IST Saturday News Dump–27Apr24

Another weekend begins and another dreadful news cycle ends and IST picks up the baton for news that has been missed by the MSM….

First, the Old Professor did it this time…..while going thru my ‘honey do’ list I tripped over the dog and hit a very strong wooden chair arm and dicked up my ribs….so I will be taking it easy for awhile the pain is tear generating.  (The dog was not hurt)…it hurts to sit, it hurts to stand, it hurts to lay down, it hurts to walk and do not get me started on the amount of pain a sneeze will inflict.

Enough of the pity party…..

I will start with the weather….

Dramatic changes in Pacific ocean temperatures threaten one of America’s ‘hottest summers on record’.

A near-nationwide heatwave could begin as soon as next month, as meteorologists sound alarm bells for weeks of extreme weather.

They blame a weakening El Nino in the eastern Pacific and a growing risk of it pendulum swinging into La Nina.

El Nino–abnormally high sea temperatures off the coast of Peru– set in last summer and grew to one of the strongest on record.

https://www.gbnews.com/weather/us-weather-heatwave-threatening-america-hottest-summer

Oh goody….we have a terrible Summer last year….66 days no rain and extreme temps as high as 123….so any thereat of beating those numbers is terrible news for us.

Food stories….the news is full of news about microplastics and here are the foods that have the most….

“How much plastic will you have for dinner, sir? And you, ma’am?” While that may seem like a line from a satirical skit on Saturday Night Live, research is showing it’s much too close to reality.

Ninety percent of animal and vegetable protein samples tested positive for microplastics, teeny polymer fragments that can range from less than 0.2 inch (5 millimeters) down to 1/25,000th of an inch (1 micrometer), according to a February 2024 study. Anything smaller than 1 micrometer is a nanoplastic that must be measured in billionths of a meter.

Even vegetarians can’t escape, according to a 2021 study. If the plastic is small enough, fruits and vegetables can absorb microplastics through their root systems and transfer those chemical bits to the plant’s stems, leaves, seeds and fruit.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/22/health/plastics-food-wellness-scn/index.html

A food giant has been accused of adding unneeded sugar to some products…..

The Nestle brand may be associated with comfort food and drink, but its infant eats are getting an uncomfortable amount of scrutiny over sugar content. Per a new report from the nonprofit Public Eye and the International Baby Food Action Network, the Swiss food conglomerate adds more sugar to its baby products sold in lower- to middle-income nations than in products sold in more affluent ones—up to 7.3 grams of added sugar per serving, while the same products in Europe have no added sugar.

Findings: The report looked most closely at sugar content in Cerelac instant cereal and Nido powdered milk, two big sellers that brought in more than $2.5 billion in sales in 2022 in poorer countries. Public Eye found Cerelac in Thailand, Ethiopia, South Africa, Pakistan, and India had up to 6 grams of added sugar, while the same brand sold in the UK and Germany had zero. In some nations, including Nigeria, Senegal, and the Philippines, added sugar content wasn’t listed at all. Nido products also had added sugar in poorer nations, though to a “lesser degree,” per the Post.

Probes: After Public Eye’s report, both Bangladesh and India announced they’d launch investigations, per the Business Standard and Economic Times. A spokesperson for Nestle India adds that the company has reduced added sugar in its products there by up to 30% over the past five years, “depending on the variant.” The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India says it will take “stringent action” against Nestle if the accusations are found to be true.

You just cannot trust corporations….PERIOD!

Did you know that here is a doctor that claims we men are urinating all wrong?

A survey conducted last year analysed the way different men from across the globe position themselves when they relieve their bladders.

However, it found that many men in the US aren’t peeing in the most effective or most health-conscious way.

The survey conducted last year by YouGov investigated ‘where in the world […] men sit down to wee’.A survey has revealed the position that many US men wee in and a urology doctor has weighed in.

A survey conducted last year analysed the way different men from across the globe position themselves when they relieve their bladders.

However, it found that many men in the US aren’t peeing in the most effective or most health-conscious way.

The survey conducted last year by YouGov investigated ‘where in the world […] men sit down to wee’.

