Month: January 2023

The ‘Freedom Caucus’

Ever notice that these people give their BS all these patriotic sounding titles….like the ‘Fair Tax Act’, Freedom Caucus and none of them have anything patriotic attached to it in reality.

For this post I want to write about the ultra-conserv caucus within the House of Representatives, the Freedom Caucus……

The group, which includes many veterans of the Tea Party movement, was formed in January with the declared aim of pushing the House GOP leadership rightward on certain fiscal and social issues. More broadly, the caucus wants power shifted away from the leadership to the rank-and-file (by, for instance, giving committees more leeway on which bills to move forward and allowing more amendments to come to floor votes).

Unlike the plethora of caucuses and committees – which range from the Ad Hoc Congressional Committee for Irish Affairs to the House GOP Study Group – the Freedom Caucus does not officially disclose who belongs to it (aside from its nine founding members), though various unofficial lists have circulated. Membership is by invitation only, and meetings are not public.

The caucus originated during the mid-January 2015 Republican congressional retreat in Hershey, Pennsylvania.  According to founding member Mick Mulvaney, “that was the first time we got together and decided we were a group, and not just a bunch of pissed-off guys”.  Nine conservative Republican members of the House began planning a new congressional caucus separate from the Republican Study Committee and apart from the House Republican Conference. The founding members who constituted the first board of directors for the new caucus were Republican representatives Scott Garrett of New Jersey, Jim Jordan of Ohio, John Fleming of Louisiana, Matt Salmon of Arizona, Justin Amash of Michigan, Raúl Labrador of Idaho, Mulvaney of South Carolina, Ron DeSantis of Florida and Mark Meadows of North Carolina.

(wikipedia.org)

Like the forerunner of the group, the Tea Party, the Freedom Caucus never intended to lead only to disrupt.

At the beginning of this month, the House endured the longest contest to elect a speaker in 164 years. Rep. Kevin McCarthy ultimately was elected speaker, but only after he made several concessions to a small but influential faction of dissenting conservative Republicans. Though not every member of the Freedom Caucus — a far-right coalition of Republican lawmakers — voted against McCarthy, nearly every member who did oppose him was a member of the Freedom Caucus.

That commonality has drawn renewed attention to the Freedom Caucus and its role within Congress. Despite being a minority in the House, the Freedom Caucus has repeatedly punched above its weight and effected genuine change in the chamber. Powerful political factions are as old as American politics, and in most ways, the Freedom Caucus is just a continuation of that tradition. But in a few key ways, its members are doing something different: voting as a bloc, willing to go against their own party’s leadership and to gum up the works to make a statement. Those differences have allowed the Freedom Caucus to exercise influence over the better part of the past decade — and are why it’s only just getting started.

Modern congressional caucuses emerged in the last century, though less formal organizations of like-minded members have existed in Congress since the start, according to Ruth Bloch Rubin, a political science professor at the University of Chicago and the author of “Building the Bloc: Intraparty Organization in the U.S. Congress.” During the Progressive Era in the early 20th century, a group of insurgent Republicans worked alongside Democrats to strip away some of the powers that had been consolidated by the speaker. In the 1960s and ’70s, the left-leaning Democratic Study Group worked to push through civil rights legislation (along with, later, the Congressional Black Caucus), against bitter opposition from conservative Southern Democrats.

Typically, such influential intraparty factions emerge only when parties find themselves especially divided, Bloch Rubin said. “It’s usually because there’s enough of a cleavage within the party that these sort of factions have enough members and the distance between one faction and a competitor faction within the same party is enough that it warrants this kind of organizational work,” she said.

The Freedom Caucus Was Designed To Disrupt

This caucus was designed to be a distraction from the silliness of the GOP….they are there to disrupt and play political games not to govern.

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Putin’s Future

I read this article and thought I would pass it on to my readers especially those that have no love for the criminal Putin.

People have envisioned all sorts of scenarios for the demise of Putin…..from being crazy to an internal revolution that would sideline him and his policies……

This article will be music to some of those ears…..

