each day an adventure in alaska: really? stop the madness!

woke to wind...it kept up much of day. we headed to the beach at Oceanview Bluff Park. it was icy but we managed. windy as well....you can tell by Tusker above. the pups didn't care and there were no hazards out there. the ice had a bit of water on top, but not deep in most places. i didn't stray as far as i had a few weeks ago....some more deep water as you headed out further. pretty enough still

of course, silly me, left before the colors really went nuts. i figured it was pretty much done and took off. the further i drove the more i saw these deep pinks and magenta's show up. it happens. you can't guess at nature so you shouldn't try. not like i was in a hurry...though with the wind it was a bit chilly out.

iitoo tweets that his nuclear button is bigger and more powerful than NK...who has the craziest dictator...sadly, at this time it appears to be the USA! it's like he doesn't realize that our very lives are put at risk by this madness. the lives of countless allies also are put at risk, the lives of our men and women in uniform are at risk. they did not sign up to be made pawns in some who's got the bigger dick twitter rant. the world does not and will not ignore his insane tweets even if his followers do.

Utah Senator will resign. several have opted to not continue on after this term. not sure if they just don't feel they can win or if they just are sick of dealing with this administration and want to wash their hands of it. many cowards in this lot of GOP I'd say though. quit, abandon ship. shame on all of them for not standing up to this iitoo, for not putting a stop to this madness. Romney appears to have suddenly moved to Utah so rumors are he will run. what will he bring...? who knows. he had that embarrassing dinner where after all the negative he'd said about iitoo he seemed ready to pony up in order to get a power position.

NSA and State Department are essentially being gutted of knowledgeable and experienced staff who have had enough. the lunatics in the administration have fired all the volunteers on an AIDs/HIV board. no idea why that happened. even the migratory birds aren't safe from these jerks. for 100 years there have been protections for birds migrating across borders...to hell with the birds, to hell with nature, to hell with animals..kill them all if it means the corporations don't have to deal with the rules

rules that were created because the corporations were incapable of policing themselves. their greed was destroying our earth, their greed was polluting at an alarming rate...now those protections are being scaled back because many seem to suddenly trust these same corporations to not go back to the old ways. chemicals and pesticides that are known to damage bee's...and lord only knows what else they destroy...well those will be given the green light. he temporarily halted not lifting ban on ivory, but i suspect that will be slipped past if it hasn't already. tweet insanity, pass insanity in the background.

seems the GOP will not be satisfied until they have rolled back every protection to the earth, the animals and the poor.

Rus still causing havoc. many folks emails, names, addresses are being used by bots to send emails in support of iitoo...who is doing that? not just dead people but live people. one survey found upwards of 40% of comments had actually been written by people who weren't the ones that were signed as the writers of the comments.

interesting opinion piece in the NYT. it was written by Fusion GPS. they have been heard under oath by 3 congressional committees. those transcripts have not been released though they can be released and the Fusion GPS folks have no issues with them being released.

in the article they say the transcripts will show that both GOP and Dems funded their research. the investigations into the Rus/put/trum stuff was not done because of their Dossier...the Dossier only helped to confirm what they had already found. as they state in the piece, their sources said, "the dossier was taken so seriously because it corroborated reports the bureau had received from other sources, including one inside the Trump camp". one inside the trump camp!!! let that sink in. the FBI already had someone inside the trump camp giving them information on the ties to Rus!!

not clear if that is already someone like Flynn, or Papadopolous who we know have spoken to the FBI or someone totally different.

the congress has only looked into the money ties of Fusion GPS with Deutsche Bank, they were told by Fusion to look into this bank and others funding Trump. Fusion GPS had found trails all over the globe of potential money laundering in the Trump organization. Fusion GPS also states that they knew nothing of the meeting in trump tower. that congress is aware of this and that the Rus involved with this were not aware of Steele's dossier.

they state that they Steele saw this as a crime in progress after all he learned and he felt the FBI should be aware of it. after the election with Fusion GPS assistance, Steele decided to give the information of the dossier to McCain. they state they did not share the dossier with Buzzfeed and were not happy with how that was leaked out.

anyway...not sure why these haven't been released nor why those in DC tell a different tale despite being told these things under oath.

it's all pretty haywire.

the truth will come out...it is coming out. the man in the office at this time will no doubt be found to have a past that includes money laundering and dealings with Rus to the demise of the fabric of our nation. our values, our world standing is at great risk every day this iitoo is in office tweeting.

i just pray every day that we all survive. these games are real, our lives are real and his tweeting is a risk to us all.

students from other nations are opting to attend other universities in other nations...it has begun. these students bring a lot of money to many campuses so it will follow that programs will need to be cut. this will also impact us a great deal down the road. many of our nations MD's i know come through student visa programs where they then stay here for x number of years to serve our rural populations. we do not have enough MD's and other medical workers...so we are biting ourselves in the arse with this. again related to GOP and this administrations negative attitude towards immigrants and their America first rhetoric.

the dems are trying to get chip and daca salvaged in exchange for government shutdown.

eating macadamian nuts and chocolate covered almonds as a snack right now. so nummy!!

had a lovely hamburger for dinner. never as great as my Mom's...she really could cook a burger. of course, i do miss that press Dad had made for her....i need to make one. it doesn't look that hard.

looked for a bracket for the little library...will have to hit home depot or Lowe's i guess. they will have more options.

the King salmon numbers are dropping in Southeast AK. that could be rough for the fishermen down there. they rely heavily on those sales.

the opening of ANWR...well, we shall see. i suspect there will be court battles ahead and i also suspect that oil exploration remains expensive in the north and we aren't really sure if the pay off will actually be there or not. Put is sure of it and has been trying for years to claim all of the Arctic as his. he sees the melting ice as his opportunity to take over the entire region. he certainly would not be concerning himself with polar bears or walrus, whales or seals...

Tusker is pretty windblown. still so handsome! he was growling in his sleep last night as i typed.

after i wrote the blog i watched the Rose Parade. i tend to do that every year anyway. the photo of the South Pasadena float was taken by my Sister in Law, Darla...well done and thanks for sharing.

my friend JH, loved roller derby. she started playing in Ketchikan and it looks like she has found a team to play with in Washington state now. i just saw a little article about a roller derby team in Cairo, Egypt...will have to tell her...chick power! the team finally got to have an actual meet up with a team from Abu Dhabi and another from France. they learned via you tube video's and got gear donated from teams in the US

it's colder down south than here for sure. the east is in a freeze.

i guess CA is going legal on the marijuana. money is coming in here. hopefully the tax dollars will be well spent. was laughing Christmas day as i drove to a friends place to eat. not much was open, but the marijuana store was.

look at cute Ivy Rose surrounded by ice covered by water. Eklutna lake is frozen and clear for skating i hear. that is a deep lake, so it takes a bit longer to freeze up. last i heard Portage is open. i haven't explored much...often don't as the light does tend to limit it. now that we will start to gain light i tend to get out and about a bit more.

the light was pretty even if i did miss the deep pinks that followed.

still lots of ice....pretty muddy and piles of mud left as the water melted.

couldn't get much past the main tree that works as a guide to where the trail back out is. what will we do if that driftwood tree marker is ever taken back to sea or someone cuts it up.

the wind was blowing causing cool ripples on the puddles of water on the ice.

it's getting late and I'm slowly making my way through the papers that seem to build up when I'm working. i just crash when i get home....well after i feed dogs and throw the tennis ball for awhile.