This is a re-post of one I wrote and posted ten years ago….
Time to remember all those that made this day possible….
I Read, I Write, You KNow
“lego ergo scribo”
The Second Declaration
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!
Today we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence and as this country continues it’s downward swing it is time for another declaration and time for the people to take back their nation from the tech bros and the MAGA lunatics….
WHEN in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary to decide that a government that purports to represent the union of states has failed to do so; that the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness have been trampled upon by that government; and that the rule of law and the Constitution have been systematically violated, then whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.
Thus, we the people have determined that the present government under President Donald J. Trump is bent on the destruction of democratic authority and its replacement by an authoritarian regime that does not respect the Constitution, the rule of law, or the fundamental human rights of American citizens and other lawful residents of these United States.
We, therefore, declare that the present government is illegitimate: Its President has violated his oath of office to “protect and defend the Constitution,” instead claiming absolute power; he has unlawfully and dishonorably ordered the prosecution of critics, abusing the independent role of the department of justice; he has appointed people to high government positions based entirely on loyalty to him and with limited or no competence for the office to which they have been appointed; he has undermined the independence of various government agencies and institutes established by Congress, dismantling some and seeking to turn others into arms of the executive branch; he has denied critical funds to state and local governments that resist his administration’s unlawful policies and regulations; he has shown contempt for Congress, ignoring its constitutional role in budgeting, war powers, and appointment of officials; he and members of his cabinet have engaged in numerous corrupt dealings with foreign governments that enrich the President and his friends; he and his administration have systematically undermined civil society, including freedom of the press and freedom of speech in universities and law firms; his administration, turning the department of homeland security into a domestic security tool, has illegally carried out military operations in the states and cities of these United States–operations that provoke violence and deprive Americans and lawful residents of their basic rights; his administration has undermined the purposes and creed of the professional military, removing senior officers without cause and committing US military forces to illegal acts on the high seas; his administration has undermined the reputation of the United States, carrying out policies that are lawless and imperialist in the eyes of many governments and peoples around the world; he and his administration have ignored and denigrated the nation’s science community, dismantling environmental regulations and research programs in defiance of the scientific consensus on global warming; and he and his administration have undermined traditional alliances with democracies, weaponizing tariffs to overcome their resistance to his policies and interfering in their internal politics by promoting the agenda of far-right political parties.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. We vow to use peaceful means and democratic processes to do so, answering force with force only as a last resort, confident that history has shown that mass nonviolent force has proven successful at overcoming oppression.
For the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Time for you to stand up regardless of your personal standings and help take back the country that gave you your position.
I am ready and I am going to do all I can.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
IST Saturday News Dump–03Jul26
I know this is a day early but I have special posts for our 250th year…..sorry about that….
Local–This weekend is the 78th Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo….lots of dead fish, carnival atmosphere and heat and do not forget the pungent odors……..there is also a Crab Fest in another town along the Coast.
The big news is that the cops shot a 1 year old while he was strsapped into his car seat….
An independent autopsy is adding fuel to community questions over how a Mississippi toddler was killed during a police response to a Walmart shoplifting call, NBC News reports. Attorneys for the family of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley say the exam found the bullet entered from the side of the car he was riding in, not the front, and that debris injuries on his torso match shattered tempered glass from a side window—details they argue undercut claims that an officer fired in self-defense as the vehicle drove toward police. Wiley’s mother says her friend was driving the car away from police when the lethal shot was fired, the AP reports. A woman was also critically injured in the incident but is now in stable condition, Action News 5 reports.
Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, citing findings by forensic pathologist Dr. Roger Mitchell, said the pattern of wounds suggests “this police is shooting from the side,” and pressed why an officer would fire into a car “where you’re clearly not in harm’s way.” State investigators have released few details since the June 14 shooting and say they won’t disclose video until their probe is finished; the officer involved remains on leave and has not been named. Crump is urging Walmart and authorities to make any footage public, while a local group, the Senatobia Committee for Accountability and Transparency, is pushing to get the case on the next city council agenda.
Personal–Chemo hit me especially hard this time…all I feel like doing is being grumpy and sleeping.
Time to move on to the news of the week….
The big story is that the heat wave in Europe is killing people hand over fist….could A/C be the reason?
When horrible things happen to people you care about, it’s only natural to seek someone to blame. If you ask the mayoral administration in charge of Paris, France, it seems responsibility for Europe’s devastating heatwave is being placed on the United States’ affinity for air conditioning.
