Month: February 2024

Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out

Recently a presidential candidate for 2024, Cornell West, said the Biden might have a LBJ moment…..in case you missed that little piece of brilliance….

Will Biden Have An “LBJ Moment”?

Should he drop out because of his age?

Is Biden too old to be running for president?

For that matter how about Trump?

The age-old question of “how old is too old for a presidential candidate?” has taken on increasing urgency as we barrel toward November with two frontrunners who are getting up there in years. Now, according to a new poll, an “overwhelming majority” of Americans say that the incumbent, President Biden, is too advanced in age to serve a second term, although they don’t consider former President Trump to be a spring chicken, either. Per the latest survey ABC News conducted with Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, 86% of respondents think the 81-year-old Biden is too old to run the White House again. Compare that with 62% who say Trump, 77, is similarly too old to do the same.

Meanwhile, 59% feel both candidates are too old. ABC notes that its September poll with the Washington Post showed 74% of respondents thought Biden was too old to serve again, while 49% said that about Trump. The current poll was conducted Feb. 9-10 among a random sampling of just over 500 US adults—after a report was issued by special counsel Robert Hur on Biden’s handling of classified documents, which noted that Biden presented himself during questioning as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

Politico notes that that poll “could be the first sign of the report’s impact on voters’ perception of the president.” Biden’s camp has been pushing back hard on the age question since Hur’s report was released. On Sunday, Mitch Landrieu, the co-chair of Biden’s reelection campaign, called the assertion that Biden is too old to run again “a bucket of BS that’s so deep, your boots will get stuck in it.” So how old is too old? Peter Baker tries to analyze that question for the New York Times, including with a look back at past presidential candidates who faced similar challenges.

But let’s look at Biden more closely…..a couple of beliefs that is….

The release of a special counsel’s report referring to President Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory” has caused hand-wringing among Democrats about the general election. Should the 81-year-old Biden stay in the race? Two opposing views on the subject:

  • He should stay: At Vox, Christian Paz writes that it’s “Biden or bust” for Democrats. “Replacing Biden as the Democratic nominee at this point would be a herculean, if not impossible, task.” The most plausible route would be for Biden to take himself out of the running at the convention in August, but Paz argues the resulting chaos would do more harm than good. VP Kamala Harris polls dreadfully, but bypassing her for somebody else (Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer maybe) “opens up potential ire from Black voters, without whom Democrats can’t win.” Is the “chaos and disunity” worth it? “The simple answer is no. It’s too late.” Read it here.
  • He should go: In an op-ed at the New York Times, Ross Douthat argues that the best hope for Democrats is if Biden does indeed drop out at the convention and decline to endorse anyone. Yes, “pain would follow”—along with Republican derision—but so would “excitement and spectacle.” And the “proximity of the general election would create stronger incentives for Harris or any other disappointed losers to accept a behind-the-scenes proffer and fall in line if the convention battle doesn’t go their way.” Douthat suggests Biden plan on this strategy, with the bonus that he can abandon it should his political fortunes rise dramatically before the summer. Read it here.
  • On a different point: At Popular Information, Judd Legum accuses the media of creating a “Biden fitness crisis” with a “deluge of negative” coverage, while largely letting Donald Trump off the hook for similar lapses. He compares stories in major outlets, finding that “the perceptions of the two men by the public are shaped by media coverage.” Read it here.

I think both these candidates offer nothing top the American people….I cannot vote for some old fart that only claim to fame in four years was starting more wars than he ended….and then on the other side I cannot vote for a poisonous personality that thrives on hatred and fear.

That leaves me with very limited choices…..but I will do what I must.

Any thoughts on any of these things?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More Aid? Really?

Warning:  This is my take on the situation in the Senate and will most likely contain words that some may find offensive….you have been warned and maybe pass this post by if you are easily offended.

Our crackerjack Senate is spending a lot of time trying to hammer out a deal for more air to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan….looks like they are close to a deal (for now)….

The Senate on Sunday took another step toward passing a $95 billion foreign military aid bill that includes funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

The Senate worked through the weekend to deliberate the legislation and voted 67-26 in a procedural vote to move it forward. The chamber held a similar vote last Thursday to deliberate on the legislation, which also passed with 67 votes in favor.

The final vote is expected to happen sometime this week, but it’s unclear when that will happen as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) continues to vow to do anything he can to delay it.

