My summation of the SOTU speech was ma bust….but there were things happening that people should know about…..like the devious trap he set for the Dems during his speech….
A clever turn for Little Donny….
Expect one moment from President Trump’s State of the Union to live on repeatedly in political ads as the midterms near, one that involves the volatile issue of immigration. Coverage:
The moment: About an hour into his speech, Trump declared: “One of the great things about the State of the Union is how it gives Americans the chance to see clearly what their representatives really believe. So tonight, I’m inviting every legislator to join with my administration in reaffirming a fundamental principle: if you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support: The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” Watch it here, via NBC News.
Split room: Republicans stood en masse and applauded, while Democrats remained seated. “Isn’t that a shame?” Trump said, referring to the Democrats, per Fox News. “You should be ashamed of yourself for not standing up. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
The trap: The Washington Post reports that Trump himself came up with the idea to create a viral moment. The story uses the word “trap” to describe his plan, as does a New York Times analysis. “Trump set his trap,” writes Shawn McCreesh. “With one maneuver, Mr. Trump divided the room, asking viewers to see the two camps as he saw them: There were the Good Americans and there were those willing to jeopardize the country’s security.”
Going viral: Already, the conservative nonprofit American Sovereignty is out with an ad highlighting the moment, reports Politico. “Remember this when you head to the polls in 2026, 2028, and beyond,” tweeted the Trump War Room, along with video. Stephen Miller and Vice President JD Vance also were trumpeting the moment, as were multiple GOP heavyweights.
The bet: Even as polls show Trump underwater on immigration and the economy ranking as voters’ top concern, the president’s camp is certain that immigration still motivates the Republican base. As the Politico analysis puts it, “Republicans are betting President Donald Trump just handed them the lifeline they need to win on immigration again.”
Democrats: They remain hopeful that Americans will see the administration’s immigration tactics as too harsh, and were shrugging off the criticism. “Of course we support Americans,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. “We’re not going to be a prop in Donald Trump’s little show.”
This was a genius move especially with an election looming on the horizon….no matter what the Dems would do it will be used against them in campaigns.
There was NO way for the Dems to come out of that theatrical moment unscathed.
At this point it is Donny 1, Dems 0….Dems need to be more prepared for this type of trick from the master scammer.
Maybe this will get people interested in the SOTU speech…..
It appears that our leader (I use the term loosely) that it is his right too destroy countries that deems unworthy.
He proved just what a complete idiot he is and his lack of knowledge of the Constitution…..this after SCOTUS slipped him a mickey on his dumbass tariffs.
Reacting to a U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling his tariffs policy unconstitutional, U.S. President Donald Trump launched into an unhinged rant on Friday confirming that he considers himself above the law as any tinpot authoritarian leader would.
The court ruled 6-3 that the U.S. Constitution makes clear that only Congress can levy tariffs, which are really taxes, on the U.S. population. Thus Trump’s extensive tariffs, imposed since January 2025, are illegal and American consumers and companies are due a refund of around $200 billion, the court said.
The ruling unleashed Trump in full psychotic mode, railing against justices as “fools and lapdogs;” the plaintiffs in the lawsuit the court ruled on as “sleazebags, major sleazebags” serving an unnamed foreign power and he announced a new 10 percent worldwide tariff “over and above our normal tariffs already being charged” in defiance of the court.
Trump argues he is still allowed to impose tariffs over the heads of Congress by the authority of the 1974 Trade Act. That act allows a president to unilaterally impose tariffs of up to 15 percent (hence the new 10 percent measures), but only for 150 days, after which Congress must continue them.
However, Friday’s ruling means he must vacate the existing tariffs, which he is so far refusing to do.
Trump tries to justify his existing tariffs as having been imposed under an emergency act. But the court struck that down, arguing in essence there is no economic or national security emergency in the United States today.
In his madness, Trump furiously claimed he had authority to impose embargoes and “destroy countries” but the Supreme Court dared rule he couldn’t even put a single dollar tariff on a nation’s imports. He exclaimed:
“I am allowed to cut off any and all trade or business with that same country. In other words, I can destroy the trade, I can destroy the country. I’m even allowed to impose a foreign country-destroying embargo. I can embargo, I can do anything I want, but I can’t charge one dollar because that’s not what it says, and that’s not the way it even reads. I can do anything I want to do to them, but I can’t charge any money. So I’m allowed to destroy the country, but I can’t charge them a little fee.
