I want to say from the start…I do not agree with this article only given here as an FYI
From time to time I find articles that just makes me want to throw dung at the site.
This one is another MAGA rag that wants to scare people within an inch of their lives….I post the article here as an FYI…I in NO way agree with the premise they present. (to reiterate)
The DSA does want to drop the Senate which in my book is a damn good idea. Get rid of the president and replace him with a more democratic leader subject to the people.
I know it is early but the trash has started already and the midterms are not final yet….both sides of the aisle are worried about the rise of Progressives.
The corporate Dem candidates illustrate just how impotent they have become…..time for new leadership for the Dems….
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) on Wednesday called for “new leadership” within the Democratic Party, alleging that the caucus never fully recovered from its 2024 elections losses.
“Every day there’s a debate within the party about the path forward,” Slotkin said during an appearance on SiriusXM’s “Straight Shooter” podcast hosted by Stephen A. Smith.
“That’s why I believe we need significant new leadership. The old models are no longer working, and that includes the Democratic Party,” she added.
Slotkin said new leaders are needed in both chambers of Congress, in addition to a new form of messaging that’s singularly focused on a core set of issues.
Most Progressives have been calling for this a at least a decade…..
But since the DSA is making such success within the party the media is started its campaign to change the tide…..they are picking who they want to run in 2028….
Democrats are approaching what could be their most wide-open presidential primary in decades, but I’d venture a confident prediction today: one of the two Georgia senators will be on the party’s ticket in 2028.
Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, the two Democrats who delivered their party a majority with their twin victories at the end of the first Trump term, could bookend the outgoing president eight years later.
Sad that the MSM has started their smear campaign earlier than normal.
The DNC needs to sell substance not symbolism…..and the search for the next Obama….
Top party strategists have spent months warning that Democrats can’t win back the White House in 2028 by banking on voters’ dissatisfaction with Trump and MAGA. Obama’s 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina put it directly in an interview with Axios: “You can’t win a presidential election on opposition alone.” He added that “the midterms are going to be 85-90% driven by voter opposition to Trump and maybe 10-15% based on what Dems stand for.” “We cannot rely on that same calculation to win in 2028.”
The 2028 Democratic nominee will need to do more than beat a Republican. They will need to tell a story about what the party actually stands for – and make it stick with voters who have heard that pitch before and walked away unimpressed.
The next Obama is out there right now the problem is the DNC is afraid of the person/s….they are a threat to the money machine they have come accustomed to in their political lives.
Some even want to give Harris another shot….
There are only two lanes to the Democrat presidential nomination two years from now, and one of them is already blocked—by Kamala Harris.
Get ready for the Kamala comeback, followed, in all likelihood, by a replay of her crushing defeat by the Republican nominee.
I have been hearing this term, anti-weaponization fund, a lot in recent days…..but just what the Hell is it and how does it work?
Thanx to Axios we can have our answer….
President Trump sued his own administration, settled and will now spend $1.776 billion of taxpayer money to pay people who say the government targeted them politically.
Why it matters: The “Anti-Weaponization Fund” turns a personal Trump settlement into a new government program, shields decisions on who gets the money from the courts and limits information about what the public knows about where the funds go.
The backstory: Trump sued the IRS and Treasury in January for $10 billion over the 2019 leak of his tax returns. The settlement gives Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization a formal apology but no money, and it bars the IRS from auditing Trump’s past tax returns.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer, created the Anti-Weaponization Fund with the Treasury Department’s Judgment Fund.
How it works: The attorney general will handpick the five-member commission that decides who will collect money from the fund, which ends in December 2028.
Those decisions can’t be appealed or challenged in court. The settlement does not require public disclosure of payouts.
The settlement lets the fund spend part of the $1.776 billion on itself, including staff, travel and facilities. The Justice Department and the White House did not answer Axios’ question about whether there is any cap on those costs.
Donny spends more time with the court systems than he does running the country….and when he does focus on the country he is running it into the ground.
Anyway the Fund and Blanche…..
