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Surprised at the WSJ. Expected them to spin this for Trump, not make him look weak.

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Here is a delightful video on wingless crane flies!

Can someone in Hawaii please gently check if these insects are still around?

youtube.com/watch?v=i3RYBPEkje…

This entry was edited (Tuesday, February 4, 2025, 10:12 AM)

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El País de España con un editorial de que Musk está asaltando el Estado de derecho, y lo ha violado, en los EE.UU.

elpais.com/opinion/2025-02-04/…

Spain’s @el_pais with an editorial calling out that Musk is attacking the rule of law, and he’s breached it, in the U.S.
#musk #ruleoflaw #democracy #media

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Canadians fought and died alongside Americans, sheltered them during the Iran hostage crisis, and welcomed stranded travelers on 9/11—only to be told Americans "aren't treated well by Canada".
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'Sponsored by Turbo Tax': Critics jab Elon Musk over IRS cuts
rawstory.com/elon-musk-irs/

#BoycottTurboTax #StopTrumpNow #TrumpDidThis #RepublicansDidThis #RepublicansOwnThis #GOPKakistocracy #GOPWeirdos #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol

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Elon Musk announced that he has dissolved the Internal Revenue Service’s free file program, effectively firing the staff who worked on the popular program, the Daily Beast reports.

The billionaire revealed that he “deleted” the group of individuals who oversaw the system that allows Americans to easily file their taxes for free on the IRS website.

#DeportElonMusk #FreeFile #StopTrumpNow #TrumpDidThis #RepublicansDidThis #RepublicansOwnThis #GOPKakistocracy #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol

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Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) announced Monday that she will support Tulsi Gabbard to become director of national intelligence, giving her a key boost in her confirmation push, The Hill reports.

#SusanCollins #Maine #GOPTraitor #USPol #TulsiGabbard

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Lawrence Summers: "Stop or I'll shoot myself in the foot! It's a lose-lose."

Ex-US treasury secretary warns Trump’s 'absurd' tariffs are 'driving people into China's arms'
alternet.org/Frontpage-videos/…

#StopTrumpNow #TrumpDidThis #Tariffs #China #RepublicansDidThis #RepublicansOwnThis #GOPKakistocracy #GOPWeirdos #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol

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LOL. Big, tough Trump.

Trudeau Says Trump Tariffs Delayed 30 Days After Call
bloomberg.com/news/articles/20…

#StopTrumpNow #TrumpDidThis #RepublicansDidThis #RepublicansOwnThis #GOPKakistocracy #GOPWeirdos #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol

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in reply to Democracy Matters

Trump backs down again. Good for all of us, but how any sentient being can think he's "tough" is beyond my ken. Irrational, yes. A bully, yes. But "tough"? No.
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One of Musk's minions, Gavin Kriger, has an apparent social media history filled with neo-Nazi posts. So they don't want any reporting on DOGE!

Elon Musk’s Pet U.S. Attorney Threatens Anyone Reporting on DOGE
prospect.org/politics/2025-02-…

#StopTrumpNow #DOGE #TrumpDidThis #RepublicansDidThis #RepublicansOwnThis #GOPKakistocracy #GOPWeirdos #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol

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I’m going grocery shopping today.

And believe me, I’m looking at all the labels. If I see Made in the USA, I ain’t buying.

Mexico, you’re cool. So is everyone else. But USA, you don’t get a cent.

globalnews.ca/news/10995583/bu…

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@futurebird

"...conspicuous spots are more likely to evolve in forest-dwelling species and in areas with more canopy cover, whereas species inhabiting open areas and deserts tend to lose them... taxa with conspicuous spots transition between open and forested habitats less often... We suggest that spots in velvet ants require complex visual environments to be effective... In simpler environments, carrying conspicuous spots could be costly..."

#ants
#hymenoptera

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10…

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Elon Musk, who is building a payments app as part of X, has been given access to the Treasury Department payments systems. This is beyond a conflict of interest and a threat to the US payments infrastructure.

