Open Thread - Wednesday April 8, 2015
Public Service Announcement: Only one week left to file your income tax return.
Today's Open Thread vignette is about my birds, specifically those little brown birds. I belong to the Great Backyard Bird Race over at dkos. To make it fair, they have different categories based upon your location. For example, someone located on a waterfront will always see more different types of birds than someone located in an urban site. You can only report those birds that you see or hear from the confines of your location. There are no prizes, just bragging rights. Some of the participants are veteran birdwatchers and use binoculars in addition to having lots of bird feeders. They know their birds but I am just an amateur compared to many of them. Still, it is fun to push myself to learn about birds.
I do not have binoculars, but I really wish I did because I often see little birds up in the trees that do not come to bird feeders. I cannot see them well enough to make a positive identification, so I wish I had binoculars. Those little birds are probably insect eaters, like warblers. Still with my seed feeders, I get excited by two types of birds, the migrants that I might see passing through each spring and fall, and being able to identify some (or any) little brown bird.
It is easy to identify a cardinal or a bluejay or some other distinctive bird, but a lot of birds fall into the category of little brown birds. When my husband came up to NC to check on the house in mid March, he remarked that there were a lot of little brown birds that started hanging around the feeders after he put out some seed. He characterized them as being a whole flock. After asking him some questions that might narrow it down to some of the common birds I see around here, I concluded that they could be song sparrows, except I have never seen song sparrows in a flock.
Then when I got here, I saw all these little brown birds. They were and are eating me out of house and home. They are tiny, slightly smaller than the goldfinches that come regularly but unlike the goldfinches, they will stand their ground against much larger birds. Their shape was similar to that of the goldfinches, but what were they? I searched through my bird books and went onto the All About Birds website maintained by Cornell University which is the ultimate site for identifying birds. I finally concluded that they were pine siskins, a very common bird in the most far north states and Canada.
While this is their winter range, it is definitely time for them to head back to their far north homes. Meanwhile I keep hoping to see more migrants. Thus far the only other migrant birds I have seen are some beautiful purple finches. They stayed only one day and then were gone. I am hoping to see rose breasted grosbeaks pass through on their way north.
But thus far, my feeders are over blessed with pine siskins.
This is an open thread, so feel free to post whatever you wish.
Comments
Good morning
So what's the deal? Emanuel, Snyder, Walker, Rick Scott - WTF is the matter with this country?
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
One theory (my own)
When the opposition does not provide a compelling reason for people to vote for them, those people either do not vote or go with the devil they already know.
It's weird, but I am positive that is what happened in Florida. The Republican voters came out and voted for Scott. Even those Republicans who did not like Scott, hated Charlie Crist even more for leaving the party. I know because some of them are family members. Even when I tried to explain how bad Scott was for the environment, they did not care. Even my own vote for Charlie Crist was lukewarm. It was a defensive vote knowing that Crist would do what he could to protect Florida's environment.
In 2014, the Democratic party as a whole, did not provide compelling reasons why voters should choose their candidates. We're not as bad is not a reason for people to vote for you! Give us some candidates who actually stand for things that benefit the people and can convince the people they will back it up with legislation and then the people will choose that candidate. When you add big money to that mix, it does everything to destroy fair elections.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
The matter is
that this country is messed up and the political system is broken. I don't blame the ordinary people who either don't vote or vote for the lesser piece of shit they're told is their choice. Ask me it's the aftermath of 2006-2008 when people did try to pry the vampire squid off to no avail. People voted for bottom up change. They took the bait and now are having to live with the switch. I do blame the gatekeepers who insist that this is what democracy looks like and that it's pragmatic to support this bipartisan evil.
