Month: September 2023

The JFK Assassination

I know we have heard all the wild theories and conspiracies that have grown up around the infamous assassination of JFK on the fateful day day in November.

Think you have heard or read all of the conspiracies?

Think again.

Surprise….surprise…..

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy as he rode in a motorcade with his wife Jackie through Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, is one of the defining moments of 20th-century American history. Kennedy’s murder was one of those time-stopping news stories: as the old saying goes, everyone who was alive at the time can remember just where they were when they heard the news that the president had been shot.

The nation was gripped as news broke that the security services had apprehended the gunman, ex-Marine Lee Harvey Oswald, who had seemingly fired multiple rifle rounds from the window of the nearby Texas School Book Depository. However, Oswald was shot and killed before his trial, meaning he never received justice or made his exact motives known on the stand. Ever since, the nation has been divided as to what exactly happened that day and who was responsible, with the findings of the subsequent Warren Commission continuing to be scrutinized even today.

Over the years countless conspiracy theorists have studied the footage, talked to the people who were there, and examined the location firsthand, and while many versions of what actually happened that day have since emerged, none have successfully supplanted the official explanation that Kennedy was murdered by the deranged Oswald, who was acting alone. But in September 2023, a new detail emerged from someone who was there at the scene, ex-Secret Service agent Paul Landis, that arguably challenges how the assassination has been interpreted for the last six decades.

https://www.grunge.com/1392797/everything-we-know-about-new-john-f-kennedy-assassination-revelations/

I realize that most people already have an idea what they think really happened on the day in 1963….but I just wanted to throw some new wood on the fire of a conspiracy.

Is there enough room for even more assassination theories or conspiracies?

Whatcha think?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Billionaires, Bigots And Bullies

If you had to pick three words to describe the modern GOP these three would do it very simply.

The GOP has abandoned even a pretense of caring for our country and supporting democracy at home and abroad. Now all they care about are bigots, billionaires, and bullies.

There was a time in this country when most Americans — regardless of political affiliation — agreed on a basic set of principles:

— Comity in politics is a good thing, as is compromise in the name of the public good.
— We want “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for all Americans.
— America defends other democracies.
— Politicians don’t interfere with the criminal justice system to help their friends.

— Trying to overthrow our government is treason.
— Business supports America because America makes it possible for business to grow and prosper.
— Political parties put the nation first and individual politicians second.

The Democratic Party still supports all these ideals, sometimes to their detriment, like when they refuse to “fight dirty” by creating sketchy scandals like “her emails” and “Benghazi.” While these may give the party a short-term benefit, most Democrats realize the long-term harm to the nation isn’t worth the temporary gain.

The post-Trump GOP, however, has rejected them all. Instead, it’s become the party of Putin, bin Salman, and Orbán, rejecting out of hand George Washington’s warning about partisanship replacing patriotism and, increasingly, rejecting the very idea of democracy in our republic.

https://www.rawstory.com/hartmann-radio/

In short the question….Has the GOP become anti-American, anti-government and anti-United States?

Today, the Republican Party is openly rejecting this historic view of America’s destiny, the ideal of ever-greater inclusion, of support and compassion for our fellow human beings, of our willingness to work and even fight to support democracy both at home and around the world.

This is a crisis because a nation without a positive vision of itself, without a moral compass that points toward ever-more-inclusive democracy, inevitably becomes a nation heading toward anarchy and autocracy.

While the seeds of fascism and anti-Americanism have a long history in this country (check out the story of Smedley Butler and the attempted coup against FDR, or the rise of the Klan in the 1920s and the American Nazi movement in the 1930s), it has never before so completely seized one of our two main political parties that its leadership would openly reject Americanism and embrace foreign dictators.

https://www.alternet.org/can-the-gop-be-stopped-from-crushing-america-s-historical-vision/

Many people see Trump’s raise as his attempt to become an authoritarian or dictator if you like….now ask what can we do about it?

