Stagecoach weekend: Will Beyonce play?

"Backwoods Barbie" 7:00 pm with Diplo

MUSIC DETAILS: Stagecoach (stagecoachfestival.com) SET TIMES

Stagecoach goes Black? It's not just "Backwoods Barbie." There are a few other historically traumatized chattel slaves from America's dark and soon to be forgotten past. Not least of which is Wiz Khalifa. Whoever Diplo brings out as a special guest is bound to be good.

Diplo brings EDM vibe to country music fans, who are seduced by the Devil's music like that time:

I've always been a simple country girl on my chrome pony. Y'all just didn't know it. Crown me!

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Will the Queen make an appearance?

(Stagecoach) Every year, after two wild weekends in the desert outside Los Angeles and Orange Counties, there's a mild festival for people who wear Stimson hats for fashion.

• Stagecoach 2024: Is Backwoods Barbie actually Beyonce? Mysterious act has fans speculating

Some of them may have milked cows, but usually not on a farm. Bring yer high heel boots, designer jeans, and line dance to...Queen B?

She's like the Queen of Heaven, a Holy Mother for us all, like Black Jesus of North Africa

We worship the Devil. We do it for fame and $$$

Maybe. She's the Number One "country music" star in the country. Not since gay Lil Nas X has the country music world been so torn by popular music.

Beyonce is a country music icon who isn't country ("Cowboy Carter" my behind), an RnB singer-rapper like her baby daddy, a hip hopper who can really dance, a Black pop idol, a dark skin version of beloved Taylor "Nazi Barbie" Swift, and a secret member of the Illuminati.

• Illuminati in pop music culture (Coast to Coast AM, 4/26/24)

Obey your Master. He says worship this gal.

She's tied to a sinister cabal of devil worshippers and Luciferians like her bisexual husband Jay-Z and his gay parttime lover accused child molester Sean P Diddy Combs, the Black Jeffrey Epstein with a mansion in Beverly Hills instead of an island. (Watch them kiss).

But the Illuminati controls the music industry, not country music fans. You'll take what you're given, and you'll like it! Here's the next country music sensation singing a post-love song to his ex-girlfriend: Thomas Mac music video short. (See above).

• More: stagecoachfestival.com
• Amazing lineup: stagecoachfestival.com
• Stagecoach (stagecoach.com), 4/26/24; Diplo 2023; Primus "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

Giant tree begins to "'talk" to science

California has the world's biggest (General Sherman) and tallest trees (secret redwoods).

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Nature is strange. Just when you think...

We can now hear one of the largest and most ancient living organisms on Earth whisper with the tremble of a million leaves echoing through its roots.

The forest made of a single giant tree known as PANDO (Latin for "I spread") has 47,000 stems (all with the same DNA) sprouting from a shared root system over 100 acres (40 hectares) of Utah, USA.

Here, this lone male quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) gradually grew into a massive 6,000 metric tons of life.

Do the California elders have something to say?

After possibly 12,000 years of life on Earth, this massive plant, whose tree-like stems tower up to 80 feet (24 meters), surely has plenty to say.

And recordings released this year let us "hear" it like never before.

"The findings are tantalizing," Lance Oditt, founder of Friends of Pando, said when the project was unveiled in May.

"While it started as art, we see enormous potential for use in science. Wind, converted to vibration (sound) and traveling the root system, could also reveal the inner workings of Pando's vast hidden hydraulic system in a non-destructive manner."

Sound artist Jeff Rice experimentally placed a hydrophone inside a hollow at the base of a branch and threaded it down to the tree's roots, not expecting to hear much.

"Hydrophones don't just need water to work," Rice said (acoustics.org/listening-to-the-largest-tree-on-earth...). "They can pick up vibrations from surfaces like roots as well, and when I put on my headphones, I was instantly surprised. Something was happening. There was a faint sound."

Amid a thunderstorm, that sound increased – as the device captured an eerie low rumbling (ecosystemsound.com).

"What you're hearing, I think, is the sound of millions of leaves in the forest, vibrating the tree and passing down through the branches, down into the earth," Rice explained when he presented his recordings to the 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, as reported by The Guardian.

The hydrophone also captured the thumps from tapping on a branch 90 feet away, even though that sound was not audible through the air at that distance.

The massive tree Pando in Utah, green aerial outline of forest "creature" (ScienceAlert/MSN)

Pando in the fall, Fishlake National Forest, Utah

This supports the theory that Pando's root system is interconnected, but a proper experimental setup would be required to confirm the sound wasn't traveling through the soil.

