Month: March 2024

What Is ISIS-K?

The other big news on Saturday….

By now most everyone who lives above ground has heard about the horrific terrorist attack in Moscow…..but for those that have been under a rock….

While firefighters continued to pull bodies from the rubble and put out the lingering flames Saturday after a terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City concert hall, people came to the site to leave flowers and teddy bears in honor of the victims. Questions about how such an attack, which killed more than 100 people and injured more than 150, could happen were mixed with expressions of grief and concerns about the future.

Some Russians wondered about the Russian security forces’ inability to prevent the attack. “Why is it that they say that there were warnings from foreign security services, but our services were completely indifferent?” asked a woman in Moscow. “How can this happen in 2024?” Another woman pointed out that the government seems to concentrate on watching dissidents. “There are cameras everywhere that can trace opposition people going to a rally, and they are also stopped in the metro,” she said. “Does it mean that cameras are targeted on people who carry a book … but you can carry a bomb or a Kalashnikov, and that will be OK?”

The group that carried out this attack is known as ‘ISIS-K’….who are these barbaric bunch?

Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), named after an old term for the region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, emerged in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality.

One of the most active regional affiliates of the Islamic State militant group, ISIS-K has seen its membership decline since peaking around 2018. The Taliban and U.S. forces inflicted heavy losses.
But the United States sees the group as an ongoing threat. General Michael Kurilla, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told Congress last March that ISIS-K was quickly developing the ability to conduct “external operations” in Europe and Asia. He predicted it would be able to attack U.S. and Western interests outside Afghanistan “in as little as six months and with little to no warning.”
Attacks within the U.S. itself were less likely, he said.
 
The United States has said its ability to develop intelligence against extremist groups in Afghanistan such as ISIS-K has been reduced since the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country in 2021. The U.S. military has said it can see the “broad contours” of an impending attack, but does not have the specific detail it did previously.
 
(reuters.com)
This is not a ‘new’ group by any means….
 
U.S. intercepted communications confirming the group carried out twin bombings in Iran that killed nearly 100 people.
 
In September 2022, ISIS-K militants claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul.
 
The group was also responsible for an attack on Kabul’s international airport in 2021 that killed 13 U.S. troops and scores of civilians during the chaotic U.S. evacuation from the country.
 
More info will be passed on as it becomes available to people like me.
 
You now know as much as anyone else on this group.
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”
 

Spending Bill Theatrics

The clock was ticking ever so close to a shutdown when like magic (sarcasm) a deal was found and the shutdown was averted.  (Go figure)

The Senate passed a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills in the early morning hours Saturday, a long overdue action nearly six months into the budget year that will push any threats of a government shutdown to the fall. The vote was 74-24, per the AP. President Biden signed the legislation into law hours later, acknowledging that it won’t please everyone.

  • 11th-hour save: The deal came after funding had expired for the agencies at midnight, but the White House sent out a notice shortly after the deadline announcing the Office of Management and Budget had ceased shutdown preparations because there was a high degree of confidence that Congress would pass the legislation and the president would sign it on Saturday.
  • Details: While Congress has already approved money for Veterans Affairs, Interior, Agriculture and other agencies, the bill approved this week is much larger, providing funding for the Defense, Homeland Security, and State departments, as well as other aspects of general government. The House passed the bill Friday morning by a vote of 286-134, narrowly gaining the two-thirds majority needed for approval. More than 70% of the money would go to defense.
  • Tensions: Prospects for a short-term government shutdown had appeared to grow Friday evening after Republicans and Democrats battled over proposed amendments to the bill. Any successful amendments to the bill would have sent the legislation back to the House, which had already left town for a two-week recess.
  • Breakthrough: Shortly before midnight, however, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced, “It’s been a very long and difficult day, but we have just reached an agreement to complete the job of funding the government.” He added, “It is good for the country that we have reached this bipartisan deal. It wasn’t easy, but tonight our persistence has been worth it.”
  • GOP strife: The vote breakdown showed 101 Republicans voting for the bill and 112 voting against it. Meanwhile, 185 Democrats voted for the bill and 22 against. The vote tally in the House reflected anger among Republicans over the content of the package and the speed with which it was brought to a vote. In a sign of conservative frustration, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., initiated an effort to oust Johnson as the House began the vote, but she held off on further action until the House returns in two weeks.
  • Biden’s take: “This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted,” the president said in a statement, per the AP. “But it rejects extreme cuts from House Republicans and expands access to child care, invests in cancer research, funds mental health and substance use care, advances American leadership abroad, and provides resources to secure the border.”

