High Prices–What Could Be Done

NOTE:  This will be it for me today for there is a hurricane headed in our direction and I need to make sure the house in good shape to take the punishment.

We Americans are struggling with the high prices of everything from Food to gas….we can blame the government for useless tariffs and such but it actually runs deeper than that premise.

Our presidents have struggled, from time to time, with rising prices and this will delve into what happened and happen was tried….and mostly failed.

The ‘solutions’ seem to be around election time with the hopes that their meager attempts will be met favorably by the voters that were suffering under the crush of rising prices.

Rising prices make angry voters. Small wonder, then, that presidents look for quick ways to tamp down those prices.

The rub is that presidents don’t have the power to reduce inflation. The Federal Reserve Board can influence inflation by raising interest rates, but without precision. In any case, presidents don’t want higher rates, especially in an election season. And always the most powerful operator in the room is markets, not the president or the Fed.

So chief executives resort to trying short-term magic, what one might call “electoral economics.” Look where you may in our history, you see the same result. A bit of prestidigitation may sometimes appear to control prices long enough to help the president. But only sometimes. And the magic never holds long term.

…

In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy worried about inflation. Although annual inflation rates did not rise much above 1 percent at the time, wages were rising faster. Kennedy believed that wage increases reflected and caused inflation. In general that wasn’t true. Nonetheless, the president wanted to keep wage growth in line with productivity growth, which averaged about 3 percent per year. He also aimed to limit price hikes to normal cost markups.

In short, the president wanted to push down unruly prices somehow, without being too obvious about the effort.

In January 1962, Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisers set “guideposts for noninflationary wage and price behavior.” These measures were labeled “guideposts” because the administration understood that Congress would not approve formal price controls.

https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/presidents-high-prices

So the question can be asked….can presidents actually do anything about rising prices?

No, U.S. presidents cannot directly control or quickly curb rising prices, as inflation is driven primarily by global market forces and independent monetary policy.

What Presidents Cannot Do
  • Set prices: Direct price controls or freezes fail long-term and often cause shortages.

  • Control the Federal Reserve: The central bank independently manages interest rates to fight inflation.

  • Fix global commodities: Daily oil, gas, and grocery prices respond to worldwide supply and demand, not executive orders.

  • Command the economy: The massive U.S. market operates mostly through private business and consumer decisions.
What Presidents Can Do (Indirectly)

  • Fiscal policy: Sign or veto spending bills and tax packages, though congressional approval is required and short-term impacts are minimal.

  • Regulatory and executive actions: Adjust federal rules on domestic energy leasing or target corporate consolidation through antitrust enforcement, though these effects take years.  (Donny loves his EOs….but would he try to use them for good?)

  • The bully pulpit: Publicly pressure companies or industries to moderate price hikes, though this relies on persuasion rather than legal enforcement.  (This will not happen for Donny loves his corporate leaders….everything he does is for their benefit)

As it stands today the president can only throw crap at the problem and hope it will work itself out before the next election.

I am an old fart and remember the days, the mid-70s, and the fight inflation of the Ford government….and the WIN program….

On October 8, less than two months after becoming president, Ford addressed a joint session of Congress and declared inflation “public enemy number one.” Unlike Nixon, however, Ford avoided formal mandates. Instead, he retreated to moralizing and recommending, a version of Kennedy’s approach.

Ford urged businesses to restrain prices and wages. He encouraged the public to conserve energy and reduce spending to curb demand. The White House launched the “Whip Inflation Now” campaign, complete with red-and-white “WIN” buttons handed out to citizens. To promote anti-inflation ideas, Ford created a Citizens’ Action Committee that included consumer advocates, business executives, labor leaders, economists, and policy experts. The administration also established the Council on Wage and Price Stability.

Ford’s campaign had virtually no effect on prices. If anything, it undermined his administration’s credibility on economic policy. WIN buttons became a national joke. Some Americans wore them upside-down to read “NIM”—for “No Immediate Miracles” or “Need Immediate Money.”

