Afternoon folks!

Well, here comes another mess of good music. There's a greatest hits album from Louis Jordan and a compilation of great stuff from the ABC/Bluesway label. There's a classic blues-rock album from John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers that features Peter Green and John McVie before they formed Fleetwood Mac (the good, early version), there's a live (recorded in '72) album from Savoy Brown and an early 70's album from Paul Butterfield. The diversity this week is provided by Goose Creek Symphony, Ry Cooder and Steeleye Span.

Enjoy!

Based on the progressive caucus' retreat from anything even approaching an antiwar position, or less war approach, it's safe to say that there is no actual left in our elected officials today. Which is really depressing because we are six years into the Progressive Insurgency following Bernie's 2016 presidential run.

The official narrative promoted by the entire western political/media class is that Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February of this year solely because he is evil and hates freedom. He wants to conquer as much of Europe as possible because he cannot stand free democracies, because he is another Adolf Hitler.

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

The resignation of Lizz Truss, who was ready to push the button, and failure of Boris Johnson current attempt to secure English Prime Minister office was a hopeful sign for some deescalation of world tension.

Let's see how England responds to this accusation - breaking news Russia Times.

Britain’s Royal Navy played a part in orchestrating and staging the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday. The accusation follows the Russian Foreign Ministry’s claim that NATO conducted a military exercise during the summer, close to the location where the undersea explosions occurred.

Writing on its official Telegram channel, the ministry alleged that Royal Navy operatives “took part in planning, supporting and implementing” a “terrorist attack” to blow up the gas pipelines on September 26.

Happy Friday everyone. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

I went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park on Wednesday to photograph the large critters. Turns out the best shots of the day were of the smallest critter there.

Fun Fact: Hummingbirds do not walk.

Female Anna's Hummingbird refueling at a Bird of Paradise

We knew this was coming, didn't we.

I was born in 1954. It's hung over my head my whole life. Yours too I bet. I grew up reading dystopian novels, tales of vicarious journeys into the dark side of man, nightmares that lodged themselves into the recesses of our psyches, nudged there by notions that those stories were too wild to be true. After World Wars I and II we knew what mankind was capable of, but we were better than that. Better fools than we would have ourselves believe.

Then came the 1960s and the world turned upside down. Change was in the air. Much of the upheaval in the 60s was about today, we just didn't realize it then. Hell, I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it. Little did we know, that was the start. The road and the proverbial can were going downhill at an ever quickened pace. The can took the wrong fork somewhere on that road, and we followed.

After the effort for a better world, that was beaten down at the barrel of a gun at Kent State, life became about excess. All the while though, in the back of the mind, it loomed. Mankind seems more adept at rationalization than rationality. Did this predicament we find ourselves in today sneak up on us or did we fool ourselves into believing our own arrogance? Did we look away in lieu of the good life?

Much like Dorian Grey, we sat at the apex of man, and exchanged our nation's youthful vigor for the pleasures of abundance after making a deal with technology, and comfort. That deal is now coming due. And like Dorian, we look at the landscape that reflects our excesses, and we see what we have become. And it's ugly.

In the end, Dorian slashes, with a knife, at the hideous figure staring back at himself in the portrait, and in a stark realization becomes that which he feared. A dark, empty, and rotten shell of a man. Dead by his own hand.

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— Geo_monitor (@colonelhomsi) October 27, 2022