and it's finally snowing!!

 so i was out there in the snow today.  i waited a bit so that the snow could get packed down a bit on the ice that was everywhere.  cleats are for sure required.  no wolverine spotted, but it is pretty strange to see the alert signs out at all the trails. 

 that wolverine could be in Girdwood by now.  they tend to have a large territory and fly solo.  still not a creature I'd really like to run into out there on the trails.

 this is pre- snow above.  still ice.  i was on call Thursday night and never called in. i didn't sleep much though.  ended up taking back trails at U-lake...totally avoiding the lake with the otters and/or beavers. no desire to see my pups all chewed to bits. i also had to stop by work to fill out time card and put in my schedule.

 i came home and napped a bit before the show last night.  there was a show at the planetarium that was created by a professor at the University.  I'd been invited to join fish and game at a table with information about Round Island since there was a section on Round Island. i manned the table while they all went to the first showing.

 a friend joined me for the second showing.  it was good.  interesting information.  some about climate change...always so odd that so many choose to believe politicians and right wing nuts over the science on this.  Global warming and ocean acidification are very significant.  the co2 that is released is absorbed by water, cold water more than warm so it can be more significant in colder climates.

 anyway, packed for both showings and a nice group of folks who stopped by the table.  caught up a bit with several fish and game folks i have now met over the years.

 the changes are happening.  the flat earthers choose to pretend they aren't.  ignoring the facts...but ignoring the facts seems to be the trend on the right in general. 

 everything evolves with them...it didn't happen, to maybe it happened, to OK it happened but..., to it happened and isn't illegal, it happened and is probably illegal but there is no first hand knowledge it happened because that first hand knowledge is being obstructed because we don't want you to see the truth.  nothing to see here...facts aren't really facts, truth isn't really truth.  we have God on our side, you kill babies, go to hell.

 for people who have screamed for years about Benghazi and how vital the ambassadors are they are sure treating these ambassadors like crap.  i loved when she said, yes the potus can remove me but why did he feel the need to smear my name first.  he's an ass, that is why.  all he cares about is himself.  he doesn't care about Ukraine at all...that is first hand knowledge overheard in a conversation.  he could care less that Russia is killing their citizens.  he wants to get re-elected and he needs foreign interference for that to happen....he has Russia to thank for the last one and he continues to do things that benefit Putin so he has more than thanked them for their assistance by now one would think.  i suspect when you owe Puttie boy you owe him forever though.

 show us the taxes...or do they show a large sum of money owed to Put before you even entered the race...the right has no intellectual curiosity as to why he is so strenuously fighting this look at his taxes.  so far he is not winning the battle in court.

 for all the chants of lock her up very few people have been locked up in relation to the Clintons...none in relation to the Obama's.  Trump/Nixon...both GOP guys at this time...well lots have been.  the numbers are going up with the Trump administration.  who really are the dirty guys here.  recent history seems to say the GOP are the more corrupt of the two parties...those are facts. 

 another close Trump surrogate just got hit with 7 guilty plea's.  now no doubt he will be pardoned..i guess trump just pardoned some military guys who the military threw the books at...they do not do that lightly in the military.  he is undermining everything.  really taking a hatchet at the foreign service.  amazing how quickly our nation can be torn apart.  more amazing is how many people are willing to fold or look the other way at the total destruction by this selfish, greedy fool. 

 these are all from a trek to Valdez in July.

 these open hearings are interesting, what i have seen.  would love to read the transcripts.  the GOP members aren't at all saying any of the facts are flawed, that what is said was done, wasn't done.  they only can mutter that the process is flawed in some way, though it's all legal.  they scream that there is no first hand knowledge, it's all here say, even though it's this administration and the GOP members themselves who have been the main obstacle by refusing to obey supeaona's.

 another shooting in California this week.  2 killed, the shooter is dead i think as well.  this was happening at the same time Moscow Mitch was shooting down yet another law related to guns.  i mean literally at the same time.

 oh PS...the potus and Mulvaney are first hand knowledge of pressure placed on Ukraine to pony up a CNN announcement of investigations in order to get a meeting and have funds released. bribery, extortion, intimidating witnesses, lying, abuse of power, obstruction...the list just keeps growing.

 they want the whistle blowers name released....they seem to want to pretend that all the stuff the whistle blower blew the whistle about is all true.  it's a smoke screen and since so many on the right want to believe there is nothing to see...i mean how could they really associate themselves with something so foul and heinous...unless they can be convinced that what you are seeing isn't what you are seeing.

 nobody wants to be made a fool of. but in this scenario there will be someone who is wrong...the facts are not on the side of trump and his band of fools at this point.

 these are of the old Valdez, the old town site was moved after the '64 quake and tsunami.

