Patrick O'Donnell

Costa Rica Birding guide, writer, and entrepreneur with a focus on birding, tourism, and marketing sustainable products and lifestyle.

[Chris Gloninger, CCM, CBM @ChrisGloninger]

That 1970s "ice age" lived on a couple of magazine covers, not in the science — in the peer-reviewed literature from 1965–79, papers predicting warming outnumbered cooling ones about 6 to 1. As for "never happened": sea level is up roughly 8–9 inches since 1880 and the rate is accelerating, Arctic summer sea ice is down about 40% since 1979, and Greenland and Antarctica are shedding hundreds of billions of tons of ice every year. Those projections were for this century — not for last Tuesday. And where Al Gore parks his house has never once appeared in a climate model. Still waiting on that failed prediction.

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

We are suing to prevent Donald Trump from controlling mail-in voting by dictating to the Postal Service of whose ballot they will and won't deliver. All of this is laddering up to Trump trying to dictate who gets to vote and who doesn't.

[Patrick O'Donnell @birdingcraft]

@SenRubenGallego Can you sue for defamation?

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

Kratom is a plant from Asia that hits the same brain receptors as opioids. People take it for energy or pain. It can be addictive and it can kill.

People buy it at gas stations, with no age check and no honest label.

Markwayne Mullin owns up to a million dollars in a kratom company. Then he stood at an FDA podium and pushed rules to crush that company’s rivals. He never sold the stock.

The company was founded by a felon who stole $10 million and did prison time. His kratom shots are tied to liver damage, seizures, and death. The stuff showed up in 5,200 overdose deaths in five years. A 27 year old grad student took it for six weeks and died. His mother says a real ban would have saved him.

You cannot make this up. The same company paid a Trump connected lobbyist $600,000.

Then the payoff. The Justice Department dropped its lawsuit. The FDA scrubbed the warnings off its website. RFK Jr. called Ohio’s governor to kill a state ban. And the company wired a million dollars to a PAC tied to Kennedy.

This is the swamp they swore to drain. It is worse than ever before.

https://t.co/TxPRrLc7Ta

[Renee @PettyLupone]

She should have WAY more follows.

[Gavin Newsom @GavinNewsom]

The White House was built to serve the American people.

Tonight it was used to promote a company the President owns stock in, sell subscriptions, promote corporate sponsors, push Trump crypto, and enrich the President and his family.

The founders warned us about kings enriching themselves from public office.

They did not fight a revolution for this.

[Chris Gloninger, CCM, CBM @ChrisGloninger]

Five claims, and the photo you're quoting debunks the loudest one.

"Foreign fuel"? Offshore wind burns zero fuel. The U.S. is the world's #1 producer of BOTH oil and gas - record output in 2025. Wind cuts fuel dependence; it can't create it.

"Disrupt marine ecosystems"? NOAA, BOEM, and the GAO all find no known link between offshore wind and whale deaths. What actually kills right whales: vessel strikes and fishing gear - 25 of 30 examined deaths, 2017–24.

"Solely federal subsidy"? CVOW is a regulated utility's project, paid through customer rates, cents a month on the average bill, with bipartisan Virginia backing and Navy support.

"Visual assault"? Your own photo shows specks on the horizon. They sit 27–44 miles out.

It's 2.6 GW of American power for ~660,000 homes, already flowing.

And re. their appearance, GFY! This is a visual assault you dimwit.

[Patrick O'Donnell @birdingcraft]

@marceelias Wow, that's pretty darn stupid.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Elias: Why does California have signature matching? They have it to satisfy the same right-wing zealots who claim there’s fraud, right?

So they do this whole kabuki theater that takes all of this time in order to contend with the fact that people say that if you don’t do signature matching, there’s going to be fraud. And then they get attacked for taking the time to do that very thing.

The fact that the New York Times thinks there’s a middle ground here… Here’s my message: I don’t compromise with Republicans because there is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist, and they are trying to burn down democracy.

[Patrick O'Donnell @birdingcraft]

@atrupar Of course, El Salvador- run by a freshly minted dictator.
Costa Rica (where I live)- now with a president who seems eager to do whatever Trump wants and follows a similar populist strategy, currently attacking the justice system (who could hold the admin accountable).

[Patrick O'Donnell @birdingcraft]

@atrupar So….Mullin doesn’t know what racism is. And he makes excuses for people burning other people’s houses down because they are African.

[Patrick O'Donnell @birdingcraft]

@atrupar Of all the constant flow of lies, this one could be the most absurd.

[Patrick O'Donnell @birdingcraft]

@evornithology Just fantastic! Been loving this bird ever since I saw it illustrated in Peterson's Birds of Mexico in the 80s.

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

“It’s time to wake the fuck up”

Neil deGrasse Tyson: “Half of my fellow graduate students when I was getting my PhD were foreign nationals. Do you realize one third of all the Nobel Prizes in sciences won by Americans were won by immigrants to America? If you’re gonna trail the world in practically everything, including your economy, it’s time to wake the fuck up”

[Patrick O'Donnell @birdingcraft]

@atrupar What a completely stupid thing to say. We all know people who died from COVID-19 likely because they did not get vaccinated in time.

[Seth Abramson @SethAbramson]

Mark this moment.

This is where the endgame begins—though it might take two years to play out.

A President of the United States is openly linking the *Pentagon* and rigging elections for his party.

He is framing an authoritarian takeover as something the *U.S. military* wants.

[Rep. Jamie Raskin @RepRaskin]

News flash, Mr. President! We appreciate your candor in admitting you “love inflation” and don’t think about other Americans’ “financial situation,” but we hate inflation and can’t stand your illegal tariffs, taxes and wars. We’re sick of your economy for oligarchs!

[Patrick O'Donnell @birdingcraft]

@AbiluTangwa 10. The eternal question is how do we help people understand they need nature?

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

Let me get right to the point. The Senate should not confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general.

Here's why: https://t.co/Nx3C0aNbUK