Vladimir Putin is reportedly set to “disappear” from his leadership position within the Kremlin because there is “clearly something wrong” with his health, RadarOnline.com has learned.

In a sudden development to come amid rumors and reports the 70-year-old Russian leader’s health is quickly deteriorating, intelligence officials have revealed Putin is preparing to step down as Russia’s leader.

The surprising revelation also comes as Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine is “going from bad to worse,” and Putin’s political career is “hanging in the balance” as his forces struggle to take the neighboring nation one year after first invading in February 2022.

“He’s probably faced with another call-up. That clearly is deeply unpopular in Russia,” Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, recently said according to Daily Star. “There must be massive tensions within the leadership group inside the Kremlin, there must be massive tensions socially across Russia over this whole issue.”

“I just don’t think we can say if he will be deposed,” Dearlove continued. “I rashly predicted last year that on the grounds of probably his health, he gets shuffled off into a sanatorium and would disappear and then you would just have a probably a continuation of the same regime and in someone else’s hands.”

“I still think that that’s a possibility,” the former head of MI6 added. “There’s clearly something wrong with him. Physically, I think. I’m not a clinician but I know there are clinicians analyzing his movements. There’s something wrong with him and maybe that is affecting his political judgment as well.”

(radaronline.com)

I have not been able to verify this report…..so please take this prediction with a grain of salt….I know many of you are pulling for something to befall the Russian leader…..do not celebrate too soon….this may be just rumor….or another social media hoax.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is DeSantis A Racist?

Easy answer for me….yes he is!

Every time Florida’s gov opens his mouth or puts plans into action he proves to me that he is a racist.

His action show a serious dislike for brown and black people.

His newest attempt is to ban Afro-American studies from Florida’s high schools….

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, has rejected a new advanced placement course in African American studies from being taught on high school campuses. He argues that the course violates state law and “lacks educational value”.

This move is the latest in a series of actions to keep conversations and lessons about race, sexuality and gender identity off the state’s school campuses.

DeSantis officially banned the course in a letter from the state education department to the College Board, the organization that administers college readiness exams like the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). They also oversee advanced placement (AP) courses, which allow students to earn college credits in subjects like English and chemistry.

In a 12 January letter to the College Board, the Florida education department said the course is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value”.

In the summer of 2022, the College Board announced a pilot program to “offer high school students an evidence-based introduction to African American studies” would be launching in 60 high schools across the country during the 2022-23 school year and will be set to expand to other campuses the following year.

“Like all new AP courses, AP African American Studies is undergoing a rigorous, multiyear pilot phase, collecting feedback from teachers, students, scholars and policymakers,” the College Board said in a statement.

“The process of piloting and revising course frameworks is a standard part of any new AP course and frameworks often change significantly as a result,” the statement continued.

DeSantis, a one-time Donald Trump ally, plays an active role in stoking social and political anxieties, primarily among white Americans, that stem from conversations about race and gender that occur on K-12 public school campuses. In April 2022, he signed the Stop Woke Act, which severely limits “race-based” discussions at schools.

(theguardian.com)

I think this action answers the question originally asked.

Please I would like to hear from any Floridian reader on this subject.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Poverty–Oh SNAP!

There are a few programs that try to help the poor with their struggle with hunger….one of those programs is the SNAP.

SNAP provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of needy families so they can purchase healthy food and move towards self-sufficiency.

Now that the Repubs are in control of most state houses there is a movement to end this program….

Republicans in the Iowa House introduced legislation this month that would impose a slew of fresh restrictions on the kinds of food people can purchase using SNAP benefits, sparking outrage among local groups who say the measure would exacerbate hunger in the GOP-dominated state.

The Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC), an interfaith group that operates the largest food pantry network in Iowa, noted in a statement earlier this week that if the bill passes, “Iowans could no longer use their SNAP benefits to purchase meat, nuts, and seeds; flour, butter, cooking oil, soup, canned fruits, and vegetables; frozen prepared foods, snack foods, herbs, spices—not even salt or pepper.”

“This is a punitive policy that will do nothing to improve the health and nutrition of Iowans, but rather be a detriment,” the group said.

