Migration Time is for the Birds

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Author: patd

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

47 thoughts on “Migration Time is for the Birds”

  1. include in that putie’s war and erratic and errant missiles

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/16/nato-poland-missile-russia/

    BRUSSELS — The missile that landed in Poland, killing two people Tuesday, was not part of a Russian attack, the leaders of NATO and Poland said Wednesday, easing fears of an escalation with Moscow after more than 20 hours of intense worry and speculation.
    NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that an explosion in the town of Przewodow was probably caused by an errant Ukrainian air defense missile launched in response to Russian strikes. In separate remarks, Polish President Andrzej Duda also said the evidence suggested an unfortunate accident.
    Both figures stressed that Russia was ultimately to blame for having instigated a barrage of strikes that required Ukraine to defend itself. And President Volodymyr Zelensky continued to insist the stray missile was not from Ukrainian forces. “I have no doubt that it was not our missile or our missile strike,” he said. But fear of an imminent direct military conflict between Russia and NATO has clearly subsided. [continues]

  2. Russia-Ukraine war latest: two killed in attack on Zaporizhzhia as Russia launches mass strikes across Ukraine (theguardian.com)

    Rachel Hall
    Here are all the key developments which have taken place over the past few hours:
    Russia appears to be carrying out another mass strike on Ukraine this morning. Strikes on critical infrastructure in Odesa and Dnipro have been confirmed by the presidential administration and the respective regional heads.
    The top US general said Ukraine’s chances of any near-term, outright military victory are not high, cautioning that Russia still has significant combat power inside Ukraine despite suffering battlefield setbacks.
    An agreement was reached in Istanbul to prolong the Black Sea grain initiative for a further 120 days, enabling Russian and Ukrainian wheat and fertilisers to be exported through the Black Sea and to avert a global food crisis.
    The UK Ministry of Defence said the barrage of missiles that struck Ukraine on Tuesday is likely the largest number of strikes that Russia has conducted in a single day since the first week of its invasion.
    US president Joe Biden has disputed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s comment that the missiles that landed in Poland on Tuesday were not of Ukrainian origin, saying this is not what evidence suggested.
    The barrage of more than 90 missiles that rained down on Ukraine was “a deliberate tactic” and attempt by Russia’s president Vladimir Putin to freeze Kyiv into submission, the US ambassador to the UN has said.

  3. NASA: “3-2-1. boosters in ignition! we’re back to the moon and beyond!”

    The former president’s campaign announcement was roundly panned as “boring” and “low energy,” and the changes at Twitter made it hard for users to verify what was going on yesterday after a Russian missile killed two people in Poland.

  4. noting the GOPer magaTs may also be going south is jennifer rubin’s

    Opinion | The Senate’s victory on same-sex marriage should terrify the GOP – The Washington Post

    […]
    Republicans are finding out there is a penalty to be paid for cultural extremism, but they have yet to show they are capable of preserving general-election viability. Over the next two years, as MAGA forces double down in the GOP House caucus and Trump fights with primary opponents for the support of the GOP base, Democrats will be delighted to watch Republicans marginalize themselves. During that time, Democrats will look for opportunities to put measures related to abortion and other cultural issues on the ballot in 2024. If that approach worked to drive Democrats to the polls in 2022, there is no reason to think it won’t work again in 2024.
    This is what happens when a national political party becomes almost entirely dependent on a group whose views are far out of the American mainstream. One of the great revelations of the 2022 midterms was that Democrats can run on cultural issues and win outside of deep-blue districts and states. They’d be foolish not to try to re-create that success.

  5. Dear Dumbass,
    I heard what you said about turkeys not being available for Thanksgiving and was extremely concerned, so I ran out to the grocery store to check out whether or not Thanksgiving would have to be canceled because of the lack of birds. I’m happy to say you were wrong. Although I was limited to fresh or frozen, whole or breast, and organic, all natural or just the cheap ones, I’m happy to report that turkey was not only available and plentiful, it was less than two dollars a pound. I picked up a 12 pound bird for $23.50. But thank you for the warning.
    Pogo

  6. “Florida Man Makes Announcement” 

     
    That’s right up there with ………….
     

    “Headless Body Found in Topless Bar”

     

     

  7. Something that has not been brought up about SFB lite and his dictate of being in office and working 24/7 to the software teams.  Yup, that gonna go well.  If you are a professional programmer/coder/developer your brain already is doing that. Forcing people to give up their families and move into the office is one of the more idiotic things I have ever heard.  Will there be people doing it?  Of course, look at the cult members of SFB, everything he does or wants is directly opposed to their well being and happiness (except for the white supremacist stuff).  Will a few take the three month paid vacation?  Yup.  Although tech companies are laying off thousands of tech workers, there are still enough companies who want them.  My entire life was spent trying to get out of the tech world.  Except for a few years of non-tech work, it was the tech work that fed me and family.  That included depressions recessions and just generally getting fired.

