"U.S. birth rate continues to fall" https://www.npr.org/2026/04/09/nx-s1-5779627/birthrate-united-states-babies-immigration 710,000 fewer babies were born last year in U.S. compared with two decades ago The U.S. fertility rate continued its slide to historic levels, due to plunging teen pregnancies and far more women delaying motherhood into their 30s and 40s. In 2007: 4.2 million babies were born In 2024: 3.6 million babies were born

Wow!

@realplayer Thanks, Joe.

A tucan was photographed in a tree in downtown Saint Petersburg yesterday. I randomly saw the post and the picture on FB today. I've never seen one. This is the first time I've heard of anyone seeing one.

Nicely done!

I found an ad I felt great about finding. The phone number was hidden in code. I'm calling tomorrow to have two washers and one dryer taken away for free per out 5th (!) carport rule violation notice. How many of these messed did I make? None. You are to be evicted per Florida Statute upon receiving a 3rd such notice. Well, the manager gets furious every time, but we have a good working relationship, including of course good communication. She doesn't want to evict. Not to put too fine a point on it but she notorized my legal paperwork after rounding up the head of the HOA and the maintenance manager to be my witnesses. We're playing the long game. I don't know what RM is doing. I think he's lost in his own reality. I've lost the ability to care about it. Now that I'm walking with a limp, I have no choice but to double bag the garbage and pile it up to the kitchen ceiling. RM walks all over creation with is his little push carts. He can take it. Or not.

@wtg said: Zoom in: Each defection, taken alone, could be dismissed. Together, they could represent an existential threat to MAGA. Good!

Link to video We are the poorer for the privatization and deregulation we have seen and those who come after us will be the poorer for the privatization and deregulation yet to to be seen. I remembered telling a much valued poster here, a stalwart contributor if ever there was one, that the Democrats were coming after Social Security. He said politely that I might be right but that he didn't believe it. Well, I had plenty of evidence, or I wouldn't have said it. I'll also note that when the Democrats held the Presidency, and both Houses of Congress, they made no attempt to use the regular committee process, that had been used to amend The Social Security Act from the start of the Social Security Act, to align what was then, and is now, a surplus, with what they knew then, and know now, will soon be a deficit. They did nothing if you don't count forming a meaningless advisory council that was privately funded by a billionaire with a lifelong agenda of privatizing Social Security. They behaved in a derilect and disgraceful way. Today, a faction of Democrats is trying to argue with a straight face that the Democrats lost to Trump because their policy positions weren't "MAGA" enough and is trying to fix the problem as they see it. I forgot who said you never die in the world in which you were born but there's truth in it. No, I do not want the TSA to be privatized.

BTW from yesterday's NYT: How Accurate Are Google’s A.I. Overviews? The company’s A.I.-generated answers look authoritative, but they draw on an array of sources, from trustworthy sites to Facebook posts. Regular link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/technology/google-ai-overviews-accuracy.html Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/technology/google-ai-overviews-accuracy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZVA.gVON.lCi51gwbSqxm&smid=url-share

I don’t have them on the tv non-stop like I did last year. But I do check in. It amazes me that the parents are even able to get food in those tiny little chick mouths in the beginning.