Where billions of cicadas will emerge this spring (and over the next decade), in one map 1APR21

 THIS article from VOX fails to mention how tasty these guys are, but no worries here is a link to my post in 2016 with several cicada recipes. Bon Appetit!!!

Where billions of cicadas will emerge this spring (and over the next decade), in one map

Billions of mid-Atlantic cicadas will soon hear the call of spring. And then you’ll hear their mating calls, too.

By Brian Resnick@B_resnickbrian@vox.com  Apr 1, 2021, 3:10pm EDT

For 17 years, cicadas do very little. They hang out in the ground, sucking sugar out of tree roots. Then, following this absurdly long hibernation, they emerge from the ground, sprout wings, make a ton of noise, have sex, and die within a few weeks. Their orphan progeny will then return to the ground and live the next 17 years in silence.

Over the next several weeks, billions of mid-Atlantic cicadas will hear the call of spring and emerge from their cozy bunkers. This year’s group, born in 2004, is known as Brood X. They’ll start their journey to the surface when soil temperatures reach around 64 degrees Fahrenheit.

While they’ll emerge in biblical numbers, they’ll be blanketing only a small slice of the country.

Cicadas appear every year on the East Coast, but it’s a different 17-year crew that wakes up each time. (There are some 13-year broods of cicadas in the Southeast, too.) Emerging in these humongous annual batches is likely an evolutionary strategy. There are so many cicadas all at once, predators (such as birds and small mammals) can’t make a meaningful dent in their numbers.

In sum, the broods lay claim to much of the eastern United States, stretching from New England to Oklahoma. You can see all of the US broods on the US Forest Service map below.

Brood X (shown in yellow) will be seen in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, and eastern Tennessee.

Courtesy of the United States Forest Service

And while their mating calls are loud and annoying, cicadas are one of nature’s beautiful mysteries: No one — not even Sir David Attenborough — knows how the cicadas are able to count to 17 years underground.

Click play on the video below to watch Attenborough seduce a male cicada by imitating the clicks a female makes. Enjoy!

Amazing Cicada Life Cycle | Sir David Attenborough's Life In the Undergrowth | BBC

Rep. Matt Gaetz faces Justice Dept. investigation over alleged relationship with teen girl 30MAR21

THEY just don't learn do they. Rep matt gaetz frp* FL, uber conservative neo-nazi fascist pig who just loves to legislate how others should live their lives is being investigated for bringing an underage girl across state lines to have sex with her. THIS explains why he is such a strong supporter of donald drumpf / trump. From the Washington Post.....

Rep. Matt Gaetz faces Justice Dept. investigation over alleged relationship with teen girl

By 

Matt Zapotosky and 

Devlin Barrett

March 30, 2021 at 10:09 p.m. EDT

The Justice Department is investigating Rep. Matt Gaetz — a Florida Republican considered a close political ally of former president Donald Trump — over an alleged sexual relationship with an underage girl, according to people familiar with the matter, though the probe has been complicated by the congressman’s assertion that his family is being extorted.

The investigation into Gaetz began some time last year, when Trump was still in office, after a criminal case against a different Florida politician led investigators to allegations that the congressman had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her travel, a person familiar with the matter said on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. As that probe was underway, the person said, Gaetz’s family raised allegations that the congressman was being extorted, and the FBI separately is exploring those claims.

The Justice Department activity, which had been conducted in secret for months, burst into the open Tuesday when the New York Times published a report on the investigation into the alleged sexual relationship, and Axios published an interview in which Gaetz confirmed the probe but said the allegations against him were “rooted in an extortion effort against my family.”

Separately, Axios reported Tuesday that Gaetz was telling confidants he was contemplating not seeking reelection and possibly leaving his post early for a job at Newsmax, a conservative media outlet.

Gaetz repeated his extortion claim in a statement and then on Fox News, saying someone had been “seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name.” He said that his father, Donald Gaetz, a former president of the Florida Senate, had received a text message on March 16 demanding a meeting, and that on Wednesday, his father was supposed to contact a former Justice Department official “so that specific instructions could be given regarding the wiring of $4.5 million as a down payment on this bribe.” Gaetz said his family had contacted the local FBI about the matter.

