45

Frothing in the fast lane

Sylvia Shawcross

Some days the world will make you spitting mad. This naturally brings us to the little understood but seriously important Philaenus spumarius aka the meadow spittlebug or froghopper. Bugs, of course, being the only thing we can talk about really without screaming literally or metaphorically at each other or without being censored into oblivion by the internet gods.

Now those of us who have spent time in the now alternate reality where things like trees and grass and burdocks exist to the point where we can actually touch them rather than “experience” them in the virtual world know all about the spittlebug. In the virtual world most have not seen a spittlebug because spittlebugs are not pretty and rather boring and cannot be found in fabricated meadows where everything is light and ridiculous and hardly worth our time but mesmerizing just the same.

The Philaenus spumarius expel fluid excretions that mix with air to create spit-like froth on plants, much like the frothing and foaming that Macron must be doing as he fumes over his country’s mass protests. The spittlebug knows no such emotional turmoil and simply throws its bubbles up over its back to protect itself from predators and the like. Some might liken that to the authorities in many many many many countries of the world now experiencing social unrest and their use of foam hoses on fires and sometimes protestors. A useful but actually pointless comparison.

The froth also provides the growing nymphs insulation, particularly in countries where there is no oil or gas because of warmongering geopolitics. It is also useful moisture protection against withering up into a husk much like Soros and Biden and Kissinger and one or more Rothchilds. Some believe that this spittle might in fact be a useful anti-aging cream one day however the number of Philanus spumarius is threatened by the growing popularity of eating insects and such anti-aging cream manufacturing enterprises may be difficult to engineer. Unless you are able to apply for a government grant arguing that looking old is not “woke” and is an affront to the sensibilities of the meal moth eating minorities.

The maneuver of throwing bubbles over its back is not as painful and contortionistic as it may sound because it is a common misconception that spittlebugs are spitting. In truth the froth is in fact expelled from their arse rather than their tiny little bug mouths. This way the flinging of the spittle is a much easier proposition than we realized and is also cause for many to cringe at the thought of spittle on their ankles as they make their way through the fields, unless of course they are “into” frothy fantasies or something… well… never mind all that.

The important thing to understand here is the bubbles always seem to protect the backs of the bubble-makers—as we well know. It was in fact the spittlebug that inspired financial and governmental entities worldwide to use such shenanigans to cover “their” backs. The now alternate reality for them in their elite bubble world is to enrich themselves and destroy people’s lives in general. We cannot blame the spittlebug for this however.

One of the odd things about the spittlebug is that it eats part of the plant sap that is not usually relished by insects. It prefers the part of the sap that is much less nutritious much like the investors in the latest war. Because they have chosen to eat the lesser sap, they must provide huge amounts of it in order to survive, hence the huge amount of froth and mayhem and military equipment.

The spittlebug is prolific at producing bubbles, up to 80 bubbles a minute on a good day or when fuelled up on cocaine. The sad sad thing about spittlebugs who are well aware of their existence from egg to nymph to froghopper is that they have not yet grasped their ability to identify as a flying insect. Although they have been equipped with wings, they just hop like little politicians avoiding answering questions at press conferences. The similarities between the two have not yet been studied scientifically and are simply speculative by observation at this point.

The tides of change have not been easy for the spittlebugs who were never really popular to begin with. It is important to give the spittlebug room to pump bubbles out of its derrierre and not try and wash it off your strawberry plants. Even the spittlebug has a right to some happiness in this life. And it is, after all, here to remind us that it is all about the bubbles. Those that are made, blown, popped and/or lived in.

Those who wish to contribute to my new foundation called “Fly Spittlebug Fly” may do so. We hope to have the spittlebugs self-identify as the dragonflies they are at heart.

Here’s an earworm that is called Spittle. I don’t know what the guy is raving about but isn’t it a catchy tune! (I was going to go with one called Circus and Spittle but that one genuinely scared me.)

