Snips & Toons & The King

Trump’s rat

Senator Lindsey Graham is spotted enjoying Disney World

Ann Telnaes Mar 30, 2026

Trump’s war cheerleader chows down breakfast at Chef Mickey’s.


He was arrested while repainting Dallas’ rainbow crosswalks. He’d do it all again

Before he was detained, Mason Whiteside, 25, said he spray-painted more than a dozen crosswalks.

By Jamie Landers

Mason Whiteside of Carrollton poses for a photo in front of the Oak Lawn United Methodist Church, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Dallas. Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer

It was already dark when Mason Whiteside finished his workday at a Deep Ellum brewery. By the time he was done cleaning and closing up, it was nearing midnight, but there was another job to do.

Whiteside, 25, called a Waymo to take him to Oak Lawn, where he’d lugged a backpack full of chalk and spray paint: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

“Does anyone want to color with me?” Whiteside asked as people walked by.

No one stopped. He didn’t need them to.

Over the course of three and a half hours, Whiteside alone repainted more than a dozen crosswalks, what he considered a vibrant act of defiance less than 24 hours after the city began stripping the roads of their color. Dallas is among several Texas cities complying with a state directive to remove “political ideologies” from public roadways.

“I wasn’t hurting anybody,” Whiteside, who is queer, told The Dallas Morning News Tuesday. “I didn’t damage anything. I literally just put back the same things that had been there.” (snip-a bit MORE; click the title)


Idris and Sabrina Elba are on a mission to transform an entire West African island 

Off the coast of Sierra Leone, the actor and model are fighting against tourists traps with their own vision: a tropical “eco-city” of the future.

Sherbro Island, a tropical outpost of farmers and fishermen nestled in the crook of Sierra Leone’s arcing Atlantic coastline, is about the size of Chicago, but its population of 40,000 wouldn’t even fill Wrigley Field. Electrical power and wireless internet are scarce. Fishermen can’t refrigerate their catches long enough to sell them on the mainland, and farmers often lack the expertise and equipment to harvest much more than they need to survive. But Sherbro Island has some enviable resources, including miles of unblemished beaches and lagoons, as well as an abundance of replenishable fresh water.

One other invaluable asset: the support of Golden Globe–winning British actor Idris Elba and his wife, Canadian model Sabrina Elba. The couple see an opportunity there to marry ecological sustainability with economic growth in a way they hope can be a template for development projects across Africa—and perhaps help rewrite a whole continent’s narrative. Idris’s father is from Sierra Leone, Sabrina’s mother is from Somalia, and growing up, Sabrina says, “there were particular stigmas attached with being African.” She remembers seeing ads that seemed to show abject people waiting for a handout. “We wanted to see Africa represented the way that we knew it to be,” she says. “We wanted to change the storytelling.”

Her husband—known for the baritone potency he brings to prestige TV dramas like Luther and The Wire, along with films like last year’s critically acclaimed thriller A House of Dynamite—first heard about Sherbro Island years ago. A close family friend had tried to convince him it could become a world-class holiday destination. “At that juncture, I was just like, Oh, OK, that sounds interesting,” says Idris, 53, who co-owns a wine bar in London’s King’s Cross neighborhood. “Like, maybe I’ll build a nightclub, maybe build some tourism.” He made a mental note to visit someday.

He got the opportunity in 2019, while he and Sabrina, now 37, were in Sierra Leone touring small family farms as part of their ambassadorial roles with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). It was during that trip, Idris says, that he had something of an epiphany. He’d been venturing into philanthropy as his celebrity grew: supporting childhood education and hunger-relief programs in Africa, as well as campaigning on behalf of at-risk youths in the United Kingdom (work for which he was recently knighted). But on that trip, the Elbas saw an opportunity to build something more enduring and meaningful than a fancy vacation spot—and “to reframe the conversation,” Sabrina says, “[from] one of aid to one of investment.” (snip-a little more on the page; click through on the title, please)


Wrong Island

Everyone’s talking about Kharg Island, but there’s another island we should not forget about.

