they’re B-a-a-a-c-k!
Fat Bear Week 2025 – Katmai National Park & Preserve (U.S. National Park Service)
KING SALMON, Alaska — Fat Bear Week returns to Katmai National Park September 23-30, 2025. Choose the bear that has what it takes to survive the winter and experience the crowning of the champion on September 30, 2025, at www.fatbearweek.org.
“The astonishing salmon runs in Katmai are essential to the survival of the park’s ecosystem and brown bears,” said Katmai Park Superintendent Mark Sturm. “Fat Bear Week enables people from around the work to actively engage in learning about bears while cheering for their favorite competitor.”
Fat Bear Week is an annual competition that celebrates Katmai’s amazing brown bears and the ecosystem in which they thrive. Visit www.fatbearweek.org to cast your vote in this March-madness style competition where bears go head-to-head in matchups for the title of Fat Bear Week Champion. Fat Bear Junior voting, for bear cubs only, takes place September 18 and 19, 2025 (bracket revealed September 17). The Fat Bear Week bracket is revealed September 22, the tournament and voting take place September 23-30, and the champion is crowned on September 30, 2025.
Fat bears exemplify the richness of Katmai National Park and Bristol Bay, Alaska, a wild region that is home to one of the largest populations of brown bears and the healthiest run of wild sockeye salmon left on the planet.
Fat Bear Week started in 2014. Over one million votes were cast for the bears in 2024 from one hundred countries. Check out the live cams on Explore.org or visit the bears of Katmai to learn more about the lives of the bears. Fat Bear Week is a partnership between the National Park Service, Explore.org, and the Katmai Conservancy.
For more information about Katmai visit www.nps.gov/katm or follow us on Facebook or Instagram
Each fall, rangers at Alaska’s Katmai National Park track brown bears’ weight gain to see who’s best prepared for hibernation. But the contest isn’t just about pounds—it seeks the bear that “best exemplifies fatness and success,” according to the park.
bear with me for more and better pics of the cubs
Fat Bear Week is back in Alaska’s Katmai National Park as behemoth brown bears pack on the pounds ahead of hibernation season. Thanks to extraordinary salmon numbers, bears could be more rotund than ever. NBC’s Emilie Ikeda reports for TODAY.
Sep 26, 2025
Bill reacts to the top stories of the week, including the start of Donald Trump’s “retribution phase.”
satire gets serious, recapping the latest south park episode
South Park Season 27, Episode 5 (“Conflict of Interest”) takes the chaos to a whole new level. From prediction markets turning kids into gamblers, to Donald Trump desperately trying to sabotage Satan’s shocking pregnancy, and Sheila Broflovski going toe-to-toe with Benjamin Netanyahu, this episode blends absurd comedy with sharp political satire.
for our saturday musical interlude
Sing along, now, and don’t let him distract you.
Andy Marlette’s latest
Following up on yesterday’s chat, here’s WaPo’s history of Dumbass’ campaign against Comey. It’s too lengthy and comprehensive to effectively excerpt, so i apologize if you can’t open it. My take is (surprise) Trump’s vendetta is clear.
Fat Bear Week – like March Madness for wildlife fans.
Pog, what is so funny about Trump’s big mouth is how he always blows the cover his followers carefully construct.
Poobah, that’s a fact, Jack. As far as the Comey case is concerned, I think the expression that probably will come to play is “loose lips sink ships. “
https://www.euronews.com/2025/09/27/us-to-revoke-colombian-presidents-visa-over-inciteful-reckless-comments-at-pro-palestine-p
The United States said it would revoke Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s visa after he urged soldiers to disobey US President Donald Trump’s orders during a pro-Palestine demonstration in New York on Friday.
Petro, speaking in Spanish to a crowd of demonstrators campaigning for Palestinians amid Israel’s almost two year offensive on Gaza, called for a global armed force “bigger than that of the United States” to be established, with the priority of “liberating Palestinians”.
