Ash, the rescue rat who started it all in 2006. In the first photo, Ash was busy working on thieving my ring. He was successful in pulling it off, and immediately scampered off to Rat HQ to stash his lovely ring. I recovered it later, after distracting Ash with Jaffa Wars (breaking out my precious supply of London Jaffa Cakes, and getting into a ferocious tug o’ Jaffa cake war with Ash.) The ring I still have. Wish I still had Ash.
© C. Ford.
Click for full size!
© C. Ford.
Harris’s Sparrow. Aren’t they beauties? These are large sparrows, 17 to 20 cm (6.7 to 7.9 in). This is probably a non-breeding adult, but my sparrow identification skills suck. I’m always glad to see them, click for full size.
© C. Ford.
In yet another article about the Tiny Tyrant turning sour and dark, and turning on everyone, including the beloved prince, Kushner, this was noted by aides:
Along with sources decrying the president’s temperament, the report also suggests that some aides believe Trump doesn’t understand his intel well enough to have leaked anything serious to the two Russian officials he met with in the Oval Office last week.
“In private, three administration officials conceded that they could not publicly articulate their most compelling — and honest — defense of the president: that Mr. Trump, a hasty and indifferent reader of printed briefing materials, simply did not possess the interest or knowledge of the granular details of intelligence gathering to leak specific sources and methods of intelligence gathering that would do harm to United States allies,” the report claimed.
I certainly don’t find that remotely difficult to believe; however, incompetency does not necessarily rule out leaking something of great value to others. I honestly can’t decide if this makes things better, worse, or simply more surreal. Surreality is grand and great in art. In every day life, not so much. I do think there is a great wellspring of malice in Trump, which is bubbling and frothing right now, as he seeks convenient people and places to blame for all and sundry. I don’t think malicious narcissism combined with incompetency is going to make anything better, and it worries me, along with the spreading idea that Trump is simply so incompetent he’s harmless. I’m afraid of people becoming complacent, considering him to be nothing more than a bumbling fool, and finding reasons to handwave his behaviour and actions. I don’t think we can afford to do that.
Curtis Ellis, screengrab.
The Tiny Tyrant is more than a little too fond of Curtis Ellis, a former writer for that bastion of batshit, WorldNetDaily. Ellis is now being considered to head up the Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs. [Bloomberg].
“The little-known deputy undersecretary position at ILAB is considered an essential piece of the White House push to restore U.S. manufacturing jobs by cracking down on labor abuses overseas,” Penn writes. “Ellis is currently part of the Labor Department’s beachhead team and is overseeing the department’s trade policy. He has already been attending ILAB meetings and representing the bureau to foreign governments as a temporary political appointee.”
This is a serious problem for all the regular reasons, but in the case of Ellis, there’s so much more. He is convinced that multinational elites are out to run the world, installing a small, hidden, anonymous cabal of elites. All these nefarious elites, of course, are in turn run by … Lucifer! This is just so old anymore. They need a new villain.
Elite.
noun
1. (often used with a plural verb) the choice or best of anything considered collectively, as of a group or class of persons.
2. (used with a plural verb) persons of the highest class: Only the elite were there.
3. a group of persons exercising the major share of authority or influence within a larger group: the power elite of a major political party.
It’s beyond me, the constant talk of elites among the religious reich, and uber-conservatives. How do they manage to forget they have the major share of wealth and power? They are the elite, alright, the elite baddies.
Along with WorldNetDaily, Ellis also has ties to Breitbart, the outlet formerly run by Trump’s chief strategist Stephen Bannon.
In an interview last year with “Trunews” host Rick Wiles, Ellis reflected many of Bannon’s ultranationalist views and Trump’s love of Vladimir Putin, and expressed his view that a group of satanic elites is intent on gaining world domination.
Multinational elites, Ellis said, want to create “global tyranny where a small cabal of anonymous, hidden elites rule the world.”