Clay Jones


In Regard To The Earlier DPA Post; The FL Execution:



Tuesday’s execution in Florida WILL NOT take place as scheduled but the warrant remains open until noon on April 7.

Our Twitter post: WHAT IF WE GOT IT WRONG? Florida’s own DNA expert says further DNA testing is warranted. #JamesDuckett’s 3/31 execution by #Florida is stayed BUT he may still be killed by April 7. He has always claimed innocence.

Petition: bit.ly/JamesDuckett 
#StopExecutions

We will keep you updated.  

A #No Kings Report

No Kings 3, fuck yeah

massive protests coast to coast — and country to country

Jeff Tiedrich

let’s start off with a bang, and put the hero of the day right up top. ladies and gents, I give you the Poet Laureate of No Kings Day.

‘see you later, alligator. at your trial, pedophile’ — now that’s a message we can all get behind.

we did it again, folks. in fact, We the People outdid ourselves. yesterday’s No Kings 3 was the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.

over eight million of us gathered peacefully coast to coast, to rise up as one and convey a singular message: fuck you, you fucking fuck — you’re not our king.

wait, did I say coast to coast? no, it was the entire world telling Donny Convict to fuck straight off.

HAPPENING NOW: A HUGE crowd has gathered in London, England for a protest against the far right in coordination with the No Kings day protests in the US

[image or embed]— alexjungle.bsky.social (@alexjungle.bsky.social) March 28, 2026 at 10:07 AM

and at the Bastille in Paris.

In 1789, furious protesters stormed the Bastille in Paris. This marks the start of the French Revolution that put an end to the highly corrupt, rotten regime of aristocrats and the ultra rich. Yesterday, thousands joined a #NoKings protest at the Bastille.

[image or embed]— Hendrik Klaassens #FBPE #FBR #BanX (@aurorablogspot.bsky.social) March 29, 2026 at 4:39 AM

Scotland fucking loathes Donny.

Solidarity from #Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇺🇸 #NoKings

[image or embed]— Dial M for Madeye 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇮🇪 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@carnaptiousmadeye.bsky.social) March 29, 2026 at 1:32 AM

so does Portugal.

Germany’s seen this movie before, and they want no part of its sequel.

two stalwarts showed up in the town of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.

holy shit, there was even one homey who parked himself in front of the US embassy in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

this dude fucking rules. he held the exact same one-person protest during the previous No Kings Day last October.

meanwhile, back here in the US of A, the crowds were gi-fucking-normous.

of course, Boston is in the major leagues when it comes to protesting. they’ve been perfecting this shit since 1773.

another two hundred thousand showed up at the rally in the Twin Cities.

We are estimating more than 200,000 people at the flagship No Kings rally in the Twin Cities. #NoKings

[image or embed]— Indivisible ❌👑 (@indivisible.org) March 28, 2026 at 2:37 PM

while we’re in the Twin Cities, you need to hear this chunk from comedian Lizz Winstead’s great speech.

“I’m so proud of you. you chased out of this state pure evil. you chased them out. you chased out the fun-size fascist Greg Bovino. you chased out that evil Kristi Noem. Kristi Noem is so evil, I’m starting to think that that dog took his own life. just couldn’t take it. ‘is this my future? I need to get out. I’m taking the goat with me.’”

Times Square in New York City was packed to the gills.

so was Chicago.

San Francisco does not screw around. at Ocean Beach, protesters formed a human banner telling Donny to get the fuck out.

check out deeply-red Boise, Idaho, folks. even Republicans are fed up with this shit.

Bill Kristol, who used to be the biggest neocon in the world and is now an actual goddamned social progressive, was in Waltham, MA.

huge crowds were everywhere — except for one place: the CPAC conference in Texas.

while millions of people were protesting the fucked-up reign of Mad King Donny, CPAC couldn’t even fill one small room. look at this clownfuckingly pathetic display.

it’s as if Sad Trombone became a real political party.

now let’s check out some heroes — like this dude in Seattle.

we definitely need to gif this hilarious shit for posterity’s sake.

it was raining frogs in the District of Columbia.

we’re going to need to gif that shit, too.

handmaidens bearing the names of Jeffrey Epstein’s degenerate BFFs showed up in Nashville.

there’s no way we’re not giffing that shit.

hey, do you know who can go fuck themselves all the way to Mars? the Los Angeles Police Department, that’s who. these goons couldn’t make it through the day without arresting a protester who was dressed up as the Statue of Liberty.