  8. Fly north, fly south; fly north, fly south–So what would happen if we just stayed put this year?
    –Goose malcontent

  9. It may have been Ukrainian defense that caused the deaths in Poland, but it was still Russia’s fault.  No defense would have been necessary if Russia wasn’t bombing Ukraine in the first place.

     

  10. BB, sounds like there’s an opportunity in the tech world for a start-up platform with the founders having a large, available pool of techies trained and adept at mammoth social media and online retail platforms who’d like to work in somewhat reasonable work conditions.  I also understand that there are advertisers out there who may be casting about for a platform to hawk their wares on.

  11. According to WaPo, it’s Pelosi day in the House.

    ALL EYES ON PELOSI
    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will announce whether she will run for another term in leadership today, her spokesman Drew Hammill tweeted late Wednesday. 

    “The Speaker plans to address her future plans tomorrow to her colleagues. Stay tuned,” he wrote.

    Pelosi is expected to give a speech this morning on the House floor, which opens at 10 a.m., according to a senior leadership aide who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss leadership maneuverings.

    Apparently still uncertain on what to do, Pelosi took two versions of her floor speech home with her last night — one in which she steps back from her leadership role and one in which she runs again, according to a person familiar with her plans. 

    Pelosi, 82, has led House Democrats since 2003 and is a historic figure, having served as the first female speaker. Her decision will have major implications for the party, with younger lawmakers champing at the bit to assume top leadership positions and usher in a generational change.
    ***

    I (selfishly) want her to stay for at least this term of Congress.  She is so much better at herding her cats than McCarthy that she should be able to play with him like he’s a slow, wounded mouse.

  12. I hope the DNC doesn’t write off:take for granted the GA runoff.  We still need Rev. Warnock to help offset SynaManchin.

  13. I can’t think of anyone in the house who could be nearly as effective and wise as Nancy has been.  

  14. I know some here don’t like Norm Ornstein…
    but last night on Lawrence O’Donnel’s show he said that Pelosi was the best Congressional leader he’s seen in the last 5 decades…  and that McCarthy was the worst in that same timeframe.
     
    I hope she stays too…  but if she decides she’s had enough…  she has my utmost respect.

  15. I don’t know of anyone who isn’t an R who dismisses Nancy’s abilities and tenure in the House as leader.
     
    Renee, get snow?

  16. Pogo… 
    yeah… we got a little.  It rained on top of it and turned to slush.  It’s all gone now.

  17. If and when depr.   
    Using that there won’t be anyone to match Nancy as a given because of her experience, the object would be to pick a relatively young one who has the native intelligence along with people skills and living a balanced life; being someone as “proven” as possible who would then be innately able to fill the role. Nancy didnt start out as who she is now, of course. I think nancy likes aoc, who needs to grow a lot yet (maybe Hoyer’s job, bring her along). I could be wrong.

  18. Every now and then i come across tweets by norm ornstein, and seems like i usually “like” them.  Id have to look twice to be sure. 

  20. scary thought come jan 3: kevin will be 2nd in line for presidency.  i do hope the secret service gets their act together on better protecting the current potus and veep from the magaT crazies.

  21. Dems need Nancy for advice when playing chess with cretins who only know how to throw sh/t.  She is always five steps ahead of everyone else.
     
    She is wicked smaht.  Watch her episode of Finding Your Roots on PBS to see just how unlikely it was for her to get here.   

    Actually, this is really a smart move. She’ll be there as a Rep. and mentor.

  22. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3740181-hoyer-to-step-out-of-leadership-role-clearing-way-for-jeffries/

    Rep. Hakeem Jeffries

    “The surprise development clears the way for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), the current chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, to jump several rungs up the leadership ladder to replace Pelosi in the next Congress, when Republicans will take control of the lower chamber.”

    “In a letter to fellow Democrats, Hoyer said he’s proud of his work in leadership, but “now is the time for a new generation of leaders.” He quickly endorsed Jeffries, who currently faces no other challenger.”

  23. patD – Yeah, it would be terrible for the US if spineless Kevin McCarthy stepped into the presidency.  He can be bullied and/or bought.

