Stop the Idiocracy: Nature

Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

A smaller world, a longer tomorrow

A richly detailed fantasy illustration of a dark-haired woman draped in flowing translucent ivory robes, standing barefoot beneath the immense rings of Saturn while cradling a radiant golden hourglass glowing with celestial light. Around her, deep violet and amber nebulae are scattered with stars, planets, astrological symbols, and delicate geometric diagrams, creating the impression of cosmic order and the passage of time. At her feet, the Earth is split into two contrasting hemispheres: one flourishing with forests, rivers, mountains, and wildlife, the other reduced to a barren, cracked wasteland marked by industrial ruins and lifeless soil. The composition symbolises humanity poised between ecological renewal and environmental collapse, with the hourglass emphasising that the time to choose is rapidly slipping away.

image generated via ChatGPT

Scientists: halving the human population over the course of two centuries would make the planet more habitable. {The Independent 28 July}

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/earth-human-population-halved-200-years-resources-b3022756.html

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Friday, July 10, 2026

The plunder of Eden

$A dramatic allegorical illustration depicts a distressed Lady Liberty standing upon a fractured stone pedestal. Her pale hair streams in the wind, her torch raised as numerous hands reach from all sides, clutching her robes and pulling at her body while she struggles to remain upright. Her torn garments and anguished expression suggest vulnerability, conflict, and the erosion of cherished ideals. Behind her, Saturn looms immense in a dark cosmic sky. Below, the Earth appears scarred by environmental devastation, with vast open-pit mines, drilling rigs, polluted waterways, dying wildlife, barren forests, and cracked landscapes. The composition symbolically links threats to liberty, exploitation, and ecological destruction.$

generated via ChatGPT

A crime against nature: the Trump regime moves to undo regulations that have protected endangered species for fifty years. {NYT 10 July}

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/climate/endangered-species-act-harm.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wlA.sROY.QiZOjeuzP9GG&smid=url-share

Some of the regulations currently in place may indeed be overly burdensome, and there was a time when I would have argued that certain revisions to the Endangered Species Act were warranted. Now, however, I am older and under no such illusions. The veil hath been lifted: human beings — particularly those motivated by profit — simply cannot be trusted. Private industry, despite its frequent proclamations to the contrary, cannot be relied upon to serve as a good steward of either the environment or the natural world.

Donald Trump and the individuals who comprise his dictatorial government cannot be trusted to protect nature. Indeed, many of them have repeatedly demonstrated all the qualities of cartoon villains and would probably relish the destruction of habitats and the extinction of entire species. Therefore, even if some regulations are overly burdensome, I am afraid they remain necessary for so long as human beings are fallen and sinful creatures.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Tuesday, June 23, 2026

The deeply symbolic fencing off of the Reflecting Pool: keeping #Muricans away from the mess they made by restoring Trump

A sombre, highly detailed illustration of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in a state of visible neglect. The water is covered by mats of green algae and debris, transforming the iconic pool into a stagnant murky expanse. Temporary metal fencing is erected by workers in high-visibility clothing, barring public access. Foreground, visitors stand behind railings, observing with disappointment and concern. The Washington Monument riseth prominently in the distance beneath dark, threatening clouds, its reflection faint through the algae. Trees line both sides; muted greys, greens, and weathered tones reinforce decline. A celebrated national landmark juxtaposed with deterioration, exclusion, and civic unease.

generated via ChatGPT

Washington: fences being erected around the rotting Reflecting Pool to keep out the general public. {Raw Story 23 June}

https://www.rawstory.com/fence-around-reflecting-pool/

What an analogy for who and what we have become.

It is also a great tragedy. This is great architecture that helped make our capital one of the most unique cities on earth, and this jackass had to go and ruin it because he cannot help but stick his greasy fingers into every pot, impose his design on everything, and fiddle with everything he sees. Like a toddler.

The White House, the Kennedy Center, and so on: this is a man obsessed with erecting monuments to himself, and that very much includes mutilating our existing national monuments to suit his gutter-trash tastes.

But, hey, good to know all that algae is safe. Mother**kers.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Fever dream? Four nurses for the wounded daughter of Columbia

An ornate Renaissance-style allegorical painting of a humanised Statue of Liberty as a wounded woman with a spiked crown, lying injured on an antique medical gurney—her leg in a brace, her chest bandaged. Four nurses in vintage uniforms tend to her: one checketh her face, another taketh notes, a third adjusteth her leg. Stone archways frame a parched cracked landscape on one side and a coastal scene with ships on the other. Above, a surreal sky holdeth Saturn, swirling clouds, and a cascade of falling produce—cabbages, tomatoes, bread, coffee beans. Candles, lanterns, and antique mechanical equipment surround the bed.

generated via ChatGPT

Everyday items grow costlier in the former United States, largely due to its nation-destroying president's policies and actions. {WP 10 June; image generated via ChatGPT}

https://wapo.st/4oh9zdz

Mother Nature hath done some damage – notably, of late, in the form of drought – and I believe America is simply cursed and is going to remain so long after the orange usurper hath either been deposed, by whatever means, or simply dies. As decrepit as the motherf**ker is, he is not going anywhere for a long time to come. Mark my words. He is a curse, we are cursed; we shall never know life as it once was again.