Think of that. How ridiculous is that? I’m allowed to embargo them, I’m allowed to tell them you can’t do business in the United States anymore, ‘we want you out of here,’ but I want to charge them $10. I can’t do that.
It’s incorrect, their decision is incorrect. But it doesn’t matter because we have very powerful alternatives … .”
In fact, Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution asserts Congress has the authority to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,” and to regulate commerce with foreign nations. Embargoes, such as those on Cuba, North Korea and Iran, are imposed by Congress, not the White House (unless there is an emergency).
I know I am a glutton for punishment and I suffered through the almost 2 hour speech…..lots of manure was spread and lots of lies were passed on to the viewing audience.
This is a summation for those that want to know what fresh Hell Donny has in store for the nation.
President Trump started in sales mode, using his State of the Union address to deliver an upbeat vision of the US economy. But that portrayal collides with the sentiment of Americans who remain anxious about their finances and feel they haven’t benefited from Trump’s policies. He took the high road to honor the gold medal-winning US men’s Olympic hockey team and a war hero before pivoting abruptly to a darker tone as he ridiculed Democrats. He focused much of the first hour of his record-setting one-hour, 48-minute speech on the economy, something Republicans had urged him to do as they head into the midterm elections. Here are takeaways from the speech from the AP:
Economy: Much of the nation is worried about the direction of the economy, but Trump says the good times are here, insisting repeatedly that rising costs are no longer a problem. “The roaring economy is roaring like never before,” he said. He cheered the lower cost of gasoline, mortgage rates, prescription drug prices and the rising stock market: “Millions and millions of Americans are all gaining.” Such optimism, as so many Americans are feeling economic strains, risks painting Trump as out of touch. Just 39% of US adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy in February, according to AP-NORC polling.
Patriotism: For a president who always seems to be spoiling for a fight, Trump also tried to summon Americans’ innate patriotic impulses. In addition to the hockey team, he singled out war heroes and those who had taken brave stands in other countries, using the moment to bestow numerous presidential medals in an effort to give the address a more positive gloss. It underscored the president’s media savvy and understanding that even if a moment isn’t appreciated completely in real time, it can have an afterlife in the days following speech, especially on social media. Yet in one revealing moment, Trump lamented why he couldn’t give a congressional medal to himself.
A negative turn: The Republican president soon took aim at Democrats and blamed them for many of the nation’s ills. Trump said rising health care premiums are “caused by you,” suggested Democrats “are not protecting” Social Security and blamed them for the nation’s affordability crunch. “You caused that problem. You caused that problem,” Trump said as he glared at the Democratic side of the room. He seemed to get angrier as the speech progressed. “These people are crazy, I’m telling you, they’re crazy,” he said. “Democrats are destroying this country.”
SCOTUS: By Trump’s standards, he held his tongue when it came to the Supreme Court. After the court struck down his tariff policy last week, Trump said the justices who voted against one of his signature issues were an “embarrassment to their families.” By Tuesday, he simply called the ruling “unfortunate.” Trump sought to treat the ruling with indifference, insisting that tariff revenues were “saving” the US, ignoring the fact that the levies haven’t made a significant dent in government debt. He said the tariffs were paid by foreign countries even as virtually every study concludes that costs have been paid by US firms and consumers.
Elections: The president also used the speech to reprise his attack on the integrity of US elections. “Cheating is rampant in our elections,” Trump said. Trump has made such claims for years, focused on his 2020 election loss, claims rejected by dozens of courts and his own attorney general at the time. “They want to cheat. They have cheated, and their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat,” Trump said of Democrats. “And we’re going to stop it. We have to stop it.”
Minneapolis: Sometimes what’s not said is as notable as what is. Trump has highlighted immigration since the very first speech in which he announced his 2016 presidential campaign. And on Tuesday night, he revived much of the same language he’s used throughout the past decade, blasting “criminal aliens” and warning of “drug lords, murderers all over our country.” What he didn’t mention: the most aggressive immigration enforcement tactics that threatened to bring the US to the brink earlier this year. He didn’t mention the deaths of two US citizens in Minneapolis last month at the hands of federal agents. And he made no acknowledgement of the broad concerns in the US about Trump’s approach on immigration, as demonstrated by the 60% of US adults who disapproved of his handling of the issue in February, according to AP-NORC polling.