I remember the beginnings of the ‘generic’ food….the cans with white labels ans black printing…..money was saved but the program was a bust just a short 5 months after it began.

This will give you an overview of the attempts by presidents to control prices….but in the end capitalism won out and we were saddled with ever rising food prices….

https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/presidents-high-prices

We can add Donny to the list of failed programs and the average person struggles and no one will look beyond the markets to settle prices down.

That approach is a cop out….period.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is Impeachment The Best Use Of Their Time?

The election returns are not in yet but many seem to think that there will be some sort of Blue Wave that sweeps Dems into Congress….and the idea of impeaching Donny is once again being floated if the majority switches to the Dems….

Personally I think it is a waste of time to attempt this thing again….the last time was nothing but an exercise in futility.  Donny was impeached and yet he remained to do as much damage as possible.

And now this same impotent situation returns…..personally I think it will be a waste and will divert the policies that will actually help us struggling masses.

I have not been a fan of Dem strategist, James Carville, I think he is a has been and a dinosaur, a throwback to the glory days of Clinton….but on this issue I tend to agree with Carville….

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville urged Democrats to avoid pursuing a third impeachment of President Donald Trump if the party wins control of the House of Representatives in November, arguing it would be “highly unlikely” to succeed.

On the “Politics War Room” podcast on Thursday, Carville and his co-host Al Hunt argued that impeachment would be a waste of time and Democrats should devote their energy to investigating the president instead.

“I’ll tell you one thing that I think Democrats should steer clear of, and that’s impeachment,” Hunt said. “It’s not that Trump has not committed impeachable offenses, far worse than what he was accused of back in 2019 with Ukraine. I mean, he has. I mean, you could come up with a bill of particulars of, you know, a dozen at least. But you know something, James? It’s not going to happen, and it is a distraction.”

Carville agreed, arguing that the Supreme Court is protecting Trump from the consequences of his actions.

“So, you investigate, and, of course, what you’re going to find — and you’re going to find it quickly — is overwhelming evidence of criminal activity. Now, of course, he can’t commit a crime according to the Supreme Court because, well, he’s above the law,” Carville lamented.

“But suppose you say, ‘This is incontrovertible proof. We got to do something about this. How can he stay in office?’ And impeachment would be a very difficult thing,” Carville warned. “It’s time-consuming. It’s highly unlikely to be anything because of the — you need so many votes in the Senate. But we’re going to find out a whole bunch of stuff really fast at the beginning of the year 2027. I promise you.”

https://www.foxnews.com/media/james-carville-warns-dems-against-impeaching-trump-win-control-midterms

Like I said I agree with those that think another impeachment process will be a huge waste of time and energy….but after all is that not what Dems do best….waste time?

You thoughts on impeachment please.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Laws Of Stupidity

These dark days of rampant ignorance I am reminded of something Ben Franklin said…. “We are all born ignorant, but must work hard to remain stupid”….never more true than today.

For years I have been saying that if anyone wants to see where this country is heading they need to watch the movie, Idiocracy, it was very prophetic.

I even wrote about earlier….

“Idiocracy” Is Coming True!

As we get further into the reign of Dear Donny he exemplifies the basic laws of stupidity.

Today, as we witness one of the dumbest wars in history unraveling in Iran, an inept health and human services secretary working to bring back measles and polio, a Republican Party wherein only 20 percent view the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as a violent insurrection but 71 percent deny Joe Biden won the 2020 election, and an administration that refuses to properly regulate AI and crypto industries that threaten the economic well-being and safety of all, Cipolla’s contention is as apt now as when he first proposed it in The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, in 1976—an era when the country, and indeed the world, was similarly roiled by sociopolitical rage and seemed on the brink of a catastrophe.

