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It’s mid-March and where I live in SoCal, we are in a “heat advisory”.  This week temperatures are expected to be in the high 80s to mid 90s.  Yes you read that right. Mid 90s in MARCH! 

It was in the mid 80s yesterday, so I drove up to the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Preserve to relax and take some photos.

It was a bit breezy, making some photo opportunities a bit difficult. The blue sky with some thin clouds, bright green grass and popping gold poppies greeted me. 

I sat in the Sun and the breeze kept me cool. By late afternoon, I had my photos and was on my way home. 

A research team looking for and collecting fairy shrimp.

I even saw some wildlife. 

I even collected some trash.  It was a nice day overall. 

I’m not looking forward to the 90+ degree temperatures this week. 

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I took in a young single mother recently. 

Well, she is not quite a mother but she is waiting to give birth to two babies soon. 

Her “husband” helped set up her “room” and then took off.  She has been continuing to improve her room.

I didn’t advertise, but she did seem to find my place.

She has a room with a view and has a separate entrance which she can come and go as she pleases.

I can view her nest from my kitchen window or my patio door.

She seems to be a good nest builder and over the last several days, she has been making the nest more comfortable and safe.

I will be waiting to see her babies. 

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You have very good eye 👀 sight. 

Pixel 10 Pro XL Snapseed

The fly by.  

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The Santa Ana winds have been blowing for days.  My hands are so dry.

The wind does not make it easy to photograph bits of nature.  But during a small pause in the wind…

The Brittlebush has such bright yellow flowers. And the wind?

Today it is to subside.  Then the clean up begins…

Time changed. But change takes time… 

My hands are so dry.

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A juvenile gull looking for a hand out.   Dana Point Harbor. 

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Wildflowers have been showing up since December in and around my property.  So far this year, I have found more California Poppies than in previous years.  In fact, I have found poppies since December up on the plateau too.  We are still in Winter, yet with the mild weather and lots of rain, all the plants have been fooled into thinking it is Spring.   I guess the Ground Hog was wrong?  At least on this side of America.  🤷🤷

Sigh… Daylight Savings starts this weekend.   Spring is really not too far away. 

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Synonyms of ‘war’ in American English

battle.

combat.

conflict.

enmity.

hostilities.

struggle.

warfare.

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What is the biblical definition of war?

War (prop. nņ?, nóAɛpos, but represented in the Heb. by many subsidiary terms), HEBREW. We may define war as “an attempt to decide a contest between princes, states, or large bodies of people, by resorting to excessive acts of violence, and compelling claims to be conceded by force.”

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War is characterized by five main
features: 1) violence and conflict
achieved through force and
aggression, 2) political and ideological motives over issues like territory, resources, and beliefs, 3) human casualties and suffering, especially of civilians, 4) destruction and disruption of infrastructure and economic/social systems, and 5) uncertainty and unpredictability due to numerous external factors. These elements define the nature of organized, large- scale armed conflict.

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What is the simple definition of war?

Simply put, war is a group people conflict state of open, armed conflict and violent struggle between countries, states, or large groups, involving organized fighting, battles, and military operations, often to achieve political aims, gain resources, or defend territory, but it can also refer metaphorically to intense struggles like a “war on poverty”.

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What qualifies as war?

War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organized groups.

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“War is a grim, cruel business, a business justified only as a means of sustaining the forces of good against those of evil.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

“War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“You can bomb the world into pieces, but you can’t bomb it into peace.” – Michael Franti

“War never changes.” Reddit/Fallout

“Only the dead have seen the end of the war.” – George Santayana 

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Who decides if America goes to war?

The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the sole power to formally declare war, but the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has significant authority to deploy troops and initiate military action, leading to a shared and sometimes contentious division of war powers, with presidents often relying on broader authorizations for the use of military force (AUMFs) rather than formal declarations since World War II.

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The last time Congress formally declared war was during World War II, with the final declarations issued against Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania on June 5, 1942. While Congress has authorized the use of military force (AUMF) many times since then-such as for Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq-it has not issued a formal declaration of war in over 80 years.

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As of today, Congress has not made a declaration of war or even the AUMF.

The Felon President is again, acting unlawful and unconstitutional.  The Republican held Congress is letting him do this.

So, are We Great Now?!

A recent Moon rise.

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Watching even ten minutes of Hillary Clinton’s appearance before the House Oversight Committee reveals – whether you like Clinton or loathe her – that she is smart, quick, alert, in control, “aware of her boundaries” in the way pop psychology is forever exhorting us to be, in command of a big range of knowledge specific to precedents and procedures of the federal government; she has significant experience in two branches *of* that government; she knows how to wield her evident personal authority; she can identify fools and counter their absurd attacks: she’s impressive.

And yet it seems to me that her critics on the left are far angrier at her than they are at Trump.

Trump’s blundering, the immense stupidity of all his underlings, their pettiness, incompetence: are more comforting to anti-neo-liberalists than Clinton’s acuteness, intelligence.

We passed over Clinton and Harris in order to put in charge a gaggle of dunderheaded malicious fools.

It’s hard to bear *our* foolishness.

Any amount of disastrous, lethal incompetence, evinced, enacted by any old man, is preferable to a capable woman.

I wish the entirety of the political left in the USA could figure out that this is one of the root causes of our current problems.

I don’t understand the ethics behind this decision: “Harris won’t say the word ‘genocide,’ and therefore I choose not to vote – so what if the risk is Trump? Who will bomb Iran? And kill school girls, in the midst of all the other global carnage he will cause? Not to mention the slow-moving genocide against women in the US who cannot get access to abortion, and who are forced to give birth, or forced to die on illegal abortionist tables.”

I don’t get that logic.

I never will.

And anyone who is surprised that Trump is attacking Iran has not paid sufficient attention to Project 2025, *which we knew about for months*, and *where everything the far right planned to do – and is now doing – was laid out for all to see*.

Argh.

John Weir.

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The circus of our current Felon President’s Regime continues.   Sigh.