American Error

THE AMERICAN ERA IS OVER.

THE AMERICAN ERROR IS TRUMP.

Purina Dog Chow In Antarctica

Purina Dog Chow was invented in 1926, and was originally cubed and sold as “Checkers”.

It was called “chow” after the “chow lines” that fueled American soldiers in World War I. 

The word “chow” originated in mid-19th century California, and is phonetic for the Cantonese term “chaau,” to fry or cook. Chinese laborers working on the transcontinental railroad popularized the term, and it eventually became US military slang for mess hall food.

The Chow Chow dog is named after the same word origin. The breed was first exhibited at London’s Crystal Palace Dog Show in 1878, where it was billed as a “Chinese Edible Dog”. That same year, a Chinese Edible Dog was also exhibited at the Westminster Dog Show in New York City.

In 1933-1935, Admiral Richard Byrd fed all 150 of his Antarctic Expedition husky-crosses Purina Dog Chow, at the recommendation of nutritionists at Massachusetts General Hospital whose dietetics researchers had been studying high-energy nutrition, vitamins, and protein requirements since 1910. 

Admiral Byrd reportedly said Purina Dog Chow was the finest dog food he had ever used.

Do you know who the lady is in that last picture? 

That’s four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher, who powered her teams to victory on Purina Pro Plan's HiPro dog food along with high-fat and high-protein meat broths. Purina Pro Plan's HiPro dog food was developed by sled dog expert Dr. Arleigh Reynolds — a senior Purina research scientist and musher and professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Alaska.

Growing Out Ferns and Black-eyed Susans

My late Fall planting project.  

Severed Root Ball From Trunk

A History of Pennsylvania Hawk Bounties

The Pennsylvania "Scalp Act" (1885) established a 50-cent bounty on all birds of prey.

The 1913 Weeks-McLean Law was a national law that prohibited people from hunting migratory birds during the spring when most birds nest and raise their young. The Weeks-McLean law also prohibited the import of wild bird feathers for use in women's fashion.

The 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, or MBTA, is passed. This is a national U.S. law protecting a wide variety of listed native migratory birds from human activities. The MBTA has periodically expanded and reduced both the number of birds protected under the law and the scope of the law's protections. Specific hunted migratory birds, such as ducks, geese, and some cranes, are not protected under the MBTA, and initially neither were hawks, falcons, or eagles (many of which do not migrate beyond our borders).

In 1929, a five-dollar bounty was placed on Goshawks by Pennsylvania Game & Fish in an effort to protect game species that were sometimes preyed upon by Goshawks. $5 in 1929 is comparable to $98 today in inflation-adjusted dollars.

In 1933, Pennsylvania’s legislature officially repealed some hawk and owl bounties, but the bounty on Goshawks lasted until 1951. Full statewide protection for all Pennsylvania hawks did not come until 1969, and Great Horned Owls remained legally unprotected until 1972.

In 1940, Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act. This act was expanded to include the golden eagle in 1962.

In 1972 all hawks, falcons, eagles, owls, and corvids across the US were finally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Dividing Crowded Flower Beds

Dividing Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) this morning. Some of these will get transplanted into the small orchard. Some of the smaller ones will be put into pots to get hand-watered as they grow out.

I will divide these Stella D’Oro Day Lilies in the Fall, and move the overage down near the small orchard.

Hen House Prowlers :: Gospels In Review

The Family That Scams Together

Both of their fathers are convicted felons.

If You Think the Fox Sporran Was a Problem

From >> https://www.vice.com/en/article/this-australian-boutique-is-selling-lingerie-with-real-taxidermied-rats-sewn-on-the-crotch/?

I Hope Europe Never Trusts the US Again

Does that title surprise you?

It shouldn’t.

Let me put that another way…. I hope Europe grows up.

** It’s time Europe fed itself.

** It’s time Europe defended itself.

** It’s time Europe switched to energy sources found within its own borders.

The US is no longer trust-worthy?

I’m OK with that, if it makes Europe grow up and pull its own weight.

For all of the horror of Donald Trump (and it’s a LOT), his idiocy is making the world grow up.

The world is moving to renewable energy faster than the world shed the horse for the car.

Ukraine has shown that the nature of war has changed, and that there is no reason for the US to subsidize the world through expensive overseas military bases and massive weapons systems.

Of course, there is still a certain amount of “Dunning-Kruger Economics” still going on — a studied unreality, if you will.  

And, to be clear, there’s *plenty* of that in the US too.

That said, some countries seem particularly weak when it comes to standing themselves up, even as they remain as prickly as a hothouse rose when asked to do so.