The nomination of Todd Blanche to be the next permanent attorney general has foundered in part over a controversial “anti-weaponization fund.” On Friday, President Trump offered a strong defense of the fund, which could further complicate Blanche’s road to confirmation, reports CNN. Blanche, the acting AG, has said the fund is “dead,” but GOP Sens. Thom Tillis and John Cornyn want a written guarantee he won’t revive the $1.8 billion measure. Critics call it a slush fund for Trump allies.
In his Friday post, Trump insisted the fund wouldn’t benefit him personally, but would compensate “victims of government abuse,” per Reuters. The president stopped short of saying the fund should be revived, but his lengthy defense of it may give further ammo to other senators wary of its resurrection. Trump also insisted that Blanche, “a good man, should be immediately approved” as AG. On Thursday, the president floated the idea of temporarily withdrawing the nomination until Tillis and Cornyn leave the Senate in January. The fund stems from Trump’s settlement of a lawsuit with the IRS, another source of controversy, and GOP senators on Thursday blocked an attempt to modify that deal.
Donny is so full of shit…he does NOTHING that does not benefit him….PERIOD!
Then acting AG issued a edict….
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issued an order Sunday evening formally rescinding plans to create a $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate allies of President Trump.
The order came after Republican Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn threatened to block Blanche’s confirmation for the permanent position to lead the Justice Department.
“The Attorney General’s May 18, 2026 Order establishing the Anti-WeaponizationFund (“Fund”) is rescinded and shall have no force or effect,” the order states.
“For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in this Order is intended to contradict or otherwise be contrary to prior representations by the Department of Justice that the Fund is not operative. No Members were appointed; no funds were transferred; no process for receiving claims was established; no claims were paid. Nevertheless, several frivolous lawsuits have been filed challenging the Fund, and at least one court has declined to dismiss those claims as moot,” it continues. “This Order establishes, beyond any doubt, that there is no Fund.”
Holy Crap! I am writing this post at 2 am and the temp outside is 92…I hate Summer!
After all the ‘big talk’ I read that Donny has called off any strikes on Iran
President Donald Trump said on Saturday he agreed to cancel an attack on Iran so the countries could “rapidly make a deal” that includes the “complete and total opening” of the Strait of Hormuz.
“The U.S.A. is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Saturday night.
“Despite this, we have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to,” he said, adding later that he had agreed “for the benefit of the world.”
What an imbecile….like a 5 year old child cannot make up his mind….a moron.
Another week is in the history books and another week of the silliest crap imaginable from Donny and his band of morons….even the Dems are joining in on the stupidity….but then haven’t they always played the stupid card?
The best news of the week….
Remember about a month ago all the crap Donny spread about his pool?
Federal prosecutors in Washington, DC, have moved to dismiss a destruction-of-property felony charge against former US Olympic canoeist David Hearn, acknowledging for the first time that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s liner stemmed from a contractor’s defective installation, not vandalism. In a court filing, Justice Department prosecutors said they only learned the liner’s failure was due to “a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented” after reviewing new documents, WRC reports.
The 20-page filing also attributed the pool’s problems to “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration,” per the AP. Hearn was arrested on June 19 after stopping at the Reflecting Pool during a bike ride and touching a piece of coating that he said was already loose; he was detained for five hours. At the time, US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro alleged Hearn was seen “forcefully and violently” ripping up the liner. His attorney, Steve Levin, said the case “should never have been brought,” adding that federal officials owe Hearn an apology, per WRC.
So much for all those ‘terrorists’ lurking in the bushes.
But you guys know this idiot….he cannot admit to being wrong….
President Trump insisted Saturday that vandals are to blame for the damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, even after the Justice Department contradicted his narrative. He ripped US Attorney Jeanine Pirro for moving to drop the felony destruction-of-property charge against former Olympian David Hearn, the Hill reports, writing on Truth Social that he doesn’t know “what she was thinking” and disagrees “100%” with her decision. It was “a pure case of VANDALISM,” the president posted. Prosecutors on Friday asked a judge to dismiss the charge, saying newly obtained records show the pool’s damage stemmed from construction problems, including rushing the work.
