Green Phantom Pleco

Nature 2 Minutes

The Green Phantom Pleco (Hemiancistrus subviridis) is a captivating freshwater fish that hails from the fast-flowing rivers of Venezuela and Colombia in South America. Renowned for its vibrant green coloration and peaceful demeanor, this species can grow up to 8 inches in length, making it a standout addition to larger aquariums. 

What sets the Green Phantom Pleco apart is not just its striking appearance but also its ecological role as an algae eater, helping to keep aquariums clean by grazing on algae growths on glass and decorations.

Unlike many other fish species, the Green Phantom Pleco prefers cooler water temperatures ranging from 72 to 86°F, and requires a well-oxygenated environment with plenty of hiding spots to mimic its natural habitat. This species’ unique color and beneficial cleaning habits make it highly sought after by aquarium enthusiasts, despite its somewhat more demanding care requirements.

Green Phantom Plecos are relatively hardy, making them suitable for a variety of aquarium settings, but they do require specific care to thrive. They are best kept in tanks with a minimum size of 30 gallons to accommodate their potential growth up to 8 inches in length. The water should be well-oxygenated with a moderate to strong flow, mimicking their natural river habitat, and maintained with a pH between 6.5 and 7.5. 

Green Phantom Plecos are peaceful and can be housed with many other species, but they do need hiding spots and a diet rich in vegetables and high-quality sinking pellets or wafers. While they can tolerate a range of conditions, attention to water quality and diet is essential for their well-being. This species demonstrates that with proper care, they can be both a hardy and rewarding addition to the aquarium.

Food & Diet

Caring for Green Phantom Pleco includes providing them with a diet that meets their nutritional needs. Here’s an overview of the food and diet recommendations for Green Phantom Plecos:

Primary Diet

Green Phantom Plecos are omnivores with a strong preference for algae and biofilm in their natural habitat. In captivity, their diet should include a variety of foods to ensure they receive all the necessary nutrients:

Algae Wafers: These are a staple for most plecos and should be included in their diet. They mimic the pleco’s natural food source and are rich in essential vitamins and minerals.

Vegetables: Offering blanched vegetables like zucchini, cucumber, spinach, and peas can provide additional nutrients. These should be offered on a regular basis but removed after 24 hours to prevent decay.

Driftwood: While not a food source per se, having driftwood in the tank is important for Green Phantom Plecos. They graze on the biofilm that grows on the wood and may also ingest small amounts of wood fiber, which aids in digestion.

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Published by pat frederick

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138 thoughts on “Green Phantom Pleco”

        1. are you only child?
          I had an older sister–she got to do EVERYTHING first (except boobs–i got those first and her portion too…lol) and a baby brother who was mom’s favorite. sigh…lol

          Liked by 1 person

        1. mom let the first one slide…gave me a warning. the second time i got swatted, the third time I had to hold his hand everywhere we went. I learned fast AFTER that one! (he had cooties–all boys did)

          Liked by 1 person

  13. Morning All!

    hubby had dreams again last night–or maybe early this morning is a better description. my face must have been a piano in his dreams…lol

    so i got up to let him sleep and have the whole bed and he got up too.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. A really great meme!

    NOTE – I’m much MUCH more concerned about anthropogenic pollution of air, land, water, oceans, food, meat… than any type of climate change.

    Liked by 2 people

  15. Good mornin’ Pat and Filly!

    Boy howdy – we got a heap of rain this past weekend! Then it’s going to warm up to 78º on Wednesday and more rain next weekend! We are getting our ‘April showers’ a bit early this year!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Morning GA!
      hubby says we might hit 50*!! today. hopefully it will help to melt some of the thick (still a solid 4-5″) of ice outside the garage door and at the top of the driveway.

      Liked by 2 people

    2. Good morning, GA! All of our snow is gone, temp @ 47 this morning – we’ll be getting a lot of rain coming our way, too.