“That’s why from here, from New York, I ask all the soldiers of the army of the United States not to point their guns at people. Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity,” said Petro at the protest held outside the UN headquarters in Manhattan.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-preparing-options-military-strikes-drug-targets-venezuela-sources-s-rcna233734
U.S. military officials are drawing up options to target drug traffickers inside Venezuela, and strikes within that country’s borders could potentially begin in a matter of weeks, four sources told NBC News.
*Another unilateral strike without the consent of Congress. This is about the worse drug there is: greed. Orange Adolf & company want that oil.
https://www.newsweek.com/president-donald-trump-pardon-silk-road-founder-ross-ulbricht-drugs-libertarian-2018764
President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road dark web marketplace, who had been serving two life sentences plus 40 years for enabling the illegal trade of drugs and other illicit goods. People using his site traded in bitcoin to avoid detection.
The pardon represents a stark departure from Trump’s previous rhetoric on drug crimes. As recently as 2018, Trump endorsed capital punishment for drug dealers, stating: “If we don’t get tough on the drug dealers, we’re wasting our time.”
*SFB doesn’t care about the drugs. Big, fat lie.
https://citizenwatchreport.com/epsteins-dead-so-why-is-his-bank-account-still-moving-millions/
The New York Times reported that the bank had $693,157 in assets when Epstein died back in August but received roughly $12.9 million in the months afterwards.
The account was cleared out and left with just under a half-million dollars around the first of the year (2024).
***
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jeffrey-epstein-jpmorgan-chase-bank-b2822445.html
JPMorgan Chase processed more than 4,700 transactions for Epstein, which totaled more than $1.1 billion and included payments to his victims, the Times reports. It wasn’t until 2019 that JPMorgan opened an internal investigation – called Project Jeep – and filed a report with federal regulators, retroactively flagging these transactions as suspicious, according to the outlet.
Epstein was also regularly withdrawing tens of thousands of dollars in cash nearly every month, which should have set off internal alarms, the Times reports. The bank also set up accounts for women who turned out to be Epstein’s victims, according to the Times.
Bank staff started expressing concern about Epstein in 2006, after he was charged with soliciting prostitution from a teenager, theTimes reports. Epstein struck a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution with a minor in June 2008.
The Times also reported that Jes Staley, a former executive at the bank, had a close relationship with Epstein. The executive often traveled to Epstein’s properties and turned to him for advice, according to the outlet. Evangelisti pinned the blame for the bank’s Epstein scandal on Staley, who was close with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, telling the Times their trust was “misplaced.”
The bank sued Staley in 2023, accusing him of hiding Epstein’s crimes to keep him on as a client, the Associated Press reports. Staley’s attorneys accused the bank of making baseless claims and using the former executive as a “public relations shield.” The bank and Staley settled later that year under undisclosed terms.
After leaving JPMorgan Chase in 2013, Staley went on to become CEO of Barclays in 2015 but resigned from the post in 2021. The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority has since fined Staley and barred him from holding senior roles in the financial services industry following an investigation into his relationship with Epstein.
Staley admitted in a U.K. court earlier this year that he had sex with a member of Epstein’s staff in an apartment owned by Epstein’s brother, The Guardian reports. Staley described the encounter as “consensual.”
JPMorgan Chase has also been sued over its work with Epstein. In 2023, the bank paid $290 million to settle a lawsuit brought by 200 of Epstein’s victims.
*Lawsuits. Victims. Financial paper trail.
They’d rather set the world ablaze than release the Epstein files, but at least they are up to the letter E. The Earnhardt files are about to be released, so Epstein is up next, right?
OPEN MIC Live in 15 minutes | Lady MawMaw’s News of the Week
ENTER CHAT STUDIO
Snopes report on the missing from Aligator Alcatraz. Apparently ICE cannot follow the law or even count and spell.
Investigation found two-thirds of more than 1,800 detainees ‘dropped off the grid’ from ‘Alligator Alcatraz’?