The damage and destruction that the complicit corrupt Dems in power have inflicted/implemented at every level local state and federal makes me madder then anything the loonie RW does or says. It's a by-partisan coup and it does not matter which flavor you pick. Rahm is Democratic and really is representative of what the Dems. are about. The culture war of identity politics and persona worship doesn't help as it stops any electoral resistance or solidarity. Populism is equated with fascistic racist bubba's, liberals are purist spoilers and divide and conquer worked. I think the general public is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
The endless warriors both sides talk about external existential threats to our country but the reality is that we have our own existential crisis that's home grown and carefully cultivated by the real fascistic owners of the place and their mouthpieces the pols of mass deception. Hate and fear are all we're offered and even the tepid Democrat's who are billed as progressive, Chuy for instance or Warren even Bernie, refuse to stand up and fight or even tell the truth. In addition to to this toxic bipartisan takeover of our country the global oligarchical collectivists grip on the world has the US military acting as their enforcers.
All in all it's hard for me to blame the people anywhere as at this point they really have no democratic, parliamentary or peaceful way to address their grievances. Think it will have to get a lot worse for American's before they stop giving their consent to this global screw. At 37% voter turn out perhaps the tipping point is coming. Thing about these global pillagers is they always do go to far and people do find ways to stop them. The cheer leading of this evil by both parties partisans is creepy and does nothing but keep the lawless nasty 'oligarchical collectivist's' entrenched.
Great comment
as always.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Fantastic comment. you nailed it
After Pelosi's betrayal in 06 when after promising to roll back the Bush abuses, people did give up hope.
The congress whores sat back and watched Bush lie about not torturing even after they'd been briefed on it.
I can't add anything else to your comment that you didn't write.
But it was the Dems th betrayed us. We expect that from the GOP.
Then came OBAMA and his betrayals were even worse.
Easier to count the promises he's kept.
And when he passes the TPP, it's game over for the middle class.
We poor people are already being destroyed.
Piss on all of them.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Good Morning, all ... Chicago Gangsters, here we come ....
I have some beautiful birds in my backyard... but don't know any of their names. I hope one of them builds his nest directly in a bush under my bedroom window. Sometimes birdie sits directly on my window sill ... and starts talking... I love that.
Did you read this? BREAKING: In Chicago, Reports of Voters Receiving Ballots Already Marked for Emanuel - After a Facebook post suggested voting irregularities blew up, similar reports are emerging. - BY Rick Perlstein at DK here.
What angers me most is that things are so fucked up that you can't exclude the doubt that may be that is launched as well. Dallasdoc comment was a good one. Gordon20024 comment as well. Now how am I to understand Timaeus comment?
The fact that one can never be sure what's right and what's wrong, is the most awful thing. Why would one want to HR such a thing?
https://www.euronews.com/live
now with this FP (at DK) evaluation of the Chicago vote
... I get all confused... All I can say that nobody overseas would be able to understand the whole shebang. I am so disgusted and angry, because I don't even know if I have the right to be that disgusted, as I can't know who is right and who is wrong and if you think DK enlightens me about it, you make a mistake.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Hey mimi, how are you?
I am confused as to why you *wouldn't* be allowed to be upset. Goddamn American "exceptionalism" harms the entire world, not just Americans.
I certainly appreciate your vantage point. Please, keep sharing it.
I miss Colorado.
FP evaluation at dkos
is a joke. The FP at dkos is nothing but a double speaking, propaganda arm for the Democratic machine. In other words all you get as far as evaluation of electoral politics there is the usual useless polls and identity demographics from the FB tea leaf reader's who refuse to look at what the Democratic party is about. As John Lennon once said "How do you sleep at night?" you twisty sold out so called 'progressive' writers? I never did like the term progressive as adopted by the New Democratic cowards who could not bring themselves to self identity as liberals. Now liberals are the problem as they reuse to buy the bs. that the dkos FP cranks out.
Your daily dose of hate and fear where all news and political analysis is filtered through the politics of mockery, diversion and division. Talk about your circular firing squads, misinformation and abysmal parroting of the anti-anybody but the Democratic party line. I find that if I go to European or any foreign site, news, publications or real liberal sites it helps. I like TruthOut or Common Dreams other far lefty sites here in the US. I get at least a tiny bit of insight into the hows and whys of our messed up politics. It's depressing to read the new versions of McJoan and Hunter and even at times Meteor Blades.