Paul said he would hold out until “hell freezes over” and indicated he would delay the vote by speaking about the national debt on the Senate floor.

“I love to talk,” Paul said, according to CNN. “That’s one of my favorite things to do. Yes, and I slept all day yesterday waiting for this. I’m going to take Adderall — nah, I’m just kidding.”

According to NBC News, Paul estimated on Sunday that a final vote would likely be held on Tuesday or Wednesday after he exhausts his ability to delay it.

If all 100 senators agreed to hold a final vote, it would happen much more quickly. Proponents of the bill believe that the procedural vote is a preview of the final vote, so they expect it to ultimately pass.

“I think we’re going to pass this spending bill for Ukraine. We’ve already moved past several procedural hurdles that require 60 votes. I think there will be 60 votes in the end,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT).

The bill is what’s left after Democrats stripped border provisions from a $118 billion piece of legislation that was negotiated with Republicans. Senate Republicans initially agreed on the deal, but later came out against it once it became clear it wouldn’t make it through the House. At this point, it’s unclear if the $95 billion foreign military aid bill will be brought to a vote in the House.

(antiwar.com)

My take on this and it is my opinion like it or not….

I have had enough of Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan….Congress has taken too much fucking time on this issue….

Where is the concern that was promised by the Dems for the price of meds for Seniors?

What part of this fucking deal has any implications for the average peasant sitting at home wondering if he should feed the kids or get his meds?

I say fuck everything else work on improving Americans lives and benefits before throwing money away on some shithole across the pond.

I know there is always the House that could prevent this deal but would that help you or me?

Besides special interests have deep pockets and large wallets so they can get whatever they want from the slugs in Congress.

I have had enough of these fuckers!

Did you vote for these scrotum lickers to throw your money away and ignore your situation?

(You were warned….sorry if you were offended but some things need to be said and said with gusto)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

America’s Newest ‘Useful Idiot’

(I should have posted this last week but I just did not have the desire but then I thought the readers should know what a fool looks like.  I wrote this the day after the interview and could not decide when to publish….so here it is.)

Very soon dictionaries will a picture of this person to define the term ‘useful idiot’…..and that person is Tucker Carlson.

A few days ago the former FOX blowhard was granted an interview with his high highness Vlad the Invader….and it went about as most everybody thought it would go….

Tucker Carlson asked Vladimir Putin to release American journalist Evan Gershkovich during the interview with the Russian leader that aired Thursday, but he did little else to challenge Putin during a two-hour talk at the Kremlin that began with Putin delivering a very long lecture on Russian history. Four takes on Putin’s first interview with a Western journalist since the invasion of Ukraine:

Putin was “fully in charge.” Carlson’s “fixed, fascinated expression slipped a few times,” especially while Putin talked about history going back to the 9th century in an attempt to justify Russian claims to eastern Ukraine, writes Sarah Rainsford at the BBC. “But for the most part, Carlson seemed to lap up what Russia’s president was telling him,” she writes. “Putin was fully in charge of this encounter and for large parts of it his interviewer barely got a word in.” Rainsford notes that none of Putin’s statements were “challenged in essence” and Carlson made no attempt to address Russian war crimes in Ukraine. David Folkenflik at NPR writes that Putin “appeared to have done opposition research worthy of the KGB agent he once was. He needled Carlson at separate moments about having been a history major and having applied (unsuccessfully) for a position at the Central Intelligence Agency.”

A win for Kremlin propagandists. Eva Hartog and Sergey Goryashko at Politico say the interview was a win for the Kremlin, with Carlson “failing to extract any stirring insights into the Russian president’s actual war aims” and Putin taking “full advantage of the opportunity to plant seeds of doubt about America’s aid for Ukraine and the US political system.” They note that anyone “who can dent Putin’s armor is kept lightyears away from the president.”

An “olive branch to the West.” Anton Troianovski at the New York Times sees the interview, in which Putin called for the US to “make an agreement” to end the war by allowing Russia to remain in control of territory it has seized, as an “olive branch to the West.” The “uncharacteristically restrained” Putin did not resort to his usual “fiery rhetoric” when Carlson asked about Russia’s defense of “traditional values,” he notes. Putin said there’s “nothing wrong” with the Western way of doing things, which he described as more “pragmatic,” while Russians “think more about the eternal, about moral values.”