An Italian economic historian and UC-Berkeley professor who’d seen fascism firsthand and was writing in the wake of the Vietnam War, Cipolla wanted to determine how advanced societies commit truly stupid acts. Originally crafted for his friends, but selling over half a million copies once published, his treatise lies somewhere between satire and serious scholarship, involving a bit of humor and speculation while also applying the laws and language of scientific inquiry and a valid argumentative style. As he wrote in the introduction:

Let me point out at this juncture that most emphatically this little book is neither a product of cynicism nor an exercise in defeatism—no more than a book on microbiology is. The following pages are in fact the result of a constructive effort to detect, know, and thus possibly neutralize one of the most powerful dark forces that hinder the growth of human welfare and happiness.

Cipolla divided people into four groups: the helpless, whose actions harm themselves but benefit others; the intelligent, whose actions benefit themselves and others; the bandits, who enrich themselves while harming others; and the stupid, whose actions harm others while producing no benefit to themselves. This latter group is Cipolla’s main concern. “No matter how high are one’s estimates of human stupidity,” he wrote, “one is repeatedly and recurrently startled by the fact that a) people whom one had once judged rational and intelligent turn out to be unashamedly stupid; b) day after day, with unceasing monotony, one is harassed in one’s activities by stupid individuals who appear suddenly and unexpectedly in the most inconvenient places and at the most improbable moments.”

…

The theory rest on five “laws,” which are as follows:

  • Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
  • The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
  • A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
  • Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people infallibly turns out to be a costly mistake.
  • A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.

https://newrepublic.com/article/215721/trump-basic-laws-human-stupidity-carlo-cipolla

Can we say right on?

When I was in college after I returned from Vietnam I read this study in the year 1978 (yes I am an old fart)….after witnessing the Vietnam War first hand and up close I wanted to know why we must do such things…..and I see not much has changed in all those 50 years.

Read the study and see just how accurate he was in 1976.

Now this brings me back to an old saying….’can’t fix stupid’.

Anything to add?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Midterms Are Breeding Apprehension

We are a little over a month away from those ever popular midterm elections…..and many seem to think that it will be a fiasco in Donny’s favor….but not to worry Pistol Pete will insure we have a good election (that is sarcasm in case someone may have missed it)

The US National Security Agency and other military intelligence and cybersecurity forces will guard election systems during the November midterms, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday. Military cybersecurity experts have routinely helped monitor systems and deter potential hackers since election equipment was designated “critical infrastructure” in 2017, reports the AP. Hegseth’s announcement comes after President Trump gutted the civilian agency specifically created to safeguard election infrastructure, a division of the Department of Homeland Security called the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. That agency last week released an election infrastructure security plan that lays out potential threats to election systems and lists services it would offer to election officials to protect the vote.

In the memo dated Sept. 22 and announced Monday, Hegseth directed defense intelligence officials to mobilize every resource “to defend our election infrastructure from foreign malign influence and ensure that every lawful voter can cast their ballot free from foreign intimidation, coercion, or fear.” Both announcements come just weeks before Election Day on Nov. 3 and with early voting already underway. The short timeline “suggests this is just theater,” said David Becker, a former Justice Department attorney who leads the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research. “If the administration was serious about assisting state and local election officials, they shouldn’t have dismantled all of the federal government’s election cybersecurity capacity and fired all their experts in early 2025,” he said.

Though cybersecurity assistance from the NSA and US Cyber Command is routine, many elections experts, civil rights groups, and Democratic election officials are on guard for signs of meddling in voting or ballot counting by the Trump administration. The president continues to push false claims that elections are rife with fraud while trying to interfere with longstanding election procedures. The US Supreme Court blocked an attempt by Trump to restrict mail voting, but has allowed the use of a federal database to check the citizenship of voters.

Does this ‘guarantee’ fill you with confidence on the integrity of the elections?

For me I think it is bovine fecal matter.

Anyone that trust anyone in Donny’s sphere of corruption then they are bigger idiots than I anticipated.

The closer the vote comes the more it is being said that the American people are losing confidence….