  24. BiD, at least they didn’t go the route of installing the head magaT as speaker that some of them were wanting.  it would have been too tempting for them to do greater mischief and then elevate him from speaker to potus via the back door.

  25. Nancy deserves a bit of a break.  She’s done a masterful job as speaker and before that, minority leader.  Jeffries will benefit from her insight and advice. Hope he’s good at herding cats. And kudos to Steny. Class act, that.

  28. Pogo – I scanned a little article in some newspaper that sfb lite plan is to dump software programmers and have engineers do the software.  In my life I have been an electronics technician, programmer, software programmer, electronics engineer, software engineer, systems engineer, and a few more titles I don’t remember. 
     
    I worked in two places that had management changes and the decision that the electronic engineers would do software, after all they had to learn Basic for some course in college.  The software programmers returned after a year of failures.  Software is always ahead of hardware, so the hardware engineers wrote software that was primitive and non-functional. 
     
    I need to point out that many of the electronic engineers I worked with were very good, top of their profession.  But, they were not software engineers.  I think I wrote about an observation made about when we took our lunch break and would need to cross one of the busiest streets in Denver.  We left as a team, but when we approached the street in the middle were the doors of our building were, we split.  The electronics guys and woman, would walk back to the corner where the traffic control lights are, the software team would scramble across the street when traffic thinned in the middle of the block.  That shows a huge difference in thinking and risk taking.  Software is not the same as designing a circuit board. So the engineer thinking did not make the products work faster, better or with more shine, software developers though, did.  Just like the tesla cars that take off and crash, twit can do the same.

  29. The Taylor Swift crash  seems to have opened eyes to the fact that Thicket Master is a giant blood sucking monopoly . Yet another can of Big Tech Worms getting opened. 

  31. I wish some billionaire would take $44 Billion and build solar indoor vertical  farms in every food desert  across the country. And scale them  from small towns  to large urban areas.  And offer big prizes to solve the challenges this would face. 
     
     

  32. BB, it’ll be interesting to see if Musk, Amazon, et al. retain the right people to keep their platforms humming.  Funny time of year for Amazon to be dumping techies. As they used to say about the retailers, order now before the Christmas rush.
    Renee, not warm enough here for rain, but we don’t have enough snow in EB to make slush, so who cares?

  34. Pogo – I think Bezos/Amazon is doing a layoff alignment shift action.  Amazon is getting ready to open the Arlington, VA campus. So I think (if any Amazonians are around to help here with facts instead of conjecture) the West Coast offices probably had some notice of moving east with the possibility of not having a job if the offer is not accepted.  The other is what projects are being cancelled, combined, reduced or just short staffed?  I have seen this, but not involved as my stuff was key to the major role of the project.  (I no longer needed to know Space Shuttle operations and flight deck stuff)

  35. I’m still struck by that  French move to cover all “large” parking lots with solar panels.  Talk about flipping a rock in a pond. 

  37. OM – I tend to think that using solar panels as parking lot covers is a good action.  It does use wasteland for good.  However, it does not encourage the use of mass transit.  I suspect in a few years the use of the power would be directed to charging stations for battery powered vehicles.  The one use of the solar panels in desert lands would be to use the solar power panels to absorb the energy and allow the land underneath to be cooler than if the solar rays hit them. But that is a tiny reduction of solar energy on land.

  38. After seeing Norha   ……. The top 3 Dems retire their power ?  A Bloody master stroke  ! New Blood !
    While Kevin  leads his troll army into a pile of manure hunting for a flying fucking pony. 

  40. The entire focus was on Speaker Pelosi.  Steny Hoyer also declined to be in position too.  The Speaker giving up is understandable, her husband needs her and she has been in public service a very long time.  Hoyer is a different story.  I think the two not being in position next election season is good, not great. Bringing in younger is a great move.  Even though I am a few years younger than the Speaker, I made my decision to leave the sandbox so the youngsters could do their work.
    Relax, retire and buy a boat.

  41. If every stadium in America had solar panels installed on their parkings lots …………… The French did this to drive demand , to fuel growth  in the field. 
    Wait till the stadium owners, do the math .  Their parking lots are a year round gold mine.  And no virgin ground gets used. 

  43. Football  stadiums  make zero money 8 months  a year , the other 4 , it’s one day a week .  Parking lots are overhead , not assets .  This French move reframes our thinking on a national scale. 
    And in the bargain  they become mini power plants .
     Off the grid to a degree . 

  44. Nancy isn’t going anywhere.  The MAGAts seem to be tasting blood, now that she’s said she won’t try for another term as leader, but they don’t seem to realize she’ll still be in Congress.  

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