PrestonR

Career spent keeping pharma drugs safe.
Traded NY for OK, still litigating why.
I read the fine print so you don't have to.

[PrestonR @citeyourwork]

Even broccoli screams when you rip it from the ground.
-Ari Gold, Entourage (2008)

Civilizations have risen and fallen while plants just sat there, silently judging. They defend themselves too:

https://t.co/wvqIXOQb7g (2025)

Finally modern humans get it 🌱

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Groundbreaking botanical research is challenging the long-held belief in human exceptionalism, suggesting that plants possess forms of spatial awareness, intentionality, and consciousness.

For centuries, humans have regarded plants as passive organisms, but pioneering studies are rewriting this view. According to plant neurobiologist Dr. Stefano Mancuso, plants display sophisticated behaviors that parallel those of conscious animals. In laboratory experiments, plants react to anesthesia in ways strikingly similar to humans and animals — for instance, the Venus flytrap becomes completely unresponsive when anesthetized.

Time-lapse studies further reveal remarkable intelligence in common bean plants, which demonstrate clear spatial awareness by precisely aiming shoots toward supports and even adjusting their growth strategy when they detect another plant has already claimed a support.

These findings indicate that consciousness may not be limited to organisms with brains, but could be a more flexible property emerging in diverse life forms. As trees migrate northward in response to climate change, mirroring animal migration, researchers argue that our understanding of “mind” must expand beyond traditional boundaries.

With over three trillion trees on Earth, acknowledging plant consciousness could transform our ethical frameworks, agricultural practices, and relationship with nature, shifting from viewing plants as mere resources to recognizing them as active, aware participants in our shared ecosystem.

[Yokawa, K., Kagenishi, T., Pavlovič, A., Gall, S., Weiland, M., Mancuso, S., & Baluška, F. (2018). Anaesthetics stop diverse plant organ movements, affect endocytic vesicle recycling and ROS homeostasis, and block action potentials in Venus flytraps. Annals of Botany, 122(5), 747–756. DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcx155]

[PrestonR @citeyourwork]

https://t.co/NbtpYscSWD

[PrestonR @citeyourwork]

Go Flock. San Francisco audited its camera system and called it clean. Approximately 0.005% of searches using Flock technology were "improper". (CBS News, June 18th). Great!

That actually means there were 300 individual improper searches in one year. The ones that were caught 📷

Nearly once per day, someone was abusing this surveillance technology. That's the improvement. Thats the report.

Meanwhile:

Richmond, VA blocked an ATF analyst running immigration queries through its system after the city had tried to wall it off. Texas deputies ran a nationwide search in a case referencing a self administered abortion. "We checked and found nothing" is a result.

The 51 vulnerabilities found in Flock cameras by Jon Gaines and Benn Jordan aren't new: rubber ducky attacks, hidden wifi hotspot access, button sequence triggers, unauthenticated admin API that hands over root access.

Many jurisdictions have addressed these issues. Unsurprisingly, Oklahoma's patch status is unconfirmed. Per my HOA, I pay to surveil myself with these cameras.

There are at least 18 cases since 2024 of officers using plate reader access to track exes, ex partners, or strangers. Several have been prosecuted.

Flock says its system "cannot recognize, identify, or track individuals." Two of its patents (US11416545B1, US11763595B2) describe querying by "face recognition data points" and tracking a "person of interest." Not deployed isn't the same as not built.

Illinois law bans sharing Flock data for immigration or abortion cases. Out-of-state agencies queried Danville, Illinois anyway.

San Francisco's track record before this audit: out-of-state police made 1.6 million searches through SFPD's network in 2024 and 2025, with at least 19 tied to ICE.

I'm ready for another audit...I think GenZ has some ideas too 🔧

[PrestonR @citeyourwork]

Congratulations, Oklahoma. You did it!

"It" being what you're told against your own interests. More than half of voters. #SQ832

You wanted minimum wage? You have the absolute lowest statutory minimum wage in the country and it's there to stay.

Here's what you ACTUALLY voted for:

$7.25 since 2009. Cost of living up 50%. You voted to keep that gap widening indefinitely. Small employers can legally pay as little as $2 per hour.

Farm workers, part-time workers, and domestic workers still have no legal right to minimum wage. Oklahomans voted to keep that. Blissfully anti-progressive.

Nationally, over 57% of domestic workers are people of color, compared to 36% of other jobs. These exemptions are from the New Deal when these jobs were excluded from labor protections as a concession to racist Southern lawmakers.

I know there aren't any books but history still happened.