      Liked by 2 people

        1. You never know – it could move south, too. And, as the saying goes here in NE, if you don’t like the weather, wait 24 hours! LOL

          Liked by 1 person

  20. Charlotte99

    March 10, 2025 1:42 am

    Trump’s would-be assassin Ryan Routh’s ‘highly unusual’ move ahead of release of ‘suspicious’ FBI report

    Defense lawyers for would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh quietly visited the president’s private golf course in West Palm Beach last month.

    The visit was carried out in secret on February 25 and is only now just coming to light.

    The tour was confirmed in newly revealed court filings and first reported by CBS News, as Routh’s defense team prepares for a federal trial this September for plotting to take Donald Trump‘s life during a golf outing.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14480355/Ryan-Routh-defense-lawyers-trump-assassination-attempt-golf-course-rifle.html

    Liked by 1 person

  25. Marco Rubio

    @marcorubio

    After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID. The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States. In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18% of programs we are keeping (approximately 1000) to now be administered more effectively under the State Department. Thank you to DOGE and our hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform.

    Liked by 1 person

  26. Thomas Massie
    @RepThomasMassie
    I predicted this (see below). The CR is a UNIPARTY deal. It doesn’t fund the wall. It does fund USAID. The democrats depart for a retreat on Wednesday, so they’ve already agreed to provide enough votes to pass the CR. Meanwhile, our election mandate will wane by this coming Sept.

    Thomas Massie

    @RepThomasMassie

    I’m concerned that the House and Senate will fully fund USAID in March, just like we did in December (I voted No). The argument from Republican leadership will be that they need Democrat votes to pass an omnibus (or CR) bill to avoid a government shutdown.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hello!
      you’re welcome! sometimes it’s difficult to find ideas for an open, so I pick a color for the month (green for March because of St.Patty’s Day) and find unusual fish or birds in that color.
      I’ve picked a purple fish for April…lol

      Liked by 2 people

      1. A color per month? That’s a good idea, really. It sure helps with daily posting, I bet. Just find something to match the color! 😀

        Purple for April – well, “April showers bring Spring flowers.” With all the rain likely to come, you can plausibly say the sky will be somewhat purple…. 😉

        Liked by 1 person

            1. it’s a beautiful fish–wait till you see it!
              my son always wanted fish as a child. every year he would try to win a goldfish at the school festival. he came home with a fish every year too and hubby and I would (discretely) make bets on how long it would last. his personal best? 3 days…lol

              Liked by 1 person

        1. I had a tank when I was a young girl w/a goldfish and a white fish (IDR what kind). The tank was in the den and since there were no heat vents in that room, they froze one night. LOL – that was my last attempt with fish! I think I was 9 or 10. I wouldn’t mind having a koi pond in my landscape but beyond that, it’s not my thing.

          Liked by 2 people

            1. Not if the koi are big enough! Plus, if I had the $$$ to do that much landscaping, it would be securely fenced so they couldn’t get in!

              Liked by 1 person

  28. SHUT IT DOWN!!!!

    “At Northwestern, NIH Grant Funds Gender Institute That Hosted ‘BIPOC’-Only Academic Program’ — The program invites a small cohort of trainees … who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and also sexual and gender minorities’”

    Northwestern University / Wikimedia Commons

    Free Beacon, Lexi Boccuzzi, March 10, 2025

    EXCERPT: “Last year, the National Institutes of Health sent more than $1 million in taxpayer-funded grants to Northwestern University’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH). At the same time, the institute hosted a summer program for graduate scholars that it offered only to “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and also sexual and gender minorities (SGM).”

    The program saw Northwestern invite “a small cohort of trainees in the behavioral and social sciences” to campus to “attend a series of lectures and workshops” on “Intersectional BIPOC SGM-focused HIV Science.” Those lectures did not include straight or white scholars. In both its online description of the program and in its application, Northwestern stated plainly that the program was restricted to racial, sexual, and gender minorities.