Gaetz identified the former Justice Department official as attorney David McGee, a former federal prosecutor in Florida now at the firm Beggs & Lane.

In an interview, McGee disputed that he was part of any effort to extort Gaetz or that he was connected to the Justice Department’s investigation of possible sex trafficking by the congressman. He said Gaetz’s father had “called me and asked to talk to me,” though McGee declined to say what the conversation entailed.

“It is completely false. It’s a blatant attempt to distract from the fact that he’s under investigation for sex trafficking of minors,” McGee said, adding, “I have no connection with that case at all, other than, one of a thousand people who have heard the rumors.”

Gaetz asserted that his family had been cooperating with the FBI and that his father had even worn a wire to record interactions. He said that at the Justice Department’s request, his father had made a recording at the Beggs & Lane firm, and the congressman called on the FBI to release the tapes.

“I know that there was a demand for money in exchange for a commitment that he could make this investigation go away, along with his co-conspirators,” Gaetz told Fox News.

McGee said he would welcome the release of a tape of his conversation with Gaetz’s father.

“If there is a tape, play the tape,” McGee said. “There is nothing on that tape that is untoward. It is a pleasant conversation of a dad concerned about his son and the trouble his son was in.”

The Justice Department and the FBI declined to comment. Efforts to reach Donald Gaetz were not successful Tuesday night.

Matt Gaetz also alleged on Fox News that those trying to extort him “claimed to have specific connections inside the Biden White House” and were “promising that Joe Biden would pardon me,” though Gaetz insisted the allegations of his relationship with the 17-year-old were false.

“No part of the allegations against me are true, and the people pushing these lies are targets of the ongoing extortion investigation,” Gaetz said in a statement.

Gaetz has not been charged with any crimes, nor has anyone been accused by the Justice Department of trying to extort him.

The investigation into Gaetz’s alleged relationship with the 17-year-old grew from a federal case against a different Florida Republican: Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole County tax collector who was charged last summer with sex trafficking of a child and a medley of other offenses.

According to an indictment in the case, Greenberg abused his access to a statewide database, using it to look up the personal information of people with whom he was in “sugar daddy” relationships, including the minor, and to help produce fake identification documents to “facilitate his efforts to engage in commercial sex acts.” He was also accused of seeking to undermine a political opponent by surfacing fabricated evidence of racism and misconduct.

Greenberg, who pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial in June, did not respond to a message seeking comment left at what appeared to be a phone number listed for him in public records. He resigned his political office after he was charged. The Washington Post was unable to learn immediately how Greenberg’s case connected to the allegations against Gaetz, or any details about the 17-year-old with whom Gaetz was alleged to have had a relationship.

A 2019 photograph that Greenberg posted on Twitter shows him with Gaetz at the White House. He also posted a picture in 2017 of him with Gaetz and Roger Stone, another well-known Trump political ally.

As a frequent guest on cable news, Gaetz was sometimes called the “Trumpiest” member of Congress for his seemingly ceaseless promotion of the former president.

A politician from the Florida Panhandle, Gaetz began serving in the state legislature in 2010, when he was best known for pushing to decriminalize marijuana use. In 2016, he won a seat in Congress and as a lawmaker has been outspoken in defense of Trump on impeachment and other issues.

In so doing, Gaetz has regularly courted controversy and been criticized as violating norms of behavior and decorum.

A day after the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, Gaetz argued without evidence that the offenders included members of the leftist movement antifa masquerading as Trump supporters.

In 2019, Gaetz led about two dozen GOP lawmakers who stormed into a secure room in the Capitol used for hearing and handling classified information, disrupting witness testimony related to Trump’s impeachment.

