caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

Afternoon folks!

Here's a bunch of good stuff for you. Starting out there's a compilation of harmonica player Junior Wells' early Chicago recordings and a compilation of songwriter Percy Mayfield's recordings for Ray Charles' label. Following that there are albums by John Hammond, Johnny Winter, monster guitarist Bob Brozman and we finish up with an album by country rock artist, Chris Hillman.

Enjoy the tunes and have a great weekend!

Matt Taibbi has a worthwhile essay on Modern Monetary Theory which he opens with a short video of the nation's chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the president making a fool of himself. The Theory appears to assert that Debt is really a form of liquid potential to do good.

If you have no time to read the essay, the less-than-2-minute video is definitely instructive about the level of joyful stupidity of our leadership.

I managed to wipe out from the face of the cyber space my planned OT, so this is a second try, reasonable facsimile of my masterpiece in my head and the ether net world.

First, a busy week. Weekend will be relaxing, and if I get to go see the zydeco band Sunday, I will post a video next week.

Cops, and you, can use viewfind app on your Iphone, see thru heavily tinted car windows. That tint that makes you feel safe is just to keep the sun out, not necessarily cops, but screw the 4th Am.

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

Pollinators are an incredible group of animals that ensure the health of our ecosystems by helping plants to reproduce. Without them life as we know it would cease to exist. 1,200 crops and over 180,000 species of plants require pollination. That's a lot of work for some very small critters. Most of that work is done by bees, flies, beetles, butterflies, and moths.

In 2021 55% of all Pentagon spending went to private sector military contractors. That's $407 Billion, more than the federal government spent in stimulus checks to working people.

Back on 12/30/22 I wrote a piece titled Normalizing the New Normal about Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter and the subsequent revelations about the US government's collusion in censoring content on the platform, especially during the 2020 election. The article's basic premise was this:

Let's suppose that freedom of speech may not be Musk's ultimate goal in buying Twitter. Let's suppose that normalizing the new normal is actually the goal. What do I mean by that?

Musk is bringing front and center the alphabet agencies hand in censoring Twitter users. He is exposing that which many of us have suspected for a long time, that is, the government is colluding with big tech to catapult their narrative and to shut down oppositional view points. Exposing that is a good thing, right? My immediate reaction was, "Sure is". But, wait a minute.

Since I've been going on about normalizing the new normal, let me try to explain. The behind the scenes collusion of big tech and the state is being exposed with the intent to normalize that unholy marriage. To put it out there for all to see. It's shocking, right? But after a while the shock wears off and people begin to accept it. There's nothing that can be done about it, so we have to live with it, right? There's no hope citizen, accept your medicine and let Big Daddy Government handle this. Accept this fact and prepare yourself for CBDCs and digital slavery. Go back to sleep.

People are and will be outraged. "My Constitution" is crying out across the land. Folks will ululate, throw up their hands, shake their heads, call out for reform. But slowly, over time, the short attention span majority will move on to the next big thing and the tech/state collusion will be normalized and we the people have lost another right. Perhaps the most important right of all. And it's out there for all to see.

The new normal has been normalized.

Viva Las Vegas Runs For Mayor

Liv Osthus’ memories of Portland’s glory days fuel the beloved stripper’s longshot mayor run

Liv Osthus came to Portland in 1996 because she didn’t know where else to go.

Fire, Fire - A Little 'Local' Climate News

The weather is changing everywhere. It's no surprise, and we are all, unfortunately, affected. Last year was the hottest in recorded history; every month achieved a new high. This year is already breaking that new record and may continue to do so.

I was surprised, but not too surprised considering what it was like last year, to read that there are forest fires raging in Canada right now. When I was a kid and a young adult this basically never happened in May, at least that I can remember.

What's caused the fires? Well, in BC high winds brought down a tree onto electric lines, and there was lightning, and they have no idea what's caused the fires in Alberta. Experts say the causes of fires in Canada are usually either lightning or human related. And the experts admit climate change is part of that: 'Warming temperatures in particularly dry regions of Canada, like the north-west provinces, can make those areas "more vulnerable and likely to have fires occur"' (from the BBC article linked above).

Smoke and flames by the Okanogan Lake in northern BC, from this article on the BBC.