Dyckia

Hello Friends,

Per a search with Google Lens, ... "While it looks like a cactus, the plant in the image is actually a Dyckia, a genus of terrestrial bromeliads. Unlike most bromeliads that grow on trees (epiphytes), Dyckias grow in the ground or among rocks and have adapted to survive in dry, harsh environments, which is why they are often mistaken for cacti or succulents."

I photographed this last weekend at one of the locations of the Long Beach Garden Tour, and you'll probably be seeing more shots from that garden tour in the coming weeks. It was shot with my Fuji W3 (2-lens) camera, auto-aligned with StereoPhoto Maker, and then worked into a phantogram in Photoshop.

It's a disturbing time in the life of our democratic society. We can hope and pray it will remain democratic, but only by effort and well focused action will we succeed in preventing its fall into authoritarian rule. As much as I'd prefer not to villianize the republican party as a whole, certainly there are "very fine people on both sides", what remains of the republican party is rapidly devolving into a power-for-power-sake grabbing Trumpian cult of immigrant bashing, election denialism, white supremacy and christian nationalism. Our justice department isn't our justice department, it's Trump's department of retribution. Our FBI, DHS, FCC et all can be counted on only to go after Trump's critics and perceived enemies. Our supreme court can't be counted on for anything at all.

Life is getting tougher and more expensive for most Americans, and polling shows the exceptional unpopularity of every aspect of Trump and his policies. The corruption at the top would be startling if but for having experienced the first Trump administration. Racial gerrymandering is reaching its peak to silence and disenfranchise non-whites, turning into a new Jim Crow era. Among all this I can't help but wonder, ... is there simply no red line that republican lawmakers are unwilling to cross?

Despite his daily meaningless lying babblings about nonexistent negotiations with Iran, details of his ballroom, marble versus granite, arrrrggggg!!! We are being pushed to, through and beyond a breaking point. I know now not to expect a "Face in the Crowd" live mic moment where everybody sees Trump for what he is turns against him. If such a moment could have existed it would've come long ago.

Wishing for better,

Barry Rothstein

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