The Iowa Hunger Coalition (IHC) also condemned the bill, voicing opposition to its proposed food restrictions as well as new asset limits that would make it more difficult for families to qualify for SNAP, a program funded by the federal government and administered by states.

According to Feeding America, the largest hunger-relief organization in the U.S., roughly 229,500 people—including 80,160 children—are facing food insecurity in Iowa.

The details of the new legislation—which is sponsored by 39 Iowa House Republicans, including Speaker Pat Grassley—were met with national anger.

“This is so profoundly cruel and petty,” said Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of the progressive advocacy group Indivisible.

Sarah Bowen, a sociologist who studies food and inequality, noted in a tweet on Thursday that “Republicans have tried to destroy SNAP for years,” animated by the lie that “SNAP recipients are all stocking up on lobster and steak.”

“This is the most ridiculous proposal I’ve seen though,” Bowen added. “No chicken or ground beef. No chili beans. No American cheese?!”

SNAP recipients are already limited in what they can purchase at the grocery store using their benefits, but Iowa Republicans are seeking to dramatically expand those restrictions.

As Todd Dorman of the Iowa Gazetteexplained in a column on Thursday, the legislation “would require the Department of Health and Human Services to seek a federal waiver allowing Iowa to scrap an already restrictive federal list of approved foods and replace it with a list of food available to recipients of aid to Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC.”

“The bill would also, for the first time, create an asset test, limiting household assets to $2,750 or $4,250 if one member of the household is over 60. It exempts just one vehicle, potentially making households with two cars ineligible,” Dorman wrote. “Beyond all of that draconian wisdom, the bill would force recipients to jump through far more regulatory hoops to become eligible and stay on SNAP, wrapping recipients tightly in red tape and likely costing the state millions more to administer the program.”

“Only two groups support the bill,” Dorman added. “One is the Florida-based Opportunity Solutions Project, which sends its minions across the country to cut holes in the social safety net and oppose policies such as Medicaid expansion. The group is part of a web of conservative think tanks and bill mills bankrolled by rich donors who think if you just make poor people hungry and sick enough, they’ll utilize their bootstraps.”

(commondreams.org.

Read on….https://www.businessinsider.com/iowa-republicans-bill-ban-snap-recipients-meat-sliced-cheese-2023-1

How long will it be before this kind of cruelty expands into other red controlled Houses?

And yet they get votes from the very people they are screwing….where’s the logic in that?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Capital Riot Has Consequences

I have reported on the fines and penalties handed out by the courts on those that participated in the 06 January insurrection…..and now there is a new consequence possible.

Democratic lawmakers in a handful of states are trying to send a message two years after the violent attack on the US Capitol: Those who engage in an attempted overthrow of the government shouldn’t be allowed to run it. New York, Connecticut, and Virginia are among states where proposed legislation would prohibit anyone convicted of participating in an insurrection from holding public office or a position of public trust, such as becoming a police officer, per the AP. While the bills vary in scope, their aim is similar. “If you’ve tried to take down our government through violent means, in no way should you be part of it,” New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal said.

  • New York: Hoylman-Sigal is sponsoring a bill that would bar people convicted of engaging in an insurrection or rebellion against the United States from holding civil office, meaning they would not be able to serve as a judge or member of the Legislature.
  • Virginia: A state lawmaker introduced a bill this month, on the second anniversary of the Capitol riot, that would prohibit anyone convicted of a felony related to an attempted insurrection or riot from serving in positions of public trust—including those involving policymaking, law enforcement, safety, education, or health.
  • Connecticut: A proposed bill would prohibit people convicted of sedition, rebellion, insurrection or a felony related to one of those acts from running for or holding public office. Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, who introduced the measure, said he wants the legislation eventually to bar them from holding state or municipal jobs.

Some Republicans say the legislation is unnecessary. In New York, Republican Assemblyman Will Barclay, the minority leader, called the bill there a “political statement,” saying it is “more political than it is a concern about public policy.” He said existing rules already apply to people in certain positions who are convicted of crimes and that those laws “should be sufficient.” The legislation is another example of how the Capitol riot has become a political Rorschach test in the country.