Did you expect him to just rollover?
Now for the tragic crap that Donny brings.
Is the US stealing the money?
The Trump administration has collected more than US$13 billion in revenues from Venezuelan oil sales this year, according to FT calculations, but has said almost nothing about what has happened to the money.
The U.S. took control of Venezuela’s oil exports and suspended some sanctions after capturing President Nicolás Maduro in January and installing vice-president Delcy Rodríguez as leader.
Oil revenues make up around a quarter of Venezuela’s GDP, and the sanctions relief was expected to provide a major boost to the economy, which was in crisis even before last month’s devastating earthquakes.
But six months after the U.S. seized control of the funds, economists say the evidence of a recovery in Venezuela is relatively muted — a potential sign that the U.S. has not sent all the revenues back to Caracas.
Washington has given diverging accounts of what it is doing with the money, ranging from an executive order describing its own role as “custodial” to U.S. President Donald Trump saying the U.S. was “making a lot of money” from Venezuelan oil.
I recall that it was said that we were collecting the money on behalf of the people of Venezuela….we all thought that was bullshit….and apparently it was.
So who is getting the cash?
The Iranian airstrikes are on again….Donny keeps falling and overacting to the events around this situation.
Speaking of airstrikes….remember all those boat strikes in the past? Well they never ended just not reported….
Last September, the U.S. military fired the first of 63 strikes against 67 small fishing boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean. The spate of killings in Operation Southern Spear has claimed 221 lives so far, according to the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights organization.
In April, President Donald Trump boasted about the effectiveness of his extrajudicial maritime strikes against alleged drug traffickers, claiming his methods had stopped 98.2 percent of all drugs coming into the country by ocean or sea.
However, new evidence from those inside the Trump administration shows the strikes have not slowed the flow of drugs coming into the country. Instead, they’ve forced drug traffickers to “develop new strategies and tactics,” while “undermining traditional investigative methods” used by federal law enforcement, according toThe Washington Post.
We will never win this War on Drugs….so stop wasting money and lives.
On the diplomatic front front….the US has abandoned international law…..
President Donald Trump wants to make a dramatic show of force against Iran — potentially one that implicates U.S. soldiers in war crimes under international law. And he has consistently been unwilling to back down during internal conversations, sources familiar with administration discussions said.
Combined with the Trump administration’s ongoing push to delegitimize the International Criminal Court, one of the global institutions meant to uphold standards for warfare, observers fear the U.S. is rapidly moving to abandon norms meant to shield human rights.
The upcoming 2026 mid-terms maybe the most rigged election in our history….
Despite the combined best efforts of Donald Trump, the lackeys in his administration, most congressional Republicans, many red states, and the Supreme Court, with exactly 100 days to go until the midterms (and only 50 before voters in some states begin casting their ballots), the upcoming election may still prove to be “too big to rig” for the GOP.
That, of course, is the laughable slogan that the president used to explain why the Democrats succeeded in “stealing” the 2020 election, when they were not in power, with millions of “fraudulent” votes and in a manner that didn’t leave a trace — but then failed to flip about 115,000 votes four years later even though that would have sufficed to allow Kamala Harris to win.
As is so often the case when Trump makes an accusation — e.g., that somebody tried to steal an election from him — it’s either an admission of guilt of something he has already done or a prelude to something he plans to do.
This has been the story line for months….the corruption is running deep…..even the betting industry is throwing lots of cash at the elections….
As corporations spend record sums to influence this November’s elections, new campaign finance data shows a powerful new interest fueling the trend: sports gambling companies.
FanDuel, DraftKings, and others in the sports betting industry have spent $72 million seeking to influence the upcoming election cycle, according to a report from Reuters on Tuesday.
The industry’s historic spending blitz faces growing scrutiny from state and federal lawmakers, and seeks to protect its turf against rising competitors in the prediction market business, such as Polymarket and Kalshi, which are financially tied to the Trump administration.
