Are We Force-Fed “Facts”?

There is so much propaganda out there, not just the Donny years but for the last several decades, ‘facts’ that we all buy into that are not ‘facts’ at all…..

1. The idea that tax cuts or bailouts for the wealthy will stimulate the economy (aka “trickle-down economics”) is, at best, a failed experiment and, at worst, an all-out deception. The term “trickle-down economics” was first used in relation to Herbert Hoover and his economic policy during the Great Depression. However, Hoover’s oft-attributed commitment to laissez-faire free market economic policy is debatable, and he actually raised taxes on the rich.

2. The major modern player in trickle-down economics was Ronald Reagan, though the term he actually used was supply-side economics, which purports to boost economic growth through lowered individual and corporate taxes and regulations. His first major move toward such an economy was the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, which, according to Reagan’s Office of Management and Budget director David Stockman, was really just “a Trojan horse to bring down the top [tax] rate” and essentially trickle-down in a trench coat.

The Act slashed the highest income tax from 70% down to 50%. Lower incomes also received tax cuts, but they were much smaller. It also reduced estate, capital gains, and corporate taxes. This massively increased the deficit to such a disastrous level that some of it was actually reversed before it went into effect just a year later in TEFRA, including a few of the tax breaks and slashes that had not gone into effect yet; it also closed tax loopholes and increased other taxes like the cigarette tax. However, Reagan’s Tax Reform Act of 1986 later provided further massive tax cuts, slashing the top income tax from 50% to 28%, and decreasing the corporate tax rate by 12 points to 34%.

All of this was purportedly done to boost the economy, which was in a recession when Reagan came into office. So, did it work? Kind of, temporarily. Unemployment dropped, finance (particularly stocks, bonds, and real estate) and technology expanded, and low-level positions (in addition to high-level ones) saw pay raises. However, Reaganomics also led to the income gap widening considerably, with the richest now able to lobby the government for further policy to support them. Oh, and Reagan massively increased the deficit…again.

There is so much more bullshit that was fed to the less intelligent among us

https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahmarder/american-propaganda

All this was propaganda which equates to damn lies and yet voters flocked to the promise of a better America…..and how has that worked out for you?

Reagan among others have been pulling our chains and manipulating us to the point of us actually being the problems we face today.

For christ sake learn something…..for we have the power to change this assassination of our system by politicians….all we have to do is learn and vote for the change we need to right this country from the destructive course these politicians have set us on.

Do you want to continue on this journey of destruction or do you want the country we use to have?

It is your choice.

Choose wisely.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That Marvelous ‘Golden Dome’

Let’s take a break from Donny’s clusterf**k with Iran and move on to his less than brilliant idea of the Golden Dome.

Golden Dome is Donny’s version of the budget busting program proposed by Reagan, the Strate4gic Defense Initiative (Star Wars)….and guess what Donny’s ‘brilliant’ idea is a budget buster as well….to the tune of $1 trillion….a far cry from the bullshit Donny said but then why would he ever tell the truth?

President Trump’s plan to put weapons in space—pitched as a “Golden Dome for America” missile defense program—is estimated to cost $1.2 trillion over a 20-year period, according to a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, a far heftier sum than the initial $175 billion price tag he gave last year. The nonpartisan CBO report, published Tuesday, is described as an analysis that reflects “one illustrative approach rather than an estimate of a specific Administration proposal,” the AP reports.

  • The futuristic system was ordered by Trump in an executive order during his first week in office. He said then that he expected the system to be “fully operational before the end of my term,” which wraps up in January 2029.
  • “Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems,” Trump said in his executive order, justifying the need for the missile defense system.
  • The CBO’s estimates are in part based on a lack of details from the Defense Department about what and how many systems will be deployed, “making it impossible to estimate the long term cost” of the Golden Dome system, the report says.
  • The concept for the missile system is at least partly inspired by Israel’s multitiered defenses, often referred to as the “Iron Dome,” which played a key role in defending it from rocket and missile fire from Iran and allied militant groups as it prosecutes the war on Iran alongside the US.
  • The US Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground and space-based capabilities able to detect, intercept, and stop missiles at all major stages of a potential attack. Congress has already approved roughly $24 billion for the missile defense initiative through Republicans’ massive tax and spending measure signed into law last summer.
  • Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, who requested the estimate from the CBO, said in response to the report that the missile defense project is “nothing more than a massive giveaway to defense contractors paid for entirely by working Americans.”
  • Last May, the president said the Golden Dome would cost $175 billion. The CBO last year estimated that just the space-based components of the Golden Dome could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years.