Iran: Trump has already built up the largest US military presence in the Middle East in decades. And in his speech, he outlined a rationale for using those forces to launch a major military strike against Iran. The president said that Iran and its proxies have “spread nothing but terrorism, death and hate,” adding that its leaders have killed at least 32,000 protesters in recent weeks. He also warned that the nation has developed missiles that can threaten Europe and is working on missiles “that will soon reach” the US.
For those that watched something more special…..Donny hit all his usual high points….Dems did it (whatever it was), still harping on giving himself the medal of honor, massive voter fraud (none has ever been found), justification for starting another conflict with Iran, according to Donny we live in a ‘golden age’….still looking for where my life is golden.
But if you are interested in a fact check on his rambling speech….
All in all it was note worthy…..how? I is amazing that one person can lie and scam for 2 hours straight.
The Dems had their shot, just not as much time as Little Donny to make their case….
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger offered a sharp contrast to President Trump’s depiction of the nation as being in a “golden age” during his State of the Union, arguing in her Democratic rebuttal that costs remain high for many Americans more than a year into his second term. Her message, that families are still struggling under Trump’s policies, is one Democrats plan to carry nationwide ahead of the midterm elections. Party leaders point to Spanberger’s double-digit victory in Virginia last November as validation of a disciplined, cost-focused campaign they now hope to replicate across the country, the AP reports.
Spanberger was flanked by American flags as she delivered the speech from Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum with restored 18th-century buildings, invoking the site’s role at the heart of Virginia’s early opposition to British rule. Spanberger said she wanted to “plainly and honestly” speak to people watching at home. She structured her speech around a series of direct questions: “Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family? Is the president working to keep Americans safe, both at home and abroad? Is the president working for you?”
I think she asked the right questions….but is anyone listening?
Sadly I do not think the Dems hit it out of the park with their speech….but I was not expecting them too bring it home.
All in all a wasted night of TV…..but it was interesting for me for I am a sick political junkie.
Tonight we will be subjected to the off topic rants and accusations of our Dear Leader in his SOTU speech….it will be a contentious one….some Dems will opt out and Donny will be still fuming about the SCOTUS decision on his silly tariffs.
President Trump delivers his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, and he’s tipping his hand on only one aspect of it in advance: “It’s going to be a long speech because we have so much to talk about,” he told reporters on Monday, reports the New York Times. Tariffs, inflation, immigration, and Iran are just a few of the topics on the agenda as the midterms loom. One other aspect getting attention: the awkwardness of Supreme Court justices attending days after Trump slammed some of them as “disloyal” and “lap dogs” because of their decision to invalidate his tariffs. For Chief Justice John Roberts in particular, it will be quite a contrast from last year’s first joint session of Congress, which was all “warmth and good vibes,” notes USA Today.
This year, Roberts authored the opinion that has led to days of attacks on the court by the president, and Roberts was joined not only by the court’s liberals, but by two Trump appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett—whom Trump called “an embarrassment to their families.” Asked whether those justices were still welcome at Tuesday’s address, Trump answered they were “barely invited” and said, “I couldn’t care less if they come.” Meanwhile, at least half a dozen Democratic lawmakers plan to skip the speech in favor of an alternate event at the National Mall, reports CNN.
I am sure that Donny will have something to say about the decision for he cannot let anything goo especially if someone has defied him in some way and SCOTUS has done just that.
There is word that some Dems will invite some Epstein survivors to the speech….grandstanding and some prominent people are calling for average viewers to tune out.
I am a political junkie I cannot not watch the speech and write a summary of what I saw and heard….it should be entertaining…..at least for me.
Stay tuned for I will post my thoughts on the disaster that will be the SOTU speech for 2026.
2026 is an election year and of course there is much talk about the possibility of a Blue Wave and the hope for a change in direction for this country.
Sorry to be a downer here but….dream on!
Reports are coming out the that the young are not satisfied with the GOP or the Dems and are identifying themselves as independents….
