Your FSA/OWI Photo of the Day

San Augustine, Texas. Farm girl with a mule team behind the courthouse on Saturday afternoon. John Vachon, 1943.

Your FSA/OWI Photo of the Day

Walla Walla County, Washington. Working in a wheat field with a combine drawn by a mule team. Russell Lee, 1941.

Only in the California Native Plant Society Bulletin...

"Making friends with mosses and liverworts adds panache to one's naturalist mojo." Far be it from me to disagree... I just might have to sign up for the new statewide Bryophyte Chapter!

The X-Files

I'm not a TV addict, but yeah, I've watched my share. And there will never ever be a better TV love story than the X-Files. Two flawed grownups, each with her/his own seemingly irreconcilable philosophy and neuroses, brought together by crisis, necessity, curiosity, stubbornness, professionalism, and the plain irrefutable fact that once united, one could never again exist without the other. Pure 19th-century romanticism: The nods to irony are only there to trick the modern viewer into watching. Do.

In the debate, Hillary probably sealed the deal...

... against her only real rival, Joe Biden. I like Bernie, and I'd probably vote for him on pure preferences. But I'm a democratic socialist too, so that's no big surprise. I'd add that his position on Snowden is the only honest one... it's just total bullshit to claim, as every other Dem seemed to, that Snowden could have accomplished what he did by being a "whistleblower" within the system. But at this point, it is Hillary's election to lose. After the primaries, she'll be the only grownup in the race. One hopes there is still a majority of Electoral College votes that thinks it's a good idea to have a grownup running the country.

Tee hee hee...

Eduardo Porter writes a funny column about bringing the Republicans to the table on climate change policy. Here's my favorite silly quote:

Eli Lehrer, who runs the R Street Institute, a fairly conventional conservative research firm except that it supports a carbon tax to combat climate change, argued that the Republicans’ stance was “a direct reaction to the Democrats’ efforts to use scientific facts to try to dictate public policy.”

Oooo... those nasty Democrats tried to blind me with... science! Here's my favorite fun fact about the groundswell of Republican concern about the climate:

Last month, 11 Republicans in the House introduced a resolution that — tortuously worded though it may have been — acknowledged the need to “address the causes and effects” of a changing climate.

That's 11 nervous nellies... in the entire GOP House.

Eat shit and live

OK, crass, but I couldn't resist. And probably true...

Well, the good news is...

... that many of them seem either crazy or stupid enough to throw away millions on Ted Cruz and Rick Perry.

From Only 158 Families, Half the Cash in the ’16 Race

On the other hand, the bad news is they have lots of millions where those came from for the candidates left standing...