“As we mark, this year, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it is important to see that its meaning is dynamic. And that meaning, as we understand it, flows less from the men who signed it than from those who heard its words and took ownership of them as a +

It’s so hot in northern Germany, in this second big heat wave of the year, that I’ve just spotted the first two fireflies ever in my garden. I’ve seen them in the south of the country before, but never up here.

Treasure Club & lovers of antiquities! Isn’t this sensational? The butt trumpet is a nice touch. @11tulips.bsky.social @jakichantler.bsky.social @ellenenders.bsky.social @tepizep.bsky.social @docjanicel.bsky.social @davidhemond.bsky.social @dennowayne.bsky.social @halfmarshall.bsky.social and all

The US is in thrall to a systematic purge against dissemination of liberal humanitarian ideas and perspectives. We see it in the rightwing co-opting of media - FOX, CBS - in the attack on universities/the humanities - in the sterilization of social media by algorithms - in the death of integrity.

@tepizep.bsky.social @11tulips.bsky.social What an excavation!

treasure hunters @jakichantler.bsky.social @11tulips.bsky.social @tepizep.bsky.social @maryapetry.bsky.social @docjanicel.bsky.social @beekree.bsky.social @nancyterhune.bsky.social @hcandler.bsky.social

Thread Top 50 donors in 2024 election. 30 gave to Republicans only. Some gave just to Democrats. Some to both. I typed list below for those w/out WaPo sub. @11tulips.bsky.social @stevesawyer12.bsky.social @sailormichael.bsky.social @ridgecook.bsky.social @jakichantler.bsky.social

What a cynical interpretive lens layered onto an emotionally charged story. NYT unable to resist turning a simple, human moment into stereotypical psychoanalysis. A suffering animal appeared near us, and people wanted to help, but apparently that’s too straightforward, too human to be the point.

Getting my 25 tiny baby snails ready for their big move to a nice, mossy spot in the forest. They spent the cold season hibernating with me after being born too late last year. 🐌 🐌 🐌

After the spring rain.

Today, hundreds of people went to the streets in over 40 cities (!!!) in Germany to demand better support for Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) patients. One of the reasons I chose Germany as my new home. Very proud of you my German friends. #LiegendDemo #MECFS

The Morning Run Bavaria, Germany #landscapephotography #landschaftsfotografie #fog

If your platform is overturning one of the Reconstruction amendments, you are not a patriot, you are a confederate. Remember clearly, the confederate cause sought the destruction of the Union. You are not fighting for the United States of America or its constitution but for something else entirely.

www.youtube.com/live/ax8IThR... Interrupting my annual watch of the Danish moose migration to follow humpback whale Timmy’s journey home to the Atlantic via the North Sea. He was lost and stranded in the shallow Baltic waters off Germany, but brave volunteers never gave up on him. ➡️ Livestream 🐋

Monarch butterflies have returned to Michigan. Where they've been seen

Squirreled this little gem away for y’all today. 2,700 years old. 😍 @docjanicel.bsky.social @beachpebblegirl.bsky.social @11tulips.bsky.social @ellenenders.bsky.social @jakichantler.bsky.social & friends

This is such a pleasant discovery! Thanks to our friend @halfmarshall.bsky.social for sharing.

@docjanicel.bsky.social We all have those moments when we don‘t know what to wear… h/t @ellenenders.bsky.social

Called it. NYT just now confirming that Kushner was the subject of the call of the “foreign nationals” that had Gabbard turn herself into a pretzel. @ellenenders.bsky.social

ONLY BECAUSE THEY GOT CAUGHT......... 👇

🇺🇸

This admin has been skywriting their inclinations since the beginning, but don't you dare call them Nazis.

Greetings from Germany. Stay strong, decent Americans 🌼

Today is a dark day for American journalism. Some of the best reporters and editors around the globe have been laid off by the Washington Post. The news-consuming public will pay the price. My job wasn't spared. It's been the honor of a lifetime to be Berlin bureau chief, if only for 6 months.

The Washington Post will shut its Berlin bureau. Complete and utter lunacy.

Name them shame them

I grew up with the Washington Post, wrote editorials for the Washington Post and published a column there for more than 15 years. To watch its owners destroy it, seemingly deliberately, in just a year and a half is devastating.

