David Sobotta
@ocracokewaves.bsky.social
Hoping to leave a world where my grandchildren can thrive. Believe history must be respected as well as honor, truth, and duty. Writer, former director at Apple, former cattleman, now herding tabby cats in NC as I preserve memories with photography & words
Yesterday was our 53rd anniversary. The picture of my wife was taken in Nova Scotia where I lived. We were married on a very hot NC day. We rode from the wedding to the reception in my mother's new Mercedes 450SE. It blew a fuse. The air conditioner quit working & we couldn't roll down the windows.
My letter to Senator Thom Tillis on the need to vote “NO” on Todd Blanche’s confirmation as Attorney General. Would that he could be like Republican William Cohen from Maine who said he would vote to impeach Nixon he had to put the country first. www.crystalcoast.me/letteronblan...
Letter to Senator Tillis
crystalcoast.me
Washington Post says the Reflecting Pool should have been "a silly summer story." I take exception. $16 million spent in a failed project should ring a few warning bells but I guess the sum is too small to matter.
Opossums are not going to save you from ticks. Ignore the FB meme on opossums eating 5,000 ticks a year. Research says otherwise. In the 50s a deer in our NC county would have been front page news. Deer population has grown faster than human population. www.crystalcoast.me/chiggerswere...
Chiggers were our worst enemies
crystalcoast.me
Lovely gnarly old Crape Myrtle trunks. This is on Main Street in Salisbury, NC.
I finally met a club sandwich so big that I had to deconstruct it to eat it. From The Recipe in Salisbury, NC.
The long sick, hot, fiery summer of Donald Trump's chickens coming home to roost (www.npr.org/2026/07/28/n...)
From an Atlantic Article, "Kill the Ticks." When the colonists arrived in what would become the United States, they began turning forests into farmland and hunting white-tailed deer, which neared extinction by 1900. This turned out to be an excellent, if unintended, tick-control strategy.
He just lies to manipulate the market and to cover up his lack of any coherent plan to get out of the mess that he created.
Gift article-The Oval Office now looks like a Middle Eastern bazaar crossed with an opulent Cracker Barrel. Thick, gold frames line the walls; gold vases & ice buckets adorn the fireplace mantle; gold stars form a circle on the ceiling; & gold appliqués fill gaps. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Let Them Eat Gold
Taxpayers are now financing President Trump’s love of anything gilded.
theatlantic.com
From my latest “Goose Speaks” Newsletter— “Trump has convinced the American people that he is the epitome of corruption and self enrichment. “ It is a fact. open.substack.com/pub/ocracoke...
Still a dangerous tyrant but the tide has turned
Trump is drowning in all the polls
open.substack.com
Pretty well everything he does is seen as corruption.
The man is deranged. He is incapable of admitting that he was wrong.
I found some very nice petite Angus sirloin steaks for $9.99 a pound. I got a very nice steak which I grilled for lunch today. There are two slightly smaller ones left that will make nice pitas. Steak was accompanied by TJ's Double Cream Brie on sourdough toast. Dessert was Hawaiian Zucchini bread.
What a treat, I was driving back from Farmington Meat, our butcher, with my load of buttermilk, country sausage and country ham when I noticed these wild Cardinal flowers blooming. My mother had them around her birdbath for years. It has been a while since I have seen any wild Cardinal flowers.
Pretty wild around our backyard today. Swarms of hummingbirds overwhelming our two feeders, the chipmunk chillings, squirrels squabbling and finches feeding.
Trump just won't stop, more bombs are not the answer. Gift article. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/w...
Evidence Indicates U.S. Dropped Bomb on Residential Area in Iran, Killing 3 Civilians (Gift Article)
The weapon, one of the largest in the U.S.’s arsenal, struck a house in a heavily populated area, according to a Times analysis.
nytimes.com
Gift article. They cannot escape the facts every time. wapo.st/3TA3SMC
DOJ drops Reflecting Pool charge, citing ‘botched’ work and contradicting Trump
Trump claims vandals deliberately damaged the pool, but prosecutors dropping charges against David Hearn say a contractor probably rushed installation.
wapo.st
Brief thoughts on the worst, my corrupt, narcissistic president in our history. Free post. open.substack.com/pub/ocracoke...
Still a dangerous tyrant but the tide has turned
Trump is drowning in all the polls
open.substack.com
The mob boss administration www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Exclusive | ‘The Boss Wants This Money’: Inside Trump’s Unprecedented Fundraising Operation
Meredith O’Rourke, nicknamed ‘princess of darkness,’ carries out the president’s desire to wring hundreds of millions from companies for his projects.
wsj.com
More good news from Trump's administration's federal workforce reductions that have significantly impacted food safety oversight, cutting thousands of jobs across agencies like the FDA, CDC, and USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service- Cyclosporiasis cases are rising. www.wsj.com/business/hos...
California Lettuce Growers Skip Harvest, Plow Their Crops Back Into the Ground
Federal health authorities haven’t linked U.S. produce to cyclospora, but some consumers are still steering clear.
wsj.com
Three years ago in 2023, we were on the way to a bumper crop of Cherokee Purple tomatoes and I had just started the third pruning of the tomato jungle Goose was already Goose.
I got Goose a box at Aldi yesterday. He moved his office there.
Would be nice if this was the beginnings of a trend. TNR
Full incompetence of the Trump administration on display for the world to see. Trump administration map of Africa mislabels every country journalnow.com/news/nation-...
Trump administration map of Africa mislabels every country
A Reuters analysis found the image of the map included in the presentation contained an artificial intelligence watermark that signals it was made with OpenAI tools. The company did not
journalnow.com