caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

We get settled into our lives and the need for electricity is taken for granted. Until it's not.

This was my first hurricane. It made landfall about 150 miles south of us as a Cat. 1, but soon after was downgraded to a tropical storm. To be honest I had lived through stronger storms back in Illinois, but this tropical storm devastated a huge swath of southeast Texas as it made its way northward. The big problem was downed and uprooted trees that caused havoc across the region.

We've all lived through relatively short times of no power to our homes, usually resolved within a few hours, but one really gets an appreciation for the extent that our lives depend on electricity when it's lost for several days. Cooking, temperature control, gasoline availability, the loss of refrigeration and a whole assortment of every day mundanities become front and center when one suddenly finds oneself back in the 1800s.

This is the Psyop of the Moment, apparently. The Democrats are trying to decide who they wish to nominate, their foreign policy is James Buchanan-level bad, and their opponent, also bad, will win in November. But, rather than organizing a countervailing force (Jill Stein, maybe), they've decided to blanket Facebook with "read Project 2025" notices. Here's the website, if you were asking.

Nothing Much:

I've not got much for this open thread, so I'm posting a pic of one of my lovely goats, Poppy, and a video about amazing things dogs do. And opening the thread! Post whatever you want, whatever is up. And have some fun thinking about goats and dogs .

Poppy, Poppy:
She's got one of her sons still with us, Harold. She is a very, very smart goat, and learned to come get some milk from me when I was feeding her best friend, Lily, whose mother couldn't feed her. Poppy got the last of the bottle and loved it. She and Harold, her son, are very close even as she approaches 7.5 years old (faint).

Poppy, giving me the look that means she's ready to be milked!

In 2021, President Biden ordered the federal government to stop using private prisons. However, he left a huge exception in that executive order - ICE detention facilities.

"Words are like bees – some create honey
and others leave a sting."
-- Unknown

I wanted to note today is the fourth anniversary of the suicide of Park Won-soon 박원순 the three time elected mayor of Seoul who was immensely popular and a likely prospect to become the democratic nominee for president of South Korea at the time.