Regarding the pace of the dismantling of U.S. democracy, this new FT comparison is alarming. It shows that the curve is much steeper and faster than in other autocracies. I think those “warehouses” are for journalists, intellectuals and other disobedient citizens. There’s zero time left to lose.

This 👇 @jakichantler.bsky.social @hcandler.bsky.social @stevesawyer12.bsky.social @nancyterhune.bsky.social @maryapetry.bsky.social @sailormichael.bsky.social @davidhemond.bsky.social @kalmantibs.bsky.social @11tulips.bsky.social @ridgecook.bsky.social @tepizep.bsky.social @docjanicel.bsky.social

All he has to do is claim national security and then try to send DoD to seize voting machines in the next election. Esper, Cuccinelli, Rosen, and Barr aren’t there to stop him.

Watch @chrislhayes.bsky.social face when he picks up what @asharangappa.bsky.social is putting down. Keep in mind that Giuliani advised Trump in Dec 2020 the only way the DoD could seize voting machines is if there were foreign election interference, which Sidney Powell then tried to fabricate.

Second batch of Epstein files is now out. Absolutely horrific, specific allegations against Trump and others were published, perhaps by a rogue individual, then deleted again from DOJ website.

ICYMI, This is funny...

Just three days ago Don Lemon stated on his channel that something really bad must be in the Epstein files. I just RT’d the clip on Twitter. I bet this is what the arrest is really about.

Borowitz

Attn news commentators: Trump saying he could use force to obtain Greenland but won’t is not Trump saying he won’t use force to obtain Greenland. It is Trump using force as a threat to obtain Greenland. That is why he mentions it.

Cartoon by Adam Zyglis

With apologies to Luna and everyone, I haven’t posted daily about Miss Sophie.🐈‍⬛ It’s not a steady improvement curve, but she’s calm and comfortable, and we seem to have stabilized her on a modest level. She’s still shunning wet food and even her favorite treats, but she has a new passion for one /2

FROM THE EPSTEIN FILES: During one of Doe's encounters with Epstein, he took her to Mar-a-Lago where he introduced her to its owner, Donald J. Trump. Introducing 14-year-old Doe to Donald J. Trump,... 1/2

It is really hard for family & loved ones of adults w/ addictions & mental health struggles to know how to help their person. Effective resources are spotty and not available everywhere. And b/c they are adults, you can't "make them" seek help. I'm hoping that one thing that may come out of the

Sophie is home again, after eight days at the veterinary clinic. Days that pushed her, and us, to the breaking point. We’re only at the beginning of a long, uncertain path. Still, I am grateful beyond words. /2

Connected today with the stunning Saqsaywaman complex, where the Incas believed heart and soul meet. Its original purpose is lost to time, but its presence is overwhelming. Limestone blocks of up to 110 tons were set millennia ago with breathtaking precision. Today, alpacas graze here peacefully.

Cusco was the center of the Inca Empire, and the Temple of the Sun (Qorikancha), built of flawless megalithic masonry dating back 13,000 years, was its heart. On the powerful energy line that threads through all the great Incan sites stands a dark basalt stone said to mark a sealed tunnel /2

Machu Picchu — hidden highland sanctuary where earth and sky meet. At its center stand giant megalithic blocks, carved with a precision beyond the empire that later built around them. Here the Inca story rose and fell in tragedy, yet the stones endure, holding secrets older than recorded history.

Just flew over the Nazca Lines, including the striking Hummingbird. They lie in one of the driest regions on earth, the sun-baked southern desert of Peru, which preserved them. They may have served as ritual pathways, astronomical markers, or offerings to deities connected to water and fertility.

Wish you could’ve been there, @nancyterhune.bsky.social. The “Travelling Women Artists in the 1800s” exhibition is spectacular. 55 women from the Nordic countries and Germany. The difficulties they overcame to paint. And the talent and determination that made them do it. ateneum.fi/en/exhibitio...

Helsinki’s Rock Church, the Temppeliaukio, was carved directly into bedrock. Its breathtaking copper dome, lined with 12 miles of copper strips, gives the interior an ethereal glow. The disc-shaped roof feels both majestic and otherworldly, especially when the sound of the organ fills the space. /2

Very neat Zep. I need to get out more!🙂