A Talavera Sun

We have two Talavera pots in the garden and I do love the bright colors and the creativity. When I was collecting all the containers of fertilizer, Mole Max, gravel and  potting soil left randomly around the garden, I came across this sun (there is also a moon but it doesn't fit this scenario). I decided to put it up, at least for now, as the mushroom plaque Peter gave us for Christmas several years ago succumbed to the heat and fell apart.

I found the branch above in the further reaches of the property where some tree trimming had been done, scraped it clean of bark and lichen and made a perch for a flock of rusty iron birds. That Damn Bird liked it  too but double sided sticky tape seems to have discouraged her from perching (and pooping) there if not from flying into the glass door panes.

I'm going to have to start a collection of pet conveyances we've seen around town lately. Last night we found ourselves behind a big burly dude on a motorcycle with a sidecar. In the sidecar sat a large doodle of some sort (very fluffy) well kitted out with goggles and a seatbelt 
harness. I couldn't really get a good picture as we were right behind them, too close even when they turned  to get a good shot of the goggles.
 
Another fellow we see often rides his bike with a flat trailer, his dog  balanced atop it. Unlike the well dressed dog on the moto, this poor dog has no protections and manages pretty well considering how precarious his situation is. We saw them teetering along a narrow winding road with no shoulders and stayed well behind them the whole way. Fortunately for the dog and us, we haven't seen them on that road again.

On another subject:
I have been wondering amongst all the stoppages, withdrawals of finds, chainsawing of agencies and accepting of jet planes and issuing of biitcoins, what the tally of lawsuits brought against the Trump administration is, and how they are being decided. We hear about all the dire, cruel, uncaring illegal (pick your adjective) actions but not always how they are adjudicated.

I got a partial answer today. On May 27th Heather Cox Richardson wrote,
Last Friday Trump and the administration suffered a 96% loss rate in federal courts in the month of May. These losses were nonpartisan: 72% of Republican-appointed judges and 80.4% of Democratic-appointed judges ruled against the administration.
  
A US District judge ruled that 14 states can proceed with their suit against Musk and DOGE, saying that Musk and DOGE's conduct is 'unauthorized by any law.' 

Another judge struck down an executive order targeting a law firm which appointed a special counsel to investigate ties between the 2016 Tump campaign and Russian operatives. He noted that 'The First Amendment prohibits government officials from retaliating against individuals for engaging in protected speech' and struck down the executive order as unconstitutional.

And so it goes...slowly and tortuously executive orders against National Public Radio, immigrants, the judiciary and the press are being reviewed, delayed, strung out but eventually struck down. And Trump and his cronies continue to delay and attack the judiciary as biased.

The people have to be vigilant. There is a script for rising authoritarians. When the courts rule against the leader, the leader and his loyalists attack judges as biased and dangerous, just as Trump and his cronies have been doing. 

'Every authoritarian who successfully destroyed judicial independence did so because civil society failed to unite in time'
--Adam  Bonica, political scientist