A perfect (and perfectly scary) title from Jessica Wildfire (@jessicawildfire) —
"If a Cactus Can't Survive This, Neither Can You"
You might’ve seen recent headlines about saguaro cacti keeling over in Arizona after spending nearly a month above 110° Fahrenheit (43°C).
Not even a week later, The Washington Post ran this absurd story: “Your body can build up tolerance to heat. Here’s how.”
I’m not linking to it. That’s how bad it is.
It’s not just getting a little hotter. It’s getting so hot that saguaro cacti are deflating in the desert. They evolved roughly 20,000 years ago. They’ve spent millennia adapting to a hot desert environment. They live up to 200 years in the hottest, driest environments on the planet. These cactuses are saying, “I can’t take it anymore,” and sagging over dead.
And we’re being told we can adapt.
I got curious about what temperature the human body can actually withstand, and it’s somewhere around 108°F (42°C). That’s when your proteins start to denature. A wet bulb temperature beyond 95°F (35°C) can kill a person in about six hours. No amount of heat tolerance can save anyone from that.
It strikes me as just a little ridiculous that out here in reality, parts of the world are becoming absolutely uninhabitable, and wellness writers are just now telling us to start building up our heat tolerance.
It feels like we’re being prepared and conditioned to start blaming heat deaths on someone’s “low heat tolerance,” as if it’s just another precondition that helps them rationalize indifference in the face of mass death.
#Water pumped from deep underground helps #alfalfa grow at the Saudi-owned Fondomonte farm in the Butler Valley, in western Arizona
Saudi Arabia bans industrial scale farming of alfalfa, to protect its limited water supplies.
So they grow it in a #US desert and ship it back home, using AZ’s scarce water.
Perspective: The prior republican admin even blocked efforts to track the amount of water being used. #Arizona get saudi the fuck out. #natsec
🎁: read it free
Beneath all the complicated #ColoradoRiver issues is a big, simple question that media hasn't adequately covered or even really approached: why don't #Indigenous communities have water? Literally just WHY. Without crazy loopy wonky theatrics. Ag has water. #Arizona Suburbs have water. Why don't tribes?
Finally, @ProPublica and HCN are addressing that question. It's a major investigative series. They've published the first of their findings:
He abandoned his first wife and their children in Missouri.
His second wife was a 12 year old Mexican girl. He abducted her and after a complaint submitted his resignation to President Buchanan before he was fired.
#Arizona AG Kris Mayes announces the State Grand Jury has returned indictments in the state's 2020 fake electors scheme.
The following individuals are named as defendants, per the AG: Kelli Ward, Tyler Bowyer, Nancy Cottle, Jacob Hoffman, Anthony Kern, James Lamon, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Moorhead, Lorraine Pellegrino, Gregory Safsten, and Michael Ward.
Charges include fraud, forgery, and conspiracy – class 2, 4, and 5 felonies. #legal
BREAKING: Sen. Kyrsten #Sinema just announced that she's NOT running for re-election to the #Senate. #Arizona
ADDED: WaPo: Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) entered the race more than a year ago, while Kari Lake, a former gubernatorial candidate and TV news anchor, is widely expected to nab the Republican nomination.
My non-blindness physical disabilities are worsening and I have realized after an antenna incident over the weekend that I can no longer maintain my #AmateurRadio station all by myself. If anyone out here is a #HamRadio op in the West Valley of the #Phoenix area in #Arizona I'd really appreciate a DM if you're interested in helping. I'd really like to keep my station on the air. Thanks and 73.
Don’t you dare say that voting doesn’t matter. In late 2022 in a recount Kris Mayes (who announced indictments of Rudy Giuliani and co today) won her election race for #Arizona atty general by 280 VOTES.
Prosecutors in Arizona are “aggressively” ramping up their criminal probe into the 2020 fake electors plot aimed at keeping then-President Donald Trump in power. They’re not just looking at the fake electors, though. Rudy Giuliani is also now high on their list....
#California Gov. Gavin Newsom is planning to introduce legislation to offer #Arizona abortion providers an expedited way to get licensed in California and accommodate a surge in Arizonians seeking to cross state lines for abortions.
“Democrats in the #Arizona Legislature made a final push Wednesday to repeal the state’s long-dormant ban on nearly all #abortions, which a court said can be enforced...Senate had the 16 votes it needed to advance the bill.
14 Dems in Senate were joined by two GOP votes in favor of repealing the bill, which narrowly cleared the Arizona House last week and is expected to be signed by Dem Gov. Katie Hobbs” https://apnews.com/article/24578e546b69ca087e01034bcaf4aa01
Every once in a while the planets align, the cell phone cooperates, and the colors show pretty true to life.... voila... a goodnight #sunset from the #Arizona high desert! 😎
In a speech today in Tempe, #Arizona, President Biden is to say “there is something dangerous happening in America. There is an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy. The MAGA Movement.”
🤦🏻♀️ "#Arizona Senate Passes Bill Preventing Presidents From Ballot Removal Under #14thAmendment
As states eagerly await the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on if #Trump should be allowed on the ballot for supporting an insurrection, Arizona Republicans took the first step on Monday to ensure Trump won’t be removed from their state’s ballot"
👀”Chair of #Arizona GOP Party will resign on Wed after leaked audio appeared to show him attempting to pay #KariLake not to run for office in 2024.
Jeff DeWit said audio was “selectively edited”…chose to resign because he was threatened by members of Lake’s team that more tapes would be released if he did not step down”
The world's 3rd largest copper deposit is in #Arizona. It's essential to #RenewableEnergy projects. Resolution Copper wants to extract it. But the copper is beneath Chí’chil Biłdagoteel, AKA Oak Flat.
“Oak Flat is like Mount Sinai to us,” says Wendsler Nosie (San Carlos Apache) of Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit fighting to protect the area.
[News] Arizona Prosecutors Are Probing Rudy Giuliani’s Role as Fake-Elector Kingpin (www.rollingstone.com)
Prosecutors in Arizona are “aggressively” ramping up their criminal probe into the 2020 fake electors plot aimed at keeping then-President Donald Trump in power. They’re not just looking at the fake electors, though. Rudy Giuliani is also now high on their list....