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October 16, 2023

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Big chunks of California, especially the most populated and accessible bits, have a semi-arid climate. (Which is why water, moving it great distances, is an unending political hot potato.) My mother used to joke that "California is called the Golden State because of the color of the hill is summer" -- which are covered with dead grass. So it's easy to lose track of all the beautiful forested parts, from the redwoods to the Giant Sequoias.**

** For completeness, one should perhaps mention the Angeles National Forest. Of which, when passing thru (typically on I-5), we say "The tree [singular!] is fine."

The Waterboys seem to be at their best when they are channeling Yeats:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_-mewkSHUM

Mad as the Mist and Snow live at KEXP

Yes, sorry about the quote. But it is hard to find the joy at the moment. Have linked something marginally better (in terms of constructive at least) in the other thread.

I will listen with interest to those three person-of-the-future approved tracks.

GftNC -- wasn't objecting to the quote at all, or the feeling. Just taking off from it.....

Janie: understood.

Janie, after the first link, I went to Dolly and friends, and it seemed to take me back to Yuja Wang. I tried it a couple of times....

GftNC -- I will fix the link. That's what I get for multi-multi-multi-tasking.....

The Taylor one seems to work okay.

Done.

I had forgotten this was an open thread. So I am reposting what I wrongly placed elsewhere:

I think this may be our only open thread. So I am using it to rejoice about Sidney Powell pleading guilty in the Georgia election case, and (most importantly, but also almost impossible to imagine) agreeing "to testify truthfully at trial."

(And while I'm here, I listened to all three of Janie's music links, with great enjoyment. The only one I'd heard before was the Dolly and friends one.)

This may be better suited to the thread on the war, but to me it also goes with the theme of this one -- someone who has never flagged in working for something better: Vivian Silver, a Canadian peace activist who lived near the Israel/Gaza border. (The story has much, much more.)

This is the most recent article I can find about her -- I presume the fact that she is believed to be a hostage means that the Israelis did not find her body in her home (mentioned in the first article).

(And apologies if someone posted that original article here -- I have quit trying to keep track of where I have gotten links to various articles and opinion pieces.)

Music. This song has been hitting. Loser to home.

https://youtu.be/yxsNGXoGVok?feature=shared

I am using it to rejoice about Sidney Powell pleading guilty in the Georgia election case, and (most importantly, but also almost impossible to imagine) agreeing "to testify truthfully at trial."

What struck me was that her plea deal got her off with 6 years probation and NO jail time. What that says to me (and I could be wrong, of course) is that she had some blockbuster testimony to offer in trade. Possibly about the actions of some of the other defendants. But also possibly about individuals who were not already indicted, due to insufficient evidence. Or were previously unknown altogether.

What that says to me (and I could be wrong, of course) is that she had some blockbuster testimony to offer in trade.

FYLTGE

But what I can't help wondering is if she (and maybe other defendants) are balancing a) the loss of income, reputation etc if/when found guilty, and b) the loss of income, reputation etc in the RWNJ sphere after ratting out fellow conspirators.

what I can't help wondering is if she (and maybe other defendants) are balancing a) the loss of income, reputation etc if/when found guilty, and b) the loss of income, reputation etc in the RWNJ sphere after ratting out fellow conspirators.

They may be balancing that. But that's only about whether to flip. How good a deal they get is in the hands of the DA. And she needs to get something worth the reduction in sentence. For example, if a defendant is just saving the state the expense (and hassle) of a trial, the reduction in sentence will be pretty low. If the defendant is taking down a mob boss who is otherwise untouchable, the reduction can be quite large.

BREAKING NEWS: Kenneth Chesebro, alleged architect of the “fake electors” plot, has struck a plea deal with prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, per source familiar with the arrangement.

(quoted from a tweet)

Another domino?

One my favorite bits of scenery in California is a hillside with golden dormant grass and a grove of live oak trees. I've seen the effect in other places, but no one seems to do it quite as well as California. The color is due to some local species of native grass, which is unfortunately being pushed out by invasive varieties.

