I Can’t Stand the Rain

Woke up with Ms. Ann Peebles singing in my head.

I’m starting to think that it has always been raining here in Valhalla. Sure, the winds have calmed down but it’s still wet and nasty cold outside.

Whine, snivel, kvetch.

It’s a fine day to hunt up some flickers of hope, some light, some motherfucking good news. NO doomscrolling today!

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Have you heard about the High Seas Alliance? It is a coalition of more than 70 non-governmental organizations and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) working to protect the global ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction. 

BBNJ stands for Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction — more commonly and succinctly known as the High Seas Treaty. 100 nations have now signed on to this legally binding international agreement. Australia, Brunei, Canada, Germany, Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe are the latest to ratify the treaty. 

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There’s a new test in town.

Current tests for endometrial cancer (AKA womb cancer) often rely on procedures like transvaginal ultrasounds and tissue biopsies in order to evaluate the uterine lining. These are invasive (yeah, no shit!) and no goddamn fun to say the extreme least. 

The new test just takes a swab of cells from your vag (if you, ya know, happen to have one). No uncomfortable, painful speculum (AKA hooha umbrella) needed! 

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New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, and Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) Commissioner Samuel A.A. Levine scored an historic win for regular working folk last week. They announced a $131.5 million enforcement action against DoorDash for systematic violations of New York City's Delivery Worker Laws.   

HOLY SHIT! 💩

The settlement will deliver more than $115 million directly to delivery workers and more than $16 million in civil penalties and costs. It will provide relief to more than 260,000 workers who were underpaid by DoorDash, including workers who were not paid at all or were paid late for work they had already performed.   

This is the largest worker settlement in New York City history and the largest settlement involving food delivery workers in the United States.  

“When a worker earns a wage, they deserve to be paid that wage —  not tomorrow, not after a lawsuit, but on time and in full,” said Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani. “DoorDash underpaid more than 260,000 workers, and today we are getting that money back. This is what it looks like when City government stands with working people: We find the violations, we enforce the law and we make sure workers get what they’re owed. No corporation is above the law, and this administration will keep fighting until every worker gets the pay and protections they deserve.”  (source) 

Yeah Baby! Is Mamdani the greatest OR WHAT!!!

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For as awesome as my electric MINI is, I wish the battery was more Earth friendly. It uses a lithium-ion battery.

Lithium mining is environmentally damaging because it consumes huge amounts of water, pollutes local ecosystems, and generates high carbon emissions. Still better than coal, oil, and gas but not wonderful.

Well waddyaknow, according to a study by the Fraunhofer Institute and the University of Münster in Germany, sodium-ion batteries are on the verge of market readiness. That’s sodium as in salt as in what you shake onto your mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts. 

Compared with lithium, sodium can be extracted in a much more environmentally happy friendly way. Cool!

I think I’m gonna keep on looking for more good news today. It’s still raining here and I don’t need to read any more of Pedo’s fecal mouthed spewings, Cornell’s protections of gang rapist frat barbarians or Fetterman’s admission that he’s been a lifelong Republican (Hey mainstream media, theat wasn’t a “gaffe” on his part. He just, maybe accidentally, let us all know his plans to switch parties — his intention to join his home team). 

Maybe I’ll have a snack and then take a nap first though.

I Can’t Stand the Rain, Tina Turner 

I get the news I need on the weather report

I *think* we’re past the worst of the nor’easter here in coastal Massachusetts. The storm’s not wholly done with us BUT wind gusts have climbed down from their peak of 65 mph in our relatively calm neighborhood. We’re down to about 30 mph now. No trees have toppled but a couple branches came down. No damage to house or cars though. YEA us. AND we haven’t lost power! More yea.

Apart from dashing next door to watch teevee last night, I haven’t been outside. My balance is already banjaxed to Hell and back. I don’t need to give Mother Nature a shot at toppling me. As much as I’ve absolutely LOVED watching the bodacious breakers in the past, just standing in awe of them, I’m now just fine looking at pictures, thenkyouverymuch.

