Rob and Alan's #BirdOfTheDay today is any bird with #yellow, so here's a goldfinch taking off I captured during my visit to Virginia last month. @robcrank68.bsky.social @alan678.bsky.social #photography #birds #goldfinch

Organizing My Thoughts is not a Substack newsletter, so I can't grow my paid subscriber list via those network effects. That means I have to periodically appeal to you all for support. ❤️

John Lee Hooker with a diagram of the evolution of the Blues.

EXCLUSIVE: Tom Homan was investigated for accepting $50,000 from undercover FBI agents. Trump's DOJ shut it down.

Good morning, it’s hawk o’clock! 🪶🌿

Good morning ☀️ on this #WingedWednesday A Swallowtail 🦋 #EastCoastKin #PhotographersUnited #photography #butterfly

Hidden deep in a must-pass State Department funding bill is a provision that would allow for unlimited transfers of U.S. weapons to a special Israel-based stockpile in the next fiscal year, strengthening a pathway for giving American weapons to Israel with reduced public scrutiny.

On this day in 1963, a white man detonated a bomb under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, with 400 congregants inside. Four Black children were killed in the blast.

We're witnessing the most aggressive, fanatical crackdown on free speech in my lifetime. The speed and breadth of government censorship and private sector and nonprofit capitulation has been astonishing. As has the lack of urgency/silence from people who've long claimed to care about this stuff.

To launder the reputation of a ghoul is to sanction their hauntings.

It’s worse than “Gaza is being starved and destroyed and no one cares.” It’s that hundreds of millions *do* care and are powerless to stop it. We need a world where that can never happen, where the masses actually have political power.

An accommodating blue dasher #invertebrates

In Japan, Tanabata (the Star Festival) is connected to a Chinese folktale about two lovers who are separated by the stars of the Milky Way. They are allowed to meet for only one night each year by crossing a bridge created by magpies. During the festival people write their... #LegendaryWednesday 1/2

i guess part of me appreciates cnn's confabulation of police and ice and sometimes wish we had serifs here on this website so "abolish the polICE" looked more aesthetic, for propaganda purposes, like this

Sanders: Trump welcomes war criminal to White House

Some new birds are still arriving at Agami Island, where they are collecting nesting material and displaying for a mate. The first eggs were laid a month ago, so these are very late arrivals. We should start seeing chicks in the next few days. Agami Heron #birds #nature #costarica #herons

A small drawing of a wee bumblebee on delicate pale flowers. This little original is available to buy now... theweeowlart.etsy.com/listing/1890... #Bee #bugsky #OriginalArt #Drawing #Artwork #TraditionalArtist #ArtFromScotland #GiftIdeas #ArtShop #bsnm

My wise owl hawk (Northern Harrier) mom will look out for you all . . . #natureart #naturalhistoryart #birdsinart #SciArt

When Ghorman rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up! Fight back!

Noisy Miner enjoying the grevillea ✨ #photography #birds #bnw #grevillea #classicmono #photographersUnited #photographersofbluesky #nature

After serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread over the past 18 months, World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza. #ChefsForGaza (1/5)

Korrupty the Klown took a $2 billion bribe from the UAE, but he wants to restrict your children to only two dolls.

The Trump administration says they're going to start collecting on defaulted student loans for the first time in over five years. This isn't a policy they're required to do by law — they're just cruel and want to take as much as possible from the folks who have very little.

Abolish ICE It was absolutely the right call 7 years ago, and more so now, with nightly reports of violent raids gone awry, strip-searching tourists, and snatching student op-ed writers How America created a secret police, and how to get rid of it. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/ice-...

A papa Resplendent Quetzal delivering food to the nestlings at Paraiso Quetzal Lodge #CostaRica #birds #nature

A group in San Diego is patrolling neighborhoods to identify potential ICE presence. They keep watch for vehicles that may belong to federal agencies, and use livestreams, radios, and social media to keep communities informed. Learn more: boltsmag.org/how-vol...

My weekly curated list of must-reads and some final thoughts for the week.

Reclaiming Alcatraz. Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, California, USA, during the Indians of All Tribes 1969 reclamation. (unnamed). 📷 © Stephen Shames | Polaris

BUFFALO: Join @ufw.bsky.social on Monday, May 5th for an emergency rally to demand the release of detained farm worker leaders.

Contemporary US artist and printmaker Delita Martin, “Visionary,” 2021, relief printing, charcoal, pastels, acrylic #WomensArt

We are proud to present our 5th virtual Workshop4Sudan w/ award-winning poets Safia Elhillo and Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio on Monday, May 12th at 6:30 pm. All proceeds go to mutual aid groups on the ground in Sudan. #KeepEyesOnSudan Please share! Sign up here: chuffed.org/project/work...

The UN's World Food Programme, a lifeline for millions of people in Gaza who rely on it for food aid, has run out of its food stores. Palestinians in Gaza say that famine isn't imminent — it's already here. mondoweiss.net/2025/04/it-w...

Dolly Parton the prettiest chicken in all the lands, sharing more bokboks of wisdom

I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.

Absolutely lost in the sauce. #photography

One of three pair of Steller's spring/summering at The Albatross BRINGIN' it for #ThursJay I mean, come ON! #birds #becurious

I can tell it's American Robin nesting time. They're keeping a careful watch on their territories, eyeing intruders dubiously. #birds 🌿

DOGE is gutting the agency that enforces environmental laws Musk's companies have been accused of breaking. I followed the paper trail of enforcement actions EPA has taken against Tesla, SpaceX. Staff are worried about EPA’s ability to hold polluters accountable now www.theverge.com/environment/...

A Raven in flight captured in the mountains of northern Arizona. #birds #nature #photographersunited #raven #wildlife

Your Cherokee words for today. The top word is English followed by how it is written in the Cherokee language followed by how it is spelled in English then how to pronounce it phonetically.

“The Trump administration’s efforts to collect on defaulted student debt is not something they are required to do by law — they have simply decided to use student loan debt as a weapon against the most financially vulnerable,” said Debt Collective in a statement. truthout.org/articles/edu...

American Goldfinch and Crab Apple tree in bloom equals Spring colors! #trees #flowers #finches #birds #wildlife #nature #photography #NewJersey

The women’s health initiative has followed tens of thousands of women for more than 30 years and provided invaluable information on topics like hormone replacement and cancer. Jay Bhattacharya cutting this program will not only hurt women, it’s also just a colossal waste to lose such an investment.

If you share our horror about forced disappearances in the US, join us for a discussion with Latin American rights defenders who've been fighting them for years. This is happening _a week from right now_ (2pm Eastern on 4/30). Announcement: bit.ly/apr-30-disap... Register: bit.ly/apr-30-lessons

The first Yellow-rumped Warbler of the season...he arrived on a snowy day but had a good feed of suet.. #birds

Was just reading an account of A'aninin or the Gros Ventre tribe in Montana’s song traditions; they say the songs of birds hold the memory of the moment of creation, which the birds witnessed and sang in celebration for the reformation of the earth.

over 100 people are rallying outside the albemarle county courthouse right now to protest the abduction of two local residents here yesterday by masked men with no warrant who claimed to be ICE agents

there really is no alternative to tearing up CBP and ICE root and branch