 Sondland has changed his story once already to admit that yes, Ukraine was pressured...he may  have to make more amendments to his testimony as it appears he has been much less than truthful again. seems to be a chronic issue with members of the GOP...telling the truth.

 haven't heard much from Guiliani of late.  wonder what is going on there.  he's being investigated in NY. 

 the rest of these are at the hatchery.  it was pretty packed with fish coming in.

 always fun to watch them.  the acidification of the oceans could be detrimental to the salmon. the increased acid would impact the food they live off of by destroying the shells. 

 members from the OMB are also looking like they will ignore this administrations admonition to not testify.  that will be interesting testimony.

 trumps band of fools had to get rid of career people in position in order to attempt to pull off this heist.  there was a month gap after Yavonovich was canned...in this time a career OMB was moved i think as they were questioning the holding up of these funds as being possibly illegal. 

 the dark areas below in the water are all salmon. 

 that is a lot of fish

 of course, these sea lions were taking advantage of the easy meal.

 one wonders why Sondland and Trump were speaking on a regular unsecured phone...after all those hyped up concerns about Hillary's emails...the same folks don't seem the least bit concerned about the loose practises of this administration.  this is no longer evolving technology...they have no excuses...not to mention having a conversation loudly in a restaurant....?  complete idiots, these fools.  it makes us all look like fools that idiots of this level are the ones "running" our nation.  I've no doubt that Put has had many laughs about this. 

 my suspicion is still that put has just played trump...it was so easy....i mean they all play him.  all you have to do is flatter him and he will give you anything you want.  his ego is so in need of constant stroking. 

 what other nations are these same shenanigans going on in? i have no doubt these shadow foreign affairs things are happening all over. underhand deals that benefit trump and family.

 the GOP are still chasing already proven wrong conspiracy theories...this is the foolishness that happens when people who believe conspiracy theories get put in positions of power. 

 it's fine to ponder various conspiracy theories but in the real world one must actually believe facts as they are laid out in front of you.  but no...they are so convinced that anything and anyone that doesn't fall in line with this weeks conspiracy theory must be part of the deep state...so convenient.

 not sure how we ever convince these believers of total crap to ever re-learn to believe actual facts again.  they have made a choice and they are sticking with it even as the ship sinks around them.

 the sea lions slam the fish on the surface of the water to break em open.  eat the good bits and leave the rest for those birds.

 guess there are some frozen poops under all this new snow...some will just have to wait til spring.  i had been out there pretty recently to do the poop pick up.  that should help.

 i had a blast watching these sea lions.  went another time and it was a lower tide...the birds were cracking us up.  they would fly up and then ride the current of the creek back down to the deeper portions, take flight and do it again, over and over.  it had to just be for fun. 

 this horrific murder in Mexico of this fundamentalist family....strange to me that the right hasn't used it as fodder against Mexico and immigration. perhaps because they are from a polygamist group.  been down there for years.  many polygamous families moved to Mexico when the Mormon church decided to stop practicing polygamy in this life.  they do still believe in it in the next life. Mexico has a big issue with gangs and that violence.  we all agree they need to take more action to root out the corruption and violence in their society. 

 some emails of Millers have come to light which show more clearly his history, which was already well known, of being in cahoots with white nationalists.  he's been around the entire time trumps been in...is a close aid and comes up with much of the policy regarding immigration....isn't that nice that we have a white nationalist plotting against all immigration and finding ways to do so with as much cruelty as he can muster.

 elephants dying in drought in Zimbabwe and Koalas dying in fires in Australia.  so sad. 

thankful for A.  support with WARIS.  thanks SH for joining me at the show.  B.  to be gaining more confidence in this role.  C.  science...may intellectual curiosity win the day.