“Thinking about times where you go to the toilet to ONLY urinate (i.e. only having a pee, not also having a poo), how often do you sit down in order to do so? percent of men in each country,” it explains.

https://www.unilad.com/news/health/peeing-sitting-down-as-a-man-better-806567-20240415

Did you see the Matrix trilogy?

Could that sort of thing be true?

What if everything we know to be true is a lie? What if our thoughts and decisions are not in our control, much less the things happening around us? This fascinating possibility, known as “simulation theory”, states that all of us are living in a powerful computer program created and run by someone or something outside of this realm of reality, per BuiltIn. Recently, simulation theory has gotten even more credence. In a recently published study, physicist Melvin Vopson, from the University of Portsmouth, UK, offered a proof of how the theory could be real.

As per Vopson, a new law of physics might support the fact that the world is indeed a physical simulation. “Any normal person will think, could it be that maybe we already are in some kind of digital virtual reality world?” Vopson explains in a YouTube video posted about the theory on the university’s channel. “It’s not farfetched to assume that an advanced civilization or maybe ourselves in the future, we reach the technological level where we can simulate our world or the whole universe and it’s indistinguishable from the reality.”

https://scoop.upworthy.com/this-researcher-has-shocked-the-world-by-proving-that-we-might-be-living-in-a-simulation

There is a video attached to the link that explains his guy thoughts on his assumption.

Finally, did you know that some of our most common phrases have racist origins?

Even the most nonsensical idioms in the English language originated somewhere. Some terms, like silver lining and tomfoolery, have innocuous roots, while other sayings date back to the darkest chapters in U.S. history. While these common phrases are rarely used in their original contexts today, knowing their racist origins casts them in a different light.

1. Tipping Point

This common phrase describes the critical point when a change that had been a possibility becomes inevitable. When it was popularized, according to Merriam-Webster, it was applied to one phenomenon in particular: white flight. In the 1950s, as white people abandoned urban areas for the suburbs in huge numbers, journalists began using the phrase tipping point in relation to the percentage of non-white neighbors it took to trigger this reaction in white city residents. Tipping point wasn’t coined in the 1950s (it first appeared in print in the 19th century), but it did enter everyday speech during the decade thanks to this topic. 

There are more….read on….

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-racist-origins-of-7-common-phrases

 

 

Recycle Or Not

I am one of those ‘tree huggers’ that recycles and have been for decades….but in recent years with so many reports about the useless trend of recycling has got me wondering if I should continue to do so.

There are a bunch of disturbing reports about plastic waste…..

A report released Thursday estimates that countries worldwide are on pace to generate 220 million tonnes of total plastic waste this year, a finding that comes as governments are set to convene in Ottawa, Canada later this month to hash out a binding global treaty to limit the toxic pollution that is inundating waterways and communities across the planet.

The new report from EA – Earth Action (EA) projects that Plastic Overshoot Day—the point at which the amount of plastic waste produced exceeds the capacity of global management systems—will arrive on September 5 this year. Over a third of the total plastic waste created this year will end up in nature, according to the analysis.

On average, each person globally contributes 28 kilograms of plastic pollution per year. Previous research has shown that just 20 companies are responsible for more than half of the world’s total single-use plastic waste.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/plastic-waste-2024

That is a scary amount of waste….but there is always recycling, right?

The most recent article shows me that we all may have been ‘hoodwinked’ by big oil….

The petrochemical industry—including major oil companies like ExxonMobil—knew for decades that recycling was not a sustainable solution to the problem of plastic waste, yet continued to promote it in order to avoid regulation and deceive consumers into continuing to buy and use their products, a report released Thursday by the Center for Climate Integrity reveals.

The report, titled The Fraud of Plastic Recycling: How Big Oil and the Plastics Industry Deceived the Public for Decades and Caused the Plastic Waste Crisis, includes newly disclosed industry documents proving that companies and trade groups knew that plastics could not be recycled indefinitely in the 1980s and 90s even as they launched a massive public relations campaign to sell voters and policymakers on the process.

“This evidence shows that many of the same fossil fuel companies that knew and lied for decades about how their products cause climate change have also known and lied to the public about plastic recycling,” Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) president Richard Wiles said in a statement. “The oil industry’s lies are at the heart of the two most catastrophic pollution crises in human history.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/plastics-industry-lie-recycling

Here is another link to this study….