Last week, recently-elected Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire went on the record with Le Monde amidst one of the worst heatwaves in the city’s history — an event which has reportedly resulted in over 1,000 excess deaths across France.
Asked whether Parisians should rush out to install AC units in their homes which famously shun them, Grégoire sharply disagreed, saying that “individual air conditioning is a scourge — it makes the problem worse by heating the city even more.”
https://futurism.com/science-energy/air-conditioning-climate-change-france-killing-people
There is a bunch of news these days about ticks and Lyme Disease….but there is others….
A tick-borne illness that tends to lurk behind Lyme in public awareness is moving closer to center stage. Health officials say Powassan virus disease, still rare but often more dangerous than Lyme, has shot up from seven reported US cases in 2015 to 76 in 2025, reports the Washington Post. Recent infections in New Jersey and New Hampshire have drawn attention, and NBC Boston reports that a man in Rhode Island also is recovering. The disease is spread mainly by blacklegged (deer) ticks in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, the same ticks that carry Lyme. But there’s one big difference: The virus can pass to humans in as little as 15 minutes of attachment—far faster than Lyme.
Most infected people are thought to have no symptoms, but those who do may first feel flu-like: fever, fatigue, muscle aches, per the CDC. In some, the virus invades the central nervous system within weeks, causing brain or spinal cord inflammation and symptoms that can resemble a stroke: confusion, slurred speech, loss of coordination, seizures, or paralysis. Among symptomatic patients, about 15% die and half of survivors have lasting neurological issues.
There’s no vaccine or specific treatment for Powassan. Experts link the rise in cases to tick expansion related to warming temperatures, and they advise the usual tactics: repellents, permethrin-treated clothing, frequent tick checks, and prompt removal of any ticks found. The illness is named for the Canadian city where it was first identified decades ago.
Be careful this Summer.
More health stuff…
A man in Spain who feared he had brain cancer turned out to have something else in his head: tapeworms, Gizmodo reports. The 60-year-old went to doctors with worsening headaches and subtle behavior changes; a CT scan suggested metastatic brain tumors, and he was started on steroids commonly used to ease cancer-related brain swelling, which quickly improved his symptoms. But further testing couldn’t find any primary cancer, and an MRI scan eventually revealed the real culprit—cysts from the pork tapeworm Taenia solium lodged in his brain. The condition occurs when microscopic tapeworm eggs are ingested and settle in the brain, the New York Post reports.
The diagnosis, detailed in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, confirmed a case of neurocysticercosis, a parasitic brain infection that’s rare in wealthier countries but a leading cause of adult-onset seizures worldwide. The man, who hadn’t traveled to tapeworm-endemic regions, likely picked up the parasite through local exposure on construction sites where he shared food and bathrooms with migrant workers, the authors say—evidence of unusual local transmission in Western Europe. Fox News reports exposure to the eggs could have occurred years earlier. He was treated with antiparasitic drugs and tapered off steroids without complications. The doctors say the case shows that brain infections from T. solium should remain on the diagnostic radar, even where cancer is statistically far more likely.
That is something to think about…..
How about a little sciencey stuff?
Scientists claim that for the first time in history, they have constructed a synthetic cell that feeds, grows, and replicates — just like a natural one — out of non-living chemical components.
The team from the University of Minnesota says their “SpudCell” is the “first synthetic cell with a complete cell cycle,” and can “grow, replicate its genome, divide, and undergo selection and competition across multiple generations.”
The research, which is being hailed as a major breakthrough, could usher in a new biotech era defined by synthetic organisms that can be grown from scratch and programmed to complete specific functions. It’s a futuristic approach that could open many doors for our efforts to solve a wide variety of human problems, from fighting cancer to capturing carbon.
https://futurism.com/science-energy/fully-synthetic-cell-eat-reproduce
Next time you see a roach you might want to take a closer look….
Everyone’s heard the pop culture myth that cockroaches are virtually indestructible and will be the only animals to survive the apocalypse. If those end times involve Biblical floods or sea level rise, these grimy bugs may now have an even better shot at being the last one standing.
In a new study, cyborg cockroaches equipped with an integrated diving suit that lets them move underwater have been developed by scientists at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Waseda University in Tokyo.
Now for the creepy…..
A former model who is serving time for killing her husband — and eating some of his cooked body parts — wants an early release from prison.
Omaima Nelson, an Egyptian-born former Costa Mesa resident, will go before a parole board next Wednesday, requesting early release.