  • Carlson’s “not exactly sure” what he thought. After the interview, Carlson said he was surprised by the history lecture. “I’m not exactly sure what I thought of the interview,” Carlson said in a video posted on his website. “It’s going to take me a year to decide what that was.” He said Putin seemed sincere. “Putin is not someone who does a lot of interviews. He is not good at explaining himself,” Carlson said, per the Washington Post. “But he’s clearly spending a lot of time in a world where he doesn’t have to explain himself.” He said that while Putin denied it, it’s “obvious he’s very wounded by the rejection of the West.”

Semafor reports that Carlson also met with two Americans during his time in Moscow. He spent hours with NSA leaker Edward Snowden on Thursday and also taped an interview with Tara Reade, who, during the 2020 campaign, accused then-presidential candidate Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her when she was a Senate aide in 1993.

Carlson proved to me that he was the very definition of a ‘useful idiot’ and what is more he does not know what a fool he looked like.

But do not take my word for it….here is a transcript of the interview……

https://www.miragenews.com/full-text-transcript-of-tucker-carlson-putin-1171489/

Is there anybody that still thinks Carlson is a credible information source?

What say you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Section 3 14th Amendment–The Beginning

It is a Sunday and as usual I want to enrich your knowledge as best I can…..yes another FYI post from the Old Professor.

These days there is a massive back and forth about who is eligible to run for office and the defense of whichever side one falls on this debate is always the 14th Amendment….Section 3 to be exact.

For those that do not know the language of this section of the Constitution….I can help….

Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

There you have it…..very simple and straightforward.

Since it is an amendment to the US Constitution where did it all begin and why?

As with so many things in this country this amendment had its beginning after the great American Civil War.

On December 4, 1865, the 39th Congress convened in Washington, D.C., marking its first meeting since the Union victory in the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The burning questions facing Congress and President Andrew Johnson—Lincoln’s White House successor—were how to reincorporate the former Confederate states into the Union and how to prevent another violent insurrection.

Among the Senators who tried to take their seats in the coming months was Alexander Stephens, former vice president of the Confederate States of America. Stephens had been arrested for treason in May 1865, imprisoned for five months in Boston, then paroled by President Johnson. Upon returning to his home state of Georgia, the state legislature elected Stephens to the Senate.

He wasn’t alone. Southern legislatures elected to Congress two former Confederate senators, four other former Confederate congressmen and a host of former Confederate military officers. Members of the Radical Republicans, the political group that had led the fight to end slavery and now pushed for the rights of newly freed Black Americans, were outraged. Their plan for post-Civil War governance was Reconstruction, an ambitious legislative program to end slavery, extend the vote to Black men and guarantee equal protection under the laws for all “freedmen,” formerly enslaved people.

But enforcement of Reconstruction would be impossible if state and local governments in the South were run by former Confederates, and if Congress, in the words of Pennsylvania Representative Thaddeus Stevens, was “filled with yelling secessionists and hissing copperheads.”

The simplest way to legally enshrine loyalty to the U.S. government as a post-war qualification for federal and state political offices was by amending the Constitution. This marked the start of a many-years debate over who should be allowed to serve in government—and who got to decide.

The end result was Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualified anyone from holding federal or state political office who had violated their oath “to support the Constitution of the United States” by engaging “in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”

https://www.history.com/news/14th-amendment-section-three-disqualification-clause-confederates

Now you have enough information (if you actually read the article) to make a formed debated on this subject the next time Uncle Fred brings it up.  And probably know more about the subject than the idiot that brings it up on the boob tube.

You may breathe now and resume your day’s activities.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–10Feb24

That magical time. the weekend, when IST brings you all the news that you cannot use.

Big news–Taylor Swift won something….California gets rain….Super Bowl is close at hand….King Charles III has cancer….and a partridge in a pear tree.

Local news….weather has been mild for about a week….some douche bag contractor cut down two protected trees while trying to build condos on the beach….trees that survived Katrina.

Now on to the big stuff that you actually drop by to read.

Theft in Canada…..

It was so cold at Canada’s Lily Lake Resort on January 22 that security patrols at the hotel were canceled—so an opportunistic group of thieves broke in and stole a 500-pound, 12-foot-tall stuffed polar bear. Somehow no one even noticed the massive animal, which had undergone taxidermy, was missing for a few days: As the Globe and Mail puts it, “He’d been there so long, it felt like he would always be there,” and as he was mounted on a platform on the second floor of the Edmonton-area hotel, people had to look up to see him. He hasn’t been seen since the the heist, in which thieves had to sever steel cables to remove him, the Guardian reports.

