#nature memo

[sunflowersareonfire]

Nature Memo #1

I decided to go on a little adventure over the weekend since I had three days off (I generally work on the weekends and am almost always on-call for crisis situations). I picked up a new journal so that I could collect plant samples and press them. I've been intending to do this for way too long (2011) but have not gotten around to doing it until now.

I find nature to be mesmerizing and way too often taken for granted. Parks are great, and those with unpaved nature trails are even better. But even then, they are taken for granted.

In any event, below are the list of observations that I made. This is incomplete because I did not include the trees and shrubs that were observed. Of the 29 listed items below, 10 were ones that I had not previously recorded, so I'm pretty excited about that. The total number of living species (plants, insects, birds, reptiles, fungi, arachnids, mammals, fish, mollusks, amphibians, and other species) that I have recorded (as in, photographed, dated, and confirmed the species of) is now 276.

Plants observed (all pressed!)

Oxalis triangularis, False Shamrock

Narcissus poeticus, Poet’s Narcissus

Achillea millefolium, Common Yarrow

Muscari neglectum, Grape Hyacinth

Galium aparine, Catchweed Bedstraw

Stellaria media, Common Chickweed

Oxalis violacea, Violet Woodsorrel

Vinca minor, Lesser Periwinkle

Bowlesia incana, Hoary Bowlesia

Narcissus tazetta, Bunch-flowered Daffodil

Veronica persica, Bird’s-eye Speedwell

Valerianella locusta, Common Cornsalad

Allium vineale, Wild Garlic

Cardamine hirsuta, Hairy Bittercress

Ranunculus hispidus, Bristly Buttercup

Ornithogalum umbellatum, Common Star-of-Bethlehem

Houstonia pusilla, Tiny Bluet

Viola bicolor, American Field Pansy

Claytonia virginica, Virginia Spring Beauty

Insects observed

Camponotus pennsylvanicus, Black Carpenter Ant

Papilio rutulus, Western Tiger Swallowtail (Butterfly)

Coleomegilla maculata, Spotted Pink Ladybeetle

Polistes Carolina, Red Wasp

Eurema lisa, Little Yellow (Butterfly)

Celastrina ladon, Spring Azure (Butterfly)

Amphibians observed

Pseudacris crucifer, Spring Pepper (Frog)

Fungi observed

Trametes versicolor, Turkey-tail

Cladonia evansii, Evan’s Deer Moss

Arachnids observed

Oxyopes salticus, Striped Lynx Spider

Next step is to let the pressed plans dry, followed by labeling, dating, notes on GPS coordinates for each sample, as well as information on whether it it is edible, seasonal growth, and if I am feeling particularly brave I will attempt to draw them.

All of these samples were taken in Arkansas between Siloam Springs, Pea Ridge National Battlefield, and Bella Vista.

[cosmicdreamgrl]

𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘫𝘬 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴: (99/?)

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

By Thom Hartmann

Kevin Roberts, who heads the Heritage Foundation (largely responsible for Project 2025) just implicitly threatened Americans that if we don’t allow him and his hard-right movement to complete their transformation of America from a democratic republic into an authoritarian state, there will be blood in the streets.

“We’re in the process of taking this country back,” he told a TV audience, adding: “The reason that they are apoplectic right now, the reason that so many anchors on MSNBC, for example, are losing their minds daily is because our side is winning. And so I come full circle on this response and just want to encourage you with some substance that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

He’s not wrong. America has been changed as a result of a series of corrupt rulings by Republicans (exclusively; not one of these rulings has been joined by a Democratic appointee) which have changed America’s legal and political systems themselves.

As Roberts notes, this is really the largest issue we all face, and our mainstream media are totally failing to either recognize or clearly articulate how radically different our country is now, how far the Republicans on the Court have dragged us away from both our Founder’s vision and the norms and standards of a functioning, modern democratic republic.

First, in a series of decisions — the first written by that notorious corporatist Lewis Powell (of “Powell Memo” fame) — Republicans on the Court have functionally legalized bribery of politicians and judges by both the morbidly rich and massive corporations.

This started with Powell’s 1978 Bellotti opinion, which opened the door (already cracked a bit) to the idea that corporations are not only “persons” under the Constitution, but, more radically, are entitled to the human rights the Framers wrote into the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments).

Using that rationale, Powell asserted that corporations, like rich people (from the Buckley decision that preceded Belotti by two years), are entitled to the First Amendment right of free speech. But he took it a radical step farther, ruling that because corporations don’t have mouths they can use to speak with, their use of money to spend supporting politicians or carpet-bombing advertising for a candidate or issue is free speech that can’t be tightly regulated.

Citizens United, another all-Republican decision with Clarence Thomas the deciding vote (after taking millions in bribes), expanded that doctrine for both corporations and rich people, creating new “dark money” systems that wealthy donors and companies can use to hide their involvement in their efforts to get the political/legal/legislative outcomes they seek.

Last week the Republicans on the Court took even that a huge step farther, declaring that when companies or wealthy people give money to politicians in exchange for contracts, legislation, or other favors, as long as the cash is paid out after the deed is done it’s not a bribe but a simple “gratuity.”

