Debra Wells

worker bee, alternative music nut, fan of cats & dogs and most of the world

[Cameron 🇺🇸 🗽🦅 @CameronCorduroy]

>renames it to the Department of War
>names himself the Secretary of War
>fights one war
>loses

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

5,000 tons of Russia’s Navy ammunition near St. Petersburg is gone.

Eight Ukrainian deep strike drones got through air defenses and triggered a massive secondary detonation — United24. 1/

[GOP Ls @GOP__Ls]

🚨 Trump commuted the sentence of pastor Rodney Gibson, a drug dealer.

Gibson has now been arrested again for sexually abusing his 15-year-old foster child.

[Greg Fish @_neutronfish]

Creative and artistic vision requires one to have introspection and empathy, the ability to portray a world you may not like or agree with in believable ways, rather than crude power fantasy hyperbole filled with straw men for you to beat up. That’s why you failed at it.

[Beth Pratt @bethpratt]

Putting Yosemite at Risk
To: Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum
Yosemite Superintendent Ray McPadden
Congressman Tom McClintock

As a child I gazed at photos in books about national parks of magnificent places like Yosemite and dreamed of visiting these special places, thinking someday, someday….

I am trying to imagine how dejected I would have felt, if, when that someday came, I had to sit in a miles-long traffic jam breathing exhaust while waiting to get into Yosemite, drive around for hours trying to find a place to park, and bear witness to cars parked in meadows, trash bins overflowing, and graffiti on trails.

Yosemite is one of the most unique places on the planet and is home to a diverse array of wildlife. It is a place that is held in the public trust.

Your irresponsible decisions to ignore decades of scientific research about the impacts of overcrowding and eliminate the reservation system have put this place at risk, and the park is suffering damage as a result.

Just a few samples of comments on social media of people sharing their recent experience in Yosemite:

“We saw cars parked in the middle of meadows, and ditches, in the middle of the road, bus stop parking areas etcetera this is how fires start, vegetation gets ruined and traffic piles up faster!”

“I was there today. It was RIDICULOUS! We were stuck in rolling traffic for an hour to reach the Village... All in all, it was very disappointing to say the least. Trash bins were overflowing with garbage strewn around them and bathrooms were disgusting. It was a real S-Show.”

“Cars were parked along the road easements, encroaching on the roadway. Cars were parked in the meadows. It was extremely upsetting to see the impacts on the Park.”

“It is horrific. Leaving Yosemite now. Lots are full. People parking anywhere they can. The reservation system needs to be put back in place.”

All of this was avoidable.

Let me remind you of your charge to uphold the national park service’s core mission: "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein….by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."

You have been entrusted with managing one of the most special places on the planet yet, instead of conserving for those future generations, you are managing Yosemite as if it were an amusement park.

When the National Park Service was formed in 1916, just over 300,000 people visited our parks. Today, that number has risen to over 300 million. To think that landscapes like Yosemite can accommodate this increase of visitation without lasting damage and threats to the flora and fauna is magical thinking. It is not just unrealistic but also ignoring scientific evidence to the contrary to keep thinking so.

Decades of rigorous scientific study was undertaken that demonstrates Yosemite has a carrying capacity, which details the impacts of overcrowding on the wildlife and the landscape. Please read it. You might start with the 2014 Merced Wild and Scenic River Plan or the 2024 Yosemite Visitor Access Management Plan and Environmental Assessment.

Yosemite has also done scientific visitor surveys multiple times and how overcrowding impacts the park experience. A 2005 visitor study by the University of Idaho found that 58% of people felt crowded by the number vehicles and 55% of people felt crowded by the by the number of other people.

And not only are you ignoring the park research, you are ignoring the direct harm to the park’s cherished wildlife, which you are entrusted with protecting.

Research has shown, for example, that visitation levels (not speeding) are directly linked with bears being hit by vehicles. As visitation increases, the chance of a bear being hit by a vehicle also typically increases. Keep adding more cars, and you’ll be causing the death of more bears. Why are you putting the life of Yosemite’s bears at stake?

I can still remember my first campfire talk decades ago, and how dedicated park rangers inspired in my young girl self a love for our country’s national parks—deemed America’s best idea. These rangers were dedicated to protecting the parks and their wildlife for the future, and they instilled in me that we needed to take seriously our responsibility to be stewards of these special places.

The park rangers in Yosemite, many of who I know personally, are similarly dedicated to protecting this special place, and they inspire me. Your decisions also betray these hardworking people, who had to deal with the beyond challenging conditions you created on this holiday weekend, and will have to continue to contend with the consequences of your actions during this busy summer season.

I have been visiting Yosemite for since 1992, worked in the park for nine years, and have lived outside the park for almost three decades. Like millions of other people, I cherish Yosemite, the park’s magnificent landscape, and the incredible wildlife that call it home.

I want not only the future generations of our children and grandchildren the chance to experience this special place, but also the visitors of today to have an exceptional time that allows them to celebrate this natural wonder. Today’s visitors deserve better than sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic for hours breathing exhaust just to enter the park.

Reinstate the reservation system. Please stop abdicating your duty to the park and its wildlife. Start managing Yosemite with the directive you were charged that first and foremost ensures the protection of the parks and its wildlife.

