Home » Open thread 8/20/21

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Open thread 8/20/21 — 40 Comments

  1. Often used to ride along a bike trail when I lived near Seattle, and it was not uncommon for the multitude of Canadian Geese (basically, pooping machines with wings and feathers) that made that region their home 365 days per year (aren’t they supposed to migrant to warmer climes in winter??) to attempt to assault me as I rode by.
    Why?
    Who knows; I did nothing to provoke them.
    Me thinks they just have a nasty disposition.

    Several towns adjacent to and north and east of Lake Washington finally determined that a “health issue” had to be addressed; that issue was the goose poop on every square foot of any area with grass.
    They rounded up the geese and shipped them off to who knows where.

    Yea, one day – many years later – while driving my car in NJ I hit a Canadian Goose. I just assumed it would get out of the way; they can move amazingly fast when they have to.
    This bird was slow off the blocks.
    Was like a movie; feathers flying all over the place.

  2. In pictures posted over the years of Taliban fighters they always posed with their trusted AK-47’s and RPG’s. Hahaha, just as of this week I am noticing their current swag is the Colt M4 or M16 compliments of good ol’ Uncle Sam. Check it out.

  3. Branta canadensis is not so funny when it brings down aircraft. Captain Sullenberger’s plane was forced down in the Hudson when the engines ingested a number of Canada geese, which weigh more (as much as 12 pounds) than aircraft engines are designed to cope with. It was biologists at the Smithsonian who used DNA testing to conclusively identify the bird remains in the engines as Canada geese. Sully and his passengers were lucky; an Air Force plane at Elmendorf AFB in Alaska crashed in 1995 when it hit a flock of Canada geese during takeoff; all 24 crew members were killed.

    The numbers of Canada geese are difficult to reduce by sending them to the kitchen– they are not very tasty when cooked. One British source describes them as “amongst the most inedible of birds.” Ozzy Man might just try to throw one on the barbie and let us know how it comes out.

  4. om– Those geese really are pooping machines, as John Tyler says. They can spread avian flu as well as a couple other diseases; if they’re ever found to spread COVID-19, they may well end up as soylent geese– or maybe Fowlci will just mandate triple masking and social distancing for them (good luck enforcing the latter; they like to travel in flocks).

  5. I just read the transcript of the ABC Stephanopoulos Biden interview. Apparently ABC didn’t air a few things that weren’t particularly flattering for Biden. As you might imagine, lots of partially coherent rambling and stammering that can be challenging for the listener/reader to parse.

    I wish ABC didn’t feel the need to constantly protect Biden. At this point we’re all pretty familiar with Biden’s difficulties assembling and articulating thoughts. But it seems to be getting worse lately and I think the American people deserve to know.

  6. Something to look toward to:

    Afghanistan is what happened the first time the Biden Administration was exposed to a situation that wasn’t considered completely controlled and scripted and where the entire political/media establishment wasn’t covering up for them. And we’ve still got basically 3 1/2 years until Inauguration Day 2025.

    The coming disasters won’t all be flashy. Does anyone think the Biden Administration is going to be on top of making sure all the money in the infrastructure bill goes to actual infrastructure?

    Mike

  7. PA+Cat

    We have a lot of them around here too, large, large wild flocks that migrate down onto the Hanford Reservation along the Columbia River and large groupings (poopings) that hang out in the parks along the Columbia River here in town.

  8. om–

    Wouldn’t it be interesting to deport the geese to certain locations along the Potomac and let them leave their “editorial comments” for the Swamp Dwellers to step in?

  9. Thanks I needed that.
    I grew up in Oregon and these bastards do indeed gather in large numbers and leave a giant pile of glutinous poo in their wake.

  10. Bodies of water in which I used to swim and/or frolic in SE PA have forbidden swimming/frolicking due to the amount of Canadian Goose fecal matter in the water. A bike trail very near my home is unusable in certain parts because of the huge amounts of green goopy poop left behind by these birds.