A remarkable photo from #NoKings in DTLA from Connor Sheets of @latimes.com http://www.latimes.com/california/l…

[image or embed]— sam³⁰⁰⁰ (@samgavin.com) March 28, 2026 at 9:09 PM

great optics, you guys. bravo. ten out of ten — no notes.


fuck those fucking fucks. let’s go out with a bang. here are some of the best protest signs from around the country.

and finally, once again, our unknown poet laureate from Ellsworth, Maine.


as for Sundowning Grandpa Bugfuck, he was unusually silent — and nowhere to be seen. there were none of his usual protest-day batshit meltdowns on the feed of his crappy app. he couldn’t even be bothered to post AI slop of himself shitting on protesters, as he did last October.

he just spent the day holed up in Motel-a-Lago. according to his official schedule, the lazy fuck didn’t even bother to cheat at golf.

I’ve got a news flash for you, Donny: America is sick of you. aside from your brain-dead cultists who are too fucking stupid to understand what’s going on, nobody voted for this shit.

nobody voted for the historic and stately East Wing to be demolished so that you can replace it with some vulgar Epstein Dance Hall™ — and speaking of your dead pedo bestie, nobody voted for the continuing cover-up of a massive pedophile ring.

nobody voted for off-the-charts corruption and greed.

nobody voted for masked ICE thugs teargassing children, and murdering anyone who looks at them funny. nobody voted for innocent immigrants to be disappeared off the streets and shipped off to far-away slave-labor gulags.

nobody voted for the price of everything continuing to skyrocket — especially when you promised bring all that shit down on Day One.

nobody voted for our allies to be insulted and ignored, or for Ukraine to be thrown to the wolves, or for Greenland to be perpetually harassed, or for Venezuela to become a vassal state.

and nobody voted for an unwinnable clusterfuck of a don’t-you-dare-call-it-a-war in Iran — certainly not one that shut down the Strait of Hormuz, destabilized the entire Middle East, and sent the price crude through the roof.

guess what, Donny: you’re such a loathsome piece of shit that over eight million people took to the streets yesterday to deliver this singular message: fuck you, you fucking fuck — you’re not our king, and you never will be.

boo fucking hoo, bro. sucks to be you.


have a great Sunday, everyone. you earned it.

Republican Vampire Can’t Sell This

Idaho Legislature passes bill to criminalize trans people using preferred bathrooms

Project 2025 was very clear.  The goal is to remove all representation of LGBTQ+ people from society.  Pride flags are determined to be political incitement and agitation; media representation and books with even an LGBTQ+ character are called sexualizing children while the same with straight kids is not, and letting a child express how they deeply feel inside by letting them change their hairstyle and clothing is called child abuse while doing the discredited / harmful conversion therapy to force a person of any age to be straight and cis is considered to be healthy for the child. Lies  are spread constantly about puberty blockers by people who misrepresent what these medical studies show or only claim in fake medical studies that have no peer reviewed status by medical personnel in that field of study. The goal is to do what Russia, Hungary, and several other highly religious authoritarian countries have done, which is to wipe the existence of anything not straight and not cis from being. I  don’t know if this is due to their being highly religious and wanting to force everyone in the country to live by their church doctrines or if they just are straight / cis so they don’t think if they don’t feel it that it can’t be true.  I ran into that decades ago as a gay man with straight people claiming everyone was straight because they were and that was normal, but some people choose to be weird deviants and have bad types of sex.  But if you ask them when they chose to be straight they think it is a stupid question as they never chose; they just were.  Clips below.  Hugs

“They go in the bathroom they’re supposed to, they upset people. If they go in the one that they now look like, they’re breaking the law, which could include pretty severe penalties” Guthrie told senators. “ … We seem to be really focused on this space and ignoring the fact that there are people that are just like us, human beings, just like us. What are they supposed to do?”

