caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.

Tuesday morning the camera club had this month's meet-up at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) 
Established in 1931, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is the world’s foremost authority on diamonds, colored stones, and pearls. A public benefit, nonprofit institute, GIA is the leading source of knowledge, standards, and education in gems and jewelry.
 More info about the GIA can be found here, https://www.gia.edu/

Maw Sit-Sit a rare green ornamental stone

The compass is a classic example of a dual invention China provided the world. It opened the opportunity to know the direction one is traveling when sky or landmarks were not available for orientation. For some it opened new opportunities for trade, for others conquest of new territories to rule and for others travel to a new place to call home.

The Invention of the Compass (4.23 min)

Sometimes...

Sometimes people change for the better. Alvaro M. Bedoya, recently on the Federal Trade Commission (appointed by Biden) before being fired by Trump, is an example*. He writes about the things that made him change into a populist and his story is very enlightening.

His appointment as a FTC commissioner (in 2022) was troublesome to begin with, at least in the usual Republican political circles. He had spent his career working on privacy and immigrant rights. It took a vote from Kamala Harris to overcome the 50/50 vote on his appointment. So, he was already controversial.

Here's a quote from the article (see link above) which he wrote about his change which is quite informative:

I used to think that the defining fight for our country was between the left and the right. Now, I am much more worried about the money at the top crushing everyone underneath.

Dear David,

The Democratic Party is a party of the billionaires and war. How else can we explain their decision to force the longest government shutdown in history, with dire consequences for federal public-sector workers and millions of poor people, and gain absolutely NOTHING for us? They held the shutdown just long enough for the 2025 elections to get done, to win some electoral battles against Trump. Then they picked a group of Democratic Senators who are either retiring or are not up for re-election in 2026 to be the ones to vote to allow the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies to expire, which will cause working people's healthcare premiums to skyrocket.

The other day an acquaintance posted a Trump rant on FB that began with the words "I don't get it."

Ever since grade school, those four words have been interchangeble with a desire to understand. It's a student's distress call that they aren't keeping up with the rest of the class.