I gotta ask WHY, during these big storms, does the news always focus on Scituate, a town about 17 miles down the coast from us? Wouldn’t it be more dramatic to get shots from P-town or the Vineyard? Ya know, farther out into the ocean? Jen’s sister and fam, by the by, live in Scituate but, wisely, NOT on the coast. 

Yesterday on the coast in Scituate

Just so ya know, Scituate is pronounced "SITCH-oo-it" (or Sih-chew-itt). It’s the anglicized version of the Wampanoag word for "cold brook.”

As you may remember, Valhalla is located one house back from the seawall. We’re on a bay so we don’t often get the crazy kind of mini tsunami action that they see in Scituate.

The worst that happened yesterday was, weirdly, our water pressure was low so I didn’t get a shower. Yes, I could have just gone outside BUT I’m not insane – it was cold out there!

Paul Simon’s song Only Living Boy In New York came into my head for obvious nor’easter-y reasons this morning. When I looked up the lyrics I found the meaning, the inspiration. It’s about Garfunkel breaking up the duo to become an actor (which didn’t ultimately work out for him). It’s about Simon's loneliness, maybe feeling abandoned, and wishing your ex well. Can you say POIGNANT!

Tom, get your plane right on time
I know your part’ll go fine
Fly down to Mexico
Da-n-da-da-n-da-n-da-da and here I am,
The only living boy in New York

I get the news I need on the weather report
Oh, I can gather all the news I need on the weather report
Hey, I’ve got nothing to do today but smile
Da-n-do-da-n-do-da-n-do here I am
The only living boy in New York

Half of the time we’re gone but we don’t know where
And we don’t know where
Here I am
Half of the time we’re gone, but we don’t know where
And we don’t know where

What a great song. I can hear it in my head. 'Scuse me now, I gotta grab that long overdue rain room time.

Badly Behaving Toddlers

WHAT an unmitigated, complete moron! The name Huckabee should, if it isn’t already, synonymous with total idiocy.

Huckabee blames ‘biblical illiteracy’ for waning support for Israel in US

NO, you absolute radish brained toad, it’s because Israel’s government is committing genocide! Get your fucking head OUT of Trump’s capacious ass!

A Pew Research poll conducted in mid-May showed that indicated 62% of US adults had an unfavorable view of the Israeli government. I wonder how high that unfavorable rating would be if they took the poll today. Gotta say, people like multi-billionaire and anti-free speech asshole Bob Kraft and his pal, the tyrannical war criming Netanyahu don’t do themselves any favors PR-wise.

I mean, how ridiculous is it that the Prime Minister of a big swinging dick nation like Israel is on the podium at the United Nations attacking the mayor of New York? He sounds more like Trump every day. Maybe he always sounded this small, desperately insecure, incredibly spoiled – like a badly behaving toddler at the start of an epic tantrum.

Like Pedo, Bibi seems to be pathologically allergic to reality. Apparently Netanyahu doesn’t have the sense to understand that aligning himself with Trump is like strapping himself to a rabid buffalo and leaping off El Capitan in Yosemite. Not a bright move.

Now that I’ve thought on it, Huckabee seems to have dual residency. He spends half his time wedged up the pedophile’s butt and the rest of it up the genocider’s ass. Maybe he has some kind of timeshare arrangement going on?

In an interview with NewsNation on Thursday, the ambassador suggested there were three sources of declining support for Israel.

He cited disinformation and foreign propaganda, a hatred of those who believe “there is a God and that he’s made up the rules for life”, and not knowing the Bible.

“You add all that together, I guess you just want to be mad at Israel and blame them for everything,” he said. (source) 

SUCH a backwoods, cretinous imbecile!