Nelson is currently serving a 27-years-to-life sentence for murdering William Nelson, 56, in November of 1991.
Prosecutors said Nelson killed her husband in their Costa Mesa apartment. She was in her twenties at the time of the crime.
Michele Gile, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, said Nelson spent days trying to dispose of the body parts. In addition to putting various parts in the garbage disposal, Gile reports, Nelson also put parts in trash bags and suitcases.
She claimed her husband raped her the night before she killed him.
Randy Pawloski, the Orange County senior deputy district attorney, opposes her release because her crimes were particularly gruesome (“the mutilation was beyond belief”) and said Nelson had a history of violence even before the bizarre murder. He also maintains her story of abuse has changed several times.
Says Pawloski, “Initially to the police, she claimed it could have been a CIA operation. People came in and he had enemies and maybe wanted him to be murdered. [Then] she didn’t know what happened. Finally when it shook out, she said she was a battered spouse even though they had been married only three weeks.”
(cbsnews.com)
If you are starting your long weekend then as always….Be Well and Be Safe….
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
“Red Rabbits”
With the success of the DSA in receent elections and the freak out the Right is having I thought this would be an interesting post.
This is a group within the Democratic Socialists of America….and this is an article doing it’s best hatchet job on this idea by DSA.
The NY Post is how lies get started…..it is a strong Far Right rag and this is the best hatchet job they could do…
Total lies! Total bullshit!
Sorry but I refuse to give any validity to their BS other than the link so my reader can see for themselves.
I will continue to post the crap the Right wing media has to say about the rise of the more progressive candidates….these lies are nothing new they have been around since the 1920s.
But this is from the horse’s mouth so to speak)….
https://www.dsausa.org/blog/walk-rabbit-walk-protecting-the-left-nonviolently/
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
Repeal The 17th!
That would be the 17th amendment….and the MAGA twats are busy trying to get rid of the amendment….but what is it, right?
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
MAGA hates this and wants to return to the days when the governors decided….
A group of House Republicans is seeking to repeal the 17th Amendment as tensions with Senate Republicans deepen over the stalled SAVE America Act. While reports suggest the repeal proposal, introduced by Rep. Keith Self of Texas, has little chance of becoming law, the effort highlights growing frustration among House conservatives, who have accused the Senate of failing to advance one of their top priorities ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Self, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, introduced legislation that would repeal the 17th Amendment and return the selection of senators to state legislatures, the system used before the amendment was ratified in 1913. The 17th Amendment gave Americans the right to directly elect U.S. senators. Self’s bill has eight Republican cosponsors: Eric Burlison of Missouri, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Andy Harris of Maryland, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Sheri Biggs of South Carolina and Michael Cloud of Texas.
In a statement, Self argued that direct election ratified by the 17th Amendment has “given us six-year politicians more focused on national ambitions and the institution of the U.S. Senate than on the states they serve.” He added that the Senate was designed to “protect state sovereignty and act as a check on federal overreach.”
“If senators are supposed to represent their states, then the states should choose them. Repealing the 17th Amendment will restore that constitutional balance and make the Senate more accountable to the people of Texas and every other state in the union,” he said.
https://knewz.com/house-republicans-push-repeal-17th-amendment-feud-gop-senators/
First of all senators represent the checkbook that funds them and secondly they are all in it for themselves….the people are the furthest from their concerns.
Finally they would have yes men in the Senate (they already do but more would be better)….
This is just MAGA trying to force their idiot-ologies on the process…..
A horrible idea……this needs to be put in the toilet and flushed.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
The Commies Are Coming! The Commies Are Coming!
+++Today is chemo so this may be the only post you see from me today sorry but I usually feel like crap afterwards++++
With the progress that the DSA is making in elections we are hearing the title almost daily….The Right is a fevered pitch trying to ward off any advancement of the progressives by resurrecting the old lame ass “Red Scare”
What bullshit!
As the mid term vote nears and the looming general in 2028 the propaganda machine that hides under the guise of media outlets is staring the lies and misinformation about the danger of those damn Marxists….
Keep in mind that the source of this article is a Far Right propaganda that feeds an unsuspecting public with the lies and misinformation.
America faces a Marxist pincer movement the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Soviet Union sent tanks rolling across Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the ‘50s and ‘60s. This time, it’s not from a military intent on crushing liberty, but an insidious threat to our way of life nonetheless.
On one side, we have American communists plotting street mayhem in Havana, calling for a mass U.S. uprising from the capital of militant world communism, while Cuban communists provide them backup by meeting with Americans on U.S. soil to instruct them on how to lobby Congress.
