Passing The Smell Test

I don't mean to be picky but what's with Donald Trump's affection for dictators and bad dudes?  Serious, he gets off the phone following a call to Vladimir Putin and almost instantaneously fawning over the Russian autocrat.  And then it bleeds-over to the war in Ukraine; that Russia started.

Recently Mr. Trump told Newsmax that Zelensky is "not a good guy for us to deal with" and "more difficult" than Putin.

Then he goes off running at the mouth and exaggerating the amount of aid the U.S. has given to Ukraine.  Factually, it is more like $195 billion, not $350 billion, with much of it going directly to U.S. defense contractors.

Mr. Trump also claimed that the U.S. had provided "massive amounts" of Tomahawks to Ukraine, therefore depleting our own arsenal.  The Pentagon has provided no such cruise missiles.

Add it all up and it smells bad.  

Putin Trump - photo Japan Times

So what is the explanation for Mr. Trump's affection for a Russian war criminal?  There are all sorts of wild conspiracy theories about Trump being a Russian plant or sympathizer.  Or that Putin has dirt on Trump that has compromised him.  

President Zelensky has a simple and compelling theory; and like Occam's Razor suggests that the explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is usually best.  Zelensky believes that Trump has a fondness for totalitarian authority and wealthy individuals. He speaks about it openly and is likely a wee bit envious of Putin's station in life.  Trump has likely padded his balance sheet since the start of his second term by roughly $2 billion.  That pales by comparison with Putin's estimated $70 to $200 billion; but it's a start.  Besides, the master manipulator has been in power much longer.

Anyway, Trump's willingness to do the former Soviet Intelligence officer's bidding is troubling.  Hopefully, Europe's willingness to step-up and fill the void will save Ukrainian civilian lives.  Having fallen under Putin's thrall I'm not entirely convinced Trump is an honest broker in bringing this war to an end.  It doesn't pass the smell test.  And more women and children will die as a consequence.

Fall Colors

Autumn foliage would not be complete until I posted a photo of my favorite power company tree.

It's a shame it has to suffer the indignity of a pruning job like this as it's otherwise a handsome maple.

Bury your power lines folks or plant a sufficient distance from any overhead power lines.

Blast From The Past

Scrolling thru my online photo album at Google Photos I came across a collection of digital images dating from November 2007, a couple of decades and three dogs ago.  It even predates this forum by a couple of years.

Pictured here is my Inky.  A female Labrador retriever and all-around flusher and fetcher of upland game birds including grouse, woodcock and pheasant. We enjoyed a love affair; she was my girlfriend.

She's still a pup in these photos and this was our first trip to South Dakota to chase pheasants twenty years ago.

That last photo is precious as I thought it was lost.  Now it's found and will find its way to our powder room wall. 

 

Friday Music

Tonah "El Hombre Orquesta" - whose real name is  Tonatiuh Zamarrón is a Mexican street musician from Mexico City.  He's captured attention online with his one-man band featuring up to 11 instruments that can be played simultaneously.

He sings and plays covers of classic rock and pop tracks that have gone viral on TikTok, Facebook and YouTube including Paul McCartney's social media channel.

You've officially been sucked-in to this phenomenon.  Enjoy watching, it's a lot of fun... 

 

Ditch Tigers

Last weekend we observed kittens emerging from beneath the granary lean-to porch.  It would appear that mama cat decided to take up residence in a den at that location to birth her brood.  I suppose the good news is there aren't bunnies living under there; or worse yet, a groundhog.  But now we've got cats to deal with.  And somehow remove.

Coincidentally, on Saturday we ran the trail camera trapline and uploaded a batch of new images including a spike in cat photos.  Colloquially called ditch tigers.

Roaming cats are bad news for wildlife; particularly ground-nesting birds.  These animals are higher order predators of small prey that play an important roll in the natural world's food web.

What to do.  What to do... 

 

Fall Colors

Today's fall colors are brought to you courtesy of the trees you will find in our yard.  Yes, those we planted as part of our DIY landscaping.

20+ years ago they we little runts, 1-3 year-old bare root or potted stock, when we plugged them into the ground.  Most survived some did not.

Today they're all grown-up.  A nice mix of maples and oaks.

The tamaracks seem to be running late this year.

 

 

    

Timber Stand Improvement

When we got married we gave ourselves a Husqvarna chainsaw as a wedding gift. That tool has a pile of miles on it. 

 

That winter of 1997-98 Jill and I dropped 200 ancient and decrepit bigtooth aspen along a portion of the north property line. That disturbance caused this to happen. 

 

 

And a brand-new and vastly larger stand of healthy thriving trees materialized. Thousands of trees; free for nuth’n!

 

A golden stand of aspen in the autumn sunshine is easy on the eyes.

 

Without going full bible I’m mindful of Lazarus.