Stellar ideas in my book…..there has to be consequences for their actions….this should include anyone convicted of any charge pertaining to the riot.

Is there more news about the others involved?

More “Oath Keepers’ learn their fate….

A federal jury on Monday convicted four members of the Oath Keepers militia of seditious conspiracy, deciding they’d plotted to use force to keep former President Donald Trump in office. Roberto Minuta, 38; Joseph Hackett, 52; David Moerschel, 45; and Edward Vallejo, 64, also were found guilty of obstructing and conspiring to obstruct lawmakers and Congress in general, the Washington Post reports. “They claimed to wrap themselves in the Constitution, but they trampled it,” said prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler in the trial’s closing arguments. “They ignored the will of the people” while having “the audacity to claim to be oath-keepers.”

The four men’s case was split from the trial of Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers, and others because of limited space in the courtroom. In November, Rhodes also was found guilty of seditious conspiracy. Prosecutors said these four ranked lower in the far-right militia group than those in the other trial, more like troops than organizers. Hackett and Moerschel forced their way into the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with a dozen others, the government said. Minuta came behind them with another group that fought officers inside, and Vallejo, an Army veteran, stayed with a stash of guns in a hotel in Virginia. Prosecutors said he repeatedly texted fellow conspirators that he was ready to join them at the Capitol but received no response.

When officers pushed Minuta and others out of the building, prosecutors said, he shouted “All that’s left is the Second Amendment!” The Oath Keepers met for dinner after the riot at an Olive Garden in Virginia and began planning their next move, per the Post. But they scattered, one member said, when they heard federal agents were looking for them. The jury deliberated for about 15 hours over three days before returning its verdict Monday, per the New York Times. Hackett and Moerschel were acquitted of damaging Capitol doors. US District Judge Amit Mehta allowed all four to await sentencing while under house arrest.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Those Egg Prices

Okay I will jump onto the bandwagon and tackle egg prices.

Yesterday I went shopping and bought a dozen brown eggs…..it cost me $7.52 plus tax. That is more than a pound of lean hamburger.

I asked the same question I suppose everyone asks when they get hit with the reality of wanting an egg for breakfast.

I guess an explanation is in order.

So what is causing it….is it because of the avian flu or what?

The price of eggs is taking its toll on American families, and in some states, it’s even getting harder to find eggs on the shelves. 

Since December 2021, the average price of eggs in U.S. households has soared nearly 60 percent, according to the latest economic release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  

The current state of inflated egg prices is primarily due to the worst breakout of Avian bird flu that the United States has seen. Since early 2022, more than 50 million laying hens have died.  And, although those hens account for only about 5 percent of the laying population, the feed cost has also taken a toll on producers and consumers alike.

Skyrocketing soybean prices coupled with an increased holiday demand for eggs and lagging production rates have also contributed to the pricing conundrum. Fortunately, according to Curt Covington, senior director of partner relations at AgAmerica, egg prices will see some corrections even if Avian flu continues to threaten poultry producers.

“Inflated prices are expected to decline in the first half of 2023 due to the decrease in demand for eggs after the holidays. But if input costs continue to increase and the bird flu continues to kill large quantities of hens, the costs will most likely be passed on to consumers,” said Covington.

Even though consumers probably won’t find a bargain at the supermarkets, they can buy lower grade eggs, buy eggs in bulk, and price shop to navigate current egg prices. Consumers may also find lower priced products at farmers’ markets. 

Unfortunately, most supermarkets won’t be able hedge the price of eggs by purchasing for local growers, as their products are contracted on a national scale by corporate offices. 

“As holiday demand subsides, we will likely see a 25 to 30 percent correction in inflated egg prices by the second quarter of 2023, if not sooner,” Covington said. “However, bird flu will continue to be a challenge for poultry farmers who have been playing catch up to meet demand even prior to COVID.”

(agdaily.com)

No consolation at all….but it does answer what happen….

How about egg smuggling?

