Notices by My camera shoots fascists (mikal@sfba.social)

Migrants risk robbery and physical violence at the hands of the cartels who they pay to get them to and then across the border. Then they have to cross the desert. If they survive that ordeal, they now run the risk of being sent to a detention camp indefinitely before being deported.

No one does this lightly. No one gives up their entire life and takes these kinds of risks casually. People who attempt this journey are out of options. No one does this lightly.

All the walls in the world will not stop people seeking to survive in this one life we all get. People have always migrated. Migration is a human right.

Some good news! Got word this afternoon through one of the desert aid groups I work with in southern Arizona that the Peruvian Embassy had contacted two of the Latino-lead SAR groups to look for a 25-year-old woman who had last been heard from on Tuesday. Temperatures in the desert out there are in the 90s, which is thankfully low for this time of the year.

Some searchers mobilized rapidly. As they were in the process of contacting the land owner today for access to do a search — that usually ends up being a remains recovery — they got word that Border Patrol had found her alive!

#Immigration #SearchAndRescue #Immigrants #Migration

Today's #LizardReport is a little different because I am on a road trip. Camped out at Kelso Dunes and spent the morning herping in Mojave National Preserve.

7 species of lizard, 4 of them "life lizards"! Here's the first, Phrynosoma platyrhinos, a horned lizard. Look at that camo! They're sooo cute!

(It's intermission at a live theater performance, so I'll post more later or tomorrow in this thread.)

#lizard #herps #MojaveDesert

Another "life lizard" from my day #herping near Kelso Dunes, Mojave National Preserve. Long nosed leopard lizard. It sat there letting me photograph it for a while, then got bored and disappeared into a hole.

#LizardReport #lizard #herps

I also saw a tiger whiptail, zebra tailed lizard and lots of desert iguanas. I don't feel bad about not getting good photos of any of these, because there are tame individuals of these species in my yard in Arizona 😆

This is the first time I've ever seen zebra-tails or desert iguanas outside of town, where I guess they must be a little more used to people. These ones would bolt full sprint 50 to 100 feet away from me. The ones in town are highly skittish, but you can generally get a little bit closer to them.

If you want to see pictures of these species, just look back at the #s in my profile.

#LizardReport #Lizard #herps

I have some new neighbors across the street, from the Pacific Northwest. We've chatted a few times and yesterday I gave them a whole bunch of cuttings off of my cactus here to help them landscape their yard. I was talking about all the lizards and snakes that live here and how I had to catch and relocate a rattlesnake from under the crawlspace in my house. I suggested to them that they look into rattlesnake aversion training for their dog.

I also said that if they found a rattlesnake in the yard, I'd be happy to come get it and relocate it. Jinx, I guess, because she walked over this evening and said that there was rattler in their yard. A western diamondback, like the one that was under my house. Absolutely beautiful snake with 14 rattles! It's much bigger than it looks like curled up in the photos in the bucket.

Alt text in first pic has info about distinguishing western diamondbacks from Mojave rattlesnakes.

#Rattlesnake #HerpReport #Herpetology #LifeInTheSonoranDesert #Snake

Today's #LizardReport

Here's Bill showing off his push-ups. Such a big strong boy!

#Lizard #BillTheLizard #HerpReport

The little tiger whiptail showed up again today out by the back door. I'm constantly amazed that this lizard lets me pick it up as long as I feed it a little bit. Whiptails in the wild are crazy skittish and it's hard to get within 10 feet of one.

I always think they look like the dachshunds of the lizard world. Compared to Bill and the other spiny lizards (Sceloporus magister), this little guy has a very small, delicate mouth and eats in a way that is almost dainty. I find it utterly adorable.

#LizardReport #HerpReport #Lizard

Lesser long-nosed bats at the bird feeder. Shot with DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro camera in ultra-slo-mo mode, which involves a lot of interpolation. The first and last 1.5 seconds are regular 240 fps slo-mo.

They're super fun to watch!
Tonight I'm going to reposition the camera to the side more, to get a better view into the "flower" on the right, plus add some fill light on the left.

#bats #WildlifePhotography

*squeeeeeeee!!!*
New iguana! The smaller one in the background. The one in the front is Donna.

I'm out of mealworms, so I went to the fridge and got some greens. Donna was about 20 feet away and took a couple steps toward me when I whistled, but stopped. The little one, on the other hand, kept coming right up to me and eventually took some of the green leaves out of my hands. Very unexpected! It makes me wonder if maybe the fact that Donna was being so chill led the little one to feel safe enough to approach. Or maybe it was just so hungry it didn't care.