Donald Trump is a dictator in waiting. Like other dictators, he is threatening to put his “enemies” in prison – and to do even worse things to them. These are not idle threats or empty acts of ideation: Donald Trump is a violent man who is a proven enemy of democracy and freedom.

These threats of violence against his enemies are part of a much larger pattern of violent and dangerous behavior that is only growing worse as he faces criminal trials and the possibility of going to prison for hundreds of years.

In “banana republics” the enemies of the leader and the regime are usually imprisoned, tortured, executed, and face death squads and mass executions. Trump himself has publicly expressed his admiration for murderous dictators and autocrats such as Vladimir Putin and N. Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

The corporate news media — with MSNBC being a notable exception — as is their policy, mostly ignored Trump’s most recent threats to kill and imprison President Joe Biden and the other “enemies” of the MAGA movement. Ignoring the danger will not make it disappear or otherwise go away; moreover, to ignore Trumpism and neofascism is to normalize them.

https://www.salon.com/2023/09/07/plans-to-become-a-dictator–denial-will-not-save-you/

Trump and the anti-American GOP are a serious threat to our beloved country….I know this is nothing new…..but it bears repeating and often or we could lose what so many have died to protect.

At what point to voters stop worrying about crap and consider the health and existence of our society….a society that use to be the envy of the world and now we are nothing more than a joke among nations.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Fixing The Food System

I have never made it a secret that I believe the big agribusinesses are not a great idea…..for one is they are destroying the environment and for two the whole GMO craze does nothing for4 the quality of the produce just the quantity.

I have been growing my own produce for many years because I cannot stand the taste of the GMO crap…that basically has little to no actual taste it just last longer on the shelves.

Since the whole agribusiness is so entrenched in our system these days and young people have little idea what real produce or meat actually taste like is it here to stay or can it be fixed?

While the article I reference is basically tackling the meat industry it still bears exposure…..I offer it up as to make sure that I try to be as balanced as I possibly can (and it is not an easy trip for me)….

In addition to being the main cause of animal cruelty in the world, factory farming is a primary source of environmental degradation. The industrialized meat industry accounts for 37 percent of worldwide emissions of methane, a global warming gas 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the first two decades after its release. It is also responsible for 65 percent of human-made emissions of nitrous oxide—a gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide—that depletes the ozone layer, which protects the Earth’s surface from the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation.

Factory farming also depletes the planet’s fresh water. Just a single egg takes more than 50 gallons of water to produce. A pound of chicken, 468 gallons. A gallon of milk, 880 gallons. A pound of beef, 1,800 gallons. It also requires vast tracts of land, which means the industrial meat industry is also the cause of massive deforestation around the globe, destroying ecosystems, threatening Indigenous communities and their traditional ways of life, and endangering a host of wildlife. Data shows that companies in the supply chain of JBS, the world’s largest supplier of meat, are potentially responsible for the destruction of up to 124 square miles of Brazilian rainforest every single year to produce beef that is exported around the globe.

How to Fix Our Food System

Eliminate meat?

I am an old fart and that just is not going to happen….this article sounds more like an ad for the ‘plant based’ con job.

And to be fair here is a rebuttal to the meat thing….

Bev Turner brilliantly pulled apart a climate scientist on his dictate encouraging Britons to give up meat.

The GB News host, in a lively debate on Britain’s Newsroom delivered a withering summation of the advice being offered by environmental campaigner, Donnachadh McCarthy.

She said: “I think if we’re worried about farty cows, we’ve been had, Donnachadh, we’ve been had. Because the biggest landowner in America now is Bill Gates.

“I’m sure you’re aware of this. And what does Bill Gates want to do?

“He wants to make money out of us not eating meat because he’s not putting cows on those fields.

“He’s putting solar panels and he’s encouraging us whilst building factories of fake meat. And you talk about health.

“A good steak full of protein with some vegetables is better for you than a bowl of vegetarian pasta, all the carbohydrates we’ll eat in their place.

https://www.gbnews.com/news/meat-free-ban-news-bev-turner-climate-scientist-video-interview

Here!  Here!  I will take my protein the old fashion way….meat and veggies…..