The vote has the House all a tether….MTG has opened that very large mouth yet again…..

The U.S. House of Representatives started a two-week recess on Friday, but not before a series of events that provoked fresh declarations of what has become a familiar phrase over the past few years: “Republicans in disarray.”

Meanwhile, far-right Republicans like Texas Congressman Chip Roy have made comments like, “Everyone that I know and trust about the border, about overall spending, see it as a complete and total failure and a capitulation by Republicans. And leadership worked the deal, so it’s on leadership.”

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) not only opposed the package but also filed a motion to vacate, hoping to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)—which would only require a simple majority if it came up for a vote.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/republican-house-speaker

Will we have yet another new Speaker of the House?

I love this stuff!

A prime example the games and the waste of time and energy that the Congress has become.

Can we please have some sanity in the Congress for a change?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That Amazing Chewing Gum Or Spit That Out Young Man.

Do you partake in the exercise of chewing that sweet treat?

As per my formula for Sunday I try to find something that is helpful or informative for my readers and if it involves some history all that much better.

Recently I read the the producer of ‘Fruit Stripe’ gum would end its market (this would be a good time to consider something for your EBay store)

Chewing gum….we use it for appetite control….or to try and control the urge for a smoke…..or to freshen our breath for the long awaited first date…..and above all that have you ever wondered where this magic oral joy originated?

Guess what….I can help with that….

Many people today consider chewing gum a normal part of life. It’s elevated to pop-culture status in many ways, with a constant presence in baseball culture across America, from fields to dugouts and bubblegum trading cards. The professional Wrigley Field in Chicago is even named after a popular chewing gum, spawning the official Big League Chew brand of shredded gum. Pop stars like Madonna extol the virtues of big pink bubbles, and there’s even a thing called chewing gum art.

But as trendy as it seems today, our modern, lip-smacking, bubble-blowing society didn’t invent the concept or the reality of chewing gum. Though earlier versions came from different sources and had more varied applications, gum in one form or another has been chewed for thousands of years. An archaeological site in Denmark discovered a rudimentary Stone-Ages type of chewing gum made from the oozing pitch, or tar, of birch bark, which could have been used for chewing enjoyment, and to relieve toothache pain and other ailments.

However, birch pitch was so potent that it also served as a super strong adhesive — not exactly something we’d embrace putting in mouths today. It was instead our ancestors in the Americas that set the stage for modern chewing gum, starting long before the United States was a gleam in anyone’s eye.

We have the ancient Mayan and Aztec societies of the early Americas to thank for the core ingredient precipitating Western-style chewing gum. That would be chicle, an oozing substance from sapodilla trees. Both civilizations chewed it for everything from thwarting hunger to freshening breath or cleaning teeth. Like today, there even appears to have been societal etiquette involving chewing the gum in public. But it would take generations before chicle launched a flurry of commercial activity in the United States.

Read More: https://www.tastingtable.com/1531138/ancient-origin-chewing-gum-explained/

Now you know where the tasty treat in your mouth came from and how it morphed into that sweet treat.

Enjoy!

Have a wonderful Sunday and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

National Vietnam War Veterans Day

Today is a day of remembrance, 29 March, of those that fought and died in the hell hole call Southeast Asia.

I bring this up because I was one of those people that spent my youth ass deep in mud and blood…..so my way of celebrating, for lack of a better word, is to share a few things with my readers.

When there is a conversation about this war there is always those that say the US could have won that war if we had wanted to or the ever popular if the president had listened to his generals.

Is this true?

This article tries to disspell some of the manure around such comments….

Historian Mark Moyar revisits the Vietnam War, challenging the consensus that the U.S. couldn’t have won. He contends South Vietnam was a viable state by 1972, capable of repelling North Vietnamese offensives with U.S. aid, and that the war wasn’t as unpopular in the U.S. as believed. However, Moyar overlooks South Vietnam’s reliance on U.S. support, North Vietnam’s advantages, and the U.S.’s inability to fully disrupt the North’s support for the Viet Cong. He underestimates domestic opposition to the war and the improbability of sustaining long-term U.S. involvement. Ultimately, the U.S. withdrawal reflected a strategic decision that the war’s costs outweighed its benefits, with no lasting impact on the global balance of power. The current cooperative relationship between Vietnam and the U.S. suggests the strategic loss was minimal.