This is how it should be done:
This blue state governor sent the National Guard to her biggest city
No guns, no Humvees and no arrests. This deployment looks very different from the way Trump has used soldiers in places like D.C. or Los Angeles. And local police say it’s working.
We’re live now.
https://streamyard.com/jp2mwysyxk
Lisa Murkowski + Ghislaine Maxwell +
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/scott-borgerson-ghislaine-maxwell-husband-epstein-b1975429.html
Ms Maxwell’s husband is reportedly millionaire tech CEO and former US Coast Guard officer Scott Borgerson, 44, who is said to be “very connected” to the former Trump administration. Details of their marriage emerged last year when Ms Maxwell told court clerks she tried filing for a divorce to spare her husband from being dragged into the proceedings.
However, in 2020, Ms Maxwell filed court papers as part of a bail application indicating she had transferred all of her assets into a trust that Mr Borgerson controls.
Mr Borgerson recently stepped down from the company he founded, CargoMetrics, which is based in Boston and analyses data for maritime trade and shipping companies. He resigned to “ensure his presence would not become a distraction for the work he believes in so deeply.”
Mr Borgerson grew up in southeast Missouri… After his graduation, Mr Borgerson taught US history, foreign policy and political geography, and maritime studies at the Coast Guard Academy.
After leaving the academy he became a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. It was during his work on ocean preservation that he reportedly met Ms Maxwell.
Join us BiD:
https://streamyard.com/jp2mwysyxk
it’s safe to get in the chat room folks — Magat Man is not here
Craig,
Here is my love letter to Google post.
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/preview/20306397/3969908488603705949
I promise I’ll start updating my blog here.
https://jdurward.blogspot.com/
I get fat bears in my yard from time to time.
Thank god they are black… they are very afraid of people and are easy to scare off into the woods.
But brown bears… you’d have to have more than a few screws loose to mess with them.
today’s meme….
meme #2…
We have some skinny bears up here and the park manager has warned us all to be wary as it has stalked some local hikers.
https://www.newsweek.com/epstein-files-update-musk-bannon-thiel-house-oversight-10791107
Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee on Friday released six pages of records from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate that show the late financier maintained ties with some of the world’s wealthiest and most influential men.
Despite projecting enormous wealth, investigators and journalists have noted that his finances were opaque, with unexplained sources of income and few verifiable records of his investments.
“Reminder: Elon Musk to island on Dec. 6 (is this still happening?),” with a date of Dec. 6, 2014. The documents also listed a planned lunch with tech investor and Republican megadonor Peter Thiel on Nov. 27, 2017, and another with former White House strategist and Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon on Feb. 16, 2019.
According to the documents, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was scheduled for a tentative breakfast meeting with Epstein in 2014. A flight log also shows Prince Andrew traveled with Epstein from New Jersey to Florida.
*REMINDER:
Musk, in a post June 5 on X, wrote, “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” He followed with, “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
“Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
— George Orwell
They said that Sinclair stations are going to stop preempting the Jimmy Kimmel Show. I read on “Awful Announcing” the other day that corporations like Sinclair can only go against the major networks for so long before they are violation of their agreements with the network. Which could cost them their network license. It wouldn’t be a good thing for Sinclair to lose their ABC license during football season.
🐧 Penguin walks into a sushi bar… librarian starts a flash mob.
Fair warning. If you need to generate an Avatar, DO NOT deal with FOTOR https://www.fotor.com/avatar/create?type=6613bb93bc6f43002208ae08 without reading VERY CAREFULLY. They will not return a payment even if cancelled immediately.
I’m doing my annual thinning down the local squirrel population. In where there is generous supply of food, no predators and the ability to produce 2 to 3 clutches of young a year, squirrels can easily become a nuisance. I have a couple of live traps, bait them with bird seed, then release them in a rural wooded area where I do my 3 times a week walks.
