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Semiotics and the Rational Human Mind Set …

John W. Cox, M.A. C/M — 7-6-25

Semiotics’ or a working Semiotician, is a method or technique in finding meaning, in our Universe, Nature, and within our own heart and soul.  Objects’, shapes, and universal rhythms, and our search for meaning becomes ongoing, and when those of us who love Nature, find Semiotics, or life as what we refer to as a Semiotician, look forward to awaking into many tomorrows, and the days that follow them.  As long as there is a thirst for life, and it survives our tumultuous and ongoing historical events of today, signs within Nature, and life actually, remain of value.  I have given to you, over the past few years, my objectivity, and narrative of the things that “come together” and tell us, through meanings of many sorts, combined themes and descent paradigms, Perhaps piecing them together, as in a jigsaw puzzle, and “Bang” – the meanings as obvious as the painting or art picture in a jigsaw puzzle – and vibrates its own energy field, with so much detail . . .

But nothing is as easy in this world, as piecing together this jigsaw puzzle, and the forms of science, as well as the arts, assist me in interpretation.  Only then breaking the forms of Semiotics down to a common, and explainable circumstance of events.  Availability to our learning senses, as well as our curious, and incurable, need for “meaning” and I find the science and Nature, definable within our perceptions of our own human terms used, and digested, then definable as fact.  An oppositional reflex (e.g. ignorance, bias, and bigotry), or what we term a Neo-cortex way of thinking, can only inhabit, unforgivingly, and with some, unknowingly, The gruesome fact is, Nature as being specific and insignificant, often subordinate, to humans and our life on this planet troubling; which, is life threatening to and for Nature – as we see so much of it being common in America today.

How long can we keep life secondary to industry, for example, or to bias, bigotry, and ignorance, before we must promote within a mandatory complex of facts, the necessity of Natures lifeforms cohabitates, side-by-side, with human life forms.  But breaking it down further, and we see “shapes” for example, all have recognizable and conclusive body form, in Nature and in Humans – a Universal truth or fact.  Birds, because of what they contribute to other life on this planet, are shaped differently than bugs and insects; but, both contribute positively to life on this planet.  Even more so, predator birds share the fact they have short necks, again, another situation a Neo-cortex way of thinking, compared to intuitive ways of thinking, and suddenly we can read shapes within a truth – or learn from.

We can then go to the “feathers” of birds of prey, where examples abound, easily defined — to become specific.  Evolution shows us, there is a common attribute in the shape and forms of feathers, spread fingers at the wing-tips, of Birds-of-Prey for example, and others don’t.  Very important within a Predator-Prey relationship, and when to acknowledge danger and run, or when a Prey-Animal can calmly eat dinner without stress.

For the Prey-Birds fast recognition is a must-do circumstance.  So they have the ability to recognize short-necked Birds-of-Prey, and to quickly confirm this, the spread finger-tip versions of wing feathers, all within a millisecond.  I am using this within this writing, to demonstrate the difference between Nature and Wildlife and Human’s.  If I was walking a small dog, or a cat chose to walk along side me for awhile; which, if I was considerate enough, or cared enough, would watch the sky, for the intricate shapes of birds flying above us.  I would know when a Bird-of-Prey in the area, flying over, and perhaps even pick the small dog or cat up, and place them in a safe circumstance.  And BTW, yes, Swifts have short necks, but are not Birds-of-Prey, so we look for the wing-span and the feathers, for significance, then making a decision based upon fact, a situation of no significance, because we are holding the cat, or small dog in our arms . . .

So the Neo-cortex is driven by slow thinking, reading and writing, compared to our intuitive way of thinking, which is derived from actual repetition of our experience, development of history, and collusion with Nature’s Evolutionary process. We then have developed a core-element in our survivability complex of rational decision-making circumstances – living within Nature or in the cities.  For example, much safer to walk to the store via a sidewalk, than walk down the middle of a freeway, and not get to the store at all. 