Explosive new report accuses major corporations of lying for decades: ‘It’s clearly fraud they’re engaged in’

I believe there is a term being thrown around these days….’greenwashing’…..WTF?

Greenwashing is the process of conveying a false impression or misleading information about how a company’s products are environmentally sound. Greenwashing involves making an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into believing that a company’s products are environmentally friendly or have a greater positive environmental impact than they actually do.

In addition, greenwashing may occur when a company attempts to emphasize sustainable aspects of a product to overshadow the company’s involvement in environmentally damaging practices. Performed through the use of environmental imagery, misleading labels, and hiding tradeoffs, greenwashing is a play on the term “whitewashing,” which means using false information to intentionally hide wrongdoing, error, or an unpleasant situation in an attempt to make it seem less bad than it is.

So should we continue to recycle?

“No,” Cirino told Salon. “Even if plastic recycling rates were higher, recycling alone could never come close to solving the serious and wide-ranging health, justice, socio-economic, and environmental crises caused by industries’ continued plastic production and plastic pollution, which go hand in hand.” Cirino argued that, given how plastic production has grown exponentially and its pollution problems have likewise worsened, emphasizing recycling over meaningful solutions is at best irresponsible.

“It’s clear recycling is not enough to solve the plastic pollution crisis,” Cirino concluded. “The fossil fuel industry, governments, and corporations really need to turn off the plastic tap, and the UN Plastics Treaty could be an opportunity to do so on a global level—if member states can come together and form a treaty with real ambition. Ultimately, our world must decide what it values: money or life.”

(salon.com)

A couple of years ago I wrote about recycling here on IST….

Do You Recycle?

Ultimately this is one of those issues that the individual has to decide what is best (pause here for side splitting laughter….like most have no care what happens as long as their Mtn Dew is cold)

Me? My family has already started dialing back the amount of plastic we discard…..we care what happens if you do not then that is your problem.

Be Samrt!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

SCOTUS Takes On Trumpism

Does the president have absolute immunity?

That is the question before the US Supreme Court.

The day had many twists and turns….

The “case is submitted.” With those words, Chief Justice John Roberts wrapped up Thursday’s historic testimony about absolute presidential immunity—and whether Donald Trump can be prosecuted for actions taken while he was in office, reports CNN. The gist of early coverage is that Trump will be pleased with the eventual outcome, even though he may lose the main thrust of the case. Details:

  • A Trump loss: At least five of the justices seemed likely to reject Trump’s claim of absolute immunity, reports the AP. (Especially given extreme hypotheticals such as having a rival assassinated.)
  • But a Trump win: Both the New York Times and the Washington Post agree the court is on track to reject absolute immunity, but both say the court also seems poised to send the matter back to a lower court for clarification between public and private actions. That would likely delay Trump’s federal trial on charges he tried to subvert the 2020 election for months, perhaps until after this year’s vote—an outcome that would “amount to a victory for Trump,” per Politico. For one thing, he could effectively torpedo the case should he win reelection.
  • Key exchange: “Without presidential immunity from criminal prosecution there can be no presidency as we know it,” Trump attorney D. John Sauer told the court, per the Wall Street Journal. To which Samuel Alito responded, “My question is whether the very robust form of immunity that you’re advocating is really necessary.”
  • Roberts’ concern: Roberts “clearly believes that the lower courts did not do enough to suss out exactly what is an official act versus a private act,” says CNN legal analyst Paula Reid. “So what they’re setting up here is likely the justices are going to come up with some sort of test, and then send it back down to the lower courts for more litigation.”
  • Decision: Typically, the court would issue its decision in late June or early July, notes the Times, but the justices may speed things up given the circumstances.
  • Irrelevant? Trump’s lawyers have long expected to lose the main argument, according to Rolling Stone. But merely getting the Supreme Court to hear the case in the first place—and thus delay special prosecutor Jack Smith’s case against the former president—was reason enough for celebration, per the story. They were “literally popping champagne” when the court agreed to take the case, the story says.

The Justices asked some key questions….

