It’s baaaack!

Birtherism is back. Trump’s lies about Barack Obama’s place of birth (“not in the US”) are being recycled for Democratic vice-presidential pick, Kamala Harris. 
Oh, so, so tired of Donald Trump.
Former National Republican Convention chairperson Michael Steele says, “America, I’ve talked to you about being punked, if you’re gonna get punked on this [birtherism] again, then you deserve what you get. [Going for birtherism again] says a hellava lot more about you than it does about Donald Trump. Kill it now. Not another story about it….”

News blues…

© Really American 

The Lincoln Project: Unprecedented  (0:55 mins)
Meidas Touch: Bye Hannity  (:55 mins)
Really American: Rescue Our Votes  (1:40 mins)
Republican Voters Against Trump: Here's Some Unique Texas Profanities for Trump  (2:30 mins)

Healthy futures anyone?

One of the pleasures of an “alternative lifestyle” – a houseboat on the San Joaquin River in the Sacramento Delta – is the seasonal wildlife. 

A favorite winter pleasure is sipping coffee as morning sunshine brightens the river and splashes through panorama windows into the cabin. Add the occasional sighting of sea lions and river otters gliding through the channel, and life doesn’t get much better…
Otter news improves day-by-day:

River otters were hunted for their fur in California until 1961. Despite the end of hunting, otters all but disappeared from the San Francisco Bay Area and southward, and polluted waters were thought to share in the blame. However, in the last decade, river otters have made a celebrated rebound, particularly in the North Bay, and have been spotted everywhere from Napa to San Jose. That they returned of their own accord without any reintroduction is a likely sign that restoration efforts have improved the health of creeks and streams. The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is considered a hub for river otters. 
Sea otters return to the bay’s estuaries, too.
… San Francisco Bay, California’s largest estuary, could support about 6,000 [sea] otters, more than double the current population. …Scientists also believe that sea otters could be conservation allies, with their potential to help restore other polluted estuaries in California. “…we may need them in estuaries but estuaries may also need sea otters.” … 

Welcome home, otters of all stripes…

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Feeling psychologically exhausted, worn down by bureaucrat-itis…
South Africa’s defunct post office service manages, occasionally, willy nilly, to squeeze a piece of mail into a residential post box.
Yesterday, after months of no postal delivery at all, my mother received in her post box two religious tracts, a seven-month-late bill from the power company, and an on-time bill from the municipal water company.
Since late January, 2020 I’ve tried, unsuccessfully, to receive my mother’s water bill via email. Emailing bills can be done, albeit apparently not by the municipal water company. I receive other municipal bills by email: property tax (“rates”), Eskom, natural gas, phone bill (before cancelling due to no phone service for three months)…. 

Sure, it takes what feels like eons talking on the phone with services representatives, but it can be done and I've succeeded in doing it.
Alas, the elusive water bill.
Until yesterday’s unexpected arrival in the post box, I’ve not seen a water bill in six months.
During the interim, I’ve tried contacting the water department and I’ve paid an estimated amount via online eft each month.
One issue: the phone number on the bill is indecipherable as it is printed in white ink upon a black and white silhouette of a garden.
The more legible email address customercare@umdm.gov.za – also white ink on black and white background - provides no customer care.
I emailed that address back on 15 March asking for a statement of the last 6 months’ payments.
Response?
Nada. Zero. Zilch.
Yesterday’s hardcopy bill threatened to “disconnect supply” if we don’t pay.
I paid half of the unusually high amount and emailed again, asking, again, for a statement of the last 6 months’ payments.
Last night that email bounced back, ironically from postmaster@umdm.gov.za (doesn’t that domain name, “@umdm.gov.za", imply the bounce back happened at the municipality level?). The message: 

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups: customercare@umdm.gov.za
Your message wasn't delivered. Despite repeated attempts to deliver your message, the recipient's email system refused to accept a connection from your email system.
Contact the recipient by some other means (by phone, for example) and ask them to tell their email admin that it appears that their email system is refusing connections from your email server. Give them the error details shown below. It's likely that the recipient's email admin is the only one who can fix this problem.
For Email Admins
No connection could be made because the target computer actively refused it. This usually results from trying to connect to a service that is inactive on the remote host - that is, one with no server application running.

Exhausting.
The thought of contacting “the recipient by some other means (by phone, for example)”, finding a legible and working phone number, jumping through the various hoops to reach and talk to a knowledgeable human, to follow through on how to resolve the issue….
Perhaps my assumptions about service a la South Africa must be tempered with reality a la South Africa, but… 

Oh, how I long to be back in my houseboat, spying on birds … and otters….