I got really drunk and ranted n' raved at him on Night Owls the other night. He didn't HR me but replied you know damn well that this is not what I do or believe in. Then the next day he wrote a great piece about a non partisan org? or movement I really liked. It's signatories where actual liberals including (oh my god) Ralph Nadar and Jill Stein. I apologized and he let my insulting rant slide. I guess some of these FP writers need the job of cranking out endless useless mockery of RW loonies and Dem. double speak.
Now that I have thoroughly looked at the org. he linked to I just don't know if it's the real thing or just another economic global capitalistic heartbreaking org. I'm a little suspicious of anything that bills themselves as building community wealth. Here's the link tell me what you guys think about this. I tell you it's a freaking twisty maze of global capitalistic con men posing as do gooders. Pardon my paranoia but..... The first part sounds good
The Next System
http://democracycollaborative.org/content/next-system-project-0
The Democracy Collaborative
Building community wealth
http://democracycollaborative.org/
This somehow sets off my bs. meter. It's hard these days to dare to even hope.Too many so called orgs. I worked for turned out to be nasty partisan capitalistic free market fronts. I hope i don't have to put this in my spam list like I did with MoveOn and other so called progressive orgs and sites.
Yup, it's just another one of them.
Wonder where they get their funding? I'm not going to waste my time searching. Maybe they
can get together with Van Jones and solve all our problems.
Dave Johnson and Stuart Zechman on Virtually Speaking
A great hour long talk about the TPP and what it's all about. A definite good listen if you've got the time.
I'd post this on Daily Kos, but I'm staying away from there for another week or so.
Dave Johnson & Stuart Zechman • VS Sundays
So good to see you here, cyberstrike!
I'd love to listen, but I cannot do so anymore because reading about the TPP itself made me nearly suicidal.
The Two Faces of Barack Obama. We should write a book, man.
I miss Colorado.
Two faces, indeed!
Which one tells the truth? Not the one that's come out recently with all his ideas about how to fix what ails the US. If he was serious about those things, then why the hell didn't he try to get them passed before the GOP took control of both houses?
He knows there's not a chance in hell of them passing.
If he was for real, he could have changed the course this country was heading during his 1st term.
Instead, he's gon back on almost every damned promise he made.
Yet there's still people on DK that say he's the best president ever.
I want to barf when I see that.
He ran the greatest con ever, and people wonder why so many don't vote anymore.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Ugg, tax return is for the birds
I spent all morning trying to unravel medical costs. Correlating EOBs, financial transactions and receipts is nearly impossible. When in doubt, include the cost. If I get audited, I will wheel Sweetie into the IRS office to review the tax return.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
ugg is right and
Thanks to the goobers, our taxes went way up in NC; that is unless you are rich, then you got a big break. Got to get the old car inspected and a new plate, that cost has gone up as well; damn the repugs. We now pay more for less.
Can I send you some sales tax revenue?
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Yep...
Quite the revenue sharing plan isn't it?
So I was "randomly" selected for audit by the state .
Since I file 1040A and have zero deductions, the best I can figure is that our red Gov is sitting on refunds trying to protect his cash flow and earn some interest to plug his deficit. I filed beginning of Feb, and they are telling me June before they complete their audits and send me my refund.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
I was converging on 1040A
But hit a bump in the road. A few more years of schedule A & B.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Birds
We have had a really large raptor surveying the neighborhood for the last week. I can not identify what it is. The wing span is ~6 feet. It looks like a hawk of some kind with white under the wings. It is making the squirrels very squirrelly.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
My husband spotted a very large hawk last year
in our yard. Based upon his description of it being much bigger than a red tail and its coloration, and after going through my bird book and on line at All About Birds, I came to the conclusion that it was a northern goshawk.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Yikes!
The image turned out huge.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
but that's such a great shot - I like it that big :)
https://www.euronews.com/live
the image is perfect!
Love it that big!
Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons
To be clear
I did not take either of the bird pictures. I got them off the internet.