Eggs are much cheaper in Mexico but anybody caught trying to bring them across the border could have to shell out a lot of money, officials say. American egg prices were up 60% year-on-year in December due to factors including avian flu, making Mexican eggs an appealing prospect for residents of states including California, where a dozen eggs can cost around $8, compared to less than $3 in Tijuana, the BBC reports. “The San Diego Field Office has recently noticed an increase in the number of eggs intercepted at our ports of entry,” tweeted Jennifer De La O, the office’s director of field operations. “As a reminder, uncooked eggs are prohibited entry from Mexico into the US. Failure to declare agriculture items can result in penalties of up to $10,000.”

“My advice is, don’t bring them over,” CBP Supervisory Agriculture Specialist Charles Payne tells Border Report. “If you fail to declare them or try to smuggle them, you face civil penalties.” He says the fines up of to $10,000 are for commercial operations caught smuggling eggs. For ordinary consumers, the penalty is around $300. According to Department of Agriculture statistics, egg and poultry seizures at the border rose 108% between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 last year. Payne says that if people declare eggs when they’re crossing into the US, the eggs will be seized but no fine will be issued. “If you fail to declare it or if you attempt to smuggle it, there’s going to be a penalty,” he says.

Good idea we would not want to cut into Walmart’s profits now would we?

Finally I check three different stores on egg prices…..for a dozen it ranged from $3.27…to $7.00….the higher price was from a national ‘low cost’ chain….

I bet egg prices will stray high even after the crisis subsides….

You happy now?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Now We Will Have Fiscal Responsibility

It is official the GOP is in control of the House and now that the Repubs are in power we will have what we have been promised….fiscal responsibility.

First if you believe this steaming pile of horse manure then I have a slightly used bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you.

Their first fiscal response was to eliminate the metal detectors….next was to authorize smoking in the House….then came another give away for Ukraine….

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine less than one year ago, Congress has approved more than $113 billion of aid and military assistance to support the Ukrainian government and allied nations. The Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 omnibus appropriations package included an additional $47.3 billion of emergency funding to provide humanitarian, military, and economic assistance to Ukraine on top of the $65.8 billion of funding already approved in three other emergency funding packages enacted by Congress.

Of the $113 billion approved in 2022, about three-fifths ($67 billion) has been allocated toward defense needs and the remaining two-fifths ($46 billion) to nondefense concerns such as general Ukrainian government aid, economic support, and aid for refugee resettlement. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) provided cost estimates of the four funding packages at the time each was passed. In total, CBO estimated that $6.6 billion of the $113 billion would be spent in FY 2022 and another $37.7 billion in FY 2023. Furthermore, CBO estimated more than half of the approved funds would be spent by the end of FY 2024 and more than three-fourths by the end of FY 2026.

(crfb.org)

So where will the fiscal responsibility kick in?

Republicans in Congress have been eager to position themselves as the fiscally responsible counterweight to what they consider budget-busting and inflation-increasing overspending from the Biden administration. But just two weeks into their new majority, House Republicans have shown their true colors, and it’s more likely than not that they will make our nation’s fiscal problems even worse.

The first bill passed by the new majority would repeal $71 billion in new funding for taxpayer services and enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that Democrats passed last Congress. But an official score from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that this bill would also reduce revenue collections by $186 billion over the next decade because it would undermine the agency’s ability to make wealthy tax cheats pay what they owe.As a result, the first act by the new House majority would actually increase deficits by roughly $114 billion.

New House majority shows its true colors on ‘fiscal responsibility’

Nice to see nothing will change…the GOP will be all talk with little or no action.

“Fiscal Responsibility” is demon-speak for attacks on social programs that benefit the population.

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The ‘Pink Floyd’ Controversy

50 years ago the icon Pink Floyd album, ‘Dark Side Of The moon’ was released and on this anniversary there is a plan to re-release the album to commemorate the occasion.

And as usual these days nothing goes by without some sort of conspiracy or controversy and Pink Floyd is no different….

Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” turns 50 this year, and just as iconic as the album itself, which spent a jaw-dropping 18-plus years on the Billboard charts, is the cover art designed by British graphic designers Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell. Widely considered one of the most famous album designs of all time, the artwork features a beam of light refracting through a triangular prism, coming out the other side as a rainbow. Thorgerson said he was inspired by a photo he saw in a physics textbook. On Thursday, to mark the upcoming anniversary and promote its commemorative box set, the band uploaded a new logo to its social media accounts, showing a white triangle against a black background, with the number “50” inside it, and a rainbow filling in the zero.

What should’ve been an exciting time for Floyd fans to join together to celebrate the album, however, turned into an online battle, as some who’d apparently forgotten about the original cover art started accusing the band of suddenly becoming “woke” by using the rainbow, often seen as a symbol of gay pride, to promote LGBTQ rights, per USA Today. “Lose the rainbow, you’re making yourself look stupid,” one commenter wrote, as seen in a viral screenshot now circulating. “Just another band pandering,” noted another. Some even noted they wouldn’t be listening to Pink Floyd anymore because of the logo update.

Louder reports that other fans soon came to the rescue to educate these “less enlightened” detractors. “Boycotting Pink Floyd (as if it would matter) because you don’t understand prisms and can’t remember the original cover is beyond parody,” one person wrote. Still others came just to watch the comments fly back and forth. One of the most popular remarks: “Man, some people took ‘we don’t need no education’ too seriously.” At any rate, as that fight continues on social media, planetariums across the world plan on playing the album in March, along with “stunning visuals [of] the solar system and beyond,” per an announcement from the band. The $300 box set, which will include remastered versions of both the original album and the 1974 live recording, releases on March 24. Watch science at work in creating rainbows in this Pink Floyd promo here.

Maybe these detractors should have stayed awake in science class.

Like I keep saying…..’can’t fix stupid’.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Usual Saturday News

Let’s admit it the news these days is just boring and at times beyond believable….honestly most of it is garbage.

So on Saturday’s I try to let my readers know some of the news that did not make the national news….

First of all for the last few years we have had the warmest Summers on history and 2023 will be no different….

The El Nino climate phenomenon helped make 2016 the hottest year on record—and its return later this year could bring even higher temperatures amid “unprecedented heatwaves,” scientists say. Forecasters say the pattern in the Pacific Ocean, which affects conditions around the world, is set to flip from El Nina to El Nino, the warmer part of the cycle, making extreme weather worse, the Guardian reports. El Nina and El Nino events tend to develop during the spring and reach peak intensity during the winter before dying down by summer, per IFLScience, meaning any temperature records set in 2023 are likely to be broken in 2024. The cycle has been in the El Nina phase since late 2020.

Scientists say El Nino is likely to bring world temperatures 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and into territory that climate agreements have sought to avoid. “We know that under climate change, the impacts of El Nino events are going to get stronger, and you have to add that to the effects of climate change itself, which is growing all the time,” says Adam Scaife, head of long-range prediction at the UK Met Office. “You put those two things together, and we are likely to see unprecedented heatwaves during the next El Nino.” In the US, El Nino tends to bring hotter and drier weather to northern states and wetter weather to southern states.

“We suggest that 2024 is likely to be off the chart as the warmest year on record,” American climate scientist James Hansen said last year, per the Guardian. “Without inside information, that would be a dangerous prediction, but we proffer it because it is unlikely that the current La Nina will continue a fourth year. Even a little futz of an El Nino—like the tropical warming in 2018-19, which barely qualified as an El Nino—should be sufficient for record global temperature.” Climate scientist Wenju Cai tells Australia’s 9News that with so much heat stored in the equatorial Pacific during three years of El Nina, “an El Nino is readily triggered by relaxation of the trade winds over the region.”

Something to either dread or look forward to…depends on your attitude.

How about an alien space probe?

Ask a hundred scientists what first contact with an alien civilization would look like, and you’ll get back a hundred different answers. Futurism put forth the scientific theory of how humanity would react to an alien probe, and how strangely, the second probe might be the most important. Due to the reality of traveling light-years through space, the first probe to arrive on Earth may not be the first one that was sent in our direction.

