caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

Looking forward to a future where the subject of an Open Thread is simply a celebration of a few common experiences making life a little simpler. The book Everything You Need to Know You Learned in Kindergarten crossed my path in the early 90's when air travel was part of the regular business week and airport layovers provided ample time for reading. It is one book I have revisited when I begin taking life too seriously.

Happy Friday everyone. As always, post any photos you like.

I spent a few hours at the zoo Wednesday morning. And just like my visit to the Safari Park a few weeks ago none of the large animals were out or were sleeping. Thankfully the smaller critters were good enough to step up and say take my picture.

Now, I fully expect that the conversation today will be dominated by today's confirmation of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade -- but I don't really see a lot of movement on such a matter yet, for reasons I've pointed out before and will point out below.

Update: Roe v. Wade has been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

I was born in the mid 50s. I don't remember much of that decade except maybe at the tail end, let's say '59 or '60. I'm sure I have memories from then but I really can't associate my earliest memories with a time frame. The 60s was when my memories really kicked in.

I was nine years old and going to school in a very rural part of central Illinois, a little farming town named Heyworth. It was a Friday, not long after lunch. There was a lot of commotion going on out in the hallways. Teachers were shuffling around, some were crying, there were loud voices but not quite loud enough to understand what was being said. We classmates looked at each other with quizzical looks on our faces. This was very odd behavior for the adult teaching staff, we had no idea what had just happened.

Found this not-too-astonishing article about the "for profit" healthcare system
here in the land of the burdened, home of the sick. After an accidental ladder mishap,
I found out Medicare does not cover the incidentals. So on the card it goes ..

roughly a quarter of adults (in the US) now owe more than $5000 in health care debt

“…about 1 in 5 with any amount of debt said they don’t expect to ever pay it off.”

The West media has been trying to sell us that Ukraine will win their war with Russia from the very start, yet a plurality of Americans no longer believe it.

This image was plastered all over the internet yesterday. Supposedly the image was taken in Washington, DC. It doesn't look real to me. Why? Read below the fold.