane highway; just as we came around a tight bend, the headlights illuminated a HUGE owl who had just swooped down & caught a rabbit.
The owl gave us a glare, didn’t move, we kept going. But that flashed image is still one of my favorite wildlife memories, even my kids still remember it. So, so cool.
WaterGirl
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I have no idea what was in your original comment, but something about it must have tripped the automated filter.
It was in moderation, not SPAM. I’ve seen your nym, so you’re not new, which is one reason a comment goes into moderation.
Is it possible that this was your first comment with a different email? Or your first comment from a device you have never used for Balloon Juice before?
JoyceH
Hey, can I ask Floridians and others fill me in on something? One person who has really unpleasantly surprised me in this administration is Rubio! I don’t know much about the guy but he always struck me as a harmless nonentity. I just learned recently though it was reported at the time that this monstrous El Salvador policy was suggested to Rubio by Bukele, and Rubio brought the proposal home to Trump!
Before all this, if you’d suggested to me as a hypothetical that some tinpot Central American dictator would suggest to Secretary of State Rubio “hey, what’s say we make a contract and you pay me a few million to take your violent non-citizen and maybe even citizen criminals and I’ll stash them for you in my deluxe Supermax torture prison/slave labor camp” I would have predicted that Sec State Rubio would respond “thanks, but we don’t do that in America” and never mention it again. Instead, he brought the notion back, publicly discussed it with reporters and called the proposal “an extraordinary gesture of friendship”. !!!
Those of you who’ve followed Rubio’s career – is this something you saw coming?
zhena gogolia
@JoyceH: I’m no expert on him, but he didn’t mind Trump vilely insulting his father and his wife, so . . . I’m not too surprised by anything.
The Audacity of Krope
That’s, at a minimum, adjacent to a very popular kink.
Matt McIrvin
@JoyceH: Back in the 2010s, before Trump was even a presidential frontrunner, Rubio got on the bandwagon to end birthright citizenship. He’s a weathervane.
Miss Bianca
“High expectations” for Trumpov Administration? As in “I was high when I decided to vote for him”?
The Audacity of Krope
If that’s the way the winds are blowing in Republican and, we got a mighty lift to get public backing on even a humane but restricted immigration system.
The Audacity of Krope
They be smoking that paranoid shit.
Matt McIrvin
@cain: I’m sure the Japanese didn’t like Harry Truman, but he could still dictate terms.
Trivia Man
@Ella in New Mexico: I am still convinced FWB cheated in OH in 2004. The owner if the voting machines was in his campaign committee and often said “I guarantee he will win ohio”
And no investigation was ever made
My fantasy is that someone in the kremlin leaks everything and ALL the tea is spilled at once
Trivia Man
@lowtechcyclist: does that account for age and citizenship status? Lots of people in the under 18 group (baby boom bigger than boomers!) became eligible
Gvg
@JoyceH: no but….I did know he was more ambitious and lower than average. Greedy. Apparently saw how some politician lived when he was young and became ambitious to be one just so he could live like that (rich fancy house) with no care for serving other people. Changes face a lot. Selects principles based on voting appeal.
I would not have expected this because I don’t think it’s a good political move, not even for Trump.
Kayla Rudbek
@cain: the main problem with deepfake porn is that it gets transmitted across state lines (which would make it a federal crime) but I’m not sure if federal law has adequate penalties for it or not. I know that non-porn deepfakes don’t have federal laws against them yet (proposed laws are in Congress, I think), so you have to sue under state laws (and hope that you can prove an injury/transmission in a state with strong right of publicity laws, such as California, New York, Tennessee, etc).
cain
@Matt McIrvin:
The atomic bomb back then is small potatoes on what we have now. Plus, bombing your own country with nuclear weapons is probably a high crimes kind of thing and one you can’t gas light people on.
cain
@Kayla Rudbek:
It will come unless of course the feds actually wants to use deepfake porn to go after Dems.
Kayla Rudbek
@The Audacity of Krope: paying off the journalists to actually seek and report the truth, as opposed to licking boots at the FTFNYT? To quote a series that I loved as a kid, “who really owns a man? The one who rules him, or the one who pays him?”
Trivia Man
@cain: I laugh
Utah has very high rates of porn watching
At one time mariott hotels (all mormon owned at the time) had the most pornography income of anyone… PPV in hotel rooms
ETA: to mormons the $$$ is the true revelation
Trivia Man
@cain: Honest question: do you think he cares?
prostratedragon
Hope @Soprano2 has made her call, because if that sudden plumbing issue don’t get a person to singing then I don’t know what would.
