This & That, Here and There

I had a wonderful time yesterday, as a large flock of magpies descended upon our two bird feeders and the next door restaurant's trash dumpster.  It was very noisy because there were quite a few juvenile fledglings out with parents - and they kept following their folks around,fluttering their wings and begging to be fed.  The majority of adults just kept looking at the youngsters, trying to show them how to feed themselves, but a few gave up and fed their babies...  After ten solid minutes of importuning, you could almost see shoulders shrug above wings as some parents gave in.  Having spent 45 minutes here, there was a sudden whoosh of air as they all left together and headed for another meal station.  It was a nice experience.
    Pony Penning, the 92nd annual one, held by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, will begin tomorrow with the Round-Up of the southern herds.  Sunday the northern herds will be gathered, and, at dawn on Monday, the northern ponies will walk down the beach to the southern holding pens.  Monday and Tuesday the ponies will be evaluated by the veterinarians and any needed treatments will be given.  Older mares, like Unci, and very pregnant mares, as well as new babies and their moms will be trailered over to the Carnival Grounds on Chincoteague.  Wednesday morning, at slack tide (early in the morning this year), the ponies will swim from Assateague to Chincoteague.  After a short rest, they will parade up Main Street to the Carnival Grounds.  Thursday morning the foals will be auctioned off.  Friday the remaining ponies will swim back to Assateague.  (My mind and heart is already there.)
     The President gave a very long and very disjointed interview to The New York Times and it was released Wednesday afternoon.  He talked about how intelligent he is; stated that French President Emmanuel Macron likes to hold his hand; stated he would never have appointed Jeff Sessions to the position of Attorney General if he had known that Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation; stated that Special Investigator Robert Mueller had better not investigate his family's tax returns; and said that anyone would have accepted and attended the 9 June 2016 meeting to get dirt on a political opponent, no matter who was offering it.  He also stated that he was talking to Vladimir Putin at the G20 dinner for less than 15 minutes, not an hour; and that they were discussing Russian adoptions - something "close to" his "heart" - which means they were discussing sanctions, because the Russian adoption issue is tied up in the Magnitsky Act, which sets Russian sanctions.
     We knew that Senator John McCain had gone to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona for the removal of a blood clot above his left eye.  Wednesday night it was revealed that the blood clot was tied to a cancerous glioblastoma tumor in his brain.  His doctors say they think they removed most of it. Glioblastomas attack the central nervous system and grow at an alarming rate, spreading tentacles throughout brain tissue.  I wish this war hero well.    -  And I wonder if this tumor might have been partly to blame for his odd questioning of James Comey on 8 June in front of the Intelligence Committee.
      Gee - the US Treasury Department has decided that the Exxon Oil Company, while under the leadership of CEO Rex Tillerson (now the US Secretary of State), ignored US sanctions against Russia in 2014, when it entered into a joint venture with Russia's Rosneft.   The Treasury Department slapped the world's largest publicly traded oil producer with a $2 million fine for "reckless disregard" of US sanctions.  Yesterday, Exxon Mobil Corporation sued the US government, calling the fine "unlawful" and "capricious."  Please note that a $2 million fine is barely a slap on the wrist to Exxon, which declared a profit of $7.84 billion last year....
      Russia is planning war games in September in the country of Belarus.  US allies in eastern Europe and Ukraine are worried that the games may be a "Trojan Horse" aimed at leaving Russian military equipment behind for later use.  Russia has sought to reassure NATO that the military exercises will respect international limits on size, but NATO and US officials remain wary about the war games' scale and scope.
       It was also reported last night that the 45th President has been asking his law team questions regarding Presidential Pardons - for his family, his friends, and for himself.   Now, if he and his family and friends are absolutely innocent of collusion with Russian regarding the 2016 Presidential election, and if none of them have any ties with Russia, as the person keeps claiming, why is he interested in Presidential Pardons?  This idiotic Pricktator is such a buffoon!!!!     -  And I still find it frightening and sickening that he is the so-called Leader of Our Country....   May the Gods help all of us!!!