I was taking my turn manning the lodge’s overnight campsite in the Kenai NWR where the river enters Skilak Lake when a cow moose wandered through, followed by her calf, which was both amazing and terrifying, since as others have noted they injure and kill more people in Alaska than the bears.
Also had a rather unnerving bear encounter there as well, but I’ll save that for another gif ... ;-)
Seriously, there's a moose park in Sweden where you are driven around on an old military trailer of some kind inside the moose enclosure and the moose pluck pieces of raw potato from your mouth (under close supervision of staff). Their muzzle is quite soft, and they have no upper front teeth.
They're quite dainty with the plucking.
Also seriously, as noted, stay away from moose in the wild. They're dangerous if cornered or if they have calves. Also they're presumably stressed by bipedal assholes.
They should probably close those parks down on general principles, although they're probably well-run and frequently inspected. The moose seemed relaxed and well-fed, true, and that park had many acres of enclosure to freely roam. But moose are evolved to roam far and do other moosey things not necessarily easy to do in a park.
There are records in Alaska of moose stopping cars on the backroads and just stomping them flat. The drivers escaped but for some reason the moose took against what they were driving.
When I went to Alaska a couple years back they warned us that brown and black bears are more likely to run away than be aggressive, but moose are fickle avatars of chaos who will stomp you into paste for no reason whatsoever. (Polar bears, OTOH, will rip your face off. And they're like 8 feet tall.)
Nothing like seeing one, or even the picture of one, in a parking lot to really bring that home. I've never seen one IRL despite the time I've spent in Maine, where my father lived. He saw them a couple times
Basil has a nice station. There's a grocery store downstairs and lots of eating and drinking places. I know this because I was stuck there on a frigid day in late December when my train to Strasbourg was cancelled, and I had hours to kill. Luckily the cold didn't kill me first.
you know, i don't get the 'politicians rush back from holiday to show concern thing' - i mean, we've been cutting all the funding for things you need like *checks notes* food and medicine, and we don't give a shit about the weather unless we can use it to say god is punishing a state for voting against us, so why would we cancel our tour of the parthenon just cos a few kids drowned? its not like they voted for us or anything
If my in-laws bring up the crap in LA, I'm going to fight that it was LEGAL kids of US citizens JUST LIKE US who were at park, doing a summer camp, and military just rolls in like the own the place, and how would she like it if her grandkids were at summer camp and the military came in without asking and started pointing guns at them?
Seems like Trump is taking lessons from Netanyahu on how to make LA into Gaza. (Note the spurious claims that "defeating anti-Semitism"' is a core intentional-affairs presidential power)
Apropos of nothing in particular, this para from Maddowblog's Steve Benen struck me as nigh onto a prefecture capsulation of MAGA:
"To know anything about contemporary conservative politics and the MAGA movement within the Republican Party is to acknowledge one thing: Conspiracy theories are the currency that drives, motivates, animates and inspires the right’s rank-and-file members...."
I haven't spent any time here this morning, so I suspect someone else may have posted about the latest bullshit from FFOTUS appointed officials - in this case, trying harder to eleiminate the separation between church and state:
"The IRS said in a new court filing that clergy and houses of worship should be allowed to make political endorsements, a potential move away from an 71-year-old tax policy that banned the mixing of religion and politics.
Banning nonprofits — including congregations — from participating in political campaigns violates the First Amendment’s protection of the right to the free exercise of religion and freedom of speech, IRS Commissioner Billy Long said in a court filing Monday in a Texas federal court case...."
Billy Long is the unqualified auctioneer appointed to be the IRS Commissioner - and is apparently either just another right wing Christianist or another FFOTUS toady
I suspect it's less the "institution" of the IRS, but Their MAGA "leader". Billy Long is yet another FFOTUSs appointee who should be doing time in a federal prison instead of driving policy at one of our essential government agencies.
"...After leaving Congress to mount an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, Long worked with a firm that distributed the pandemic-era employee retention tax credit. That tax credit program was eventually shut down after then-IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel determined that it was fraudulent.
Democrats called for a criminal investigation into Long’s connections to other alleged tax credit loopholes. The lawmakers allege that firms connected to Long duped investors into spending millions of dollars to purchase fake tax credits.
Long appeared before the Senate Finance Committee last month and denied any wrongdoing related to his involvement in the tax credit scheme.
Ahead of the confirmation vote, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles blasting the requisite FBI background check conducted on Long as a political appointee as inadequate...."