Matt Zapotosky

Matt Zapotosky covers the Justice Department for The Washington Post's national security team. He has previously worked covering the federal courthouse in Alexandria and local law enforcement in Prince George's County and Southern Maryland.Follow

Devlin Barrett

Devlin Barrett writes about the FBI and the Justice Department, and is the author of "October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election." He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for National Reporting, for coverage of Russian interference in the U.S. election.Follow

AT&T and fascism & Corporate Criticism Of GOP-led Voting Bills Spreads To Texas 3&1APR21

 at&t is financially supporting politicians who practice and promote neo-nazi fascist policies and legislation and the insurrectionist that threaten our democratic Republic. They financially support politicians at the local, state and national level who are passing legislation that makes it difficult if not impossible for Black and Brown communities, Native Americans and the poor and working poor of all ethnicities to register to vote and to actually vote. Please sign this petition from UltraViolet demanding at&t end their support of these racist politicians and their anti -democratic voting legislation. HuffPost reports on the American corporations who are actively opposing voter suppression legislation across the country.

Tell AT&T: Speak out against voter suppression laws and pledge to no longer fund anti-democracy politicians.

Republican lawmakers across the country are racing to pass racist voter suppression laws in response to the incredible organizing by Black, Indigenous, and women of color, who helped flip states like Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania from red to blue in 2020.  

And telecom giant AT&T is funding this voter suppression.

AT&T has given millions to the Republican lawmakers in Congress who continued to support the Big Lie about the 2020 election that led to the violence and bloodshed at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. But while AT&T has tried to claim it will no longer give to the members of Congress who supported the insurrection, it has both continued to support the complicit Republican Party as a whole and to still fund state lawmakers who are rushing to erode our democracy with voter suppression laws. 

AT&T has given nearly $600,000 to state Republican politicians in Texas who have been pushing through voter restrictions targeted at Black and brown communities over the last several years. These politicians, like Texas Governor Greg Abbott, are working double-time to ensure our votes do not count if they do not go the way the GOP wants.¹

AT&T needs to feel the heat for its complicity in funding these anti-democratic politicians. We have seen how public pressure on companies works to force them to speak out against voter restriction laws.

Can you sign this petition demanding AT&T speak out against voter suppression laws in Texas and around the country and STOP funding anti-women, anti-democracy candidates and politicians?

Tell AT&T: Speak out against voter suppression laws and pledge to no longer fund anti-democracy politicians.

Sign the petition

Right now, there are several bills aimed at curtailing access to voting before the Texas legislature. Bills like S.B. 7, which is aimed at putting up barriers for disabled people to vote and stopping densely populated counties from using mass voting sites like stadiums for elections. 

And yet, AT&T remains silent while the politicians it funds take a knife to our democracy.

This isn't the first time that AT&T has felt the heat for its political giving. Last year, the UltraViolet community called out AT&T's funding of anti-abortion, anti-women candidates during the Trump era. We know that when candidates for political office are anti-abortion, they almost always support a larger, far-right political ideology that is not only anti-choice, but anti-racial justice, and anti-democracy too. And we are seeing the proof of concept in these moves to restrict voting. The same politicians who supported a six-week abortion ban in Georgia in 2019 also supported voting restrictions that passed late last week in Georgia. This story repeats itself across the country.

That is why we need to turn up the pressure on AT&T to speak out against these dangerous bills. 

AT&T cannot remain silent in the face of these attacks on our most sacred rights. AT&T has a massive amount of power in Texas, where it is headquartered in Dallas, and it has millions of subscribers around the country. Consumers and workers alike need AT&T to stand by the values it touts and stop funding fascism. 

Sign the petition demanding that AT&T speak out against these voter suppression bills and stop funding complicit politicians!

Thanks for speaking out!

--Shaunna, Kathy, Melody, Lindsay, Sonja, Kimberly, Maria, Elisa, KaeLyn, KD, Iris, Isatou, Bridget, and Katie, the UltraViolet team 

Sources:

1. Texas' voter suppression bills are fueled by millions in corporate cash, Popular Information, March 31, 2021

---

Want to support our work? UltraViolet is funded by members like you, and our tiny staff ensures small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

Corporate Criticism Of GOP-led Voting Bills Spreads To Texas

American Airlines, which is based in Fort Worth, came out against restrictive voting measures in Texas.