Mark Moyar, a scholar of U.S. foreign and military policy, years back had the opportunity to update an older argument on the viability of the Vietnam War. Moyar argues that the historical consensus on the war is wrong on several points, and that in fact the United States could have won the war and preserved the Saigon government at acceptable cost. While Moyar’s argument is worth consideration, he still fails to make his case against the long-standing consensus on the war.

Please read on….

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/vietnam-war-was-there-anyway-us-military-could-have-won-209574

A nice gesture but I remember how we were treated when we returned to our homeland….

We Viet vets are getting older and starting to die off….soon we will be like those Korean War vets….we will be forgotten and no one will care.

So in the vane of that thought I offer up a comparison on the two forgotten wars….

The Vietnam War and the Korean War stand as two pivotal events, each leaving indelible marks on the world stage. Yet, the curious reality persists: the Vietnam War is remembered vividly, while the Korean War often fades into collective memory. This piece explores the disparities between these conflicts and uncovers the factors influencing the Korean War’s comparative lack of visibility.

https://sofrep.com/news/forgotten-battles-a-comparative-analysis-of-the-vietnam-and-korean-wars/

I disagree that Vietnam is remembered vividly….by those that were there then yes but those that were not or too young it is nothing but a show on the history channel.

If you have a moment in your busy lives please take the time to remember those that did not return.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–23Mar24

The first weekend of Spring….flowers are blooming, birds are singing, pollen is flowing and I am cussing at my garden.

Enough mundane crap!

Space has been in the news this past week….so I thought about a CSI type of thing if and when a crime is committed in space…..

The emerging field of astroforensics will be called upon whenever humanity faces its first murder in space. Until that time, Zack Kowalske, a crime scene investigator in Atlanta, says “broadening the understanding of all forensic sciences in nonterrestrial environments is critical as we expand into a space-faring species.” So how do researchers study crime in space while remaining on Earth? With a little creativity. Opting to study bloodstain pattern analysis in zero or reduced gravity, Kowalske, a PhD candidate at Staffordshire University in the UK, took to the skies for a weightless flight aboard the Zero Gravity Corporation’s specially modified Boeing 727, then watched to see how a bloodlike substance spewed, per Interesting Engineering.

The substance made from 40% glycerin and 60% red food coloring, meant to simulate the density and viscosity of human blood, was ejected from a hydraulic syringe toward paper targets during periods of reduced gravity between 0g and 0.05g (compared to 1g on Earth). Looking to reconstruct the angle of impact, researchers had expected “certain mathematical calculations would be more accurate” in reduced gravity, as “gravity and air drag have a noticeable influence on skewing the calculated angle” of blood splatter, Graham Williams, a professor of forensic science at the University of Hull, says in a release. Yet they found new issues arose with the lack of gravitational pull that “caused the calculation to have greater variance.”

asically, “surface tension and cohesion of blood droplets are amplified,” meaning “blood in space has a higher tendency to stick to surfaces until a greater force causes detachment” and “blood drops exhibit a slower spread rate and, therefore, have shapes and sizes that would not be reflective on Earth,” says Williams, co-author of the study published in Forensic Science International: Reports. Kowalske notes astroforensics is still “in its infancy,” but future findings could factor into forensic investigations used to reconstruct “a critical accident on board a space station or shuttle” or a violent crime. “Where humanity goes, so, too, does violence,” Kowalske tells the Telegraph. “In a confined environment, tempers can fray and people can snap,” adds Williams.

I will float the idea to SyFy.

On the medical front….an old disease is making a comeback….

Leprosy is caused by two different but similar bacteria – Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis – the latter having just been identified in 2008. Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is avoidable. Transmission among the most vulnerable in society, including migrant and impoverished populations, remains a pressing issue.

This age-old neglected tropical disease, which is still present in more than 120 countries, is now a growing challenge in parts of North America.

Leprosy is beginning to occur regularly within parts of the southeastern United States. Most recently, Florida has seen a heightened incidence of leprosy, accounting for many of the newly diagnosed cases in the US.

The surge in new cases in central Florida highlights the urgent need for health care providers to report them immediately. Contact tracing is critical to identifying sources and reducing transmission.

https://www.sciencealert.com/experts-warn-leprosy-isnt-ancient-history-as-cases-surge-in-the-us

Yet another reason to stir clear of Florida.

