४ जुलै, २०२६

Sunrise, 5:10, with ducklings.

Video by me.

४९ टिप्पण्या:

Smilin' Jack म्हणाले...

In the old days when you walked down to the lakeshore any ducks in the area would swim up to you hoping you would toss them Fritos or something. I guess they’ve lost the ancestral memory.

tcrosse म्हणाले...

On the south shore of Lake Harriet in Minneapolis there was a flock of ducks. In the middle of them was one all-white barnyard duck.

Hassayamper म्हणाले...

Apropos of my recent comment about the rape and sexual enslavement of women being the rule rather than the exception for human reproduction for almost all the time we have been on earth:

Has anyone here ever seen how ducks mate? It's pretty wild. A large group of drakes will attack a solitary hen and take turns holding her head under water so she can't resist while the strongest males rape her, one after another after another.

There's a pretty comical clip I saw on Youtube or someplace like that. A middle-aged white woman, obviously a liberal feminist, is shrieking and crying and shaking with rage as she tries in vain to break up the gang rape of a mallard hen at the edge of a pond in her local park.

Howard म्हणाले...

Had a nice glassy swim this morning before pancake breakfast in center Mass. Didn't see any ducks, eagles or herons. Just a pair of loons.

Mason G म्हणाले...

"A middle-aged white woman, obviously a liberal feminist, is shrieking and crying and shaking with rage as she tries in vain to break up the gang rape of a mallard hen at the edge of a pond in her local park."

And afterwards, she went to vote for a politician who releases rapists back onto the street to prey on other women.

bagoh20 म्हणाले...

I did the research, via Grok.

Maybe this is why MAGA doesn't care (they know history)

Top 10 U.S. Presidents by Approximate % Personal Wealth Increase

1) Bill Clinton (1993–2001) — ~9,000–18,500% (from ~$1.3 million to $120–241.5 million)
2) Barack Obama (2009–2017) — ~5,300% (from ~$1.3 million to $70 million)
3) Richard Nixon (1969–1974) — ~650% (from ~$2 million to $15 million)
4) George H.W. Bush (1989–1993) — ~475% (from ~$4 million to $23 million)
5) Gerald Ford (1974–1977) — ~400% (from ~$1.4 million to $7 million)
6) Jimmy Carter (1977–1981) — ~335% (from ~$2.3 million to $10 million)
7) George W. Bush (2001–2009) — ~100% (from ~$20 million to $40 million)
8) Andrew Jackson (1829–1837) — ~100% (inflation-adjusted estimates)
9) Donald Trump (2017–2021 + 2025–present) — ~70–80% net overall (from ~$3.7 billion pre-first term to ~$6.5 billion now; includes first-term dip then strong rebound)
(Note: Second term alone has been ~150–180%+ from the post-first-term low.)
10) Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) — ~45% (from ~$10.6 million to $15.4 million)
(Lyndon B. Johnson is similar at ~43%.)

Since some believe getting rich is such a bad thing, where was the praise heaped on Trump during his first term when he lost 23 - 30% of his entire wealth as President, and then volunteered for the job again, all along donating his salary?

Others have lost wealth being President, but Trump is the first since Hoover, 93 years ago. Of course, nobody lost anywhere near the numbers in the past. Most were in the early years of the Republic.

Only three have donated their entire salary: Hoover, JFK, Trump.
Trump's donated salary will total $5 million. The others all totaled together was about $500K.

rehajm म्हणाले...

…had the first ever painted bunting siting at the birdbath this morning…the fireworks of backyard song birds…

bagoh20 म्हणाले...

Comparing other billionaires to Trump during his Presidencies:
Ranked by Overall % Wealth Increase (~2017 to Mid-2026)

1) Elon Musk — ~7,000%+ increase (from ~$13.9B in 2017 to Second term so far.
2) Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) — ~200–300%+ increase (from ~$50–70B in early 2017 to ~$200–222B now).
3) Jeff Bezos (Amazon) — ~150–200% increase (from ~$80–112B in 2017 to ~$224–252B now).
4) Donald Trump — ~70–80% net overall (from ~$3.7B pre-first term to ~$6.5B in 2026).
5) Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) — ~80–100% increase (from ~$70–80B in 2017 to ~$149B now).

bagoh20 म्हणाले...