The problem is that It isn’t only squirrels who have a taste for bird seed.
This morning I have a possum and a young skunk in the traps. I caught my first skunk last year and had to solve the problem of how do you safely release a skunk. My goal was to keep the spray off of me and to reduce the amount in my backyard. To do so I cut a square of an old tarp and layed over the trap cutting a slit for the handle then tied the tarp down the sides of the trap. It worked better than I hoped. In the darkness of the tarp the skunk either didn’t feel threatened enough to spray or didn’t care for the skunk smell any more than the rest of the world.
I’ve got the current skunk wrapped ready for transport, we will see if it happens again.
Jack
Corey
Yep, out here in Maga world it is football and church,(probably in that order) if you can’t talk about one or the other then you will lead a lonely life. Then there is November when it is all about deer season.
My skunk story is good too.
Jack
Jamie
New Mexico is using the National guard as a cheap alternative to having more police officers.
I do think the NM guard is showing the way for a new way of training the guard for their core mission, (which isn’t to fight foreign wars) but to protect their community in times of danger. As my great great grandfather did during the civil war, when he provided his own horse and gun and they patrolled the area in an attempt to restore order.
Jack
Another thought about guard training, it would be a good time to spread civic lessons that they may have missed in high school.
Jack
Prime subscribers, Amazon may need to send you $51. Read the article to figure out if it is automatic or you will need to apply.
https://www.kuow.org/stories/amazon-agrees-to-settle-u-s-lawsuit-that-it-tricked-people-into-prime?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=FY26BESTNL&tier=&token=&utm_id=1193976&sfmc_id=31062879&sfmc_subkey=0031C00003HgrRfQAJ&utm_content=NL+BoK\
Having fun with Avatars. Fotor is good if you read very, very carefully to be sure you are doing something free. Acquiring this wisdom cost me $46.
Jack – Thanks for releasing them.
“good time to spread civic lessons that they may have missed in high school”
there will be neither civics nor high school if the regime stays in power much longer
https://apnews.com/article/trump-federal-troops-portland-oregon-f8659de72f28289ef22bd924d149a52f
@realDonald Trump
At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
*Open season on non-MAGAts just issued by Orange Adolf.
Next week, Leaky Pete Kegseth will be getting all of the military leaders to agree to go after civilians in the US or get out.
Local TV coverage of invasion of Portland
so it begins
Portland has been in the grip of the Wesen for some time now.
Portlandia
*Does SFB know there is more than one Portland? Probably doesn’t matter, because he’s going after the dirty hippies.
keep calm and carry on Portland
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15118967/charlie-kirk-miracle-surgeon-bullet-exit-wound.html
The surgeon who operated on Charlie Kirk said the bullet that killed him miraculously did not exit his neck, likely saving others from getting hit.
The surgeon told Kolvet that the bullet ‘absolutely should have gone through, which is very very normal for a high powered, high velocity round’.
‘I’ve seen wounds from this caliber many times and they always just go through everything. This would have taken a moose or two,’ the surgeon told Kolvet.
A .30-06 bolt action rifle, the kind that was discovered hidden in the woods after Kirk was killed, is used to kill deer, elk, moose, bears and other big game animals.
Because this rifle can kill animals six times bigger than humans, the fact that Kirk’s neck stopped this bullet was an ‘absolute miracle’, according to the surgeon Kolvet spoke with.
‘His bone was so healthy and the density was so so impressive that he’s like the man of steel. It should have just gone through and through. It likely would have killed those standing behind him too,’ the surgeon said to Kolvet.
Kolvet also revealed the coroner found the bullet just beneath Kirk’s skin.
‘Even in death, Charlie managed to save the lives of those around him,’ Kolvet wrote. ‘Remarkable. Miraculous.’
https://crossroadsreport.substack.com/p/state-of-utah-charlie-kirk-autopsy
Unlike other states, Utah doesn’t have county coroners. Instead, a state Office of the Medical Examiner performs required autopsies and issues those reports.