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: sorry, GWB not FWB
Kayla Rudbek
@cain: you would think, and IP law tends to make political alliances that aren’t as connected to party, but I don’t trust the current Congress to be able to make its way out of a wet paper bag. And half of more of the current Republican Congresscritters would probably enjoy deepfake porn if they aren’t watching it already, in my opinion. The love of money being the root of all evil because with money you can make people do things that they otherwise wouldn’t.
Although I was cheered up last week reading IP Watchdog of all things (the pro-Republican IP blog, so a window on the business Republicans) that Trump’s last director of the USPTO was calling out Musk and Dorsey for wanting to delete IP law. So maybe the start of the cracks between the sane money and the insane money? (Mr. Rudbek and I have acknowledged for decades that there are business Republicans and religious Republicans, as there were plenty of both at Notre Dame in our time).
ArchTeryx
@Trivia Man: I was in Election Protection that year and out in the field. There was all KINDS of hinky stuff going on but the out of state folks they bussed in didn’t know what to look for.
Blackwell selectively pulling voting machines from urban precincts.
County level irregularities in red counties, mostly with vote counting, but also with Republican poll watchers chasing out Election Protection folks illegally.
Bush himself arriving in Ohio. Within a couple of hours, one of the counties declared a terrorist threat and booted out all observers and counters. When they were allowed back Bush suddenly had 50,000 more votes from that county.
The entire election was carefully rigged by Ken Blackwell. Kerry, however, had zero fight and refused to contest Ohio despite all his field folks screaming for him to do so.
Ohio Ds were so angry the GOP was slaughtered in 2006, their gerrymander collapsed and Ds winning every statewide office. It was the last time they’d control Ohio.
Kayla Rudbek
@JoyceH: I know someone who has had to deal with Congress and the Senate more than I do, and his opinion is that Rubio is smart and evil, being MAGA in name only.
Geminid
@cain: During Turkiye’s 2023 presidential election, someone released a deep fake sex video featuring third-place candidate Muharrem Ince. It was easily proven fake, but Ince ended up dropping out anyway. His supporters are still mad about it, and blame both Erdogan’s AK Party and the opposition CH Party for not denouncing the trick. Ince was the CHP candidate in 2018.
Eduardo
@Matt McIrvin: yeah — since mid October I thought we were fried. I kept a small amount of hope because of course you want to, but …
cain
@Trivia Man: You’re asking the wrong question. Does the GOP care is the real question. They currently have the power to stop him. They choose not to.
cain
@Trivia Man: All these states – eg bible belt, and other areas have sex all over the place. The GOP convention is great for the sex industry. They are literally the opposite of what they preach.
They are bothered by sex because it’s their primary weakness. They hate that women and men have that weakness over them. They think passing laws will help them manage their own desires. They are such punks.
cain
@Kayla Rudbek: Money and having lots of it will give you indemnity in this country. You can get away with any kind of white collar crime. You can’t trust Republicans to stand on any kind of principles.
The media loves to portray them as some kind of hero of principles.
Eduardo
@cain: uhmm, the tales that I could tell about Fidel Castro, his brother and even whomever it is in charge now. That’s the story of every totalitarian state there has been.
i don’t recall other chief of state of a democracy that erratic which shows you what’s the state of our democracy now.
interesting times
cain
@Eduardo:
He’s definitely erratic and unpredictable.
I don’t know much about Fidel and his brother. But any stories told would not surprise me.
Professor Bigfoot
@lowtechcyclist: I HEARD THAT!
BigJimSlade
Owls catching voles don’t always win (the vole didn’t win either):
https://petapixel.com/2025/04/23/photographer-captures-hawk-and-owl-battling-mid-air-over-a-vole/
Regarding bait fishing, it reminds me of a fly fishing magazine called The Drake. When I saw the price I burst out laughing. It was $5, $10 for bait fishermen.
different-church-lady
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Moderation is frequently automated, and also frequently mistaken and corrected by the humans here.
Tim in SF
Why does the media treat this as his first hundred days? It isn’t. It’s his fifth year as president.
Trivia Man
@ArchTeryx: and the state provided voter registration applications being rejected because… the paper was too thIn
Ella in New Mexico
@sab: My Exhibit One. Makes absolutely no sense.
Gloria DryGarden
Betty cracker, I love your photos.
Do you collect driftwood as art, and display it on your land?
I’m always happy to hear about rodents being eaten by big birds of prey. Keeping the balance..