Sorry, but I assumed any subject was appropriate, and it was a bit of work that I think puts perspective to an often discussed subject here. Besides I had no duckling stories this year, and that's by design.

n.n म्हणाले...

"the rape and sexual enslavement of women being the rule rather than the exception for human reproduction"

A secular, ethical standard. RAAT, too.

Paul Zrimsek म्हणाले...

Sometimes Salon teeters on the brink of self-parody. Other times they jump straight in with both feet:

The Harris administration would treat the Fourth as a civic report card: Here is what the country has done, here is who has benefited and here is what still needs fixing before the 300th. In that world, fireworks might be accompanied by announcements about climate resilience projects or summer meal expansions for children.

https://www.salon.com/2026/07/04/a-fourth-of-july-in-kamala-harris-usa/

Mason G म्हणाले...

"In that world, fireworks might be accompanied by announcements about climate resilience projects or summer meal expansions for children."

So- picking the pockets of taxpayers to pay for more fraud, then?

Jaq म्हणाले...

Which is it? Kill every Palestinian and Jesus will come back, or do they all have to be killed or the US will go communist?

Do memos go out with talking points?

n.n म्हणाले...

Murder, rape, rape-rape, and torture the Jews with collateral damage in human shields for social progress is no ethical vice. Obama's Iran-Hamas Affair with Hamasidol advocacy pays indefinite dividends.

mccullough म्हणाले...

I like reflection of the cotton candy clouds on the lake. Looks like the ducks paddling out to eat them.

Happy Independence Day everyone.

Peachy+2 म्हणाले...

Hamas likes to kill Palestinians. They kill the most.
They get their murder weapons from Iran.

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

the rape and sexual enslavement of women being the rule rather than the exception for human reproduction for almost all the time we have been on earth

Cavemen were cavemen. News at 11.

"It sucks to be the B in the BC."

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

the rape and sexual enslavement of women being the rule rather than the exception for human reproduction for almost all the time we have been on earth

That's like a line from a Harry Blackmun judicial opinion.

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

The explosive sex life of the duck

The corkscrew penis (clockwise) + the corkscrew vagina (counterclockwise) = no reproduction without consent.

Science has spoken. Or Darwin. Somebody.

(I googled "duck scientist" for further research, and the AI gave me Ludwig von Drake -- Donald's other uncle).

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

"Why are we in the BC era?"

-- asked no law professor, ever

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

David Duke is in love.

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

Forced Copulation in Waterfowl

almost all waterfowl (ducks, geese and swans comprizing the family Anatidae) have basically monogamous mating systems

Although almost all waterfowl (ducks, geese and swans comprizing the family Anatidae) have basically monogamous mating systems, males of 39 species have been observed to perform or attempt forced copulation (FC)

paired males usually defend their mates against males attempting FC

that's what I'm talking about

fuck up these duck felons

wendybar म्हणाले...

Lucky!!!
rehajm said...
…had the first ever painted bunting siting at the birdbath this morning…the fireworks of backyard song birds…

7/4/26, 2:34 PM

tcrosse म्हणाले...

On this day in 1976 I attended a big Bicentennial party thrown by some Italian-American organization at the old neighborhood of Park and Regent in Madison. That part of town was called The Bush. Not Italian myself, I was there with an Italian lady friend. There was a band playing Italian songs, but nobody was dancing until they started playing polkas. It's Wisconsin, after all.

n.n म्हणाले...

"paired males usually defend their mates against males attempting FC"

A religious drake who doesn't fake and duck.

tcrosse म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Gospace म्हणाले...

