That’s very much how I read it. “Be grateful you got what you got, and if you don’t kiss my ass and give me a big payment, I’m leaving you and your people to rot. I’m fine either way.”

Every day I think it’s going to be hard to make me be more ashamed of my country, but they do it with such ease.

Zelensky took it like a champ though, and I got to watch much of the video after my original comment, and while Vance was trashing him for not saying thank you nicely enough, when he mentioned the brave people of Ukraine, that was when Zelensky said thank you again as he was being talked over.

As Zelensky implied, everyone is going to have a price to pay for the result of this, however it ends. Ukrainian ,Russian, and North Korean citizens are just the first to feel it. I don’t want any of them to die, but since everyone spent the last 11 years tiptoeing around this issue, now there is a huge sunk cost for those nations, when the rest of the world should have stepped up sooner. After all the death and destruction, why would Ukraine now not only give up to Russia, but now the US also trying to steal their resources? Trump promises to take from Ukraine but will not commit to Ukraine’s safety. They’ve already learned what a deal with Putin means, and they’ve had 4 years of seeing what Trump deals look like, and what he’s doing to Americans right now.

Even with some news agencies being kicked out in the first 40 days of the presidency, there are still good pointed questions being asked. They aren’t always the ones making it to the front page of anyone’s feeds, which I think is terrible, but I don’t feel most everyday people in the US know or care what is going on with all they are facing. We’re on political posting space, so we often forget we are way more heavily invested in knowing world events compared to most people, just as near everyone uses computers, but only a few of us know how to build on or program one. We’re not prepared in school to follow these events, and our society does not put emphasis on learning them. Broadcast news and for profit media will give what people care about at large, if it’s valuable news or rubbish. There are still outlets that deliver the boring plain facts to those like us here though, and I think we need more solidarity for that. Not all media has fallen in line behind Trump or the billionaires, and many are still doing all they can to report on these important issues. If they weren’t providing the facts, Trump wouldn’t be banning people from press events, Bezos wouldn’t be forcing out editors, and Musk and Zuck wouldn’t need to spend so much money pushing propaganda. We need to embrace tighter than ever what we do have, even if it is imperfect, or soon we will not have that either.

This article has some of the grossest stuff I’ve ever heard.

Trump and Vance accused Zelensky of being ungrateful for three years of American support, telling him he was in no position to tell the US how it should feel about it.

Those years of support were certainly due to no thanks to you. You hated every bit of help that was given to them, and now you want them to thank you for it??? I believe the US could go in and do to the Russian occupied territory what the Russians thought they could do to Ukraine and roll them over almost immediately. But instead, this admin is ready to leave them for dead unless they give up their only key to financing their rebuild without foreign “help.” This is not seeking cooperation of an ally, it is extorsion.

Trump accuses Zelensky of “gambling with World War Three”. He points his finger at the Ukrainian leader.

“What you are doing is disrespectful to the country - this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have,” Trump says.

Zelensky calmly interjects: “I’m with all respect for your country”.

Vice-President Vance interrupts: “Have you said ‘thank you’ once this entire meeting?”

Zelensky replies: “A lot of times”.

Vance again says: “No, in this entire meeting, have you said ‘thank you’?”

“You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the USA and the president who is trying to save your country.”

Zelensky shakes his head and looks away, and says the US will also eventually feel the consequences of the war.

Trump appears visibly frustrated, interjecting: "Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel.

“We’re going to feel very good and very strong.”

Sorry Don, I’m not feeling the alliance here. Never seen him once talk about Putin this way. I do think he’s working on an alliance in this war, only it’s not from Ukraine.

Yeah, and that is why I take these appeals not as support of the fake ass DOGE group, but as a, “hey guys, while you’re out there throwing out everything you don’t personally care about, take a look at this expensive ass program to ‘save owl.’ It would really make us eco people sooooo sad if that were to get cut.”

With all the terrible destruction of all these protection policies across the board, I bring it up not to so much be political, but to highlight a way that something they are doing that is intended to hurt people and the planet can still potentially be manipulated for good. There is so much fighting on what can we do while all this oppression is going on, and I thought this was a good example on how there can still be positive outcomes, or at less ways to dampen the blows of defunding and deregulation.

I try not to give you guys anything just plain negative here. There needs to be at least a hint of positivity, though I will still throw some sublte jabs at Canada for their total failure on saving the Spotteds in British Columbia where there is literally only 1 wild Spotted Owl left and they are still refusing to protect it or its environment for the people trying to breed them captively and reintroduce them. Last I saw, they are entertaining building a ski resort right on top of the habitat.