Sports gambling companies have become the third-largest corporate election donor in the country during this cycle behind just the technology and cryptocurrency sectors, according to a June report by the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen. These two industries have spent over $100 million promoting their interests in the upcoming midterms.
The US attended a conference on AIDS in Africa and a major faux pas was released on the attendees….
A map meant to support a US presentation on global health instead turned into a geography lesson gone wrong. During this week’s AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, a State Department slide showed a map of Africa in which every country was mislabeled—Nigeria appeared landlocked in the Sahara, Mozambique was shifted to the Horn of Africa, and Ivory Coast was placed on the continent’s opposite side, among other errors, Reuters reports. The botched map can be seen here.
Reuters analysis found that the image carried an AI watermark linked to OpenAI tools; the company says it is looking into it. The State Department, which blamed a rushed last-minute change by a staffer, said it “takes full responsibility” for the confusion and misrepresentation, particularly for African partners. The slide drew criticism online after AIDS expert Emily Bass posted screenshots. “Whoever created and approved this slide did not know where countries in Africa are and did not care to check their work, said Atlantic Council’s Matt Petit.
he map appeared during a talk by Jeff Graham, the top US health envoy overseeing the PEPFAR program, which continues to provide HIV drugs even as Washington trims prevention and surveillance spending and prepares to wind down operations in South Africa. The State Department said conference discussions were “substantive and constructive,” the Telegraph reports.
Bass, however, said the map was not only “disrespectful,” it was a “significant tell.” She cited the downplaying of data collection issues during the “lethal, haphazard, and shocking termination of US government foreign aid for global health” and the “slow evisceration of CDC.” “As this session made clear in so many ways, the US Department of State Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy is redrawing the map and rewriting history,” she wrote.
What can we expect when Donny has incompetents like Marco, RFK,Jr, Pistol Pete, Oz, et al running these departments.
With the success of the DSA in the polls the GOP is resorting to a tried and true bunch of manure….the second coming of the Red Scare….
Shortly after announcing the mission of turning the 2026 midterms into a “hate election,” the campaign brain trust for the Republican Party has settled on the secret-weapon epithet it plans to deploy against its Democratic congressional rivals: “Communism.”
No, really: Three and a half decades after the collapse of the Cold War, the campaign chieftains of the right are planning to revive the paranoid political stylings of Joe McCarthy. The rationale for this round of 21st-century red-baiting stems largely from the recent string of primary wins racked up by Democratic candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America; in the perfervid imaginings of the right, socialists are just genteel stalking horses for Communists, with Marxism serving as the intoxicant of choice for raving leftists of all description. So the thing to do is to call out any and all Democrats as no-good Reds, determined to undermine and overthrow true-blue American individualism and laissez-faire capitalism at every term.
(you can bet your butt that I will take on the myth of free markets and soon)
The GOP has never been afraid of using this fearmongering tactic….but even the Dems are running scared and are using a tried and true insult…..FEAR.
Finally, the Prophet of Doom has a warning…..
The British psychic widely known as the “Prophet of Doom” has issued some alarming forecasts regarding US President Donald Trump. Craig Hamilton-Parker rose to prominence after accurately predicting both Brexit and Trump’s 2016 election win.
Addressing his 242,000 YouTube subscribers, Craig described a vision that came to him while dreaming, which appeared to depict the controversial president caught up in some form of crisis — one he believes will reach a critical point within the next six to eight weeks.
“I’m not predicting there’s going to be a nuclear war or anything like that,” Craig stressed, “But this is kind of like symbolic, because dreams always exaggerate things, but it made me feel that there’s a really high risk right now and danger to life to not only Trump, but other members of the American administration generally.”
Around here gas prices have come down a bit and then Donny had to open that useless mouth of his and let more manure fall out.
President Trump is preparing to escalate the five-month-plus conflict with Iran, authorizing a new round of US strikes that could start as soon as this weekend and run for several days, according to American officials. Speaking at Camp David, Trump vowed that “we will be hitting them very hard” to compel talks and predicted the regime would eventually “peter out,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “At some point, they’re going to say, ‘We just can’t take it anymore,'” the president predicted. He added, per the AP: “We just want to win.” Officials noted that the plan could still be halted if there’s sudden diplomatic movement, or if Trump simply reconsiders, per the Journal.
