Jesse Zaneveld

A hover fly resting on a green slender leaf. It has black and yellow bee-mimicking stripes on its abdomen, but distinctly fly shaped wings amd eyes.

I also really love Hover Flies

Hard same! Post yer (native) bees (and flies! And wasps!)

Please make a terrible ruckus about this, if you live in Oregon

Interesting backstory around Fetterman, Lamb, and Kenyatta in the 2022 Senate election:

Did you know that the bees that need saving are NOT honeybees?

Honeybees are the dairy cows of bees. People brought them over from Europe to make us honey.

The problem with honeybees, esp in resource-limited ecosystems (like hey! cities!) is that they compete with our native bees for food.

"There’s nothing preemptive about these strikes [on Iran], and there’s certainly no legitimate self-defense claim."

Read the latest piece by international law expert @alonso-gd.bsky.social on the reasons why Trump's war on Iran is illegal.

Read here: zeteo.com/p/internatio...

the war is unpopular but it's also illegal but it also doesn't serve any purpose but it also undermines diplomacy but it also is set to produce the opposite outcome as intended but it also already has hundreds dead and threatens more but it also will not make anything better for anyone but it also

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight Public Media: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

It's not even that weird vs other countries: UK spends ~$100/person/year on public media vs <$2 in the US.

John Olivwr had a good discussion of this huge spending deficiency and it's ties to democracy:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=yknM...

On the plus side, Fox News revenues are only about $13 billion/year.

Eternal public or independent media endowments of Fox News size cost at maximum a one-time government investment of $260 billion.

At 5% interest $260b -> $13b / year, forever.

Jan 6th happened almost exactly 25 years after Fox News was founded.

A 30 year old rioter could have that be the main news they heard since they were 5.

+ in historically Palestinian ("mixed") cities, Arabs are shunned from, and harassed at bomb shelters.

This picture was taken by my dad this morning, outside a bomb shelter in Ramleh. The sign reads "Gaza is ours, forever!".

What the hell are we even doing here?

Just sickening, monstrous atrocities for no discernible reason.

If I was a squirrel I would be so proud of my tail. Flick flick flick. Look at this beautiful thing

Heal Minds Gaza: empowering Palestinian children who were in detention Palestinian children in Israeli occupation prisons face severe psychological violence that deeply impacts their sense of safety, identity, and community after their detention. The Heal Minds Gaza…

The sooner we get this funded, the sooner this project can help Palestinian kids who were in prison!!! We have a MONTH to fund this multi-day mental health intervention for these kids. Let's do it.

Support goes towards materials and facilitation!! chuffed.org/project/hmg

Trump officials move to kill system that protects US from chemical disasters EPA rolls back rules as chemical firms claim provisions in RMP protection system too expensive to implement

Speaking of "pro-consumer:"

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Demanding $1700/ person refunds for money taken in illegal tariffs seems like a pretty good line of attack.

This week's cover @thelancet.com

Democrats in four states seek to bar ICE employees from future civil service jobs Bills aim to make ICE employees ineligible for jobs in law enforcement, public education and state civil service

this is the way

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

To be clear this would be encouraging Senate colleagues to mirror (hypothetical) aggressive tactics / media-friendly protests by House... and I know/agree both are quite limited. Really main idea I think is likely to try to align intensity of action with statements about threat to Democracy.

For unanimous consent, the thing I think a House member might try to do is a) public moral suasion b) private encouragement for party elites to use confrontational tools to stop key bills or retaliate for authoritarian moves. Could fail or be ignored, of course! Could also push tactics to shift.

Texas House Democrats flee the state in bid to block GOP’s proposed congressional map - The Texas Tribune The lawmakers’ absence means the lower chamber won’t have enough members present to function, stalling passage of a draft map Democrats have condemned as a political power grab.

Totally agree house minority has very, very little hard power. Does need quorum, though. I think breaking quorum is a high risk move but does force intensive media coverage. e.g. the Texas D walkout was likely a factor in Virginia retaliatory redistricting.

www.texastribune.org/2025/08/03/t...

After Republican Protest, Oregon's Climate Plan Dies On the fifth day the Republican state senators have skipped the session in protest over a cap-and-trade bill, the Senate's Democratic president said the bill would expire in the Senate chamber.

Here's a link to the 2019 Oregon walkout: www.npr.org/2019/06/25/7...

I mean I think the argument would be that in cases like the ICE funding bill or egregiously unqualified appointments you should deny unanimous consent or break quorum to slow everything to a halt until the bill is withdrawn....

Oregon R's blocked a major climate bill this way in '19 for example.

To any Democrat who ever said about any issue, "Maybe if we agree with Republicans just this far, they'll stop there," remember that you were wrong, it was obvious at the time, and you really should never believe that again about any issue, ever.

It’s not just curtailing the right to drive. Think about all the countless things that require someone to show a driver’s license. This harmful impact of this is HUGE.

These are “low enrollment” majors but the classes are regularly at capacity. They changed the funding structure a few years ago here, switching the allocation from course enrollments to majors then blamed these departments for a structural, top-down change. This is entirely a political choice.

They beat a blind refugee who speaks no English for failing to obey police commands he could not understand. Then instead of apologizing, they charged him with possession of a “weapon”—HIS WALKING STICK. Then they dumped him miles from home without notifying anyone, after which he was found dead.

prospect park ravine path tonight