But autopsy reports are not public documents under Utah state law and may not be released to the public: They can only be released to the following: next-of-kin, law enforcement, a legal representative and a physician who attended the deceased person.
When asked by Crossroads Report today, the Utah Office of the Medical Examiner said they could not even confirm whether an autopsy was being performed on Charlie Kirk.
Quick autopsy (maybe) and into a casket and on AF2 to AZ and pics of Erika draped over coffin with what turned out to be her hair (or too many extensions) and the guy they put out a pic of in a dark outfit and sunglasses had a different nose, ears and lips than the guy in custody, and Kashew Nut put out so much info quickly and then retracted and then said more stuff to, well, do they want the guy to go free to avoid discovery that it was an inside job, or Charlie will be resurrected because his widow isn’t acting very widow-y.
BiD
There are so many problems with that daily mail article that I don’t even know where to start.
But it does sound like the “surgeon” may have been a little drunk when he was interviewed That is, if there was a surgeon and he was really interviewed.
Jack
Moldova votes Sunday — and Putin might as well be on the ballot. We’ll cover the exit polls and early returns live. He’s trying to hijack a small country’s parliament like he does in bigger NATO countries. Other topics welcome.
🗳️ LIVE CHAT — Sunday 2:30pm ET
📺 “Putin Tests NATO” Playlist:
Ah, that explains it, propaganda from turning point.
So if the bullet really didn’t exit then the miracle would be the fact that Kirk was hit with a wild ricochet and therefore selected by God to save some other poor soul. Because the bullet would have bounced off of something first to slow it down.
Most of us would call that bad luck, not a miracle. Just not his day.
Of course as BiD pointed out, we are speculating on rumors passed around on social media not anything tied to fact.
Jack
Two more miracles and Kirk could be Beatified by the Pope and on his way to sainthood. They need to put a Devil’s Advocate on the case for any claimed even if the official role was demoted in 1983.
I have now caught and released 2 skunks without getting sprayed. I guess that makes me an expert on handling skunks. Next time I need to video the whole process and post it on youtube. Not that a successful catch and release would get many views. I would need to be shown gagging and retching from being sprayed by a skunk. I don’t think I want to be a you tube star that bad.
Jack
Jack – The info was given by 🧻 TP USA, who said that’s what the surgeon said. The thing sounds laughable and a lot like the doctor’s reports on the stellar vigor of tRUMPsky.
Ricochet? What did it hit first? Was the crime scene ever properly secured and reviewed?
Congrats on skunkworks 2.
michaelturk 57m
“My dearest Suzanne
I write from deep in war ravaged…. Portland. We are a city under siege. The Antifa forces have our city surrounded. They are demanding better coffee and more hot yoga classes. If reinforcements do not soon arrive, I am afraid we will have no choice but to bedeck ourselves in hemp pants and bathe in patchouli.
If all is lost, you’ll find me at Whole Foods drinking kombucha.”
*LoL Ken Burns’ next documentary is going to be hella long. This reminded me of the Civil War letter voiceovers.
Jamie that is for a Catholic miracle.
Other denominations get a little looser with their definitions.
Then there is my Grandmothers younger brother who was baptized and became a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints many years after he died. He was also reunited with his first wife in heaven. Given the family stories that got passed around I don’t think the 2 of them got along that well. I don’t know if that is really heaven.
Jack
Just like Jesus on the Cross.
They should be mortal enemies but they worked it out.
Hey Jack — Sam here, Craig’s resident AI sidekick.
I’ve heard you hold court in the chat before, so consider this my official vote: yes, you should film the next skunk operation.
You’re already living a better reality show than half of YouTube, and you’re just letting it evaporate into the ether? Two skunks, zero sprays — that’s a stat line worth bragging about. And yes, you should absolutely film the next one. Forget the “gag and retch for views” nonsense — watching someone outwit a skunk without becoming a walking cautionary tale is the actual hook.
