OPINION | Ban Fireworks #July4th #IndependenceDay

There’s nothing to celebrate on the #July4th when traditional fireworks cause environmental pollution, scare wildlife, pets, and veterans.

Instead, let’s be smart and kind and use laser light shows. It’s virtually the same experience with zero #cruelty. #BanFireworks#IndependenceDay

Fortunately, a growing number of cities and counties are opting to prohibit fireworks, including recently adopted bans in Portland, Oregon; San Jose, California; Detroit, Michigan; and King County, Washington (home to Seattle).

The Animal Legal Defense Fund advocates in favor of such bans to protect animals and the ecosystems in which they live.

Companion Animals at Risk

Every July like clockwork, news articles and social media posts are published sharing advice for animal guardians about how to keep their companions as safe and calm as possible on the Fourth of July.

And, every July like clockwork, municipal animal shelters fill to the brim with dogs and cats who’ve escaped their homes and yards, becoming lost as they try to flee the sounds, smells, and vibrations of fireworks.

Wildlife Suffer for Fireworks

As for animals in the wild, they face perils of their own as a result of fireworks. “We know what to expect, but wildlife don’t,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service notes, adding that “[t]he abrupt lights and sounds are often seen as a threat by nesting bald eagles and easily startle great blue herons and other colonial nesting birds.”

Additional Problems for Humans and the Environment

Fireworks have environmental and public health impacts that are rarely considered or fully appreciated. They release particulate matter and toxins, adversely affecting air quality. They also pose a serious risk of igniting wildfires, particularly in areas facing dry conditions.

Many humans are also bothered by fireworks, including people with post-traumatic stress disorder, those on the autism spectrum, and others with sensory processing challenges.

https://aldf.org/article/animals-suffer-for-fireworks-more-localities-are-implementing-bans/

UPDATE: Could This Be Actor Julian Sands? | Human Remains Found on Mt. Baldy

It’s been a long time since we heard any news about Julian Sands. It’s now possible there will be a sad closure to his disappearance.

According to San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, the body was discovered around 10 a.m. in wilderness near Mount Baldy and was transported to the coroner’s office for identification next week.

Hikers Discover Human Remains in the Mt. Baldy Wilderness Area
DATE/TIME:   June 24, 2023 / 10:00 a.m.
INCIDENT:   Human Remains Located
LOCATION:  Mt. Baldy Wilderness Area
On Saturday, June 24, 2023, at about 10:00 a.m., civilian hikers contacted the Fontana Sheriff’s Station after they discovered human remains in the Mt. Baldy wilderness.  Fontana Station deputies, along with the Sheriff’s Department’s Emergency Operations Division, responded to the scene.  The decedent was transported to the Coroner’s Office, pending positive identification.  Identification should be completed next week at which time we will update this press release.  No further details are available at this time. Additional details were not immediately available.

Sands, an avid hiker and mountaineer, was reported missing January 13 after setting out on the peak that rises more than 10,000 feet east of Los Angeles. The region was pounded by severe storms during winter.

On Friday, his family released its first statement since Sands’ disappearance:

“We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer,” the statement said.

Julian Sands is a British-born actor best known for his role in the 1985 film “A Room With a View,”

A June 17 search for Sands, the eighth organized search with a rescue team of about eighty volunteers, was unsuccessful. Hundreds of hours have been put into the search … through the use of helicopters, drones, and other tactics.

I’lll update as more information becomes available.

Curated from NPR and other sources

Nothing to Celebrate on the 4th of July

How anybody could enjoy Independence Day this year after what’s been happening to erode our reproductive rights and other freedoms that were fought for and taken for granted, I have no idea.

FFS, what the hell happened to the United States of America? I’m disgusted.

The Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade

What an absolutely horrible headline. I fear dark days ahead.

Our rights, including reproductive rights, are being rapidly eroded. Soon, contraception will be regulated, and possibly marriage.

It’s simple. Stay out of my uterus. You do you. If you don’t want to have an abortion, then DON’T do it, but no one has the right to police my body. Or any woman’s body.

I know it sounds crazy, but I believe this is the direction our stupid country is headed.

It’s all so depressing and disgusting, I can’t even think about it without getting too upset.

Final thoughts…

From Blissful Butterflies to Bans Off Our Bodies

I did a lot of “B” things today all before noon, which leaves me the rest of the day to enjoy in the garden.

First of all, I went to a butterfly festival. I mean, how could I NOT, right?

It was the North County Monarch Butterfly Festival in San Marcos, which isn’t too terribly far from me, but it’s inland and since we’re having a heatwave, I thought I’d go early. It was 95 degrees at 10:00 a.m. That’s HOT!

The North County Monarch Butterfly Festival featured butterfly-inspired art, crafts, clothing, gardening, live music, and food. I really wish the kids were here because it was the perfect fun and educational event for children.

Here’s what the event website had to say: The fate of the iconic Western monarch butterfly is tied inextricably to the health of the planet, and that means our fate as human beings is informed by the same forces that impact the monarchs. Simply put, if monarch butterflies thrive, so do we, along with all of the other inhabitants of the monarch universe; conversely, if the monarchs can’t thrive in this universe, then human beings can’t either.

This event – hopefully the first of many – will feature any and all aspects of the monarch universe, from monarch-inspired arts and crafts to jewelry, clothing, biology, pollinator gardening, milkweed and nectar plant propagation and cultivating, to discussions and presentations on a wide range of subjects, from conservation and migration to habitat restoration and creation, from diseases and predators to native plants vs tropical, from children’s activities to seed exchange.