This will be on the backs of taxpayers like everything else Donny does….we get stuck for his bullshit ideas.

There is some concern that all that cash spent maybe in vain….

Even under generous technical assumptions, the viability challenges facing Golden Dome are severe. When it comes to reliably defending the United States against peer and near-peer intercontinental nuclear threats, those challenges are effectively insurmountable. They include the number of interceptors required to reliably defend the United States, with some estimates suggesting ratios as high as 1,600 interceptors for every incoming missile; the ability of adversaries to deploy countermeasures designed to defeat missile defenses; and the risk that a nuclear detonation in the atmosphere or in space could significantly degrade or disable the system’s ability to track and intercept additional threats.  As a budget watchdog, one of our guiding principles at Taxpayers for Common Sense is, “if it doesn’t work, don’t fund it.” The evidence presented in this report strongly suggests that Golden Dome will not work.

Read the report by Taxpayers For Common Sense

https://www.taxpayer.net/national-security/missing-the-mark-why-golden-dome-is-bad-for-american-taxpayers/

Just another one of Donny’s lame ass ideas to waste taxpayer money….and people, taxpayers, still support this clown…..why?

Just trying to keep an eye on what our half-ass government will do with the taxes we all pay.

This is NOT what I signed on for….how about you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Tolerance: Weapon Of Oppression

There are way too many people out there that have thrown up their hands and tolerate the destruction of a way of life and the country.  (Not something I would ever consider)

There is a paradox of tolerance at work….

The paradox of tolerance, a theory that challenges a society’s ability to defend democracy from within, is at the heart of the political turmoil plaguing the United States today. The idea, first articulated by philosopher Karl Popper, suggests that a tolerant society must be intolerant of intolerance itself, or else the intolerant will exploit that tolerance to dismantle the system from within. The United States is facing a stark test of this paradox as extremism and hate groups gain traction, exploiting the very liberties that protect democratic life.

The past few decades have seen the steady rise of groups that thrive on division, hate, and violence. From white nationalist organizations to conspiracy-driven militias like those associated with QAnon, these movements increasingly occupy the mainstream political conversation. At their core, these ideologies aim not only to challenge the social order but to dismantle the democratic principles of equality and justice. They are not just seeking to make their voices heard—they are attempting to redefine the terms of the social contract, eroding the shared values that have historically bound Americans together.

Consider the 2017 Charlottesville rally, where white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and other far-right extremists marched in the streets under the banner of “Unite the Right.” The violence that erupted, culminating in the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer, was a chilling reminder that these movements are not merely fringe elements but potent forces that can stoke real, deadly consequences. The response from certain political figures and public figures, including the president, was a horrifying moment in American politics. Rather than denouncing these groups unequivocally, there was a reluctance to take a firm stand against intolerance, allowing the seeds of hate to grow unchecked. In this moment, the U.S. was at the crossroads of the paradox of tolerance—its commitment to free speech and political expression directly collided with the need to protect democracy from those who would destroy it.

The question then becomes: How much tolerance is too much? Can a society truly remain open and free while it allows the propagation of ideas that actively undermine freedom itself? The answer is, unequivocally, no. When the principles of liberty are manipulated to spread hate and division, tolerance becomes not a virtue but a tool of destruction. The societal contract must be protected from those who seek to exploit it for their own gain, and that requires setting firm boundaries on what is considered acceptable within a democratic society.

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-paradox-of-tolerance-when-freedom-becomes-a-weapon-of-oppression/

Let me reiterate…..paradox of tolerance….The paradox of tolerance is a philosophical concept suggesting that if a society extends tolerance to those who are intolerant, it risks enabling the eventual dominance of intolerance, thereby undermining the very principle of tolerance.

You can see the paradox everywhere.

  • Online communities that tolerate every voice until no reasonable ones remain.
  • Workplaces where “all ideas are valid” slowly turn into echo chambers.
  • Governments that either over-police or under-protect, losing legitimacy both ways.

So is our tolerance of what is happening making all things worse?

Just wondering

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Inverted Fascism–WTF?

For years now we have been having a conversation….well most sane people have been…..is a Donny a fascist or not?

His actions to me say he is…..and the actions of his sycophants say they are as well…..the tech bros are for sure…..but with all that what is this thing called ‘Trumpism”?

I argued that Trump is a fascist, but more specifically, borrowing from the language of Sheldon Wolin, he is an “inverted fascist.” Inverted fascism, like the fascist regimes in Italy and Germany, is animated by a totalitarian drive, but puts corporate interests above those of the nation state. The Trump administration’s war on Iran is the most extreme manifestation of inverted fascism that we have seen yet.