The resort typically has full-time security, but there is unfortunately no video surveillance. Oddly, last August, two stuffed raccoons were also stolen from the same place. Police say the trio of taxidermy creations are worth a total of $26,000. The public is being asked to report to police if they hear about any suspicious sales of a massive stuffed bear. “That would stick out right away, if you saw that anywhere, right?” says a constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Was this the theft of the century?

Speaking of theft let’s go down to Alabama….

There are small-time thefts, and there are big-time thefts—and then there are thefts that no one can adequately explain. One of the latter took place last week in Jasper, Alabama, where a 200-foot-high AM radio tower used by station WJLX was inexplicably stolen, reports the New York Post. In a Friday Facebook post from WJLX, the station announced that a landscaping crew made the discovery that morning when they headed to the Walker County site to tend to the property. When the crew got there, one member called station manager Brett Elmore to let him know “that not only was my building vandalized, but my TWO HUNDRED FOOT TOWER WAS GONE!” the social media post noted.

“I said, ‘What do you mean the tower is gone?'” Elmore tells WBRC, noting that he double-checked that the crew was at the correct location. “He said, ‘The tower is gone. There is wires everywhere, and it is gone.'” Elmore adds that the perp (or perps) cut the wires that secured the heavy steel tower and lifted “every piece of equipment out of the building.” Elmore says they’ll rebuild the tower, and that the FCC has given WJLX the temporary OK to air the station’s AM channel via alternative methods, but he says he’s not going to give up on working with investigators to find out who’s responsible.

Was THIS the theft of the century?

How about some medical stuff?

You know…..like synthetic human embryos….

Embryonic development, also known as embryogenesis, is a cornerstone in understanding the origins of life. But studying this marvel of intricate and layered biological processes in people faces considerable challenges. Early-stage human embryos are difficult to obtain. Then there are ethical issues surrounding their use. This has made it difficult for scientists to understand early human development.

However, advances in genetic engineering and molecular and cellular biology have catalyzed the emergence of synthetic embryology, a subfield dedicated to replicating and studying embryonic development in a petri dish using human stem cells. By offering new tools to explore the enigmatic earliest stages of human development, synthetic embryology can help researchers overcome the challenges of using real human embryos.

https://theconversation.com/synthetic-human-embryos-let-researchers-study-early-development-while-sidestepping-ethical-and-logistical-hurdles-214186

I want to say good for them but I am suspicious of anything dealing with genes and stuff for see an opening for unscrupulous actors to mess with humans in some way or another.

We are shrinking!

Back in the day Americans were the tallest people on earth….not anymore….

Back in the 1800s, records showed that Americans were the tallest in the world. But something happened in the 1980s stateside—men and women’s average height was shrinking when compared with other countries. Meghna Chakrabarti spoke with researchers on WBUR’s On Point to dig into why, and they say it’s largely due to factors involving the social safety net. Countries like the Netherlands that have free health care, child nutrition programs, and strong maternity resources rank higher in height, demonstrating that when people’s basic wellness needs are being met, they thrive. “Height is an overlooked indicator,” says John Komlos, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Munich. “It has effects that are important from the point of view of human welfare.”

His research went deep into history to study height over time. This involved trawling through sources like slave trade accounting and military records so old that no one had turned the handwritten, dusty pages in hundreds of years. The data and archaeological records showed that Americans were tallest in the 1800s, when food was plentiful and accessible stateside, especially when compared with other regions (though the data available is really tracking white Americans). Over time, other countries began to catch up, but a real shift occurred in the 1980s, the era of the first millennials and of Reaganomics, when Americans began falling behind Western countries in height and also life expectancy, while child obesity, which can stunt growth spurts, was on the rise.

“It’s the beginning of an incredible rise in inequality, a new ideology in the administration that puts more emphasis on individual agency and less on public service,” Komlos says of Reaganomics. “And as a consequence, the American health care system becomes the most inefficient in the world.” Per the Washington Post, differences sped up quickly during this era. In 1985, 19-year-old men ranked 36th in height and women 38th globally, but by 2019, men fell to 47th and women to 58th (behind China and Lebanon). Inequality in the US, however, was on the rise, and Komlos says we lose more height due to poverty than we gain from extreme wealth.

Okay “Shorty” time for another dire prediction of our demise (I love these things….no one has been right yet)….