Take the UK.

As Newsweek recently noted,  

“When Brits are asked how wealthy the United Kingdom is compared with the United States, most believe the country still ranks near the top. In reality, the U.K. is poorer than every single U.S. state — something that comes as a shock to many when they learn the truth.”

Right. There’s a lot of reform needed in the UK, from farm to self-defense to the electrical grid. 

A lot of economic reform is long past due.  

That’s true in the US too. 

But the Brits are absolutely rolling in cash compared to Russia, where per capita GDP is less than one third that of the UK.

And yet Europe still thinks it needs America to defend itself against Russia?

Nope.

The good news — for all — is that sentiment is quickly falling away.

While some in Europe are still seething that they have had to stand up and pay for their own military defense it should, in fact, be proud that it is finally doing so.  

Yes, emancipation is painful, as every young person cut off from Mommy and Daddy’s credit card has learned, but it’s a necessary part of growing up.

European countries want to be at the Big Table with the grown ups? 

I assure you, they are most welcome.

But be sure to bring your wallet to the restaurant, as individual checks will be presented.

Welcome to adulthood. 

How ironic that it took the American diaper-wearing Orange Shit-Gibbon man-child to get us here.

Now, about Israel….. 

Why is the US paying for their national health care, when we don’t have our own?

Talk about a country that needs to grow up! 

 ** It’s time Israel fed itself.

** It’s time Israel defended itself.

** It’s time Israel switched to energy sources found within its own borders.

And Yes, it’s time Israel too learned to never trust the US again.

I can hardly  wait.

Basic Plotting

Cartoon by Ellis Rosen >> https://ellisrosen.com/

We Are Stardust

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”  — Carl Sagan, Cosmos

The Trump Death Clock

Trump’s sand has run through the hour glass, and the beginning of the end is around the corner.

Yes, his health is shot, with visible lesions and carbuncles. 

His vanity hair medication can no longer be taken, because it interferes with his dementia medication. 

He’s taken numerous basic cognitive tests of the kind given to Alzheimer patients, which he thinks are IQ tests, which means he’s failing on both axis.

He has progressive heart failure, and has likely suffered at least one small stroke. 

He falls asleep in televised cabinet meetings, and his mind is so shot he cannot answer a simple question, tell a cogent story, or parse and string four related sentences together.  

But none of that is the end I am talking about.

Trump’s end is the end of the primary season.

Once the GOP primaries are over, Trump has no more cards to use. 

This is his last hand at his last game. 

Once the primaries are over, Trump can no longer credibly threaten or reward opponents or sycophants in his own party.

And his own party sees the end — both Trump’s, and their own if they continue to tie themselves to the mast of this sinking ship.

The writing on the wall in not hard to see; independents have run screaming from Trump, and even rural farmers are abandoning him as overseas markets disappear and fertilizer prices spike. 

The public cannot unsee the war, the gas prices, the jaw-dropping grocery store inflation, and levels of self-dealing and blatant economic and political corruption unseen since the days of Nero.

The GOP has become the pedophile protection party, the party willing to burn the Constitution and steal scores of billions from the wallets of taxpayers.

Epstein’s pedophilia and Trump’s protection of it , the crazy vanity projects, and the naked billion-dollar sell-outs to the Saudis, Israelis, and Russians are not hard to understand. 

Even low-information voters get that something is terribly, terribly wrong.

Even those who are proudly and defiantly racist, homophobic, and misogynist are embarrassed about the child raping, the 34 felony convictions, the tax frauds, and the billion dollar treasury thefts and foreign and corporate bribes.

Trump has pardoned serial murderers and the biggest drug dealers in the world.

It’s all too much, and it feels like nothing ever seen in anyone’s lifetime.

The shit show can no longer be ignored, denied, or papered over.

And the end of the primaries is right around the corner.

That’s means the end for Trump.

And Trump knows it.  He cannot afford to lose five votes in the House or Senate.

His end game now is simply to rob and run.  He now has no other agenda.

Never Fascist

Can You Hear Me Now?

Dunning-Kruger Economics

“When Brits are asked how wealthy the United Kingdom is compared with the United States, most believe the country still ranks near the top. In reality, the U.K. is poorer than every single U.S. state—something that comes as a shock to many when they learn the truth.” >> Source

Bald Eagle Chicks Still In the Nest

Giant Canada Geese

Baby Canada Geese are out in force.

When I was born, the giant Canada goose was declared extinct, but a small population in Rochester, Minnesota was rediscovered by biologists in 1962, and can now be found all over the US, Europe, and even New Zealand.