Americans are deeply frustrated with President Trump’s handling of the economy and rising prices, with most panning his performance and blaming his policies as higher costs threaten his party’s chances in November. A new AP-NORC poll finds that only 17% of US adults approve of the Republican president’s handling of the cost of living, per the AP. Just 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, marking a new low. A majority (65%) of US adults now blame Trump’s policies for persistently high costs more than factors outside of his control, signaling growing weariness over his aggressive use of tariffs and continued unhappiness with the war with Iran.

…

Now, there’s widespread disappointment with his performance. About 7 in 10 Americans say Trump’s handling of the cost of living has been “worse than expected, including roughly half of GOPers, who are also concerned about being able to afford groceries and gas. About 6 in 10 Republicans don’t approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living, up from about half in April. Despite their frustration, however, most Republicans (67%) say factors outside Trump’s control are more to blame for high prices. Overall, the picture isn’t much better: Only about 3 in 10 Americans approve of how Trump is handling his job as president, while about 6 in 10 say the nation as a whole is “much” or “somewhat” worse off than when he began his second term.

More here.

But everyone’s concerns should be considered and Donny has a trick up his sleeve to steal the election….

“Trump has long cast doubt on the security of U.S. elections, including by attacking mail-in voting and promoting baseless conspiracy theories of widespread fraud in previous elections,” Politico’s Dana Nickel and Maggie Miller wrote on Thursday. “In July, he delivered a primetime address on election security, which included claims that China was behind massive interference efforts targeting past elections. None of the documents the White House released in July appear to support this claim.”

…

“What they all add up to is a desire to avoid any accountability to the voters in the midterm elections — to ensure, to preordain the outcome of a midterm that he thinks is going to go badly for him,” Dan Vicuña, Senior Policy Director for Voting and Fair Representation at Common Cause, told AlterNet. “We know, from the Big Lie of the 2020 election to spurring on a violent revolt to overthrow a free and fair election, that he has no respect for democratic norms, for the voice of the people. This is entirely about his own power and his own ego. He will even invest in protecting that ego and protecting his power at the expense of the needs of the public.

https://www.alternet.org/trump-has-2677947640/

Will we see what plan Donny has as the election grows nearer?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Killing Babies Is Moral”

We all are aware of the devastation that Israel has wrought upon Gaza and daily they are killing Palestinians without any morsel of regret….but there was one statement, among many, that is most disturbing, at least to me….

Israeli politician Moshe Feiglin, the leader of Israel’s Zehut party, who has a clear path to a seat in the Knesset in the upcoming election, has said in a new interview that it would be “moral” to kill babies in Gaza.

Feiglin made headlines last year when he declared that every child and every baby in Gaza is the “enemy,” a viewpoint he doubled down on in an English-language interview that was published by The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

Feiglin said in the interview that he personally doesn’t want to see babies killed even though he thinks it is “morally” the right thing to do, and that he would prefer all Palestinians to be expelled from Gaza instead.

“I’m saying again again because I’m Jewish and I guess I’m a bit a little bit weak morally. I don’t want to see babies killed, okay? Morally, that should have been done, because of everything I explained. So, but because … I’m Jewish with a soft heart, I would open the borders and let them all go, but no one can stay. And it has to be a part of the Jewish land, Jewish state,” he said.

Elsewhere in the interview, Feiglin said it was “100%” a Jewish point of view to “wipe out” Gaza, expel all the Palestinians, and annex Gaza and the West Bank. He labeled all of Gaza as the “enemy,” not just Hamas.

“The baby that would be born — I’ll say something very tough now, excuse me for saying it — the baby that will be born tomorrow in Gaza, the Arab baby. Notice I’m not saying Hamas, I’m not saying Palestinian … the enemy is Gaza, not Hamas. The baby that will be born in Gaza tomorrow will do exactly the same — God forbid — to your baby that would be born in Jerusalem,” he said.

