Another warm overcast humid day, woke to bird song and leopard frogs, took an early morning walk through the yard…
the white althea on the east side suddenly in bloom (above), whistling ducks flew overhead and perched in a tree
love in a mist
found this little egg on the ground, a little larger than a wren egg, smaller than a dove egg, no trees above
the green beans
the first butternut squash to not rot
------------
I’ve refrained from writing about all the current disastrous things happening here in this country because, well, because it’s just too depressing. But I read this Monday morning…as of early 2026, 2,200,000 people in this country self-deported. At least 180,000 born and bred Americans left the country in 2025 and that number is increasing. This is on top of the 675,000 the T-ru!mp regime deported last year. For the first time since the Great Depression this country lost more people than it gained. American citizens and those who came hoping for a better life have decided that the M-A!GAt vision of America is not a place they want to be, opting for countries they feel are safer, countries that actually care about their citizens; some place where they aren’t trying to take your voting rights away because of the color of your skin, some place where your rights aren’t taken away because of your sex or sexual identity, some place where getting sick won’t bankrupt you, some place where their children aren’t subjected to active shooter drills in school, some place where housing is affordable, some place where getting stopped by the authorities won’t get you shot. Because that is what’s happening here. That and more. People want to live in a country that isn’t being run by spineless ass kissers, unqualified department heads appointed because they look good on tv and have bent the knee to a sociopath in the grip of dementia who’s only in it for the money and the unbridled power, a grievance baby using the justice department to punish every person who has ever slighted him and who doesn’t give a flying fuck about anyone who isn’t wealthy. What’s it say about this country when people who fled their home country out of fear and lack of opportunity are returning voluntarily. What does it say about this country when Americans are leaving for a better life elsewhere. It says T-ru!mp has turned this place into a shit hole third world country.
Meanwhile, as T-ru!mp rage posts his ‘truths’ about all the unfair injustices heaped upon him by the meanies of the world, those meanies were quietly meeting to rearrange the world order leaving the US in the dust. New alliances are being built, new trade agreements are being signed, new international monetary systems are being arranged, new critical mineral deals are being made, all excluding or bypassing the United States. Canada, the European Union, Australia, and Japan have had enough. They are done with the wannabe mob boss cosplaying as president who kicks them in the teeth and then demands tribute so he won’t do it again. They are done with the unreliable has been leader of the free world who complains they aren’t doing enough while he walks through the market kicking everyone’s carts over, they have no more patience for his childish tantrums, lies, untrustworthiness, and the incompetence he has surrounded himself with, they have had enough of the threats of ‘being dealt with’ if he doesn’t get his way. Even China sees the writing on the wall and is steadily selling off its US debt holdings.
How does that Chinese curse go…may you live in interesting times. The T-ru!mp regime will come to an end and hopefully sooner rather than later, hopefully we can wrest control of Congress from the hands of the enabling republicans by an overwhelming majority in November though I have no doubt they will not accept defeat and the next two months will be intense. The damage domestically and abroad caused by T-ru!mp and his sycophants will take decades to repair but the US will not regain its global authority, the other nations are not likely to trust the US again and with good reason. T-ru!mp has destroyed our credibility.
I came and found this post on my own. Blogspot is seriously screwing up notifications. That duck looks like it’s carved!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you did. I went almost a whole day without any responses so I think maybe my post was repressed. Especially since I got almost 1,000 page views because I failed to misspell Thump and MOGA. I edited it after about 300 but it was too late.
DeleteWe not only live in interesting times, there is widespread crisis looming from climate change. I see politics as a possible attempt to take attention away from this crisis because nobody except perhaps King Charles III seems to want to address it.
ReplyDeleteThump has actively killed any and all efforts at mitigating it. He doesn't care, he'll be dead.
DeleteYour duck looks fake, I was sure of it! The egg must have been born from the sky that is falling. Donald is clearly a symptom of a broken nation which it has been for quite a long time- hanging by a thread until orange came along and snipped it.