‘Do I feel like going to jail today, or do I feel like being attacked?’ trans man testifies

The bill builds on a wave of anti-LGTBQ+ bills that the Legislature and the governor have approved in recent years. 

This week, the Legislature sent the governor a bill to fine the city of Boise for flying an LGBTQ+ pride flag, despite a state law last year banning the display on government property. The Senate is also one of the last stops for a bill that would require school officials and health professionals to out transgender minors to their parents, or face lawsuits.

“Over the last several years, legislators have gone from refusing to protect us to actively targeting us,” Nikson Mathews, who serves as chair of the Idaho Democratic Queer Caucus, said at a news conference in February.

“Every single day when I’m out in public, I have to decide: Do I feel like going to jail today, or do I feel like being attacked,” Mathews told lawmakers. 

———————————————————————————————————————————————

https://idahocapitalsun.com/2026/03/27/idaho-legislature-passes-bill-to-criminalize-trans-people-using-preferred-bathrooms/

Bill — which would make Idaho one of few states with criminal trans bathroom bans — heads to Gov. Brad Little for final consideration

By:March 27, 20263:19 pm
A bathroom sign as seen on March 16, 2026, at the State Capitol Building in Boise

 A bathroom sign as seen on March 16, 2026, at the State Capitol Building in Boise. (Photo by Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)

The Idaho Legislature widely approved a bill that would criminalize “willfully” entering public and government bathrooms and changing rooms designated for another sex.

The bill — which heads to Gov. Brad Little for final consideration — would effectively block transgender people from using their preferred public bathrooms in Idaho, expanding on the state’s transgender bathroom ban in public schools.

House Bill 752 would create criminal misdemeanor and felony charges for people who “knowingly and willfully” enter a bathroom or changing room designated for the opposite sex, with some exceptions. The bill would apply in government-owned buildings and places of public accommodations, like private businesses. 

A first offense would carry a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison. A second offense within five years would be a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

Only three states — Utah, Florida and Kansas —  have criminal bans on trans people using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group. 

In a statement, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates — Idaho called the bill “the most extreme anti-transgender bathroom ban in the nation.”

One Republican opposed the bill in the Senate

In the Idaho Senate, the bill passed on a near-party line 28-7 vote Friday, with all six Democrats opposing. One Republican, Sen. Jim Guthrie, from McCammon, broke with Republicans support of the bill. 

He called legislation like it “harmful.”

“They go in the bathroom they’re supposed to, they upset people. If they go in the one that they now look like, they’re breaking the law, which could include pretty severe penalties” Guthrie told senators. “ … We seem to be really focused on this space and ignoring the fact that there are people that are just like us, human beings, just like us. What are they supposed to do?”

Idaho Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d'Alene,
Idaho Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, walks through the halls at the State Capitol building on Jan. 9, 2023. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)

Bill sponsor Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, told senators that the bill protects “common sense realities.”

“The Legislature has a fundamental duty to protect the bodily privacy and safety of Idaho citizens,” Toews said. “House Bill 752 provides a clear, proactive tool to secure sex-separated private spaces in our state, while accommodating common-sense realities.”

Once the bill is transmitted to Little, he has five days to decide on it. He has three options: sign it into law, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature. 

In the House, the bill passed on a 54-15 vote earlier this month, with six Republicans joining the House’s nine Democrats in opposition.

 

‘Do I feel like going to jail today, or do I feel like being attacked?’ trans man testifies

The bill builds on a wave of anti-LGTBQ+ bills that the Legislature and the governor have approved in recent years. 

In 2020, Idaho became the first state to ban transgender girls and women from competing in sports of their preferred gender. In 2023, state lawmakers made it a felony for doctors to provide gender-affirming health care to transgender youth. In 2024, lawmakers expanded the ban to apply to taxpayer funds and government property, which forbids Medicaid from covering gender-affirming care. 

This week, the Legislature sent the governor a bill to fine the city of Boise for flying an LGBTQ+ pride flag, despite a state law last year banning the display on government property. The Senate is also one of the last stops for a bill that would require school officials and health professionals to out transgender minors to their parents, or face lawsuits.

