The time has come, the Walrus said…

 …to speak about bringing this blog to an end. 

The world has become just too mean-spirited from where I sit, and I've become too grumpy as a result, to take much pleasure in blogging about it. 

I've been reading newspapers for 80 years. And I've been blogging about the news since before the word blog was invented. It began on a domain long abandoned named tedsnet, and here's the earliest remnant of that blog that remains on the Wayback Machine. It was posted in 1998, and sites like that were called Weblogs then: in a pre-Google age, denizens of the network (Netizens) would log their travels through the wires (it was also the dial-up era) to help other adventurers find their way. Blog is a contraction of Weblog and, according to Merriam-Webster, first appeared in 1999.

After I dropped the tedsnet domain to save a little money I took up blogging again — this blog, here on Blogger, in 2005. In the 20 years since it's amassed more than 1.66 million hits. In recent years most of them, according to Google, have come from outside the U.S.

It's been fun. But now I'm ready for something new. Like reading more books, maybe, Or watching TV.

Or taking longer naps.

-30-

Well, hey, birthright citizenship

Native American tribes warn members about ICE confrontations

Many Indigenous elders struggle to prove they were born here in the first place, Navajo Nation Councilwoman Eugenia Charles-Newton noted in a recent Facebook video.

Also they look like they might speak Spanish. 

And now this

World’s most popular TikTok star Khaby Lame leaves the US after being detained by ICE

They say they're deporting the worst of the worst crimal gangs (which is fine with me, Bunky, nobody wants them around) but instead they are nabbing guys looking for day work in the Home Depot parking lot and showing up, exactly as instructed at court hearings. And now this.

Lame arrived in the U.S. on April 30 and “overstayed the terms of his visa,” the ICE spokesperson said. 

Lame, whom I've never heard of, is supposedly a big deal on Tik Tok, which I have heard of, but only just barely. It seems to be some internet thing. He was apprehended at the Las Vegas airport — in the act of leaving? — and was then allowed to leave without being deported (huh?) which is a big deal. Because if he were deported for overstaying his visa it might prevent him from returning to the U,S, for up to ten years.

Like he might want to.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles…

Tactics changed to achieve new daily arrest quota of 3,000, up from 1,000, sources say

From Reuters this morning

So, it's a framework for a deal, maybe? 

So, apparently, they have the concept of a plan for a proposal on a framework for a deal to break the latest U.S.-China trade impasse. Which was only needed because President Trump sent that tweet claiming Beijing had broken the old deal.

…At least the Chinese side thought the talks were "rational", which was a step forward.

Things seem to be looking up. Or at least not down. Exactly.

It has to do with rare earths, something something, and export restrictions. 

Also it seems to have stopped raining where I am. For now.

It's baaack

The Bleach Community Is Ready for RFK Jr. To Make Their Dreams Come True

Chlorine dioxide is sold under a variety of names, including Miracle Mineral Solution, Chlorine Dioxide Solution, Water Purification Solution, and God’s Detox.…It has been peddled as a “cure” for everything from malaria to cancer, from HIV to autism to COVID-19. 

[Story also available on Apple News+, here.]

Meanwhile…

WASHINGTON - Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired all members sitting on a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel of vaccine experts and is reconstituting the committee, his department said on Monday.

When two is better than three

Scientists studying impact of painting wind turbine blade black to reduce bird collisions

The Oregon State researchers, working with federal, industry and nonprofit partners, and funded in part by the Oregon Legislature(Link is external), are building on recent research in Norway that found a nearly 72% decline in bird collisions with turbine blades when one blade was painted black. 

[There are typically three blades on a wind turbine.]

From Deutsche Welle:

According to an overview of median estimates of annual bird deaths by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the main culprits in the US are cats (2.4 billion), collisions with glass buildings (about 600 million) and collisions with vehicles (about 215 million). Collisions with land-based wind turbines are toward the bottom of the list with about 234,000 deaths a year, well after collisions with electrical lines, communication towers or poison.

Wind power makes up about 10% of total electricity in the U.S., 28% in Germany, and 58% in Denmark. 

Be a patriot: Go behind a bush

From research to restrooms: Summer staffing crunch hits national parks after Trump cuts

CODY, Wyoming, June 8 (Reuters) - At Yosemite National Park in California, one of the oldest and most popular U.S. natural preserves, the workforce is stretched so thin this season that nearly all staffers, even scientists, are required to take turns cleaning campground toilets, according to two people familiar with conditions there.

New York Post reports…

Feds mobilize the National Guard as riots over immigration raids wreak havoc on Los Angeles

Lefty pols like Bass are “villainiz[ing] and demoniz[ing ] ICE law enforcement,” leading to the violence that saw roughly 1,000 agitators attack law enforcement officers, deface buildings, slash tires and committing other crimes, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. 

 …"1,000 agitators" in Los Angeles protesting ICE operations to deport immigrants.

Trump deploys (somehow) National Guard troops and Pete Hegseth, Department of Defense intern, threatens to sent in the Marines, calling the protest in LA a “huge national security risk.”

According to Perplexity, "1,000 is about 0.026–0.027% of the City of Los Angeles’s population."

We're deporting birds now?

 Rare cliff swallow colony to be removed from Rowe Town Hall

Cliff swallows are migratory, reports Duck.ai. And who wouldn't believe a duck? Especially given the options.

What's more they migrate from Central America. 

They do eat mosquitoes. 

But is it great TV?

Steve Bannon calls on Trump to deport Elon Musk and ‘seize’ SpaceX: ‘Strong belief that he is an illegal alien’

First we have Stevie Miller, White House assistant assistant, playing Donnie's hatchet man, and then former White House assistant assistant Stevie Bannon enters to attack boy wonder and occasional assistant roommate Elon, who ran off with the other Stevie's wife, urging Donnie to deport Elon and take away his toys. While NATO hangs in the balance. And where is China?

And the first season is just getting started .