    Are these birds still considered “protected” by the EPA?

  11. Steph–

    From what I could find out, the USDA Wildlife Services Agency has carried out culls of Canada geese in densely populated urban areas, municipalities, and private lands with owners who object to the geese’s aggressive behavior and waste products. Destroying the birds’ nests and removing their eggs are considered humane population control measures. I don’t know what the EPA might allow or disallow– it seems to depend on whether the critters are considered an invasive species in the area where they’re causing trouble.

  12. The numbers of Canada geese are difficult to reduce by sending them to the kitchen– they are not very tasty when cooked.

    Sheer piffle. Wild gunned canada goose from Eastern shore MD., roasted on a Weber kettle for Thanksgiving dinner was the best tasting meat I’ve had.

  13. I’ve made a few trips to Maryland’s Eastern shore to collect some geese for the Thanksgiving table. Meh . . they’re are OK, a bit on the dryish side as I recall but still fun to hunt. Ahhh, the real treat were the crabs offered up at some outdoor crab shack in St. Michaels . . a wooden mallet and some melted butter, just heaven.

  14. For some good fun dunkin’ on Obama. It’s not quite “Darkness at Noon,” but Taibbi has some confessing to do.
    ___________________________________

    The Vanishing Legacy of Barack Obama:

    On the road from stirring symbol of hope and change to the Fat Elvis of neoliberalism, birthday-partying Barack Obama sold us out

    Obviously, getting rich and not giving a shit anymore is the birthright of every American. But this wasn’t supposed to be in the script for Obama, whose remarkable heel turn has been obscured by the Trump years, which incidentally were at least partly his fault. The history books and the still-starstruck press will let him skate on this, but they shouldn’t.

    Obama did that. He sold us out, and it’s time to start talking about the role he played in bringing about the hopeless cynical mess that is modern America.

    I fell for it. In 2007 and 2008, as Obama crisscrossed the country organizing a bold palace coup to snatch away the Democratic Party from the Clintons, I took the bait. Sent to trail him for Rolling Stone, I recognized I was witnessing a brilliant marketing campaign, a political magic trick, but talked myself into believing the illusion was for the good of the country, and the world.

    https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-vanishing-legacy-of-barack-obama-147

  15. Are any of you listening to Jo-Jo’s “remarks” on Afghanistan? He’s actually taking questions from reporters (carefully preselected, no doubt).

  16. Yes, PA Cat, but he’s sidestepping even the preselected questions. It’s still not his fault, and they prepared well, and he has no explanation for why things went so badly.

  17. Canada Geese are quite aggressive. Even my large English Springer Spaniel, nominally a bird dog, gives them a wide berth. And the poop problem is real and terrible. We live in a far-suburban neighborhood. My husband shoots squirrels off the feeders with a pellet gun. He’d do the same for any Canada Geese who use us as a landing strip.

  18. Re: Obama…..

    TommyJay:

    Every year or two I revisit that dreadful celebrity “I Pledge” video from 2008 after Obama was elected to remember how truly bizarre that time was.

    –“Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher’s I Pledge Video”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51kAw4OTlA0

    “Because we’re all in this together…” or at least until someone shows up to disagree with us and the Messiah. Then we’ll have to doxx them and stomp them and make sure they never work again.

  19. PA+Cat,

    Your description of planes obliterating geese reminded me of Randy Johnson’s famous fastball encounter with a seagull. One of the most incredible instances of unfortunate timing ever cut on film. I went to YouTube looking for a link to share, and lo and behold! ESPN did the “top ten” bird encounters in sports. I knew of none of the others. Fairly short video and I found it amusing and Johnson was only #3!
    https://youtu.be/vtjVrt-1VGo

  20. John Guilfoyle:

    Don’t forget starlings!
    ________________________________________

    … in 1890, a German immigrant named Eugene Schieffelin decided it would be a great idea to introduce as many of Shakespeare’s birds as possible to North America.