And for more than a decade, efforts to add anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people to state law have failed. 

“Over the last several years, legislators have gone from refusing to protect us to actively targeting us,” Nikson Mathews, who serves as chair of the Idaho Democratic Queer Caucus, said at a news conference in February.

Mathews, a trans man with a beard, told a House committee earlier this year that the bathroom bill would force him to use the women’s restroom. 

“Every single day when I’m out in public, I have to decide: Do I feel like going to jail today, or do I feel like being attacked,” Mathews told lawmakers. 

A 2025 study by the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute found “no evidence of increased harms to people who are not transgender when transgender people are allowed to use restrooms and other gendered facilities according to their identity.” But when trans people are refused access to facilities that align with their gender, the study found that trans people report verbal harassment and physical assault. 

 

Bill is about discrimination, Democratic senator says

Sen. Ron Taylor, a Democrat from Hailey, said the bill is about discrimination. He said constituents told him that they’d move out of Idaho if it passed — because it would throw their transgender children in jail.

Idaho state Sen. Ron Taylor, D-Hailey,
Idaho state Sen. Ron Taylor, D-Hailey, enters the House of Representatives chamber for the governor’s State of the State Address on Jan. 12, 2026, at the State Capitol in Boise. (Photo by Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)

“Now maybe that’s what some of us want, is to chase a population that’s marginalized out of Idaho,” Taylor said. “But that’s not Idaho. Idaho was founded by a population that was marginalized.”

Sen. Brian Lenney, a Republican from Nampa, said the bill is about keeping women and girls safe from having men in their spaces. 

“Trans women aren’t women,” said Sen. Joshua Kohl, a Republican from Twin Falls. “They’re men. And they need to be treated as such.”

Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle
Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, listens to proceedings during the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee meeting on Jan. 13, 2026, at the State Capitol Building in Boise. (Photo by Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)

Sen. Jim Woodward, a Republican from Sagle in North Idaho, said the bill is largely borne out of an event where he said a man was found in a women’s locker room in a YMCA in Sandpoint. He said he’d vote for the bill, but he had some reservations.

“What comes next and how much further do we venture inside of a private building?” Woodward said. “I don’t support the punitive measures in this bill, but the policy does reflect the sentiment of my community, and so for that reason, I will support it. It is the best for the most.”

Sen. Melissa Wintrow, a Boise Democrat, said she saw people crying after a recent committee hearing on the bill.

“They were crying because they just didn’t feel as if they were human. That a simple little thing they had to do, like go to the bathroom, would have to be in a law,” Wintrow said. 

 

Idaho Fraternal Order of Police opposed the bill

The bill was opposed by some law enforcement groups and several transgender Idahoans. 

The bill outlines several exceptions, including to give medical assistance, law enforcement assistance, and if someone “is in dire need of urinating or defecating and such facility is the only facility reasonably available at the time of the person’s use.”

The Idaho Fraternal Order of Police flagged that exception as concerning.

“Officers responding to a complaint would be placed in the difficult position of determining an individual’s biological sex in order to enforce the statute,” Idaho Fraternal Order of Police President Bryan Lovell wrote. “In many circumstances, there is no clear or reasonable way for officers to make that determination without engaging in questioning or investigative actions that could be viewed as invasive and inappropriate.”


Kyle Pfannenstiel
Kyle Pfannenstiel

Kyle Pfannenstiel is a reporter for the Idaho Capital Sun, covering health care and state politics. He previously reported for the Post Register/Report for America, Idaho Education News and the Idaho Press. Kyle is a military brat who calls Idaho home. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from University of Idaho.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

MORE FROM AUTHOR

The Roads to Mattis, Iran, Trump, and Hormuz.

Maine Is Definitely Purple

Maine Governor Janet Mills Comes Out Against Billionaire-Funded Anti-Trans Sports/Bathrooms Referendum

The candidate will be running in a Democratic primary with the goal of unseating Republican Senator Susan Collins.