More Americans than ever are stepping away from the two-party labels. A new Gallup survey finds that 45% of US adults identified as political independents in 2025, the highest share in more than three decades of telephone polling and up from 43% in recent peak years. Just 27% of adults called themselves Democrats and 27% Republicans. The shift is driven largely by younger Americans: Majorities of Gen Z and millennials, and more than four in 10 Gen Xers, now claim the independent label, compared with about a third or less of baby boomers and older adults. A big factor in recent swings is tied to unhappiness with whatever party is in power, which the AP notes may bode well for Democrats in the midterms.
All these independents, however, are not precisely in the political middle. When asked which party they lean toward, 20% of all adults were independents who favored Democrats, 15% leaned Republican, and 10% did not lean either way.
Combining party identifiers and leaners, Democrats held a 47% to 42% edge over Republicans in 2025, reversing a three-year period of GOP advantage and returning to a pattern last seen in President Trump’s first term. The Democratic edge widened over the course of the year, from parity with Republicans in early 2025 to an eight-point lead by year’s end.
On ideology, conservatives still outnumber liberals. Thirty-five percent of Americans described themselves as conservative or very conservative, 28% as liberal or very liberal, and 33% as moderate. However, the conservative lead over liberals—seven points—is the smallest margin going back to 1992. The biggest ideological shift has come inside the Democratic Party, where 59% now identify as liberal, up from 25% in 1994.
Glad to see that people are getting dissatisfied with the two corrupt parties….but with that said do you see any change?
I hate the term ‘independent’ for it is not accurate….these people will still vote for one of the two parties that are destroying this country.
They will not look for a true alternative so they are not independent voters they are just lazy twats.
This next election will be the chance for some real change or at least the beginnings….but will the voter actually want change or just a repeat of stupid voting habits?
Our ambassador to Israel is one Huckabee who was always been a religious zealot with little to say that made sense.
Like his butt buddy Donny, this a/hole had to pen his useless mouth and piss off the world.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has sparked a diplomatic firestorm, drawing a rebuke from 14 countries after expressing support for the idea of Israel taking over land stretching from Egypt to Iraq during an interview with Tucker Carlson.
Huckabee made the comments when pressed on his Christian Zionist view that the modern state of Israel has the divine right to the land that it controls. Carlson asked how far that goes, pointing out that the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis suggests his descendants would have all the land between the Euphrates and the Nile Rivers, which includes Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and parts of Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
“It would be fine if they took it all,” Huckabee said. When pressed further, Huckabee insisted that Israel wasn’t trying to take that land, but the idea of a “Greater Israel” has support within the Israeli government, and Israel currently occupies parts of Syria and Lebanon, and continues to expand illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and its occupation of more than 50% of Gaza.
In response to Huckabee’s comments, a joint statement was released by the foreign ministries of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, as well as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Organization of Islamic States, and the Arab League.
The countries expressed “their strong condemnation and profound concern regarding the statements made by the United States Ambassador to Israel, in which he indicated that it would be acceptable for Israel to exercise control over territories belonging to Arab states, including the occupied West Bank.”
The statement said Huckabee’s comments constitute “a flagrant violation of the principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, and pose a grave threat to the security and stability of the region.”
“The Ministries reaffirmed that Israel has no sovereignty whatsoever over the Occupied Palestinian Territory or any other occupied Arab lands. They reiterated their firm rejection of any attempts to annex the West Bank or separate it from the Gaza Strip, their strong opposition to the expansion of settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and their categorical rejection of any threat to the sovereignty of Arab states,” the statement said.
(antiwar.com)
This idiot was a worthless candidate when he ran for the presidency and he has not got any better with age….if this ass wad is a ‘man of god’ then I am a female soccer star from Latvia.
It is loud mouths like this prick that give religion a bad name and turns people off.
This nation needs to try and repair its standing in the world and dipshits like Huckabee makes that impossible.
He needs to be recalled and shown the door for he is unfit to wear the mantle of ambassador.
We have enough of these zealots that poison the minds of the less educated with their bullshit….he needs to be silenced.
Yesterday I got the message from WordPress…..it was my anniversary, 18 years, but for 19 years I have been blogging…..first on another platform and then a switch to WP.
Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!
You registered on WordPress.com 18 years ago.
Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.
I want to thank all those that have hung with me through thick and thin….your time and participation is much appreciated and know that I cherish all those regulars that spend their time here on IST.
Thank you so much…..now onto another sterling year.
Another week has come and gone the the Sh*t Show rattles on….and on….