Not to mention a privacy matter for anyone that gets any kind of payments from the Federal government including tax refunds.

americanbanker.com/payments/ne…

#FinTech #FinServ #Banking #Payments #PayTech

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Mr. Art of the Deal strikes again!

"It seems like the trick to negotiating with Trump is to realize he doesn’t have any idea what the current facts are," said Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell. "'Oh you want 10,000 troops?' says world leader who already deployed 15K. 'Great 10k it is.'"

#Mexico #DonaldChump #Tariffs #USPol

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Does anyone know if #Mastodon (or any other popular fediverse software) supports the part of the #ActivityPub spec (§ 6.2.1) that (if I’m reading it correctly) allows for pushing an object without a wrapping “Create” activity?

It’s described as a client-to-server behavior for actor outboxes, but I’m wondering if any server-to-server applications support it for inbox delivery.

w3.org/TR/activitypub/#object-…

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Canadians cancel trips, ban American booze after Trump's tariffs
reuters.com/world/americas/can…

#StopTrumpNow #TrumpDidThis #Canada #Tariffs #RepublicansDidThis #RepublicansOwnThis #GOPKakistocracy #GOPWeirdos #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol

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International newspapers are covering what’s happening at alarm levels warranted. I used Kiosco.net to grab covers from papers from Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, the UK, Mexico, Canada, Switzerland, Panama and Venezuela here. I don’t speak French or German, so relying on translations there, but the gist is clear.
#tradewar #trade #media #trump

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The U.S. government may not believe in climate change, but research estimates climate change will cause a $1.47 trillion decline in U.S. home values by 2055, according to a new study from climate-research company First Street. Here in the Wall Street Journal wsj.com/real-estate/climate-ch…
#climate #climateaction #Insurance

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The Russians are here! The Russians are here!

USAID staffers told to stay out of Washington headquarters after Musk said Trump agreed to close it
apnews.com/article/trump-musk-…

#StopTrumpNow #USAID #TrumpDidThis #RepublicansDidThis #RepublicansOwnThis #GOPKakistocracy #GOPWeirdos #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol

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in reply to Democracy Matters

"Some of you are acting like this is just Helen the new office manager changing the birthday cake schedule around and soon it will all blow over and you can all be friends at the pizza party at the end of the month. You cannot.

The Republicans have been radicalized. There’s a whole crop of them who actually believe Fox News. And a whole bunch of those who crave a king, either because they are insecure dipwads who need a strong Daddy or because they are calculating that they’ll at least get to lap up some of the ketchup that drips off the napkin tucked into Trump’s collar. They are not here to make the country work. They do not believe any rules should apply to them. Rules only apply to YOU, and those rules will keep changing."

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"January 6 was nothing compared to this. But make no mistake, this too is the gov't being torn apart by a mob of thugs."

"And for those of you in the Congress (or anywhere else in the country for that matter), make no mistake what is going on here is precisely the same as what happened on January 6 in that it is an effort to negate the role of both the Congress and the people in our system of government."
bsky.app/profile/djrothkopf.bs…

#Musk #Trump #Coup #Authoritarian #Jan6 #Politics #US #USA

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In #JapaneseFolklore kaze no kami are invisible, evil spirits believed to cause sickness and suffering by travelling on, and controlling, the wind. Particularly active during spring weather, they move from place to place and home to home. When they encounter...#MythologyMonday #yokai1/4

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I was busy in my garden when my neighbour looked over the fence and asked what I was doing ...

I said 'I'm putting all my plants 🌿 in alphabetical order'

She replied 'Really? I don't know how you find the time'

Oh that's easy I said, 'It's right next to the sage ... '

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Trump just triggered “the dumbest trade war in history”, says The Wall Street Journal. His tariffs will see those “notorious American adversaries”, Mexico and Canada, hit with a 25% tax on goods exported to the US, while China, “a real adversary”, will endure just 10%. The official justification is they aren’t doing enough to stop illegal drugs across the border. The real explanation appears to be Trump’s apparent belief the US can be a “perfectly closed economy making everything at home”.

