New post: Under resilient ridge, prolonged tule fog episode brings cold & damp weather to Central Valley but anomalously warm/dry weather elsewhere. Plus, update on what turned out to be record-wet autumn in some spots & PacNW flood risk this wk. elsewhere.

This will be remembered as the most pathetic moment in American history. What a needy fool.

Only my fellow Central Valley dwellers will get the full significance of this pic. It's the moment I had to return to the inversion layer that has been trapping us in the Tule Fog for weeks. We were up in the Sierra Nevada. The sun was wonderful! 60⁰ in Sonora, 45⁰ back home.

www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-a... This is North Korea level batshit crazy. And horrifically racist.

Seeking out the last of the Fall colors at Humboldt Redwoods State Park. #redwood

We’re the only country that lets the gun lobby write the laws and then pretends to be shocked when children end up in coffins. NEW UPDATE: The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office has announced that four of the victims shot in the Stockton mass shooting were ages 8, 9, 14, and 21.

From our travels in Redwood Country: A gathering of elk in Orick, or waiting to audition for the role of Santa's reindeer.

Thou shalt not pretend that you’re at war with drug traffickers while pardoning drug traffickers.

Headed south on the Oregon Coast! McCullough Memorial Bridge at Coos Bay and Port Orford. #oregoncoast

Reporters who fact-check Trump to his face are not “stupid”, they are not “piggies”, and they are not “ugly”. They are doing their jobs, and doing it under pressure most of us will never experience. We should be grateful for their service. I appreciate their courage now more than ever.

There was no "Emergency" situation with crime in DC. This stunt got a 20 year old young woman killed. It. Got. A. Woman. Killed.

Do we live in North Korea now?

We all need Leslie Jones energy to survive Thanksgiving. I’m dying 😂🤣☠️

Gale-force winds, rain, and heavy surf. Basically a normal day for the Oregon coast (Heceta Head).

This young man has it exactly right.

We are headed north and couldn't resist stopping for a look at Mount Shasta, one of CA's more dangerous volcanoes.

Today Donald Trump saved us from some of the tariffs he put in place, in order to bring down the price of groceries he said never went up.

ICEstapo detained 81 people in Charlotte, NC yesterday. The internet is littered with videos of them using excessive force and ignoring legal documentation provided by the detainees. Here’s my advice for ICEstapo: Take a night off. Go to the movies. Watch “Nuremberg”. Your time is coming.

In four days, my rain gage near Modesto has recorded 3.75 inches of rain. I know other regions get prodigious amounts, but for us that's about 30% of an entire water year. Put another way, we're running 300-400% of normal.

Hey crystallographers: I've been taking students to Black Chasm Caverns in the Sierra Mother Lode for three decades, mainly for the incredible helictites. Yesterday I noticed (for the 1st time) this very long single crystal of what I presume is calcite. Does this happen often? #crystallography

A tale of two years at the Ione clay mine pits with @geotripper.bsky.social’s MJC geology field trip of the Central Motherlode. We are using our imagination this morning, LOL.

Not the same detail as people are getting from farther north, but only the third time I've seen the auroras from Central California, in the prairies east of Modesto. There were a few wispy clouds in the mix.

Went out salmon hunting on the Tuolumne River today! Saw a few, but also a beautiful sunset on the river and five Great Horned Owls!

O'DONNELL: Why did you pardon Changpeng Zhao? TRUMP: Are you ready? I don't know who he is O'DONNELL: His crypto exchange Binance helped facilitate a $2b purchase of World Liberty Financial's stablecoin. And they you pardoned him. TRUMP: Here's the thing -- I know nothing about it

Foggy morning in California's Great Valley.

Moulton: He’s auditioning to be the weakest Speaker in American history. And actually, maybe it’s not an audition anymore — he’s affirmatively the weakest Speaker in American history. He’s completely throwing out the Constitution. He might as well not be in Congress.

What’s draining tax dollars isn’t SNAP, it’s corporate welfare and billionaire tax breaks. FACT: Even people working two jobs still need SNAP. Where’s the outrage about that?!

So the president took a dementia test, and then they administered an MRI. Where’s the media on this?

Del Puerto Cyn in CA's Coast Ranges is threatened by a useless dam. Here's how it looked yesterday. A precious place. #savedelpuerto

Back in the 1960s, the Smothers Brothers made fun of President Lyndon Johnson and his policies many times on their popular television show. The president wrote them a letter in response.

He got the Speaker he wanted - a cuck who will sit in the corner and let him do whatever he pleases whenever he wants.

Gallego: "It's murder. It's very simple. If this president feels they are doing something illegally, then he should be using the Coast Guard. If this is an act of war, then you use our military and then you come and talk to us first. But this is murder ... it's disgusting."

When the president is destroying national landmarks, murdering fishermen, raising prices because he's angry over a Reagan video, and kidnapping parents in front of their crying children is probably not an ideal time to have a lazy, completely incompetent legislative branch perpetually on vacation.

The United States is expanding its network of concentration camps as the dictator builds himself a golden ballroom.

It's getting tough to put into words how bad this looks for Jamaica. Here's my futile attempt this evening.

BREAKING: Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, whose crypto exchange has been boosting the Trump family’s own crypto venture, WSJ reports. The most corrupt president in history.

Frogs in slowly heating water is a popular allegory for being unaware that you are being destroyed in an incrementally worsening situation. But I'm drawing hope from the past week that we frogs may be a bit more aware of our situation than those allegorical frogs. #Hop

So proud of my hometown Modesto, easily 2,000 people out to protest fascism.

My view of the #greatshakeout today

On this date, Matthew Shephard died 27 years ago. He was beaten, tortured, and left for dead on fence for being gay. Please keep him and his wonderful mother Judy in your thoughts. And let's all work for a world where such horrific things do not happen to anyone. ❤️🏳️‍🌈

Twerp Mike Johnson admits the Republicans shut down the government to try to kill the affordable care act . We knew this all along. For years they and #felonTrump have claimed to have a better plan. Not one fucking proposal. #TrumpShutdown #DV1 #ProudBlue open.substack.com/pub/politicu...

geotripper.blogspot.com/2025/10/why-... I've been monitoring a road crossing for 23 years now, documenting the effect of fault creep along the San Andreas near Pinnacles National Park. Here's how it looked last weekend! #sanandreasfault

I knew Fox News was theater. I just didn't realize it was a repertory theater that recycles actors for different roles. You'd think a company that had to pay $787,000,000 for deceiving its viewers would be a little more careful about blatantly continuing the practice.

geotripper.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-... We hear a great deal about what to do in the event of a major quake, but we don't hear much about what's going to happen in the weeks and months that follow. My new blog gives thought to what will happen around Modesto when the BIG ONE hits. #earthquakes

🚨NEW: "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" just dropped its first response to ABC, FCC chair, and Disney firing Jimmy Kimmel. Trump ain't sleeping tonight. 🤣 This is a must-watch. 🔥

geotripper.blogspot.com/2025/09/what... If an earthquake were predicted to happen near you in the next few days, what would you do? But more importantly, why haven't you done it already? #greatshakeout #earthquake

NEW: No, Charlie Kirk was not practicing politics the right way. That's what Ezra Klein said. We can condemn this heinous assassination but also recognize that with his 2020 election denialism and extremist rhetoric, Kirk built his movement with falsehoods and in a wrong and divisive manner.

Imagine living in a country where far-right leaders are not above the law… 🤔

We cannot forget that there was also a shooting yesterday in aColorado High School. The shooter is dead. One of the victims is in stable condition. The other victim is in critical condition. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/u...