Yes it’s been a while, but – not so shockingly – I still have opinions to share and stuff I’m reading that I figure are important enough to mention every once in a while! There’s some serious shit going on in the world as we all know that no “thoughts and prayers” are going to change. And by the way, if you’re going to take a knee, you damn well also better be voting because this shit going on is REAL and no goddamn hashtag is going to make a difference (yes I’m talking about those worshipping Colin K who thinks he’s making a bigger statement by taking a knee than registering to vote. give me fucking break. you don’t vote? shut the fuck up…did you know only 20% of young people eligible to vote actually went to the polls in 2016? yeah, shut the fuck up to those who could have but chose not to. and if you can? fight like hell to make sure voting rights are improved -not taken away – and accessibility is increased, not decreased…and while I’m at it, why the fuck doesn’t every state simply do vote by mail and motor-voter-registration and online registration to vote like we do in Oregon? Oh and did you know that the states with the HIGHEST voter turnout don’t even crack 75% at the polls, while in my husband’s home country of Australia the numbers have NEVER dropped below 91%.

So anyhoo.

So, today’s post is full of articles which most, just in their title, say it all…but you should still read them and learn and…yep…share and then…yep…do something.

• The explosive problem with recycling iPads, iPhones and other gadgets: They burst into flames
• Humans just 0.01% of all life but have destroyed 83% of wild mammals
• Shooting the Stars: An Astronaut’s Best Photos
• Fundamentalism is coming for us – and women, as ever, will be first
• Yes, digital nomads thrive on exploitation. But so does everyone else.
• National park officials were told climate change was ‘sensitive.’ So they removed it from a key planning report.
• Scientists know plastics are dangerous. Why won’t the government say so?
• York (1770-1832) – This final one I need to give some context. Living in the “Lewis and Clark” neighborhood of Astoria, and in close proximity to the national park of the same name, my husband and I have started digging in a bit deeper to the background of these two men. (Because anyone who has a clue knows that our history books NEVER tell the whole truth of what happened, and often include blatant falsehoods…the bullshit concept of “manifest destiny” being at the heart of much of the garbage we learned in school). Anyhow, did you know there was a black man in the Lewis & Clark expedition? Did you know he was Clark’s slave? Did you know that he was forced to dance for the rest of the group and in front of Native Americans they encountered, treated like a circus act? And did you know that after the expedition that while everyone else was rewarded handsomely he was not only NOT freed but Clark wrote laughingly about beating the shit out of him, wouldn’t let him see his wife and recommended him to be sent to an even more brutal slaveowner? And that Clark lied about freeing York? And that if you go to the national park, the majority of the books make Lewis & Clark heroes, have only a tiny section about Native Americans in the corner, and just one book – in the children’s section, written by a white man – about York that sugarcoats the truth (because god forbid kids learn what really happened in our country’s history…).

So because of all this? While we watch the leaders in North and South Carolina tell citizens that they’re “out of luck” if they don’t evacuate, rather than getting them OUT whether they like it or not…and getting them all to a safe place? It’s all too fucking reminiscent of Katrina.  And meanwhile the Fuckup-In-Chief lies his ass off about Puerto Rico, shitting all over these American citizens. NOW LET’S GET IN FORMATION – VOTE.