Sources tell CBS News that energy infrastructure such as power plants and refineries will be the likely targets. Those sources also note there’d been discussion about trying to wrap up the strikes before the financial markets kick off on Monday to minimize impact to the US and global economy. The shift comes days after a surprise Iranian attack on US troops in Jordan and subsequent American retaliation. Trump has privately dismissed the interim peace deal as meaningless and described Iranian negotiators as untrustworthy, while Iranian officials say constant US threats undermine any remaining confidence, per the Journal.
After this piece of crap….Iran has basically dared him to do what he spouted off about…..
Iran took another step Saturday toward widening the Gulf fighting, sending a wave of drones toward Kuwait in an attack that the US ally said it intercepted. The strike added tension to the region, the Wall Street Journal reports, after President Trump’s pledge to sharply escalate the US bombardment of Iran at any moment now. US embassies urged Americans to consider leaving the region, and airlines extended cancellations to key Gulf in the face of warnings that airspace closures could be next. Iran’s military warned countries in the region not to cooperate with the US, which it accused of “escalating tensions,” per AFP.
he flare-up centers on energy chokepoints: Iran has effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, where a ship was damaged and another reported a near-miss on Friday, and unrest has spread to Egypt’s Damietta port and the Red Sea. Iran-backed Houthis say they are blocking Saudi oil shipments, while Saudi Arabia has hit Iran-linked militias in Iraq, per the Journal. Analysts describe ever-faster cycles of escalation that are eroding trust, unnerving Gulf governments, and pushing any renewed truce further out of reach.
All I can say is….’Here we go yet again’
Iran is goading Donny into making good on his infantile threats.
The idiot with the big mouth is not believing his luck….
Sources say that President Donald Trump is becoming “exasperated” as he did not anticipate it would be difficult to make Iran comply with his demands.
“The president is exasperated. I don’t think he believed it was going to be this difficult to get the Iranians to agree to a deal. There was not a real strategy for how long or what they should do to get to the endpoint,” an unnamed ally of the President told NBC News. “He did not intend this to be a long, drawn-out war.”
President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a joint, surprise attack on Iran in February that ignited a Middle East-wide war. At the time, the leaders predicted a quick victory that would eliminate any threat Iran could pose.
However, the war has turned into a quagmire for Trump as Iran seized control over the Strait of Hormuz and the IRGC retains a significant portion of its missile capabilities. A US official speaking with NBC News explained that part of Trump’s frustration comes from his advisers’ division on what to do next.
“After all this time, there is no unity,” the official said. “We have had a series of tactical victories, but are facing a strategic defeat without clear policy guidance or a decision about where this is going.”
A new month begins and not much to look forward to as long as Tweedle Dum is still in office…..and still firing off that untrained mouth.
Question of the week: Christmas In July–Why?
Local–It is Summer in the South and it is 5am as I write and the heat index is 95 degrees…the joys of Summer in the South….makes one want to find a cool hole and crawl in.
Personal–One doctor was happy that my prostrate cancer is not progressing so he be happy…others not so much….I will be having the same procedures after the first of the year…Happy New Year to me.
My butcher let me know he just made fresh batch of his sausage, garlic and black pepper, so I have to smile a bit…..it is wonderful grilled.
Shall we commence?
The World Cup has just ended and now FIFA wants to sell the grass (the weed not the weed)….
Even the field for the World Cup final is for sale. FIFA, accused of charging high prices for this year’s tournament in the United States, is selling the grass that will be used for the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey at $450 per piece, reports the AP. FIFA’s store says each segment of turf is 17.5cm by 17.5cm by 17.5cm (that’s a little north of 6 square inches). Soccer’s governing body did not immediately respond to an email requesting details of the dimensions. “Own a genuine piece of football history with an authentic 2026 FIFA World Cup Piece of the pitch, permanently preserved in a premium acrylic with a USB keepsake,” the website says. “Each piece contains an original fragment of the iconic Final playing surface, making it a unique collectible that celebrates one of the world’s greatest sporting events.”