Meanwhile, Ed Sheeran, the sellout to his billionaire bestie Bob Kraft, has cancelled his shows at Gillette Stadium. Supposedly it’s due to the nor’easter we’re having here in New England this weekend. Funny thing is, before now Gillette Stadium had never canceled a concert due to weather. 

Before the weather forecast, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell had pressed Ticketmaster to refund ticket buckos.

“After hearing from nearly 200 consumers who were struggling to obtain refunds from Ticketmaster for Ed Sheeran’s shows at Gillette Stadium this weekend, my office jumped into action to demand that consumers be provided a clear path to get their money back if they no longer want to attend due to significant changes to the lineup,” said AG Campbell. “I encourage anyone who wants a refund to act quickly and submit their request at least 24 hours before showtime.” (source) 

I wonder how many people requested refunds. I wonder how many folks would’ve shown up in Foxborough to protest Kraft’s genocide supporting ass. I wonder how much his insurance company will reimburse Ed, his touring company (Messina Touring Group), and Kraft for their loss due to “acts of nature.” Seems they’re all saving themselves a ton of money and bad press by canceling the shows.

But what do I know?

Lies and Weird Rightwing Obsessions

Prez Pedo met with China’s President Xi Jinping yesterday. It was the second day of their three day summit. Frankly, I’m surprised Xi hasn’t yet dropped dead from Trump’s stench and that Commander Coma hasn’t slept through all the damn meetings. Maybe he has? Perhaps his makeup artists painted open, alert eyes on his closed lids.

Apparently not a lot has been accomplished at Xi and Pedo’s big meet-ups. It’s just been 99 kinds of pomp and circumstance which is all Trump really understands. Remember, Diaper Don is an incredibly dim old man whose only talents are self-delusion, bullying those he regards as lesser beings (which is everyone), making ridiculous scowling faces, and shitting his pants. He’s no more than a sleazy, hick carnival barker in a bad suit, and amateur hour clown makeup.

 Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said of the Idiot King’s big foofaraw:

Trump “always deludes himself into thinking that, by ingratiating himself with authoritarians, he’s somehow going to get his way.” 

 Eh, like I said, he's dim and delusional.

The airport welcome pics are … emmm … interesting. There are the originals and then there’s the janky AI version that Prez Desperately Insecure Asshole put out. You know, the one where:

• U.S. Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley has been completely swapped out for his Stalker in Chief and diaper nurse, Natalie Harp. Nappie Nat was not actually there at all (unless she was squirreled away in a food cart or a car's trunk somewhere).
• Melania, the First Lady who doesn't actually live at the White House or do any First Lady type work, was there but was edited out Trump’s special pic. She wasn’t completely removed though – there’s a weird bump in his suit. I imagine this vestige of her is sullenly glaring at him ... you know, as usual.
• The soldiers in the back have all turned into rattletrap mechanical slop.
• Pedo’s only wearing one glove (pulling a Michael Jackson?) Whereas in the original shot he’s wearing gloves on both hands.   
• A fighter jet flying overhead has been added in. 

And then there’s the title – Only Trump. WHAT is this? Some sort of twisted take on Only Fans? That’s just sick – truly perverse.                                                                                         

AND speaking or perverted people 

If you thought Krazy Kash’s cross-species dating (AKA bestiality) kink was twisted, get a load of Alabama Senator (who lives in Florida) Tommy Tuberville. He’s now got some weird obsession with the furry community and is trying to drive up some big-ass fear mongering culture war bullshit about it. Why? Tommy’s running for governor of Alabama and, as a Pedo supporting Republican, he doesn’t exactly have a lot of successes to point to. When all you’ve got is failure, make up weird lies. Just ask JDouche!

"Many airline pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers are part of the furry community," Tuberville said sternly. "Lord help us."

