Of birds, and bags, and bumble bees.

I guess I'll just wander around a few issues this week. I'm not too focused.

Well, I'm sad to report that my mockingbird friends have been chased away from their favorite nest in the fruitless Mulberry tree overlooking the garage. They had been greeting me with a burst of enthusiastic music as soon as I stepped from the car when arriving home late. They seem to need an audience. "Northern Mockingbirds continue to add new sounds to their repertoires throughout their lives. A male may learn around 200 songs throughout its life. A male may have two distinct repertoires of songs: one for spring and another for fall."

I regret that I neglected to record this couple when I could; they had an especially elaborate repertoire, and plenty of volume. I guess it was the power of their song that persuaded light-sleepers to chase them away. After evenings writing so many gloomy columns it was always a refreshing moment to hear them sing - even at midnight. I miss them!

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I guess it's time for me to once again dabble in the ugly realities of the human world. I'll start with the smaller issues, like why did California prohibit those small, cheap plastic bags at supermarkets? The reason given was that they ended up clogging waterways by being carelessly disposed of.

Now that the free, thin plastic bags have been replaced by new heaver bags at 10-cents apiece, what has happened? Well, personal cloth bags are also discouraged due to unsanitary conditions from repeated use. So, the grocery stores have created a necessary new market in these 10-cent bags which they sell to their customers - tens-of-millions of dollars-worth of new revenue. Makes me wonder where all these millions of new 10-cent bags end up. Do they end up "clogging waterways by being incorrectly disposed of" like the old free bags? Show me that they are not. I'm sure that more than 100 of the new bags recently retrieved from my office closet went into city trash collection - just like the old free ones. These 100 new (now used) bags cost me $10.00. Hmm - how many millions of shoppers using the new bags have been coerced into paying how many millions of dollars? And, to what purpose other than giving tens of millions of dollars to the markets. What alleged environmental purpose was served? Another government scam? Question of the day for Democrat Party leaders: Was this Trumps fault?

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A new California court ruling says that "if it looks like a bee, buzzes like a bee, and stings like a bee - it's a fish." ordinarily, this would require some explanation. But, seeing that this is California, where biological men can be determined women, and women men, I'll just leave it at that. "American Bumblebee Takes Step Toward Endangered Species Act Protection. “Bumblebee Once Found Across Country Has Nearly Vanished From 16 States". This item caught my eye recently. And, I have to say, as a kid I often saw bumblebees on the ranch and in garden areas but haven't seen one in years. Sad to hear that. On a quick search I discovered one species, Crotch's bumblebee, "an endangered species that was last evaluated by IUCN in April 2014. In 2019, the species' global status was listed as imperiled.” Keep an eye on that one! And that's all I have to say about that.

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At a time when our country is threatened by true national defense catastrophes from multiple directions, I don't know why I ended up with such a frivolous beginning to Realities this week. Maybe it's because it is so frustrating to find half of America oblivious to the threats created by current "leaders".

China, in particular, as our main enemy, is daring us to take action in support of Taiwan. Our House Leader, Nancy Pelosi, has announced an official visit to Taiwan, which has China's Communist Leader Xi Jinping behaving like Rumlpelstiltskin, once upon a time. He has the insolence to forbid the U.S. to visit Taiwan! I would take pleasure reminding Xi that all of his illegally armed artificial South China Sea islands could be destroyed by a single U.S. Arleigh Burke class destroyer in a few minutes, as Trump did in Syria against 50 targets.

Xi is looking for America to kowtow - the greatest insult in Far East culture. No - Xi should kowtow to his free Western adversaries. The U.S. should continue to arm Taiwan with every missile, plane and submarine available. Taiwan must have in place thousands of missiles prepositioned, targeting key enemy sites. If China intends to attack the free, autonomous, sovereign nation of Taiwan, to enslave its citizens, as they have done to the Uighurs, let them pay the ultimate price for their pyrrhic victory, and cease all commerce with the United States.

Recently self-described "Woman" (champion of the Trans) Nancy Pelosi, needs to go to Taiwan and flaunt that new Trans testiculrity in defense of America's honor.

Say hello to Xi for me. Was in Taiwan in 1961. Freedom was great!