Paul J. Weber

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The ranks of big corporations now criticizing GOP efforts to restrict voting access spread Thursday to Texas as measures that would reduce options to cast ballots and limit polling hours advanced in the state Capitol.

American Airlines, which is based in Fort Worth, came out against restrictive voting measures that have a favorable path to reaching Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk in the coming weeks.

Public opposition from the airline came after a package of sweeping elections changes cleared the GOP-controlled Senate and, notably, a day after some of Georgia’s most prominent corporate leaders came out publicly against a new election law after civil rights activists criticized their silence.

“To make American’s stance clear: We are strongly opposed to this bill and others like it,” the airline said in a statement.

Unlike in Georgia, the corporate criticism in Texas to the election bills comes before they have been signed into law. Corporate interests carry big clout in the Texas Capitol, but Abbott and other Republicans have given no indication of wavering in their pursuit of passing the measures before the session ends in May.

The passage of Senate Bill 7 was along party lines in a vote after midnight early Thursday.

American Airlines’ reaction to the bill advancing was slammed by Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the powerful Senate leader. “Texans are fed up with corporations that don’t share our values trying to dictate public policy,” Patrick said in a statement.

House Republicans on Thursday also began efforts to move a similar bill, known as House Bill 6, to the floor with nearly 200 people signed up to testify at a hearing.

Billionaire Michael Dell, whose tech company is headquartered in suburban Austin, tweeted his opposition to the bill as that hearing unfolded.

Critics of the Texas legislation say the efforts particularly target expanded access put into place during last year’s election in Harris County, which is home to more than 2 million voters, controlled by Democrats and a key Texas battleground that includes Houston.

One measure would eliminate drive-thru voting, which more than 127,000 people around Houston used during early voting last year. More than half of those voters were Black, Latino or Asian, said Democratic state Sen. Carol Alvarado.

“Hearing all of that, who are you really targeting when you’re trying to get rid of drive-thru voting?” she said.

Republicans rejected accusations that the bill was designed to suppress turnout.

“None of what we’ve discussed is voter suppression. And none of what we’ve discussed is Jim Crow,” Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt said.

The voting packages in Texas mirror a nationwide campaign by Republicans after former President Donald Trump made false claims about election fraud.

Voting rights groups say the measures would disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minority voters. In Texas, which already has some of the strictest voting laws in the U.S., the proposed legislation grants more power to partisan poll watchers and eliminates the option to cast a ballot via drive-thru. The bill also includes a provision requiring a doctor’s note for people with disabilities who want to vote by mail, although Republicans signaled during the debate that language could change.

Trump won Texas but by fewer than 6 points. It was the closest victory by any GOP presidential nominee in Texas since 1996, underscoring Republicans’ loosening iron grip on the state.

After the Georgia bill was signed into law, some of the state’s companies were roundly criticized, including by more than 70 Black corporate leaders who took out an advertisement in The New York Times urging corporate America to stand up forcefully on matters of racial justice.

After days of criticism and the boycott threat on social media, Delta CEO Ed Bastian took a stronger tone, calling the Georgia law unacceptable. “The entire rationale for this bill was based on a lie: that there was widespread voter fraud in Georgia in the 2020 elections. This is simply not true,” Bastian wrote, referring to Trump’s claims that he lost because of fraud.

___

Associated Press writers Acacia Coronado and AP Airlines Writer David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

Editorial: Vatican's decree on gay unions risks making Francis into a hypocrite & Vatican sources suspect Pope Francis was distancing himself from CDF statement on same-sex unions in address 19&21MAR21

 JUST like many religious people interpret scripture's words to justify their beliefs, rules and regulations so too many religious interpret a spiritual leader's words the same way. I think this is what has happened here and I think there will be a more explicit statement from the Pope in the future. Hopefully he will not wait for a tragedy to occur  to speak. From NCR and America...

Editorial: Vatican's decree on gay unions risks making Francis into a hypocrite

Mar 19, 2021

by NCR Editorial Staff

There are many laudatory words and phrases we might use to describe the Pope Francis the world has come to know over these past eight years. Genuine. Pastoral. Open-minded. Concerned for the poor, humanity, the environment. Friend of the marginalized.