The Marxist threat to America has two fronts. Both are advancing
This group and its media propagandists will do and say whatever they can to discourage Americans from learning anything about this group (DSA)….but I can help….
There isn’t one universal definition of democratic socialism. According to the website of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), democratic socialists view capitalism as “a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit” and want to “replace it with democratic socialism, a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society.”
“What we want to do is extend democracy to our workplace and our housing and society at large, sort of deciding the ways our cities run, our jobs run, our housing runs, as opposed to right now, we think we’re in sort of a dictatorship of capital—the big corporations kind of make the decisions about everything, really,” says Megan Romer, the co-chair of the DSA.
Democratic socialism in the U.S., Farinella says, is not the socialism seen in the former Soviet Union, which was an autocratic system that eliminated capitalism by putting all major industries under centralized government control. Democratic socialists don’t want large corporations to be controlled by the government, and don’t want an autocracy; rather, they want to place the power of decision-making in the hands of the people through a democratic process.
Farinella says that democratic socialism also isn’t the kind of social democracy seen in Scandinavian countries, which reject authoritarianism and, in his words, “combine free market capitalism with high taxes” to fund social programs such as health care and education. Democratic socialists, meanwhile, don’t support capitalism (though some self-described democratic socialists have suggested that it is possible for democratic socialism and capitalism to exist together).
Democratic socialism “resides perhaps in the middle of the spectrum,” Farinella says.
“The democratic socialists in the United States want to shift political and economic power away from corporations and ultimately move beyond a capitalistic system, which they view as inherently unfair and exploitive,” he says. “They want to replace capitalism with an economy driven by social need rather than by profit motive, and they want to do this with workers and ordinary citizens making decisions about how to deploy resources—not having government make the decisions about how to deploy resources.”
“They want to do it all through democratic processes and institutions,” he adds.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/democratic-socialist-191131545.html
These people are NOT communists! The key to their electoral strategy is the last line of the quote…..”They want to do it all through democratic processes and institutions”….that means they want the people to have the voice in the elections.
This is what democracy looks like not the warped BS that Donny presents as such.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
And Hits Just Keep Coming
The establishment Dems are starting to run scared because the Left has come calling…..and winning….
This time the Left won in Colorado…..
Democratic socialist Melat Kiros beat US Rep. Diana DeGette in a Colorado House primary Tuesday, a stunning victory for the first-time candidate against a nearly 30-year incumbent and another win for progressive challengers across the country, the AP reports. Kiros, a 29-year-old lawyer turned doctoral student, is the latest candidate to rise from the party’s left flank and boot establishment-backed candidates. That includes two self-described democratic socialists and a progressive who won their Democratic primaries in New York last week. Kiros’ victory adds to a nascent but clear uprising, stirred by frustration among some voters, that has vexed party leadership. Colorado’s 1st Congressional District covers the dark blue city of Denver, and Kiros is expected to win in November and reach Congress in January.
We are winning from coast to coast,” Kiros said to an ecstatic audience and the blast of air horns. “We are taking back our party and our country!” There were mixed results for progressives in Tuesday’s other races. Sen. John Hickenlooper fended off a primary challenge from self-fashioned “insurgent progressive” state Sen. Julie Gonzales. And a smaller divide separated the two Democrats competing for US House in the state’s lone swing district, where the candidate considered more progressive, state Rep. Manny Rutinel, won. Phil Weiser, the state attorney general, won the Democratic gubernatorial primary Tuesday and will be favored to win come November. Term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis will depart after two-terms governing with a more moderate touch, at times stymieing progressive state lawmakers.
So far this is looking up for 2026…..finally some progressives and hopefully they can get stuff done or at least become a major thorn in Donny’s ass.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
Chipping The 2nd
I WOULD LIKE TO WISH MY CANADIAN FOLLOWERS A VERY HAPPY CANADA DAY.
SCOTUS seems to be the theme or the meme for today…..they will be ruling on the law against AR-15s….a good law in my opinion…..
The Supreme Court is stepping directly into the fight over bans on AR-15-style rifles. On Tuesday, the justices agreed to hear challenges to assault-style weapons restrictions in Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois, setting up a major Second Amendment clash in the term that begins in October, NBC News reports. Both laws bar certain semiautomatic rifles that gun-control advocates label “assault weapons,” including AR-15s, which have been used in mass shootings such as the 2012 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School and the 2022 Uvalde school massacre. Connecticut expanded its ban after 20 children and six adults were killed in the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has recently broadened gun rights, including a 2022 decision that the Second Amendment protects the right to carry guns outside the home. Last week, the court struck down a Hawaii gun law. When the justices declined to hear a similar case last year, four conservatives signaled they view AR-15 bans as unconstitutional; Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the court “should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon.”