Such shared root systems are common in colonial quaking aspens, but the size and age of Pando make it unique. While quaking aspens can reproduce through seeds, they seldom grow from them as pollination is rare since large aspen stands are usually only one sex, being clones of the same individual.

Friends of Pando invited Rice as an artist in residence to try and better understand this strange, enormous entity.

Oditt hopes to use sound to map Pando's tangle of roots. "The sounds are beautiful and interesting, but from a practical standpoint, natural sounds can be used to document the health of an environment," said Rice.

"They are a record of the local biodiversity, and they provide a baseline that can be measured against environmental change."

Rice also recorded Pando's leaves, bark, and the surrounding ecosystem.

"Friends of Pando plans to use the data gathered as the basis for additional studies on water movement, how branch arrays are related to one another, insect colonies, and root depth, all of which we know little about today," said Oditt.

When a tree spirit speaks to science, it uses a mic

Sadly, this magnificent tree is deteriorating, leaving researchers concerned that Pando's days and all the forest life it supports are numbered.

Human activities, including clearing and slaughtering predators [because, you know, relocating them would be just too much trouble] that keep down herbivore numbers, eat away at this ancient being.

This is all the more reason to listen to "The Trembling Giant" while it can still share its secrets. The recordings were presented at the 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.

An earlier version of this article was published in May 2023. More

In Buddhism, trees can talk?

The Buddha was a figurative giant among men

Buddhism is for the trees, for it began as a forest tradition, as the Scythian (Gandharan) wandering ascetic Siddhartha Gautama set forth from his kingdom, which he renounced. He headed East towards proto-India, to the kingdom of Magadha. He lived in forests there, until he set off deeper into the woods with five companions on a quest for enlightenment.

It didn't work. He was going about it all wrong, doing penance, extreme austerities (tapas), and engaging in self-mortification of nearly fasting to death.

One day, after so much exertion and a sense of urgency to find the Truth and so littler nourishment, he keeled over dead. At least the forest spirits, the bhumi devas, thought he was dead. One fairy said to another, "He's dead." The other corrected the first, "No, this is just how these yogis behave." 

"Are you sure he's alright? It looks like he starved to death," one spirit said to the other, who answered, "Let's pour our deva food (shining one's light body nourishment) into his pores."

"No," Siddhartha declined, thinking that it would be a form of lying to go around as if he were fasting when in fact the devas were feeding him. So the future Buddha got up and went to another tree to continue his spiritual efforts.

Siddhartha shriveled and was withering away with tapas

This massive shade provider was an old sal tree. But weak and malnourished, he could not compose and still his mind to gain samadhi.

A woman came by with food as an offering to the old tree, and she was amazed at the sight of this grizzled, wizened, ana withered shell of a handsome man now appearing in front of the tree. "It's the tree spirit (dryad) manifesting to receive this offering!" she said as she ran back to her mistress Sujata.

Sujata could hardly believe what her maid was telling her, so she went to the tree to see for herself. And there the tree spirit (the future Buddha) was just like the maid had been saying.

Sujata saved the future Buddha by sharing food.

With her own hand, she made the offering, and Siddhartha ate, realizing that it had been foolish to punish the body for the mind's doing. This body could be a vehicle to enlightenment rather than always being seen as an obstacle to spirituality.

The women nursed him back to health at home, disgusting he fellow celibates, his five companions. They abandoned him. Soon, he was well again, and he set off further into the forest, into an awe-inspiring grove that later became famous as Enlightenment Grove (Bodh Gaya). Here the Buddha searched for a tree and found a massive, spreading source of shade and fruit.

Sujata is the heroine of the story, told here carved in stone on Borobudur Temple wall, Java.

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Fasting is very good, but severe austerities are not.

He sat under this tree, the oldest documented tree in the world (surviving on an island on the tip of modern India in Sri Lanka, born of a cutting from the original and restored to what is thought to be the same spot, next to a reassembled Maha Bodhi Vihara ("Great Awakening Temple") in the modern state of Bihar (Vihar'), India, so named because it once had so many viharas (Buddhist abbeys) dotting the land that one would have thought the whole state one massive Buddhist temple complex.

Under this tree, his Bo tree, Siddharta had a great awakening and came to be called the "Awakened One" or in the ancient language of Magadhi (Pali), a widely spoken form of Sanskrit, the Buddha.