FIFA said “the acrylic USB features an authenticity film, while offering a sleek, contemporary display piece. Presented in a premium hinged shoulder box with striking spot UV detailing, this exclusive item is designed for collectors, fans, and football enthusiasts alike.” FIFA is making the turf available only to addresses in the United States and Europe. “Orders will not be shipped until after the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final,” the governing body said. Players and coaches have criticized the quality of the field at MetLife, which usually uses an artificial surface for NFL games of the New York Giants and Jets.
How many idiots will fall for this scam? Remember the Berlin Wall? You could buy a piece of the wall back in the day and it was mostly a scam….some scams stand up to the test of time.
Let’s begin our magical journey down the lanes of obfuscation (The MSM not me)….
AS a cancer patient I am always reading about different ways of treating and such….but this one caught my eye for the little blue pill…..
Sildenafil already has a history of reinvention.
Researchers originally developed the drug for heart-related conditions. It later became Viagra, the erectile-dysfunction medicine approved in 1998, after trials revealed its striking effect on erections. The same chemical is also sold to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension, a dangerous form of high blood pressure in the lungs.
So a twofer…..you get a rager and stop the spread of your cancer.
Chasing her youth a woman dies…..
A visit to a Bronx wellness center ended in death for a 27-year-old woman, and the man who allegedly treated her is now facing criminal charges, Gizmodo reports. New York City police say the woman became unconscious after undergoing an “anti-aging therapy” at the Bereshit Lifestyle Center on Sunday; she was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Her name and the specific treatment she received have not been released. The city medical examiner will determine the cause of death, and the investigation is ongoing. Gothamist reports that the woman received an injection of some sort. Toxicology testing is being done, PIX11 reports.
The clinic’s operator, Luis Rojas Cabrera, has been arrested and charged with reckless endangerment and unauthorized practice of a profession. Bereshit’s website describes Rojas as a surgeon and naturopath in the Dominican Republic, and says in the US he is certified in alternative and holistic medicine. The center advertises services from weight-loss help to “immunity boosting.” The case comes amid growing scrutiny of longevity and alternative-medicine operations: in Miami, a man was charged last week in connection with a woman’s death at a psychedelic retreat, and two attendees at a Las Vegas anti-aging conference were hospitalized last year after peptide injections.
How sad….youth being all consuming.
I did not know how many “ghost chasers’ were on TV until my daughter’s boyfriend started talking….omg….
Thirty-six people sat alone in a room listening to music. Half of them walked out irritable, mildly anxious, and convinced the music felt sadder than it was. The other half walked out fine. The only difference between the two groups was something none of them could hear.
That experiment, published in April 2026, didn’t set out to study music perception or mood. The researchers were after something more specific: a plausible physical explanation for what causes ghosts. Or more precisely, what causes people to feel like they’re in the presence of one. The answer they found was already in the walls.
That experiment, published in April 2026, didn’t set out to study music perception or mood. The researchers were after something more specific: a plausible physical explanation for what causes ghosts. Or more precisely, what causes people to feel like they’re in the presence of one. The answer they found was already in the walls.
You know all those shows and I do not believe anyone has found the ghost….go figure.
I love my mind and enjoy thinking a bunch….but what type of thinker am I?
An investigation into what people think about has put the spotlight on the modern mind, revealing thoughts dominated by work, the need for coffee and a strong desire to go back to bed.
It also found evidence for four distinct groups of thinkers who spend more time than most either worrying about the world; mulling on household chores and finances; focusing on the mind and body; or the work-hard, play-hard combination of career and pleasure.
The groups are not definitive and people will move between them, but the finding shows how sampling people’s thoughts at random can provide a nuanced view of human thinking patterns, according to the researchers.