Erin Reed

On Monday, days after Republican Sen. Susan Collins voted in favor of an amendment to Trump’s SAVE Act that would ban transgender students from girls’ sports nationwide, Maine Gov. Janet Mills—who is running in a Democratic primary to unseat her—came out with a forceful statement in favor of transgender youth in sports. Mills was asked about her position on a new ballot referendum that will likely go before voters this November—which would ban transgender girls from sports, bar transgender students from bathrooms in schools across the state, and carve transgender students out of the Maine Human Rights Act in certain cases. It is Mills’ first time directly opposing the referendum, and a significant case of a Democratic candidate running for a swing seat standing up for transgender people.

“I would not support a ballot measure that demonizes children and demonizes and uses as a political ploy, as the Republicans have done, the right-wing Republicans have done, with this kind of initiative. It targets some of the most vulnerable people in our society,” Mills said at a press conference. “I brought up five daughters in Maine. They all played sports. They should all have an opportunity to play sports. My husband was a coach, a high school coach, and I saw, I always saw in the eyes of those kids, new energy, new feeling about life, a new way to engage in teamwork, to make new friends, and that’s what sports does—gives you a different perspective on life, makes you a better human being.”

Her statement was in response to a referendum from “Protect Girls Sports in Maine,” an anti-transgender organization funded by far-right Republican megadonor and billionaire Richard Uihlein, of Uline office supplies, who donated $800,000 to bankroll the signature drive. The referendum successfully collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot this November. It would define sex for school purposes as “a person’s biological status as male or female recorded at birth on the person’s original birth certificate”—a definition that would bar transgender students’ legal recognition. It would require schools to “maintain separate restrooms, locker rooms, shower rooms, and other private spaces for each sex,” going beyond sports, and would create a transgender sports ban across the state. It would also create a private right of action allowing individuals who encounter transgender students in bathrooms to sue the school that permitted their access—while carving all of these provisions out of the Maine Human Rights Act.

This is not Mills’ first foray into the fight over transgender athletes. In February 2025, Trump singled out Maine at a meeting with Republican governors, threatening to pull federal funding unless the state banned transgender girls from girls’ sports. The next day, Mills confronted Trump at the White House, telling him, “See you in court.” What followed was an unprecedented federal pressure campaign: six federal agencies launched investigations targeting the state—all over a handful of transgender athletes out of roughly 53,000 high school sports participants statewide. When Maine refused to comply, the Department of Justice sued the state in April 2025—that lawsuit is still ongoing.

Mills’ stance in support of transgender athletes is a notable position for a Democratic governor running for a purple Senate seat in an era where well-funded political pundits and organizations have aimed to push Democrats to the right on transgender issues. Her approach stands in stark contrast to that of fellow Democratic Governor California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential contender, who has repeatedly thrown transgender people under the bus. In March 2025, Newsom told conservative activist Charlie Kirk on the debut of his podcast that trans participation in girls’ sports was “deeply unfair.” And just weeks ago, in an interview with Katie Couric, he said he could not see a way for trans women to fairly compete on women’s sports teams—while insisting he was not throwing the community under the bus. Mills, by contrast, is running toward the issue rather than away from it, and doing so in a competitive seat.

Mills, who is term-limited and cannot run for a third consecutive term as governor in 2026, is running against fellow Democrat Graham Platner for the chance to unseat Collins. Platner, for his part, has also been ardently pro-transgender rights. He opposed the referendum as early as November 2025, telling NOTUS that it “targets transgender kids and takes Maine backwards.” After Collins voted for the Tuberville amendment this weekend, Platner criticized her on social media, writing, “At a time when Mainers are dealing with rising gas prices and airport chaos, this is what she’s focused on—attacking kids and taking away your right to vote.” Of the referendum itself, Platner has said, “I think banning people from playing in sports in the gender that they see themselves as and identify as, doing that in a wholesale way, is going to be restrictive of people’s rights. So, I do not think that banning is the answer.”

The Maine Democratic primary is June 9, with the winner facing Collins in the November general election—the same ballot where voters will likely decide the fate of the anti-trans referendum. That means the fight over transgender rights in Maine will play out simultaneously on two tracks: the Senate race, where both Democratic candidates have now staked out firm positions in defense of transgender youth, and the referendum. How both play out could reshape the political calculus around transgender issues for Democrats nationwide.