(antiwar.com)

If that is not proof of the genocidal thinking in Israel then what is?

Personally I think this idiot is a douche like most of the so-called orthodox jews in Israel.

Where is the western media when idiots spout crap?

The extent of their crimes does not stop in Gaza….no they are carry out strikes in Syria and Lebanon killing civilians as they go….it is a despicable situation.

What is this end game?  Is it security or extending an mini empire?

Israel is a pathetic little entity that depends on its ally to do its hard lifting….time for that to end.  Period!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

AI & Voting

The time is approaching when we Americans will go to the polls and decide if we want to continue with the devastation of Donny or to change things hopefully for the better.

Plus we know that I am not a big fan of the use of AI and yes I used it a couple of times to see where it lead, but I read a report that is very disturbing.

How are you deciding who to vote for in the coming midterm elections? Many Americans are turning to ChatGPT.

In a new piece, NPR spoke to several voters who use the OpenAI chatbot to research candidates and get a rundown on their voting records. Some are asking the AI to create spreadsheets on different races or to verify or debunk viral claims. One even used AI to create an entire website for retrieving voting info.

Experts are aghast, noting that AI models tend to be sycophantic and aren’t as impartial as they seem.

“It might select some things that would reinforce and persuade you even more towards the way that you were leaning already,” Rafael Batista, a researcher at John Hopkins University, told NPR. “So you leave more confident, without necessarily learning more about the world.”

40-year-old Adam Johnson in West Virginia uses ChatGPT to organize his life, and he’s now also using it to prep for the midterms. Like many voters, he harbors a grab bag of beliefs. He votes Republican unless the candidate is MAGA, in which case he votes Democrat or third party. He also identifies as “left” on immigration and refugees.

When he asked CHatGPT why it avoided discussing politics before, it gave a mealy-mouthed explanation for why it was now venturing into such territory.

“We can discuss your guiding principles,” it began, per NPR. “I shouldn’t try to manipulate your political views or tell you how to vote, but I can help investigate candidates according to criteria you choose, compare evidence, discuss political philosophy, and reason through priorities.”

https://futurism.com/future-society/voters-chatgpt-midterm-candidate

Is this the way of the future….let AI decide the best candidate to vote for in any election?

Does anyone else find this disturbing?

Are we so lazy that we cannot take the time to research the people that will mold our lives for the next few years?

Any thoughts on this subject?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

An Israeli Civil War?

In my research daily I some times come across reports that are not common in the MSM….some are not accurate while others are hidden gems….

This is a report supposedly from the CIA on the social fabric of Israel…

Israel is at risk of civil war or state collapse, a classified CIA assessment warns, as years of genocide in Gaza and war in Lebanon and Iran deepen political, economic, and social fractures within the country.

The August report, titled “Fracture From Within,” was compiled by experts in the CIA’s Red Cell, according to two U.S. sources who described the contents of the report to Drop Site News. The Red Cell, which is the unit responsible for providing “alternative analysis” within the agency, produced the assessment through a combination of open source information and U.S. intelligence. The assessment appears to refer only to Israel’s Jewish citizens and does not consider its Palestinian citizens, who make up approximately 20% of Israel’s population and who live under various forms of discrimination that Amnesty International and other human rights groups have labelled as part of a broader system of apartheid. The CIA did not respond to a request for comment.

CIA experts pointed to a volatile mix of pressures converging ahead of Israel’s elections on October 27: economic crisis and soaring military spending; heavily armed veterans returning from prolonged combat, many carrying serious psychological trauma; growing fury over ultra-Orthodox men who are exempt from military service; escalating settler violence in the occupied West Bank; and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fighting to hold onto power and igniting a constitutional crisis.

The CIA’s “red teams” are tasked with developing analysis and ideas that challenge prevailing assumptions and expose groupthink or blind spots that can take hold within the intelligence apparatus. “The writers of this are Israel experts,” a source in the intelligence community noted, “this isn’t a fantastical what if—with the upcoming election and the fissures in Israel we should take seriously their conclusion that Israel is one spark away from real internal conflict.”