Yep, it’s that time again. It’s time to play every doomsayer’s favorite apocalyptic game: “What Way Will We All Die?” Is it nuclear weapons this time? Robotic and/or AI overlords? The disastrous consequences of climate change? The good ole’ zombie horde swarming the land in search of living flesh? An inexplicable cosmic event expanding from the vacuum of space to consume not only Earth but the entire solar system — nay, the galaxy? Maybe an alien invasion? Nah. There are just too many humans.

Basically, that’s what Austrian-American physicist and professor at the University of Illinois Heinz von Foerster thought. Born in Vienna, Austria in 1911, von Foerster got his doctorate in physics in 1944, wound up in the United States post-World War II, won a Guggenheim Fellowship, published some papers, made headways into the academic community, and developed a fascination with cybernetics, as the University of Illinois Archives tells us. He also founded the University of Illinois’ Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL) in 1958 to study “computational principles in living organisms.”

And what was this very clever person’s take on the demise of humanity? As Time explains, he predicted that prosperity equals death. Assuming we don’t blow ourselves up and our food supply remains intact, von Foerster pulled out a pencil and in 1960 calculated that humanity will be “squeezed to death” by 2026. Humanity will breed itself to oblivion.

Read More: https://www.grunge.com/1502541/why-2026-end-of-the-world-according-to-scientist/

About time for me to shutdown for the day….I hope you found something interesting and/or entertaining in today’s ‘Dump’.

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

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–09Feb24

There seems to be a big push in the media and elsewhere to help curb the incidents of mental health problems….but can it be helped?

Unbelievably, what’s happening to people on the inside is even more horrifying and dangerous than our outward collapse(s). The mental health of millions upon millions of people is disintegrating fast — and this inner disintegration is fueling and intensifying all the varied types of outer disintegration that are plaguing us.

Disinformation. Endless lies. ‘Fake News.’ Hate. Distrust. Increasing racism. Far right terrorism. Partisan violence. Scapegoating. Demagoguery. Voter suppression. Open oppression of women and LGBTQ+ folks. Tyrannical new laws.

The litany of social horrors goes on and on — but it’s crucial to see that they all emerge directly from our increasingly twisted and c-r-a-z-y inner realities. This is where our pundits, reporters, and commentators keep getting it all so wrong.

Americans’ Mental Health Is Collapsing at an Astonishing Rate

A fascinating article well worth the time to check his assertions out….personally I think he is spot on.

This all I have for this week….onto the weekend and my take on many other things.

I hope you have a great weekend and as always…..Be Well and Be Safe.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Did Trump Have A Good Day?

Meanwhile back at the election our favorite Orange man had a pretty good day…..

First the caucus in Nevada….

As expected, Donald Trump won Nevada’s Republican presidential caucuses Thursday after he was the only major candidate to compete, the AP reports. Nikki Haley skipped the caucuses, the only contest in Nevada that counts toward the GOP nomination. Haley cited what she considered an unfair process favoring Trump and instead ran in Nevada’s symbolic state-run presidential primary on Tuesday, where she finished behind the “none of these candidates” option. Trump’s win in Nevada gives him all 26 of the state’s delegates. He needs to accrue 1,215 delegates to formally clinch the party’s nomination and could reach that number in March.

Also Thursday, Trump and Haley did compete in the Republican caucuses in the US Virgin Islands. Trump won the contest by a large margin, picking up the territory’s four delegates.

Go figure!

Then there was the case before the Supreme Court on Trump’s eligibility to be on ballots….it appears he, Trump, got another win for the day….

The Supreme Court on Thursday heard arguments on a Donald Trump case with historic implications: Whether he should be disqualified from running for reelection because of his actions related to the 2021 attack on the Capitol. And the gist of coverage is that it seems highly unlikely the court will keep Trump off the 2024 ballot:

  • This sentiment is typical: The court “appeared reluctant to take the extraordinary step of disqualifying former President Trump from appearing on the ballot during a historic oral argument in which the justices grilled lawyers about whether states have the authority to ban a candidate from running for office,” per the Hill. (The reference is to Colorado: The justices heard Trump’s appeal of a bombshell ruling there that blocked him from the state’s ballot as an insurrectionist.)
  • Ditto: Some version of the above sentiment is all over. “In more than two hours of arguments, both conservative and liberal justices raised questions of whether Trump can be disqualified from being president again because of his efforts to undo his loss in the 2020 election,” per the AP. The justices spent almost no time debating whether Trump actually engaged in insurrection and focused mostly on the authority of states.
  • Liberals, too: “It’s been somewhat surprising to hear that two liberal justices, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, have expressed some skepticism about the argument that Trump should be disqualified,” writes Alan Feuer at the New York Times. Kagan, for example, wanted to know “why a single state should decide who gets to be president of the United States.” In the AP’s view, only Sonia Sotomayor appeared sympathetic to the case against Trump.
  • Roberts skeptical: Chief Justice John Roberts “made plain that he does not buy the conclusion that the 14th Amendment was meant to permit states to determine whether a candidate was an ineligible insurrectionist,” per Politico, suggesting that he tipped his hand, and that of the court’s. “The whole point of the 14th Amendment was to restrict state power, right?” he asked.
  • Trump argument: The Colorado decision “is wrong and should be reversed for numerous independent reasons,” argued Trump attorney Jonathan Mitchell, per the Wall Street Journal. Affirming the ruling would “take away the votes of potentially tens of millions of Americans,” he said, adding that what happened at the Capitol was a “riot,” not an “insurrection.” Afterward, Trump said from Mar-a-Lago that he thinks his team’s argument was “very well received.”
  • Now what? The court typically takes three months to issue a ruling, but a much faster resolution is expected given the circumstances—the Times suggests the court may issue its ruling before Super Tuesday on March 5.

See you thought this election would be boring…..

Well the candidates are f*cking boring but all the antics and theatrics around them is just too priceless to be true.

Ain’t this a crazy old world?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why Are Groceries So High?

I have been going back and forth with my friend John of https://johns-web-space.com/ about the price of food and how and why it just keeps getting worse.

Prices go up when gas goes up and the excuse is the cost of transportation but prices never go down when gas goes down….so what drives these continuing price increases?

Americans have had to weather much in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic first began, including price inflation of basic necessities. Grocery bills, especially, are a drain on household finances. But, as recent reports show, inflation is easing across many industries, and yet food prices overall have remained stubbornly high. Not only is that an indication of a deep rot at the heart of the food industry, agribusinesses, and corporate grocery chains, but it is also a clear sign that we need to repair our entire food system.

Reporting on a new Census Bureau survey, USA Today’s Sara Chernikoff found that “[t]he average American household spends more than $1,000 per month on groceries.” And, while it’s not surprising that those residing in expensive states like California have high grocery bills, there’s little relief for those living in states with lower costs of living. An average California family’s weekly grocery bill is $297.72, but an average North Carolina family’s bill is $266.23—nearly as high.

Attempting to downplay this reality, Paul Donovan, chief economist of UBS Global Wealth Management, wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times that Americans might be overestimating how serious inflation is, feeling the pinch most especially when they buy something as small as a candy bar. “[C]onsumers perceive inflation as higher than it actually is,” wrote Donovan. Further, he claimed, “[h]umans are genetically programmed to emphasize bad news over good news when they make decisions.” Donovan is implying that we’re just imagining high grocery bills.

In fact, inflation in the grocery industry has been higher than in other industries, rising 25 percent over the past four years compared to 19 percent overall, and many have pointed to simple greed as the reason: food prices are high because the companies setting prices think they can get away with padding their profits. Since we all have to eat, naturally this hits lower-income families harder, rather like a regressive tax. A new report by the Groundwork Collaborative found that in 2022, “consumers in the bottom quintile of the income spectrum spent 25 percent of their income on groceries, while those in the highest quintile spent under 3.5 percent.”

The Real Reason Your Grocery Bill Is Still So High

There was a time when companies were responsible members of society….that is no longer the case….it is more important to squeeze as much cash out of the consumer as possible and give nothing in return other than a receipt that would make you sick.

I am sick of hearing how low our inflation is these days…..apparently food is not considered in the equation….for people living on a budget inflation is killing them….both literally and physically.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is Guyana Next?

I recently read an article about the tension between two South American countries, Guyana and Venezuela, over some oil reserves around a common border.

At he end of last year tensions were elevated….

Tensions over the fate of Guyana’s Essequibo region continue to rise with reports Venezuela is deploying some 6,000 troops into the border region to conduct exercises over the disputed region. The deployment is in response to Britain’s deployment of the HMS Trent off the Guyana coast.