“I know the deranged Democrats don’t like the fact that I called out the insane FURRY CULTURE this week. But the truth is, there is an ALARMING number of these DERANGED people working in our airline industry,” the Alabama Republican wrote on X. (source)

"It's terrifying when you think about this," he continued. "When you walk on to a commercial flight, it's possible that the pilot flying your plane could have a deranged fetish of dressing up like an animal." (source) 

What are furries anyway?

The term furry describes a diverse community of fans, artists, writers, gamers, and role players. 

Most furries create for themselves an anthropomorphized animal character (fursona) with whom they identify and can function as an avatar within the community. Some furries wear elaborate costumes (called fursuits) or paraphernalia such as animal ears or tails, or represent themselves as anthropomorphic animals in online communities such as Second Life. (source) 

75% of furries are under the age of 25. Meanwhile, the average age of commercial airline pilots is generally mid-late 40s.

Tommy Tuberville seems to  think all his Alabama constituents are barefoot, backwoods, six toothed yokels with the intellectual capacity of a moldy radish.

Old Tubes played football in high school and college. He should have worn a helmet.

This & That

Daniel Boris

Clay Jones

Manatees *can’t* turn their heads left or right because they don’t have enough neck bones. They have 6 neck vertebrae while most animals (even giraffes!!) have 7. 
To look left or right, manatees have to turn their ENTIRE body!
~ Ocean Generation

Jack Ohman

Toxic

Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it’s cold as hell
And there’s no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don’t understand
It’s just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man

And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time
‘Til touch down brings me ‘round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh, no, no, no, I’m a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
Rocket Man, Elton John/Bernie Taupin

Goddamn, I fucking love that song!
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Bad news for misshapen, racist, trillionaire conmen – the surface of Mars, its soil, is toxic to humans. 

Martian dirt contains high levels of perchlorates — reactive chlorine-and-oxygen salts. Inhaling or ingesting even tiny amounts of Martian dust can exceed safe exposure limits.

This review investigates how substances analogous to hazardous components of Martian dust have caused disease in people on Earth. Because of its small grain size, dust on Mars is more likely to cause lung irritation, absorb into the bloodstream, and lead to diseases in astronauts. Toxic components of martian dust include perchlorates, silica, nanophase iron oxides, and gypsum in addition to trace amounts of toxic metals whose abundances are debated: chromium, beryllium, arsenic, and cadmium. Predicted effects of dust exposure ranges from asymptomatic to life‐threatening, with many substances being carcinogenic and most damage impacting the pulmonary system. (source) 

Add to that, Mars has much lower gravity – if you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh only about 38 pounds on Mars. This leads to less blood circulating in our bodies, our heart muscles shrinking, and beating too fast or too slow. On top of that, the reduced Martian gravity can lead to kidney stones. OUCH!

So, to live on Mars, you’d need to be inside a wickedly secure, enclosed, airtight, gravity adjusted environment all the damn time. You damn well better hope that the tech supporting that joint NEVER, EVER fails too.  

Given MusKKK’s track record, would you trust him to keep you alive on Mars?

The main issue in 2025 has been the world's most powerful rocket, SpaceX's Starship program. Designed to carry passengers to extraterrestrial destinations, Musk stated in March 2025 that SpaceX aims to send its Starship rocket to Mars by the end of 2026, with a potential landing date between 2029 and 2031. Unfortunately, recent results may suggest otherwise. Thus far, four straight Starship launches have ended in explosions. The most recent of which occurred in June 2025, at its Starbase site in Massey, Texas, raising the company's yearly total to five. (source)

I wouldn’t.
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Pedo whined that the press weren’t being sufficiently obsequious. There were outlets who had the stone temerity to not bow down to him and they *gasp* reported reality and asked actual pertinent questions. Naturally this forced the pedophile-who-would-be-king into having a big fat tantrum. He seems to not understand that the White House has granted access to news organizations and can’t ixnay that access because the reporters are doing their damn jobs. Prez Poops-in-Pants seems to have forgotten about that pesky First Amendment, if he ever knew about it to begin with.