University of California astronomer Graeme Smith recently published a paper going over the mind-bending thought exercise. Smith explains that first contact may come about from an ancient artifact drifting through space. That assumption assumes that an alien civilization sends out a probe as soon as they are capable, without waiting for sufficient interstellar travel technology. This is of course, what humans did with the Voyager spacecraft, which were sent out without the intention of being a probe, but prepared with a golden disc of information just in case.

The sheer distance of objects in space, which is so vast even reaching Mars, the closest planet to Earth, is realistically beyond the average human lifespan, makes it likely that it won’t be the first, second, or even third, probe that will reach us, but the two-hundredth. If an alien species continues to develop and refine their space-faring technology, it is likely that a probe sent in 14,000 years would arrive at the same time here as Voyager 2, launched in 1977, would on their planet.

Scientists Worried About Alien Probes

 

SCOTUS Update

The Supreme Court will be putting together their agenda and a couple of the issues that could make the docket….

The Supreme Court could change the way the internet is governed next month. It will hear two cases that will challenge Section 230. Section 230 is a part of the Communications Decency Act. This act determines the rules for regulating online speech. This hearing is the first time the Supreme Court has dealt with a case fighting the 1996 act. But if the plaintiffs win, they could change how the internet is operated and used. 

Both cases being tried in front of the supreme court involve using various social media platforms by terrorists. The court will decide if the owners of these social media platforms did enough to block terrorists from using their services to spread their message and recruit new members. The social media site, Youtube, is the main focus of this trial to see if they are protected under Section 230 for the algorithmic recommendation of content. 

The first case was filed by the parents of Nohemi Gonzalez, who was killed in a terrorist attack in Paris on November 2015. Her family believes that Youtube’s algorithms push ISIS videos into people’s scope by recommending them in the suggested videos section of their platform. It is well known that many terrorist groups, including ISIS, use YouTube to recruit members to their organization from the western world. 

One Supreme Court Ruling Could Change The Internet Entirely

The next update is one that seems to be in every agenda….something religious….

The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will hear Groff v. DeJoy, a case that could give religious conservatives an unprecedented new ability to dictate how their workplaces operate, and which workplace rules they will refuse to follow.

Yet Groff is also likely to overrule a previous Supreme Court decision that treated the interests of religious employees far more dismissively than federal law suggests that these workers should be treated.

The case, in other words, presents genuinely tricky questions about the limits of accommodating an employee’s religious beliefs. But those questions will be resolved by a Supreme Court that has shown an extraordinary willingness to bend the law in ways that benefit Christian-identified conservatives.

That could lead to a scenario in which the Court announces a new legal rule that disrupts the workplace — and that potentially places far too many burdens on non-religious employees.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23559038/supreme-court-groff-dejoy-religion-twa-hardison-workplace

I have doubt that these paleo-conserv judges will do the wrong thing.

Finally remember that famous leak of a draft of the ruling on Rowe v Wade and the ensuing investigation into that leak?

Someone is likely breathing a sigh of relief. The Supreme Court said Thursday that it can’t figure out who leaked the bombshell draft opinion of the ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. “It is not possible to determine the identity of any individual who may have disclosed the document or how the draft opinion ended up with Politico,” says the court’s unsigned report, per the Washington Post. “No one confessed to publicly disclosing the document and none of the available forensic and other evidence provided a basis for identifying any individual as the source of the document.”

A separate report by Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley notes that nearly 100 court staffers were interviewed and all presented the it-wasn’t-me defense, reports NBC News. The investigation into the unprecedented leak eight months ago is not over, but the tone of the two reports suggests little hope of a breakthrough. “Investigators continue to review and process some electronic data that has been collected and a few other inquiries remain pending,” wrote Curley. “To the extent that additional investigation yields new evidence or leads, the investigators will pursue them.” Curley added that it’s unlikely anyone hacked the court’s computer system.

The country owes this person a debt of gratitude for the leak….it help show just how corrupt and uncaring these judicial slugs are towards the rights of the American people.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”