I also observed something I've never seen other lizards to: on several occasions, the little one lightly licked the tip of Donna's tail. I'm presuming this is some sort of courtship behavior. I'm thinking it may turn out that Donna is actually Don.

#LizardReport #Lizard #iguana #Herps

By the way, the first part of the desert iguana's scientific name, Dipsosaurus dorsalis, means "thirsty lizard."

OMG The lizard antics are so adorable.

I ran out of mealworms yesterday, but I told everybody — my lizard frens — that a giant box of them was arriving today.

Last fall, Bill used to regularly come strolling into the house looking to be fed if I were sitting at the kitchen table instead of on the front porch. But he hasn't done that at all since coming out of hibernation a couple weeks ago. But today, minutes after the FedEx person dropped the box of mealworms on the porch, he ran up there, almost like he knew what was inside 😆

Bill is a smart lizard, but I don't think he can read or understand me when I speak English.

#LizardReport #Lizard #BillTheLizard #herps

@hellomiakoda

With your permission, I will definitely laugh at that. It's about five layers of grossness, stacked on top of each other. 🤦♂️ 😂

Why covid will be with us forever part 45,192:

After two weeks I still tested weakly positive yesterday. I'm now out of covid tests. I have Anthem insurance. They stopped covering at-home tests a couple years ago, as I finally found out after 45 minutes on the phone, dealing with different bots, phone trees and finally, transfers to different actual people (4!).

But, hey! I can go to urgent care and get the test done. But, oops! There's a $30 copay.

I clarified with the last phone guy that my choice was to go to the local pharmacy, pay $18 out of pocket for a single at-home test, or go to an urgent care clinic and pay $30 myself *in addition to Anthem then getting billed hundreds of dollars by the clinic*. Yep, that's their logic.

#HealthInsuranceMustDie #SinglePayer #FreeHealthCareForAll + #GuillotineForAnyPoliticianWhoDoesNotSupportIt

How many people in my position, i.e. who feel fine or mostly so, are going to keep paying $18 for multiple tests before being around people? Like, none.

Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment. I'm going to text from the parking lot, tell them I'm here and that I should take a covid test first, even though I feel fine. That will hopefully at least get another test for free for an appointment I have anyway.

(Related, lol, I tried to call Monday morning when I tested positive again to ask them if I should reschedule the appointment or play it by ear and retest Wednesday morning. I could not get hold of them by phone or text and there is no email contact. Just chatbots! This is a new patient appt that I've waited three months for, so the next opportunity won't be till August.

I hate all this so much.

What made this really annoying is that the Walgreen's site will accept all my insurance info, tell me they've received my order and then send me an email telling me that there is a problem and they need to check with my doctor, without there being anything that just tells them and me that my insurance doesn't cover those any more.

If your insurance does cover at-home covid tests, at least Walgreens lets you pick them up at the drive-thru.

CVS it turns out, doesn't accept Anthem. But the site doesn't tell you that. It just says there's been an error and you need to check the info you put in, sending you back to the start where you have to re-input everything.

CVS does deliver (but only if your insurance covers it), but if you come in to pick the tests up, you can't use the drive-thru. You have to come in the store to get them, despite the fact that many people who order tests probably feel sick at the time.

I'm in full-on guillotine for anyone who opposes free health care for all.

Posting all this stuff in the hopes that it gets people to think about 1), the difficulty of actually being responsible and 2) the utter absurdity of how healthcare works here. If you are not from the US, do not under any circumstances let your country become like this. Like, immediately throw anyone who proposes American style healthcare into a volcano, off a bridge or in the path of a bus. No questions asked.

Here's the test from yesterday morning. It took a full 10 minutes to register and you really have to look closely to see the faint pink line next to CoV.

@geonz

Yeah that was fun after many days of feeling fine after the rebound which also followed four days of feeling fine. This really is a truly weird bug.

@ashguy

Sergeant: "Grok, you gave me completely wrong information and now 12 soldiers are dead and the enemy has taken the bridge!"

Grok: "You're absolutely right! And I'm so very sorry. I can see how this would be very upsetting. I caused you great losses on the battlefield. But feedback like this helps me improve and I will definitely do better next time!"

@quixoticgeek

This, but for any form of public transit in the US. I would say make it a live reality TV show, but it would be the most boring show ever, mostly everyone waiting around or sitting on uncomfortable, loud buses or trains. Or just walking because there aren't any buses or trains.

Oh, and make it an elimination type round so that the people in charge of these things are systematically fired.