I see the left has activated the Patriot Front again. Amazing how the media somehow cannot follow them around and take pics as they gather or disperse. Especially as they disperse. It would be real easy at the dispersal points to see what they were driving away in, with all the identifying marks on the vehicles. Yet, somehow, it's never done.

Mason G म्हणाले...

"I see the left has activated the Patriot Front again."

Next up- the Front of Patriots.

Narr म्हणाले...

"Next up- the Front of Patriots."

Splitters!

gilbar म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
MadTownGuy म्हणाले...

Apple Lamps on X:

I asked Anthropic's most expensive and intelligent model, Fable 5, to write a response to Mamdani's speech as if it were George Washington...

To the Mayor of the City of New-York
Mount Vernon, 3d of July, 2026.

Sir,

Intelligence has reached me that you have lately seated yourself at my desk in the City Hall of New-York, with its face turned toward the publick eye, and that from this station, upon the eve of the 250th anniversary of our Independence, you delivered an address to the Citizens of that City. I have read it with attention. I confess I did not expect that these memorials would be employed in the service of principles so opposite to those by which I endeavoured to govern my publick life; and he who makes use of the memorials of the dead assumes an obligation to the principles for which they are remembered. It is upon that obligation, Sir, that I now address you, with a plainness the occasion demands.

Let me first render what justice requires. Your account of the retreat from Brooklyn is correct in its facts; I was the last to leave that shore, and the deliverance was as providential as you describe. Nor shall I quarrel with your praise of those who have passed through the Narrows in hope of beginning anew; I have myself written that the bosom of America is open to receive not the opulent and respectable stranger only, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions. Had you stopped there, I should have had no cause to write. You did not stop there.

For having borrowed my desk, my city, and the memory of my retreat, you proceeded to employ them in the service of the very doctrine against which I spent the labour of my publick life. Your address divides the People of America into two nations: the many, whom you flatter, and the few, whom you teach the many to abhor. You speak of soft hands and calloused hands, of men of immense fortune who have taken what the multitude have made. I have seen this rhetorick before; it was old when I was young. It is the eternal grammar of the demagogue, under every government and in every age; and I warned my Countrymen, in the last address I ever gave them, that the disorders and miseries of faction gradually incline the minds of men to seek security in the absolute power of an individual, and that cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men would ride that spirit to their own elevation upon the ruins of Publick Liberty. I ask you plainly, Sir: when you teach the labourer that his prosperous neighbour is his enemy, whose elevation do you serve?

Continued...

MadTownGuy म्हणाले...

You will answer that you speak for the poor, the sick, the tenant beneath the leaking ceiling; and the condition of that man commands my sympathy as it commands yours. But the remedy you propose has been tried, in the centuries since my time, with a thoroughness I could never have imagined. Wherever men have been persuaded that property is plunder, property has fled, and want has remained; wherever the State has been made the master of industry, it has soon made itself the master of the men who labour in it. An hereditary aristocracy I opposed, and I hold no tenderness for privilege; but the security of property is among the first objects of Government, and the man who would make one class of Citizens the spoil of another has abandoned republicanism for a science older and darker, whatever new name the age may fix upon it. Nor can I pass over the manner of the thing. To greet new Citizens, upon the very day of their adoption, with an inventory of their Country's crimes, is to give them a most unhappy first lesson in the duties of citizenship; and I know of no household, no army, and no Republic that was ever held together by such instruction.

Permit me, before I close, one observation upon the desk itself. It was at such a desk, in Annapolis, in December of 1783, that I performed the only act of my life in which I take an unmixed pride: I returned my commission to the Congress, and with it every power the war had gathered into my hands, and went home to my farm. The desk of a republican officer is a place for the laying down of power; the men of my generation understood this, and it is the whole of what we added to the history of government. I observe in your address a great fluency concerning what the People are owed, and a great silence concerning what their Magistrates must surrender. When you have sat at my desk long enough to learn its principal lesson, Sir, you will be welcome to it.