    “The program invites a small cohort of trainees in the behavioral and social sciences who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and also sexual and gender minorities (SGM) in either graduate or postdoctoral training programs to attend a series of lectures and workshops,” an archived version of the program’s website states. The 2024 application for the program, meanwhile, required applicants to state their “racial background,” pronouns, “current gender identity,” “current sexual orientation,” and whether they were “Latinx/Latino/Latina or Hispanic,” according to a copy reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon….”

    https://freebeacon.com/campus/at-northwestern-nih-grant-funds-gender-institute-that-hosted-bipoc-only-academic-program/

    Liked by 1 person

  31. OK – I admit it – I’ve done this! LOL

    “……anyway, that’s how I saved $450 per year simply by buying a $3 pair of scissors”

    Liked by 1 person

  32. Just The News: “The Biden administration failed to fully comply with a demand to allow Congress to review Suspicious Activity Reports involving the massive Democrat online fundraising platform ActBlue, prompting a fresh request Monday to the Trump Treasury Department, according to correspondence obtained by Just the News.

    House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., made the joint request to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant seeking access to the SARs, which are required by federal law when banks suspect money laundering or other suspicious activity. 

    The committees first sought the reports last fall, and Comer has said government officials told them there are hundreds of such reports. In their new letter, the chairmen revealed the Biden Treasury Department only let Congress see some of the reports.

    “Although the Biden Administration initially stalled the Committees’ requests in its entirety for months, on January 2, 2025, Treasury allowed the Committees to review only limited documents,” they wrote Bessant. “We write to request Treasury, in its commitment to transparency and cooperation, provide both Committees with the remaining records relevant to our investigations.”

    You can read that letter here. FILE_1449.pdf

    Congress along with numerous state attorneys generals began investigating ActBlue last election, citing concerns the massive fundraising online platform, which claims to have raised $2 billion for Democrats and liberal causes over the last two decades, had not until recently used security tools like the CVV number on the back of credit cards to ensure donor identities.

    10.1-ActBlue-AG-Letter.pdf

    The lawmakers told Bessant they were concerned that loose security might have led to abuses on the platform, including the flow of prohibited foreign monies into U.S. elections.

    “Our Committees are concerned that the failure to properly vet contributions made through online platforms may allow bad actors, including foreign nationals not lawfully admitted for permanent residence or individuals attempting to evade individual contribution limits, to more easily commit fraud to illegally exploit and violate federal campaign finance laws,” they wrote. For emphasis, they added the committees want to “guard against illicit foreign influence or other illegal activities in U.S. elections.”

    In a recent interview with the Just the News, No Noise television show, Comer indicated the “small fraction” of documents the committees was shown by the Biden Treasury Department only heightened lawmakers’ concerns and determination to get access to all records. “I think you are going to have a lot to report on ActBlue in the coming weeks,“ Comer said. Asked whether there is a foreign trail of money, he responded: “Absolutely.”

    Back in December, Steil told the Just the News, No Noise television show that Congress likely will refer ActBlue to the Trump Justice Department for possible investigation.

    “Once Pam Bondi comes in as attorney general under the Trump administration, we then have a partner at the United States Department of Justice to look at this, to do the investigation into bad actors, and to hold anyone who is engaged in this activity accountable,” he said.

    In October, Steil and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a fellow Republican, wrote to then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray and then-Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines about concerns that four U.S. adversaries may have donated through the platform. 

    “We write to you to raise an urgent concern regarding potential illicit election funding by foreign actors,” the lawmakers wrote. “CHA has been investigating claims that foreign actors, primarily from Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China, may be using ActBlue to launder illicit money into U.S. political campaigns.” 

    Bicameral Letter to FBI – ActBlue – Briefing Request – FINAL.pdf

    They also said: “Our investigation has indicated that these actors may be exploiting existing U.S. donors by making straw donations without their knowledge.” 

