JMathews 🚛😵👻👍

Great Horned Owl from this morning #birds

Burrowing owls in Aruba 🇦🇼 i know how he feels 😉 #birds

Good thing some US colleges are closing their Religious Studies departments—definitively not “useful” at all or an area of expertise that might be relevant for understanding our present…

During his first public comments since starting a war with Iran, Donald Trump goes on a tangent about the drapes he picked for the White House and how his wife wished the "very very beautiful" ballroom would get finished soon because she can't stand the sound of piledrivers outside.

Crow: "Friday night, Trump filmed this tough video where he talked about the cost of war & how hard it's gonna be & how we're gonna lose troops, then he literally went behind the curtain & hosted a million dollar a plate dinner & dance party at Mar-a-Lago. That tells you everything you need to know"

Any thoughts on best places for #birding in Aruba 🇦🇼?

"The president has no authority to nationalize elections, to take over elections, to regulate them in any way. The Constitution is clear that it is the states and Congress who set the rules governing elections.” - @wendyweiser.bsky.social tells Wolf Blitzer on @cnn.com

More birds of Australia 🇦🇺

The Trump boys are Making Corruption Great Again Hunter Biden could never.

"This isn't the quiet nepotism of a board appointment at a regional energy company. This is converting the presidency into an asset class. And it’s a whole lot more lucrative than signing up to run for office based on your family name."

Armed ICE officer in Portland called 911 during confrontation: ‘I’m going to have to shoot this kid.’ Dispatch records and a police report obtained by OPB describe the previously unreported incident last fall.

In a 5-minute phone call to dispatchers, a federal immigration officer requests police backup last October to help with a kid tailing him on a motorized bicycle. "I need someone here now, or else I'm going to have to shoot this kid," the officer said on a recording of the call obtained by OPB.

Oppose Nomination of Casey Means for Surgeon General The Senate HELP Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the nomination of Casey Means to serve as U.S. Surgeon General on Wednesday, February 25th. While we were hoping this nomination was dead, i...

Still time to write to your Senators (and get your friends to do the same). Casey Means is a charlatan with dangerous views on contraception, raw milk, vaccines and has a whole lot of conflict of interest--she's making money off it all. Just say no to the quack. actionnetwork.org/letters/oppo...

Old enough to remember even the few sane Rs still around loosing their minds over Biden looking for a legal work-around for student loan forgiveness 🤷‍♂️🤨

Next batch of Australia 🇦🇺 #birds

Continuing #birds of Australia 🇦🇺

I’m so old I remember this. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Australia 🇦🇺 #birds continue

It remains astounding how unfaithfully the media covers Trump’s ramblings day to day. We’re a decade into this — and his rambling gets worse — and yet the coverage continues to portray his public appearances as if they’re coherent.

I'm just a small-town political scientist, but it continues to be infuriating that big shot public intellectuals at the right magazines & such, in <checks notes> 2026, are still doing the same smug bit of implying that we're not really sliding toward authoritarianism & folks aren't really concerned.

Grok @grok Howard Lutnick, US Commerce Secretary and architect of Trump's tariff plans, stepped down from Cantor Fitzgerald (now run by his sons) before taking office. Reports from Wired and Newsweek indicate Cantor bought tariff refund rights from importers in 2025 at 20-30 cents on the dollar, positioning for profits if tariffs were invalidated. Today's Supreme Court ruling struck down most tariffs, potentially enabling $175B+ in refunds. This could yield billions for Cantor, though they deny betting against policy. A Senate probe examines conflicts.

Howard Lutnik, the mastermind behind Trump’s tariff plan, bought the tariff refund rights through his bank at $0.25 on the dollar last year. Actively betting on his own policy to not work.

Lutnik and his bank now stand to make billions.

Next batch of Australian 🇦🇺 #birds

Back to #birds of Australia 🇦🇺

Not only is this what you would do if you were trying to kill a technology and a company developing it ….

it's what you would do if you were trying to kill *people*.

Democrats keep saying there is nothing they can do. In the Senate, they can begin by refusing to allow unanimous consent to advance anything, for any reason. It does not stop everything, but it would render the Senate almost unworkable. They don’t, because it will make their jobs harder.

The GOP Voter Suppression "SAVE Act"

1. Require election officials conduct voter purges DHS's "SAVE' system

2. Require that everyone registering to vote prove their citizenship in person

3. Disenfranchise many of the 69 million married women

4. Subject election official to criminal penalties

The unexpected resistance to ICE in Minnesota: The soccer moms of Signal Across the Twin Cities, a cadre of suburban sports moms have mobilized to support immigrant families.

Across the Twin Cities, a cadre of suburban sports moms have mobilized to support immigrant families.

A few recent #birds

Red-shouldered Hawk from this morning #birds

Some birbs from this morning #birds

PBS/NPR Donor Alert!

Public radio stations are calling the Kennedy Center the "trump-Kennedy Center" instead of using its lawful
name.

This includes DC's
WETA and WAMU.

Consider stopping donations until stations resume using the Kennedy Center's proper name.
@wamu.org.web.brid.gy
@weta.org

Or the old drunk at the end of the bar at closing time…