Favorite quote provided by niko on my last piece because it deserves the sunlight.

Why do we need to be pardoned? What are we to be pardoned for?

For not dying of hunger? For not accepting humbly the historic burden of disdain and abandonment? For having risen up in arms after we found all other paths closed? For not heeding the Chiapas penal code, one of the most absurd and repressive in history? For showing the rest of the country and the whole world that human dignity still exists even among the world’s poorest peoples? For having made careful preparations before we began our uprising? For bringing guns to battle instead of bows and arrows? For being Mexicans? For being mainly indigenous? For calling on the Mexican people to fight by whatever means possible for what belongs to them? For fighting for liberty, democracy and justice? For not following the example of previous guerrilla armies? For refusing to surrender? For refusing to sell ourselves out?

Who should we ask for pardon, and who can grant it?

Those who for many years glutted themselves at a table of plenty while we sat with death so often, we finally stopped fearing it? Those who filled our pockets and our souls with empty promises and words? Or should we ask pardon from the dead, our dead, who died “natural” deaths of “natural causes” like measles, whooping cough, break-bone fever, cholera, typhus, mononucleosis, tetanus, pneumonia, malaria and other lovely gastrointestinal and pulmonary diseases?

Our dead, so very dead, so democratically dead from sorrow because no one did anything, because the dead, our dead, went just like that, with no one keeping count with no one saying, “Enough!” which would at least have granted some meaning to their deaths, a meaning no one ever sought for them, the dead of all times, who are now dying once again, but now in order to live?

Should we ask pardon from those who deny us the right and capacity to govern ourselves? From those who don’t respect our customs and our culture and who ask us for identification papers and obedience to a law whose existence and moral basis we don’t accept? From those who oppress us, torture us, assassinate us, disappear us from the grave “crime” of wanting a piece of land, not too big and not too small, but just a simple piece of land on which we can grow something to fill our stomachs?

Who should ask for pardon, and who can grant it?

Subcomandante Marcos

Sylvia Shawcross now has a substack. I think. (I’m working on it) I don’t understand the thing because I loathe most technology. If you by any chance understand it or wish to complain bitterly, please send me send me an email.

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Thom Sheaffer
Thom Sheaffer
Apr 1, 2023 1:49 PM

Re. “frothing”, reporter Aaron Mate’ beat you to it. I thought this article was in reference to that. Yeah, he very recently testified at the UN about the frothing from the mouths of supposed Syrian chlorine gas attack victims.

Howard
Howard
Apr 1, 2023 3:21 PM
Reply to  Thom Sheaffer

Back before the current set of problems emerged, reporters like Aaron Mate and Ben Norton were actually a pleasure to listen to. Then when things got ugly, their reporting started getting uglier and uglier. (Keeping pace I guess.)

NixonScraypes
NixonScraypes
Apr 1, 2023 12:32 PM

Cuckoo spit doesn’t turn into frogs and they don’t turn into princes. Professor Klencher’s Unatural History and the Immutable Law of Tedious Facts tells us so.

Rolf Brandt
Rolf Brandt
Apr 1, 2023 10:00 AM

What a brilliant manoeuvre, Syl:  Hiding behind an innocent spittlebug to discuss revolutionary thoughts !   ‘They’ will never find out who is actually inside the protective bubble. You will be safe.