Then there is the plant thing….

If we depend on plants for all our eating needs would that not be just as bad for the environment…..like more fertilizer run-off….more pesticides….etc all making its way into our ground water supply.

Something needs to be done but what?

I try to use small farm producers when I can and grow many of my own veggies….I know that is small potatoes (no pun intended) but surely we can find a solution to the problem of huge agribusiness.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

She’s A Super Freak

Most people that follow politics will know about Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado antics…..the theatrics on the floor of the House, her mouthy conspiracies and her very public argument with fellow Freedom Caucus member, MTG…..but last week her (Boebert) antics got bit sticky while attending a play…..

Lauren Boebert’s Beetlejuice controversy is not fading away in media coverage in her home state of Colorado. The Republican congresswoman was booted from a Denver theater over the weekend after people around her complained she was vaping and generally being too loud and disturbing during the musical. Boebert sarcastically acknowledged she got thrown out for “laughing and singing too loud,” though she denied the vaping part. Now, however, NBC affiliate 9News has obtained video that it says “clearly shows Boebert vaping.” The video is here. And the Denver Post further reports that the woman who asked Boebert to stop vaping is pregnant. Boebert rejected her request, the woman said.

“The guy she was with offered to buy me and my husband cocktails,” the woman tells the Megan Schrader of the Post, who slammed Boebert’s “astounding sense of entitlement” in the opinion piece. “I’m pregnant!” An incident report from the Buell Theatre said ushers received three different complaints about Boebert and her partner “vaping, singing, (and) causing a disturbance,” per 9News. “These people in front of us were outrageous,” the woman tells Schrader. “I’ve never seen anyone act like that before.” 9News adds this description: “The footage shows her taking photos with the flash on during the performance. She’s also seen raising arms and clapping while almost everyone is seen sitting quietly.”

All that was bad enough for a standing member of Congress but there is more to this story….(Cue Rick James and Super Freak)….

As more and more details are being revealed about Rep. Lauren Boebert‘s wild night out in Denver last weekend — having been kicked out of “Beetlejuice” the musical for vaping and just generally being a public nuisance with her male companion — a full picture is coming together of what the other theater patrons around her that night had to endure.

Newly released footage of the night in question appears to show Boebert’s exposed breasts being fondled by her date for an extended period of time while she, in turn, dawdles around in his lap with her hand. As many have pointed out on social media, having seen this footage, children were seated all around the couple that night, within viewing range of what they were up to.

“Laurent Boebert was jerking her date off in public while he gropes her in a theater where children were present and yet she continues to attack LGBTQ people as ‘threats to children,'” writes journalist and clinical instructor Alejandra Caraballo on X, sharing the footage of Boebert in the act. 

(salon.com)

Girls just want to have fun.

To be fair I have been able to see this footage because it is on “X” and I am not because I am a bad person and will not support Musk blindly….but anyone still on the platform should look it up and see what all the hoopla is about.

There some interesting photos in this piece….

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12525153/Lauren-Boeberts-Democrat-boyfriend-apology-Beetlejuice.html

The AP reports that Boebert has now issued an apology for the Sunday disturbance at Denver’s Buell Theatre. In her statement.

Will anything come out of this slide down the station she has perched herself on….or will it just be more antics for attention?

Will McCarthy act like a leader and do something about her performance?

Is there more that we do not know?

Stay tuned!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Constitution Day–17Sep23

Today is Sunday and Constitution Day

A day that few Americans are ware of in any shape….a day that should celebrated not ignored.

I have made no bones about it I think that the Constitution should be celebrated more heavily….I believe that it would give Americans more exposure to the document and that will lead to more knowledge.

It would also help if it were a federal holiday….celebrate and document that has been the envy of a free world.

A quick history to set the tone….

After the American Revolution freed the American colonies from British rule, the Founding Fathers wanted to make sure the new government couldn’t abuse its power. At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, delegates from twelve of the thirteen new states gathered to draft the document that would serve as the basis of all future U.S. law.