Sometimes I have to bring up politics against my will here, but if this isn’t the place to advocate for the owls, what is? I at least try to keep it neutral and unbiased and keep my own opinions for the comments.

Ah, now I gotcha. wink wink

I still can’t get over the grip strength. I’ve seen the 500 psi figure in multiple places, and the fact a pitbull bite is “only” 230ish psi, 500 seems so unbelievable for a bird that weighs less than 4 pounds.

I’ve pointed out a few places to people, but most (understandably) don’t want to give out their locations.

I’m sure I’ve already doxxed myself many times over on here repping my local animal places, and talking about school district drama during all the Mothers for Liberty school takeovers we had. Not the best job for someone with an “anon” name, but this was supposed to just last a couple days while I lurked and didn’t post. Whoops.

I’d like yoooooou guys to do some of the sharing your local animal helpers, but again, I know that runs into the same issues. You could pick a place where you have distant relatives or like to vacation at or something thoooooough… 😜

I did a 50 State of Owls early on, and that was the start of my owl mega-feed. Some states seemed very limited though. It was kind of sad seeing some large but low population states having hardly any resources I could find. So many animals are probably unable to be served.

We did add some databases in the sidebar to try to help, but as many are small 1 or 2 person operations and come and go all the time due to there being no funding, so it’s a tough job to maintain any up to date list, but it’s the best I could find. A quick google of “my_city wild animal rescue” is probably your best bet.

I had been hoping this was about cuts to the plan to shoot the half million Barred Owls, but this is more direct damage to efforts to save the last of the Spotted Owls. Some activists and politicians not thrilled with the gov’s plan to shoot Barred Owls were hoping that project would get cut due to it being expected to cost over $1.3 billion.

A previous project had a final cost of $3000 per owl after killing 1500 of them, so extrapolating that out to 500,000 owls is $1,500,000,000.

“In a target-rich environment of wasteful and reckless spending projects, the DOGE cannot miss by shooting down a forest-owl kill plan that is a budget buster of the first order,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “If it costs $4.5 million to shoot 1500 barred owls in a small swath of land in northern California, it’s going to cost at least $1.35 billion to conduct a kill of more than 450,000 owls across up to 24 million acres of land in the Pacific Northwest. What a colossal waste of life and money.”

The FWS failed to address the costs of the program in a 300-page FEIS. “Now we know why the Fish and Wildlife Service dodged the issue of the cost in its environmental review,” added Pacelle. “Hiding the cost was prerequisite to win approval of the plan. It’s bad enough that the program will cannibalize so many resources, but it’s even worse that it will do no good because it is so thoroughly unworkable. In-migration of owls will keep the agency on a never-ending treadmill of owl killing and it is doomed to fail.”

Length: 8.3-11.0 in (21-28 cm) Weight: 3.3-7.6 oz (93-215 g) Wingspan: 21.6-24.4 in (55-62 cm)

They’re on the small side, but noticeably bigger than our dainty Owl of the Year, the Saw Whet, who is still not quite the smallest owl.

Left: Saw Whet Right: Boreal

Would work well for the Hierophant or Magician cards…

I always think how long it took me to know where my local wildlife rescue was. I knew a bunch of vets for pets if I ever found one hurt, but nothing for wild animals. I’d want to help them just as much. I think more of us should learn who our local people are.

Those kitties should be so lucky as to have opposable digits! 😜

I like the warmer colors of #2 and the off axis glance.

I’m glad I went back and found the original though. It’s fun to compare them and interesting how some minor changes make it feel like a very different image,

They are! I really want to touch it and see if it feels different than regular down feather.

Someone is always watching! 🫣

Moonshot. On Saturday, I was able to observe distant Snowy Owls in a huge treeless “fake tundra” area outside Cleveland in Lake County. Most of the time, the owls were distant dots on the lakeside landscape. But sometimes they would fly closer. The female flew over and I missed it by 20 minutes. The male landed on utility poles twice, quite close to the road. The second time, right after sunset, I was able to line him up with the rising full moon, and so reprise my signature image—using the full moon as a backdrop to highlight uniquely the mystery and rarity of the most beautiful bird in the world! 12/14/24. Nikon D850, 600 mm, f/11, ISO 1000, 1/200 second. Fairport Nursery Road, Lake County, Ohio.

This was the original edit.

Baby Saw Whets are criminally cute. I like all the babies, but the SW is something else.

Your mystery pic is supposedly a Javan Scops according to a Pinterest post. All the Scops seem to look a bit on the funny side growing up

Here’s a not too funky WFS kid for you.