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/cia-report-israel-civil-war-collapse

My thought:   About damn time!

It is a fascinating report….most of us have been wondering how BiBi will be taken from office….this could be an indication of the pulse of the Israeli public.

Is it possible that Israel will collapse thanks to the action of BiBi and his gang of Thugs?

What are your feelings about this report?

NOTE:

I want to be honest with my readers….I have had no dealings with this website before and wanted to be sure that it was not some sort of conspiracy thing to get social media all a tither….and this is what I found….

…

the world desperately needs hard-hitting journalism to inform the public and keep the powerful in check, establishment and corporate media outlets are failing.

That’s why Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim, and Nausicaa Renner started Drop Site News, a non-aligned, investigative news organization dedicated to exposing the crimes of the powerful—particularly in overt and secret conflicts where the U.S. government is playing a key role.

Drop Site News launched in July 2024 with the goal of being a high-energy, trusted source for influential investigative reports that the mainstream and corporate media won’t touch across the political spectrum. We publish major scoops on the news cycle — and we also deliver the biggest international stories you’ve never even read about.

https://www.dropsitenews.com/about

My research has shown me that it is a legit site that is non-aligned (so to speak) and for that reason I shall be visiting often.  Please check it out for yourself and make a decision.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

OMG! Dems Have A Plan

I know I have been harsh with the Dems in Congress but not without good reason….they are anticipating a ‘blue wave’ (whatever that will accomplish) and have set about formulating a plan for some oversight.

Democrats aren’t waiting for midterms results or more polls: They’re sketching out a post-Trump playbook. From politicians on Capitol Hill to outside advocacy groups, the Washington Post reports, Democrats are drafting bills and ethics plans aimed at narrowing presidential power, tightening conflict-of-interest rules, and rebuilding barriers between the White House and the Justice Department once President Trump is out of office. Ideas on the table include curbing emergency powers used to justify tariffs and troop deployments, forcing public review of White House renovations, barring presidents from taking foreign payments without Congress’ signoff, and blocking settlements that could shield a sitting president from tax scrutiny.

There’s also a push to prohibit politically motivated prosecutions, require blind trusts for wealthy officials, and bolster civil service protections so a president can’t easily oust career staff members. Backers frame it as a Watergate-style reform moment waiting to happen, noting a Pew survey that found broad unease with expanding presidential authority. Conservatives call the effort hollow, arguing that Democrats won’t constrain their own presidents and that Trump is operating within a long tradition of muscular executive action. Even some advocates warn the big test won’t be writing new laws, but whether a polarized Congress—and a public that may like decisive action—will actually enforce them.

The Post piece can be found here.

All that sounds very ambitious but does anyone see it going into action?

Let me say I do not see the success they are promising.

Keep in mind the Senate and the place where good bills go to die….I am not certain even if they win the Senate that they will vote for these changes.

The Dems in the Senate voted to block a bill that would curb insider trading but they did find a loophole to preserve their profit taking so they could vote against the legislation….

Senate Democrats swatted down a Republican-backed bid to rein in lawmakers’ stock trades, saying it barely touched the problem. The Stop Insider Trading Act, sponsored by Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, fell short on a 53-47 procedural vote, needing 60 to advance and drawing zero Democratic support despite having passed the House in July, the Hill reports. The New York Times reports that the bill’s failure was “predetermined” after Republicans attached voter ID restrictions that the Senate had already rejected six times.

That may be a legit reason to vote against the bill….but it preserves their profit taking…..good call.

How will this ambitious plan help the average American with rising prices on everything?

Another example of the Senate’s lack of focus….

The Senate killed a bill that would protect average Americans from rising power costs…..