The Constitution calls for three branches of government with equal powers, creating a system commonly known as “checks and balances.” Each branch has power to mitigate the others. Powers not assigned to one of the three branches are left to the individual states.

Delegates at the Convention had two options for setting up the framework of the new legislative branch. The Virginia Plan, predictably supported by larger states, called for representation based on population. The competing New Jersey Plan called for equal representation for each state. The two-house solution known as the Great Compromise combines aspects of both plans and is still in use today.

The Constitution also outlines the responsibilities and powers of the judicial and executive branches, how the President is elected, and other nitty-gritty details.

The Founding Fathers recognized that society evolves, and that the Constitution would require a mechanism for making changes. However, they wanted to ensure that making changes would require agreement from a large number of states. To alter the Constitution, a proposed amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of states.

In 1940, Congress and the President passed a resolution creating “I Am an American Day,” observed on the third Sunday in May. In 1952, the holiday was renamed to “Constitution Day” and moved to September 17, the day in 1787 that the Constitution was signed. More than 50 years later in 2004, Congress once again changed the name of the holiday to Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.

To prevent the abuses of power they felt subjected to under the British monarchy, the Founding Fathers framed the Constitution carefully, distributing power between three branches of government. The Constitution outlines the government’s powers, the limitations on those powers, and the rights of citizens. It also outlines an amendment process for making changes in the future.

Did you know that the amendments to the Constitution were heavily debated?

Here are the five things that were left out of the Constitution after the debate.

When James Madison spoke to the First Congress he proposed a series of nearly 20 amendments as a Bill of Rights, and not the 10 we all know about. So what did Congress delete from the final list that was ratified by the states?

There were some very significant deletions as his proposed list went through the House and Senate, and Madison himself took part in the decisions to edit out some of his ideas.

In the end, 12 of the original amendments survived the congressional approval process. Enough states approved 10 of those 12 amendments to make the Bill of Rights a reality on December 15, 1791. One of two bypassed amendments was eventually ratified in 1992 as the 27th Amendment; it restricted the ability of Congress to change its pay while in session. (The other proposed amendment dealt with the number of representatives in Congress, based on the 1789 population.)

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/five-items-congress-deleted-from-madisons-original-bill-of-rights

In essence it is no more important than National Hotdog Day….that is a shame.

Like I said this is too important to rank along side National Cat Lovers Day or National Pizza Day.

Constitution Day should be celebrated along with Independence Day.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–16Sep23

Another Saturday and another week of pure crap for news with the exception of the tragic earthquake in Morocco…..then there is Trump saying something…..some celeb does not wear pants in public…..some overpaid QB gets a bo-bo….

Time for the Old Professor to drop the real news of the week…..

We know that ideas from movies and TV have brought about some amazing technologies…..even the Terminator has spurred the discoveries onward….

A pair of researchers have created a living skin made of fungus, directly inspired by the 1984 film “The Terminator.”

The goal is to develop a coating that could act as a biodegradable and multifunctional sensor for electronics, as New Scientist reports. Conventional electronic sensors made of silicone tend to be difficult to manufacture and often are limited in how many things they can detect at once.

“There’s this scene in ‘The Terminator’ in which they implant the skin on the robot,” Antoni Gandia at the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain, co-author of a recent paper, which is currently under review, told New Scientist.

“The skin is external to him, yet it reports data to the robot and auto-repairs,” he added. “We wanted to show that we can already do things like that.”

https://futurism.com/the-byte/living-skin-robot-fungus

In recent years the radical right has been busy in the states banning books….I would post a list but do not have enough room on IST for the list (it is that big)….

Many organizations track book bans across the country. Among the most extensive coverage is that of PEN America, a nonprofit dedicated to “uniting writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.”

Reproduced here, the PEN list covers books that were banned or challenged during the first half of the 2022 school year—the most recent data available. Some of these titles have since been reinstated; others have disappeared from shelves altogether.

