Absolutely with you on the horrible treatment of immigrants in general. It feels like we should give the Statue of Liberty back to France if it means nothing to us anymore. It is really vile, especially with so many acting like this is a Christian nation when they uphold none of the values, especially concerning how to treat those less fortunate. We became a great nation by accepting everyone and letting them have a chance to prosper, and I don’t feel that magically changed in my lifetime.

My understanding is much of the Ukraine aid is not literal money, but rather donations of obsolete military supplies, like old planes and old ammo reserves, so it’s money that has been spent decades ago, and instead of scrapping it, we send it to them to do their semi-proxy war for us. I feel this is a much more honorable fight against Russia than the Red Scare things of yesteryear, but I’m not old enough to have first hand perspective on it. I know I don’t like what I do see of the Putin regime though.

I’m middle class, white, and CIS, so no president affects me that much, but many of my friends aren’t in the same situation, plus I have empathy, so even if I can’t relate to people, I still want the maximum net benefit for them.

Most of us probably aren’t old enough to have much experience with traditional limited presidential power, so it seems like the president should have more to do with laws and the economy, etc, but they really shouldn’t be involved in that stuff. The economy belongs to the Fed Reserve, because they’re supposed to be experts. Congress is supposed to make laws. With Congress rapidly swinging between who controls it or such tight voting margins, it’s no wonder we don’t see meaningful change. It makes it hard to go full no-compromise when that compromise is mandatory and sabatogey by nature. The polarization sucks, but it’s there until we fix that.

I think Trump is a criminal that should be locked up, and while I’m not tickled pink by Biden, he’s done less bad things than anybody other president in my life I can think of, as sad as that is.

I’m terrible at pinpointing the source of my GHO hooting. I settle for being happy just knowing it’s there. I heard one over here at the beach the other morning too. It’s watching over me. 🦉

Every place I’ve visited really seems to test the birds as individuals. It’s very good to see. They really take their needs into account.

Being a nurse, you’re very familiar with putting others’ needs first, and all the rules to follow and all the education and certification you need to get and keep to keep doing your work, so you’re probably more understanding than most of all these rehabbers need to do to get their credentials and keep them. The government makes it very hard to get these permissions, so you really have to be the right kind of people to get into these jobs.

It’s a very positive experience going to these places and getting to see good going on in the world!

😱😸

It seems like almost everywhere is under this “heat dome” or whatever they call it over there. It hasn’t honestly been near as bad as I expected, but today it was very sunny and I had to put my sandals back on as the sand was so hot I thought my feet would blister.

I’m currently at the New Jersey shore with my girlfriend’s family. I’m from a bit more inland, above Philadelphia, and the ocean breeze is making it much more pleasant. It’s still about 32C here though, so still not my thing. I like the 15-20C much better!

I almost passed on this one because it felt more autumn than summer, but it was just too pretty and relaxing feeling to not share.

Plus with how hot it is here, it didn’t hurt for me to have some cooler thoughts! 😅

War with Russia and the Middle East has been going on in hot or cold form for 80 years thanks to dying imperial dreams of old men from back then. These conflicts are still going on from back then with people thinking you can just draw arbitrary borders on a map and call it a day. Ask the people that started these fires are dead to my knowledge. It’s just one of the biggest issues that’s been passed down in our lifetimes. Our equal contribution to the future will be the environment.

I don’t agree with Russia on the Crimean situation, and there are global consequences to how this conflict plays out. I don’t think any first world country isn’t interested in how this turns out, and Russia’s allies aren’t really any better to me. I think we have a responsibility to protect Ukrainian soverenty, but we also can only do so much if we don’t wish to become active combatants.

I don’t think a 5-10% difference is what we’d see between the 2 candidates on environmental issues. One is actively trying to sell off our country to fossil fuel interests and prefers concrete and steel to anything green or blue. Also the lack of any water conservation is going to be a bigger and bigger issue.

When we talk other issues where there opinions are closer, a number of 5 to 10 point positives adds up when we’re looking across the board. Especially people more immediately affected by those issues. The poor, the LGBT, migrants, environmentalists, women, and non-Christians off the top of my head will all be much better off without Trump and company.

I do agree about mass climate exodus. Not so much about the wars. Not in an active hot war way. Trump wants to befriend them, all but the Middle East anyway, and Biden and them Dems don’t come off hawkish to me.

I’m not ready to pick the nihlism of an RFK vote yet. I get the desire a little bit. Presidential choices have sucked for a long time now. But I’m not ready to make things worse yet on purpose. We still have time to stop fascism before we’re in to deep and I’ll do that as long as I can.

Just how I like my birds, fully fledged!

I like your guys’ take in “owl talk!” 😆

How any business or their associates have a say in the final regulation and enforcement of that regulation on themselves seems antithetical, and we see it fail over and over from oil companies, the police, chemical manufacturers, mining and logging industries, and so on.

They don’t leave us to write ourselves traffic tickets or fine ourselves for zoning violations, because that would be an idiotic approach. Suddenly when it comes to business and industry, it magically makes sense then? Some things I’ll never understand…

It’s hard to sneak up on an owl, especially an owl momma!

Eye new it didn’t look rite… 😜

Sharp Dressed Scops

It does sound like some kind of old analog phone sound!

Video of the call

That’s a really cool call actually!

Ebird:

Call is a quick series of “hu” notes followed by a longer “hwooow.” Separated from the very similar Northern White-faced Owl by voice and range.

Pfft you have no idea!

We were supposed to just stop by the jewelry store on the way, but we met the owner and really hit it off, so I ended up leaving with a much lighter wallet! She’s been on me since graduation about engagements and what not, so it seems that’s happening in the near future.

While we were waiting though, I did see this little guy in the case and said to myself if it was under $100 I’d get it, and I ended up getting it half off after concluding our negotiations on the other high ticket items, so he’s currently headed to the beach with us.

Are we taking the pic on “3” or in “go?”. No I didn’t mean to, I just was saying “go!”

Forget it, just use the pic as it is! 😤

Now I want an owl version of Flight Simulator!

When you see a warning, that means someone has to have done it…