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in reply to Col

Does Trump really have the authority to put tariffs in place? The Congressional Research Service in December explained that, technically, only Congress has the authority to impose tariffs. But the president does have the authority to adjust tariffs in some cases, according to the CRS. Those cases include situations where an import threatens the national security of the United States, or when tariffs are deemed necessary in order to protect a domestic industry.
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#EightYearsAgoToday #AreYouBetterOff

February 3, 2017 – Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai rolled back an agreement with nine internet service providers that had encouraged ISPs to provide affordable internet access to low-income communities. This reversed the decision of Pai’s Obama-era predecessor, Tom Wheeler, and will remove a $9.25 per month credit for low-income households to purchase internet service.

#StopTrumpNow #GOPKakistocracy #RepublicansDidThis #WeirdGOP #USPol

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"The whole country is behind the retaliation the prime minister has announced, so now we are going to tax American exporters who are trying to sell us stuff. That means Americans are going to lose jobs, so this is really, it is self-mutilation. America is hurting itself. We think that it is utterly crazy, and we're also really, really angry at you.”

— Chrystia Freeland, former Canadian deputy prime minister

#RepublicansDidThis #RepublicansOwnThis #GOPKakistocracy #GOPWeirdos #USPol

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Cicindela sylvicola Dejean, 1822

Specimen was captured in July 1996 in the Ardennes region, France.

I've used the focus-stack technique, DIY hardware only (a Raspberry HQ cam controlled by a Raspberry Pi 3, an old Pentax-m 50mm f1.7 lens, some extension tubes, and a $30 linear rail from Aliexpress)

Published under #CC0 here flickr.com/photos/101430615@N0…

#Coleoptera #Caraboidea #Carabidae #Cicindelinae #Cicindelini #Cicindela #FocusStack #Macro #Pentax #nature #photography #insect #wildlife

This entry was edited (Sunday, February 2, 2025, 8:02 PM)

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US Pol: What's worth our time?

Sensitive content

Unknown parent

@Moss

It's a thread about a specific protest which one can still go to: actionnetwork.org/events/prote…

which the thread author (one of the two center-leftists I can still read) approves of and wants people to go to. It's organized by DSA. Then:

"If you don't like them [DSA] you should go help them to understand what mistakes they might be making. My understanding is they need help and energy and level heads. If you have one full of opinions go lend your voice in that manner."

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Shakira standing up for immigrants, dedicates her Grammy to them. ✊🏼❤️
bit.ly/4hhoznB
#grammys #shakira #immigrants

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My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...

Here are a few crops from a mural I painted for Wollaton Hall Museum (Nottingham, UK), 2020. This is one of the most detailed paintings I've ever created.

#Art #Painting #PaleoArt #PalaeoArt #SciArt #SciComm #DigitalArt #Illustration #Dinosaurs #Birds #Reptiles #Palaeontology #Paleontology #Owl #Gorrilla

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Over on X a bunch of dimwits are posting every nonsense red-yarn-on-chalkboard conspiracy theory bullshit about what USAID funds (terrorists! censorship! woke prosecutors! campus protests!) and Elon is just retweeting each one as if they're true... leaving out the fact that they're all bullshit.

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This entry was edited (Saturday, December 24, 2022, 6:21 PM)

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Winter Driving Conditions
Jack Bishop
2016

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I need to start a hash tag for "ant of the day" but I'm scared to commit to that much work until I know I can stick to it.

I will keep posing ants of the day for a bit and then go back and tag them all when I feel like it's going to keep going for a good long while.

That's a task I'm looking forward too. It would be fun to look at all of the posts in one place.

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in reply to myrmepropagandist

do you take requests? That's probably even more work. How about Oecophylla kraussei , a fossil weaver ant from the early Eocene of Okanagon highlands, British Colombia, Canada?

cambridge.org/core/journals/ca…

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