One of Florida's iconic snakes, the Eastern Indigo has been having a tough time in the last little while. The problems are familiar and are not so easily remedied in a time where it seems like every square inch of habitat in Florida has a strip mall or three either being built on it or in the planning stage.
But the good guys are doing what they can to keep our native species from fading to black. Specifically, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has a comprehensive plan to address this unhappy situation and the state expends a lot of resources to work that plan.
One of the many actions taken recently to help the Eastern Indigo Snake in particular was the release of 20 captive-bred specimens into the wild at the Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve in Liberty County. That's in the panhandle region of Florida, a little west of Tallahassee.
Just how much help this will be to the Eastern Indigo is impossible to tell, but it certainly can't hurt. The loss of habitat is problem no. 1 facing all of our native wildlife here in the Sunshine State, and though it seems cliché, it's nevertheless true that the problem is only going to get worse before it gets better.
Well, human nature being what it is, I don't think it will ever get better, but that's fodder for a different posting.
For now, I'm glad to see that our FWC here in Florida is doing fine work, helping to give our native species a fighting chance.
To read the entire press release about today's helpful and well-planned event, just follow this link.
"Bulldog Ben" Basile
© 2018 Ben Lawrence Basile
Monday, July 23, 2018
Friday, July 20, 2018
Happy Moon Day 2018, Folks!
And, yes, I do remember exactly what I was doing on the day! I was touring the U.S. with a high school choral group called the Young Floridians in Concert. We were sponsored by Central Florida YFC and were travelling through upstate New York on that day, heading for our next gig.
Was the summer after my 9th grade year and was memorable for several reasons...
To help in some small way to mark this auspicious day, I'm contributing one of my own Moon shots I like best.
You're welcome!
If you'd like to leave a comment, especially if you have a story to share about what you were doing on that day, please feel free!
"Moondog Ben" Basile
Photo credit Ben Lawrence Basile
Sunday, July 15, 2018
France brings home World Cup
If you're a soccer fan, you just may have heard, but the French bested Croatia 4-2 this afternoon and are the new World Champs!
Il n'y a aucune plus grande gloire dans le monde sportif! Vive La France!
I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I'm glad to see the world's most beloved sport become extremely popular here in the states. And the World Cup is a monster story every year, of course.
Orlando is trying to get a piece of the World Cup again for 2026. The bid is being taken seriously; folks who follow such things say the Florida's effort has a sporting chance. Having an MLS franchise here now certainly doesn't hurt!
It was awesome back in 1994 when Orlando hosted three or four prelim matches. (There were several other sites in the U.S., as well.) And I'd love to see us land it again for the big festivities eight years from now!
Orlando boy and low-key soccer fan, I am,
"Bulldog Ben" Basile
Ben is not the owner of this awesome photo and thinks it's covered by Fair Use.
Trey Gowdy is changing his tune
Just moments ago, I saw a snippet of Face The Nation on CBS. Margaret Brennan's guest was none other than Trey Gowdy, the father of the Benghazi investigation and the poster boy for outrageous GOP obstructionist behavior with respect to the Mueller investigation.
The main thrust of her final question was basically to get his take on the fact that the new indictments reveal that at least one, and most likely two people involved or formerly associated with the tRump campaign, passed those stolen emails back to the campaign.
The indictments do not reveal the identities of that person or persons, but most folks who follow such things believe that Roger Stone is one and that a hitherto little-known Florida political operative named Aaron Nevins is the other.
So Brennan wanted to get Gowdy's take on the new revelations.
I was shocked when I heard his response. He said, in a manner both plain and robust, that the Special Counsel should figure out exactly who those people were and take appropriate action!
Now, he could have been full of shit while saying that, but that's not the important part; at least it's not for me.
What was shocking to me was that his reply wasn't just more dissembling, deflecting, minimizing and obfuscation at which Gowdy excels and which has been the order of the day for Rethuglicans in the matter of Mueller's probe right from day one!
I could be reading too much into his remarks, but I believe it's another early sign that Repugs believe they've come to the end of their long-held, seemingly iron-clad strategy of uttering lie after lie in all press appearances to keep the truth about the tRump-Russia matter from coming to light.
I'm convinced that they've known that the investigation--and what is known about the investigation--would eventually reach the point where so much rot and corruption would be revealed that the public would stop believing their spin, deflection and lies; and that from that time on, they'd have to start distancing from Fearless Leader in order to prevent the whole party from going down with him.
Now, I don't think it's going to help. I think they're all going down anyway. But I'm now convinced that Gowdy and some others do, in fact, see the handwriting on the wall, and that their PR strategy is starting to change.
I'm happy to say that I believe we're at the tipping point.
And I believe that Bob Mueller's just getting started.
To read a very thorough delineation of the whole matter of how, allegedly, Stone and Nevins fed the content of those notorious stolen DNC emails back to the campaign, or--to be more precise--to tRump himself, check out this unrolled twitter thread from investigator Seth Abramson.
For more of a big picture look at Friday's very important indictments of 12 Russian GRU operatives and what the repercussions might be, follow this link.
Bulldog Ben, barkin' again!
© 2018 Ben Lawrence Basile
The main thrust of her final question was basically to get his take on the fact that the new indictments reveal that at least one, and most likely two people involved or formerly associated with the tRump campaign, passed those stolen emails back to the campaign.