Far more suffering and misery is yet to come. A drought here, a failed harvest there, rivers either overflowing or running lower than expected, reservoirs shrinking beneath an unforgiving sun. Perchance, another global health crisis. To say nothing of the ongoing political and social crack-up, all exposing the fragility lurking beneath the modern world's no longer so confident façade. One can never rule out the possibility of some madman – Putin, Kim Jong Un, the Iranians, Trump – playing with nuclear weapons. Fun times, yeah?

The former United States – and I do not use that moniker to be cute, this is not the country I grew up in – is in the midst of a long historical season from which there is no easy escape. One that began with a literal bang on 11 September 2001, and America and her people have done almost nothing but make nearly every bad decision possible since then: the resentment, the distrust, the hunger for strongmen, the endless appetite for spectacle over substance. We are a nation in the midst of a gradual systemic breakdown.

By and large, the peasantry have themselves to blame for the hard times we are only beginning to endure in earnest, and I would be here for days enumerating the hows and whys. Fifty years from now, after we are long dead and buried and assuming the earth is still standing, the mass of humanity shall revert to living in caves because of the catastrophically awful, short-sighted, and malevolent direction the former United States of America hath taken over the decades, particularly in the past quarter-century. The America of my childhood and young adulthood, before 9/11, may have been a bit of a fraud in retrospect, and any nation will always have its warts even in the best of times; overall, though, it was undeniably a more decent and liveable place than this one. As one who hath lived through this transition from the world's strongest nation by a gazillion miles into one that is now bordering on third world status and is the black sheep of the global community, I am horrified thinking of all the ways we threw our collective prosperity, security, and dignity away. We will never know again what we once knew, and the younger generations coming up now and the generations yet to be born – again, if the earth is still standing – will simply never know, period.

Karma is a bitch, #Murica.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Hurricane Helene exacts a deadly toll upon the US Southeast, particularly in southern Appalachia

AP Photo/Erik Verduzco

Asheville has been isolated after Helene wrecked roads and knocked out power and cell service. {AP 28 September}

Am quite saddened. It has been nearly thirty years since I last visited Asheville and Western North Carolina. My parents have returned at least once, mayhap two or three times, in the years since. Asheville remains one of the most scenic and pleasant places I have ever experienced. East Tennessee, where I once had strong ties for many years, was largely spared the worst of the calamity, though poor Newport was not so fortunate.

Global warming—or 'climate change', if one prefers—is both terrifying and real, and largely man-made. For the longest time, before I parted ways with the 'conservatives' (now #Cult45) in 2015 and 2016, I was as adamant as any of them that global warming was a 'hoax' and that humanity was blameless for acts of nature. Yet now, I think, 'Well, if mankind ruins everything else, why would we not also be culpable for this?' In the eternal battle between humanity and nature, nature always prevails. Human beings do not respect nature, and the consequences of this disregard grow ever more dire with the passing of each day, week, month, and year.

Prayers are with all those affected.

Recent headlines:

Project 2025 would cripple NOAA and the National Weather Center. {Poynter 27 September}

The 1 October deadline threatens to shut down ports on the US East Coast. {Reuters 25 September}

President Biden leads a bloc of North American, European, Arab, and Pacific nations in calling for a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon. {BBC 26 September}

Trump signals that he is going to throw Ukraine to the wolves, calls their people ‘dead’ and their land ‘demolished’ - The American people shall have blood on their hands if (when) they vote to return this cretin to power. Слава Україні. {AP 25 September}

Despite his delicate feelings being hurt, Trump decides to meet with Zelensky during the Ukrainian leader's visit to the US. {BBC 27 September}

Another utterly shameful omen of where the US is heading: the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism reveals a sharp spike in Jew hatred and a ‘decline in allies willing to stand up against it.’ {Jerusalem Post 27 September}

Neo-Nazis use AI to rebrand a ‘misunderstood’ Hitler for a new generation - It is working, all too well. Far too many Americans today, particularly teenage boys and young males, are easily misled and disturbingly eager to embrace hate. {WP 27 September}