Also for NC Tim, I have found that there is a wide variation in the markings of birds with speckles on them. The pine siskins that have come to my feeders are darker and more heavily ticked than the one in the photo. Also the yellow tipping on the wings is not as pronounced as the one in the photo. The goshawk that my husband saw last year was more white in the chest than the one in the picture. Goshawks are generally more northern birds, but I read somewhere that their range is moving southward so it is quite possible that was what you saw. They are the biggest of the hawk family in the eastern US. So if it was bigger than a common red tail hawk, it definitely could have been a goshawk.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Yeah, could be
Except I think ours is not married.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Here's a link
that shows another photo of an adult goshawk. This one looks more like the hawk my husband saw last year. His chest is more white than the one in the earlier picture. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Goshawk/id
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Sounds like...
being that large, maybe an immature eagle or an owl. Sometimes when a larger bird is off in the distance it can be identified by how quickly it flaps it's wings. I can usually tell the difference between a hawk, eagle, owl and a buzzard using that method even when they are a great distance away. Eagles are huge and flap their wing slowly and elegantly and do a lot of soaring. Hawks fly much the same but beat their wing more quickly and aren't as large. Owls flap their wings quickly and fly generally closer to the ground. Buzzards use the thermals to soar, they soar most of the time and get very high in the air as do eagles and they (buzzards) flap their wings slowly. The dead give away for vultures on the wing is the separated finger like ends of their wings. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between an eagle and a buzzard when they are far off, but generally the rate of wing flap gives it away.
This one was soaring
Pretty low, like it saw something. Almost never flapped. I thought it looked like a young eagle, but they do not have the white chest and under the wings. There are several bald eagle nests around here.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article10867...
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Owl?
I live along the Illinois River with the Mississippi not too far away. I'm right smack dab in the middle of the Mississippi flyway and we get to see some magnificent fall and spring migrations. One of the most spectacular things I have witnessed is a huge flock of white pelicans flying directly over my head. White pelicans didn't use to fly this course over the Illinois as often as they do now and some speculation says the shift in their flight course is due to climate change. We have huge backwaters along the Illinois which are migratory bird magnets. One day a couple of years ago the wife and I were at a local park overlooking one of these backwater sloughs and this huge flock of white pelicans take off in mass right over our heads about 20-30 feet above us. They are huge and one thing you would never guess about them unless you witnessed it is they are absolutely dead silent flyers, you can't hear their wings flapping, it was amazing witnessing them flying right over our heads, hundreds of them, I'll never forget it.
Owls, Pelicans, Turkey Buzzards
Mine, definitely not an owl. I am thinking Turkey Buzzard. I could have sworn it had a bigger and feathered head than a Turkey Buzzard, but the rest fits. Not as exciting as a hawk, owl or eagle. The Woodpecker is back.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Turkey_Vulture/lifehistory
Pelicans - there are flocks down east. They need some space to get going. They do this really cool flight pattern. They soar in a slightly skewed line and do a synchronize wing flap where the lead starts and each successive bird starts a second or so after the previous bird, then the lead shuts down and the return to soaring cascades down the line.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
I'm thinking...
from the sounds of it, that it was the rare White Breasted Flying Chupacabra , I may be wrong though.
A flying goat?
Nay, a pig or better a NSA drone disguised as a bird.
Whoa...
a flying pig? It's been a while since I've seen one of those.
Seen daily in the legislative
building in Raleigh NC. How are you today, been a frustrating one here, computer programs--love 'em and hate them equally when they don't work.
I'm good smiley...
thanks, what's wrong with your computer?
Copy problem...
i don't have a printer--well i do but it's old and the ink cartridges are outrageously expensive; so i go to my editor's office, a round-trip of about 60 miles to print out needed documents and the new printer they have won't recognize my Mac Pro. So I've got to email my friend everything, and try again Friday.
Seems like it would
be cheaper then a 60 mile trip to buy a really inexpensive printer copier. Do you live in a rural area? Can't you get copies made at a Kinkos or some copy shop or are they obsolete? It's so frustrating to have big hunks of your software or hardware not recognize your output as you don't have the latest up-date or whatever to accommodate your defunct useless old stuff. Unaffordable? Too bad your out of luck if your out of enough money to pay for either the cost's of new filters, software cartridges, add on's or updates. Same with our old house bits and parts. What you can't afford to 1,500$ or more to replace or upgrade your heater, porch, kitchen sink, plumbing, electricity or roof? Compatible is a racket. Nothing is compatible when their is money to be made in obsolescence.
yep
a new inexpensive printer would do it, but, I'm all in for my upcoming trip; I mean all in--trying to cut corners doesn't work out as planned sometimes as I learned today. Thanks.
