Four America’s And What Is Democracy?

Here is a long winded though really well written article I found. While I am fairly politically quiet, the following, explained a great deal of the conflicting attitudes in our country. Hope you enjoy, and have a nice day.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/07/george-packer-four-americas/619012/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20210608&silverid=%25%25RECIPIENT_ID%25%25&utm_term=The%20Atlantic%20Daily

Please Help Hugo The Former Stray

http://idoandadieu.com/blog-2/

This is posted on I Do And Adieu/blog

Please Help Hugo The Former Stray
POSTED ON MARCH 29, 2015 BY KELLY S.

My friend Jasper just adopted this beautiful cat, Hugo, who was a stray. Unfortunately poor Hugo was attacked by something before Jasper rescued him and he needed surgery. She wasn’t expecting the vet bills so it’s hitting her hard financially.

-Blog _ I Do And Adieu! _

 

She has set up a gofundme page to try and help pay the vet bills so she can continue to help Hugo get vet care (he needs more on going care and medicine while he heals from the surgery). Please go to her gofundme page to donate. Even if you can only donate a dollar, please donate. Every little bit helps. Please share the link to either her gofundme page or this post so others can help. I donated my last $13 I had on my debit card. What will you do to help?

CRUELTY UNDER THE SHIELD OF THE LAW AND IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE

How would you deal with a nasty family, whose sole purpose was to grab a future inheritance? How would you feel towards people who plot and scheme for an asset, they were to receive. What is it, that makes the younger generation feel entitled?

If something is yours, and you were to will it to others, would you expect them to wait for your demise, before they snatched it up? If you spent years taking care of someone, wouldn’t you expect at the least, respect? Respect for your wishes, if not love for your time, devotion, and hard work, giving them the life they now have?

Suppose this was your family, your children? The younger generations have been given broad boundaries, if this is a common way for them to act. No one should feel entitled, to have what they have not earned. Many might be given an inheritance, only for loving those that raised them. To try to take that future inheritance, while it is not yet in your grasp is wrong.

To hire shyster lawyers, to do your dirty work is wrong. If this were happening to you, how would you react? If you spent your life working, and paying, to provide for your family, and someone decided they wanted to take all of that away from you, how would you deal with that? What if it were your children, doing these things? I am sure you would be searching your soul, looking for the reason your children turned out this way.

That seems to be how those born of a privileged life seem to act. The attitude they are entitled, you owe them, they are your children , and you owe them. Privilege doesn’t seem to understand, no one owes them anything. Privilege breeds egocentric bastards and bitches.

If my own children pulled a stunt such as this, I would probably disown them. If I thought I could get away with it, I would hire a hitman, but, they are not to be trusted either.

The Doctor-The Power of Attorney-The Harm Done

Louise Fowler, is the daughter of an 89 year old woman who lost her husband to cancer in 2009. Her siblings have committed the grossest of atrocities. They have lied, cheated and hurt, not only their mother, but their sister, all in an attempt to steal their inheritance. The ” Houston Clan ” are a group of rich, young, well bred and educated spoiled snobs. Without regard for the wishes of their parents have taken the home of Angela Houston, as waiting for her to die, might be more time consuming than they would like. Please read these next few posts and pass this along. It is true money will buy you nearly everything you want, and if that takes too long, those in seats of power will just take what they want. Re-blog this to the world, and help create some justice for those that have no way to fight .

Life in Stasis?

Should you be happy knowing you have cancer, that there may be a treatment that will work for you, after you’ve already resigned yourself to the facts that had been presented to you? That is a hard note to sing about. The roller-coaster ride never gets easier. I have known too many people diagnosed with debilitating illness, and any news only brings more fears and anxiety, to add to the list of how we are supposed to feel. We are supposed to laugh in the face of danger, and carry on as though, what we go through is nothing. The conflicts of our emotions are not only real, but assist, or hinder our wellness. How are we to act, knowing almost all is lost?

HELP WANTED, ATTENTION IS GREATLY APPRECIATED

HELP WANTED, ATTENTION IS GREATLY APPRECIATED

( Thank you Libby Garner-Smith for this find )

At least someone finally cared enough to help. You would go out of your way for a cute critter, so let’s try to follow that example every day. Look with your eyes open and a heart filled with desire to make a difference.

The difference can be small, as we have such large perceptions. Small things add up, and a little help or attention to others around you makes great impact. Be kind, you don’t have to love everyone or everything, but in the end, loving and caring is all that truly matters in life.

QqKWuCt8esU vid on YouTube

Uploaded on Nov 10, 2011
Thank you for watching and sharing this video!