California live oak are one of the things that keep my inner druid happy. In the midst of all these coastal hills, I sometimes really miss the dim and cool of being under the trees in Colorado and Wisconsin. Live oaks are reassuringly tree-like.

Our local nature preserve is working hard to try to mitigate the invasive mustard that shows up and out-earlies the coastal scrub natives. All that mustard yellow is very photogenic, but it really chokes out the sage and overgrows the hiking paths.

The color is due to some local species of native grass, which is unfortunately being pushed out by invasive varieties.

All the golden hills I've see had a significant portion of wild oats (avena barbata). Which is non-native, too, although it has been here since the late 1700s

All that mustard yellow is very photogenic, but it really chokes out the sage and overgrows the hiking paths.

I direct more hate at star thistle (centaurea solstitialis). Which some moron deliberately planted, because he wanted to make star thistle honey here. (Although there are also theories based on accidental seed contamination.) Not only overgrows the natives, if you encounter it while hiking you discover just how nasty those pretty spines are.

Agree, wj. Those star thistles were all over the lower trails, and growing about 2m high in a lot of places. We avoided our go-to winter hike for two months this summer, waiting for them to die back enough so that we weren't getting prickled to death.

Grrr.

For completeness, one should perhaps mention the Angeles National Forest. Of which, when passing thru (typically on I-5), we say "The tree [singular!] is fine."

When I first moved to Colorado, the suburban city of Aurora, east of Denver, was really starting to boom. Sited out on the plains, with no surface water worth mentioning, Aurora had added a city arborist. People from Aurora used to joke that the arborist's report to the city council could be summed up as "The tree is doing well."

(Aurora is now the third largest city in Colordo, closing in on 400,000 people.)

Counter-point to the opening poetry... I'm a child of the the prairies and Great Plains. I have always had a slight mistrust of land that, if you ignored it, grew trees. I tend to think of "climax forest" as six-foot-tall grass. In the ecological battle between grass and trees, I find myself cheering for the grass.

Michael -- dim memories from long ago reading -- there's a sort of borderline where that "battle" takes place that shifts northerly or southerly with changing climate. I'm not taking a side battle-wise, since both landscapes are beautiful and ecologically productive, but I've spent my life on the tree side of the line. It's no accident, psychologically, that I landed in the most forested state in the US. (Depending on who'se counting what, but still.)

Randomly from the Wikipedia entry on "Taiga" -- The taiga or boreal forest has been called the world's largest land biome.[3] In North America, it covers most of inland Canada, Alaska, and parts of the northern contiguous United States

Now you've got me sidetracked from what I'm supposed to be doing.... ;-)

I have always had a slight mistrust of land that, if you ignored it, grew trees.

To me, it's just that there's no elbow room! But I can also imagine the reaction of people, whose families had lived east of the Mississippi for generations, when they first struck the Great Plains. Suddenly, no more trees! I suspect that they were quite sincere when they referred to it as The Great American Desert. But then, they'd never encountered a real desert.

But then, they'd never encountered a real desert.

Some decades ago in an article about the DFW Airport, The Econimist said it was located in the Texas desert.

I am unapologetically on the side of the trees. Kansas is where God sat when she made Colorado.

Growing up between Colorado and Wisconsin, going through the prairie felt like being on the open sea, and I’d scan the horizon looking for the trees that would mark the islands of cool and wet. I understood, implicitly, why they called conestoga wagons “prairie schooners.”

To me, it's just that there's no elbow room!

I was going to say, "To me, there's no shade or shelter!"

nous said it more poetically: "islands of cool and wet."

Plus, I consider trees, especially certain special ones, to be guardian sentinels. I think about how they have stood there while generations of humans come and go....

Oh, I definitely like trees. I just like some space between them.

Plains, mountains, forests... I may have a favorite but they're all okay. Just please don't put me out in the middle of a large body of water.

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