    ActBlue recently acknowledged to Congress that it has updated its donor verification policy to automatically reject donations that “use foreign prepaid/gift cards, domestic gift cards, are from high-risk/sanctioned countries, and have the highest level of risk as determined,” by its solution provider, Sift. 

    The change occurred just three days after Steil introduced the Secure Handling of Internet Electronic Donations (SHIELD) Act, on Sept. 6, to ensure foreign money stayed out of online political fundraising. Before the change, Steil said, donations made with foreign gift cards were not automatically rejected by ActBlue, Just the News reported. 

    ActBlue has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and says that it is fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. “Democratic and progressive campaigns have trusted ActBlue’s two-decade-long track record of innovation and dependability to deliver during big fundraising moments,” ActBlue said in a statement in June celebrating its 20th anniversary in business. 

    But last week, The New York Times reported that ActBlue faced “internal chaos” as “at least seven senior officials have left the group, setting off deep concerns about its future as it confronts scrutiny from congressional Republicans.”

    Liked by 1 person

  33. At one time, the original approved 13th Amendment) banned all lawyers from serving in Congress – we need to bring that back!!!! It was eliminated during the Civil War!

    EXCERPT: “It’s now a well-known fact of life that the legal class of the USA has degenerated into the most untrustworthy and treasonous, deceitful and dishonest.  This certain eventuality was deeply feared by the Founding Fathers of the American Republic.  It was for this very reason that the original 13th Amendment was carefully deliberated and legally ratified.  However, it was then unlawfully removed from the U.S. Constitution “during the tumult of the Civil War” (after being completely ignored for decades).  As follows:

    “It is because lawyers and attorneys formally registered with the BAR (British Accredited Registry) that they could not be trusted to hold public office in the USA.  By implicitly pledging their allegiance to an entity of a foreign government, they could not be trusted to act in the best interest of the American Republic or its citizens.”

    https://themillenniumreport.com/2015/10/the-missing-13th-amendment-no-lawyers-allowed-in-public-office/

    EXCERPT: “On Thursday, President Trump issued an executive order that cut federal ties with the Spygate incubator and major Democrat law firm Perkins Coie. The president did so based on the firm’s partisan dishonesty, and because it openly discriminates based on sex and race.

    This is a good legal basis for refusing to work with any company, and it should be extended to every legal entity in the country. Top of the list should be the American Bar Association, which also advocates for and engages in unlawful racial and sexual discrimination and is a highly partisan actor on behalf of the Democrat Party and other anti-Constitution activists.

    The ABA deeply affects the U.S. lawyer pipeline and licensing system, accrediting law schools, rating judges, and weaponizing lawyer discipline. Its rabid leftism means the ABA systematically ratchets the entire U.S. legal system against the U.S. Constitution.

    That’s an existential threat to the country, as most recently illustrated by the dozens of federal judges the ABA helped advance who hate our supreme law so much they rule that the elected executive cannot control the unelected executive branch. With judges like those the ABA advances, the United States will quickly discard what remnants of our constitutional order persist.

    https://twitter.com/tracewoodgrains/status/1814641332041740315

    Not only the Trump administration, but all states where lawmakers still respect constitutional governance should act quickly to replace the ABA with legal institutions that adhere to the real, original Constitution in the plain meaning of its text. Americans cannot expect justice from our courts without this.The American Bar Association Is A Leftist Legal Ratchet

    Michael Fragoso, who worked as a Senate and White House legal liaison to the ABA, recently advocated for the Trump administration to stop using ABA to prescreen judicial nominees. He notes the activist organization has taken a partisan role in America’s legal system ever since it began evaluating judicial nominees in 1953. As Thomas Jipping highlighted in 2019, “multiple academic studies of the ABA ratings (examples here, here, here, and here) have found systematic bias against Republican nominees.”

    “The ABA has always leaned left, but under the Biden administration, it completely abandoned its standards,” Fragoso says. “It rated as ‘qualified’ obviously unqualified nominees like Charnelle Bjelkengren, who proved unable at her confirmation hearing to tell Senator John Kennedy the purpose of Article V of the Constitution.”