Forty-five years later, when it came time that he decided to recline into final nirvana and pass away, making an end of all rebirth and suffering, he chose twin sal trees growing in the boondocks, in a place now called Kushinagar near Gorakhpur, India, close to the border of Nepal.

During his life, the Buddha gave many amazing and profound teachings, but one in particular is striking. He once told the tale of an old grove of trees, where an ancient elder stood. One day a soft creeping vine fell at its feet and began to grow, embracing its trunk as it moved its way up to the canopy.

Thai Buddhist temple mural of Sujata's dana

The dryad, the spirit of that tree, delighted in the soft touch of the vine as it spread upward. Coming to know of this, an assembly of spirits formed a line and began to pay their respects to the tree as if it were in hospice care preparing to die.

The magnificent old tree was offended and asked why the other tree spirits were speaking to it this way. They revealed what the old tree had not yet realized: It was doomed. This "soft creeper" was no friend, no delicate female hand delightful to the touch the way it seemed.

It was, in fact, his doom, attached to him parasitically, aiming to exploit his magnificence in the grove and, rather than delighting in its soft touch as it spread, the old tree would be wiser to see it for what it was: an attachment clinging to him to his detriment. The wise old tree realized it and eventually died.

Did a tree speak? Did a grove of trees have this conversation or was the Buddha merely using a simile to powerfully illustrate how the things we as humans and devas thoughtlessly delight in bring us to ruin? We prefer to think both.

• Tessa Koumoundouros, "Haunting sounds made by world's largest living thing recorded" (sciencealert.com via MSN.com); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

SUTRA: When the trees talk (MN 45)

The great Isaline Blew Horner, an early British translator of Buddhist sutras, originally translated this discourse from the Pali canon. It is updated here into modern English in a vernacular that Americans might find easier to understand.

45. The Lesser Discourse on the (Ways of) Undertaking Dhamma

British translator I.B. Horner

Thus have I heard: At one time the Buddha was staying near the City of Sāvatthī in Jeta's Forest Grove in the billionaire's monastery.

There he addressed the wandering ascetics, saying: “Meditators!” “Revered one,” they answered. The Buddha taught:

“Meditators, these four are (ways of) undertaking this Teaching (the Dharma). What are the four? There is, meditators, the undertaking of

1. Dharma that is happiness in the present but results in suffering in the future
2. Dharma that is both suffering in the present and results in suffering in the future
3. Dharma that is suffering in the present but results in happiness in the future
4. Dharma that is both happiness in the present and results in happiness in the future.

Female wanderers are hot with their long hair

“What, meditators, is the first? There are some ascetics and priests (shramanas and brahmanas) who speak like this and hold these views: ‘There is nothing wrong with sense pleasures.’

“They indulge in sense pleasures; they gratify themselves with female wanderers (sadhvis) who tie their hair into pretty topknots; they speak like this:

Sadhvis are so very pretty!

“‘How can these worthy ascetics and priests, seeing some future danger in sense pleasures, speak of letting go of sense pleasures, lay down a full knowledge of sense pleasures?’

“Saying, ‘Happiness is in the young, soft, and downy arms of this female wanderer,’ they indulge in sense pleasures.

“They, having indulged in sense pleasures, at the breaking up of the body after dying, arise in a sorrowful state, an unfortunate rebirth, an abyss, even in hell (niraya).

Sadhvi Saraswati-ji

“Here they experience painful feelings that are sharp and excruciating. They say, ‘These worthy ascetics and priests, seeing future danger in sense pleasures, speak of letting go of sense pleasures and lay down a full knowledge of sense pleasures.’

“‘But we, because of sense pleasures, now experience painful feelings that are sharp and excruciating, their cause being sense pleasures.’

“Meditators, it is as if in the last month of the hot season, a creeper's seedpod burst and a seed of the vine known as a creeper, meditators, were to fall at the root of a sāl tree.

“Then, meditators, the spirit (devatā, dryad) residing in that sāl tree, being afraid and agitated, might start trembling.

“Then, meditators, the friends and acquaintances, the kith and kin, of that spirit who resides in that sāl tree -- spirits of parks, groves, trees, those residing in medicinal herbs, grasses, and woods -- gathering together and assembling might give comfort to that sal tree in this way:

A worker in the wood might remove a vine seed.

“‘Do not be afraid, revered one! Do not be afraid, revered one! For a peacock might swallow this creeper's seed, or a deer might chew it, or a forest fire might burn it up, or workers in the wood might remove it, or white ants might eat it, or it might never sprout.’

