Someone has to show up all the neighbors

From the site of last October's Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) pics:





And of course, I need my 10 cents worth of Sorosbucks™


~

Orbs all the way down

As illustrated by Substance McGravitas, orbs are everywhere. You just need to know how to see them.




There were a lot of small moths just like this one out the other night. Once again, identification will have to wait until after work.

~

15 Cents worth of Sorosbucks™

Notice that the leaves of the Lantana resemble the leaves of this plant. Nicotiana, Lantana, and Datura are all members of the Solanaceae (Nightshade) family. One of these three (Nicotiana, Lantana, and Datura) is not a member of the Solanaceae (Nightshade) family.

I'm sure that the butterfly in the background is a skipper, perhaps a Persius Duskywing or a Dreamy Duskywing.

I'd love to tell Jennifer that it's a Grizzled Skipper, but Sadly, No!

P.S.


This picture was overexposed. In my defense, I was walking home from Giant Eggle and wasn't willing to take the time needed for photographic excellence. I will say these flowers were like Bumblebee crack...multiple bumblebees were roaming about on some of them. They were bumping shoulders (and such as) as if each blossom were a mosh pit. Furthermore, I'm trying to identify the flower, but I have to get my sorry behind to the workplace. (Yeah it's Saturday, and yes my life is pathetic. So I'm blegging here.)

UPDATE: Another picture of the Passiflora:


The decorative passion flowers have a unique flower structure, which in most cases requires a large bee to effectively pollinate.
~

Return to list of posts

P.S. Helping fish.
~

Sunday Butterflies

UPDATE: Jennifer has a bumblebee. I took a picture of one of those on Sunday, too. George Soros pays me a dime for each butterfly picture I post. Bees are worth a nickle.

~

An Armey of Dicks

Dick Armey, Chairman of right-wing astroturfing company FreedomWorks and former G.O.P House Majority Leader, wrote an editorial today for the Wall Street Journal in conjunction with the release of his new book. So let's start the examination with screencaps from Dick's WSJ editorial (that way no one has to click the link, Rupert Murdoch doesn't deserve the traffic).

An Armey of Dicks








Southern Beale, take it away.

But this is the first time we’ve seen evidence that a media figure like Rick Santelli knowingly took part in a conservative propaganda campaign. Why? Well, I'm sure the fact that his contract is up for renewal this summer had something to do with it. His Tea Party-enhanced national profile will no doubt help with those negotiations. But news that the entire thing was planned and orchestrated by conservative PR firms should be grounds for Santelli's firing--now. He just threw any suggestion that he had journalistic impartiality out the window to meet his own selfish ends. If CNBC doesn’t investigate this now their credibility is gone, too.

Point of order, Chairman! Long before there was a "Rick's Rant", there was the Queen of All Iraq and Michael Gordon selling war in the NYT, and before that there was Jeff Gerth selling scandal in the NYT, etc. But I digress.

Mark Ames and Yasha Levine:

What hasn’t been reported until now is evidence linking Santelli’s “tea party” rant with some very familiar names in the Republican rightwing machine, from PR operatives who specialize in imitation-grassroots PR campaigns (called “astroturfing”) to bigwig politicians and notorious billionaire funders. As veteran Russia reporters, both of us spent years watching the Kremlin use fake grassroots movements to influence and control the political landscape. To us, the uncanny speed and direction the movement took and the players involved in promoting it had a strangely forced quality to it. If it seemed scripted, that’s because it was.

What we discovered is that Santelli’s “rant” was not at all spontaneous as his alleged fans claim, but rather it was a carefully-planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign. In PR terms, his February 19th call for a “Chicago Tea Party” was the launch event of a carefully organized and sophisticated PR campaign, one in which Santelli served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for the some of the craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans this country has ever produced. Namely, the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups, from the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine to FreedomWorks. The scion of the Koch family, Fred Koch, was a co-founder of the notorious extremist-rightwing John Birch Society.

The Tea Party is not a movement of concerned Americans getting involved in politics for the first time. It's the GOP base, re-branded and crazier than a shit house rat. It's yet another example of a few right wing billionaires using their money, the GOP party apparatus, and the corporate media to manipulate public opinion and ensure that our government remains devoted to filling their pockets at the expense of everyone else.
~

I'm ready for my close-up

As always, click for larger.
~

Brewery Yard Kroger, he yelped

Brewery Yard Kroger, he yelped.




A couple more pics (and a closeup) from the other evening:



~

Lagomorph orbs - old camera has new Trix

~

Datura inoxia conquered Columbus

See here for context.




I saw a small green hummingbird trying to get at one of the Datura above on my way home from work a couple weeks ago. But sadly, I didn't have my camera. And sadly for the hummingbird, the Datura are only open for business at night. Their preferred pollinators are moths.

In other new, guess what I saw at Kroger the other day? That's right...


UPDATE! Seemed important:


~

Orbs and Pigs

~

She who has a Taitz is lost

I will not allow J— or S_McG (IF that is his real name) to beat me to this scoop.



~