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John Maxwell

Michael McLeod

lol jack

John Maxwell

Michael McLeod

Dave: Just seeing now that you applauded two cellos.

Those guys are amazing. I've seen them down here a couple of times, not for a while though.

Timothy Lavelle

Do you have a significant other than needs shootin'? 

The decision to drive to northern California to see the in-laws was made. NOT by me but OK, not part of this story. The night before departing on 2 July, I am advised by "She Who Is Significant" that the average temp in Chico will be 110 degrees." One day it was 117 in the afternoon. Returning to the best weather in the USA has been a real treat. You never know what you got until you get 117 degres in Chico to compare it to.

But of more importance...as an Independant voter it is saddening to see the Democratic party currently with its hair on fire. Why do we do that?...light our hair on fire and tun in circles...listen to people who have either limited backbone for a struggle...listen to George Clooney for eff's sake because he is a handsome well paid actor?? I am saddened that someone cannot stand up and say "Yeah, he had a crap night but HE is the one who lead us to defeat Big Or'nge when His Bigness owned the Whitehouse. Doesn't that fact AND your terror of this meglomaniac amount to more than enough to stand up and laugh out loud and say "Bring It On!" " I hope all interested will remember this "Joe may not be what he was but Trump will ALWAYS be what he is". 

Thank you. This moment brought to you by Independants for Biden. Now returning you to our previously scheduled broadcast. 

Joseph D. McCarthy

Whine whine whine.  So Chico had their usual few days of high, brought on by that non-existent climate change.  Wait a couple of days and it will be back to the 80's.  Of course it is slightly better than monsoons in the Nortwest (Washington), or the hurricanes traversing the midwest on their way out of Texas (Ain't no climate change in Texas - they passed a law, among many, about that.)  So don't whine.

Timothy Lavelle

You're right Joe, I shouldn't whine. After all, Washington did lose 15,000+ people from the state in 2023 time frame. And you did live in Portland once upon-a so you've seen some rain. But id you ever notice that coastal Washington has almost a weather bubble from the Pacific current? Don't know if Portland enjoyed that slightly cooling effect or not

Pardon me...What's that you say? California lost approximately 75,000 during the same time frame? Five times as many as Washington? Surely you must be kidding? 

"BUT Tim, what about as a percntage of the population" asks Joe. (Joe didn't exactly use "Tim" but that's another story.) 

Well Joe, both states lost an amazingly similar percentage of total population...75K of your 39 million souls, 15K of our 7.6 million bods or suspiciously, 19/100ths of 1 percent which seems like internet BS but that's what the figures show. 

That also shows that this whole post is nonsense and needs rethinking. 

Now back to Walter Cronkite who reports the news without telling you what to believe, how you should vote or what god to believe in. Like, NO point of view other than factual presentation of current events.  Yeah Mike, comin' at you! 

David Mitchell

I wonder how difficult it would be to set an age limit for serving in offiice (Pres., V.Pres., House & Senate)?

and oh yes, the Supreme Court?  I asume you have heard of them by now.

Hey, and why not elect that group too? I was not an Obama fan but when uncle Mitch delayed that appointment until THE Donald got in was pretty unethical if you ask me. 

Wouldn't 70 be a nice round number?  Or maybe even 65 to run? That would allow some senators to sit there until 71 or 72. But oh well. 

And for crying out loud - how are they allowed to trade in stocks while in office. Or rent out their hotels to foreign dignitaries. Or take those expensive vacations from "friends of the court".  

--------------------------------

(meanwhile, I wonder how Jared is making out with that $2 billion "investment" from those sweet guys with the funny towels over their heads?)

John Jackson

Still not sure how the post-debate drama will play out with the Dems but I’ll take a diminished Biden over a deranged Trump any day.  And I watched Biden’s news conference tonight – he made a few inconsequential stumbles but he showed a grasp of foreign policy issues (appropriate to discuss at the end of the NATO summit) that put him in an entirely different league than Trump (admirer of Putin and infatuated with Kim Jong Un).  

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

James Hamilton, M. D.

Maternity Ward

Everyone has rabbits in their yards but, it seems to me that there has been an extraordinary number of them in our neighborhood this year. There also has not been as many fawns as in the past. I am unsure of why this happened. Perhaps it has to do with this past winter weather and/or food supplies. 

Whatever, nature usually will sustain a certain "carrying capacity" (the k-factor) for each species with regards to water, food supply and predation in any local geopraphic area.

The attached photo is of a Mountain Mahogany bush, not uncommon in Colorado, but one of the few in our neighborhood and it is in our backyard. It is not the prettiest of bushes but seems to be very hearty in this climate. This one peaks out at about 8-10 feet tall depending on how high our arborist caps it each fall. The branches below the leafy areas are an entangled mass of dense, tightly woven bare growth that is difficult to see through. However, small birds seem to expertly fly right through that bush without difficulty. Who knows what critters live under its canopy but I know I have released a few lizards and (non-venomous) snakes there over the years.

Any way, back to the bunnies. 

This bush provides a lot of protection to these smaller mammals as large birds (owls, hawks, etc.) and bigger predators (foxes, coyotes, bobcats) are unable to pursue the bunnies who find refuge in the twisted maze of underbrush provided by the bush. 

The Mahogany also has become a protected maternity ward for the pregnant rabbits. Later the baby bunnies are extruded from the bush like new stars are from a nebula! The small, weaned newborns will come out for short periods in the morning to feed on the grasses and wildflowers which grow in close proximitry to the bush but will scurry back into the entanglement should any danger approach. 