But the pope's decision to approve the March 15 decree from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith instructing Catholic priests not to offer blessings for same-sex couples brings to mind a word that is much more bitter in the throat. Hypocrite.

Although gay unions can have "positive elements," the Vatican determined, they are "not ordered to the Creator's plan." God, said the doctrinal office, "does not and cannot bless sin."

Forgive us if we have whiplash. Pope Francis approved this? The same man who, when asked in 2013 about a gay priest in Vatican service, famously replied: "If a person is gay and is seeking the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?"

The same man who has met with LGBT couples throughout his papacy, including during his visit to the U.S. in 2015? The same one who told Chilean abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz in 2018 that "it doesn't matter that you are gay" and "God made you that way and he loves you the way you are"?

The same one who personally intervened for one Italian gay couple to make sure their three children were able to be raised Catholic?

We recognize, of course, that the earlier papal quips and meetings did not ultimately change the church's teaching on human sexuality. That will take many years and will likely require the kind of open-ended, "no topic off the table" synodal process Francis has spoken so elegantly of throughout his papacy.

At NCR, we have been calling for such a dialogue on sexual ethics for years, urging a continuation of the development of the doctrine of sexuality that began in Vatican II. "This work has largely been stalled by the hierarchy's unwillingness to loosen its rigid interpretation of millennia-old ideas about natural law and the procreation norm," we editorialized in 2017.

It will also require a fundamental reorienting of the role of the doctrinal congregation. Nearly 60 years since the closing of the Second Vatican Council, it still remains unclear how such an office accords with the council's vision of a church of dialogue and shared pilgrimage.

But we come to the point of absurdity — and hypocrisy — when a pope says he wants to welcome LGBT people into the church but then simply cannot countenance that they might want to pursue loving relationships, just like the rest of humanity.

Perhaps Francis could learn from himself. About six years ago, he was asked by journalists traveling with him to three African countries whether the church should change its stance on artificial contraception, given the continuing spread of HIV/AIDS across the continent.

The pontiff paused before saying: "The question seems too small to me."

The pope said the query reminded him of how Jesus was questioned for performing healing miracles on the Sabbath. Identifying a host of urgent problems facing the world, such as malnutrition, human trafficking and lack of safe drinking water, Francis said: "I do not like to descend into reflections that are so casuistic when people are dying."

"I would say to not think if it is licit or not licit to heal on the Sabbath," the pope said then. "I say to humanity: Make justice, and when all are healed, when there is not injustice in this world, we can speak of the Sabbath."

Where has that Pope Francis gone? Surely, as the world stumbles to emerge from the greatest health and economic crisis in a century, there are more urgent issues for the Vatican to focus on rather than how God does or doesn't view gay unions.

For Catholic LGBT couples and their families, the timing is especially unfortunate. The forced distancing imposed by the pandemic has cut many off from their usual support structures, including their parishes. And now the pope of "building bridges and not walls" has erected another barrier.

Vatican sources suspect Pope Francis was distancing himself from CDF statement on same-sex unions in address

Gerard O’ConnellMarch 21, 2021

Was Pope Francis alluding to the recent statement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that said priests could not give blessings to same-sex unions because “God cannot bless sin,” when he spoke at the Angelus today, March 21? Informed sources in Rome told America they believe he was, but they did not wish to be identified since they were not authorized to comment.

They noted that when commenting on the Gospel of the day, which recounts that some Greeks wanted “to see Jesus,” Pope Francis said many people today also want to see, to meet and to know Jesus, and so “we Christians and our communities” have “the great responsibility” to make this possible by “the witness of a life that is given in service, a life that takes upon itself the style of God: closeness, compassion and tenderness.”

Francis explained that this “means sowing seeds of love, not with fleeting words but through concrete, simple and courageous examples; not with theoretical condemnations but with gestures of love.” He added that “then the Lord, with his grace, makes us bear fruit, even when the soil is dry due to misunderstandings, difficulty or persecution or claims of legalism or clerical moralism. This is barren soil. Precisely then, in trials and in solitude, while the seed is dying, that is the moment in which life blossoms, to bear ripe fruit in due time.”