“But, meditators, if neither a peacock should swallow this creeper vine's seed, nor a deer eat it, nor a forest fire burn it up, nor workers in the wood remove it, nor white ants eat it, it might sprout.

The monsoon rains may come to water the land.

“Rained on by the monsoon clouds, it might grow quickly, and a young, soft, and downy creeper, clinging to it might take hold of that old sāl tree.

“Then, meditators, it might occur to the spirit residing in that sāl tree: ‘Why then did these worthy friends and acquaintances, my kith and kin -- spirits of parks, groves, trees, those residing in medicinal herbs, grasses, and woods, seeing future danger in this creeper's seed -- gathering together and assembling, utter these comforting words:

You like that, huh, Red, my soft embrace?

“‘Do not be afraid, revered one! Do not be afraid, revered one! For a peacock might swallow this creeper vine's seed, or a deer might eat it, or a forest fire might burn it up, or workers in the wood might remove it, or white ants might eat it, or it might not sprout’? Pleasant is the touch of this young, soft, downy, and clinging creeper.’

The vine gets carried away and takes over.

“It might cover that sāl tree. And doing so, it might form a canopy above it. It might produce dense overgrowth. Producing dense overgrowth, it might strangle every branch of that great sāl tree.

“Then, meditators, it might occur to the dryad (devatā) residing in that sāl tree: ‘It was because of seeing this future danger in the creeper's seed that those worthy friends and acquaintances, my kith and kin -- spirits of parks, groves, trees, those residing in medicinal herbs, grasses, and woods, seeing future danger in this creeper's seed -- gathering together and assembling, utter these comforting words:

I'll cling to him and he'll be all mine.

“‘Do not be afraid, revered one! Do not be afraid, revered one! For a peacock might swallow this creeper's seed, or a deer might eat it, or a forest fire might burn it up, or workers in the wood might remove it, or white ants might eat it, or it might not sprout.’ For I, because of this creeper's seed, am experiencing painful, sharp, excruciating feelings.’

“Even so, meditators, there are some worthy ascetics and priests who speak this way and hold these views:

There's nothing wrong with sense pleasures.

“‘There is nothing wrong with sense pleasures.’ They, indulging in sense pleasures, at the breaking up of the body after dying, reappear in a sorrowful state, an unfortunate rebirth, an abyss, even in a hell (niraya).

“Here they experience painful feelings that are sharp and excruciating. They say, ‘These worthy ascetics and priests, seeing danger in sense pleasures, speak of letting go of sense pleasures and display a full knowledge of sense pleasures.’

“‘But we, because of sense pleasures, experience painful feelings that are sharp and excruciating, their cause being sense pleasures.’

“This, meditators, is called the undertaking of Dharma that is happiness in the present that results in suffering in the future.” More

• Scientists unveil missing law of nature in landmark discovery
• Sadhvi Siddhali Shree, Jain nun, veteran, film maker
• I.B. Horner (trans.), MN 45 (suttacentral.net); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Trump: The Don Poop'on; Colin Jost comedy

Comedian Colin Jost delivers remarks at White House Correspondents’ Dinner

(ABC News) April 27, 2024: Jost, the “SNL" Weekend Update co-host, shared jokes roasting President Genocide Joe Biden, presumptive GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, and news organizations at the annual dinner in Washington, D.C.

• Ancient DNA from a 25,000-year-old pendant reveals intriguing details about its wearer
• Fox News crushes top two competitors combined as CNN hits all-time low
• This all-female village is changing women's lives with fresh starts across the nation

The Lincoln Project releases devastating ad that reduces Trump to tears

A lot of people tell me they like this guy.

(Democratic Insider) April 27, 2024: The Lincoln Project prompted Trump to make a shocking statement. Steve Schmidt mocked the situation, which proved that Trump-weary Republicans are right to be sick of him in a video dedicated to him. Trump is in a jawbreaker of a situation. By crying "witch hunt," he's only making more money out of misled Republicans. Of course, Biden is no better. Genocide Joe may be far worse. But who can say Trump is the solution? Surely, some Republican rubes say so. It would be better to vote RFK, which people won't because no one wants to risk Trump and his literal adult diapers getting anywhere near the gold lined toilets of the Oval Office again. He has soiled enough pants there, and the White House deserves better than the stench of his fast food feces. See Noel Casler's testimony and claims that Trump is incontinent and unhinged, but greedy and narcissistic. He will not stop, no matter what the courts conclude. Down with the Democratic party, and take the Republicans with you.