Under longstanding precedent, bans of “dangerous” or “unusual” weapons are allowed, but gun rights advocates say that as “the most popular rifle in the country,” AR-15-style rifles shouldn’t be considered unusual, Politico reports. At least 10 states have banned “assault weapons,” arguing that they don’t qualify as “arms” protected by the Second Amendment, per the Hill. Challenges to the Connecticut and Cook County laws were brought by individual gun owners and gun-rights groups including the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation. Lower courts have so far upheld both bans.
I look for SCOTUS to strike down the law for they have not been a friend to the people but rather the gun industry….it has a lot more money to give than joe blow.
Do not get me wrong….I have no problem with gun ownership just that of assault weapons and such….no one needs that for hunting or personal protection….if they are that bad of a shot then get a shotgun the coverage is better.
Do you think SCOTUS will do the right thing?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
If At First…
Yesterday SCOTUS handed another defeat to Donny’s push to rid this country of brown skin people….and after the ruling I said it would not end there….and I was right…..
President Trump isn’t dropping his fight over birthright citizenship, even after the Supreme Court ruled against him. In a social media post, Trump called the decision “too bad for our Country” and urged Congress to start work immediately on a legislative workaround, reports the New York Times. “No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary!” he wrote. In its ruling Tuesday, the court overturned a Trump executive order that sought to end the policy of bestowing citizenship on children born on American soil. The order violates the 14th Amendment, declared the 6-3 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts.
- Kavanaugh dissent: Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh joined the majority, along with the court’s three liberal justices. Kavanaugh, however, dissented from the majority ruling by disagreeing that the order violated the Constitution, per the Washington Post. He agreed it violated federal law, though.
- Thomas vents: Clarence Thomas was in the “no” camp with Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, and Thomas wrote a dissenting opinion joined by Gorsuch. “The Court adds to the sad history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support,” Thomas wrote.
- Alito, too: “This is one of the most important decisions in the history of the Court, and in my judgment, the Court has made a serious mistake,” Alito wrote. “As interpreted by the Court today, the Fourteenth Amendment confers citizenship on virtually everyone who happens to be born in this country, including the children of ‘birth tourists.'” But a “careful analysis” of the amendment shows it does not do that, he asserted. (The full text of the 1868 amendment is here.)
- Birth tourism: As alluded to by Alito, supporters of Trump’s executive order argued that the existing policy encourages “birth tourism,” in which pregnant women come to the US for the express purpose of giving birth. “The trouble is that there is scant evidence for this dramatically revisionist view,” wrote Roberts, per the Wall Street Journal.
Birth tourism? Sounds a lot like the crap that use to be spread about women who got pregnant so they could collect welfare…that was bullshit and this subject is too.
This is just hatred of people with brown skin….they can put all the cheap lipstick on that pig but it will not change the bigotry.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
Donny Loses To SCOTUS (Go Figure)
Donny has been trying really hard to see the babies born on US soil to non-citizens lose their right to be Americans for being born here….
The Supreme Court upheld the principle of birthright citizenship on Tuesday, handing President Trump a major defeat on one of his signature immigration initiatives. In the 6-3 ruling, the court backed the idea that nearly all children born on US soil are American citizens, no matter the status of their parents. Chief Justice John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberal justices in striking down an executive order issued by Trump, reports SCOTUSblog and the New York Times. Roberts wrote the majority opinion.
The concept of birthright citizenship has been in place for more than a century under the 14th Amendment, which stipulates that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” The Trump administration disagrees with the interpretation of the sentence. But Roberts’ opinion declares:
- “Citizenship, then and now was the right to have rights—to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land.’ We keep that promise today.”
- In a sign of how much the case mattered to the White House, Trump attended oral arguments in person earlier this year. The ruling could affect the legal status of about 250,000 babies a year, notes Reuters.
One of the few times that the judges did not side with Donny Do-Little….why?
You can bet that the little nazi fucker Miller will be working on the next way to try and take citizenship away from some Americans.
I do not think this issue is dead just yet…..
What do you think of this turn?
I Read, I* Write, You KNow
“lego ergo scribo”