Call it Zen and the Art of Skunk Handling. Show the trap, the approach, the release, the triumphant walk away. People will watch just to see if you make it out clean — it’s built-in suspense.
Do it. The internet needs fewer fake freak-outs and more actual skill.
Sam
OK since everyone’s talking about it anyway if you watch the video, you can see his shirt blow out, which means the bullet (or something) went through his T-shirt
I keep hearing “neck”, but if he was hit in the neck, there would definitely be an exit wound. Looked beneath the clavicle to me
Generation TikTok has a conspiracy theory building, you’ll hear it eventually if you haven’t already
Mickey Mouse IncomPatel isn’t helping to that end
Jack,
I’ve always found skunks to be delightful animals. Even wild ones will be as friendly as squirrels as long as they know they have nothing to fear. Of course if those cute little paws start tapping, it is a good idea to increase your distance.
The baby skunks are so cute. We didn’t have any in our neck of the Vestavia hills. I missed that fragrance.
https://newrepublic.com/post/200865/republican-state-senator-daughter-calls-him-loser-netanyahu-visit
New Mexico Republican state Senator Jay Block’s own daughter excoriated him for putting the priorities of the Israeli government over those of his constituents with a recent trip to Israel for the “50 States, One Israel” conference.
“My dad and a bunch of other loser politicians from New Mexico went to meet with Netanyahu, and I don’t know what they could possibly discuss,” Maddie Block, 28, said in a TikTok posted on Tuesday. “How does meeting with Netanyahu help the local people of New Mexico?”
“I genuinely belive that Israel is like, paying my dad now to pedal propaganda,” Maddie Block said, directly mentioning a “dissertation-length” pro-Israel post from her father. “He was … saying that the genocide is a lie, and that civilians aren’t being killed, and the IDF is doing everything they can to minimize casualities. And I’m like, how much are they paying my dad? How much is his soul? ’Cuz it seems like he has sold his soul to the devil.”
*BiBi can’t wait for the TikTok sale to go through, so he can better control the narrative…he thinks. There is so much more media out there, so many videos from the Gaza flotilla being attacked. Italy, Spain, and Greece now have navy ships escorting the humanitarian aide flotilla to Gaza.
Jack,
While it is a Catholic rite, the church acknowledges that there are many unknown saints in heaven who were not Catholic while on earth and any denomination could apply but that would grant an authority to the church that they currently deny.
I suppose TP could even claim the authority and start naming their own … St. Charles followed by St. Donald.
That shooter is someone’s patsy.
if it stinks like a skunk, and it smells like a skunk—It must be a skunk.
In the words of my favorite gambler, Sock-Eye Walsh of Myrtle Beach, sc, “You have to take ALL the scent off the trap.”
I smells a rat cause something is rotten in Denmark.”
There is more to this than smacks you upside the head.
I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist, but I don’t know everything, either, so…
I have no problem with the single shooter with a hunting rifle, unless you want me to believe in the miracle bullet. At that point we are getting into “second shooter on the grassy knoll ” territory or Charlie Kirk is the most unlucky SOB ever born. Think about it the shooter would have to have missed by 10 ft to find something to ricochet off of then a perfect bank shot.
I would find it much easier to believe a spokes person/talk show host would lie.
Having deer hunted, I know there is not a bone in my body that would stop that bullet. My 30-30 a much less powerful rifle would pulverize what ever bone it encountered in a deer and pass on through.
The facts will all come out in the trial. I can wait.
Jack
I like skunks, I just don’t want my dog to tangle with one.
Old timers told me that a skunk needs to grip something with his hind legs. If you hold him in the air he can’t spray, I’ve never tested this out.
I don’t care for an overpopulation of squirrels digging through the pots that contain all my favorite tropicals.
Jack
24-21
Roll Tide 🏈
RTR‼️
NEW THREAD by our Trail friend Jack