Inverted fascism is more than simply a collection of policies that are repressive and in the interest of billionaires. It could be understood as a condition in which popular input, at every level, has been usurped by corporate power. This condition is marked by media concentration in the hands of a tiny group of conglomerates facilitated by FCC-authorized mergers; social media owned by right-wing billionaires; lobbyists, campaign donors, and corporate-backed think tanks determining policy; and underfunded schools, mass deportations, and militarized police.

But inverted fascism is also a global condition. In their report on 2025, the first year of Trump’s second term, Oxfam found that billionaire wealth around the world grew by more than 16%, reaching a record $18.3 trillion. This while right-wing governments around the world have taken up different versions of inverted fascism. Benjamin Netanyahu engages in brazen genocide in Gaza and land grabs in the West Bank and Lebanon while hollowing out Israel’s own social services. Narendra Modi oversees unprecedented inequality while forwarding his own Hindu nationalism.

This order, however, is fundamentally unstable as made evident by the inability of the Trump administration to pry open the Strait of Hormuz, the reverberating economic consequences of the war, Iran’s remarkable success in its assault on US and Israeli targets in the region, and the reluctance of US allies toward participating. This war marks a major step in the decline of US hegemony. As that decline unfolds, the brazenness of the violence of capitalism becomes increasingly evident. The assault began with the bombing of a girls’ school that killed over 150, the vast majority of whom were between the ages of eight and twelve.

Decline has been a reality for US global hegemony since it reached its peak following WWII. In 1949, the Chinese Revolution succeeded despite billions in US aid to the Kuomintang nationalists and tens of thousands of marines working alongside Japanese imperialists endeavoring to defeat the Red Army. One letter from US ambassador to China, John Leighton Stuart, to the secretary of state relayed, “Killing, assaulting of peaceful Chinese civilians and raping of Chinese women and robbing of Chinese shops by American forces in China. One United States Marine in Tientsin had thrown 9 year old Chinese girl into river [sic].”

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-going-to-get-a-lot-worse/

Donny’s actions and policies smell suspiciously like fascism…..this point has been debated for years now….the Donny loyalist do not see it….those effected by these policies see it so very clearly….

I know this is all debatable….but I would love to hear you thoughts….good or bad….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

As We Approach 250 Years

Soon we will be celebrating this country’s 250th year in existence (some say it may be the last celebration we have)…and since moist Americans are completely ignorant about our history I thought I would do my part to try and help them understand our history and why we did the things we did.

One of the best summations of our collective history was done by US Military Academy historian, Maj. Danny Sjursen…..I include his series here from the very early days to the election of Barack Obama…it is a lot to take in but it does give a complete background to the events that made this country.

If you truly love this country then I suggest to read these and see just why….

Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8; Part 9; Part 10; Part 11; Part 12; Part 13; Part 14; Part 15; Part 16; Part 17; Part 18; Part 19; Part 20; Part 21; Part 22; Part 23; Part 24; Part 25; Part 26; Part 27; Part 28; Part 29; Part 30; Part 31; Part 32; Part 33; Part 34; Part 35 ; Part 36.

There is also another source that makes for excellent learning…..Howard Zinn’s , A People’s History Of The United States, can be found everywhere and especially on Amazon.

I want everyone to know our history all the good, the bad and the ugly for all of it is what made us what we were.

Please let me know what you thought of the series.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“Lego ergo scribo”

Be Afraid….Be Very Afraid

It is common knowledge that I have no use for AI…I prefer to do my own thinking….I am be an old fart but my brain still works.

AI is being used for everything these days from customer service to….well whatever the brain can imagine….and that is where I pick up with this report….

Mass-shooting “research” isn’t supposed to end with an AI cheerfully saying, “That’s a great idea … It’ll definitely give you an extra edge for the big day.” But that’s what Mother Jones reporter Mark Follman says he got from ChatGPT. In a 20-minute test on April 14 using a free account, Follman asked ChatGPT to help him develop a two-week training schedule with an AR-15—then got more ominous, asking that the schedule be modified to help him prep him for “unpredictable or chaotic circumstances on the day of the shooting” and to include “simulating people running around screaming and trying to distract me.”