He said that “it is in this intertwining of death and life that we can experience the joy and true fruitfulness of love, which always, I repeat, is given in God’s style: closeness, compassion, tenderness.”

According to three sources, it was significant that Francis called on Christians and the church to give witness to Jesus “not with theoretical condemnations but with gestures of love” and that he speaks about “misunderstandings, difficulty or persecution or claims of legalism or clerical moralism” as “barren soil.” They noted that many people had read the C.D.F. document as judgmental or condemnatory and saw it as marked by much “legalism and clericalism,” far from the pastoral spirit of Francis, even though the document also had positive aspects. The sources suggested that with his remarks today, Pope Francis appeared to be distancing himself to some extent from the C.D.F. statement—to which he gave “assent to its publication” before his visit to Iraq.

One senior Vatican source, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said, “the three words—‘closeness, compassion, tenderness’—that Pope Francis repeats speak to the heart of every father and mother, of every spiritual father and mother.” He said, “They are the true blessing of the church and its shepherd for every person, for every situation.” Moreover, he added, “They are the true measure of the very magisterium [i.e., the teaching authority of the Church] when it enlightens consciences and guides the faithful. Every ‘responsum’ [i.e., official magisterial answer] and the doctrine in which it is couched should rise to that measure.”

Given the controversy that has followed the publication of the C.D.F. statement, sources in Rome told America they would not be surprised if the pope were to return to the whole question more explicitly at some future date.

Full Text of the Angelus Address

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Buongiorno!

On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, the liturgy proclaims the Gospel in which Saint John refers to an episode that occurred in the final days of Christ’s life, shortly before the Passion (cf. Jn 12:20-33). While Jesus was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, several Greeks, curious because of what he had been doing, express the wish to see him. They approach the apostle Philip and say to him: “We wish to see Jesus” (v. 21). “We wish to see Jesus”. Let us remember this: “We wish to see Jesus”. Philip tells Andrew and then together they report it to the Teacher. In the request of those Greeks we can glimpse the request that many men and women, of every place and every time, pose to the Church and also to each one of us: “We wish to see Jesus”.

And how does Jesus respond to that request? In a way that makes us think. He says: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified…. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (vv. 23-24). These words do not seem to respond to the request those Greeks made. In reality, they surpass it. In fact, Jesus reveals that for every man and woman who wants to find him, He is the hidden seed ready to die in order to bear much fruit. As if to say: if you wish to know me, if you wish to understand me, look at the grain of wheat that dies in soil, that is, look at the cross.

The sign of the Cross comes to mind, which over the centuries has become the symbol par excellence of Christians. Even today, those who wish to “see Jesus”, perhaps coming from countries and cultures where Christianity is not well-known, what do they see first? What is the most common sign they encounter? The Crucifix, the Cross. In churches, in the homes of Christians, even worn on their persons. The important thing is that the sign be consistent with the Gospel: the cross cannot but express love, service, unreserved self-giving: only in this way is it truly the “tree of life”, of overabundant life.

Today too, many people, often without saying so, implicitly would like to “see Jesus”, to meet him, to know him. This is how we understand the great responsibility we Christians and of our communities have. We too must respond with the witness of a life that is given in service,  a life that takes upon itself the style of God – closeness, compassion and tenderness – and is given in service. It means sowing seeds of love, not with fleeting words but through concrete, simple and courageous examples, not with theoretical condemnations, but with gestures of love. Then the Lord, with his grace, makes us bear fruit, even when the soil is dry due to misunderstandings, difficulty or persecution, or claims of legalism or clerical moralism. This is barren soil. Precisely then, in trials and in solitude, while the seed is dying, that is the moment in which life blossoms, to bear ripe fruit in due time. It is in this intertwining of death and life that we can experience the joy and true fruitfulness of love, which always, I repeat, is given in God’s style: closeness, compassion, tenderness.