In any case, his old man tantrum’s backfiring on him. CNN, MS NOW, and Politico have filed a First Amendment lawsuit to restore their access and there was no audio for the presentation of his I'm-a-special-boy $6,000,000 helipad. Newsmax’s equipment was just NOT up to the task of capturing the doddering old man’s ramblings. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News did not cover the event, in solidarity with the three banned networks. *snicker, snicker, snicker*

From The Halfway Café:

Dozens of women in journalism who watched Trump’s press events today without volume — because the press corps is protesting his free press violations — said under their breath, “Who’s quiet now, piggy?”

If that wasn’t bad enough for Prez AttentionWhore, CNN was the designated press for Monday’s United Nations assembly. In solidarity, none of the other networks stepped in and the UN welcomed the network. Pedo had no say in the matter. He’s a president not a king or a dictator. The spoiled twat’s been coddled for far too many decades (eight to be precise).

The so-called Department of “Justice” says ultra thin-skinned Toddler Trump has the right to ban whoever he’s mad at, calling press access a “privilege.”  Jesus Fucking Christ on an egg and cheese bagel – what a sad, rage inducing joke our nation has become. 

Welcome to Bosch World

The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.
~ Hannah Arendt

Hannah, we're already there. 

ICEholes shot a man while he was working, while he was on his fucking job.

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was making a DoorDash delivery in Austin on Sunday when his car was “sideswiped” twice by ICE officers in an unmarked truck … (source) 

He was shot, taken to the hospital in serious condition but somehow released later that day into ICE custody. He was put in a “detention center” where he was been made to sleep ON THE FLOOR WHILE A BULLET WAS STILL LODGED IN HIS SPINE. He  not any pain medication or treatment while in ICE's sadistic care.

By Monday night he’d been brought to a hospital.

If he’s sent back to ICE, he’ll probably die. Obviously.

And it turns out ICE’s half-assed, slipshod, hyper enthusiastic Nazi hard-on to get as many violent, halfwitted thugs onto the streets attacking brown people was … not well thought out or implemented with any measurable skill or intelligence. Gee, shocking, no?

These untrained mutants were given guns and put on the streets before background checks and a thorough vetting were completed. 

But the whistleblower, who oversaw a staff of 100 in ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which manages background investigations for job applicants, said he had never seen the agency hire people so quickly. Human resources personnel made final job offers before preliminary vetting was complete. Applicants were cleared for duty “without fingerprints, identity verification, or credit checks,” he wrote. (source) 

This doesn’t even include criminal histories which they supposedly check but don’t seem to be overly bothered about.

A great example of this precocious hiring bullshit is David Brouillette. He’s the ICEhole who murdered Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine just two months ago. Brouillette had a long history of violence and *oopsie* slipped though the cracks.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed new recruits into its training program before they have completed the agency’s vetting process … as it rushes to hire federal immigration officers to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy, a current and two former Homeland Security Department officials told NBC News.

ICE officials only later discovered that some of the recruits failed drug testing, have disqualifying criminal backgrounds or don’t meet the physical or academic requirements to serve, the sources said.

Staff members at ICE’s training academy in Brunswick, Georgia, recently discovered one recruit had previously been charged with strong-arm robbery and battery stemming from a domestic violence incident, the current DHS official said. (source) 

