9/2 Open Thread - Liliuokalani's Birthday!

~~ Queen Liliokalani

Seems everywhere the US goes, chaos follows in our wake. Color revolutions, assassinations, and out right coups are the US stock and trade. NATO, guided by the US, invaded and is occupying a small part of Russia. Ukraine's front line is in collapse. The Gaza genocide continues, as Israel and Hezbollah lob missiles and drones at one another. Jake the snake Sullivan visits China to make threats of more sanctions. The selection show featured a puff interview with Kamala, which even with editing did her no favors. So it is divide and conquer abroad and at home...it makes people of slavelandia more pliable after all. Meanwhile BRICS+ hones in on a new means of exchange to by pass the USD. All this and more below the fold...

Afternoon folks!

We've got a bunch of great stuff from New Orleans this week, starting off with Champion Jack Dupree (with Mickey Baker on guitar and Hal Singer on sax) and followed up by a great compilation of stuff, some from names you probably know and other stuff not, all of which is worth a listen. After that we've got an album from Aretha Franklin - some of it is a little schmaltzy, but the rest of it is solid r&b.

After that, it's on to George Thorogood, Blue Cheer, an EP from Dr. Feelgood and J.J. Cale's best album. We finish off with an album from Dutch prog-rockers Focus (with guitarist Jan Akkerman, who's about the same calibre as Jeff Beck).

Enjoy the tunes and have a great weekend!

Good morning, friends! How did your week go, and what are your plans for the holiday?

I wanted to give an update on the 5 yr old girl taken from her Mom, and residing for a time on a Choctaw Reservation in Oklahoma. The FBI had recommended a specific process server who could figure out a way to work with the Reservation police chief to get the man served with the lawsuit. The man we hired on the agent's recommendation got it done. My lawsuit demanded the father bring the child to court, present her there to the Mom while the judge watched. It happened! I haven't complimented an FBI agent often, maybe one time, but this agent really cared, really helped. He sounded young. Maybe he has not been swept into the bad side of that agency as yet. The hearing was postponed by the judge, but on his own order, the child cannot leave Texas if and when the father exercises his visitation.

Welcome to Friday Night Photos everyone. Your once a week break from the daily madness of the crazy world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music, or whatever else you find of interest that helps you escape the madness.

Hard to believe it's the start of my fourth year behind the wheel of FNP. Harder yet to believe I haven't driven it into a ditch. A very heartfelt thanks to everyone that has contributed photos, memes, music, links and conversation that have helped keep the wheels on the road.

Honey Bee

Where are we headed in this country, post Constitution? Have you given it any thought?

The US Constitution is one of the most, if not the most, enlightened documents in the history of mankind. It was meant to curtail the power of the federal government, to keep it in check. Notice I used the word "was" since it seems like there no longer are any checks on our government.

Marx's Oversight of Thomas Paine's Moral Virtue and the Impossibility of a Stateless, Classless Society.

What Marx Overlooked

Karl Marx's vision of a stateless, classless society, as articulated in his works on communism, stands as a revolutionary blueprint for an idealized form of human organization. Marx’s theories advocate for the eventual dissolution of the state and the class structure, based on his critique of capitalism and his belief in historical materialism.

However, a critical examination of Thomas Paine’s arguments in "Common Sense" reveals a significant aspect that Marx overlooked: Paine's identification of a fundamental defect in moral virtue that necessitates the establishment of government in the first place.

This oversight reveals a potential flaw in Marx’s ideal of a stateless society, suggesting that such a society might be inherently unachievable due to the nature of human morality and social organization.

The Dog Days of Summer

The term 'Dog Days of Summer' was always interesting to me. I never thought it had anything to do with dogs laying around being lazy in the summer but more about sailing, for some reason. Maybe because the term is about celestial happenings? Or maybe I had some vague memory from a Hornblower novel about sailing?

So, why are the hottest days of the year (in the Europeanoid part of northern hemisphere) called the 'Dog Days of Summer'? I wanted to know, and I'm sharing what I found out because it was kind of interesting.

Some Dogs Aren't that lazy, right Nikko?