As irrational as we see this comment, it does portray our human cycle of things, when we start looking at, and understanding the role ignorance, bigotry, and bias plays within our necessary relationship with Nature – Our survival placed into jeopardy, due to the obviousness of ignorance, bigotry, and bias, that totally conflicts with Nature and life itself.  Humans are not pertinent to the Survival of Wildlife – Ironically, we are wiping out Wildlife, unnecessarily, at the same time killing ourselves . . .  Why?  Because we need Wildlife, and all of Nature.  Nature does no need us to survive, and will survive long after we wipe ourselves off the face of this planet we live upon.  Say thank you for this, to the first ignorant bigot you see, or walk past. Evolution has given Nature this capacity, as if Mother Nature knows humans are simply here temporarily. Human’s throughout our existence, still need to learn this — perhaps why Nature and Wildlife simply avoid us, always — they know what we never learn, and just as soon not deal with our incapacity to learn, or co-habitat.

Although, Nature has given us the anomaly.  Where we can take patterns, shapes, and size, from our Universe, and figure out the patterns that require our attention.  What I am stating, clearly, is the fact those of us in Nature, daily, see these patterns.  When I discuss things, I have seen for the day, on the trails, for the week, or the month, and give-warning to . . . But remember, I mention the Neo-cortex of our minds are slow to react.  Some will not react at all, due to the formal arrangement, within our Universal Facts, is the development of the Neo-cortex, which is arranged within a complex, basically, of the art of writing and formulating facts as ideas, or paradigms. 

These paradigms, when the Neo-cortex unused, or used not often enough, and here we are today – humans making irrational decisions upon information derived from ignorance, or bias, or bigotry, and all based upon fear.  If you have not seen it, and not read it on the internet, e.g., for you to pause and think about any of this, then take a seat, and wonder just how ignorant you may be.  Is it possible, human’s can no longer think, because of the internet; whereas, rational intuitive thinking has become shunned, replaced with ignorant rants and raves of nonsense, demeaning others, or developing bravado for killing certain species of wildlife, favorable to the majority?  Our very survival is based upon how we, as a culture of humans, develop the answers to this question.” – John Cox, M.A. C/M

 
 

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OUR WILD HORSES, NOW YOU SEE THEM … NOW YOU DON’T

May 2025
Research Report by Kathleen Gregg

Hundreds of our wild horses missing from Flanigan and Fort Sage Herd Management Areas (HMA) appear to have been illegally captured and removed last fall during the 2024 Twin Peaks HMA round up. Due to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lack of transparency, I reviewed and analyzed the data and circumstantial evidence and found the truth.

BLM Population Statistics 2024-2025
HMADateBLM Horse Population #DateBLM Horse Population #Notes
Twin Peaks3/1/20241,1733/1/20258432024 Captured 435 per FOIA*
Flanigan3/1/20245673/1/2025230No Roundup since 2012**
Fort Sage3/1/20245833/1/2025266No Roundup since 1998**
*435 wild horses removed from within the Twin Peaks HMA
**Significant number of horses missing from both the Flanigan and the Fort Sage HMAs

Background:

The BLM is required by law to notify the public of any capture or removal of our wild horses from our public lands. The BLM issues an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Determination of NEPA Adequacy (DNA) to inform the public of any management actions that impact wild horses and burros. In other words, the BLM is not allowed to just roundup and remove our wild horses or burros (WH&B) from legally designated wild horse and burro lands without informing the public and allowing the public to comment or appeal the BLM’s proposed plan or decision. These legally designated WH&B lands are known as Herd Management Areas (HMAs) or Herd Areas (HAs) where wild horses and burros are to be protected by the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act.