ReplyDeleteThey do look fake, don't they. Yes the US has been broken from the get go, founded on slavery and genocide.
Deletethe closest historical parallel is straight out of I, Claudius. Orange Caligula, then old Emperor "Sleepy Joe" Claudius, Orange Nero. I can't say when we became an empire but the Golden Spike was Pearl Harbor. We were definitely a war empire from then on. (sigh), in the meantime, book recommendation: Sea of Grass by Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty. The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie.
ReplyDeleteWe've been a war nation from the get go. We have been in one war or another and more than one at a time for nearly every year of the existence of the US. Stretched thin and convinced of it's invincibility produced our own Nero to bring it all down.
DeleteThe duck does look fake. It's very pretty. Ask yourself, why does this country need 6,000 giant data centers? Nobody else has that many. UK and China who have mass surveillance have between 500 and 600. I guess they're for all of the surveillance data they're planning on collecting.
ReplyDeleteAnd they do have a whistling call. 1984 turned out to be a playbook.
DeleteWhat an impressive beauty of a duck! Looks like you are going to have excellent veg harvest this year.
ReplyDeleteThere was a time when I thought the world as we knew it was going to end - 1986, Chernobyl, Nuclear Winter, Famine in Ethiopia were just three of many catastrophic events - and I could not imagine how my then two year old child would ever make it. Well, she did, she's a mother and she works in climate change commissions, she is the one with hopes these days, shrugging off populists and tech bros and other mad men, minimally important, she says, ending soon, she tells me, face the bigger picture, she warns me.
I hope she's right. But I think it's too late. If science fiction has told us anything, humans are short sighted. We'll all be living underground because we've made the surface unlivable.
DeleteI absolutely love these ducks. I'd seen them for several years before I learned they're tree ducks. They're funny, too. The adolescent ones particularly can be fun to watch as they squabble and compete, but the adults are better behaved, and take wonderful care of their babies.
ReplyDeleteI only see them occasionally in my yard but they hang out at my neighbor's yard at the other end of the street because they spread seed on their driveway.
DeleteThe Black-bellied Whistling Duck is a beautiful bird. One somehow or other made its way here a few years ago and birders from near and far flocked to see it. Yes, people are leaving your country and who can wonder why? The trickle of academics moving here is becoming a raging torrent. Many are the best and the brightest.
ReplyDeleteYep. Brain drain. Just one more of the many things it will take decades to rectify.
DeleteI hope more people like Sabine's daughter will save our world. I hope young people will create a peaceful, healthy future for everyone. This administration has certainly demonstrated the wrong way of governing and I hope we see the end of them soon.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, may be too late. Even if democrats win big in November they will not accept it.
DeleteFrom Sabine's daughter's mouth to God's ears! I agree that we will probably (hopefully) get through this, but our standing in the world is forever damaged. And also, the earth itself is probably forever damaged.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both those statements. I don't think the US will ever regain it's prominence. New systems of friendship, allies, trade are already being implemented. New world order.
DeleteToo bad about the little egg. The duck is beautiful. I've never seen a whistling duck. I just can't think about Trump. I have found that I read much less news now that I'm not sitting at a desk in front of a computer all day, and that can't be a bad thing!
ReplyDeleteMe too. Just today I deleted about 30 emails without reading them. I just can't.
DeleteCodex Migratory stunning birds show up at your place. Show off.
ReplyDeleteI'm watching grey squirrels.
Didn't see the goldfinches this year. Usually they are mobbing the birdfeeder for a couple of weeks. I did see a Mississippi kite the other day though.
DeleteThat whistling duck is absolutely beautiful. Your analysis of what is happening in the world is spot on. The only surprise is that it took as long as it did. Other countries are tired of dealing with the petulant child and are moving on, forming their own alliances, entering into their own agreements, and the US is increasingly isolated as a result. Our dear leader is too stupid to understand what is happening, but that's not surprising considering the fact that he is a malignant narcissist who lives in a bubble.
ReplyDelete