    One cold winter’s day he released 60 starlings into New York’s Central Park in the hope they would start breeding.

    Unfortunately, they did.

    The US is now home to an estimated 200 million European starlings. Thickset and pugnacious, starlings are the bruisers of the avian world.

    And they are now such a nuisance they are one of the few bird species unprotected by law.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27055030
    ________________________________________

    Somehow I love the Shakespeare connection.

  21. In totally unrelated news the Australian Government is calling its shiny new purpose-built Covid Quarantine Camps “Centres for National Resilience”.

  22. What is this constitution thing that you live under in Hog Kong? Shill.

    You seem to hate what you don’t have and don’t understand. Fancy that.

  23. @Huxley:

    Germans and their Enthusiasms.

    Plus they wake up early and bag all best poolside spots. Not an urban myth. Has to be seen to be believed.

    Liegensraum.

  24. Canada Goose winter wear brand is on the way to becoming Big in China. That ought to take care of a large number of geese.

    Are they any good roasted? This is what geese were invented for:

    http://yuekee.com.hk/

  25. Zaphod:

    No, they are not good roasted, which is probably one of the reasons there are so many of them.

  26. Griffin:

    Very brave indeed. How dare she interrupt the struggle session scripted propaganda session of Antifa/BLM. The dude in the wheelchair is a fixture of the Antifa brown shirts of Portland. The Antifa have had free reign in Portland since 2015/16 IIRC.

  27. Shameless Shill for Curtis Yarvin’s Substack:

    https://graymirror.substack.com/

    (Subscriber Content below, so only excerpted a teaser.)

    “In the ideal future for libs, they are dethroned—America is no longer their country; the world is no longer their planet; the future is no longer their future—but not punished. Our lovely creeks and streams are not fouled with their remains. Our kids will be able to play at the beach without worrying that they’ll find a femur, or something.

    To the contrary: the libs must be both controlled, and cherished. This task can only be solved by a regime as gentle as it is strong, as smart as it is implacable, and as creative as it is traditional.

    Patrolled but still respected, the libs become a kind of elf-society—an important piece of any nation, but one that holds itself aloof. It is dangerous to know elves too well; yet they prefer not to interfere in human questions. We have the 20th century to remind us what happens when they try.”

  28. Afghanistan, more of the same lies revealed. Biden demented – more of 4he same liars.

    Is there anything really newsworthy today? How about January 6th?

    A Reuters story on Friday cites FBI sources saying there really was no grand seditious conspiracy at work then – only minor plotters and mostly isolated people. (Or maybe the Left’s hand is too visible in whatever they’ve found and are letting the Right off easy to avoid having to reveal the Truest guilty in that cluster-mess? One wonders.)

    “Though federal officials have arrested more than 570 alleged participants, the FBI at this point believes the violence was not centrally coordinated by far-right groups or prominent supporters of then-President Donald Trump, according to the sources, who have been either directly involved in or briefed regularly on the wide-ranging investigations.

    ” ‘Ninety to ninety-five percent of these are one-off cases,’ said a former senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. ‘Then you have five percent, maybe, of these militia groups that were more closely organized. But there was no grand scheme with Roger Stone and Alex Jones and all of these people to storm the Capitol and take hostages.’

    [Tyler Durden at Zerohedge comments:] “But that’s not even the most disappointing bit for Pelosi, who is trying to use her Jan. 6 Committee to punish GOP colleagues. Because the FBI also told Reuters that there’s no evidence that Trump, or people around him, were involved in organizing the unrest.

    Reuters again: “But the FBI has so far found no evidence that [Trump] or people directly around him were involved in organizing the violence, according to the four current and former law enforcement officials.”
    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-fbi-finds-scant-evidence-us-capitol-attack-was-coordinated-sources-2021-08-20/

  29. If only the Democrat party controlled all of the media in the USA, sort of like the CCP in the PRC, things would be better? Not to be blunt, but is this comment allowed? 🙂

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