    2024 Tweet that won’t open in a new tab: “the myth of Republican parity in law, bolstered by FedSoc’s success in organizing right-leaning lawyers, obscures simple reality: the great majority of law firms that matter lean emphatically to the left”

    Not only the Trump administration, but all states where lawmakers still respect constitutional governance should act quickly to replace the ABA with legal institutions that adhere to the real, original Constitution in the plain meaning of its text. Americans cannot expect justice from our courts without this….”

    https://thefederalist.com/2025/03/10/the-trump-admin-and-all-republican-states-should-ditch-the-american-bar-association/

    Liked by 1 person

  34. “Why A Continuing Resolution Is The Best Way To Propel Trump’s Agenda Right Now — A continuing resolution is a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s the medicine we need to heal the country.”

    The Federalist, By: Eric Teetsel, March 10, 2025

    Trump addresses congress with Mike Johnson in the blurred background

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “A bona fide opposition movement has grasped the reins in Washington. Since he was sworn in, rather than sitting atop or expanding the vast federal bureaucracy like his Republican predecessors, President Donald Trump has wielded his executive authority to cut, curb, and convert the woke and weaponized administrative state into a constrained and constitutional government. And he’s just getting started.

    Enter Congress. President Trump pressing the reset button on the administrative state has already done more to move America in the right direction than anything else we’ve seen in recent memory, but executive orders giveth and executive orders taketh away. The empire will strike back unless Congress takes steps to make Trump’s reforms permanent. That starts with passing a simple continuing resolution (CR) before the March 14 funding deadline.

    Asking Congress to pass a CR is unusual, especially as a conservative concerned about the government’s spending problem. Our nation is suffering under a mountain of debt after decades of reckless spending. CRs have been a key ingredient in the establishment recipe, allowing Congress to bypass the annual appropriations process and instead leverage the threat of government shutdowns into Christmas Eve omnibus bills filled with waste and expensive giveaways to special interests.

    At first glance, a CR may seem extra disappointing and irresponsible in this case. After all, we are talking about continuing the fiscal year 2024 spending levels established under the Biden-Harris administration. The CR would automatically appropriate funds for agencies like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which Trump already DOGE-d.

    But these are unusual times. The normal rules of policy and politics don’t apply.

    First, and most importantly, President Trump is in charge. With Russ Vought confirmed as director of the Office of Management and Budget, Elon Musk leading the Department of Government Efficiency, and other trustworthy allies in every agency, Congress can appropriate whatever it wants; this administration is going to use every constitutional authority and legal avenue afforded it to ensure the law is faithfully executed. It’s the political equivalent of asking the bank to raise your credit limit and then handing your card over to Dave Ramsey.

    Whether through reprogramming authorities, a rescission package, or impoundment, the White House is ready to ensure its efforts to gut the woke and weaponized deep state are durable and lasting. Impoundment authority is, of course, a long-lost authority of the president to fulfill his constitutional obligation to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” by not spending Americans’ money if he doesn’t believe it necessary or proper. While I believe the powers of impoundment are expansive, there will inevitably be court challenges to the usages of impoundment authority in the post-Impoundment Control Act era that may reach the Supreme Court.

    Second, the only realistic alternatives to a “clean” CR are a CR-plus or omnibus appropriations package. Either option could only be passed with Democrat support, which means they would be loaded up with expensive nonsense, including bailouts for California without any policy reforms, military aid to Ukraine, and more. At a minimum, the “clean” CR is the least bad conservative option.

    Third, Congress must move past the March 14 funding deadline to focus on reconciliation. Once the House passes a budget resolution, which it did on Feb. 25, a reconciliation process can move forward that will include money for border security and immigration law enforcement, extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, new tax policies such as no taxes on tips, deregulatory changes to unleash domestic oil and natural gas production, and much more.