Let’s venture into world of food…..

We are always finding new sources of food….from plants to insects and now we have snake…..

Scientists are learning more about what sources of meat could serve as more sustainable alternatives to beef, pork and chicken.

Python meat could offer a form of meat much less carbon intensive than the current options, according to researchers who studied farms in Southeast Asia for two species of pythons — reticulated and Burmese — for 12 months.

Farmed python meat may offer a more sustainable alternative to other farmed meat because they can reproduce rapidly, even when food is not abundantly available, according to a study published in Scientific Reports on Thursday.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/python-farming-offer-sustainable-sources-meat-world-new/story

Now the best story of the week….

Beware of a guy with a trench coat….

England’s first convicted cyberflasher was sentenced Tuesday to 5 1/2 years in prison. Nicholas Hawkes, 39, a convicted sex offender who sent unsolicited photos of his genitals to a girl and a woman, was the first person in England and Wales convicted of violating the Online Safety Act, per the AP. Hawkes admitted at an earlier hearing that in February he sent a photograph or video of genitals with intent to cause alarm, distress, or humiliation.

The woman who received the photos in February took screenshots and reported him to police. Hawkes was on the sex offenders registry after being convicted last year of exposure and sexual activity with a child under 16. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to breaching both a community order and suspended sentence he’d received for the earlier offense. The cyberflashing law that went into effect on Jan. 31 makes it an offense to send unsolicited sexual images by social media, dating apps, or technologies such as Bluetooth or AirDrop.

Finally, this story also from the UK….redefining ‘extremism”……

Coming weeks after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed the United Kingdom is in danger of “mob rule… replacing democratic rule,” a new definition of “extremism” published by the government on Thursday was viewed by one rights advocate as a “smash and grab” on the right to protest, among other freedoms.

The Conservative government updated the definition of the word under its anti-extremism agenda, known as Prevent. The government will now treat as extremism “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.”

“The government will undertake a robust process to assess groups for extremism against the definition, which will then inform decisions around government engagement and funding,” said a public notice from Michael Gove, Sunak’s secretary of state for leveling up, housing, and communities.

The government is expected to release a list in the coming weeks of groups it deems as in violation of the new definition of extremism.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/uk-extremism-definition

So to all my radical friends in the UK….please be careful what you say or the shadow warriors will come for you.

Finally, the World Happiness Report….

The latest World Happiness Report is out and it doesn’t paint a happy picture for young people in the West. The US, ranked No. 15 for happiness last year, has dropped eight places to fall out of the top 20, largely due to a drop in wellbeing among under-30s. The report found that young people are now the unhappiest group in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and the trend is headed the same way in Western Europe.

  • Big age differences. According to the report’s researchers, who rely on self-reported evaluation, the US ranks 62nd in happiness among young people from 2021 to 2023—but if only the over-60s were included, the US would be in 10th place. Lithuania had the happiest young people, according to the report, while Finland, which was first for the seventh year in a row, followed by Denmark and Iceland, came in seventh when only the under-30s were included.
  • Comparing generations. “In comparing generations, those born before 1965 are, on average, happier than those born since 1980,” researchers said. “Among millennials, evaluation of one’s own life drops with each year of age, while among boomers life satisfaction increases with age.”
  • A “red flag.” Dr. Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, tells the Guardian that the findings are “a red flag that young people are really struggling in the US and now increasingly around the world.” He notes that American adolescents spent an average of nearly five hours a day on social media and says governments’ failure to better regulate social media is “insane.”
  • More reasons. Dr. Lara Aknin, editor of the report, tells the BBC that unhappiness among under-30s in the US and Canada “is linked with lower levels of satisfaction in social support, lower satisfaction with living conditions, greater stress and anxiety, lower trust in government, and higher perceptions in corruption.”
  • Brighter spots. While happiness levels fell significantly in countries including the US, they rose in Central and Eastern Europe and in East Asia, especially among older people, according to the report. Costa Rica and Kuwait were new entries in the top 20.
  • A “well-established notion” contradicted. The report is coordinated by Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Center, Gallup, and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of the Oxford center, said the report contradicts the “well-established notion” that young people start out happy before experiencing midlife crises and become happier again in old age, the Guardian reports. “To think that in some parts of the world children are already experiencing the equivalent of a midlife crisis, demands immediate policy action,” he said.