  • Justice Elena Kagan: Kagan said the framers of the Constitution clearly didn’t want a “monarch” to run the country, CNN reports. “Wasn’t the whole point that the president was not a monarch, and the president was not supposed to be above the law?” she asked.
  • Justice Sonia Sotomayor: “If the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person and he orders the military … to assassinate him, is that within his official acts for which he can get immunity?” she asked Trump lawyer D. John Sauer. The Washington Post reports that Sauer said immunity was possible. “It would depend on the hypothetical that we can see,” he said. “That could well be an official act. It could.” He gave a similar answer when Kagan presented the hypothetical case of a president who’d ordered a military coup.
  • Justice Amy Coney Barrett: Barrett took issue with the Trump team’s argument that a former president needs to be impeached and convicted by the Senate before a court can convict them, the AP reports. “There are many other people who are subject to impeachment, including the nine sitting on this bench, and I don’t think anyone has ever suggested that impeachment would have to be the gateway to criminal prosecution for any of the many other officers subject to impeachment,” she said. “So why is the president different when the impeachment clause doesn’t say so?”
  • Justice Neil Gorsuch: Gorsuch asked whether presidents can pardon themselves, noting that the court has “happily” never had to deal with such questions. The New York Times reports that Sauer deflected the question, saying the main concern is that a president should be able to make bold decisions without fearing prosecution.
  • Chief Justice John Roberts: During discussion of what constitutes an official act, Roberts gave the example of a president appointing an ambassador in return for a bribe, asking, “How do you analyze that?” Sauer said it would be up to “the court’s discretion,” per the Post.

If my meager breakdown is not enough then maybe this will help you along….

https://www.vox.com/scotus/24140309/supreme-court-donald-trump-immunity-jack-smith

This is proving interesting but I think I already know what will come out of this session….how about you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Young Are The Problem

We have an election coming our way in just a matter of months and I have noticed the interest in it is not very good and seems to be waning daily.

In years past an election was a time for the exchange of ideas and debate….these days it is a time for yawns and head shaking.

I am not thrilled with the choice of candidates but I am old and set in my ways…..but the real problem is the younger voter…..it seems they are turned off by Biden and Trump both….

David Brooks, a shill for special interests, thinks Biden has a problem…..

David Brooks says he still thinks President Biden is the Democrats’ strongest candidate for president, but he’s getting more pessimistic about his chances of beating Donald Trump in November. For starters, Brooks writes at the New York Times, many voters simply prefer Republicans “on key issues like inflation and immigration.” But Biden also has a big problem with young voters, Brooks writes. He cites a recent NBC News poll that found only 64% of voters are highly interested in the election, down from 77% in 2020—and among voters 18 to 34, the figure is just 36%.

That might be partly due to the advanced age of both candidates, Brooks writes, but “part of it is also about Biden’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war,” which has been more strongly criticized by young people than other groups. “I think what we’re seeing at Columbia and on other elite campuses is a precursor to what we’re going to see at the Democratic convention in Chicago,” writes Brooks. He characterizes the clashes between police and leftist protesters at the 1968 Democratic convention as an “early marker of the differences between the more-educated and less-educated classes. They were part of the trend that sent working-class voters to the GOP.”

If there are similar clashes at the August convention, “the chaos will reinforce Trump’s core law-and-order message,” Brooks writes. “It will make Biden look weak and hapless.” Click for his full piece. The NBC poll found that Biden and Trump are “essentially tied” among voters 18 to 34, with Biden at 44% and Trump at 43%. Biden’s problem with younger Americans isn’t just about Gaza, writes Philip Bump at the Washington Post. He notes that YouGov polling of registered voters going back to 2021 shows big swings in support for Biden among younger voters—but Gallup polling of all Americans shows younger people “are consistently less approving of Biden than Americans overall.”

A fearmongering piece….trying to influence people with suppositions.

I can understand why the young have a problem with Biden….for I have a problem with his old ass….but where will the young put their vote that is if they bother to vote?

One tactic was the student loan debacle….trying to get on the good side of young voters.

Will it work?

Will they vote for Trump?

Interesting demographic that could make the difference in this election.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Don’t Let The Door Hit You In The Ass

This is news from Africa…..

I recently wrote about the failure of our War on Terror in Africa….that it had created more problems than it solved….

Is Africa A Failure?

Then there was a coup in Niger and the coup leaders told the US to vacate….