Republican rapper Kanye West to do porn after opening Christian school

It's Spy vs. Spy because voting for (the lesser) evil is still voting for evil.

⚠️ Disclaimers • Images and videos are intended for comedic purposes only and should not be interpreted as factual news reporting. Comedy satire TV-MA Viewer discretion is advised. All commentary is alleged. • Content presents information as theories and internet findings, not established truths. It includes content broadcasted by news outlets and journalists. • Democratic Insider does not endorse or promote any illegal, harmful, or violent actions discussed in this video. The content is for educational purposes, criticism, comment, and parody. • Democratic Insider does not aim to discredit or defame any mentioned individuals.

⚠️ Copyright Disclaimers • This uses images and content in line with the YouTube Fair Use copyright guidelines. • This video may contain copyrighted video clips, pictures, or photographs. While not specifically authorized by the copyright holder(s), makers believe their use is protected by federal law and the fair use doctrine for one or more of the reasons noted in the Act below. • According to Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act: “Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.”

• ABC News, April 28, 2024; Democratic Insider; Jimmy Kimmel Live, April 25, 2024; Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Homeless freeway mansions of Los Angeles

The solution to homelessness could be easy and inexpensive rather than a bureaucratic mess.

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Not all 'homeless' are alike on the streets of LA

What will become of the people in Los Angeles who are priced out of the housing market and oftentimes strung out on drugs? Even if they are detoxed and recover from addiction, what does the city and county plan to do with the billions devoted to solving the system problem? New stories like this only highlight what every Angeleno knows is going on under every freeway overpass and most sidewalks in plain sight.

Riverside properties along the 110 Freeway in Highland Park are a nuisance to nearly no one.

There may be tiny homes nearby, but they are run like a prison and people do not want that.

• 

  If only the inside were clean

  Homeless families say they have "no choice" but to take up space next to dangerous freeways because they can't find housing or jobs.
• Some of the unhoused have taken creative measures to bring creature comforts to their tiny shanty homes.
• The freeway families say they "look out for one other" and have built their own tiny community.
• Caesar Duarte didn't flinch as an Amazon truck barreled down the busy 110 Freeway in Los Angeles, missing his makeshift home by just a few feet.

I want to go off grid and live in peace

The only thing that stood between Duarte's outdoor kitchen and speeding vehicles was a three-foot retaining wall and metal fencing. 

The 44-year-old mechanic and house painter said he has learned to deal with the danger and noise since he erected his homestead by the freeway about four years ago.

With all new materials, a home like this might only cost $40K to build and place on a foundation

Is there any hope for a future of modular homes with A/C and protection from rain and sun?

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Could there be a double wide mansion on wheels?

"It doesn't bother me, and also I have no choice," Duarte told DailyMail.com. "Everything is too expensive. Rent is too expensive, and right now it's hard to find jobs.

"We are struggling like everyone here. We don't have any problems with anyone, and we don't make problems with anyone. The neighbors, we take care of one another."

Is there a homeless crime problem? Yes

• More + PHOTOS: Inside LA's ramshackle city built on the side of a busy freeway
• ‘I’m a builder by day then go home to my squat’
• A better tiny home: Abodu Quiz

What's the tiniest "home" possible? LA's plan for "tiny tent" housing

With more than $100 million to spend, Mayor Karen Bass and LA County should be able to afford at least 800 "tiny tents," according to Fishbone and Crab in the Morning on 95.5 FM (j/k).

If they don't like their tiny tents, we have ways to convince or house them in our jails - LAPD

• Hike along California coast on popular beachside trail
• 1 in 3 young women identify as LGBTQ+ reveals study
• 20 states with the highest LGBTQ+ population percentage
• 19 ways gender disparity negatively impacts men
• 21 reasons Americans are less tactile than rest of world
• 1 US dollar = 156.0400 Japanese yen
• 60 year-old breaks stereotypes as she is crowned Miss Universe Buenos Aires
• Selena Gomez says unrealistic beauty standards make her “sad for my generation”
• REVEALED: The Midwestern city where Americans can still make a killing on property after prices surged 52% in a year, with plentiful skilled jobs, cute streets, and lush greenery fueling country's hottest property market | Daily Mail Online
• Daily Mail (mailonline.co.uk) via MSN, 4/25/24; Crystal Q., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly LIVE from Highland Park, along the Arroyo Mojado (LA River tributary)