That is all I have for this Saturday….please enjoy Spring if you can for Summer is not far behind.

I must dash for now….gardening chores….and set my grill up for some bison burgers….

Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–22Mar24

This is for my friend Pete, https://beetleypete.com/, who has this fascination with maps…..I thought he would appreciate this one of the US.

The multicultural history of the United States is evident from maps of the country. French, English, Spanish, Hawaiian, and Algonquian are just a handful of the languages you would need to speak in order to understand the literal meanings of every American place name. Fortunately you don’t need to be a polyglot to read a U.S. map like a book; just take a take a look at the graphic below for the English translations of capital city and state names.

To put together this etyomogical map of America, Wordtips pulled from multiple resources, including the American Library Association, the Online Etymology Dictionary, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The website used a minimum of two sources to determine each etymology in the report.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/american-state-names-translation-map

What is the translation for your state….that is if you leave here.

That is it for me on this Friday…..

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, the first weekend of Spring….as always….Be well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Same BS, Different Day

The Theater of the Absurd continues!

Here we go again….exercising the most worthless and idiotic waste of limited Congressional time….the old ‘shutdown two-step”…..

Time is almost up—again—for Congress to provide the funding to keep government operating. Negotiators agreed Thursday on a $1.2 trillion spending bill but might not be able to get it through both houses by the Friday midnight deadline, the New York Times reports. The obstacles include burdensome congressional rules, and bending them to hurry the process might not be enough—though the bill has broad support in both chambers. With a partial shutdown possible over the weekend, White House officials implored the legislative branch on Thursday to “send this critical legislation to the president’s desk for signature without delay.” The funding would run through September.

At risk are more than half the government, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department, and health agencies. A weekend shutdown wouldn’t be catastrophic, per the Washington Post, but anything longer would cause problems. More than half of the IRS’ employees could go on furlough at an awkward time. Active-duty military personnel, Border Patrol officers, and TSA screeners would go unpaid. The first rule was set aside Thursday evening, when House Republican leaders scheduled a floor vote for Friday morning; members are supposed to have at least 72 hours to consider a bill before voting on it.

The situation in the Senate is dicier. Several GOP senators have indicated they’ll propose amendments to slow the bill down. Senate rules mean a Friday vote on the floor could quickly roll into a Sunday or a Monday vote instead. The compromise plan would hold spending on domestic programs steady but allocate more for veterans programs and the Pentagon. Foreign aid would be reduced. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor that it’s up to House Republican leaders to keep the bill moving. Once in place, he said, the legislation “will extinguish any more shutdown threats for the rest of the fiscal year, it will avoid the scythe of budget sequestration, and it will keep the government open without cuts or poison pill riders.”

So many problems in this country and this is what the slugs the people send to DC waste their time doing…..that and taking time off to visit with their handlers and their agents.

These types to lame ass games are killing this country….and the peasants dance.

Are we really that jaded that we think these ‘people’ work in our best interests?

I’m not!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Can Social Security Be Saved?

Yes it can….but not under the system we have now.

For instance you pay your social security on every dime you earn…..but not so for the wealthy….

Most Americans contribute to Social Security year-round, but U.S. millionaires will stop paying into the critical program on March 2—just over two months into 2024.

That’s because Social Security’s payroll tax doesn’t apply to earned income above a certain level. For 2024, the cut-off is $168,600, and capital gains—such as stock appreciation—are not subject to the payroll levy at all. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and the world’s richest man, pays nothing into Social Security because he doesn’t take a salary.

Emma Curchin, domestic outreach and research assistant at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), noted Thursday that with the $168,600 payroll tax cap in place, a millionaire’s effective Social Security tax rate “is less than 1%.”

“This is compared to the 6.2% that any worker making less than $168,600 pays,” Curchin wrote. “The burden of paying for Social Security rests on working class people in this country.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/millionaires-social-security

So yes the benefit can be saved….just let those that pretend to care about the Middle Class work on a bill where everybody pays the same.

Can Social Security be saved?

Not if the dullards elect Trump in November….

The Republican Study Committee, which claims 175 of the House’s 219 Republican members of Congress, released their annual budget proposals last summer, and, sure to form, they also called for the setup of draconian cuts to Social Security.