The Birds Must Be Heard & Seen

Anna’s Hummingbird

Calypte anna

Colibrí Cabeza Roja (Spanish)

Anna's Hummingbird. Photo by Nick Athana.

About

The Anna’s Hummingbird is a characteristic and charismatic species of coastal Central, Southern, and Baja California, although this species has expanded its range northward along the Pacific Coast and eastward into the Desert Southwest. Like the Rufous Hummingbird, Anna’s is well known for its aggressive territorial behavior. Males fiercely defend feeding areas, where they chase away other male hummingbirds and even large insects such as bumblebees and hawk moths that try to feed there.

Although the Anna’s Hummingbird readily feeds from non-native plants, wild plants are still crucial to these birds — and the birds are just as critical to these native plants. Anna’s Hummingbirds are important pollinators of the chaparral flora of coastal California. Many of these plants flower in the winter months, coinciding with California’s wet season. To take advantage of this boon of nectar, Anna’s Hummingbirds in coastal California breed in what is the nonbreeding season for most North American species, nesting as early as mid-December. After the rains end, many hummingbirds will move up into the mountains to take advantage of blooms at higher elevations.

The Anna’s Hummingbird is a highly vocal species, especially for a hummingbird. Males sing a complex, scratchy-sounding song while perched and during their high-flying courtship spectacles. The male performs this diving display by first ascending to 100 feet or higher, then swooping toward the ground. At the bottom of his dive, he will be moving at about 60 miles per hour, just overhead of a female (or intruding male). At the last minute, he banks upward and flares his tail, causing his modified tail feathers to produce an explosive, high-pitched chirp. The gravitational force (“G-force”) caused by this maneuver would cause a human pilot to lose consciousness, but these little hummingbirds do it again and again, up to about 40 times back to back, when trying to impress a female. He also orients his dives to maximize the reflectance of his beautiful gorget — the gem-like patch of tiny iridescent purple-pink feathers on his throat. According to researchers Christopher Clark and Stephen Russell, from the perspective of a female, he looks like a “tiny, glowing magenta comet” plummeting towards her. (Snip-More on the page. Actually hear a hummingbird!)

=====

Emerald Tanager

Tangara florida

About

The Emerald Tanager is truly a gem of the forest, roaming through the canopy in search of fruiting trees in the humid montane forests of Central and northern South America. Although primarily a fruit-eater, this species is also adept at hunting insects and other invertebrates on tree branches, deftly manipulating mosses with its bill in search of prey. This behavior sets it apart from other tanager species it often flocks with, but outside of the Emerald Tanager’s range, other specialized tanager species may fill this niche.

The Emerald Tanager’s relationship with moss extends beyond its foraging habits. Though their breeding biology is largely undescribed in peer-reviewed literature, the nests that have been observed have either been made of moss entirely or thoroughly covered in it. This, of course, provides good camouflage on the mossy branches where these tanagers build their nests. (Snip; MORE, and hear the Emerald Tanager)

Some News Bits

A few things I ran across before lunch, in one post with links. Ollie and I had a good lunch, got a few things done, then took a nice walk on a cooler day when his thick black fur coat is not too heavy for him to be on a jaunt before 7 AM; it was 2 PM.😃

Back to reality, I saw this Reuters story about Iran hacking US FBI, but it was a subscriber only story (I agree-WTF? Why should profit be made on a story like that, when some of the free articles are such dreck…) But, here is a free one:

FBI director Kash Patel’s emails, photos hacked by Iran-linked group

The vigilante group Handala Hack Team said that it had successfully gained access to Patel’s personal email account.

Then, I know many of us, if we didn’t yawn, noticed the hypocrisy in wrangling for a law that includes banning mail-in voting while on the way to the post-box. If you’re busy, just click through; the money phrase is right there at the top.

The young woman who is running for my district’s US House seat, Katy Tindell, has a website now! I’ve mentioned her, but couldn’t link because all there was was an Act Blue contribution page. But now, she has her own website.