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 1, 2023 12:45 PM
Reply to  Rolf Brandt

Until Canada’s internet censorship law takes effect and then even my bugs are in jeopardy I imagine.

tonyopmoc
tonyopmoc
Apr 1, 2023 4:15 AM

My girl and me socialised a lot -mainly travelling and going to gigs – and eventually decided to get married and have kids after a 5 year road test…So we said Lets do it. She stopped taking the pill. So our youngest when she was 15 years old, her slightly older brother did not want to go only 2 years apart…but knew all the kids – he had his own little tribe when he was 17 -nearly old enough to buy a drink in a pub.. You need to understand that my wife was a childminder – still is. I knew Wembley Stadium, and Arena quite well, but realised I could have only one pint, when my wife gave her ticket to one of our daughter’s friends… It was my job to get all these 15&16 year old kids to see Snow Patrol, and get them home. I will tell… Read more »

tonyopmoc
tonyopmoc
Apr 1, 2023 3:28 AM

Syl, the last person , I could imagine diving was me, cos unlike our kids, we took them swimming from being babies 3 months old. My parents didn’t do that with me, so I am not a natural swimmer. I kick my legs about, but they never do much more than f’ck all…unless I have got my flippers and my mask on. “The froth also provides the growing nymphs insulation” Look, I assume you are female. I have no idea what you look like, but try and see it from my point of view, when I was 15 and a crap swimmer, knowing exactly what I wanted, but too shy to ask her.. My wife does not need Statins – but she is being terrorised by her doctor to take the prescribed drugs – cos her doctor is on a cut…worth?? well the doctor gets paid to prescribe drugs both… Read more »

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 1, 2023 12:50 PM
Reply to  tonyopmoc

I adore your life snapshots Tony. Unique to the world you are.

Johnny
Johnny
Apr 1, 2023 3:09 AM

Nils Udo (Canadian artist):

‘Utopias can be found everywhere in nature. On every leaf, under rocks, in beetle habitats, animal traces in the snow, light on the trees, banks of a creek or a frog’s croak’

Johnny
Johnny
Mar 31, 2023 11:50 PM

Thanks Syl.
You haven’t lived until you’ve heard a Pobblebonk:
https://wildambience.com/wildlife-sounds/eastern-banjo-frog-pobblebonk/

STJOHNOFGRAFTON
STJOHNOFGRAFTON
Apr 1, 2023 2:10 AM
Reply to  Johnny

My favourite frog and one of life’s joys and enhancements. Not so Macron. A noxious, noisy toad.

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 1, 2023 5:15 AM
Reply to  Johnny

Wow! Now there was something worth listening to. I’d give anything to sit by that pond to listen.

Johnny
Johnny
Apr 1, 2023 9:50 AM
Reply to  syl shawcross

Tis a magical experience.

Derek Williams
Derek Williams
Apr 1, 2023 10:45 AM
Reply to  Johnny

Thanks Johnny – made my day!!!!
Beautiful.

rubberheid
rubberheid
Mar 31, 2023 8:13 PM

ach what to say, they give you wet legs in the summer… ; )

did They(CIC) not tell us they’d (froghopperspitbugs) kill us in the GB back during lockdown, just like pine pollen… lol, something like that??

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 1, 2023 5:16 AM
Reply to  rubberheid

I don’t remember but it wouldn’t surprise me.

switchedON
switchedON
Mar 31, 2023 6:33 PM

Unfortunately Trumps fake arrest (again) is more important than your frog fetish.

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 1, 2023 5:18 AM
Reply to  switchedON

Trump trumps most things. 🙂 It was always in the works. The question is why at this point in time. To enrage or distract? I don’t think I have a frog fetish. Maybe I do. Who really cares. 🙂

switchedON
switchedON
Apr 1, 2023 8:27 AM
Reply to  syl shawcross

Is the frog your familiar?
BTW my first comment was a joke the other didn’t get it. you did.
and iseral has massive demonstrations at the moment (strange why the alt media arent mentioning it).

The French videos are everywhere by the usual M.I.C manufactured talking points alt media.
Critics accuse Netanyahu of pushing the legislation in order to get out of corruption trials he is currently facing.

Half a million Israelis join latest protest against Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul, organizers say. The planned change to the country’s justice system would allow Netanyahu’s government—the most right-wing in the history of Israel to take control over the committee which appoints judges and overrules courts’ decisions.