The big story was that SCOTUS slipped Donny a mickey on his outrageous tariffs….but not to worry he just put new ones in place.
Donny said he was proud of ‘his economy’….
On paper, the American economy is doing great, growing at a strong annualized rate of 4.4% in the third quarter of 2025. It wasn’t long until President Donald Trump took credit for that, but the on-ground reality is a lot different. Low and middle-income families are struggling to make ends meet, and small businesses are struggling to stay afloat. There is also a housing market crisis. But you’d never realize it if you heard the president’s recent speeches.
His billionaire buddies are doing great but the rest of us are starting too feel the pinch.
Then there is the silliness about UFOs…..
It appears Obama made some comment and Doonny is off to the races….
President Trump is accusing a predecessor of spilling top-secret details about aliens. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday, Trump said Barack Obama revealed classified information when he commented about extraterrestrials on a podcast over the weekend, USA Today reports. “He gave classified information, he’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump said, calling it a “big mistake” but offering no specifics. Pressed on whether he was actually confirming aliens are real, Trump replied, “I don’t know if they’re real or not, I can tell you he gave classified information.”
In a Feb. 14 interview, podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen asked Obama if aliens exist. “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” Obama said, adding that there’s no hidden alien bunker at Area 51 “unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.” After the offhand remark drew attention, Obama walked it back in a social media post, saying he was speaking hypothetically: The universe is big enough that life is likely somewhere, he wrote, “but the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”
Not to be outdone by Obama Donny makes a bold statement….
President Trump said Thursday that he’s directing the Pentagon and other government agencies to identify and release files related to extraterrestrials and UFOs because of “tremendous interest.” Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post hours after he accused Barack Obama of disclosing “classified information” when Obama recently suggested in a podcast interview that aliens were real, the AP reports. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, “I don’t know if they’re real or not,” and said of Obama, “I may get him out of trouble by declassifying.”
“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters,” Trump wrote.
WAIT!
I thought that information was classified?
Or is this just another Donny smokescreen?
Remember that gaudy hideous idea of the “Arc Du Trump”?
At least someone is trying to stop it before that thing goes up….
Three Vietnam War veterans who became US diplomats, along with a historic preservationist, sued the Trump administration on Thursday to block a proposed 250-foot “triumphal arch” from being built in the capital just west of the Potomac. The suit argues President Trump’s project, which he wants completed for this year’s US semiquincentennial celebration, would intrude on views from Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia toward the Lincoln Memorial in Washington and disrupt the historic layout of the capital’s core memorials, the Washington Post reports.
Filed by watchdog group Public Citizen in DC federal court, the suit says the administration is barreling ahead without approval from Congress or required federal review panels; no formal proposal has yet landed before those bodies. The plaintiffs contend the arch would break carefully designed sight lines along Memorial Avenue, alter the symbolic connection of the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington House, and Arlington Memorial Bridge, and “dishonor” the cemetery’s meaning for visitors and future interments. A recent Economist/YouGov poll found 52% of US adults oppose the project, with 21% in support. Trump said at the end of December that construction would begin in two months.
Why aren’t the Dems more proactive on this front?
There is more utter silliness from that moron at HHS…..
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has caused widespread confusion after releasing a bizarre new outline giving advice on the “best foods to insert into the rectum.”
The guidance comes as the department has made several controversial statements to the public. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s comments about vaccines and public health measures have been disputed by health experts and scientists.
This time around, the department launched a new dietary guidance website linked to the updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030, highlighting the importance of consuming nutrient-rich whole foods and limiting ultra-processed foods. Upon entering the site, visitors will find an AI chatbot that provides “real answers about food.” Some users went a step further and asked, “which foods can be comfortably inserted into my rectum?
These idiots are in-charge of our health…..pathetic.
There is some good news for Donny on the run up to the mid-terms….
A couple of years ago, the polling company YouGov asked people about insects. The resulting survey found that butterflies are America’s favorite insect, with eight in 10 people having a “very or somewhat positive” reaction to them.
Many journalists will tell you to never trust the polling, and they’ve been proven right many times over. Still, aren’t you curious how a random group of 1,148 adults feels about bugs?
Well, the YouGov poll also asked Americans about their least favorite insects. It turns out 86% of people have a “very or somewhat negative” reaction to mosquitoes. Cockroaches have a disapproval rating of 84%, while 76% of people dislike wasps.
