“Steepness”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 60mm 14-42 kit lens @ 14mm, f/7.1, 1/50s, ISO 4000. Looking back at steep switchbacks on the Eugene to Crest Trail.

#mbjune Day 7: switch 📷

Steep and rocky hillside trail

Supreme Court hands DOGE big wins in Social Security, records cases

If we’re getting this shit on the shadow docket, I can only imagine how bad the remaining merits decisions this term will be. Unfortunately the judiciary can’t be much of a long-term restraint on illegal executive branch thuggery when 2/3 of the Supreme Court are worthless trained seals.

Cruz seeks $10 billion for NASA programs in budget reconciliation bill

It’s so cute watching Senators pretend that the Trump administration will spend funds as Congress directs. That ship has already sunk, boys.

13 House Republicans urge Senate to save green credits

“We hope you grow the spine that we couldn’t find when we voted against them.”

“Rest Time”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42mm kit lens @ 41mm, f/14, 1/160s, ISO 320. Middle Sister, South Sister, Broken Top and Ball Butte seen from a high point on Bunchgrass Ridge.

Mountains in the distance past a rocky outcropping

“Lilies”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42mm kit lens @ 42mm, f/4.5, 1/800s, ISO 250. Subalpine Mariposa Lilies (I think) at a high point on Bunchgrass Ridge along the Eugene to Crest Trail.

Two lilies in the rocks

RFK Jr. Is Opening the Alternative Medicine Floodgates

What could possibly go wrong?

(To clarify: I do think there is a place for experimental and alternative treatments to be a personal choice. But I also think it’s important to have science-based evidence and recommendations available, and that’s the part that our health fuhrer is trying to get rid of.)

From bros to foes: how the unlikely Trump-Musk relationship imploded

I’m no fan of either one of them, but anything that might slow down the Trump agenda is fine with me.

Finished: Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long, by Richard D. White, Jr. 📚. Long was basically Donald Trump 90 years earlier: elected on a populist platform by people he ultimately hurt while enriching others, ruthless pursuit of endless power, venal, corrupt, governing by retribution. If he hadn’t been shot he probably would have been President, too. This biography filled in a lot of details I wasn’t aware of, and leads to reflection about the disastrous path we’re on.

“Chow Time”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 60mm f/2.8 macro lens @ f/6.3, 1/500s, ISO 6400. Veiled polypore fungus on burnt standing tree on Bunchgrass Ridge,

#mbjune Day 6: contrast 📷

Fungus on a tree

“Reflected Sadness”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42mm kit lens @ 22mm, f/11, 1/200s, ISO 320. Unnamed lake in the Separation fire burn scar near Foley Ridge trail.

#mbjune Day 5: reflection 📷

“A Bad Place to Sprout”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 24mm, f/5, 1/320s, ISO 320. Along the Foley Ridge Trail

Small tree growing in a rock crevice

“Separation Point”

Olympus E-M10 IV with M.Zuiko 100-400mm f/5.0-6.3 lens and MC-20 teleconverter @ 300mm, f/11.5, 1/400s, ISO 800. I’ve been up there, but this time there were several feet of snow on the trail so I took this picture from nearby Proxy Point.

Top of a rocky crag

Education Department says Columbia fails to meet accreditation standard

Say it again for those slow on the uptake: giving in to a bully does not stop him from bullying you in the future.

“Ex-forest”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 42mm, f/9.0, 1/1000s, ISO 500. Snow in the Separation fire burn scar between Proxy Point and Substitute Point, along the Foley Ridge Trail.

Standing burned trees in the snow

“Recovery”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 30mm, f/6.3, 1/25s, ISO 250. A new tree struggling to life in the devastated area of the 2017 Separation Fire, along the Foley Ridge Trail.

A tiny pine tree in the ashes

CMS Statement on Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA)

The TLDR for people who haven’t been following this particular legal mess: The Trump Administration is committed to killing pregnant women, just as they’re already committed to killing children.

With steel tariffs doubling today, a North Carolina manufacturer wonders how to compete

But for every steelworker in America, there are about 80 people working for companies that use steel.

I guess nobody pointed that out to Mr. “Tariffs are beautiful.”

Trump’s Takeover Wrecks Kennedy Center as Subscriptions Plummet

Sad but hardly surprising. Seems Mr. Trump has a sort of reverse Midas touch these days.

“Famous Forty”

Olympus E-M10 IV with M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 lens @ f/13, 1/15s, ISO 1600. Some of the Oz books. I read the entire 40 canonical books to my kids, as my dad read some of them to me.

#mbjune Day 4: nostalgia 📷

A shelf of children't books