As many people have noted, the past school year has seen an uptick in banning works by and about Black people and queer people specifically. Fences, a classic of African-American theater, is on this list, as are Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail and children’s picture books about Black joy. Some states have chosen to ban any written materials relating to visual art—Missouri’s list includes guides to Impressionist and modern painters as well as Babylonian and African art.

Whichever artistic tradition is targeted, students—and our future culture—suffer.

You can see the full list of banned titles below, or click on your state to see which books are banned. You can also purchase nearly every title here, through Bookshop.org and Better World Books.

Or click on this link and see what books your state has banned….

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/a45012950/banned-book-list/

Did you know that the ‘Middle Ages’ never happened?

We’re currently living in the year 1725, not 2023. At least, that’s what adherents of the Phantom Time Hypothesis would have you believe. First put forward in 1991 by the German historian Heribert Illig and popularized by his sensational book The Invented Middle Ages: The Greatest Time Fake in History (Das erfundene Mittelalter: Die grösste Zeitfälschung der Geschichte in German), this historical conspiracy theory alleges that the years spanning 614 to 911 CE never actually happened, but were fabricated by powerful members of the medieval elite: Pope Sylvester II and Holy Roman Emperor Otto III.

Illig’s story goes like this: Sylvester and Otto, possibly in conjunction with the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII, altered the medieval European calendar to align their respective reigns with the year 1000 CE, exactly one millennium after the birth of Jesus Christ, a significant date in a Christian society. Illig also claims the trio forged historical documentation to account for the “phantom” centuries, inventing everything from the Muslim conquest of Spain to the life of the post-Roman ruler Charlemagne. As support for his theory, Illig cited a suspicious lack of original historical documents from the early Middle Ages, as well as discrepancies between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, which he believes do not add up.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/phantom-time-hypothesis-conspiracy-theory

Why not?  We that the ‘Flat Earthers’, the ‘Hollow Earthers’ this is just a steady progression of conspiracies….

Since the massive earthquake in Morocco that killed over 3000 people there is a renewed interest in a simple technology for house construction….

Plastic is, without a doubt, one of the biggest banes of the environment. Plastic production has skyrocketed since the 1950s and it’s nonbiodegradable, which means it simply doesn’t decompose. The dumping of plastic has become one of the biggest environmental issues, but Nigeria is showing the world an amazing way to repurpose plastic for a better future. Nigerian companies are now using plastic bottles to build homes that can withstand powerful earthquakes and even bullets. The technology is called the “bottle trick.” The first house to be built using recycled plastic bottles was in the village of Yelwa. The house has turned into a tourist attraction with even government officials and traditional leaders paying a visit to see the marvel. The eco-friendly home was built with nothing but plastic bottles, sand and mud, reported Power of Positivity.

The bottles are filled with sand and the bottom of the bottle is kept facing outside, giving a unique look to the wall. They are used as “bricks” and laid on top of each other and held together by mud. While houses in most places around the world are traditionally built in a square shape, it’s common for homes in Nigeria to be built in a circular fashion. The homes using the “bottle trick” method are also built circularly, keeping them in style with the other homes in the region. While the homes are beautifully designed, the idea is to preserve the environment by repurposing plastic. The homes being built usually come with a bedroom, living room, bathroom, toilet, and kitchen. Each structure is believed to require at least 7,800 plastic bottles. Companies have already built 25 structures using plastic bottles and they’re expected to become very popular among the environmentally conscious. The companies said they first lay a concrete foundation, before building walls using plastic bottles and sand.

https://scoop.upworthy.com/nigerians-is-building-earthquake-proof-homes-from-plastic-bottles-576290-576290-576290-576290

A helluva idea!  Repurpose plastic bottles could work in may ways other than being just earthquake proof.

finally the Ig Noble Awards…..the award for the most humorous scientific endeavors…

Counting nose hairs in cadavers, repurposing dead spiders, and explaining why scientists lick rocks are among the winning achievements in this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for humorous scientific feats, organizers announced Thursday. The 33rd annual prize ceremony was a prerecorded online event, as it has been since the pandemic, instead of the past live ceremonies at Harvard University. Ten spoof prizes were awarded to the teams and individuals around the globe.

