CMBennett

Is not tomorrow, boy, the ides of March?

Everyone who has ever been in the military knows what it means. Everyone from Private to General has been trained in the law of war.

We used to get about thirty rolls on every resupply bird. Had to tell the FOB to stop sending it. That and a case of marlboro reds. There was plenty of use for those though.

The enemy being the elites, the establishment, immigrants, the bankers, (((the globalists))). Yeah it usually ends up there. It's illiberal, anti-democratic, and sometimes a lot worse than that.

Populism isn't just dumbing down the politics for the ignorant masses, though it generally works better if you keep the masses ignorant. It's not even an ideology, it's a rhetorical aesthetic whose purpose is to create antagonism between "the people" and the "enemy of the people."

JD Vance isn't as stupid as most of them but he's certainly no master strategist. His motivations are not that difficult to suss out. He's in the position he's in because he's a tool and if he was actually smart he'd keep his mouth shut lest he get the Mike Pence treatment.

JCPA. It's a little partisan, but it's the right kind of partisan.

Bunch of purple crocus and a bee.

I've been watching the green shoots come up last couple days and this morning found them in full bloom. Bumble bee found it before I did.

Well, you know what to do.

Took a quick picture of IC405 too. But it is back to cloudy skies and snow for the weekend.

We had a little clear sky in Maryland for a change.

ICE Out of Baltimore demonstration marching down Gay St.

Marching pas the War Memorial in Baltimore.

Marching dwon Gay St. In Baltimore
#ICEOut of #Baltimore

A man with a sign that says No American Gestapo and a woman with a sign letting us know what she thinks of ICE

Fuck ICE, No American Gestapo

#ICEOut of #Baltimore

A man with a drum, on Pratt Street in Baltimore.

A woman with a sign that proclaims we have the power.

Beating the drum for justice, We the People have the power
#ICEOut of #Baltimore

ICE out of Baltimore, Justice for Renee Good.

ICE out of Baltimore at McKeldin Plaza in Baltimore. @freestatecoalition.bsky.social

Justice for Renee Good. We the People are the resistance.
#ICEOut of #Baltimore

ICE out of Baltimore demonstration on Pratt Street in Baltimore,

#ICEOut of #Baltimore

Four stars in the center of a dim cloud of gas. A few more scattered about.

You can't see it in the image above because the center is overexposed, but it's the four stars in the center here that are lighting everything up. It's called the Trapezium.

The Orion Nebula (M42) A bright emission nebula in Orion. Dark dust and wispy reddish brown clouds surround a bright central region where stars are forming. There is a second bright region and cluster of stars above separated by a dark lane of dust. It is set in a relatively sparse field of mostly dim stars with a couple brighter ones.

Triangulum Galaxy (M33) A large diffuse spiral galaxy with loosely wound arms and a relatively dim core. You can see compact clusters of stars in the arms and if you look closely there are a few small pinkish regions of ionized hydrogen in star forming regions. There's a few brighter bluish and reddish stars in the foreground.

Waxing crescent moon in the dark sky. Large dark maria are visible and some large craters in the shadow along the terminator.

Christmas Moon

It's called the Christmas Tree Cluster.

NGC2264, a cluster of stars with the brighter ones sort of in the shape of a Christmas tree. There's a few bright blue stars in the center, S Monocerotis and others, surrounded by a blue reflection nebula. there are dark patches of dust obscuring a very dense star field.

Merry Christmas

Soviets weren't exactly a bunch of liberals. But yeah, most of history's monsters were arts and humanities people.

Full Moon on a black sky. Several maria (dark flat areas) and large craters are visible. Tycho is quite prominent in the lower right. It's a large crater with bright rays extending out from it.

It's cloudy tonight but the Super Moon is bright enough to shine through. We won't see anything else in the central Maryland sky tonight though.

Full Moon seen through silhouette of trees. The moon is obscured by clouds and has a reddish halo.

Last full Moon of the year.

Image of the Sun on a black background. A large group of irregularly shaped sun spots in the lower left. Actually, three groups 4298, 4294, and 4296. A couple of smaller groups above an on the right.

The #Sun this morning. The large #sunspot groups are working their way across the face. Just some C-class and B-class flares and no earth-directed CMEs so the chances of a light show on Earth are pretty low.

They say it's the same group from last month that gave us the nice aurora, so maybe we'll get lucky.

Image of the Sun with a large group of irregularly shaped sun spots on the lower left. A few smaller spots on the left and right sides and a pair of very small ones near the center. They are dark brown with lighter areas surrounding. The Sun's surface is granulated deep orange with a few lighter areas throughout.

There's a new big group of Sun spots coming around, producing some X-class flares. At least one this morning anyway. Doesn't look like we'll get any auroras from it yet though.

Waxing gibbous Moon on a dark sky. Several maria are visible; Serenitatis, Tranquilitatis, Crisium, Fecunditatis, Nectaris. Several large craters, including Copernicus, Plato, Archimedes, Aristoteles. Tycho isn't quite visible yet.

What's up? Moon's up.

Orange red Sun on a black background. There's a couple irregularly shaped dark spots on the upper right and a larger one on the lower left limb.

A new sunspot group on the lower left limb of the Sun today. It might torn out to be a big one. There's been some solar flare activity there.