“Walking Club”
Out on the trail this morning
“Let us strangle the last king with the guts of the last priest” - Diderot
“Let us strangle the last billionaire with the guts of the last AI executive” - 2026 update
So Trump announces an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukranians say they know nothing about this, and the Russians respond by bombing a power plant.
He’s just purely making shit up now, probably in a desperate attempt to get the price of diesel down (though one can’t rule out complete dementia as a reason).
“Message”
Random sign on a tree in Eugene
Pixie cups
#dailyphoto #oregon #eugeneoregon
Mullin says livestreaming Hasan execution is part of ‘restoring American values’
Not part of this American’s values, certainly.
Spiderweb by headlamp. I'm always impressed by the hundreds of webs I see when hiking before dawn in the fog - we're surrounded by a usually-unseen network of silk.
Voting musings
I appreciate living in a universal vote-by-mail state (Oregon) except for one little problem: the “by mail” part. While I am strongly supportive of the efforts the state makes to get a ballot into the hands of every single voter, the fact that this depends on the US Postal Service increasingly feels like a dangerous dependency in this age of barely-restrained power grabs by the current federal administration. This is especially true given that they’ve already tried to ram through (unconstitutional) federal control of election by USPS rule-making (currently blocked by the courts for the 2026 elections).
We’ve already got a decent network of ballot dropboxes and county clerks’ offices for getting marked ballots back. The real problem is getting blank ballots to the electorate. I don’t know what the answer is here, but I hope the Oregon Secretary of State’s staff is making plans for some alternative way to distribute ballots before the 2028 Presidential elections, which I firmly expect the Republicans to try to steal by any means available.