Now those egregious ICEholes who never should have been hired to begin with are getting the ax.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun quietly firing some officers brought aboard during its massive hiring surge after belated background reviews uncovered red flags or recruits failed to meet performance standards, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
~~~
The firings follow an expansion that brought roughly 12,000 new officers and agents into ICE as the Trump administration sought to rapidly increase immigration arrests and deportations.

The hiring campaign, backed by billions of dollars approved by Congress, offered signing bonuses of up to $50,000 and drew more than 220,000 applications.

ICE also shortened training and allowed some recruits with previous law enforcement experience to bypass the agency's training academy. (source) 

Now this wholly incompetent administration is trying to claw back the big fat signing bonuses they prematurely handed out. Future wages will be garnished to get those undoubtedly already spent buckos back. I bet this is really gonna make the freshly fired, emotionally unstable, hair-trigger violent ex-ICEholes a bit testy. I wonder who they'll take their rage out on. I'm thinking domestic partners should take the kids and run for the hills NOW.

 We're living in a live action Hieronymus Bosch painting. Welcome to Hell.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Some positive news on this Monday morning.

⭑ A federal judge blocked a road through Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. The fight’s not over but this is something. 

⭑ A wildlife overpass in Washington near Snoqualmie Pass has recorded its 10,000th safe crossing. 
🦌 🦝 🫎 🐺 🐇 🦌
⭑ Last month Victoria, Australia began vaccinating thousands of little penguins against the deadly H5 bird flu. 
 🐧 🐧 🐧 🐧 🐧 🐧
⭑ Roanoke, Virginia’s City Public Schools are building the state’s first solar-plus-storage systems to keep emergency shelters going during extreme weather and save money. 

Roanoke City Public Schools district has been installing solar panels to lower electricity bills, minimize its carbon footprint, and teach students about clean tech.

As climate change intensifies, communities around the country are looking for ways to better prepare for extreme weather, from ice storms to heat waves. In Roanoke, Virginia, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, that starts with the schools. (source) 

⭑ Indigenous girls aged 10–17 have won legal rights for a culturally significant Cherokee waterway.

• On Jan. 8, 2026, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the inherent legal rights of the Longperson (Ganvhidv Asgaya), an interconnected waterway system whose headwaters rise in the Great Smoky Mountains and end in the sea.
• The resolution was brought forward by the NAIWA Daughters, a group of Indigenous girls aged 10 to 17, making it the first all-female-led rights-of-nature effort in the U.S., and only the second such youth-led resolution passed by a Tribal nation.
• The effort followed 18 months of grassroots organizing and built on the foundations of the rights-of-nature movement, which holds that ecosystems and natural entities should have legal standing to exist and flourish.
• The Longperson resolution grants the waterway five inherent rights and has already spurred related action, including a separate tribal resolution to raise funds for removing the Ela Dam. (source) 

⭑ Whaling is barbaric. Of course it is! Harpooned whales can take up to two hours to die.  How would YOU like to experience that?!

Amongst other qualities, these big brained creatures have advanced communications systems, complex social structures, emotional intelligence (undoubtedly exceeding your average frat brother, Republican, evangelical, and and/or rich asshole), they learn from each other (e.g. Orcas dismantling yachts — GO ORCAS!). I am by far NOT the first person to suggest that IF/when aliens come to Earth, the first creatures they'll approach sure as fuck won’t be humans – it’ll def be the whales. They’re far more civilized.

Some potentially good whale news:

Drew Sheneman

 Iceland’s government will submit a bill to parliament in February 2027 introducing a permanent ban on commercial whaling, a move that would leave Norway and Japan as the only countries in the world still hunting whales commercially. (source) 

The government holds a majority in parliament so this permanent ban is expected to pass.
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⭑ A big, new solar panel recycling facility is coming to Texas, of all places — the state isn’t exactly known for being on the right side of any issue since I don’t know when. I'm surprised.

“Solar panels contain the exact critical materials the US supply chain desperately needs, but until now, no American company has been able to recover their full resources at such scale or efficiency,” said Adam Saghei, founder and CEO of We Recycle Solar. “Through our advanced process, we are achieving true, comprehensive material recovery entirely on US soil, and retaining these critical materials – and the value currently being lost to Asian processing – within our domestic supply chain.” (source) 

Honestly, no one (rather, precious few of us) would have ever expected environmental innovation to come out of a state that doesn't value human life let alone the planet's.

So then, everything's not all doom and gloom this morning. Huh ... interesting.