  • Among the winners was Jan Zalasiewicz of Poland who earned the chemistry and geology prize for explaining why many scientists like to lick rocks, the AP reports. “Wetting the surface allows fossil and mineral textures to stand out sharply, rather than being lost in the blur of intersecting micro-reflections and micro-refractions that come out of a dry surface,” Zalasiewicz wrote in the Palaeontological Association newsletter in 2017.
  • A team of scientists from India, China, Malaysia, and the United States took the mechanical engineering prize for its study of repurposing dead spiders to be used in gripping tools in robotics. They created a gripper in an approach they called “necrobotics.” “Furthermore, the gripper can serve as a handheld device and innately camouflages in outdoor environments,” they wrote in their research.
  • The nutrition prize was won by Japanese researchers Homei Miyashita Hiromi Nakamura, who studied electrified chopsticks and drinking straws, the Guardian reports. “The taste of food can be changed immediately and reversibly by electrical stimulation, and this is something that has been difficult to achieve with conventional ingredients such as seasonings,” said Nakamura.

The medicine prize went to a team that counted the nose hairs in 20 cadavers at a medical school in California to determine whether there was an equal number in each nostril. “Our intention to describe human nose hair growth patterns may seem unusual, but it originated from a need to better understand the role they play as front line guardians of the respiratory system,” researcher Christine Pham tells Cosmos. They found that the average number of nose hairs in the right nostril is 122, two more than in the left nostril.

Other winning teams were lauded for studying the impact of teacher boredom on student boredom; the affect of anchovies’ sexual activity on ocean water mixing; and ” the sensations people feel when they repeat a single word many, many, many, many, many, many, many times ,” according to the organizers

Congrats to the winners…..

There is my dump for this Saturday.

Enjoy your day and your weekend….and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Rama-Lama-Ding Dong Speaks

There is this billionaire that is trying desperately to gain the GOP nomination and he keeps spouting crap and promising crap that he can never deliver…..

Let’s talk about his latest manure spreading…..

Vivek Ramaswamy, predicting that he would “get a lot of pushback,” outlined a proposal Wednesday night to fire more than 1.6 million federal workers and shut down agencies including the FBI. “Do we want incremental reform? No,” the Republican presidential candidate said, per Reuters. “Or do we want a revolution?” Ramaswamy, speaking at a pro-former President Trump think-tank in Washington, DC, said he would also eliminate the Department of Education; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Food and Nutrition Service; and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees radioactive materials and nuclear power plant safety.

Ramaswamy said that if elected president, he would reduce the federal payroll by half in his first year in office and by 75% during his first term, the AP reports. With the FBI, he said 20,000 employees would be fired and another 15,000 sent to other agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration. He claimed that despite “myths” about the limits of presidential authority, he would be able to make the changes without the approval of Congress. “We will use executive authority to shut down the deep state,” he said.

“Speaking as a CEO, if somebody works for you, and you can’t fire them, that means they don’t work for you,” the entrepreneur said. Other candidates, including Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have also vowed to eliminate government agencies but Ramaswamy’s proposals go further than anything his rivals have proposed. Experts on the Constitution and the separation of powers said the legal theories behind his proposal wouldn’t survive a court challenge, the New York Times reports. Peter M. Shane, a specialist in separation-of-powers law at New York University, described a campaign white paper on the theories as “fantastical.”

1.6 million unemployed people….what would that do to the markets and the economy?

Just a thought.

This idiot is trying to find his niche in the GOP field….wild promises seems to be the way to go with the slugs.

Let’s see how popular these wild ideas are with the GOP voter. (wink, wink)

Enough said….I hope everyone has a great weekend.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will Threats Work?

Meanwhile back in Ukraine…..

Zelensky will visit DC again with his hand out….because support is faltering…..Zelensky’s next visit comes as support for the proxy war in Ukraine is faltering among Republican voters. According to a recent poll from CNN, 55% of Americans oppose Congress authorizing more spending on the conflict, including 71% of Republicans who were asked.