The United States Senate has decided against advancing the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill designed to shield everyday Americans from rapidly rising electricity costs driven by data center buildouts nationwide. On September 30, the bill fell short of the 60 votes required to pass the bill by just three votes, ending 57-43, according to a Reuters report. The Ratepayer Protection Act bill had cleared the U.S. House of Representatives just two weeks earlier, with the Senate as the last procedural step before President Donald Trump could sign it into law. Following the vote, the bill is now officially dead.

Another reason why I do not believe the hype about bi-partisanship.

This is more an attack on Donny and his minions than helping Americans survive.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Those Damn Data Centers

As you may well know there is a bitch of a situation around all those data centers that the tech bros want to build and there is amazing pushback by the locals in each case.

Here in Mississippi there is a proposed center to be built in the central part of the state and a MAGA sycophant the governor is pushing hard to appease Donny on the building of this center.

Bezos and Amazon is filling Mississippians’ (not the sharpest pencils in the box) heads with a bunch of crap to get this built….

As Amazon Web Services prepares to invest more than $20 billion in Mississippi data centers, the head of the cloud computing giant is pushing back against growing criticism of the industry’s rapid expansion, arguing that the facilities are essential to America’s economic future, artificial intelligence leadership and national security.

In an op-ed that was released Friday morning, Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services, compares today’s AI-driven data center construction boom to the creation of the Interstate Highway System, calling it the largest infrastructure buildout in the United States since the highways transformed the nation’s economy after World War II.

“The choices we make today will determine that outcome,” Garman wrote. “A lapse in our nation’s focus or resolve could put us behind, and potentially irreparably so.”

https://www.clarionledger.com/story/business/2026/10/02/amazon-says-mississippi-is-proof-data-centers-are-worth-it/92044987007/

A typical defense in saying that America will not be number one and that works great here in an ignorant Red State.

There is some work that refute what the governor and Amazon spread….

Hours after the Jackson City Council voted to pause data center development for six months, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves took to social media to mock people who support data center moratoriums as “idiots” who are surrendering America’s technological future to China.

That response tells Mississippians almost everything they need to know about the problem.

Jackson residents did not demand that the city abandon technology. They asked their elected officials to take six months to study what these enormous facilities could mean for their neighborhoods, utility bills, water supply, health and property values. They asked for answers before construction began.

Instead of respecting those concerns, Reeves attacked them.

Opinion | Mississippi Is Tired of Being Kept in the Dark on Data Centers

Reeves response was directly from Donny’s playbook….that must have been an interesting phone call….Donny telling the micro brain Reeves what to counter the accusations…..

This is the picture Donny painted for those that oppose these environment killers….

President Donald Trump is doubling down on his criticism of Americans who oppose the construction of data centers.

In a Thursday, Oct. 1, interview with Time, the president, 80, was presented with data that said over half of Americans oppose data centers, according to a Gallup poll conducted in March. Critics of the facilities have pointed to environmental concerns and the related disruptions of construction compared with the tax and job benefits.

Trump was asked, “71% of Americans oppose building data centers. 57% say AI or SI, as you call it, will do more harm than good. Are these Americans wrong?”

https://people.com/trump-says-americans-opposing-ai-data-centers-want-to-live-in-crime-infested-squalor-12151347

Donny employed one of the GOP’s favorite tactic….fear mongering.

After many years of promising jobs and lower taxes for the wealth of corporation that have come to the state none of the promises have been met….the corporations get lower taxes and that is about it.

I hope the people of my state win their battle with Amazon and especially Donny but I will not hold my breath….corruption runs deep and politicians can be bought.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Moderates, Centrists And Independents

College of Political Knowledge

2026 Election Series #1

To some these are different techniques in approaching government….but to me they are very similar.

AS the 2026 mid-term elections draws near there will be lots said in the MSM about these people…personally I think it is all so much bullshit but that is just me.

I will be write posts on all three of these so-called voters, some of it will be re-posts from days gone by that I wrote whenever I see these terms used.

Have I mentioned I think all that coverage is bullshit?

