caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.

Another week of mostly sunny skies and temps in the 70's.
The price of gas where I fill up went up 10¢ a gal. this week to $5.69 . Haven't seen anywhere that's less, but many where it's more, as much as $5.99 a gal. Glad I gave up the gas guzzler (16mpg) four years ago for a hybrid (43mpg).

I played around with a couple of these in photoshop for a little change of pace. #1 I used a filter called dry brush. #6 I used an effect called traditional oil. #11 I used an effect called glow.

Morning

Mayday always brings to mind annual morning celebration in elementary school with singing, lawn games including sack races and the May pole dance. Surprise flower bouquets hanging on the front door. Happiness of spring.

We love the King or do we? And American Music
I’m not much of a Kings’ person, so I’ve been ignoring the King’s stuff, although I guess his address to Congress was pretty good (5 Takeaways from the King’s Historic Address to Congress). Ohh and this is the British King, not the wannabe American one (Hi, Prez!).

I’m not sure that the Beeb’s take on this is entirely correct - ‘Smiles and wonder: How the US reacted to King Charles’, but who knows. Here’s a bit:

The United States declared independence from the British crown 250 years ago - but this week, it could not get enough of it.

From the minute King Charles and Queen Camilla stepped onto the White House South Lawn, US networks dumped their standard diet of political warfare and breaking news for something rare: pure pageantry.

In a country that seems to agree on almost nothing, the British royals managed something close to a clean sweep - drawing warm receptions from both sides of a political spectrum where neutral ground is rare.

The visit came at a fraught time in US-British relations, with the White House and Downing Street at odds over the war in Iran, straining a relationship both governments insist remains unshakeable.

The reviews following the King's appearances at the White House, in Congress and in New York were warm across the political divide.

Media bragging about US/Philippine/Japan/New Zealand/France/Canada joint military exercises in South China Sea. In the first video, NTD is an Falun Gong/Epoch Times related organization, mostly propaganda, but sometimes apart from the spin, the military news there is useful. Watch 5 min from where it's cued to start.

Here's something that's been on my mind for a while and I've written about it before, but I'm presenting it here to a different audience since I'm sure there are trends to be extrapolated.