caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

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

Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.

I finally got out with the camera this week. Yesterday I went to the Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum in Vista, Ca. To call it a museum is generous. Most of the vehicles and industrial engines are sitting in fields outside unprotected from the elements. The few buildings that are there looked as antique as the equipment that they housed. There was a lot of farm and construction equipment from the 20's thru the 50's and industrial engines from the late 1800's to the mid 1900's. It was fun wandering around looking at all the old equipment. The only negative was a lack of information about the vehicles and engines. Other than that, it was worth the price of admission(free) to get a glimpse of our past.

I am not a fan of horse racing, especially the stupid way we do it in this country. We race them way too early, we breed them to have muscle weight, not skeletal weight. Tiny leg bones are great for speed, not endurance.

Despite our breeding flaws and foolish racing practices, some horses not only survive it, but excel, exceeding all expectations.

The Kentucky Derby is in the news, which always brings up the most extraordinary race horse in US history: Secretariat. That rare horse that exceeded all expectations.

Corruption is a cancer. A cancer that eats away at a citizen's faith in democracy.

Diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity. Already tight national budgets crowding out important national investments.

It wastes the talent of entire generations, scares away investment and jobs.

But most importantly, it denies the people their dignity. It saps the collective strength and resolve of a nation.

Corruption is just another form of tyranny.

Some Environmental News:
Awesome:

A woman who is a fourth generation shrimper, Diane Wilson, from south Texas, beat a huge plastics corporation (Formosa Plastics) in court, for disregarding the law and the regulations (and agreements the company had made with the state), and constantly sending plastic pollution (tiny plastic balls called nurdles) into the ocean. She won the lawsuit, was awarded 50 million dollars which she's put to use in her community and has now received the 2023 Goldman Prize for environmental activism.

Diane Wilson, with a Megaphone, from the Article on her Website

The especial genius of women I believe to be electrical in movement, intuitive in function,
spiritual in tendency.
--Margaret Fuller