Gee, when have other Republicans been inadequately investigated before being confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate sucking up to the orange asshole?
The Big Blowies for Billionaires Bill increased the Gestapo’s budget by 17 times its current level of funding. Government-based terror is now limited only by the imaginations of those in charge. The lower courts are neutered, SCOTUS and Congress complicit.
Here they are, the Bad Times. We need to plan. We need leaders and we are leaderless.
I’m on a train into Basil, which gives me just enough time to post your hed gif info: https://martiniambassador.substack.com/p/hope-in-the-tulips
And meme chat: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/b8f5cebf-e3a7-4530-97d9-96b01ef8c3f8?utm_source=share
I was taking my turn manning the lodge’s overnight campsite in the Kenai NWR where the river enters Skilak Lake when a cow moose wandered through, followed by her calf, which was both amazing and terrifying, since as others have noted they injure and kill more people in Alaska than the bears.
Also had a rather unnerving bear encounter there as well, but I’ll save that for another gif ... ;-)
You're on a train into Basil? I hope you have a nice thyme.
Orignal!
(Quebecoisse. Such a lovelier animal name than "moose").
I hope that your train wasn't Fawlty.
Tha mookse and tha two lips
I kissed a moose and I liked it.
Seriously, there's a moose park in Sweden where you are driven around on an old military trailer of some kind inside the moose enclosure and the moose pluck pieces of raw potato from your mouth (under close supervision of staff). Their muzzle is quite soft, and they have no upper front teeth.
They're quite dainty with the plucking.
Also seriously, as noted, stay away from moose in the wild. They're dangerous if cornered or if they have calves. Also they're presumably stressed by bipedal assholes.
They should probably close those parks down on general principles, although they're probably well-run and frequently inspected. The moose seemed relaxed and well-fed, true, and that park had many acres of enclosure to freely roam. But moose are evolved to roam far and do other moosey things not necessarily easy to do in a park.
There are records in Alaska of moose stopping cars on the backroads and just stomping them flat. The drivers escaped but for some reason the moose took against what they were driving.
When I went to Alaska a couple years back they warned us that brown and black bears are more likely to run away than be aggressive, but moose are fickle avatars of chaos who will stomp you into paste for no reason whatsoever. (Polar bears, OTOH, will rip your face off. And they're like 8 feet tall.)
Moose in the wild are WAY more likely to kill you than a bear. And moose are HUGE.
Yes, the ones I have seen looked like a VW Bug on stilts!
Nothing like seeing one, or even the picture of one, in a parking lot to really bring that home. I've never seen one IRL despite the time I've spent in Maine, where my father lived. He saw them a couple times
Never heard of a moose in Sweden killing anyone. Apart from in traffic accidents where they land in the front seat.
Cows, though, have killed people.
I used to do MOOSEY things but got better!
"And now here's something we hope you'll REALLY like!"
WHAR SQUIRREL?
Pulling into Pesto station?
Luv moosies 🫎 Don't get up to Alaska anymore, so it has been a while.
Really love the screenshot from the Saskatoon Theatrical Society's adaptation of James Thurber's "The Unicorn in the Garden"
Man: I saw a moosicorn in the garden.
Wife: The moosicorn is a mythical beast!
Man: It was browsing the tulips
Wife: You are a booby, and you're going to end up in the booby hatch!
Pretty sure the wife would insist I run off any mythical beasts browsing her tulips.
Is long snouted fury pony, I wants to ride it!
As kids (10 years or so) I and the cousin tried to rope and ride the penned calves. Pissed off everything but us.
Try it! Let's see what happens.
Basil has a nice station. There's a grocery store downstairs and lots of eating and drinking places. I know this because I was stuck there on a frigid day in late December when my train to Strasbourg was cancelled, and I had hours to kill. Luckily the cold didn't kill me first.
You shouldn't have that problem today.
I wonder if those mooses.... er... meeses are tiptoeing....
"...don’t try moose cuddles at home!"
Sound advice... "Adult (moose) females weigh 800 to 1,300 pounds (364 to 591 kg)" and they keep fit, rigorous lifestyle and all...
I hope your train isn't fawlty.
