The insanity of it all. OK American folks, here’s where it’s at. Many of you will know stacks more about this issue than me – there’ll be ins and outs, no doubt, that I know nothing about. I haven’t made a point of reading up about the infamous Border Wall. But this was in my Twitter feed this morning and I want to talk about it anyway.
Three wonderful photos, with info from the tweet:
“Gila woodpecker feeding his nestlings in a saguaro on our street!
Dad’s head is dusted with pollen from the saguaro flowers where he catches insects to feed the babies. #Tucson”
taken by
Michael Thomas Bogan. Assistant Professor, School of Natural Resources and the Environment. The University of Arizona.
On Twitter: @mtbogan
Michael was happy for me to share these photos on my blog, and that made *me* happy!
Aren’t they great?
Michael has an attractive and informative website which I’m sure I’ll return to. Some of you may be interested that dragonflies get a mention 🙂
Under Outreach and communication you’ll find the last section is Urban dragonflies!
I’ve copied the following from the dragonfly link …
Our lab is studying the amazing diversity of dragonflies that you can find in our city’s local effluent-dependent stream, the Santa Cruz River! The river had perennial flow 100 years ago, but overuse of water dried up the river and the groundwater that supported it. However, our local water utilities now treat our city’s sewage and release that treated wastewater (i.e. effluent) into the dry river bed, and have created three stretches of flowing river in Tucson and Marana. Some of the most successful species to thrive in these re-born river reaches are dragonflies — we’ve found over 50 species of dragonflies in the river to date.
To help connect city people to the “re-born river” they’ve co-organized with other entities a Dragonfly Day on the Santa Cruz River. The first was 09 Nov 2019 and they hope to make it an annual event 🙂
OK, so far so good.
Here’s the insanity …
Michael also re-tweeted the following video clip, please follow the link and watch it for yourself (you don’t need to be part of Twitter in order to watch it):
To watch – click on the screen-shot below or click on this link
[note: you may get a warning ‘some replies have been hidden’ – just hit ok to dismiss it. There’s sound with the video, to activate it you may need to unmute the sound icon]
Never give up, y’all. Never give up.
Think about it … is there something you could be doing?
Posted by Liz, Exploring Colour (2020)
Exploring Colour 
The business of America is business.
Unfortunately, there are too many like-minded ‘individuals’ in the god-forsaken outpost of common sense called the USA who think that business is the be all and end all of existence. For the 150 million or so who don’t, it must be heartbreaking to watch the destruction of a dream.
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From a 2019 report I saw an estimate that America’s top-earning 1% took in 22% of all national income. Very similar to 1928 when 23.9% of the country’s income went to the top 1% – prior to the Great Depression.
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And people talk about learning lessons from history!
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I dictated this and it came out wrong. I meant to say false premises. But actually, false promises as well.
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The wall is based on so many false promises it’s difficult to know where to begin but I will start by gently correcting you, dear Liz, on your blog title: It is not bordering on madness. It is full-fledged madness.
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It’s hard for me to comprehend Michael and it seems terribly sad at many levels. Whenever I see something about it I don’t really want to read because I know I won’t like it! It seems the pandemic situation isn’t doing anything to slow the ongoing construction. Got your added note about ‘premises’ thanks.
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I did not vote for this individual. I will do all I can legally do to prevent his re-election. Undoubtedly all the observations you have of this individual that don’t make sense to you, don’t make sense for a reason: you are looking at insanity.
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I really, REALLY hope he doesn’t get re-elected. Looking at it all from outside (I’m in the UK), it looks scary, mad and downright disheartening to see what this ‘individual’ comes up with.
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There is such a thing as an antisocial personality. Look it up.
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I did and I can see what you mean…
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The passage I looked at added “Symptoms may lessen with age” – ha! Small comfort in this case.
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Hmm, it says ‘may’…
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yep, that word stuck out like a sore thumb 😦
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Great post. Liz. The site looks worth checking out. I haven’t forgotten your questions either – they’re in the queue!
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Thank you Kay!
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