Endangered Earth Online

Suit Launched to Protect Pollinators, Frogs From New Pesticide The Center for Biological Diversity and other public-interest groups notified the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday of our intent to sue over its failure to protect a range of federally protected species — including bees, butterflies, amphibians and birds — from a powerful, newly approved insecticide called “insecticide.” Even though the EPA recognized the chemical could harm endangered species, it didn’t consult with any wildlife agencies to protect those species. The insect poison could be particularly harmful to solitary bees that are often important crop pollinators — 4,000 species of which live in the United States. “This systemic insecticide makes a plant highly toxic to any birds, butterflies and bees that feed on it, but the EPA has turned a blind eye and approved it without considering how it will hurt imperiled wildlife like the endangered Karner blue butterfly,” said Lori Ann Burd, director of the Center’s new Environmental Health program. “It’s our government’s duty to investigate how dangerous insecticides might affect wildlife — not just rubberstamp their approval.” Read more in The Oregonian.

Feds Ban Imports on Four Large Constrictor Snakes — Thank You The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has just made it illegal to import four kinds of nonnative constrictor snakes — or sell them across state lines — by adding them to the list of “injurious” wildlife under a law called the Lacey Act. This should prevent widespread introduction of these exotic animals, which can be extremely destructive to U.S. ecosystems and our own native species. In 2010 scientists identified nine snakes as posing an unacceptable risk of establishing invasive populations; two years later the agency said four of those species would be listed as “injurious”: Burmese pythons, yellow anacondas, and northern and southern African pythons. And now the Service has announced that it will list four of the remaining five snakes under the Lacey Act — the reticulated python, DeSchauensee’s anaconda, green anaconda and Beni anaconda. Last summer the Center submitted comments on a proposed rule that identified numerous scientific studies documenting the risk posed by exotic constrictor snakes. About 30,000 Center supporters backed our efforts, writing to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to ask that the remaining snakes be listed as injurious. The Center — and the snakes that won’t be trafficked — thank you. Read more in The New York Times.

Help Bring Northwest Grizzly Bears Back From the Brink — Take Action The grizzly bears of the Pacific Northwest could soon get some much-needed help from the feds: The National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service have declared they’ll be teaming up to restore a healthy grizzly population to the North Cascades, bringing in bears from neighboring areas. Now the agencies need to hear from you to know these massive, iconic bears have your full support. The rugged North Cascades mountain range is key to grizzly survival in the lower 48, according to scientists … but only six bears are currently living there. Since they earned Endangered Species Act protection in 1975, grizzlies have begun to recover — but some populations could still disappear, so they all must be expanded to counter threats like climate change, development and logging. The Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service have waited years to invite public input on their plan for Cascades grizzlies — so we have to act quickly. Voice your support now for grizzly recovery in the Cascades to keep this project and these bears moving forward.

San Leandro City Council Says No to Dangerous Oil Train Project San Leandro, Calif., became the latest city to oppose a proposed Phillips 66 oil train offloading facility in San Luis Obispo County when its city council unanimously passed a resolution Monday urging county supervisors to deny the project’s permit. The San Leandro Teachers’ Association and San Leandro Unified School District are also opposed. If approved the facility would bring mile-long oil trains, carrying 2.5 million gallons of crude, through densely populated areas nearly every day. Oil train traffic in the United States has increased more than 4,000 percent since 2008 — bringing with it a steep rise in derailments, spills and explosions, with more oil spilled in rail accidents in 2013 than in the previous four decades combined. “I look out my classroom door every day at the trains going by on the Capitol Corridor,” said schoolteacher Claudia McDonagh. “With the recent exploding derailments in West Virginia and Illinois it becomes easy to imagine one of those mile-long oil bomb trains coming off the tracks and into my classroom.” Read more in our press release.

Oil Waste Is Contaminating California’s Underground Water, Officials Admit Facing tough questions from California lawmakers, state regulators admitted last week that oil companies are contaminating underground water by dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste into protected aquifers. Documents obtained by the Center had already shown that oil companies were allowed to drill about 2,400 illegal injection wells for waste disposal or oil production into protected aquifers, including many with water clean enough to drink. But last week’s state Senate hearing confirmed the dire consequences. “We believe that any injection into the aquifers that are non-exempt has contaminated those aquifers,” water official Jonathan Bishop told lawmakers. This illegal dumping contaminates water because fracking flowback and other oil waste contain cancer-causing chemicals like benzene. But Gov. Jerry Brown’s oil regulators have so far shut down just 23 of the illegal wells, so we have much more work to do. “If Gov. Brown doesn’t halt fracking and illegal waste water injection, Californians will bitterly regret the damage done to our water supply,” said the Center’s Kassie Siegel. Learn more about these illegal oil industry wells via our new interactive map.

Help Give Away New Endangered Species Condoms for Earth Day — Sign Up Now At the very first Earth Day in 1970, the world’s rapidly growing human population was a central part of the conversation. But now, 45 years and 3.5 billion more people later, population growth is rarely talked about. You can help change that by joining the Center’s Endangered Species Condoms project. Every year we give away tens of thousands of free condoms in packages featuring wildlife threatened by humans’ runaway population and overconsumption. And this Earth Day we’re launching a new lineup of Endangered Species Condoms with different species; new artwork; new slogans; and new, sustainable, fair-trade Sustain brand condoms — but we need volunteers to help us distribute them at events and in communities across the country. The deadline to sign up to be an Earth Day condom distributor is March 25. Even if you’ve signed up in the past, we need you to confirm your contact information and current mailing address. Sign up to volunteer and get a sneak preview of our new condom designs.