So, first off, they’ve overthrown over 240 years of American law and legalized bribery.

Last week they also gutted the ability of federal regulatory agencies to protect average people, voters, employees, and even the environment from corporations that seek to exploit, pollute, or even engage in wage theft. This shifted power across the economic spectrum from a government elected by we the people to the CEOs and boards of directors of some of America’s most predatory and poisonous companies.

Finally, in the Trump immunity case, the Court ruled that presidents are immune from prosecution under criminal law, regardless of the crimes they commit, so long as they assert those crimes are done as part of their “official” responsibilities. And who decides what’s “official”? The six Republicans on the Supreme Court.

These actions — corporate personhood, money as speech, ending the Chevron deference to regulatory agencies, and giving the president life-and-death powers that historically have only been held by kings, shahs, mullahs, dictators, and popes — have fundamentally altered the nature of our nation.

It’s almost impossible to overstate the significance of this, or its consequences. We no longer live in America 1.0; this is a new America, one more closely resembling the old Confederacy, where wealthy families and giant companies make the rules, enforce the rules, and punish those who irritate or try to obstruct them.

In America 2.0, there is no right to vote; governors and secretaries of state can take away your vote without even telling you (although they still must go to court to take away your gun).

They can destroy any politician they choose by simply pouring enough cash into the campaign system (including dark, untraceable cash).

The president can now go much farther than Bush’s torturing and imprisoning innocent people in Gitmo without legal process: he can now shoot a person on Fifth Avenue in plain sight of the world and simply call it a necessary part of his job. Or impoverish or imprison you or me with the thinnest of legal “official” rationales.

America 2.0 is not a democracy; it’s an oligarchy, as I wrote about in The Hidden History of American Oligarchy. The South has finally — nearly — won the Civil War.

While it will be months or more likely years before all of these new powers the Republicans on the Court have given the president, rich people, and corporations begin to dawn on most Americans, they will, step-by-step transform this country into something more closely resembling Hungary or Russia than the democracies of Europe and Southeast Asia.

The only remedy at this late stage in this 50+ yearlong campaign to remake America is a massive revolt this fall at the ballot box, turning Congress — by huge majorities — over to Democrats while holding the White House.

If we fail at this, while there will be scattered pockets of resistance for years, it’ll be nearly impossible to reverse the course that America’s rightwing billionaires have set us on.

There has never been a more critical time in the history of our nation outside of the last time rich oligarchs tried to overthrow our democracy, the Civil War. Like then, the stakes are nothing less than the survival of a nation of, by, and for we the people.

[schnaf]

🫂->🥊

[autistrix]

[https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/27113155]

Burrowing Owl || Athene cunicularia

Observed in United States

I don't think this one got the memo, I don't think this one can read

[miserymisume]

I had an urge to kill the astronaut with nature's elements: fire, water, wind, and hammer

[puppyeared]

footnotes arent enough I need you to talk to me like im fucking Amelia Bedelia

[yeriminder]

pondering a gravity falls fic. might just freestyle in word and see what happens

[sp1resong]

now that i'm done having an identity crisis i've gotta say i'm kind of amused by how many times it just entirely lost the plot. like. i went from 'okay but like what is my personality. who am i just as a person' to 'genuinely how would i know if i'm plural i dont think i am but How Would I Know' to 'WHAT IS THE FUNDAMENTAL NATURE OF THE (alter)HUMAN SOUL. &WHAT IS MINE'. like. girl

[memryse]

i think ccs begging us to get over flower husbands or desert duo or whatever is kind of illustrative of how they maybe don’t quite Get fandom. we are saying to them “you have created such a beautiful thing that we are going to talk about it for years and years and it will stay with us forever because we liked it that much”. it’s a love letter to their storytelling that i still have things to say about 3L etc nearly two years on. but if you’re a cc and you don’t really get why exactly it resonated with us so much you’d probably just wish people paid attention to your new content that you’ve been working hard on right

[walterdecourceys]

in fairness i'm basically a living example of "high school doesn't prepare you for the real world" because i am still constantly learning very basic facts about the world we inhabit but i CAN tell you about the symbolism of mercutio's death in romeo and juliet so we know where my priorities lie

[raposarealm]

Today’s defense team~

That’s not a ranked fight, that’s a friend battle against what I’m pretty sure is one of Muffin’s alts. 

I lost that fight by the way, Ayaka hits for absolute jack shite.

[leibholz-moved]

front seat on the struggle bus (this man is a cartoon :3c):

[tinyratmagic]

put all your notes and doodles in a fluffy dandelion clock💛💚

a new memo sheet design for you in the ye olde ratte shoppe🐀

[zekkopunks]

I just realized women rule over my artfight thank god

[dwuerch-blog]

Prayer – As Natural As Breathing

Seems like God has me on a Prayer Enlightenment Journey, and it’s popping up everywhere, just like those white cars you start noticing the minute you buy one. I get it, Lord, I hear you loud and clear. Apparently, it’s time to amp up my communication with God! I’ll be straight with you, I’ve never considered myself as a “prayer warrior.” Sure, I know the benefits.. My mom was a champ at it.…