    In short, the reconciliation process is the main vehicle for most of year-one Trump agenda priorities to pass into law. The reconciliation process is so vital because it only requires a simple majority vote in the Senate as opposed to requiring 60 as most bills do. Reconciliation is a profound opportunity to enshrine lasting change, but it takes time and must occur within a specific timeframe. Every minute Congress spends on something else, such as a government shutdown due to the failure to pass a CR, makes reconciliation less likely. 

    An oft-repeated mantra at the Center for Renewing America is “positions versus interests.” Our position is that CRs are bad; our interest is in squeezing every ounce out of this once-in-a-generation opportunity with President Trump and Republican control of the House and Senate. That means asking conservatives to swallow a bitter pill, but it is the medicine we need to heal the country.”

    Liked by 1 person

  36. EXCERPT: “For 14 years, Syria has been engulfed in a civil war. Until three months ago, dictator Bashar al-Assad controlled the government, but he was overthrown by the Jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist organization.

    While Assad had many faults he did protect the Christian minority in Syria. However, as noted by commentator Tucker Carlson, as the civil war progressed, “the percentage of Christians in Syria went from ten percent to two percent.”

    After Assad fled for Russia, Ahmed al-Sharaa seized control as Syria’s new interim President. He is the former leader of HTS. Previously, the United States offered a $10 million reward for his capture, but the Biden administration removed it last December.

    On Thursday, predictable revenge killings started in coastal areas of Syria, such as the town of Baniyas, still loyal to Assad. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, over 1,000 people were killed, including 745 innocent civilians.

    Throughout the region, innocent civilians were killed by Sunni Muslim gunmen affiliated with the HTS government. The victims included Christians and “members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect.” Christian holy sites were also desecrated.

    Ali Sheha, a Baniyas resident who witnessed the slaughter and fled with his family, told the Associated Press that Alawite residents were shot in homes, shops and on the streets. In addition, residences were looted and set on fire.

    He said the Jihadist murderers “asked residents for their IDs to check their religion and their sect before killing them. He said the gunmen also…stole cars and robbed homes.” To avoid the “executions,” some Alawites fled to Lebanon, while others took refuge at a Russian airbase in Hmeimim, Syria.

    In response to the carnage, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that our country “stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities.” He called for a full investigation by Syrian authorities. France also expressed its “deep concern” about the massacre and called for an independent investigation to “shed full light on these crimes.”

    Unfortunately, much of the international community has been silent about these atrocities. Even worse, the European Union (EU) exonerated the Jihadist government for the massacre. In their statement, the EU condemned “the recent attacks, reportedly by pro-Assad elements, on interim government forces in the coastal areas of Syria and all violence against civilians.”

    A much more truthful view has been presented by the new U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who predicted these problems in Syria. For meeting with Assad in 2017, Gabbard was accused of being a Russian spy.

    In her confirmation hearings Gabbard said, “I shed no tears for the fall of the Assad regime, but today we have an Islamist extremist who is now in charge of Syria. As I said, who danced on the streets to celebrate the 9/11 attack, who ruled over Idlib (Syria) with an Islamist extremist governance and who has already begun to persecute and kill and arrest religious minorities like Christians in Syria. Why that should be acceptable to anyone is beyond me. It is certainly not in our interests.”….”

    https://thedailybs.com/2025/03/10/why-the-silence-about-the-slaughter-in-syria/

    Liked by 1 person

  37. OK, so I’m not the only one having issues with Twitter – I can’t get them to open at all this morning!!!

    “Re Twitter LOLA service interruption now? It’s a conspiracy

    Matt Taibbi, Mar 10, 2025

    “Apologies for writing this column this morning only to have the event hijacked. Elon might want to spend less time arguing with Anne Applebaum’s husband and more time making sure X is on during NFL free agency. Hosni Mubarak might still be ruling Egypt if this had happened in 2011. Yes, I say this selfishly.