Hope i
didn't miss the meaning of Chupacabra; could have, it's goatlike in my understanding; humor is hard to parse in this cloud sometimes, misunderstood.
Close enough...
my friend.
Chupacabra
cheers
The fish still
swarm, even tonight as I walked to the corner market, they were there turning the lights on--just in time--for me. Big fish, yep, after more than a decade of this shit; the big fish is on the hook, now to land the mother fker!
Don't...
horse him, take your time and for FSM sake, don't get any slack in your line!
They seem to be
prolific in my neck of the woods. Or so they would have you believe.
Canada Geese
Many years ago in Tallahassee, a well to do gentleman established a non-migratory flock of Canada geese. He is long deceased, but his flock thrives. We lived about two miles north of his farm and to this day, we see them flying overhead. Canada geese fly very low, maybe 30 to 40 feet above ground level. They also flap their wings in unison. When a flock of as little as six or more passes overhead, the sound of their wings is amazing. It is so strong. I describe it as a whoosh, whoosh sound.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Yemen conflict getting out of control
Are we sure we are on the right side? Or should we be on any side?
Please note that the United States has an aircraft carrier in those waters already.
Meanwhile, we are helping the Gulf states fight the Houthis, the Houthis primary enemies (and our common enemy) is making big gains.
This is so unsettling and confusing.
I fail to understand why we're involved at all, since it appears to be nothing but hypocritical and political bullshit. We fight one group of people in one location, and then turn around and help that some group of people in another location?
WHAT?!
Geez, this is getting so confusing and unnerving that we're gonna need charts and graphs just to understand it. I simply cannot keep up with it, and I highly doubt anyone else can, either.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of civilians are dying ...
I miss Colorado.
You think that's bad? Check out this
Green on blue
:( God, that's really sad.
Predictable, but so sad. We have ruined Afghanistan, and of course the Afghans are pissed as fuck, so they just openly shoot at US soldiers now.
And who can blame them? I don't know what I'd do if I was in that same position.
I miss Colorado.
Our war OF terrorism (<---- thanks Big Al)
Our War OF Terrorism is actually contributing to the rise in terrorism. One thing I ask people who stop by our Peace vigil and try to justify our wars, is how would you feel if they invaded our country and started killing people with bombs and drones? Wouldn't you hate them like they hate us?
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I always ask the same thing.
What do they say?
But, it's only terrorism when 'innocent ' US citizens are killed.
When we invade other countries and they fight back they're call terrorist or insurgents.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
we should get the hell out of there...
our great allies, israel and saudi arabia are both supporting sunni jihadists from various organizations, including our stated
enemiesbogeymen al qaeda and isis.our great enemy, iran, seems to share more of our goals than our allies.
this will not end well.
Hiya!
I know nothing about birds, but they're pretty and I enjoy watching them. Good on you for learning, gulfgal, although someone needs to bequeath you with a pair of binoculars.
The weather here in Green Bay has been horribly windy, rainy, and cloudy the past few days. Colorado has over 300 days of blue skies per year, and I'm pretty sure Wisconsin is the exact opposite. I find it to be a major bummer. :/ It is seriously effecting my mood. Oy.
Speaking of bummers, Emmanuel was "reelected".
I see that someone upthread noticed impropriety with the ballots, which does not surprise me in the least. Rahm is all sorts of asshole and, with his known strong-arm tactics, could potentially do something like this. I'm sure he'd be willing to fill out the ballots himself for the "fucking retards", after all.
I'd like to write my first diary here in the next few days. Anybody got any ideas?
I miss Colorado.