Less Sybil, more Polly!
re:MacArthur Park. If we weren't already a laughingstock for the whole galaxy to point at, this would do it.
you know, i don't get the 'politicians rush back from holiday to show concern thing' - i mean, we've been cutting all the funding for things you need like *checks notes* food and medicine, and we don't give a shit about the weather unless we can use it to say god is punishing a state for voting against us, so why would we cancel our tour of the parthenon just cos a few kids drowned? its not like they voted for us or anything
(R's prolly)
🎶🎶green icing melting down 🎶.....
Great take on MacArthur Park/Mayor Bass, Editrix! She told them to leave and they left. Here is an excellent summary of what the bro gestapo have been up to in Cali: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/07/08/masked-armed-and-forceful-finding-patterns-in-los-angeles-immigration-raids/
If my in-laws bring up the crap in LA, I'm going to fight that it was LEGAL kids of US citizens JUST LIKE US who were at park, doing a summer camp, and military just rolls in like the own the place, and how would she like it if her grandkids were at summer camp and the military came in without asking and started pointing guns at them?
Seems like Trump is taking lessons from Netanyahu on how to make LA into Gaza. (Note the spurious claims that "defeating anti-Semitism"' is a core intentional-affairs presidential power)
Should I subscribe?
Should I follow?
Should I create an account?
Should I reward Meta/whatever with another user?
No no no no! Too skeerey! Too mahdun! Too ending the human race as we know it!
Felicia Day? Oooh, hello! Follow. Subscribe. I dunno what I done .. who cares! [Consistency is not all it's cracked up to be.]
A lickable rabies vaccine gel for bats is right up there with the marshmallow-flavored rabies vaccine that's been used in raccoon populations.
(We do love our sweets!)
SJ islands are my favorite getaway! Have a beautiful time!
Apropos of nothing in particular, this para from Maddowblog's Steve Benen struck me as nigh onto a prefecture capsulation of MAGA:
"To know anything about contemporary conservative politics and the MAGA movement within the Republican Party is to acknowledge one thing: Conspiracy theories are the currency that drives, motivates, animates and inspires the right’s rank-and-file members...."
I haven't spent any time here this morning, so I suspect someone else may have posted about the latest bullshit from FFOTUS appointed officials - in this case, trying harder to eleiminate the separation between church and state:
[ ARchive link to WaPo ] Link: https://archive.ph/2scXe
"The IRS said in a new court filing that clergy and houses of worship should be allowed to make political endorsements, a potential move away from an 71-year-old tax policy that banned the mixing of religion and politics.
Banning nonprofits — including congregations — from participating in political campaigns violates the First Amendment’s protection of the right to the free exercise of religion and freedom of speech, IRS Commissioner Billy Long said in a court filing Monday in a Texas federal court case...."
Billy Long is the unqualified auctioneer appointed to be the IRS Commissioner - and is apparently either just another right wing Christianist or another FFOTUS toady
The IRS makes a very broad assumption here. This may bite them in the ass. At least, it ought to.
I suspect it's less the "institution" of the IRS, but Their MAGA "leader". Billy Long is yet another FFOTUSs appointee who should be doing time in a federal prison instead of driving policy at one of our essential government agencies.
"...After leaving Congress to mount an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, Long worked with a firm that distributed the pandemic-era employee retention tax credit. That tax credit program was eventually shut down after then-IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel determined that it was fraudulent.
Democrats called for a criminal investigation into Long’s connections to other alleged tax credit loopholes. The lawmakers allege that firms connected to Long duped investors into spending millions of dollars to purchase fake tax credits.
Long appeared before the Senate Finance Committee last month and denied any wrongdoing related to his involvement in the tax credit scheme.
Ahead of the confirmation vote, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles blasting the requisite FBI background check conducted on Long as a political appointee as inadequate...."
Gee, when have other Republicans been inadequately investigated before being confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate sucking up to the orange asshole?
Bit of trivia found at a clickbait site:
"𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐠𝐬
We share 90% of our DNA with cats, but only 84% with dogs..."
Might help explain why Caturday is so popular around here.
"And they stayed until Sunday morning, beating the stress with a Saturday night tour of the Parthenon?"
If ever there was a moment for one of those anti-mass tourism protests with an arsenal of squirt guns...
The Big Blowies for Billionaires Bill increased the Gestapo’s budget by 17 times its current level of funding. Government-based terror is now limited only by the imaginations of those in charge. The lower courts are neutered, SCOTUS and Congress complicit.
Here they are, the Bad Times. We need to plan. We need leaders and we are leaderless.
fah. My laptop died early last week and I can't get into my original account for some reason, so this is a new account.