    On a less comical note, there’s a lot going on at the moment, between a full-court press over Ukraine, the incredible disqualification of Calin Georgescu from Romania’s election, and some other ominous civil liberties developments across the political landscape we’ll be covering. We hope to have new Library material up also. More TK.”

    Like

  38. OK – I tried again and it’s getting a little better:

    “It’s a start”

    “WOW! The US Debt Clock has now been updated to not only include DOGE, but also savings per taxpayer: DOGE Savings: $175 billion Savings Per Taxpayer: $1,558 Thank you, @elonmusk — this is historic.”

    https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1898212595280048451

    Like

  39. Just The News: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday announced that the government had ended 83% of programs operated through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), asserting that the did not serve American interests.

    “After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID,” he announced via X. “The 5,200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.”

    He further confirmed that the remaining 1,000 programs would be administered directly by the State Department. Rubio took over as acting USAID director last month after the Department of Government Efficiency highlighted the organization’s spending on woke and left-leaning social activism.

    The announcement followed the closure of the USAID headquarters in DC, which the Border Patrol then acquired.”

    Like

  40. “Trump’s Department of Education launches “End DEI” portal to report DEI discrimination in schools.”

    Not The Bee, Mister Retrops, Mar 9, 2025

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “For years, schools have been openly promoting racial and sexual discrimination, calling it “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” or “anti-racism,” but it is actually just racism and illegal according to the Civil Rights Act.

    Lawsuit after lawsuit over DEI policies have been settled in favor of those being discriminated against, but there are a lot more cases out there that have been hard to nail down because of woke school systems and a stacked legal system.

    But that’s all changing under the Trump administration. Trump’s Department of Education just launched an End DEI portal with a header that reads:

    Schools should be focused on learning.

    The portal allows teachers, students, and parents to report racial and sexual discrimination they have faced under the guise of DEI.

    The U.S. Department of Education is committed to ensuring all students have access to meaningful learning free of divisive ideologies and indoctrination. This submission form is an outlet for students, parents, teachers, and the broader community to report illegal discriminatory practices at institutions of learning. The Department of Education will utilize community submissions to identify potential areas for investigation.

    Moms for Liberty cofounder Tiffany Justice said,

    For years, parents have been begging schools to focus on teaching their children practical skills like reading, writing, and math, instead of pushing critical theory, rogue sex education and divisive ideologies — but their concerns have been brushed off, mocked, or shut down entirely. Parents, now is the time that you share the receipts of the betrayal that has happened in our public schools. This webpage demonstrates that President Trump’s Department of Education is putting power back in the hands of parents.

    I have a feeling there will be a lot fewer crazy DEI teacher stories for us to write here at Not the Bee. They will not be missed.”

    Liked by 1 person

  42. Winston
    Winston
    March 10, 2025 2:06 pm
    Reply to Winston

    Musk Confirms X Hit By “Massive Cyberattack” & Possibly Carried Out By “Coordinated Group Or Country”
    Mar 10, 2025

    https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/x-suffers-outage-nationwide

    Update (1335ET):

    Elon Musk confirms that X was hit by a “massive cyberattack,” stating that the attack was executed with “a lot of resources” and possibly carried out by a “coordinated group and/or a country.”

    Liked by 1 person

  43. SMH – when will they learn that fundamentalist Islam is NOT a desired element in your country!!!!

    ENTIRE ARTICLE @ ReMIX: “A violent incident erupted on a public bus in Italy on Tuesday afternoon when two foreign teenage girls attacked an Italian passenger for eating a sandwich during Ramadan. The assault escalated when the driver intervened, resulting in facial injuries and broken glasses for the 52-year-old employee of Arriva Italia.

    According to La Provincia, the altercation began around 1:20 p.m. on the G-line bus between Cremona and Spinadesco. The two girls reportedly confronted an Italian girl at the back of the bus, yelling at her, “You bitch! You can’t eat, it’s Ramadan,” before physically attacking her.