Jewish leaders have condemned Trump after he vowed to hold Jews and Catholics to account should he face defeat - Whether he wins or loses, this is all going to get worse. #Cult45 is champing at the bit to begin the slaughter of countless Americans. Without fail, Jews are always the first targets when societies descend into tyrannical madness. Nazi #Murica shall strive to outdo Nazi Germany in its wickedness. Mark my words. {AP 27 September}

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Monday, April 8, 2024

The eclipse comes and goes, and #Qanon and various groups appear to be embarrassed once more. Do they care? Do they still ‘trust the plan’? (Short answer: the only ‘plan’ is hating and hurting Jews, and every single follower is aware of it)

Getty Images

The eclipse has passed, and no new catastrophe has emerged, once again leaving the tin foil hat-wearing 'Pepe' crowd with egg on their faces. Do the 'trust the plan' #Qanon enthusiasts still ‘trust the plan’? Sadly, the answer remains 'yes', as there is a complete lack of shame and dignity at all times with these people.

All the trappings we see from these folks - the many slogans, the idolization of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the stupid frog, the fixation on pedophiles and child trafficking - are thinly veiled cover for their one overriding purpose: hating and disempowering Jews. It matters zero to them if their ‘plan’ is grounded in reality; they are fervent Christian nationalists with a severely distorted sense of reality, and a highly tuned antipathy to all who do not believe as they do.

That said, every #Cult45 acolyte knows, deep down, that Donald Trump did not win the 2020 presidential election, and Trump and his enablers know he did not win; they shout 'Trump won' in our faces as a form of abuse, not because anybody thinks it is true. #Cult45 will be proven wrong time and time again, and every time they will only intensify their hatreds and willful delusions. It is organized insanity in service of neo-Nazism and white supremacy.

Do not underestimate the absurdity and cruelty these committed fanatics are willing to perpetrate. Despite their willful delusion regarding specific details, their profound fear and hatred of the Jewish people remain unwavering in the grand scheme of things. This hatred is as ancient as time itself, a malignant cancer that will likely endure for hundreds and thousands of years to come - assuming the world still stands, but I digress.

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social, and @arthurnewhook on POST. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Monday, November 15, 2021

‘Three snow leopards died of complications related to Covid-19 at a zoo in Lincoln, Neb., despite efforts by staff to restore them to health after they tested positive for the virus about a month ago’

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, via Associated Press

Human beings refuse to protect each other from this plague, so innocent animals certainly do not stand a chance when they are confronted with it -

The Lincoln Children’s Zoo lamented the deaths of Ranney, Everest and Makalu in a Facebook post on its official page Friday evening, saying the mountain cats “were beloved by our entire community inside and outside of the zoo.”
“This loss is truly heartbreaking, and we are all grieving together,” the statement said.
The snow leopards were not the only animals to have contracted the virus at the facility. The Lincoln Children’s Zoo had published a statement on Oct. 13 disclosing that the snow leopards and Sumatran tigers had “tested positive for the virus that causes Covid-19.”
The zoo had collected nasal swab and fecal samples after animal keepers had “observed symptoms consistent with the virus in felids,” which can include respiratory illness. The zoo said it had been treating the snow leopards and tigers “with steroids and antibiotics to prevent secondary infection,” but its statement did not say whether its animals had been vaccinated.
This summer, zoo animals started receiving an experimental Covid vaccine made by Zoetis, a veterinary pharmaceutical company in New Jersey.
The Lincoln zoo’s tigers appeared to be pulling through, according to the latest statement. “Sumatran tigers, Axl and Kumar, have made a seemingly full recovery from the illness,” the zoo said.
Cases of coronavirus infections among zoo animals have surfaced throughout the U.S., including the first two spotted hyenas in the world found to have the virus, among other animals infected at the Denver Zoo. Other recently reported cases have included tigers in Omaha, Neb.; African lions, snow leopards, jaguars and a tiger in St. Louis and lions in Honolulu. (Read more)

Monday, August 9, 2021

‘Code Red for humanity’

Photo: EPA

Another piece of good news to brighten your Monday. Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'

Human activity is changing the climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways, a major UN scientific report has said.
The landmark study warns of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding, and a key temperature limit being broken in just over a decade.
The report "is a code red for humanity", says the UN chief.
But scientists say a catastrophe can be avoided if the world acts fast.
There is hope that deep cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases could stabilise rising temperatures.
Echoing the scientists' findings, UN Secretary General António Guterres said: "If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe. But, as today's report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses. I count on government leaders and all stakeholders to ensure COP26 is a success."
The sober assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) features in a 42-page document known as the Summary for Policymakers.
It leads a series of reports that will be published over coming months and is the first major review of the science of climate change since 2013. Its release comes less than three months before a key climate summit in Glasgow known as COP26.
The IPCC is a UN body set up in 1988 to assess the science around climate change, and provides governments with scientific information.
In strong, confident tones, the IPCC's document says "it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, oceans and land". (Read more)