Sincerely,

Beth Pratt
Conservation leader and lifetime national park visitor

[Christopher Webb @cwebbonline]

Officials from the local American Legion post deliberately cut the audio. The mic worked fine until Black history entered the story. Here’s the story of Memorial Day’s Black roots…

[Acyn @Acyn]

Wow Scott Jennings blows up at Adam Mockler: “Get your fucking hand out of my face”

Mockler: We all know that Scott Jennings is more than happy to defend a war with a country that starts with letters Ira that we are currently failing that is going to put us trillions and trillions of dollars more in debt. I was only a few years old while you were in the administration defending prior endless wars.

[CONSEQUENCE @consequence]

Jimmy Kimmel responded directly to Melania Trump during his opening monologue on Monday night after the First Lady called for his firing: "I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it."

"You know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and the First Lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job? We've all been there, right? What a day.

"As you know, they had to cancel the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington on Saturday night after a man with multiple guns and knives crashed the party and may have shot a Secret Service officer. Fortunately, the guy was wearing a bulletproof vest and is okay. He was charged today. No one was hurt, thank goodness. A lot of people were shaken up on a night that is supposed to be light-hearted.

"The White House Correspondents' Dinner, if you don't know, it used to be an annual event before Trump showed up, but every year they'd have a comedian roast the room. The President, the Vice President, members of the press—everybody got roasted. I did it once; I hosted it. It was a lot of fun.

"But this year they said, 'No comedian. We're bringing in a mentalist instead.' So on Thursday, three days before the event, in order to keep that cherished tradition alive, I did my own version of the correspondents' dinner on my show. I put on a tuxedo. We pretended we had an audience of luminaries. We used old footage of the Trumps, of Pete Hegseth, J.D. Vance, Kid Rock, Vanilla Ice, all the members of his cabinet, and we made it seem like they were all together in a room. We had a little roast.

"Again, this was Thursday, and there was no big reaction to it until this morning when I greeted the day facing yet another Twitter vomit storm, and a call to fire me from our First Lady, Melania Trump, saying I should be fired because of a joke I made, again, five nights ago.

"It was a pretend roast. I said, 'Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at her. So beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.' Which obviously was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they're together. It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am. It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination, and they know that. I've been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular.

"But I understand that the First Lady had a stressful experience over the weekend, and probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house. And also, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it... because, by the way, I also should point out: Donald Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you, and as am I, as are all of us. Because under the First Amendment, we have as Americans a right to free speech."

[Jacqueline Sweet @JSweetLI]

NEW: After years operating in almost complete anonymity, the top content producers of Canary Mission have been identified. The doxxing site targeting academics and activists who expressed pro-Palestine views over the last year has been used by the Trump administration to select international students for arrest, detention, and deportation--even as those using it at DHS said they didn't know who was behind the site.

The five new highest-paid writers and social media employees associated with the site that we identified are all Americans who moved to Israel years ago, and have a range of ties to American nonprofits and groups. Link below:

[Sherri Unfiltered™ @FFT1776]

Animal shelter security footage captured a scared dog with a large St Bernard.

I had a St Bernard and this is exactly how loving they are❣️

I’d adopt them both!

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

The Fraud's Prayer:
Our Father, who art in the White House,
hallowed be thy combover;
thy blingdom come;
thy will be dumb;
In Washington as you are in Florida.
Give us this day our daily round of golf.
And forgive us our insider trading,
as we refuse to forgive those who investigate against us.
Lead us not away from temptation;
but deliver us to evil.
For thine is the spray tan,
the dour and the hoary,
Until the midterms.
Amen.

[Trita Parsi @tparsi]

Disgraceful!

The US/Israel just bombed Sharif University in Tehran. This is not only Iran's best university, but also a top 100 global university in the field of Civil Engineering.

It has also been a center of student opposition to the Iranian gov

And Trump just bombed it...

[Jake Tapper 🦅 @jaketapper]

Latest message to Iranian leaders from
President Trump:

https://t.co/9qE4RkvdCS

[Austin Kocher, PhD @ackocher]

New ICE arrest data just dropped via the Deportation Data Project's FOIA lawsuit. I spent hours validating it so you don't have to. Here's what the numbers actually show. 🧵

[Greg Jaffe @GregJaffe]

Over the objections of top Army leaders Hegseth has removed 2 Black and 2 female officers from one-star promotion list.

https://t.co/qKta0NLzn0

[Kirby Sommers @LandlordLinks]

ICYMI Donald Trump ends Jonathan Pollard's parole upon request by Jewish groups.

Pollard was US Navy analyst, jailed for passing top level secrets to Israel.

Israel then asks Trump to pardon Pollard's Israeli handler, Aviem Sella. He does.

Tell me Trump is not compromised.🔥

[Pearl Jam @PearlJam]

Make your voice heard. Call your senators today and let them know that you oppose all forms of voter suppression.

Tell them to VOTE NO on the SAVE Act.

📞: 202-224-3121

[sandra @mrsDugskullery]

Australian Military have confirmed that their war graves have been bulldozed by IDF in Gaza's Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery.
The bodies of soldiers will very likely have been displaced.
British graves have also been bulldozed.
Where is the condemnation from our military?

[Emirates Support @EmiratesSupport]

All flights to and from Dubai have been temporarily suspended.

Please do not go to the airport.

Emirates will share updates when available. We would like to thank our customers for their understanding and patience.

The safety of our passengers and crew is our highest priority and will not be compromised.

[Faytuks News @Faytuks]

BREAKING: Trump weighing putting boots on the ground to seize Iran's critical oil depot on Kharg Island, U.S. officials say - Axios

https://t.co/ntEJchzdRu