That's It ^^^^
I moved from Pittsburgh to the Piedmont of NC. It is warmer, but the biggest difference maker is the clear blue skies. Whenever we would visit Pittsburgh (203 cloudy days/year) it would be gray and dreary from Pittsburgh, through W VA and over the Blue Ridge, then the sky would be clear and blue.
http://www.currentresults.com/Weather-Extremes/US/cloudiest-cities.php
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Carolina blue skies
Every year when we come back from Florida to NC, the clear blue skies of western NC always strike me. We come up through the upstate of South Carolina and when we cross the mountain in NC, it seems as though the color of the skies changes. I chalked it up to having no industry in the area but the color of the blue is so pure.
NCTim, my entire family was originally from Indiana near PIttsburgh. Only one cousin still lives in western Pa any more though.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Dad had his masters -> English Lit. from IUP
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
It is quite striking
Interstate 77 follows a plateau and then a very steep decline from the Blue Ridge, you can see the flat land roll out to the east and an abrupt change to the sky.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Whatever strikes
your fancy shiz. I know it will be appreciated regardless of whatever you publish.
My taxes are pretty easy.
I itemize Schedule A but just simple stuff like mortgage interest, etc. And I have one income, a fed govt
pension. So it only takes me less than a hour. I'll wait til the last minute as usual and since I usually owe a little
money it's no big deal.
What always gets me is when I look at the tax tables and see how much money is going to the fed. And then I think
of where a lot of that money is going. Then I get perturbed. Then I do it again the next year.
This spring in my
urban neighborhood we have had birds galore. A lot of the tiny little birds are covering my budding fruit trees in the front yard. The only ones I know by name are the barn swallows as we call them. I have noticed a lot of yellow tinged small birds among the sparrows this year. My favorite are the robins who are really nervy and not as afraid of humans as the other birds. Yesterday I was parking the car in front of our tree strip between the sidewalk and the street and saw a robin couple, male and female digging around for worms. I think their nest is in the trees in the parking strip. The male hopped right up curb as if he was greeting me. I rolled down the window and sweet talked twittered with him a bit. He came even closer and gave me his sideways bird glance. He then found a worm in the cracks of our brick walk showed it off and hopped away.
As a gardener the robins used to love my digging and would perch on the fence and trellis's in my veggie garden and patiently watch for worms. The last two years they haven't been accompanying me in my gardening the backyard. I'm glad they are back. I haven't started digging yet this spring and the abundance of birds and their songs are calling me out. I really don't know much about the different species of birds other then what I have observed when I come upon them in nature both urban and in the wild. I do draw and paint them so I have several bird field guides. I always thought bird watching was a dry strange activity. These days the appeal of bird watching is drawing me in. I'll take my bird books out with me this year as well as my gardening manuals.
We have an abundance of critters in this urban neighborhood. Birds, squirrels, possums, racoons and insects that all have adapted and live side by side with the human population and the household domesticated critters. I'm worried about what is happening in Portland as far as development goes. Tree lined streets, small urban gardens with veggies instead of lawns and natural habitat's and open spaces are being destroyed under the guise of urban development, growth and density.
Very troubling in a city which has neighborhoods and communities that used to foster natural habitat's and is full of organic gardens that provided sustenance to both critters and humans alike. Even more troubling is that Portland is supposedly a progressive city and is solidly Democratic. Even our small parks are being sold off to banksters, realtors and developers. Bulldozing and building a 'habitat' that has no use or room for anything but expensive apts and condo's. Concrete and ugly buildings that meet the black top street. But hey it's progress and inevitable growth. Thing is, the very reason people move here is livability and it's green liberal communities. I think they are killing the golden goose along with everything else in their greedy path.
And once again we are dealing with the fact that people have no way to stop the destruction the owners of our place be it state city rural, national or global. Mother nature will bury us as the song said but it's a crime that it has come to this. So I'm going to enjoy the bird song and sweet talk the critters and vegetation and wave my fist at the freaking destroyers that call this hell progress. Get off my non lawn!
1%ers push back on Greece
I see that Tsipras is viewed as an enemy now, and is getting the Snowden treatement, i.e. "Putin".
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-08/tsipras-finds-ally-in-...
I'm sure this is just the beginning.