Apparently support is on the wane and what can Zelensky do to keep the cash rolling in?

Threats seems to be his next move.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky implied in an interview with The Economist that Ukrainian refugees in Europe might resort to terrorism if Western aid to Ukraine is curtailed.

The Economist report reads: “Curtailing aid to Ukraine will only prolong the war, Mr Zelensky argues. And it would create risks for the West in its own backyard. There is no way of predicting how the millions of Ukrainian refugees in European countries would react to their country being abandoned. Ukrainians have generally ‘behaved well’ and are ‘very grateful’ to those who sheltered them. They will not forget that generosity. But it would not be a ‘good story’ for Europe if it were to ‘drive these people into a corner.’”

Zelensky also said in the interview, published on September 10, that anyone who is not supporting Ukraine is with Russia. “If you are not with Ukraine, you are with Russia, and if you are not with Russia, you are with Ukraine. And if partners do not help us, it means they will help Russia to win. That is it,” he said.

Despite Ukraine’s faltering counteroffensive, the Ukrainian leader said he was preparing for a long war and rejected the idea of diplomacy with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The report reads: “Tapping loudly on the table, Mr. Zelensky rejects outright the idea of compromise with Vladimir Putin. War will continue for ‘as long as Russia remains on Ukrainian territory,’ he says.”

The Biden administration seems happy to support an open-ended conflict and is looking to tie the hands of a future president by negotiating a deal with Ukraine for long-term military support. The US and other G7 nations vowed at the recent NATO summit in Vilnius to negotiate their own bilateral security deals with Ukraine.

(antiwar.com)

Is that the way to victory by threatening the nations that kindly took in refugees and made them comfortable?

Will the countries around Ukraine put up with being threatened?

So if things are not going good the way forward is to threaten your allies…..good plan.

Who will be the first to bow to this threat?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Besmirching Eisenhower’s Memory

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Old farts like me know who Eisenhower was….the general that lead the Allies into victory over the Nazis in Europe and then president of the United States.

Eisenhower was a champion in the fight against authoritarianism plus was a champion of the common man….as a young boy I helped my grandfather with distribution of leaflets for Ike in 1956….a look at the GOP platform of 1956 (this shows just how far the GOP has sank in the passing years.)

  1. Provide federal assistance to low-income communities
  2. Protect Social Security
  3. Provide asylum for refugees
  4. Extend minimum wage
  5. Improve unemployment benefit system so it covers more people
  6. Strengthen labor laws so workers can easily join a union
  7. Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of sex

President Eisenhower has given us a statement of principles that is neither partisan nor prejudiced, but warmly American:

The individual is of supreme importance.

The spirit of our people is the strength of our nation.

America does not prosper unless all Americans prosper.

Government must have a heart as well as a head.

Courage in principle, cooperation in practice make freedom positive.

To stay free, we must stay strong.

All that historic stuff aside….what is this about Besmirching?

Kansas’ own Dwight D. Eisenhower served as supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War II and defeated a rising tide of fascism and authoritarianism. As a popular two-term president, he governed as a pragmatic conservative — sustaining prosperity, supporting integration and supporting international alliances.

In every way, he lived and governed as the opposite to former President Donald Trump, a man who has made no secret of his love for chaos, racist impulses and dislike of global allies. Trump tore a page from authoritarian regimes’ playbook on Jan. 6, 2021, as he egged on an armed insurrection of his own government.

So why is Eisenhower’s foundation in Abilene making common cause with a traitor?

In case you missed it, the foundations and institutions representing nearly every U.S. president since Hoover united for the common good late last week. They issued a stirring statement calling for a renewed commitment to civic institutions, public civility and protecting this precious representative democracy.

https://www.alternet.org/eisenhower-foundation/

So sad the the Foundation has chosen to side with an authoritarian a/hole like Trump….his foundation is besmirching the name of Eisenhower and crapping on the man, an American hero.