The indictments do not reveal the identities of that person or persons, but most folks who follow such things believe that Roger Stone is one and that a hitherto little-known Florida political operative named Aaron Nevins is the other.
So Brennan wanted to get Gowdy's take on the new revelations.
I was shocked when I heard his response. He said, in a manner both plain and robust, that the Special Counsel should figure out exactly who those people were and take appropriate action!
Now, he could have been full of shit while saying that, but that's not the important part; at least it's not for me.
What was shocking to me was that his reply wasn't just more dissembling, deflecting, minimizing and obfuscation at which Gowdy excels and which has been the order of the day for Rethuglicans in the matter of Mueller's probe right from day one!
I could be reading too much into his remarks, but I believe it's another early sign that Repugs believe they've come to the end of their long-held, seemingly iron-clad strategy of uttering lie after lie in all press appearances to keep the truth about the tRump-Russia matter from coming to light.
I'm convinced that they've known that the investigation--and what is known about the investigation--would eventually reach the point where so much rot and corruption would be revealed that the public would stop believing their spin, deflection and lies; and that from that time on, they'd have to start distancing from Fearless Leader in order to prevent the whole party from going down with him.
Now, I don't think it's going to help. I think they're all going down anyway. But I'm now convinced that Gowdy and some others do, in fact, see the handwriting on the wall, and that their PR strategy is starting to change.
I'm happy to say that I believe we're at the tipping point.
And I believe that Bob Mueller's just getting started.
To read a very thorough delineation of the whole matter of how, allegedly, Stone and Nevins fed the content of those notorious stolen DNC emails back to the campaign, or--to be more precise--to tRump himself, check out this unrolled twitter thread from investigator Seth Abramson.
For more of a big picture look at Friday's very important indictments of 12 Russian GRU operatives and what the repercussions might be, follow this link.
Bulldog Ben, barkin' again!
© 2018 Ben Lawrence Basile
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
It's the 4th of July and this time...
The buffoon who was elevated to the highest office in the land in January of 2017 has proved to be an unmitigated disaster for the USA. This totally incompetent poser prez seems to spend all of his time watching Fox Noise, thinking of new ways to insult our allies and undo the considerable legacy of Barack Obama, all the while searching for new and disgusting strategies to cozy up to his man-crush, Vladimir Putin.
Well, when he's not a Mar-a-Lago playing golf, that is.
There are so many dimensions to the tragedy unfolding in our corporate life today. As we come to the day on which we celebrate our Independence, it can be a challenge to choose exactly what it is about tRump and tRumpism that sucks the worst.
Is it his cruelty and arrogance? His hard-to-believe, near-total ignorance of the history of our nation?
The fact that he knows less-than-zero about how the levers of government work?
Could it be the fact that he demonstrates no interest in carrying out the duties of the Presidency? Is it his complete and thoroughly-documented general incompetence?
Maybe it's his constant lying, exaggerating, denying, minimizing and just completely making shit up?
Honestly, it's hard to choose. Pick one. Keep in mind that my short list here is far from complete. Truthfully, I barely scratched the surface.
For me, it's easy. It's the fact that our #LyingLoserPrez is trying to march the country towards Fascism. All the signs are there. He is undermining the First Amendment's protection of journalism, of a free press. He screams "fake news" whenever anyone in the media points out one of his constant lies or just refuses to flatter him sufficiently in their stories.
He is setting us up for a foray into fascism with his constant "other-rizing" of immigrants and minority groups, pushing them farther and farther to the edge of our society and making them vulnerable to having their rights limited or taken away altogether.
Our constitution mandates that everyone within the jurisdiction of the United States receives the protections it affords. Not only citizens. But our unPOTUS still feels perfectly at liberty to separate children from their parents, some of whom are as young as six months, and then lock them in cages; the few places we have been permitted to see where kids have been interned look startlingly like dog kennels.
And this is happening to families whose only crime is the misdemeanor of crossing the border illegally. That describes, roughly, 90% of the families and individuals who have been rounded up by ICE or the Border Patrol. If people crossing the border are asking for asylum, their coming to the US is no crime at all! But they're being interned and having their children taken anyway without a case being opened for their asylum request.
This would-be tyrant is also fond of ignoring the rule of law. Of acting as though the law of the land simply doesn't apply to him. And--to compound the felony here--that he has unfettered power to pardon, not only all his family and friends and staff who have engaged in criminal behavior along with him, but to pardon himself!
Right! That's never been done in the United States. And wrap your mind around this stark reality: our President is claiming the right to pardon himself for crimes he keeps insisting he has not committed! It's insane! And about 35% of the American people have no problem with it. Or any other criminal outrage coming from the accursed occupant of our White House.
So Happy 4th of July, patriot! Reflect on the unhappy state of our nation today. And resolve to defend Lady Liberty from the many crimes and outrages committed by this petty, corrupt madman. This thoroughly incompetent madman, at that.
And join your fellows in the resistance movement. If we don't make common cause with one another and defend our once-great nation from this usurper, his enablers and minions, this 242nd celebration for America may be the last one where all her citizens enjoy the full rights and blessings granted them by the Constitution.
"Bulldog Ben" Basile
© Ben Lawrence Basile
Photo credit Ben Lawrence Basile
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)