Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

The bird watching group I belong to meets once a month. These photos are from both this month's and last month's meeting. Last month we met at Mast Park in Santee. The park is a narrow strip of natural riparian environment that runs alongside the San Diego river. This month we met at Harry Griffen Park in La Mesa. A typical man made and maintained city park with one corner left unlandscaped and with it's native vegetation. Even though the parks are about five miles apart and are very different environments, most of the birds we saw were the same at both parks. Our group leader heard there was a rare sighting of a Baltimore Oriole at Harry Griffen Park recently. If one was there, we didn't see it.

Cedar Waxwing

There are roughly 30,000 U.S. troops in the middle east region.

I don't watch TV and haven't for years, except for when we travel and stay in hotels/motels. My motto is "if we paid for it let's use it". I immediately go for the old programs that I grew up watching, usually old westerns. But you can't escape the commercials. Also while running through the litany of channels in the search for the old programs I often come across the ludicrous propaganda platforms that are supposed to be news, whether local, national or international. I can't stand the lies so I move on quickly and leave the talking heads in chatter mode.

They are a grim reminder of the plastic society that we live in, if I may borrow a phrase from decades ago. The long sojourn from the noise heightens the awareness when one revisits it. It's like a slap in the face of reality. I imagine it as the abyss smiling back at me. A knowing, patient, come hither smile.

When Gov. Ron DeSantis was running for president, he leaned heavily on culture war issues such as his “Don't Say Gay,” The law bans classroom lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation. This included banning any and all books in schools that were deemed pornographic.

About half-way down down this article about how the Israeli Lobby was throwing enormous amounts of money to defeat Cori Bush and Dave Bowman, I saw this:

18 April 2024 - Headlines Mislead, Again

According to recent news articles (two on different stations with the same message, think this is orchestrated?) the number of anti-semitic incidents has been way up this past year. One headline says, 'Antisemitic incidents skyrocketing in Western Washington and across U.S'. Another says 'Anti-Defamation League reports record-high antisemitic incidents in Pacific Northwest'. The articles say most of the incidents were 'harassment or vandalism' but bomb threats are up too. The picture that the local Seattle news station, KOMO (see link above) shows with their article is of a synagogue which was vandalized with graffiti that says 'Shame on Israel' and 'Stop Killing' and 'You Know Better'.

Image of local vandalism from Komo article. Image by Lori Turck-Rogers.

Trump Media stock has declined by about 2/3rds since it reached the first day peak. Ex-President Trump has personally lost $3.3 Billion of paper wealth.