In Northeastern California, on the Nevada state line are three HMAs: the Twin Peaks HMA, Flanigan HMA and the Fort Sage HMA. Below is a map showing the nearby relationship of these three HMAs. Flanigan is about one mile south of Twin Peaks and Fort Sage is about 8 miles south of Twin Peaks. This area is mostly in the arid high desert and only partially fenced.

Here is a timeline to help explain:

March 1, 2024 BLM annual published HMA populations.

  • Twin Peaks 1,173 wild horses
  • Flanigan 567 wild horses
  • Fort Sage 434 wild horses

In April of 2024, the BLM issued a DNA that stated they would be removing an additional 870 wild horses from the Twin Peaks HMA based on their 10-year plan.

In October 2024, as a result of a successful legal challenge of the DNA, by Friends of Animals, the BLM was only authorized to roundup a portion of the Twin Peaks HMA, but not the entire HMA as originally planned.

The BLM was only authorized to roundup in only two of the five home ranges, the far north section called the North Observation Home Range, and the South section called the Skedaddle Home Range.

As a result of the court’s decision, the BLM would only be allowed to remove approximately 435 horses from the Twin Peaks HMA instead of the originally proposed removal of 870 wild horses, according to the 2024 population estimates and flight inventory for those two home ranges. However, because the BLMs contract with the Cattoor Livestock Company contract for $205,465 was already agreed upon, removing only 435 horses would not meet the quota for the dollar amount in the contract.

Only after analysis of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) data and the circumstantial evidence, it is obvious that the BLM directed the contractor to capture wild horses outside the Twin Peaks HMA, those horses being from the nearby Flanigan and Fort Sage HMAs.  After reviewing the FOIA documents and BLM online data, 517 wild horses were captured outside the Twin Peaks HMA. The majority of those “outside HMA” horses captured were most likely from the Flanigan and Fort Sage HMAs, which was not a legal roundup or disclosed to the public.

Further analysis shows that it just so happens that the two very near-by HMAs the Flanigan and Fort Sage show a total of 614 missing during that time (March 1, 2024 through March 1, 2025). See population statistics table above again for reference.

  • Flanigan HMA March 1, 2024 population 567, and the March 1, 2025 population 230.
    • This is a loss of 337 wild horses (missing). No legal roundup since 2012
  • Fort Sage HMA March 1, 2024 population was 583, and the March 1, 2025 population was only 266.
    • This is a loss of 317 wild horses (missing). No legal roundup since 1998.

No legal roundup was planned for either the Flanigan or Fort Sage HMAs during that time or any announcement of a roundup that would of notified the public or any public comment period.  The most recent legal roundup for the Flanigan HMA was January 2012 and the most recent l roundup of the Fort Sage HMA was in September 1998. Therefore, there should not have been any large loss of wild horses during 2024. The population data says otherwise.

BLM did provide a trap site map showing the trap sites outside the Twin Peaks HMA were to the south of Twin Peaks within a short distance from both the Flanigan and the Fort Sage HMAs. Knowing that the trap sites were only a few miles from the Flanigan and Fort Sage HMAs and using the BLM published 2024 and 2025 wild horse population figures documenting 337 wild horses missing from the Flanigan HMA and 317 wild horses missing  from the Fort Sage HMA between March 1, 2024 and March 1, 2025 HMA, with no roundup, it appears that many of the 634 missing wild horses were illegally captured and removed from the Flanigan and Fort Sage HMAs under the disguise as part of the 2024 Twin Peaks HMA roundup.

So my question is: DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?

REFERENCES:
2024 BLM Wild Horse and Burro Population Estimates

2025 Wild Horse and Burro Population Estimates

2024 Twin Peaks Herd Management Area Wild Horse and Burro Gather | Bureau of Land Management

CONTRACT to CATTOOR LIVESTOCK ROUNDUP, INC | USAspending

FOIA DOI-2025-001326

BLM Natl Wild Horse and Burro Herd Area Polygons | BLM GBP Hub

 
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Posted by on May 27, 2025 in Uncategorized

 

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