caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

Catching Up isn't Hard to Do

After a week away from the news, I thought it might be a challenge to catch up to the current cycle. I'm reminded of a line from John Prine's "Hello in There"...all the news just seems to repeat itself like some forgotten dream that we've both seen. Russia continues to advance in Ukraine, the Palestinians are still being starved and killed (despite Bibi's denial), Tariffs are being used like sanctions to try to control other countries and impact BRICS+, the US continues to harass Iran and China...the only thing new was the Thai-Cambodia conflict which seems to have calmed down. The US (and global) economy seems to be a ticking time bomb designed to usher in "Stablecoins".

Afternoon folks!

There's a pile of great music this week for you. Starting off we've got some Chicago blues from Lonnie Brooks, followed by some Texas blues from relative unknowns T.D. Bell & Erbie Bowser, they're worth a listen. After that we've got a whole bunch of Louisiana-related music, starting off with Dr. John and Bluesiana Triangle followed by some older New Orleans r&b from Johnny Adams and then some zydeco from Clifton Chenier. Following that we've got some great acoustic rags and blues from Blind Boy Fuller and we finish up with a mostly acoustic album from Catfish Hodge.

Enjoy the tunes and have a great weekend!

Good morning, good people! (Assuming we are here and not nuked.)

So, Friday afternoon I figured out why Dear One had some symbiotic relationship with some birds. Saw it. Descriptions of what I saw will be in the comments.

I have some travel memories to share.

Check out my comments below for my travel musings.

Meanwhile, this is an open thread, which means all topics are welcome.

So sorry for the piecemeal stuff, but life intrudes!

Don't let my scattered life/thoughts/reading stop you from sharing with us what you believe we need to know.

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.

Man, where does the time go? I turned another year older yesterday. Seems like I had a birthday just the other day. My friends tell me I look 10 years younger than I am. That's nice, but if given the choice of looking tens years younger or feeling 10 years younger, I'll choose feeling 10 years younger. I bet a lot of others here would make that same choice. They call these the Golden Years. Golden years my ass. Getting old sucks, or as my brother likes to say "This getting old shit is really starting to get old.".

Speaking of getting old, here are some old macro shots of some of the little critters I haven't see in the Balboa Park rose garden in years.

Assassin Bug

From the Trump Friendly NY Post

‘Russiagate’ was never anything more than Hillary Clinton’s paid-for lies
By Post Editorial Board
Published July 31, 2025, 7:41 p.m. ET

It's Friday morning. I'm sitting and staring at the keyboard wondering what to write about.

I've already put the bird feeder out on the little slab of concrete, hoping my little friends will jar some inspiration. I do this every morning to thwart the racoon that makes nightly visits to feast on the black sunflower seeds. I put the feeder securely away at night and bring it back out in the morning, it's one of those little things one learns to cope with existing conditions. I think that's one of the secrets of life, learning how to cope with every day problems, how to adjust and make the best of things, especially under adverse conditions.

That's probably even more important in this present day as the world seems like it's trying to invert itself. Life's always had its positive and negative aspects, yin and yang if you will. It's a balancing act that's as old as time. Light and dark, day and night, good and bad. Sometimes those dichotomies tend to flip on themselves. I think civilization may presently be at one of those turning points. There's always been that opposition of states, or countries, or land masses, or whatever, they can be thought of as "good" states and "bad" states. We've always been taught that the West is the "good" state. Maybe so, I guess that depends on one's relative position. But now, it seems like, to me anyway, that the West is devolving into a dark future and what we've been taught as the "bad" states are moving in the opposite direction.

Goodbye Tom

Tom Lehrer passed away last week at the age of 97. He lived a long, and good, life and I am extremely grateful for the music he made, and the teaching he did. I hadn't realized how much his songs, funny and sarcastic as they are, and old, ohh yes, they are old I guess, had influenced me during my young years. After all, most of his songs were written before I was born, or in the years after I was born, but before I was a teenager.

One of the first times I heard his music was at high school: in chemistry class. After all, what other way is it easy to learn the elemental table than by singing? Of course, this is just the names of the elements, but it's a start!

Sing along, if you can remember all the elements!