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 1, 2023 12:44 PM
Reply to  switchedON

I’m beginning to find that trying to find out who is behind why something is or isn’t requires more strength than I have these days. There are boogiemen behind every rock and every headline.

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 1, 2023 9:18 PM
Reply to  syl shawcross

boogiepersons

Hemlockfen
Hemlockfen
Mar 31, 2023 6:02 PM

I was excited to find a few spittle bugs inhabiting the weeds lining my long driveway last summer. Queen Anne’s Lace was the host plant. I generally pull that particular weed to minimize it’s existence in that space. After discovering the bug I did not have the heart to pull the weed. They tend to take over in disturbed ground. It will probably be a nightmare this year. Certain times of the year in certain fields you will get soaked by spittle. Waxed chaps are in order for those situations. First hand experience. My ant populations spoil my gravel with their fine soil mounds surrounding their burrow entrances. The weed seeds take advantage of the ants “planting beds”. Keeps me busy pulling them. Eventually young toads (pouring out of the pond) are everywhere devouring the ants. Hog nosed snake neonates (which feed exclusively on toads) are not far behind. A… Read more »

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 1, 2023 5:21 AM
Reply to  Hemlockfen

What a wonderful description of a weed-lined driveway. I bought some book on what to believe or not believe in science by somebody. It hasn’t arrived yet. I figure the planet will do what the planet wants to do and like you believe we’re not as human beings that relevant in terms of stopping it.

Hsuan
Hsuan
Mar 31, 2023 5:18 PM

I’d like to give this post 6 stars. But I can’t.

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 1, 2023 5:21 AM
Reply to  Hsuan

thank you kindly hsuan 🙂

Howard
Howard
Mar 31, 2023 4:51 PM

This is an article so significant that I’m posting it to two separate articles. Since it pertains to amphibians specifically, I think it goes well here. It also goes well with the article on cell phones. It’s not what you’d call a “feel good” article.

“Microwaving our Planet”: The Disappearance of Amphibians Worldwide? – Global ResearchGlobal Research – Centre for Research on Globalization

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 1, 2023 5:22 AM
Reply to  Howard

oh dear heavens Howard… i’m gonna have to wait to read this. I’m in doom overload today. 🙂 TY though.

Howard
Howard
Apr 1, 2023 3:28 PM
Reply to  syl shawcross

I’m sorry. I know I’m like a dark rainy day – which in fact I prefer to a nice sunny day. When I was still a teenager I read about Norway and how gray and dreary it was most of the time. And I thought “Oh my God that’s where I want to live!”

(Maybe I should make an appointment with Todd Hayen?)

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 2, 2023 3:32 AM
Reply to  Howard

No. You’re fine. I’m usually more worried about people who look on the bright side all the time. I’m just concerned about how to process all this in my feeble mind sometimes. It is almost as if you have to pick your injustice and go only with that. I just have a hard time picking.

Levi Tate
Levi Tate
Mar 31, 2023 3:25 PM

NASA researched the idea of frothy bubbles.

Painted on the outside of the shuttle tiles –
a layer, that when hit with the extreme heat of
reentry would froth up. Inside the
bubbles would be a gaseous flame retardant,
nasty but colorful.

There might be a message there, but I’ll need my
first cup of coffee to see it…………

The shuttle would have trailed a streak of orange across the sky,
skywriting a long —————-
It would have been orange, like a Florida man
we all know, leader of the jerk Republicans and the bane of the batshit crazy Democrats.

Frothy bubbles works for a bug, but NASA tabled the idea.

Howard
Howard
Mar 31, 2023 3:55 PM
Reply to  Levi Tate

Now if NASA ever gets around to actually putting a man on the moon, we’ll all get to see if these magic bubbles work. But a word of caution: don’t hold your breath.

Levi Tate
Levi Tate
Mar 31, 2023 8:37 PM
Reply to  Howard

Here are the words of JFK when he first announced the goal:

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of [1] landing a man on the moon and [2] returning him safely to the Earth.”