Dressed in green military fatigues and a blue garrison cap, Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane, a spokesperson for Niger’s ruling junta, took to local television last month to criticize the United States and sever the long-standing military partnership between the two countries. “The government of Niger, taking into account the aspirations and interests of its people, revokes, with immediate effect, the agreement concerning the status of United States military personnel and civilian Defense Department employees,” he said, insisting that their 12-year-old security pact violated Niger’s constitution.

Another sometime Nigerien spokesperson, Insa Garba Saidou, put it in blunter terms: “The American bases and civilian personnel cannot stay on Nigerien soil any longer.”

(antiwar.com)

I understand that US will leave Niger….”The US Department of State agreed to pull out about 1,000 troops from the country that has been under military rule since July 2023….

Now it seems that another nation in Africa is fed up with US presence….Chad….

Chad is threatening to scrap an agreement with the US that allows American troops to operate in the country, signaling the US might lose even more of its military footprint in Africa after Niger ordered a US withdrawal.

According to CNN, Chad’s government sent a letter to the US earlier this month that said it could end the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). The letter didn’t directly order the US military to leave, but US officials said that if the agreement were canceled, US forces would have to leave a French military base where they were stationed.

Reuters also reported on the letter and said Chad ordered the US to halt activity at the Adji Kossei Air Base because the US had failed to provide documents justifying their presence there. The US has a small military presence in Chad, with CNN putting the number of US troops in the country below 100.

US officials told CNN that the letter could be a negotiating tactic to get a more favorable deal, but the expulsion of US forces would follow a pattern of Western countries losing their foothold in the region.

(antiwar.com)

By all accounts the War on Terror in Africa is an epic failure….for it has created more problems than it has solved.

How many more African nations will follow suit?

I could say this would save the taxpayer some money but reality and the War Department will just piss it away on Ukraine and Israel.

Time for all this to change….and now!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will Dems Jump Ship?

The election of 2024 is just mere months away…..and my choices are slim and none of the two parties….and as of last survey the two parties are basically tied up with the voters….

By one basic metric of politics, Republicans have made gains against Democrats since the last presidential election: The Pew Research Center finds that the nation is roughly split between voters who identify as Democrats (49%) and Republicans (48%), reports the Hill. That’s a contrast to the lead-up to the 2020 election, when Democrats held an edge of 51% to 46%. However, it’s more in line with historical norms.

  • In broad strokes: Republicans “have made significant gains among voters without a college degree, rural voters and white evangelical voters,” per the New York Times, while “Democrats have held onto key constituencies, such as Black voters (though numbers are slipping) and younger voters, and have gained ground with college-educated voters.”
  • Blacks, Hispanics: The poll of 10,000 registered voters found that the share of Black voters who are either Democrats or lean Democratic dropped from a peak of 91% in 2016 to 83% in 2023, per the Washington Post. Over that same span, the share of Hispanic voters in the Democratic camp dropped from 68% to 61%.
  • Key shift: White voters without college degrees were roughly split between the parties as recently as 2007, but they started shifting toward the GOP when Barack Obama was president, per the Post. Last year, they leaned Republican by a margin of 63% to 33%.
  • Key point: “Both parties are more racially and ethnically diverse than in the past,” according to Pew. But demographic shifts result in differences. “The share of voters who are Hispanic has roughly tripled since the mid-1990s; the share who are Asian has increased sixfold over the same period. Today, 44% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters are Hispanic, Black, Asian, another race or multiracial, compared with 20% of Republicans and Republican leaners.”

So what does this mjean?

Nothing right now for it is a momentary snapshot of the electorate…..but it looks like low information Dem voters are starting to lean GOP…..and we know what that means, right?

Speaking of voters changing sides….remember RFK, Jr?  The Dem then Libertarian and now considering an independent run…..but what is the anti-vaxxers true reason for the run?

It is stated that it is to rid ourselves of Biden.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s stated platform in the 2024 presidential race centers on promoting an “honest government,” a “clean, healthy environment,” and the protection of civil liberties—but his New York State director last week boiled down the Independent campaign’s true goal at a meeting with Republican voters: ensuring former President Donald Trump wins the election.

Speaking at a meeting last Thursday, Rita Palma first checked to make sure there were “no Biden voters in the house” before telling her audience that her “No. 1 priority” is to ultimately take electoral votes away from President Joe Biden.