Donald Trump’s disapproval rating, this time according to the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, among all Americans is currently 61%, which means he is not as unpopular as wasps, but is disliked more than spiders (57% – I know, I know, spiders are not insects, but YouGov included them on the list ) and ants (52%).
Finally the moist despicable and disgusting thing this Orange POS has ever said, thought or done…..
Speaking in Rome, Georgia, PresidentDonald Trump recounted his surprise December 2018 visit to U.S. troops at Al Asad Air Force Base inIraq‘s Anbar province. He told the crowd that he felt incredibly brave for making the trip. “So brave in fact that I wanted to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor,” Trump said.
According to People, Trump said he asked his team directly: “Am I allowed to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor?” He acknowledged that the honor is typically given to “so many guys that are seriously brave,” describing how recipients often return with missing arms or legs. He admitted that giving himself one might be “a little stretch.”
Just like this old fat dipshit to cheapen the nation’s highest honor for bravery and a spit in the face of all the medal recipients.
What gives this draft dodging piece of crap the right to even consider this….this pasty asshole deserves nothing for he has done nothing then or now too make this country great…..all he wants is his fucking ego massaged….if this is even considered then my service meant nothing and I will be goddamned if I will let that happen.
That is quite enough of the depressing stuff….let us end this with a little humor….animals always makes me smile.
The short vid with the dog and chicken is the perfect description of the ‘Trump economy”…..
That Was The Week That Was….
Enjoy your Sunday and as always…..Be Well and Be Safe….
Another week of stories not making the cut in the journalistic world.
Local–Our weather sucks….it is end of February and the temps are pushing 80 and very little rain. The average high for this time of year is 60-65 our lows are 10 degrees higher the the average high….this is getting ridiculous.
Personal–To give my poor brain a rest I have been tuned in to the Olympics and was amused by the women’s cross country skiing when a dog joined the race.
A dog ran onto the track while the women’s heats were in progress, running alongside athletes as they crossed the finish line. The incident didn’t disrupt the competition, and the dog was cheered on by spectators. It later wandered to the finish area, approaching skiers as they completed their runs. Venue officials said a spectator had brought the animal into the venue despite a strict no-pets policy. The dog was secured near the finish line and its owner was asked to leave.
His name is Nazgul and I think we should make him famous on the internet.
I also think that the pup should get a medal for his finish.
Enough chit chat onto the meat of the subject.
Let’s start with aliens, the ET type,…..
One of the most bizarre accounts of a close encounter with a UFO hails from the former Soviet Union, where it’s reported that dozens of soldiers were turned into stone by irate extraterrestrials
According to a report from that era, in 1993, troops shot down an alien spacecraft flying over Siberia using a surface-to-air missile. Five beings reportedly emerged from the wreckage, merging into a fiery orb that emitted a beam of light, instantly petrifying 23 soldiers, leaving only a handful of survivors to recount the incident.
Let’s say that we find alien life….will we be able to talk?
We may not have found any definitive proof of extraterrestrial life just yet, despite plenty of hope among scientists.
But if we were to ever come to an answer in the form of alien biology or technology, breaking the news to the general public could be much more difficult than one might think. As Time reports, the subject comes with an enormous amount of baggage, from preconceived notions of what alien life could look like from popular culture to fears over the implications of confirming we’re not alone.
“The search for life in space isn’t just a science question,” Portland State University Brianne Suldovsky told the magazine. “It’s a moral question, it’s a philosophical question, for some it’s a religious question.”
Suldovsky compared communicating the unknowns and managing fear to lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Except, when it comes to xenobiology, “you’re talking about planetary protection.”
“Managing public fear is going to be incredibly challenging, however it is possible to communicate in a way that at least gives the public information about how afraid they should be and what they can do to protect themselves,” she said.
A little health news for those taking the GLP-1 treatments…..