I do not question your talents, which are considerable, nor the sincerity of your attachments, which is no defence; the most dangerous errours have ever been sincerely held. I tell you, with the freedom of a man who has nothing further to seek from any publick, that he who kindles the jealousy of Citizen against Citizen, though he kindle it in the name of Liberty, is burning the timbers of the ship he claims to steer. May Providence grant you the discernment to know it, the firmness to act upon it, and the candour to acknowledge it; and may the Union, purchased by so much sacrifice, never be surrendered to those who would divide it in the name of saving it.

I have the honour to be, with due respect, Sir, Your most obedient and most humble servant,

Go: Washington

https://x.com/i/status/2073244994631000107

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

I do not believe that Joe Biden got more votes than any presidential candidate in the history of our republic.

I do not believe he got more votes than Obama.

I do not believe he got more votes than Trump.

His alleged popularity was always a charade.

Trump 2016: 63 million votes
Trump 2020: 74 million votes
Trump 2024: 77 million votes

Clinton 2016: 65 million votes
Biden 2020: 81 million votes
Harris 2024: 75 million votes

While the vote totals themselves were wacky, the most damning evidence is how hard the Democrats tried to steal the 2024 election. This included arresting the Republican nominee and prosecuting him for a phony 88 felonies, in four simultaneous criminal prosecutions, all in an election year.

john mosby म्हणाले...

That is fantastic! Or fantastick, as Geo Washington would say. CC, JSM

Eva Marie म्हणाले...

Thanks MTG

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

I think there are a lot of Democrat officials who believe that non-citizens have a right to vote in our elections. For instance, Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Commie in New York, said, in her insane interview

I really believe that a democracy is something that impacts every single person in this country, whether or not you are a citizen, and I think New York has engaged in a project of trying to expand enfranchisement to folks who are non-citizens. And I think that that is an idea that I would love to explore

Does she know it's illegal for non-citizens to vote? Does she care? This is a woman who thinks that murderers should not go to jail.

She's probably a nice woman. If I met her on the street, we'd be fine. But oh my God, she's living in a fantasy world.

No police, no borders, no military, no guns, and no punishment for killers. (Unless they are white males, I'm guessing).

Mason G म्हणाले...

"I do not believe that Joe Biden got more votes than any presidential candidate in the history of our republic."

Neither do the Democrats. Otherwise, when the topic of auditing the vote comes up, they'd say "Go ahead, knock yourself out."

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

MTG, wow.

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

I could not do what that AI did.

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

There's an emotional subtext there that is really impressive.

Mason G म्हणाले...

"I really believe that a democracy is something that impacts every single person in this country, whether or not you are a citizen..."

Well... Geez Louise, Captain Obvious. Care to point out what kind of government *doesn't* do that?

Original Mike म्हणाले...

"I really believe that a democracy is something that impacts every single person in this country, whether or not you are a citizen, and I think New York has engaged in a project of trying to expand enfranchisement to folks who are non-citizens."

What, exactly, would distinguish a citizen from a non-citizen then?

Original Mike म्हणाले...

That was splendid, MadTownGuy.

Smilin' Jack म्हणाले...

“I asked Anthropic's most expensive and intelligent model, Fable 5, to write a response to Mamdani's speech as if it were George Washington...”

Fable 5 for President!

Lem Vibe Bandit म्हणाले...

Does Anthropic have a free trial?

Dr Weevil म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Dr Weevil म्हणाले...

Jaq thinks "memos go out with talking points" to people on the right because that's exactly how he gets all of his lame, stupid, dishonest talking points. He can't even conceive that people might come to conclusions on their own by considering the evidence, and that many people might come to similar conclusions because all the evidence points that way, and their conclusions are true. No talking points, or coordination, required.

boatbuilder म्हणाले...

"I observe in your address a great fluency concerning what the People are owed, and a great silence concerning what their Magistrates must surrender. "

That's pretty damn good, for AI.

JAORE म्हणाले...

My (former) motorcycling spouse has a road name of "Baby Ducks". After all, have you ever seen anything cuter than baby ducks?

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