Chimneys of the Palau Güell, #Barcelona

#TravelThursday #photography #architecture #Gaudí #Catalonia #Spain

People who characterize DOGE as having failed in its mission startle me.

Of course, that mission wasn't what the thoroughly and repeatedly documented straight-faced liars said it was, so I suppose there's room for some naïve folks to think that.

The mission -- "destroy one of the most successful governments in the history of the world as much as possible as quickly as possible while creating maximum chaos and taking a profit" -- was a stunning success.

Pretty harsh conditions for birds out here today. There are four Lapwing holding territory, down from 6 a few days ago. One male, who is bowing and scraping on a mole hill, has a female close by.

Two rose up to mob a female hen harrier that crossed quickly from east to west, also putting up some wood pigeon from the Scots pine.

A snipe flew erratically, drumming. There are three geese with two curlew probing the wet ground. How they survive in these conditions is amazing. #Birds #Teesdale

The 'Rojava experiment' emerged from the Syrian Revolution as a political program to reorganize society according to the explicitly feminist and ecological concepts of democratic confederalism.

Rojava now faces total extinction in post-war Syria.

https://unicornriot.ninja/2026/rojava-pushed-to-the-brink-as-syrian-government-advances/

Hey All - yeah everything sucks but I have an easy actionable thing to channel your rage!
⚠️ The US Forest Service is proposing to rescind the Roadless Rule. Created 25 years ago, this rule protects millions of acres from unnecessary roadbuilding and harmful industrial development.

✅ What to Do: Send your Congress people a letter, email, fax, call them, to ask them to keep the Roadless Rule.

There is an automated letter here you can electronically submit that Southern Environmental Law put together: https://act.selc.org/page/90991

Free fax contact info of all reps by state: https://faxzero.com/fax_congress.php

If this sounds familiar, it is because I posted about it last year when this first came out. *It is still being fought!* So please, speak up again, speak up now. You can also ask them to pass HR3930 while you are at it: "Roadless Area Conservation Act".

ETA some facts if you write your own:
- Protects over 50 million acres
- brings in $15 billion to local economies for recreation alone
- This site has a nice filter for your state (and even district specific!) https://www.eartheconomics.org/news/roadless-rules
- 99% of the 6,000+ comments were in favor of keeping the Roadless Rule
- poll datasheet from PEW https://www.pew.org/-/media/assets/2026/02/national-poll-on-roadless-rule.pdf
- The Roadless Act would be actual codified *law* that the forest service couldn't override, which is why this is good to also ask for (otherwise, yes it is essentially the same thing as the Roadless Rule)

#RoadlessRule #nps #nfs #Forest #forestry #nature #environment #hike #hiking #ecology #climate