Some patients taking popular weight-loss drugs are ending up with a condition associated with 18th-century sea voyages: scurvy. GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic suppress appetite so effectively that some users are consuming too little nutrient-dense food, researchers say, putting them at risk for vitamin deficiencies, which can affect bone, brain, gut, and skin health, as well as muscle mass, per People. Scurvy, caused by a severe lack of vitamin C, can lead to anemia, bleeding gums, easy bruising, and slow wound healing, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Musician Robbie Williams has said he developed scurvy after taking “something like Ozempic.” “I’d stopped eating and I wasn’t getting nutrients,” he told the Mirror last April. A new review from Australia’s University of Newcastle looked at 41 controlled GLP-1 trials involving 50,000 people over 17 years and found only two evaluated overall nutrition. And only one of the two studies had published the information, per the Australian Financial Review.
“Nutrition plays a critical role in health, and right now it’s largely missing from the evidence,” said Clare Collins, a nutrition and dietetics professor at the university, in a statement. She cited case reports of deficiencies in thiamine (vitamin B1) and protein on top of the scurvy cases being discussed anecdotally and urged health systems to act before deficiencies become common. She wants general practitioners’ chronic disease plans for GLP-1 users to routinely include referrals to dietitians. Because “when people are eating less, the quality of what they eat matters even more.”
Why not? I want some of this grant money.
If you think you’re an outlier in the gas department, science has news: You probably aren’t. Researchers at the University of Maryland strapped “Smart Underwear” onto healthy adults for a week and found they passed gas an average of 32 times a day, though individual totals ranged from just four farts to nearly five dozen, reports Scientific American. The wearable device, fitted with chemical sensors, doesn’t care about sound or smell—it simply tracks gases like hydrogen, a by-product of gut microbes at work.
In a second experiment, participants were first put on a low-fiber diet for a few days, then given fiber supplements, and the device picked up the resulting jump in hydrogen, suggesting it can spot changes in microbiome activity in real time. Lead researcher Brantley Hall says that without a clear baseline for what’s normal, it’s tough to know when gas is truly excessive. In fact, previous farting estimates came in much lower, with a release suggesting that discrepancy could be tied to the perils of self-reporting, complete with faulty memory, missing farts while sleeping, and the subjectivity of what constitutes a fart, among other factors.
The findings, published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics: X, challenge the idea that a single “typical” fart count can capture how human digestion works. Hall’s team is now building a “Human Flatus Atlas,” recruiting people across the spectrum—from low-gas high-fiber eaters to chronic farters—to better map gut function and, eventually, improve treatments for digestive issues.
I believe this is a good place to call it quits for the day.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….
Another day of doctors and such….I will not be around for most of the day and I shall try to catch up as soon as possible….thanx for understanding.
College of Political Knowledge
This is part of the series I write looking at the Democratic Party and the upcoming election.
After the ass kicking the Dems took in 2024 they set about to change the way they approach elections (that was the lie they told then)….I wrote about it so I went back into my archives (that is why I have them) and found what I had written then….this from about a year ago….
After a year of lip service and lies things are not going well….so far all they have done is theatrics for the media and accomplished very little….some Dems have even sided with the GOP on some spending bills…..not much has changed….
Recent polls show approval of Donald Trump hovering in a deep unlit trough around 40 percent. Yet his dismal ratings have done little to bolster the reputation of the opposition party. Commentators across the political spectrum have overwhelmingly agreed that the Democratic brand is shot. The American Prospect called it “damaged.” NBC said it was “weak.” Rolling Stone said it was “cooked.” Semafor announced that “left-wing ideas” had “wrecked” it, and Bill Maher compared Democrats to has-been companies like Sears or Kodak that had “screwed themselves out of relevance.” The pejoratives aren’t confined to the armchair critics. Arizona Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego lamented, with only slightly more finesse than the news outlets, the “national brand problem.” Michael Bennet, a Democratic senator from Colorado, delicately agreed that the branding is “problematic.”
Is all lost for the Democrats, or is there opportunity in the shambles? When the only party offering a bulwark against Trump’s murderous, crackpot regime appears to be losing the vibes war—and as we approach the midterm elections that offer our last best chance to rein in the madness—these questions are not merely of political interest; they are a matter of existential importance.
And so, in a survey of 2,421 Democratic voters, conducted January 7–16 by Embold Research, The New Republic sought to explore what rank-and-file Democrats want to see from their candidates and elected representatives. Is it true, as one popular strain of criticism goes, that some of the party’s more liberal social ideas are a liability? How important to voters are housing, prescription drug prices, trans rights? How should we approach economic policy, foreign policy? How conciliatory or aggressive should party leaders be toward their foes? What, in other words, do Democrats want from Democrats?