Someone breathed a sigh of relief when he included part [2].

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 1, 2023 5:24 AM
Reply to  Levi Tate

Now that was brilliant Levi. The imagery and knowledge. TY 🙂

Todd Hayen
Todd Hayen
Mar 31, 2023 2:14 PM

Excellent as usual.

The spittlebug was one of the first of my insect fascinations. I used to be so indescribably happy to find the tiny critter hidden within its fortress of bubbles…I would search out the bubble formations and wipe it all away to invariably find the spittlebug buried in the froth. And what great fun to show my fellow “nature destroying” 8 year old friends my discovery…and then watching the little guy frantically try to blow (well, er, “fart out”) another bubble disguise.

Little kids are totally devoid of empathy…something some people never seem to grow out of.

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 1, 2023 5:25 AM
Reply to  Todd Hayen

TY Todd. We should all be little kids in one respect–wandering and lying about in the grass looking at bugs. That would be an afternoon well spent.

Straight Talk
Straight Talk
Mar 31, 2023 2:02 PM

In order to make this whole medical dictatorship thing run smoothly, the term “dignity” has been narrowly derived from sense of duty rather than selfish, individualistic demand for human rights. Where did this harebrained “spirit of militarism” idea come from that humans must be coerced into uniformity and subjugation as noble acts of decency, that people must be uprooted and cast across oceans, that borders, traditional cultures and national pride must be erased? Look no further:

“…the primary thing is not the rights which the individual can demand from the whole, but the duties which he must fulfill towards it.” Demanding rights is “plebeian taking”, whereas the spirit of militarism is a noble sense of duty…. because war is NEVER about aggressively taking. 

Full text, in German and English:
https://archive.org/stream/spiritofmilitarism-bilingual/spiritofmilitarism-bilingual-linear_djvu.txt

Truthstream Media just released another masterpiece:

A Letter to WEF

Howard
Howard
Mar 31, 2023 4:06 PM
Reply to  Straight Talk

“ God, immortality, duty – how inconceivable the first, how unbelievable the second, how peremptory and absolute the third. ”

I regret that one of my “heroes” – George Eliot – penned this line. There is a long history of this concept of duty, particularly in English literature.

Duty sounds good, when applied in very small doses – as in the family. But we know how quickly societies take up the term and use it to beat their members into submission.

It’s long past time to scrap “Duty” and move on.

Nee
Nee
Mar 31, 2023 7:56 PM
Reply to  Straight Talk

What happened to the original german text? This version is close to unreadable.

Howard
Howard
Mar 31, 2023 1:43 PM

Since you have to know this was coming, let’s get it out of the way here and now so the more serious commenters can enter the forum.

I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles – YouTube

dom irritant
dom irritant
Mar 31, 2023 2:16 PM
Reply to  Howard

i prefer the cockney rejects version

Sean Veeda
Sean Veeda
Mar 31, 2023 4:34 PM
Reply to  Howard

How about the Wham song…

Spittlebug

You put the boom-boom into my heart (ooh-ooh)
You send my soul sky-high
When your blowin’ starts

Howard
Howard
Apr 1, 2023 2:36 AM
Reply to  Sean Veeda

I’m trying to go through the rest of my life pretending Wham never existed.

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 1, 2023 5:28 AM
Reply to  Howard

haha… why are there so many songs about bubbles? It is an interesting question really. What is it in the human psyche? Why am I asking? I’ll be quiet now.

switchedON
switchedON
Apr 1, 2023 6:56 PM
Reply to  syl shawcross

bubbles.. they used that term in the u.k and e.u as in ‘support bubbles’ during covid lockdowns.
in slang a bubble means A foolish, dumb, or ditzy person.
comment image

syl shawcross
syl shawcross
Apr 2, 2023 3:33 AM
Reply to  switchedON

bubbles and bugs everywhere….