“To be clear, I never stated directly to the chatbot during this simulation that I planned to commit murder—many mass shooters, after all, take steps to conceal their intent,” writes Follman. “But I came awfully close.” Follman writes that he debated whether to make his chats public, as doing so “could even create a kind of roadmap for a person seeking to do harm.” Be he decided that since anyone could use ChatGPT as he did, it was worth making clear the risks that persist despite OpenAI’s claims to have put safeguards in place. (OpenAI declined his request to be interviewed for the piece.)

Follman did run into some blocks. At one point he had to create a new account, and some of his queries were dead ends met with replies that the chatbot was “here to help with general safety and responsible practices.” A leading threat-assessment expert who reviewed Follman’s logs called the results “very disturbing,” noting that the language used when the bot’s safeguards kicked in wouldn’t speak to “a vulnerable person in this situation … We know from decades of case investigations that you need to ask … about what’s wrong, to show attention and care, and at the right moment to message things like, ‘Tell someone—an adult—that you are having these thoughts.'”

Read the full story

I know AI can be used for good or bad….but with society being what it is today….bad would be their first choice.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Donny Proposed, Iran Answered

I am sucker for this crap.  I feel compelled to let my readers know what is happening with Iran because their child may have to fight this stupid lame ass war.

Donny sent a letter with his proposal and now Iran has answered and Donny is butt hurt.

President Trump said on Sunday that Iran’s response to the latest US proposal to reach a deal was “totally unacceptable,” signaling that the two sides are still not close to reaching a deal.

“I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives.’ I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” the president wrote on Truth Social.

Trump made similar comments to Axios reporter Barak Ravid, saying, “I don’t like their letter. It’s inappropriate. I don’t like their response… They have been tapping along many nations for 47 years.”

The president said that he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday about Iran’s response. According to Israeli media, Israeli officials are trying to convince their US counterparts to launch major airstrikes aimed at destroying Iran’s energy infrastructure.

An Iranian source told Iran’s Tasnim news agency that Trump’s rejection of Tehran’s response was “of no importance” because no one “writes proposals to please Trump.” The source added that the “negotiating team should draft proposals only for the rights of the Iranian people, and when Trump is dissatisfied with them, naturally that is better.”

Iranian media has reported that the Iranian response, which came after the US provided its response to a 14-point Iranian proposal, is focused on bringing a permanent end to the conflict and other hostilities in the region, including in Lebanon, where the Israeli military killed dozens of people over the weekend.

Iranian sources said Iran is also asking for an immediate end to the US blockade, the lifting of US sanctions, the release of frozen assets overseas, and the ability to freely sell its oil. The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran had offered to move some of its enriched uranium to a third country, but that hasn’t been confirmed by Iranian sources, which suggest the idea is to end the hostilities before negotiating on the nuclear issue.

Of course he spoke with BiBi….to get his next instructions.

Donny is butt hurt because he has taken on someone who will not submit to his bullying……and that makes him angry.

Anyone opposed to this stupid war with Iran is a traitor…..so says the clown of DC….he was mainly speaking of Dems but I sure he meant all of us…..

I read the Fake News saying that I am under “pressure” to make a Deal. THIS IS NOT TRUE! I am under no pressure whatsoever, although, it will all happen, relatively quickly! Time is not my adversary, the only thing that matters is that we finally, after 47 years, straighten out the MESS that other Presidents let happen because they didn’t have the Courage or Foresight to do what had to be done with respect to Iran. We’re in it, and it will be done RIGHT, and we won’t let the Weak and Pathetic Democrats, TRAITORS ALL, who for years have been talking about the Dangers of Iran, and that something has to be done, but now, since I’m the one doing it, belittle the accomplishments of our Military and the Trump Administration.

This is being perfectly executed, on the scale of Venezuela, just a bigger, more complex operation. The result will be the same. In my First Term, I built the Greatest Military our Country has ever seen, including adding Space Force. In my Second Term, I am properly and judiciously using our Military to solve problems left to us by others of far less understanding or competence. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Words of a babbling idiot.

I guess that makes me a traitor….a person that did not neglect mny duty to country to avoid military service.

This dim witted shit can kiss my ass!

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

Last Week At The Sh*t Show–10May26

Let me get the joyous stuff out of the way before I bum you out.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

May your day be filled with memories and love.

It is that time again when I point out all the stupid and the lies from the past week under the boot of Donny and his band of thugs.

Let’s start with that ‘magnificent’ (his words not mine) ballroom….it started out at a cost of $200 million paid for by donations then it went $400 million and now we are looking at close to a billion for some vanity project of an idiot.

With the estimated cost of the White House ballroom project doubling from $200 million to $400 million – alongside a separate $1 billion funding request from GOP lawmakers tied to the effort – President Donald Trump took to social media Wednesday to defend the escalating price tag, as well as to lash out at the press over its coverage of the project.