Economists at Claremont Graduate University, in California, and Wuhan University, in Hubei, China, explored people’s conscious thoughts after finding a surprising dearth of work on the topic. “So much of what it means to be human is about what’s going on in our head,” said Dr Joshua Tasoff, a senior author on the study. “The fact that we haven’t really looked at that as economists is really quite extraordinary.”
I read about this before but not in so much detail….personally I think it is a BS story….but I include it so my readers can say that I try to be fair and balanced (most of the time)….to me it sounds like an ONION story but you decide….
Trans dolls equipped with removable genitals are set to dished out to schoolchildren in Minnesota.
Known as MyGender Dolls, the toys carry gender-neutral names like “Sam” and are designed for use in “therapeutic” settings with children from the age of four.
The “first-of-their-kind” dolls are intended to help children explore gender identity, with the programme’s stated purpose being to help young people “learn about the different options that exist for who they can be”.
They were developed over a six-year period at the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Health.
The dolls are paper-based and come with more than 100 interchangeable items, including accessories, clothing and hairstyles.
During the research phase, “trans and gender diverse” children were paid to interact with the dolls and take part in group discussions about gender.
Although the university’s medical school receives roughly $15million (£11.2million) per year in state funding, the institution has previously insisted that no public money was directed towards the MyGender Dolls research.
Finally if there were not enough reasons to avoid Florida….a new reason shows up…..Leprosy.
Florida health officials are tracking an unusual problem: Leprosy cases are ticking up, and armadillos appear to be part of the story. The state confirmed 36 cases of Hansen’s disease (another name for leprosy) in 2025, 27 likely acquired within Florida, and many in the central part of the state, Gizmodo reports. Seventeen cases have been reported so far this year. Researchers say nine-banded armadillos in the Southeast can naturally harbor the bacteria that cause leprosy and may transmit it to humans.
The curable disease remains uncommon and difficult to catch: About 95% of people are naturally resistant, and infection typically requires months of close exposure. Florida’s surgeon general recently stressed that this isn’t a high-incidence crisis, per WFTV, though it could still be endemic, meaning a disease that “has a consistent presence in a specific area,” notes WYFF. Still, some cases have no clear source, raising the possibility of transmission through environmental exposure, with armadillos and their droppings helping the bacteria persist in soil, per Gizmodo.
That does it for me on this Saturday.
I hope everyone has a great weekend…..enjoy the Dog Days of Summer…. and as always…..Be Well and Be Safe….
As of today, 01 August 2026, I am resurrecting one of my older blogs, The Daily Agitator…I hope everyone here on IST will visit and comment on the post that appear over there.
This is a post I wrote 10 years ago about the coming of Donny into our lives.
A decade ago my granddaughter and I spent a lot of time together and I introduced her to my world of books and thought….none of which she uses much now that she has grown up and got her own values and desires.
Swiss political thinker Rousseau predicted the rise of Donny, well not by name but rather by personality….
I am talking about this mass up with Iran….will it be another 20 year debacle?
What is driving this continuation is the price of oil….the profits are skyrocketing…..with every failed ‘deal’ more profits are made…..with every rocket the CEOs are jacking off in the corner.
Here is what is happening as of today…..
U.S. official said that Israel, which has been deeply skeptical about Hamas’ willingness to give up its guns or relinquish at least behind-the-scenes control of Gaza, had been consulted at every step of the negotiation. However, the official said Israel was not being asked to do anything more than what it had initially committed to when it agreed to Trump’s 20-point plan, which essentially involves withdrawing its forces from Gaza and committing to ending airstrikes on the territory. Israel’s UN mission said it had no immediate comment.
The attacks between the US and Iran resulted in huge profits for some of the biggest publicly traded oil companies as they sold their goods for higher prices. Exxon Mobil on Friday reported doubling its second-quarter profits to $14.53 billion, up 105% from the same time a year ago. The oil giant, based in Spring, Texas, brought in $116.02 billion in revenue, up 42% from the same time last year. Chevron, based in Houston, nearly quadrupled its profits to $12.07 billion, up 385% from the same quarter last year, and reported $70.06 billion in revenue, up 56% from the same time last year.
