Notices by Nazi trumps fuck off. (mikal@sfba.social), page 2

What I was really going for here was a lightning strike in the background. There was a teeny tiny chance of lightning yesterday afternoon, but none ever showed up. Chance today as well, but I have to be elsewhere. That's the nice thing about photographing during storms: virtually any scene is made better by dramatic clouds.

More #BloomScrolling from yesterday's excursion to Anza Borrego State Park.

Last one from Anza Borrego State Park yesterday.
#BloomScrolling

#SphinxMoth #caterpillar eating a primrose at Anza Borrego State Park yesterday. These caterpillars were everywhere, devouring a range of plants. They are native and this is normal. Pretty soon they will burrow into the ground to pupate, eventually re-emerging as adult moths.
#BloomScrollIng #BloomChewing

@todayilearned

And, from the article, it was only in 2021 that Nevada passed the law banning the "sundown siren" practice.

They had to go to the trouble of passing a state law because small-minded, pissant excuses for people were just fine with it.

@anildash

So, maybe you can 'splain me something about the threads federation controversy.

People act as if following someone on Threads will somehow subject their personal timeline to Meta's advertising and suggested (toxic) content. That seems… incorrect? What am I missing?

If I follow a user on a Mastodon server or on Threads, I will only be seeing what they post or boost, not what their follows post and not ads or suggested posts that Meta injects into their timeline on their Threads account. Right?

I see a lot of discussion here that seems to suggest that if a Mastodon user follows someone on Threads, Meta will be able to inject whatever content they want into your personal timeline here. Am I missing something?

I understand there are plenty of reasons to not associate with Meta at all because it is such a toxic company that never, under any circumstances, has any of our best interests in mind. But here I'm just referring to the technical aspects that seem to confuse a lot of people (maybe me?).

With all the fretting and conflict and controversy over federating with #Threads, perhaps today is a good day for everyone to step back and ask themselves "WWJMD?"

#JohnMastodonDay #WWJMD

The Jehovah's Witnesses came to my door yesterday and, damn, I missed a golden opportunity to tell them with a perfectly straight face that I was already a disciple of the greatest prophet to ever live, John Mastodon.

#JohnMastodonDay #WWJMD

My point, specifically, is that no amount of walls, fences or money buys "border security". There is no such thing, at least in the way it is usually framed.

It's all theater in support of the Border Industrial Complex. It's big money for contractors, Border Patrol and the Mexican cartels, and fodder for politicians to whip their constituents into fearful frenzies.

Weaponizing vulnerable, desperate people for political gain is cruel, whether it is gruesome and vicious under Trump, or the more passive-aggressive policies favored by Democrat administrations.

I've been busy with other things, but I'll post more border news, photos and commentary in the coming months. I spend much of the year now living less than an hour away from the border. I hope seeing a video like the one in the OP demonstrates the stupidity of walls. You really have to be here to see these things to understand them.

Every time I hear someone go on about "border security" I'm going to post this video of me pushing open a "gate" cut by cartels in the border fence; a fence that cost billions of dollars and is easily defeated by cheap cordless cutting tools.

There are two ways to have a secure border: place groups of soldiers in fortified bunkers every 100' along the *entire length of the fence* 24/7 (no, don't do this), or by helping to stabilize the economic and security situations in the countries people are arriving from while also having a humane and easy to navigate immigration policy.

Many of the people coming here in hopes of asylum are arriving from countries with a history of U.S. support for dictators (e.g. Honduras, Nicaragua) or as direct or indirect climate refugees. Given that the U.S. is the second largest greenhouse gas emitter (and, I believe, the largest per capita), we legitimately owe these people safe harbor.

#border #immigration #BorderWall #BorderSecurity #SeekingAsylumIsNotACrime

Based on some recent photos I saw, I'm guessing the same part of the border fence has been cut open that was cut in the spring when I was last there. It's about 2 miles from Lukeville.

Does the Border Patrol know where this cartel-controlled "gate" is? Of course. Why don't they weld it up and post a guard 24/7? Well, because then the cartels who control the U.S.-created border chokepoints would go 5 miles west...or 10 miles... or 20 miles and just cut a new gateway.

As it is, asylum seekers often walk the 2 miles and turn themselves in. If the gateway were 10 miles away, Border Patrol would have to spend all day driving out there to pick people up.

You cannot stop people with walls and fences. People will come so long as their situation at home is untenable. The border fence is just the last of many barriers they had to face to get here.

You cannot secure a border without a secure world. You cannot stop people with walls and fences.

Here's a clip of me at the border gate that people were coming through in May, 2 miles west of Lukeville. Across the fence, in Mexico, is a tire shop. This spot was picked because there is a culvert here under the border road, making a low area hidden from view.

Note this is the "Trump" section of wall (not the Clinton or Obama or Biden section). It is 30' tall. The individual "bollard" is made of 1/4" thick, 6" x 6" square tube filled with concrete with two 1" diameter steel rods in the center. Cutting through it is trivial with battery powered tools.

Note how easily I'm pushing it around. It is quicker to cut these than to weld them back up.

Walls and fences will never stop people.

@atomicpoet
You are rapidly convincing me. I'm assuming that can migrate my social graph just like I can among Mastodon instances, right?

I got up a 4am yesterday to drive into Tucson for the sunrise, hoping to catch some snow-on-the-cactus action. This was up near Gates Pass. Not much snow and it melted instantly on the sunny side, but the north facing slopes held on to it long enough to get a few shots. I'll post more tomorrow.

#Tucson #TucsonSnow #Desert #cactus #photography #LandscapePhotography #ColdAsFuck #WayTooEarly #IShouldPhotographWarmBeachesInstead