“The only reason the cost has changed is because, after deep rooted studies, it is approximately twice the size, and a far higher quality, than the original proposal, which would not have been adequate to handle the necessary events, meetings, and even future Inaugurations,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

“The original price was 200 Million Dollars, the double sized, highest quality completed project will be something less than 400 Million Dollars. It will be magnificent, safe, and secure! This was a necessary change, it was done long ago, but the Fake News failed to report it, trying to make it look like there was a cost overrun.”

(rawstory.com)

So it is all the media’s fault….nice piece of deflection something this moron excels at doing.

Remember when Donny took office and started his ‘master plan’ of tariffs to get the US manufacturing jobs to return to our fair shore….it has been about a year and a half and how has he done so9 far….

When President Donald Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs last year, he promised that the higher taxes would cause manufacturing jobs to “come roaring back into our country.”

And just last week, the Trump administration claimed that was happening. Trump’s “policies are delivering the largest reshoring wave in American history,” the White House claimed, pointing to a number of promised investments by companies like Apple and U.S. Steel.

A new independent assessment calls that conclusion into question.

Trump’s tariffs “didn’t seem to drive significant near-term increases in reshoring or reduce America’s total import dependence,” concludes a new report from Kearney, a global management consulting firm.

However, the tariffs did have a significant impact on where the U.S. is getting its imports.

https://reason.com/2026/04/29/have-trumps-tariffs-brought-manufacturing-jobs-back-to-america-new-study-says-no/

But his lack of progress on this front is okay as long as he and his brain dead followers keep crapping on people of color.

The other story that is being met with anticipation….those UFO files….Last Friday the first ‘files’ dropped….

The US government released its first tranche of UFO files to the public on Friday, and, alas, “there are no clear photos of little green men or flying saucers,” reports Axios. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson predicted in advance the release would be “anticlimactic,” and he might have been on the mark. Here is how the New York Times describes things: “The initial files are murky still images that show what could be anything. In one, a cluster of dots appear on the screen. In another, there are some strangely shaped objects.”

  • The site: You can see for yourself at a newly launched website here. More files will be added on a rolling basis, notes NBC News. For the record, the the government typically uses the term Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAP, instead of UFO.
  • Among the files: The first batch includes 120 PDFs, 28 videos, and 14 images, per CBS News. They include accounts from federal employees describing glowing orbs spotted at dusk in the Western US on two separate days, along with photographs of odd visual artifacts from the Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 moon missions. For example, Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt reported seeing “a flash on the lunar surface north of Grimaldi (crater).”
  • Example: One video, here, is from an infrared camera “tracking a white object that appears just as a speck on the screen moving through the air,” per CBS.
  • Not all analyzed: The Pentagon said all newly public documents were screened for security concerns—but noted that “many of the materials have not yet been analyzed” to determine whether the oddities they describe have mundane explanations. “These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation—and it’s time the American people see it for themselves,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement.

This ought to keep the ancient alien people busy for a couple of days.

Since the release the internet has gone bonkers….and not in a good way….

The Trump administration has released its first round of UFO files and there’s one image in particular that is getting absolutely roasted on social media, with a number of users asking “what the f*** is this”.

https://www.indy100.com/politics/ufo-image-picture-alien-files-pentagon

I will not waste my time.

Did Donny threatening states?

President Trump is insisting that states rig elections in Republicans’ favor—even if it means people have to vote multiple times until they win.

On Sunday night, Trump took to Truth Social and posted, “We cannot allow there to be an Election that is conducted unconstitutionally simply for the ‘convenience’ of State Legislatures.”

“​​If they have to vote twice, so be it. We should demand that State Legislatures do what the Supreme Court says must be done. That is more important than administrative convenience. The byproduct is that the Republicans will receive more than 20 House Seats in the upcoming Midterms! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” he wrote.

Trump didn’t even bother to repeat the false Republican claim of widespread voter fraud, instead blatantly stating that his goal is additional congressional seats for the GOP. He hopes that these newly redrawn seats would mitigate or even prevent losses in November’s midterm elections.

https://newrepublic.com/post/209895/trump-threatens-states-rig-midterm-elections

As we Americans struggle to pay for all the rising prices thanks to the policies of the moron in DC…..there is a good reason prices will stay elevated….billionaires making huge profits….https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8pyyz5e0ro

That does it for me on this Sunday…..there is only so much drivel I can take on any given day….

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mothers Day and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”