“The Kennedy voter and the Trump voter,” said Palma, “our mutual enemy is Biden.”

States including New York, California, and “most of the Northeast” are likely to vote for the Democratic president, she continued, but if Kennedy, whom Palma referred to as Bobby, is on the ballot in New York, the campaign could help “get rid of Biden.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/rfk-jr-trump

This is how American politics works now….I know it is idiotic.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will You Let The Constitution Die?

In the past few years there have been many assaults and damages to our beloved Constitution…..but there is more to come and in the ashes of our society the Constitution will not be there to help us move forward.

The Constitution has been weakened when we lose our free choice and that is happening almost daily.

I read a good explanation of why this upcoming election is so damn important……

It seems almost inconsequential with all that has transpired since.

A quick search demonstrates follow-up reporting, This month CNN published “Trump’s Avalanche of Dishonesty: Fact checking 102 False Claims from This Fall.”

I don’t consider myself a political writer. In fact, until Donald Trump’s first run for President, virtually everything I published dealt with introspection and making changes in one’s life. Then I listened to the Republican primary debates in 2016.

In what seems like a life time ago, I taught sixth grade. If you recall the Republican Primary and Donald Trump’s outrageous behavior you’ll understand. He reminded me of a sixth grade student who I watched break a window, and when he turned around and saw me, he said, “I didn’t do it.”

Thus began five years of publishing articles. I advocated for political candidates, encouraged everyone to vote even if they weren’t thrilled with the Democratic party’s choice for President. Futilely I explained that not voting is the same as supporting the candidate you don’t want elected.

Now it’s happening again. I fear many citizens are tired of politics and the two presumptive candidates don’t excite them. Many will not vote. That’s unfortunate… no I take that back… It Will Be a Disaster.

Are You Ready to Let Our Constitution Crash and Burn?

I agree with the article…..Every time SCOTUS makes a ruling we seem to lose a little more of the Constitution.

Many Americans who worship at the cult of personality are doing more damage to this country than any imaginary Russian fifth column could ever do…..and they do it with no thought beyond their hatred and stupidity.

Now would be a good time to take a hard look at what you want for this country before you make your decision on who to vote for in November.

Just Saying

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will RFK, Jr Make A Difference?

Recently I read where an ex-staffer for thew RFK, Jr campaign stated that the reason hew was in the race was to help elect Trump to the presidency…..so if that is truly the case how is it going so far?

It may not be working out as the campaign had planned….

Various polls and pundits have been supporting the narrative that third-party presidential runs in the upcoming election, especially the one by independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will prove more harmful to President Biden’s reelection bid than former President Trump’s. A new survey seems to be finding just the opposite:

  • Findings: According the NBC News poll of 1,000 registered US voters from April 12 to April 16, a two-way race between Biden and Trump would leave Trump in the lead, 46% to Biden’s 44%; 10% say they’re not sure or wouldn’t vote. Add in third-party candidates RFK Jr., Jill Stein, and Cornel West to that mix, however, and Biden takes the lead over Trump, 37% to 35%. In that scenario, Kennedy brings in 13% of voters, while Stein and West earn 3% and 2%, respectively. NBC points out that “the movement the other candidates create is within the poll’s margin of error.”
  • Popularity: Part of those results may be tied to the fact that Republicans think more positively of Kennedy (40% positive, 15% negative) than Democrats (16% positive and a much higher 53% negative).
  • Biden on the attack: Per the Hill, the president’s campaign team is now taking things up a notch in its pushback against Kennedy, including with ads pointing out that most of Kennedy’s entire extended family has endorsed Biden. “The issue here is leaving nothing to chance,” a Democratic pollster told Politico last week.
  • Discrepancy: So why is this poll different from past ones? “There’s always two possibilities: One, it’s an outlier,” a GOP pollster involved with the survey tells NBC. “Or two, we’re going to be seeing more of this, and our survey is a harbinger of what’s to come.”
  • Who knows, though: In his piece for Slate last month, David Faris wrote that Biden and Trump “should both be terrified” of what third-party runs could mean for their own reelection campaigns. “The presidential election is about to get much more stressful for everybody,” Faris predicted. “Kennedy is polling better than any third-party candidate in a generation.”