It is also a shame that the GOP has taken an alternate path than it was traveling in 1956…this would be a much better nation if they had stayed on track.

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The Biden Impeachment thing

The big news is the the GOP is on a track for revenge with the whole hearing thing into the possible impeachment of Pres. Biden….

Since the ‘god of gods’ was impeached the GOP thinks it is time for a tit for tat….

Here we go with the round-up…..

The US faces a third possible impeachment of a president in less than four years. GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, launched Tuesday, comes in response to “allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption.” Some onlookers agree with the reasoning, claiming then-Vice President Biden’s role in his son Hunter’s business ventures was “clearly corrupt.” Others, however, say the inquiry is completely unjustified and another way in which McCarthy is catering to the far-right members of his party. More:

  • ‘No clue’: In what’s written as a mock voicemail message left by McCarthy, Rex Huppke at USA Today ridicules the “evidence-free impeachment inquiry” and directs those looking for “a list of the evidence we’ve found linking President Biden to his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings, or a list of any evidence that justifies our impeachment inquiry” to “please call back later, as that list does not currently exist outside the minds of our party’s far-right flank.” He adds “all help is welcome because, frankly, we have absolutely no clue what we’re doing.”
  • ‘Clearly corrupt’: There’s already enough evidence to justify Biden’s impeachment, writes Jonathan Tobin, editor in chief of the Jewish News Syndicate, via Newsweek, citing Biden’s threat to withhold aid from Ukraine’s government unless it fired a prosecutor investigating Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that paid Hunter Biden to sit on its board. (US allies had made the same demand, alleging the prosecutor was corrupt.) “Biden knowingly took on responsibilities with respect to dealing with Ukraine as well as China that created a conflict of interest with his son’s grifting,” which is “clearly corrupt,” he adds.
  • No brainer’: The inquiry is justified as investigations by the House GOP have “proven” Biden “broke bread with Hunter’s clients, jumped on calls with them, even wrote at least one college recommendation,” according to the New York Post editorial board. It’s also clear that Biden “blackmailed” Ukraine’s government, the board claims. Of course, “details need to be pinned down in all that,” it adds, but it calls the impeachment inquiry “a no brainer” needed to establish “where all the millions funneled through Hunter’s dozens of shell companies came from and went to.”
  • ‘Evidence of influence-peddling’: It’s “worth investigating” $20 million in alleged payments to “Biden family members and associates via shell companies” following “evidence of influence-peddling,” writes the Wall Street Journal editorial board. But there is not yet “evidence of genuine corruption” by President Biden and “Congress is in danger of turning the serious sanction of impeachment into the new censure—a statement of rebuke rather than a threat of removal.”
  • The Bidens’ grift’: There are “reams of credible evidence” that Vice President Biden “participated in schemes that brought his family as much as $20 million,” writes New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin. But he claims the same Justice Department that was “caught covering up the crimes of Hunter Biden, with the prosecutor on the case prepared to let him walk without charges” is the same one that has ignored an informant’s claim that Joe and Hunter Biden each received a $5 million bribe from Burisma’s owner. While “the public is catching on to the Bidens’ grift,” an impeachment inquiry “is the only way the American public will ever get the full truth,” he writes.
  • ‘Unjustified’: The inquiry is yet another way in which McCarthy is showing himself to be “a stooge of the far right,” accommodating “the extremists in his conference who hold his speakership hostage,” according to the Los Angeles Times editorial board. It notes McCarthy launched the “unjustified” inquiry without securing a vote by the full House—something he criticized Nancy Pelosi for doing in 2019, though a floor vote was eventually held—because he might well have lost the vote. “It’s legitimate for Congress to ask whether Hunter Biden received unfair treatment, but nothing about the prosecution of Hunter Biden justifies the drastic step of an impeachment inquiry about his father,” the board adds.

There you go all you need to know about the waste of time, money and energy that the GOP is forcing onto the House.

This is going to be just another Benghazi thing….a total waste of time and useless posturing.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”