caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

Afternoon folks!

Well, this week we're a little heavy on the blues rock, but we'll start out with a couple of blues records. Percy Mayfield starts us off with a compilation of some of his earlier recordings followed by New Orleans piano player Cousin Joe weighing in with a late career album from the mid-80's blues revival period. After that it's off to blues rock with an album from Mick Taylor (former guitarist for John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and the Rolling Stones), a live album from The Band, performing with some amazing horns, and a double album from the band Redbone. After that, there's an album from Parliament that somebody gave me years ago telling me it was great, so, well, you decide. Then there's some folk-rock from Lindisfarne and we finish off with some pure pop from Tommy James & The Shondells that's been lurking in my collection for years.

Enjoy the tunes and have a great weekend!

Well, this hectic week flew by, and once again I am pondering both odds and ends.

I will start with an end, a description of a martyr, provided by Scott Ritter. It is about Sinwar's death and its' significance.

Children of the Camps

Never give up. Never.

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.

Just got back from a week on the road and haven't had time to go through all the photos I took (500+), so until next Friday, lets go surfing.
These are from last month when I went to the Wavecrest woodie meet in Encinitas. After photographing the cars I changed the wide lens for a long lens and spent a little time photographing the surfers. There were a lot of surfers in the water that morning but not much surf.
Last but not least, thanks to Captain Q for hosting in my absence last Friday. Nice shots of the northern lights.

As I've suggested in a post on Facebook:

Ever have those strange moments when surrealism temporarily supplants reality? Like a certain moment in time isn't real and you question it really happening? You feel outside of yourself like you're in another dimension? Here's an example.

That's happened to me several times in the past, but I've been feeling that way many times during the last four or five years, like all this really isn't happening. How can it be that life has changed so quickly? It seems like the change hasn't been organic, that some surreal hand has directed it all. Like it hasn't happened naturally, like it's all been orchestrated.

I wonder, have all great societal changes happen this way?

Things are weird and keep getting weirder. Like an infinite regression of weirdness. Like turtles stacked one upon another, holding up a flat earth.

Attribution: Wikimedia Commons

The FBI recently reported that losses from cryptocurrency scams were up 45% from last year, over $5.6 billion dollars. It's become so widespread that the FBI actually created their own cryptocurrency to ensnare the fraudsters. You might be thinking what's that got to do with me?

What Works?

Like I mentioned last week while writing about Frank Church, I've been reading a book called Battlefield America: The War on the American People, by John W. Whitehead, published in 2015. It's well worth a read, although it's very, very depressing. I can't say it takes a right or a left wing slant; it gets angry at both sides. Towards the end of the book, Whitehead lists 10 basic principles that 'We, the People' can, understand, agree with, insist upon and support in our attempt to stop our country's almost finished progression to a police state, an empire. I found the principles interesting, so I thought I'd list them here.

1. 'We must come to grips with the reality that the present system does not foster freedom.'
2. 'Voting is practically worthless.'
3. 'Question everything.'
4. 'Materialism is a death knell to freedom.'
5. 'There is little hope for true resistance if you are mindlessly connected to the electronic concentration camp.'
6. 'An armed revolt will not work.'
7. 'Be wise and realize there is power in numbers.'
8. 'Act locally but think nationally'.
9. 'Local towns, cities and states can nullify or say 'No' to federal laws that violate the rights and freedoms of the citizenry'.
10. 'Understand what freedom is all about.'

I think we agree that we already know all these things; maybe most Americans do, whether they acknowledge it or not. So, where do we go from here?

1932: Bonus Army shacks on fire after the attack on their 'Hooverville' in the Anacostia flats (the Capitol is in the background) by the regular army under MacArthur, from Wikipedia. Bye, Bye, Hoover!