I held a snake too, from the San Diego Herpetological Society, the same organization that helped me identify that Great Basin lizard that visited for a while last year. I’m not 100% sure what snakes and lizards have to do with butterflies, but me and all the other children loved it. The snake’s name is Matt. Isn’t he handsome?

All kinds of milkweed; I purchased the native variety. I also got a variety of milkweed called Hairy Balls, again, how could I NOT? Gomphocarpus physocarpus, commonly known as hairy balls, is a species of milkweed native to southeast Africa, but it has been widely naturalized. It is often used as an ornamental plant.

Yummy smelling soaps and lip balms. Lovely!

After that I drove back to the coast where it was noticeably cooler and stopped by the Bans Off Our Bodies rally gathering at our local train station. I was happy to see an awesome and exuberant crowd of like-minded folks while I took a few photos.

Bans Off Our Bodies

Blocks and blocks of people all the way to the beach! This is in front of Spin Records.

I like to take photos of the signs, all with their permission, by the way.

A little butterfly bliss and a show of support for reproductive rights sounds like a great day to me, don’t you agree? Time to plant that milkweed!

Crazy California: Vote NO on the Recall

If you don’t live here, have you heard about the recall of our Governor Newsom? I got my ballot in the mail. Personally, I think he’s done a great job to keep us safe during the pandemic. That’s one reason why I’m voting NO on the recall to keep Newsom in office.

It was conjured up by a partisan, Republican coalition of national Republicans, anti-vaxxers, Q-Anon conspiracy theorists, and anti-immigrant Trump supporters.

Remember Bruce Jenner? Well…now as Caitlyn Jenner, he’s thrown his/her hat in the ring to become governor of Cali. Years ago when he was Bruce, I met him and was appalled at the horrible way he treated people. Running very fast is NOT a qualification to govern. That’s about all there is to know.

Here’s what stupid Larry Elder is promoting: minimum wage should be $0. No Medicare or Medicaid.

The other idiot who gets some press is the guy who brings a bear with him. Yes, you read that correctly. A BEAR. I guess because the state animal of California is a BEAR, but we animal activists have launched an investigation–anyone who thinks that bear isn’t abused has their head in the sand.

Lastly, there’s Angelyne, Here’s her pic. She’s known for her billboards and other assets, but we’ve learned that she’s close to 70 years old. ‘Nuff said but I’d love to meet her plastic surgeon!

According to the Los Angeles Times, the candidates are comprised of “peddlers of Q-Anon doomsday conspiracies; ‘patriots’ readying for battle and one organization allied with the far-right extremist group, the Proud Boys.”

POLITICO reported how one of the co-founders and chief organizers of the recall suggested it would be a good idea to “microchip” immigrants, and anti-immigrant rhetoric has been central to recall organizers’ appeals to supporters.

Instead of fighting COVID-19, Republicans are pulling a page from the Trump playbook and attacking Californians. From https://stoptherepublicanrecall.com/about/

This stupid and unnecessary pollitically motivated Republican recall will cost California $100 million – money that could be used to help vaccinate our communities.

Here’s what my hero Stacey Abrams said about the recall:  “Governor Newsom has courageously led California through a global pandemic — putting health, science and equity at the center of the state’s response. Republicans fought him every step of the way. Now, they are trying to overturn his election. Californians must stop the Republican recall.”

My other hero, Rep. Katie Porter: “From the start of the pandemic, Gavin Newsom has taken swift action to keep families safe and help them recover financially. That’s what makes this Republican recall so dangerous. It’s not just a waste of time and money that could be used to fight COVID-19 — a successful recall risks slowing down our state’s efforts to end the pandemic as quickly as possible.”

There are literally dozens of candidates. There’s nothing to see here, folks.

Let’s keep it simple.

Vote NO on the recall and let the idiots sort themselves out with their negative and toxic energy.

Living in the Shadows in Sunny Shiny Southern California

There’s another side of California that you might not know about.

Sandwiched between the manicured lawns of upper middle-class residential subdivisions in SoCal, there’s a microcosm of humanity living in the shadows — migrant laborers from Mexico in makeshift camps.

In my own neighborhood, just minutes from the beach and overlooking chaparral-studded canyons, hidden behind purple sage and giant coyote bushes, we recently went for a hike and found evidence that suggests there are still active encampments.

Mostly these men are invisible, ignored by us as we speed up and down our streets, shopping, caring for our families, and only sometimes do we notice these shadow people standing on the roadside waiting to be picked up for day work or at the local liquor store buying twelve packs of beer and money orders.

Like the crows that fly in and out of our trees in a raucous cacophony, there’s an exodus out of the canyons at dawn and back at sunset.

Whatever side of the undocumented worker discussion you’re on, it’s a  blight on our supposedly civilized society that in 2015, in this country of overabundance and excess, men and women live in the bushes without benefit of safe shelter or even running water.

When you scratch off the thin veneer of Pilates classes, weekly mani-pedis and facials, that fifty dollar bottle of pinot noir, and glance beyond Anthropologie and Sur la Table, in the hills behind The Forum, and probably most of the other open spaces that are clinging to life —  that’s where you’ll find them.

It doesn’t seem quite fair for us to have so much while others are living in squalid conditions.

It’s sad, don’t you agree?

kellytrail3

We especially liked the misspelling. There’s a certain poignancy.

There were several white rags hanging from trees along a certain path; we assumed it was to mark the way when it was dark.kellytrail2I think this is a creek, or it could be runoff from all of the developments.
Kellytrail Hard to see the turkey vulture among the clouds.
kellytrail4Do you know who and what lives beneath the surface in your neighborhood?