Dozens Die in South Pacific Superstorm, Island President Faults Climate Change When Cyclone Pam hit the South Pacific island of Vanuatu last weekend, at least 24 people died — and the massive storm flattened buildings, wrecked infrastructure, and left more than 3,000 survivors displaced. Right after the storm hit, Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale warned that climate change was contributing to more extreme weather conditions, specifically cyclone seasons, in his region — like those that caused Pam. In an affecting speech, he also lamented other climate change-related phenomena threatening his country. “We see the level of sea rise,” Lonsdale said. “The cyclone seasons, the warm, the rain, all this is affected. … This year we have more than in any year. … Yes, climate change is contributing to this. I am very emotional. … We do not know if our families are safe. As the leader of the nation, my heart hurts for the people.” Read more in The Guardian.

Wild & Weird: Did Man’s Best Friend Cause the Neanderthal Extinction? For millennia Neanderthals raised their young, buried their dead, hunted, laughed and lived in the presence of a daunting variety of Pleistocene Eurasian megafauna: giant cave bears, saber-toothed tigers, huge lions, woolly rhinos and leopards. But then, some 40,000 years ago — in what amounts to the blink of an eye in evolutionary time — Neanderthals and that host of megafauna nearly all fell to extinction. No single prevailing theory has yet explained the event. But we do know that modern humans showed up in Neanderthal territory not long before the Neanderthals disappeared. A new book by retired anthropology professor Pat Shipman puts forth the hypothesis that modern humans, and their alliance with another apex predator, the wolf-dog, allowed the newcomers to hunt more efficiently than Neanderthals. Through domestication of wolves, humans were able to hunt many species, like mammoths, that Neanderthals rarely challenged. Read more on Pat Shipman’s book The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction, including an interview with the author, in National Geographic.

Kierán Suckling @KieranSuckling Executive Director

Here is the link to the web site http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

There are many more issues going on, so don’t hesitate to take a look at the web site.

 

A letter to my Wife 4

Don’t you wish we all could have the kind of love that Butch is speaking of? I ask for everyone to remember who we are, and to give of our love, and lives freely. Tomorrow never comes, and yesterday is only in our hearts and minds. I grieve for those lost to me, and I truly know they live on, as long as I can remember.

Creepiest Doll?

http://www.treehugger.com/family/hello-barbie-creepiest-doll-ever.html

Is Hello Barbie the creepiest doll of all?

Share on Facebook

© CCFC

New eavesdropping Barbie records your child’s conversations and transmits them to a corporation that analyzes your kid’s likes and dislikes. And then things get weird.

“The number one request we hear from girls around the world is that they want to have a conversation with Barbie. Now, for the first time ever, Barbie can have a two-way conversation,” says a spokeswoman for Mattel.

But since Barbie doesn’t actually have a brain, your child will not exactly be having a conversation with Barbie. Rather, they will be wrangled into some kind of creepy engagement with Barbie-voiced data that has been collected and customized through previously recorded chats. Hello Barbie gleans much about her mistress from their secret tête-à-têtes and starts talking back based on what she has learned.

So how does Hello Barbie do her magic? The Wi-Fi-connected doll uses an embedded microphone to record children’s voices, conversations are then transmitted over the Internet to cloud servers. Mattel’s technology partner ToyTalk processes the audio with voice-recognition software. Mattel says it will use this information to “push data” back to children through Barbie’s built-in speaker, reports the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC).

What ever could go wrong?

Georgetown University Law Professor Angela Campbell, Faculty Advisor to the school’s Center on Privacy and Technology, says, “If I had a young child, I would be very concerned that my child’s intimate conversations with her doll were being recorded and analyzed. In Mattel’s demo, Barbie asks many questions that would elicit a great deal of information about a child, her interests, and her family. This information could be of great value to advertisers and be used to market unfairly to children.”

ToyTalk’s current privacy policy states:

We may use, store, process and transcribe Recordings in order to provide and maintain the Service, to perform, test or improve speech recognition technology and artificial intelligence algorithms, or for other research and development and data analysis purposes.

The CCFC notes that rather than encouraging non-structured creative play, the new product, “ensures that Mattel – not the child – drives the play.” Mattel claims the toy will “deepen that relationship girls have with [Barbie].” Over time, the toy conglomerate’s goal is to have the child and Barbie “become like the best of friends.”

With friends like that…

Hello Barbie was unveiled at Toy Fair 2015 in New York City last month; Mattel plans to release the diabolical doll – with a $74.99 price tag – in late fall. The CCFC has started a petition asking Mattel to kill Hello Barbie because of its significant violation of children’s privacy. If you too are concerned, you can sign it here.