Wildlife and the Lunatic Fringe

Greetings Earthlings!  How are things in your neck of the woods?  Our neck is hot, but the winds have calmed down.  Yesterday we were out putting a hose on the saguaro and noticed a depression in the ground under a palm tree.  Closer inspection revealed a baby rabbit in the depression.  We backed off, not knowing if it was dead or alive, but not wanting to scare it.  Turns out rabbits build their "nests" out in the open, believing that predators will not venture out to eat their young.  That's what the internet says, anyway.  So, if you have grass that you mow, make sure you don't have any piles of grass or leaf litter, because there could be a baby rabbit in there. The baby was alive, and presumably left with mom later.

The hummingbirds are draining their tiny feeders daily.  It's so dry here nothing is blooming.  The switch to desert landscaping has also removed sources of food for them.  There are three feeders, holding a total of two ounces.  I don't put the big one out because it's too hot; it grows fungus and then kills the birds.  We seem to have a resident male and female.  The male chases her relentlessly, I'd like to smack him upside his tiny head and tell him to knock it off.  There is an infinite supply of food, and this behavior is not approved.

Here is a lizard hanging on the wall.  I love how their feet support them while they're upside down.

The county is paving on Kinney.  We haven't been able to ride the road bikes from the house for over a year because that's the road in and out.  There are other roads, but they're narrow and they don't go anywhere interesting.  The project plan says there will be six foot shoulders on each side of the road, so we're happy about that.  For awhile we really doubted that would be the case, so I called them.  An actual human answered the phone, looked up the project and transferred me to another human.  They were both quite pleasant, and the second human assured me there would be shoulders.  It has become unnerving when a person answers the phone, I'm always expecting voice mail.

We have clouds today.  No rain in the forecast, but clouds are nice.

Now I have a few things to say about republicans.

The Arizona legislature has been busy passing stupid voting laws. 

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona lawmakers are pushing to create criminal penalties for election workers and volunteers who deviate from procedures and to give prosecutors all mail ballots rejected for signature problems.

Those provisions are part of a sweeping elections measure debated in the House on Tuesday ahead of a possible vote in the coming days as lawmakers rush to end the legislative session.

Democrats and voting rights advocates said the threat of criminal penalties will create a chilling effect on election workers and voters.

Republicans say they will bolster confidence in elections.

Jim and I had discussed signing up to work elections as volunteers.  No more!  It's a $10,000 fine for a worker if they make a mistake or deviate from the procedure.  The supervisor gets a $25,000 fine for not keeping a better watch on the poll workers.  Who is going to want to volunteer with this hanging over their heads?  Why are they sending ballots with signature problems to prosecutors?  Peoples' signatures change over time.  Mine has changed, the way I write the "r" in my last name has two variants.  Jim's has changed.  Are we now criminals?

TPM also has a piece on what the lunatic fringe is doing.

An amendment added to another election bill, that creates a criminal referral process around ballot signature mismatch. If a signature doesn’t match on a mail ballot, and the voter doesn’t fix the issue in the 5-day curing period that the state provides, then a copy of the ballot, as well as other information about the voter, is sent to the county or state prosecutors for investigation, under the legislation.

They've also written a bill that precludes our Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs, from defending the next election against stupid bills written to do things like throw out electors they don't like.  It all defaults to the Attorney General, who is a republican lunatic.  The bill expires at the end of Ms Hobbs' term as Secretary of State.

The state legislature in Pennsylvania has been busy, as well.  This is from the Daily Kos. 

The third bill, the Unborn Child Dignity Act, requires healthcare facilities to provide the option of burial or cremation after the loss of a pregnancy. It also requires women to fill out a traumatic form acknowledging their miscarriage. The form is mandatory and comes with a fine for miscarrying the child and a death certificate to indicate the loss—as if the trauma itself was not enough.

If a woman miscarries, they want to fine her and make her get a death certificate.   The article has a copy of the death certificate application.  Would someone mind telling me in the name of all that is holy, why the republicans decided this was necessary?  What if you miscarry at home, in the toilet, which happens frequently.  Do you have to fish out the fetus and present it to the state?  They truly are the spawn of satan.

Meanwhile, in San Jose, nine people are dead from a mass shooting today.  In Texas, the governor, in his infinite wisdom, has decided that everybody can open carry.  There are no longer back ground checks, training, licensing or anything.  Just buy your damn gun and go swagger around with it.  I have yet to see a good guy with a gun stop a bad guy with a gun.

The fake audit continues in Arizona.  "The contract with Wake TSI ended May 14, the original completion date for the hand count, and the company chose not to renew its contract, according to Randy Pullen, an audit spokesperson and former state GOP chair." They have a new company on board now, but they're still not actually conducting an audit.  One of their processes is to have three people per table scanning ballots at a rate of three ballots every three seconds.  If there is a discrepancy in the tally, they just go with the two who matched, and move on.  AZ law requires that discrepancies be resolved on the spot, but not these people.  It's just a joke.

So, my hair is pretty much on fire due to all of the perfidy and malfeasance.  Don't even get me started on what Marjorie Taylor Greene said yesterday, comparing having to wear a mask to the Holocaust.  I truly believe she is mentally ill.

OK, I'll stop now.  

Later, there was this.  Pretty.