Sunday, June 27, 2021

Week in review, 06/20 - 06/26

Photo: AP

Relieved this whole saga is coming to an end: ‘A judge sentenced former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin on Friday to 22-and-a-half years in prison for the murder of George Floyd’

‘4.8 undiagnosed SARS-CoV-2 infections for every diagnosed case of COVID-19, and an estimated 16.8 million infections were undiagnosed by mid-July 2020 in the United States’

Delta Plus is now a COVID-19 ‘variant of concern,’ as three Indian states told to keep watch and the variant has been detected in at least nine other countries (including the USA)

99.9% of COVID hospitalizations and 99.2% of deaths in May were unvaccinated people

Scientists discovering that either COVID or COVID symptoms are causing some patients’ brains to shrink

COVID-19 took a major toll on the United Kingdom, as deaths outnumbered births for the first time in over forty years and the increase in the death rate was the highest since World War II

‘Republican states are failing to meet the basic needs of their residents. Among unvaccinated Americans, infection rates are climbing. More will get sick in those places, and some will die. Republicans are unwilling or incapable of meeting the challenge’

Graph: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Is the current rise in inflation a temporary post-COVID effect, or is it here to stay?

As a one-time retail worker, I am delighted to see this happening: ‘My life isn’t worth a dead-end job.’ Retail workers are quitting at record rates for higher-paying work

Buyers paying up to a million dollars over asking price for houses: A decaying nation, and yet more proof that it has become an evil country as well. Ordinary people are being deprived of living in actual homes, at an increasingly rapid, scary pace. For no legitimate reason other than shameless greed

Gen. Mark A. Milley. Photo: Getty Images

Top U.S. general rejected Trump suggestions military should ‘crack skulls’ during protests last year: The people crowing the most about ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom’ are always the ones most eager to silent dissent, and this is their hero and protector. No real mystery anymore as to why millions are loyal to Donald Trump

The GOP is not upset that young people are being indoctrinated into an ideology, only that it’s not their ideology that is being forced: Florida Gov. DeSantis signs bill requiring college students and professors to register their political beliefs with the state

DOJ sues Georgia over voting restrictions law

FBI issues warning that frustrated QAnon adherents no longer ‘trust the plan’ and may begin to resort to real-world violence: QAnon is not dead, it is evolving into something far worse

January 6 was child’s play compared to what is to come: ‘However much crazy you think is percolating in American society right now, you are very likely underestimating the situation.’ The appetite for political violence is growing on the American right

America is a nation abandoning meritocratic principles, and this will be our downfall. George Will: Attacking ‘merit’ in the name of ‘equity’ is a prescription for mediocrity

‘(A) people without a heart, unable to see half their countrymen and countrywomen as anything but the enemy.’ Timothy Egan: America is getting meaner

Take this with a grain of salt. I live in the Commonwealth, and have traveled most everywhere east of the Mississippi. There’s good and bad everywhere: Massachusetts ranked among the ‘least kind’ states in America in study

Photo: Kai Geng

The discovery of an unknown, now extinct, species of humans? Yeah, that would be a pretty big deal: Scientists hail stunning 'Dragon Man' discovery

‘Hundreds of birds are dying without explanation in parts of the South and Midwest. Wildlife experts in at least six states and Washington, D.C., have reported an increase in sick or dying birds in the past month’

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Week in review, 02/10 - 02/16

Don't have any definitive proof or documentation, but this picture has been going around and apparently the turtle is named Jonathan and is 189 years-old. Born in 1832, when Andrew Jackson was president, and still alive. God Bless this marvelous creature ...

‘This coronavirus is going to be here to stay. Eradication of this new coronavirus is basically impossible.’ Doctors warn that COVID-19 will become endemic, a seasonal illness like the flu

MIS-C syndrome in children is growing in numbers, and cases becoming more deadly

President Biden declares there will be enough vaccine for 300 million Americans by the end of July: Light at the end of the tunnel, but only if everybody were to do their part. Millions steadfastly refuse to do so

Massachusetts: ‘Hundreds of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been reported as "wasted" to the Department of Public Health’

It’s going to take awhile to catch up after the previous administration’s dreadful handling of this pandemic. Gov. Charlie Baker: Massachusetts is not seeing anticipated increase of COVID vaccines from the federal government

First case of the South African variant (B.1.351) confirmed in Massachusetts; patient had ‘no reported travel’

‘Hundreds of students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst could face disciplinary action after officials said they disregarded Covid-19 protocols, contributing to a spike in cases and a number of new restrictions at the school’