Back from the shadows again . . . .

It has been a long dry spell for the birdhaus---I have felt very unmotivated to write for some time. The intellectual atmosphere in our country has been bleak, to say the least. Now we face life with a President who has no empathy or compassion (those are for LOSERS), and I feel compelled to try again to express my feelings and thoughts in what appears to be a time with the potential to be a new Dark Ages. Well, I hope not, but what else can one think as we see reality given a disrespect usually reserved for untruths?

President Donald J. Trump (God, the saying of it sticks in my craw), whose biggest qualification for being our leader is being awful at playing a terrible boss on reality (or UN-reality) television, is now the erstwhile head of our country. I can't call him the "Leader of the Free World", because the world already feels a lot least free than it was scant weeks ago.

Are we surprised that he is doing his best to implement the restrictive and fear-based policies he promised to put in place? Are we shocked that a man supremely unqualified to be  the Commander-In-Chief is nominating idiots for positions in his administration who are supremely unqualified and downright corrupt? Are we disappointed that this con artist who has a record in the business world of failure and untrustworthiness is now doing exactly the opposite of his many campaign promises? Is it strange that a man of no intellectual curiosity is not interested in scientific information about our world?

It seems very predictable to me. We shall see how this plays out, but I'm so sick of President Pussy Grabber's face on my TV and computer screens that I almost find Steve Bannon a refreshing change of pace. ALMOST---but these guys are the evil bookends of the cascading avalanche of the twilight of America. They look as ugly as they sound.

Credit: Donald Trump SHUT UP

Yeah, I'm back from the shadows again, ready to resist and fight for the light.

The new American business model

chickenguide.jpg

(Via arstechnica)

A well-known American photographer has now sued Getty Images and other related companies—she claims they have been wrongly been selling copyright license for over 18,000 of her photos that she had already donated to the public for free, via the Library of Congress.The photographer, Carol Highsmith, is widely considered to be a modern-day successor to her photographic idols, Frances Benjamin Johnston and Dorothea Lange, who were famous for capturing images of American life in the 19th and 20th centuries, respectively.

Inspired by the fact that Johnston donated her life’s work to the Library of Congress for public use in the 1930s, Highsmith wanted to follow suit and began donating her work "to the public, including copyrights throughout the world," as early as 1988.
According to the lawsuit, Highsmith's gift continues “to the present” as she continues to take new photographs.

[SNIP]

According to the suit, Getty and its affiliates have not only sold unauthorized licenses of Highsmith’s photos, but they have sent threatening letters to people that they believe have infringed the copyright. 

One of those recipients was Highsmith’s own non-profit group, the This is America! Foundation. The copyright enforcement entity, License Compliance Services, demanded $120 in payment. LCS is believed to be connected to Getty Images, which has developed a reputation for aggressively pursuing claimed license fees over alleged afoul publication.

So this is how it works in our "Free Market" system. Basically, it's not wrong to rip people of as long as no one catches you. This is the same shit the "patent trolls" try to pull. They create nothing and then charge people for it.

I hope Getty gets destroyed by this. It couldn't happen to a nicer thief!

The creepiest thing I've seen in quite some time . . . .

This picture made me throw up in my mouth a little. This is really what is meant by "defacing the flag." Ugh!

Quote for the Day (Get Used to It Division)

“I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky, my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.” - Muhammad Ali

Rest in peace, Muhammad.

Distracted by nature's beauty . . . .

When the world seems to be going bat shit loco and the political bullshit gets too deep, a walk around the backyard with my camera always seems to flush the crap out:

Some strawberries are coming this summer!

 

Sweetpeas looking for a net to latch onto . . . .

The bees are active this year, though the hive we had in an old trash can on our property seems to have not survived the winter.

I worked at corralling this rose bush to keep the deer from decimating it . . .

. . . and here's one of it's new blossoms.

Our pond is full to capacity in contrast to last year's muddy bog.

The face of future blackberries.

 

The face of future blueberries.

Quote for the Day (Comic Relief Division)

The best mind-altering drug is truth. - Lilly Tomlin