The Essequibo tensions were fueled largely by the early December referendum by Venezuela calling to annex the region after the discovery of oil reserves. The sparsely populated territory’s ownership is a long-standing dispute, and it amounts to most of Guyana’s overall land mass. The question of Essequibo’s legal fate was referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), though Venezuela has rejected their jurisdiction on the matter.

(antiwar.com)

Lots of lip service and then Brazil stepped in to conduct negotiations…..and it appears that calmer heads have prevailed….

Guyana and Venezuela signed an agreement that said they would “not threaten or use force against one another in any circumstances” to resolve their competing claims to the Essequibo region. The talks came after the Brazilian government pressured both nations.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Guyanese President Irfaan Ali met in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for talks negotiated by Brasília and the UN. The discussions centered on the region of Essequibo.

The South American neighbors inked a three-page agreement that emphasized the dispute over the Essequibo will not be resolved by force. The deal says both nations agree to “not threaten or use force against one another in any circumstances” and “refrain, whether by words or deeds, from escalating any conflict.”

The agreement was the result of an “excellent day of dialogue,” Maduro touted. “I thank the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, for his candor and willingness to engage in broad dialogue on all the issues addressed, directly,” the Venezuelan Leader posted on X. “I am satisfied to have been face to face as I wanted it for a long time. It was worth it to raise the flag of truth, to raise our historical reasons and to seek, with Bolivarian Peace Diplomacy, the path of dialogue and understanding to channel this historical controversy.”

(antiwar.com)

The US has signaled support for Guyana by announcing joint military drills that Venezuela slammed as provocative. US Southern Command has conducted flight operations in Guyana.

Diplomacy prevailed…..and then the US could not have that….

And then the US has to poke its nose in where it does not belong…..(this news is very recent)

The US will increase military aid to Guyana amid tensions with neighboring Venezuela over the disputed Guayana Essequibo region, The Associated Press reported on Monday.

The AP report did not detail how much the US will provide but said the US will help Guyana acquire new helicopters, a fleet of military drones, and radar technology for the first time.

In 2023, the US provided Guyana with about $2.7 million in total aid, including over $400,000 from the Pentagon’s International Military Education & Training program, which trains foreign militaries. Guyana is a small country with a population of only around 800,000. According to AP, the Caribbean nation’s military numbers less than 5,000 troops.

News of the new military aid came after US Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer met with officials in Guyana. The US has been stepping up military cooperation with Guyana after Venezuelans voted in a referendum late last year to make the Essequibo region a Venezuelan state.

(antiwar.com)

Is this the next Ukraine?

Will this infusion of US military aid enrage Venezuela to the point of doing something stupid?

Is this destined to be yet another proxy war for the US?

Must we continually look for regions to f*ck up?

Just wondering.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Barred From Re-Election

We have states attempting to bar Trump from the November ballot and then there is the state of Oregon….in an attempt to bar dissenters from re-election….

The Oregon Supreme Court said Thursday that 10 Republican state senators who staged a record-long walkout last year to stall bills on abortion, transgender health care, and gun rights cannot run for reelection. The decision upholds the secretary of state’s decision to disqualify the senators from the ballot under a voter-approved measure aimed at stopping such boycotts. Measure 113, passed by voters in 2022, amended the state constitution to bar lawmakers from reelection if they have more than 10 unexcused absences, the AP reports.

Last year’s boycott lasted six weeks—the longest in state history—and paralyzed the legislative session, stalling hundreds of bills. Five of the 10 GOP senators who racked up more than 10 absences sued over the secretary of state’s decision. “We obviously disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling,” said one of them, Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp. “But more importantly, we are deeply disturbed by the chilling impact this decision will have to crush dissent.” Democratic Senate President Rob Wagner welcomed the decision. “Today’s ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court means that legislators and the public now know how Measure 113 will be applied, and that is good for our state,” he said in a statement.

Political advocacy groups that backed Measure 113 had similar reactions, per the AP. “Walkouts allow a relatively small number of lawmakers to nullify the will of the majority, and that is to the detriment of our democracy,” said Alejandro Queral of the Oregon Center for Public Policy. All parties in the suit had sought clarity on when the ineligibility takes effect before the March filing deadline for candidates who want to run in this year’s election. Oregon voters approved the measure by a wide margin following Republican walkouts in the legislature in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

While I enjoy any time a GOPer gets in hot water I just do not see this as an answer…..but if the people decided then I guess we must go along with their decision, after all it is their state and their elections.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergpo scribo”