We know for a fact that Donny’s brand of MAGA will be on the ballot and many seem to think that will be enough to make people vote for Dems….I do not believe that….I do not care what the polls say….their predictions could be just so much farting into the wind.

But let’s look at the so-called political beasts….

While the terms centrist, moderate, and independent are often used interchangeably to describe voters and politicians who sit between the two major political parties, they actually refer to distinct concepts.
The primary difference lies in the fact that independents are defined by their lack of official party affiliation, moderates are defined by the non-extreme temperaments or positions they hold relative to their chosen party, and centrists are defined by their specific ideological stance of blending left- and right-wing policy solutions.
 Direct Comparison

Feature Centrists ⚖️ Moderates 🤝 Independents 🚫
Core Definition An ideological stance that deliberately mixes policies from both the left and the right. A political temperament that avoids ideological extremism and favors incremental change. A party status meaning the person is officially unaffiliated with any political party.
Party Affiliation May be independent or hold membership in a major party. Usually registered members of major parties (e.g., “Moderate Democrats”). Strictly unregistered with major parties; rejects party labels.
Primary Goal Finding synthesized, effective policy solutions regardless of political origin. Achieving stability, compromise, and bipartisan consensus between opposing sides. Evaluating candidates individually based on issues rather than party loyalty.
Ideological Consistency Often highly opinionated with a consistent, balanced mix of views. Generally sits closer to the political center of gravity but leans toward their home party. Highly diverse; can range from radical libertarians to center-of-the-road voters.
1. Centrists: The Ideologues of the Middle

Centrism is a proactive political outlook rather than just a passive avoidance of the extremes. Centrists believe that neither the far-left nor the far-right has a monopoly on good governance.

  • The Policy Mix: A centrist might strongly support a robust social safety net (traditionally a left-wing view) while simultaneously advocating for strict fiscal conservatism or strong border enforcement (traditionally right-wing views).

  • Examples: Organized political groups like the Forward Party or the Problem Solvers Caucus in Congress focus heavily on structural, centrist reforms like open primaries and ranked-choice voting.

2. Moderates: The Pragmatists and Conciliators
Moderation describes the intensity of a person’s political beliefs. A moderate typically operates within a major political party but acts as a check against the party’s more radical or progressive wings.

  • The Approach: Moderates prioritize governance, stability, and consensus over ideological purity. They are the legislators most willing to cross party lines to negotiate deals.

  • Examples: Groups like the New Democrat Coalition or the Republican Governance Group are coalitions of moderate lawmakers who work to pull their respective parties back toward practical legislation. Recently, moderate Democrats launched initiatives like the “Promise to America” to explicitly reaffirm capitalist, non-socialist platforms.
3. Independents: The Unaffiliated Bloc

Being an independent is a statement about institutional alignment, not necessarily about a person’s exact political views. Gallup polling data consistently shows that independents make up a massive portion of the electorate, often matching or outpacing registered Democrats and Republicans.

  • The Spectrum: It is a common misconception that all independents are middle-of-the-road voters. While many describe themselves as moderates, a significant percentage actually hold solidly conservative or liberal beliefs but choose to remain outside the two-party system due to partisan frustration.

  • Behavior: They are typically swing voters who judge candidates case-by-case, or they are voters who feel completely unrepresented by modern political platforms.

There you have the ‘differences’ in the political terms….but to my way of thinking they are the same animal with minor differences….these are canned definitions.

The confusing one is ‘independents’….they look at all candidates without a party affiliation….but in reality they are just disenfranchised voters and will settle on one or the other of the political parties.

Then there is the dream of bi-partisanship….these days it is nothing more than a pipe dream and a not so funny joke.

These so-called voters are still supporting the corporate greed and corruption that both parties breed…..the voters hang onto the lie that either party can change the greed and corruption in politics.

Any thing to add?

Stay tuned for I will look deeper into each of these so-called voters and make my analysis known.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”