Six of Europe’s largest oil companies posted first-quarter profits of $22 billion altogether, a total which was 43% higher than the same time last year, according to nonprofit Global Witness. “There are constituencies around the world who are having a very good crisis, and the oil producers are one of them,” said Patrick Galey, fossil fuels lead at Global Witness. “When you compare that to the hundreds of millions of people who are struggling with rolling blackouts, with electricity curbs, rationing, waiting in line for food queues … we don’t think that it’s a justifiable price for the rest of the world to be paying.” The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the US, which was below $3 before the Iran war, reached $4.11 Friday.
Energy companies such as Exxon and Chevron do not set the price of American oil, which ricocheted from $68 to $115 a barrel during the quarter. It’s driven by supply and demand, and what traders, refiners, and other buyers are willing to pay. Nevertheless, Democrats in Congress introduced bills in March to tax major oil producers for profits they show from 2026 onward and have the tax proceeds redistributed to consumers. “It’s fair to put a windfall profits tax on inordinate windfall profits rather than cut off children’s food programs,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat who introduced the Senate version of the legislation. Whitehouse’s measure and a companion bill introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna of California would amend the US tax code to impose a per-barrel excise tax on companies that produced or imported at least 300,000 barrels of oil per day in 2025. The tax would be 50% of the difference between the oil price at the time of the levy and the average price per barrel last year. Similar proposals failed to pass in previous years.
Donny’s war is making hguge profits for the oil people, making corpses from the attacks and making the rest of us suffer from Donny’s hubris.
Is this what America stands for now?
I nauseated just thinking about Donny’s plan for this country.
The news is out and the media is having a go at the story….it appears that Hamas has come to an agreement in Gaza….
President Trump said Thursday that a deal has been reached for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza, but many hurdles, conditions, and long timelines remained to wind down the war in the Palestinian territory. Neither Hamas nor Israel gave immediate indication that they had agreed, the AP reports. The White House announcement comes nine months after a US-brokered ceasefire was signed. Negotiations between Israel and Hamas had largely deadlocked over the implementation of its second phase, including the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza.
“The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors.”
Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan calls on the Iran-backed militant group to surrender its weapons and destroy its vast network of tunnels. It also envisions Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza, the arrival of a new technocratic Palestinian government, deployment of an international security force, and the rebuilding of the battered Palestinian enclave after more than two years of war. But Hamas had insisted on implementing the first phase before moving to discuss its weapons. The group’s founding charter calls for armed resistance against Israel, and it has been reluctant to give up an arsenal, including rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosives, that lies at the heart of its identity.
Hamas announced earlier this month that it had dissolved its government in Gaza and was preparing to transfer power to a technical committee backed by the United Nations as part of the ceasefire deal.
US and Board of Peace officials, describing the deal to reporters on condition of anonymity under guidelines set by the White House, gave an extremely optimistic assessment of the agreement that laid out a scenario very similar to the one described by Trump and his top aides when the Board of Peace, an international body established by Trump to oversee the ceasefire in Gaza, was first formed.
The Gaza police force, however, does not include the vast majority of Hamas militants and heavy weaponry is not included in that part of the agreement, according to the officials. Instead, the surrender of heavy weapons and the decommissioning of Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure are to come later in a process that could take between 200 and 350 days, a Board of Peace official said.
A U.S. official said that Israel, which has been deeply skeptical about Hamas’ willingness to give up its guns or relinquish at least behind-the-scenes control of Gaza, had been consulted at every step of the negotiation. However, the official said Israel was not being asked to do anything more than what it had initially committed to when it agreed to Trump’s 20-point plan, which essentially involves withdrawing its forces from Gaza and committing to ending airstrikes on the territory. Israel’s UN mission said it had no immediate comment.
As usual with any deal the Donny says he has made there is few to no specifics….just manure about how well he is doing.
How long before this ‘deal’ falls through?
And will the boss, Israel, allow the deal to go through?
Is this just another Donny pipe dream that leads nowhere?