Adult Peregrine Falcon Babysitting

Fledging Peregrine Falcons This Morning

Out on the Bicycle Today

Out on the bicycle today for the first time in two months (one month post surgery).  It felt great, and the weather was beyond perfect.

Canada Geese, all with young, seemed to be everywhere. The water in the canal was up, which no doubt attracted the geese, even as it discouraged the wading birds like Great Blue Herons.

Digging and kayaking are now back on the menu.

Most Dogs Love Lure Coursing

As organized gambling at greyhound tracks has gone the way of the Dodo and Sonny Bono, backyard and open-field lure coursing has grown in popularity.

How does lure coursing work?

Quiet well, actually.

The first lure-coursing machines were made from bicycle wheels with string wound on the rims, and a small rabbit pelt pulled through the grass.

The Big Leap Forward came when the hand crank was replaced with the starter engine off a truck.

The second big leap forward came when pulleys were attached to stakes set in the field, so that the string could be operated as a continuous zig-zag loop over a large area.

Here was mechanical "open-field coursing" in which nothing died, and a disabling rip from barbed wire was never going to be a worry. 

Perfect!

I remember seeing one of the first modern lure-coursing rigs being operated in the very early 1980s, and trying it out with two of my terriers back then. It turns out that a white fluttering plastic bag is about all that is needed to get a dog -- almost any dog -- running like the wind.

The code explodes, and that’s as true for terriers and Basenjis as it is for Whippets and Greyhounds, 

Today, lure coursing rigs are not only used by a wide arrays of dog enthusiasts, but also by zoos giving exercise to Cheetahs and Wild Dogs (as well as a bit of entertainment for visitors). Modified lure coursing rigs have also been used to exercise large hawks and eagles in wildlife parks and sanctuaries.

AKC Finances Are Sliding Into the Toilet

From the July 2025 AKC Board Minutes:

Ted Phillips, Chief Financial Officer, presented interim unaudited financial statements as of May 31, 2025.

▪️On year-to-date revenues of $38.7 million the organization sustained a net operating loss of $1.7 million as compared to the same period of the prior year that resulted in net operating Income of $4 million.

▪️Operating revenues are lower than budget by $5.2 million or 12% and lower than prior year by $2.5 million or 6%. 

▪️Registration revenues from litters and dogs total $14 million trailing budget by 18% and prior year by 7%. 

▪️Recording & event service fees, title recognition fees and event applications fees total $7.2 million are lower than budget by 5% and similar to prior year. 

▪️Advertising, sponsorship and royalties total $7.2 million are lower than budget by 14% and prior year by 13%.

▪️Operating expenses total $40.4 million and are lower than budget by $2.4 million or 6%, but higher than prior year by $3 million or 8%.

See >> https://www.akc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Board-Minutes-July-2025-FINAL-PUBLISHED.pdf?

As of January 2026:

“Net Operating Loss is $5.9 million primarily due to lower registration revenue, excluding investment income of $3.2 million. Operating revenues total $83 million, led by registration (litter and dogs) totaling $28.8 million. Operating expenses total $85.8 million.”

See >> https://www.akc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Board-Minutes-January-2026-FINAL-PUBLISHED.pdf

The System Is Designed to Fail

▪️The system was built by the lowest bidder.

▪️The system is based on quarterly economics and personal incentives rather than lifetime economics and group costs.

▪️The system assumes present dollars is the most important metric.

▪️The system did not budget for maintenance.

▪️The system was cut back until immediate failure, then they added just a bit to avoid immediate failure.

▪️The system was built under the control of white men, ensuring little or no creative input from 93 percent of the world's population. 

▪️The system was built without appreciation of the cost of system failure.

▪️The system does not account for widespread human foibles like greed, willful ignorance, bigotry, and sloth.

▪️The system is immunized against corrective accountability.

▪️The system assumes present conditions will last forever.

Failure of the system is part of the plan; it’s Step One in selling you a “new and improved” system.

The Phony War on Drugs

In 1994, former Nixon aide and Watergate co-conspirator John Ehrlichman proudly told writer Dan Baum that racial control and discrimination was in fact the purpose of the war on drugs.

“At the time, I was writing a book about the politics of drug prohibition. I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. ‘You want to know what this was really all about?’ he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. ‘The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.’”

Billy Strings :: Taking Water

Double-crested Cormorant On the Creek

Cormorants generally prefer the big river. They are common there.  This is the first one I’ve seen one on this creek.