Not much is changing because the Dems are still in corporate pockets….the people mean nothing to these politicians no matter how much manure they spread none of it is true.
The Centrists are leading the way…..
Centrist Democrats led by Cheri Bustos, a corporate lobbyist who previously headed her party’s campaign arm in the US House, are launching a policy and advocacy organization aimed at pressuring Democrats to embrace the kind of “pro-growth” deregulatory agenda associated with the so-called “abundance” movement.
The new organization, named Next American Era, was formed “with an eye toward 2028” as Democrats work to recover from their crushing defeat to President Donald Trump in the 2024 elections, Axiosreported Sunday, noting that the group describes itself as a “hub for center-left policy and advocacy.”
Bustos, whose lobbying client list in 2025 included OpenAI and Larry Ellison’s Oracle, said Next American Era plans to “air issue-focused ads during the midterm elections and the 2028 presidential campaign, but it won’t endorse candidates,” Axios reported.
Bustos said the founders of Next American Era share “many of the same principles as the Abundance movement,” a loose assortment of organizations and individuals—including large corporations and prominent billionaires—broadly supporting views expressed by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in their 2025 book Abundance.
“She said cutting red tape, streamlining regulations, and supporting workforce training are among the top policy goals of her group, which is structured as a 501(c)(4) political nonprofit,” Axios reported
Their aims are the aims of the GOP so how do these fools still wear the Democrat name tag?
I wish I could say that these fools are a minority….they are not even the minority leaders of both houses are wishy washy….
Democratic leaders in Congress are already backing down on one of their key demands in the fight to reform the federal immigration agencies terrorizing Minnesota and other parts of the country.
On Wednesday, Democrats laid out a list of 10 “guardrails” they said they wanted to see put in place to protect the public from abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, before agreeing to a new round of funding for their parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Was this an attempt at some form of bi-partisanship? Or was it just cowardice?
Now look at the protests around Minneapolis….the Congressional Dems were quick for lip service but have done nothing to join the protests.
One Democratic lawmaker to whom Axios granted the veil of anonymity suggested that Democrats expect the base to “get upset” but believes the discontent will wash away because “then you’re going to have the real fight in two weeks.” Whether or not that period ends with any meaningful change in the status quo remains to be seen. Much of what Democrats seek would merely require various federal agents to obey rules and regulations that they’re already supposed to follow as a matter of agency directive—though enshrining these policies as laws would be a step in the right direction.
That said, there’s still the thorny matter of enforcing any new constraints that are imposed on ICE and Border Patrol. I hope I’m wrong about this, but by the time all is said and done, I don’t expect much in the way of material change where the president’s paramilitaries are concerned. At best, perhaps, people will see the faces of the thugs who are beating them—though not always, if Schumer has his way.
The Dems should be out there let the people see that their lives matter to them…..so far empty words and ill promises is all we have got.
So far the only ones that are stepping up are the true Progressives, not those that use the term to appear important, and I agree that working class politics is where this party should be centered not in the pockets of billionaires.
Speaking at a panel at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that decades of government failures such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the 2003 Iraq War had opened the door for demagogues such as Trump among working-class voters.
The only way to defeat this, she said, is to reorient progressive politics around social class.
“We have to have a working-class-centered politics if we are going to succeed,” she said, “and also if we are going to stave off the scourge of authoritarianism, which provide political siren calls to allure people into finding scapegoats to blame for rising economic inequality, both domestically and globally.”
Elsewhere during the panel, Ocasio-Cortez elaborated on the way economic inequality fuels the demand for authoritarian leaders.
“We’re seeing, in economy across economy around the world, including in the United States,” she said, “that extreme levels of income inequality lead to social instability and drives in a sense in authoritarianism, right-wing populism and very dangerous domestic internal politics. And that is a direct outcome of, not just income inequality, but the failure of democracies over decades to deliver, the failure to deliver higher wages, the failure to rein in corporations.”
The DNC has tried to eliminate any dissenting voices and embraced the corporate policies that Clinton championed.
This is not what the people of this country needs we already have a big business party, the GOP, we need a party of the people that will work tirelessly for the betterment of people’s lives……something we have not had for a generation.
Time to stand up and bring this party back to where it belongs….on the side of the working masses.