    Passengers screamed for help, prompting the driver to stop at a designated stop on Via Milano. He opened the doors and demanded that the assailants leave. However, rather than exiting peacefully, the girls continued their assault, striking the Italian girl once more.

    As the driver stepped outside to defuse the situation, the attackers turned on him. “One of the girls punched me in the stomach, and the other broke my glasses and scratched my face,” he said. The driver managed to call the police who arrived swiftly but the perpetrators had already fled the scene.

    The injured driver continued his route to Spinadesco before returning to the depot, where a colleague took over his shift. He was then taken to the emergency room at Maggiore Hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with facial trauma, prescribed five days of medical rest, and declared him unfit for work for two days. A CT scan was performed due to swelling under his eye.

    The driver plans to file a formal criminal complaint with the carabinieri. He also noted that the Italian girl who was slapped had visible facial bruising and may also file a report.

    “Something like this has never happened to me before. I’ve come close, but never this bad,” the driver said. “It’s always the same group — minors, and unfortunately, as much as I hate to say it, they are non-EU citizens.” The driver recalled another incident about a month and a half ago when he was verbally threatened by a group of migrant minors. “They called me a bastard, said they’d break my face. I called the police, and they took them away, but they always come back.”

    The attack has reignited concerns among bus drivers, who are demanding stronger safety measures on public transport. Many drivers report facing daily harassment and violence, calling for immediate action to protect transport workers from escalating aggression on the job.

    It’s a similar story for all public transport employees. Remix News previously reported back in November last year how violence against staff had reached critical levels following the third violent attack on a train conductor that month alone.

    https://rmx.news/germany/train-conductors-are-bearing-the-brunt-of-mass-immigration/

    On the regional railway line between Porretta and Pianoro in the province of Bologna, a train attendant was severely beaten by a passenger of North African origin when asked to present a ticket. The conductor suffered serious injuries, including the loss of two teeth, and the attack disrupted multiple train routes as emergency services responded.

    Similarly, a conductor on a train in Genoa was stabbed by two North African migrants during a routine ticket inspection. One attacker used a knife to stab the conductor twice, leaving him in serious condition. This incident prompted six rail unions to declare a nationwide strike, citing “violent and repeated attacks” against their workers.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. diversity is NOT a strength. it’s just diversity.

      heck it’s also Lent…and I gave up candy. that doesn’t give me the right to slap it out of someone else’s hands. these people are entitled jackasses.

      Liked by 2 people

  46. here’s a good idea…

    QCM
    QCM
    March 10, 2025 3:26 pm
    Reply to sync

    Well…if it MUST be spent on “foreign aid”…use it to aid all the foreigners here illegally to get back home…the cost of rounding them up and a slow boat back home cost money too!

    Liked by 1 person

  47. A little more detail….

    Just The News: “Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Monday announced that she revoked security clearances for several prominent members of former President Joe Biden’s administration, including former Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

    Gabbard cited a directive from President Donald Trump, which also included people who helped target him through criminal cases such as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Bragg led the hush money case.

    “I have revoked security clearances and barred access to classified information for … Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Lisa Monaco, Mark Zaid, Norman Eisen, James, Bragg, and Andrew Weissman, along with the 51 signers of the Hunter Biden ‘disinformation’ letter,” Gabbard posted on X. “The President’s Daily Brief is no longer being provided to former President Biden.”

    https://x.com/DNIGabbard/status/1899176257406857274

    Liked by 2 people

  48. Oh, my! Temp is up to 75 and I’ve got the patio door open! A yummy taste of spring and it’s got me thinking about planting cantaloupe. I’m going to aim for April 1, HB’s BD, to plant the first one and I’ll stagger the planting over 4 weeks so they aren’t all ripe at the same time. I’ve still got 4 bags of mulch in the back of my truck to spread, too. I do like the change in seasons – I wouldn’t want to live anywhere with the same weather thruout the year. Then again, I could do without snow….!

    Liked by 1 person

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