Every one of our states has at least one candidate like this running. Please choose a campaign anywhere (But work from your home district/state first, if you can,) and sign up. Money’s tight everywhere, but give the candidate some time if you want to see them in office. There are many things that need doing, and campaigns are better off with volunteers helping.

Finally for this post, Sojo has run a piece the author, Emma Cieslik, writes about Taylor Tomlinson, and Tomlinson’s influence on the author’s own deconstruction and being out. Seriously worth the click.

Theocracy Advances With Menace

Iran isn’t the only theocracy

Sec. of War Hegseth quotes scripture during press briefings.

Ann Telnaes

Trump held a toadies meeting today.



Kansas Legislature’s negotiators on education bills drop sports ban tied to Christian calendar

Senate majority leader’s amendment forbid sports on Sundays, Wednesday evenings

By:Tim Carpenter

TOPEKA — The Kansas Legislature’s negotiators on education bills deleted a Senate-approved change to state law prohibiting school sports practice and competition on Sundays, Wednesday evenings and multiday periods centered on Easter, Christmas and Independence Day.

The effort to expand on Kansas State High School Activities Association rules for scheduling athletic events, currently concentrated on Dec. 25 and July 4, was led by Senate Majority Leader Chase Blasi, R-Wichita. He convinced Senate colleagues to accept his amendment to Senate Bill 515 expanding no-sports days on calendars at public and private schools statewide.

During Senate debate on Blasi’s amendment, questions were raised about his focus on Christian faith traditions. His amendment passed on an unrecorded voice vote of the Senate.

During Senate and House negotiations Monday on SB 515, Wichita Republican Rep. Susan Estes and Wichita Sen. Renee Erickson, who serve as lead negotiators on the Legislature’s education bills, agreed to cast aside Blasi’s broadened moratorium. His amendment was removed from legislation intended to enable homeschool students to join sports at private schools in the way state law permitted them to be part of public school athletics.

Blasi said he was motivated to act on concerns expressed by constituents that school-sponsored sports interrupted periods that ought to be reserved for family or church activities.

Specifically, his amendment would forbid sporting events on Sundays and on Wednesdays at 6 p.m. to midnight from Sept. 1 to April 30. In addition, he sought to apply the prohibition to a four-day window around Easter, but only from 6 p.m. to midnight. A five-day ban at Christmas and a seven-day ban encompassing Independence Day would be part of the new state law.

“This is going to assure we focus on what really keeps communities strong — that is family and faith,” Blasi said.

Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, said she was anxious the Legislature was wading into the KSHSAA rulebook without considering family interests in other religious faiths. Blasi’s amendment didn’t address Islam’s Ramadan, Judaism’s Passover or Rosh Hashanah, Hinduism’s Maha Shivavatri or Buddhism’s Bodhi Day.

“Not any religion was considered,” Blasi said. “This was just a response to constituents.”

Francisco wasn’t convinced of the amendment’s merits.

“My constituents would like me to be as inclusive as possible,” she said.

The amendment left on the cutting room floor by the House and Senate conference committee was defended by several other members of the Senate.

Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker, said she was a strong supporter of Blasi’s effort to turn back the clock in Kansas to an era more respectful of faith traditions.

“It’s a sad day that we have to legislate this,” Tyson said. “Years ago, it wasn’t even an issue. It was a standard and acceptable, but here we are.”

Sen. Brad Starnes, R-Riley, said the amendment was crafted to affirm religion as the “bedrock of our country.”

The objective of the amendment was to clear school calendars so students had more time to pursue religious interests, said Sen. Michael Murphy, R-Sylvia.

“As we move away from that, we do so at our peril,” Murphy said. “It’s time we moved back to some of those traditions that served us well.”

The House-Senate conference committee bundled the stripped down SB 515 and Senate Bill 361 into Senate Bill 382. SB 361 allows foreign exchange students to enroll in their host’s public school district. SB 382 deals with administration of state assessments to K-12 students in virtual schools. As of Tuesday, neither the House nor Senate had voted on the the three-bill deal.