I love it when a political plan goes to crap.

I remember the third party runs of Anderson and Perot….will third parties/independents be more successful than those two?

I am sure there will be others than will pull votes away from Biden….so the time to celebrate the Trump problem is not now.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Good That Was Trump

This post ought to get those hostility juices flowing…..but I would like to state here that this post is NOT what the title implies….as the reader will see upon completion of the link included.

Irony being inherently ironic, it would be easy to dismiss as delusional or harebrained any argument to the effect that Donald Trump’s totalistically execrable behavior over time may have had positive effects on the American public. But let us not blind ourselves to the validity of this counterintuitive notion. By the same token, let us concede that Trump speaks and acts in many ways like other segments of the larger political class – only more extremely, dogmatically and unceasingly. While his hard-wired true believers may see him as a political and ideological Man on Horseback, to those outside his insular, tribal cohort, he is an apocalyptic horseman worthy only of scorn. 

Here are 20 examples of how Trump may have benefited America, or at least where Trumpian maleficence, malfeasance and malpractice have alerted us anew or reawakened us to ideas and practices we once cherished but perhaps have grown complacent about. (In some instances, we may find upon reflection that America’s founders left us holding the bag in the face of the regnant tyranny Trump represents today.) In this newfound “knowing,” the reasoned and reasonable among us may have unwittingly benefited in this Era of Trump.

1. Voting. The late Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, longtime president of the University of Notre Dame, characterized voting as a “civic sacrament,” a rite conferring divine grace on those who fulfill their obligation as citizens to register their choices for public office. Too many of us, let us admit, have come to take voting for granted as a free good that costs nothing, whether we exercise it or not. Thus do we account for America’s consistently low voter turnout rates over time. Trump has weaponized votes, voting and the electoral process in every conceivable way: by manipulating and attempting to negate vote counts; suppressing and disenfranchising voters; shamelessly perpetuating the Big Lie that his 2020 election loss was rigged and stolen; and, most recently, threatening blood in the streets if he loses in 2024. If this hasn’t reminded us of the sanctity of the vote, nothing will.

https://www.salon.com/2024/04/21/20-reasons-why-donald-has-been-good-for-america-no-seriously/

Anything anyone would like to add?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

TikTok–A Step Closer

In the past few months as a diversion the Biden people have been thumping their chest about TikTok….and it looks like the ban is a step closer….

The House passed legislation Saturday that would ban TikTok in the US if the popular social media platform’s China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake within a year. That doesn’t mean the app will go away anytime soon, the AP reports. The decision by House Republicans to include TikTok as part of a larger foreign aid package fast-tracked the ban after an earlier version had stalled in the Senate. A standalone bill with a six-month selling deadline passed the House in March as both Democrats and Republicans voiced national security concerns about the app’s owner, the Chinese technology firm ByteDance.

But the maneuver could speed up the TikTok crackdown’s route through Congress, per the Washington Post, while putting pressure on the Senate. Negotiations between the chambers had produced a compromise measure, and the Post finds support increasing in the Senate. TikTok is “a spy balloon in Americans’ phones” used to “surveil and exploit America’s personal information,” Republican Rep. Michael McCaul told the House in introducing the provision for debate on Saturday. The company could challenge the law in court, per the AP, possibly arguing that it deprives millions of TikTok users of their First Amendment rights. President Biden said last month that he would sign the TikTok bill if Congress passes it.

Is TikTok truly dangerous?

Researchers studied the app’s source code and reported it carries out “excessive data harvesting”. Analysts said TikTok collects details such as location, what specific device is being used and which other apps are on it.

However, a similar test carried out by Citizen Lab concluded “in comparison to other popular social media platforms, TikTok collects similar types of data to track user behaviour”.

Similarly, a report by the Georgia Institute of Technology last year stated: “The key fact here is that most other social media and mobile apps do the same things.”

If TikTok does nothing different than other social media sights why then is TikTok the only danger?

What do you think this proposed ban is all about?

Is this truly a freedom of speech thing?

How will the Supreme Court rule on this for we know it will make it there for their ruling?

Do we really want to start down this road of banning social media?

Is this a made up ‘crisis’ or is it an accusation with some teeth?

All good questions that deserve good answers….

Your thoughts included.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”