Today, at $7.25/hr full time you make $15,080 yearly. The poverty line is $15,960. You're below it, but just enough above the cutoff for Oklahoma's 'assistance programs' to have a clean reason to decline.

Too poor to get ahead. Too successful to get help. That's not an accident.

56% of Oklahoma said no to all of that. Masterfully self-defeating.

The Chamber of Commerce thanks you for your service.
https://t.co/WqSUSpb1dc

[PrestonR @citeyourwork]

@Delta Keep me moving: keep waiting, or downgrade class on another airline. Getting that offer was difficult enough.

Two cancellations. Two days and counting. Two hours on hold. Zero solutions.

No resolution, voucher, or goodwill.

They'll keep you moving. In circles, just not home.

[PrestonR @citeyourwork]

What SQ 832 actually changes on the regulatory side:

Outdated exemptions in the Oklahoma Minimum Wage Act, including ones that left some farm and youth workers outside basic wage coverage.

That's not an attack on family farms. Federal law already exempts genuinely small farms, those under 500 "man-days" of labor a quarter. It's the same wage floor other ag states operate under with no measurable hit to employment.

40 O.S. § 197.4(e): Oklahoma Minimum Wage Act, agricultural exemption.

https://t.co/iqvlOZZAkJ

[PrestonR @citeyourwork]

Oklahoma's minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009. A YES vote on SQ 832 would change that.

Privately funded initiatives blame "New York".
It's actually closer to home. No one but Oklahomans have a vested interest.

The people blaming New York "woke liberal politicians" also spent $80,000 on just one YouTube ad to declare San Francisco in control of Oklahoma's minimum wage.

The ad ran 5 million times in 26 days before you vote. "The People for Opportunity". They don't disclose funding, but they're the power structure: the State Chamber, the Farm Bureau, the OCPA all went to court to keep this off the ballot.

"No to 832" can be viewed with Google Ads Transparency Center. Search Funding Source: People for Opportunity. Especially interesting if you don't know Oklahoma.
https://t.co/723rBNVHNy

It's been the same play for 17 years.

Other red states have supported minimum wage increases on the ballot. Arkansas, Nebraska, Alaska, Florida, South Dakota, Ohio. Missouri and Montana passed raises on their second vote.

No farmers were harmed, and no one has accused these states of being California

New York did not spend money or contribute to anything around SQ 832. New York doesn't care about this vote. They don't need to.

The people pushing fear of outside influence are actually locals who have the most to lose.

June 16. Oklahomans Vote YES on SQ 832.

https://t.co/dw4zhxwAeY

[PrestonR @citeyourwork]

Most problems labeled "complicated" are simple problems that became inconvenienly expensive to solve.

The labels exist so you wont check. Check.

[PrestonR @citeyourwork]

Records request ORR2026-1959, submitted 6/3. Public record.
Requests: the Factor 110 contract, internal communications, cap authorization, traffic-control plans, and related records.

[PrestonR @citeyourwork]

Tulsa didn't botch the Route 66 Cruise. It worked as designed. The permit proves it: SPEV-242155-2026, public.

Every street closure in it is built to get cars OUT. There's even a line about ending near the highways for "smooth traffic dispersal."

Getting 5,100 registered cars IN to one staging point? Nothing. Transportation field: "No service."

They planned the exit and left the entrance blank, then acted shocked when it jammed exactly where they didn't plan.

"Visit Tulsa" didn't even sign for it. A Factor 110 rep, an OKC contractor, signed as "Chief Officer" and indemnified the City against claims. Liability averted before a single engine started.

So they capped the parade mid-stream to bank the Guinness number, used the cars for the photo, and refunded the entry fee as though that covers a tank of gas from three states away.

I've filed a records request for the contract and the internal comms on who ordered the cap.

More coming. Cite your work.

https://t.co/pClHKgae2p

[PrestonR @citeyourwork]

Worth noting who actually ran this "community" event.
Tulsa didn't sign the permit. An OKC contractor signed as "Chief Officer", indemnifying the City against claims.

Then they turned hundreds away and refunded the entry fee when pressed.

Community doesn't usually require pointing liability away from yourself first. SPEV-242155-2026, public.

[PrestonR @citeyourwork]

The record exists because they capped it. ~4,300 reached Expo Square; 3,596 were counted. The rest paid, drove in, and got turned around so the Guinness number could be banked.

Permit SPEV-242155-2026 planned every closure to get cars OUT with "smooth traffic dispersal" near the highways, and planned nothing for getting them IN. Literally. Transportation field: "No service."

The jam wasn't a surprise. It was the design.