Weirdly, the title of the section of their budget that cuts Social Security is titled Preventing Biden’s Cuts to Social Security. If you’re baffled by that because Biden has never called for cuts to Social Security, you live in the reality-based world.

In other words: “the system is going broke and we’re going to gut it, but not for the older voters the GOP needs: we’ll just stick Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen X with the pain.”

Having been sponsored by billionaires and bankers who’ve been lusting for decades over the trillions in cash in the Social Security trust fund, it makes perfect sense that it would also contain explicit threats to Social Security.

https://www.alternet.org/social-security-trump/

This is for all the old farts that will undoubtedly vote for Trump….if you like your retirement and your Social Security then pl;ease look elsewhere to place your vote for you will be eternally sorry if you choose wrongly.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Take It Or Leave It” Democracy

Every election I have the same problem…..I do not vote for the two parties and every time I get all sorts of comments…most of which I ignore….to be honest I have not voted for a winner in a presidential election since 1976.

I have suffered with the ignorance of if you vote for them then you elect the other….I have one vote and I will exercise my duty as a citizen and vote for the person that I believe would be best for all the country. It is that damn simple!

Most people are of the mind of ‘take it or leave it democracy….

There’s a troubling narrative setting in about our political system. I call it “take-it-or-leave-it democracy.” It’s characterized by the idea that our elected officials, our policies, our culture are beyond our control. Its side effects are substantial. People who catch this virus tend to infect those around them. A friend says they want to vote for a third party … and someone responds, “You know your vote doesn’t matter, right?” A colleague talks about donating to a candidate … and someone scoffs, “Why? Don’t you know special interests control everything?”

You get the picture. You know the type.

Given the increase in cases of take-it-or-leave-it-itis, it comes as no surprise that I often find myself asking similar questions. It’s a heck of a lot easier to talk about everything that’s destined to go wrong with our democracy than to map out what we’re actually going to do to change it. The minimal effort required to point out fatal flaws with our political system can sometimes feel unavoidable. By way of example, here’s Paul Krugman of The New York Times:

“I wish this election weren’t a contest between two elderly men and worry in general about American gerontocracy. But like it or not, this is going to be a race between Biden and Trump.”

This statement and this sort of thinking has limited value when it comes to improving our democracy. Krugman’s fatalistic framework may inadvertently discourage engagement with our democracy. It’s not, unfortunately, unsurprising to find this “take” filling up the pages of opinion sections. The widespread acceptance of take-it-or-leave-it-itis is the product of decades of Americans being told that “special interests,” the “other” party” and “them” have absolute control over our politics.

The minimal value of such thinking becomes clear by pointing out a single action that many Americans could take in under 10 minutes that would upend our politics and disrupt the election we apparently have no agency over: register as a non-affiliated voter. This action could be taken by everyone tomorrow and, as a result, directly undermine the conclusion that we have a “like it or not” system.

https://thefulcrum.us/electoral-reforms/leaving-a-political-party

I have not decided where my vote will go at this time…..but I am looking at candidates as they appear on the political horizon…I can tell you that I am not happy with either of the two major candidates and that will be taken into consideration.

I will vote my principles and I wish more Americans felt the same way.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–20Mar24

There is new evidence that the up and coming generation have nothing in the bank as they approach that magical time known as retirement…..

A new survey shows just how much of a struggle it will be….

A new survey on the saving habits of Americans reveals some stark truths for a large number of people:

  • 28% say they have saved nothing for retirement, according to the GoBankingRates survey. The breakdown for that by age group: 18-24 (28% have nothing saved); 25-34 (30%); 35-44 (35%); 45-54 (33%); and, maybe the most surprising, 55-64 (25%).
  • 39% do not contribute to a retirement fund.
  • 30% don’t think they’ll be able to retire, period.
  • Previous studies suggest that most US adults figure they will need between $1 million and $1.25 million to retire comfortably, per MarketWatch.
  • In the new survey, 25% of respondents put their retirement goal at less than $500,000; 25% put it between $500,000 and $1 million; and another 30% have it at more than $1 million. The problem is that most people’s savings don’t appear to be on track for these goals. The majority, 71%, would have five-figure savings at best, unless their habits changed. The survey is based on responses from 1,000 people.

This is sad news….but with this economy I can understand it.

I was fortunate that I had a sizeable savings but as the years tick by that wad of cash grows smaller and smaller.

Just thought you should know.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”