Nature never fails to amaze me as to how everything interacts with the enviornment and among the various species. 

Maybe I should not throw any more snakes into the bush!

Jim

Michael McLeod

Be interesting to see a story posing the question of whether when baby boomers phase out we will leave behind a country better or worse than the one we were born into. 

obviously there would be as many in one column as the other in that story.

and no I'm not writing it.

just scanning the scene.

we are clearly a more contentious country now than I can remember us ever being.

but I cherish the diversity that has grown around us since we arrived.

Jim: It's "have" not "has" in your rapidly reproducing bunny story. The first and the last "has" is ok. It's the second and third usage of "has" I'm referring to. That called for the plural, "have," and boy, are we ever talking plural both grammatically and in context. 

Just a weird little grammatical situation you stumbled into. It's the kind of tricky paragraph you could use in a grammar text. 

Any way, when I was young I never thought I'd love grammar. And I'm no scholar with it now. But as a writer I've come to love the logic of language. I remember our mother hammering it into us as children. It was a point of pride with her, and I love her for it still, even now more than then. I've had quite the checkered life but I'm happy I made her proud as a writer.

And finally - no I don't want to ruin a pretty morning with politics - but in light of the comment below and reading the paper today I got to a spit out my coffee moment when I read this paragraph, which Jim in particular might get a chuckle out of:

"Best of all for Republicans, a diminished Joe Biden seems determined to stay in the race, leading a dispirited and divided party that thinks of its presumptive nominee as one might think of a colonoscopy: an unpleasant reminder of age."

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike,

Thanks for the grammer lesson/reminder. For the sake of others reading my post and yours  I shall leave the mistakes there as a teaching point ☝️!

Jim

David Mitchell

Jim,

Wathc owt for dose Inglish Majors. There everiware.

Michael McLeod

Jim: 

Just be grateful your mistakes haven't been out there for thousands of readers to see. I've made my share, both in terms of grammar and accuracy. And you have to write up the correction yourself and put it in the next day's paper. 

Not fun.

Dave: You just keep pluggin' away there, sport. I see definite improvement.

John Maxwell

Michael McLeod

Somebody's getting chewed out about this.The surrounding buildings and their rooftops should have been checked out prior to that rally.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

An African-American male speaks out on the assasination attempt.. 

https://x.com/i/status/1812336159441535086

David Mitchell

An often bullied 20 year-old male with an AR.

Hmmmm, where have we heard that scenario before?

John Jackson

I agree with Dave – we’ve heard this story many, many times before - a bullied young man who ate alone in his high school lunchroom and who had access to his father's assault rifle - what could possibly go wrong?

And, MM, regarding your link to "an African American male speaking out on the assassination attempt",  I kept asking myself what the hell is this guy ranting about?  This is crazy talk.

Here's another view.  The author, David Frum, was a speechwriter for W (Bush 45) and worked at the  American Enterpise Instutute and The National Review.  He's a dyed in the wool conservative but a thoughtful one (a few years ago I posted a link to one of his earlier cover stories for The Atlantic entitled "How much Immigration is Too Much"?).  Like many/most thoughtful conservatives he's appalled at Trump (the tag line for this article is "Violence stalks the president who has rejoiced in violence to others"):

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/07/donald-trump-democracy-dictator/679006/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-atlantic-am&utm_term=The+Atlantic+AM

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

John, I was not going to respond to you initially, but since you have persisted in stating you have no idea what he is talking about or that it is just "crazy talk", I would suggest that perhaps you might rewatch the video. It has garnered over 10 million views in just two days, so clearly others had no problem grasping what he was expressing. In fact, he spoke extemporaneously without any notes or script and he did not miss a beat in describing his frustration with those who continually demnonize conservative voters as neo-Nazis or that "ultra" MAGA is violent and that Trump is set on destroying "democracy" (which by the way, America happens to be a Republic, not a government that rules by majority). He continues by pointing out that what is really at the bottom of the deplorable state of our nation and our politics today is that the policy players who use the government money as their cash cow (aka the "deep state" of both corrupt political parties and their allies in corporate America) know their "jig is up". They are now so desperate because every way they have tried to take out the one opponent who threatens their power and financial well-being, and willl likley expose their corrupt and unlawful ways, has failed. Where does that leave them with only three months to election day? 

In the end there is one guy who will make our "corrupt" political system stronger and one guy who intends to take the "corrupt" system out. 

P.S. Trump's classified documents case has been dismissed.

John Jackson

MM, I guess you have to live in conspiracy world  for this kind of stuff to make sense.  

And there is zero chance that the classified documents case won’t be reinstated on appeal.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Not really John, you just have to do a little bit of critical thinking & step outside of the politically correct narratives. There are millions upon millions of us out there & a good many of them are your BWHS classmates.🙂

John Jackson

MM, if your post of that guy's rant exemplifies critical thinking, no matter how many millions agree, God help us all.

David Mitchell

M/M

in the bottom of your post #14185 you say;

"In the end there is one guy who will make our "corrupt" political system stronger and one guy who intends to take the "corrupt" system out. "

I'm not sure which one is which - that phrasing is awkward. Are you asking that question, or are you quoting someone else's question?

Dazed and confused.

p.s. I have no intention of dying my hair purple.