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[Give A Shit About Nature @giveashitnature]

In 2009, dozens of cedar waxwings dropped dead in a Georgia yard. A lab opened them up and found their stomachs packed with one thing: bright red berries picked off the shrub by the porch.

That shrub was nandina, sold all over the South as "heavenly bamboo."

It's not bamboo, but an Asian barberry relative, and its berries contain cyanide compounds. A bird that eats a few is usually fine. But cedar waxwings don't eat a few. They descend in flocks and strip plants bare, and in late winter, when those berries are one of the few foods left hanging, a whole flock can swallow a deadly dose in minutes.

The Georgia birds were found dead beneath the shrubs they had been feeding on. It's happened since, including more cedar waxwings found dead at UNC Chapel Hill.

The berries are also how the plant spreads. Birds eat the fruit and scatter the seeds. Nandina has escaped gardens into woods across much of the South, from Virginia to Texas.

It tolerates deep shade, which means it doesn't stop at the trail edge. It can establish in intact forests and crowd out native plants. State after state lists it as invasive. It's still sitting on the shelf at the big-box nursery.

It's easy to recognize. An upright evergreen shrub three to eight feet tall, with lacy leaves that turn red in cold weather, clusters of white flowers in spring, and bunches of glossy red berries that hang on all winter.

So yank it. Get the roots, because it resprouts. If you can't remove the whole thing this year, at least cut off every berry cluster before the birds find it.

Then plant something that actually feeds them: winterberry, American beautyberry, chokeberry, or native hollies.

The birds deserve better.

[Ed Krassenstein @EdKrassen]

This is Sad!

For almost 30 years, leaders from both parties have set politics aside to honor the women veterans who gave their lives for this country at Arlington National Cemetery.

Then Trump and Hegseth shut it down.

Why? Because the ceremony recognized women.

This is an insult to every woman who wore the uniform, served with courage, and sacrificed for this nation.

Yesterday, @demwomencaucus stood with the women veterans Trump and Hegseth tried to erase and held an event anyway.

We see you. We honor you. We thank you. 🇺🇸

[LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 @LongTimeHistory]

ICE detain U.S. citizen—refuse to even look at his legal identification.

Agents drove him to a random parking lot—interrogate him for hours.

"I tried to show them my driver’s license," he said.

"But my phone, car keys and wallet were taken away."

He was not allowed a call—and never given any explanation for why he was detained.

Agents just dropped him off without a word.

"I was born here. I don’t know why you arrest me, you stop me. I don’t know why."

Samuel Guzmán had just stopped to buy some coffee on the way to work when agents surrounded him in the parking lot.

Incident occurred in Annapolis, Maryland.

[Spencer Hakimian @SpencerHakimian]

Per the FBI, Trump knew and funded underage sex parties in Palm Beach.

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

New York Times investigative journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman are this generation's Woodward and Bernstein.

This story is Trump's Watergate and it's about to EXPLODE:

Vice President JD Vance, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, former Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, White House Counsel David Warrington, FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and former Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich converted the hallowed Situation Room — America's nerve center for real threats and decisive action — into a pedophile protection racket, where top officials huddled to cover-up the Epstein files scandal and protect a president who used to rape children for fun.

[Furkan Gözükara @FurkanGozukara]

🚨 WTF?! A USS Liberty survivor drops a massive bombshell.

He confirms they were threatened with prison or worse if they ever spoke about the Israeli attack.

Another veteran explicitly states "Israel owns us" after being ignored by Congress for 59 years. Total betrayal!

[The Intercept @theintercept]

One top military officer provided a plausible explanation, behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, The Intercept has learned. In the briefing, a high-ranking officer on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff stated that some of the people killed by the U.S. military may have been the victims of human trafficking.

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

Donald Trump Jr. invested in a startup. Three months later, the Pentagon handed that startup $620 million after the White House called and ordered them to fast-track it. The company's value went from $200 million to $2 billion overnight. 

These are your tax dollars being used to make the Trump family richer.  

Welcome to Episode 16 of the Corruption Chronicles.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Rep. Angie Craig demolishes Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins: "Joe Biden is no longer the president. Mr. Trump is. Your party controls Congress. You own these numbers at this point. I'm sick of hearing you blame an administration from a year and half ago. You own every single bit of this."

[Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 @FmrRepMTG]

Listen to this video.
All these promises, he told us exactly what we wanted to hear.
And then he turned around and broke them all.
He protected the elites, built a fortress around the swamp, endorsed all the RINOs, and became a warmonger waging wars.
Trump is the very snake he warned us all about.

[Rep. Jamie Raskin @RepRaskin]

News flash, Mr. President! We appreciate your candor in admitting you “love inflation” and don’t think about other Americans’ “financial situation,” but we hate inflation and can’t stand your illegal tariffs, taxes and wars. We’re sick of your economy for oligarchs!

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

What if I told you that conspiring to steal a presidential election is now a pardonable offense — as long as you were doing it for Donald Trump?

Rudy Giuliani was ordered by a jury to pay nearly $150 million to Georgia election workers he lied about on national television. Mark Meadows was indicted in Arizona as part of an 18-person plot to overturn that state's results. Trump pardoned both of them, then called their prosecutions “a grave national injustice.”

The message is clear: to Trump, personal loyalty is worth more than the Constitution.

Welcome to Episode 7 of the Pardon Papers.

[Rep. Joyce Beatty @RepBeatty]

We will restore the Kennedy Center.

[Shadow of Ezra @ShadowofEzra]

Rep. Ro Khanna says it was Benjamin Netanyahu who ordered Congress to insert Section 224 into the 2027 NDAA, which would coordinate and expand U.S.-Israel military cooperation.

He says Nethanyahu needs to be kicked to the curb.

"The American people are tired of the arrogance of Benjamin Netanyahu telling America what we should do."

[Rep. Melanie Stansbury @Rep_Stansbury]

Admin Officials in the Epstein Files:

Donald J. Trump (President)
Melania Trump (1st Lady)
Howard Lutnick (Sec. Commerce)
John Phelan (Sec. Navy)
Paolo Zampolli (Kennedy Center)
RFK Jr. (Sec. HHS)
Kevin Warsh (Fed Nominee)
Mehmet Oz (Admin. for CMS)
Elon Musk (Fmr DOGE Appointee)
Steve Bannon (Fmr Senior Advisor)
Alex Acosta (Fmr Sec. Labor)
Bill Barr (Fmr AG)
Brett Ratner (Film Director “Melania”)
…

[Amber Woods @AmberWoods100]

NEW
Recently ousted Rep. Thomas Massie just described Section 224 of the 2027 NDAA as a “treasonous merger” of the American and Israeli militaries. 🧵

[Rep. Shontel Brown @RepShontelBrown]

The Trump Admin cut funding for screwworm detection and fired 25% of staff responsible for tracking the disease.

I’m embarrassed for the Secretary that her only answer is to blame the administration that left office a year and a half ago.

[Rep. Ted Lieu @RepTedLieu]

Trump’s clueless DOGE cuts caused this screwworm outbreak. Agriculture Secretary Rollins should take responsibility or resign.

[Rep. Jim McGovern @RepMcGovern]

Trump & Elon Musk got rid of the USAID program that helped contain screwworms to Central America.

Now, thanks to them, our beef is being infected with parasites.

We’re all paying the price for this insane, far-right radical extremism.

[Blue Georgia @BlueGeorgia]

"The number of voters in LA County is larger than the voters in 41 states. It takes time, and it's a very rigorous, careful process."

- Rep. John Garamendi on Trump's false claims that the California election is rigged.