Ellis added that this secret global cabal is a “Luciferian” and “satanic” group that elevates materialism over the spiritual world, pointing to the installation of a replica of the Arch of Baal, which was destroyed by ISIS, in New York.
“ISIS, they did destroy the archway to the temple of Baal,” Wiles said. “I guess if there’s any redeeming value to ISIS, I guess you can credit them for bringing down the Temple of Baal.”
Oh yes, Baal, the godthorn in the side of the psychopathic Yahweh. Lots of people in the bible died because they preferred Baal, God of Ekron, over Yahweh, and that bloodthirsty shit didn’t like competition, no. So not only does this idiot believe in one god of the bible, he believes in one of the other ones, too. Great.
BW® DIY F450 4-Axis RC QuadCopter MultiCopter Frame Airframe Kit.
The latest MAKE newsletter has a good rundown of the top 5 affordable quadcopter kits. Drones are fun, but they are also on the spendy side, so it’s good to know exactly how to spend your money.
Drones have become so popular that lately it seems everyone has one. Why wouldn’t they? Today’s models are practically flying on their own, creating breathtaking images and videos, and offering a fun way to get away from your daily tasks and problems.
However, since you are reading this, I guess you are not here to talk about the ready-to-fly (RTF) drones, right? You are more of a DIY kind of a person who would rather spend your hard earned free time messing with the parts and tools, and customizing your bird to be a unique reflection of your personality.
This hobby, as you probably already know, tends to go hard on your budget, and demands a certain level of understanding of the subject. This is exactly why I decided to help out and talk about the affordable quadcopter kits that will not make you rob a bank in order to afford them.
Before I get to the actual kits, you need to know how to find the one most suitable for your needs.
CREDIT: AP Photo/Susan Walsh.
By now, most people are aware that the Tiny Tyrant divulged classified information to the visiting Russians, and Mr. Tweet has had a whirlwind of justifications over it all, he can do whatever the fuck he wants because president! Yeah. The whole mess, and the tweets, are detailed at Think Progress, along with the standard problems in what passes for thought in Trump. The Fucking Idiot not only undercut all his aides by admitting to leaking all over the place, he’s been bragging about it, even to the point of referring to said leakage as humanitarian. Trump wouldn’t know humanitarian if it jumped up and gnawed his face off. Why on earth anyone would be surprised by this, I don’t know. It’s all too standard behaviour on the Tiny Tyrant’s part. Nathan also has a good piece on the leaking of classified material.
Of more concern, I would say, is the journalistic rush to report that rethuglicans are pulling away from the wannabe dictator now, but unfortunately, that is not so, and this is no time to become complacent, and think they are going to kick his plush arse to the curb.
Source: NYT.
“Questions and concerns” do not mean jack shit when it comes to rethuglicans. It’s a handy, shopworn phrase tossed out to make them sound like they have the same concerns as all us peons, but they don’t. They are interested in two things: covering their asses, and more importantly, protecting their wallet and the various things which feed it. Think Progress has a breakdown of the actual sentiment right now.
And, Politico reports on the shambolic mess that is Trump House, where people are running about like chickens with heads cut off, not having the slightest idea of what is going to happen. Also per usual, Trump is like a cat jumping in a box, furiously digging in an attempt to cover up stinking shit, spraying sand and shit particles all over the place. There will be a shake up! There will be a reorganization! Oh hey, we have a trip coming up, and everyone will forget about Comey and leakage, you betcha!
Saad sends greetings from Iceland, their trip is drawing to a close, here’s a glimpse of the wondrousness, the Sun Voyager, a sculpture in Reykjavik. Click for full size!
© Saad, all rights reserved.
Click for full size.
© C. Ford.
From rq: They call it a ‘Canadian maple’ but the flowers are so different from the little red clusters I’m so used to! Also cute little insect. Beautiful! Click for full size.
© rq, all rights reserved.
A superb photo of a Grackle, from Kengi. Click for full size!
© Kengi, all rights reserved.
