Month: April 2024

Will Dems Jump Ship?

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

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

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

So what does this mjean?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will You Let The Constitution Die?

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

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

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

It seems almost inconsequential with all that has transpired since.

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

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

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

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

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

Are You Ready to Let Our Constitution Crash and Burn?

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

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

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

Just Saying

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will RFK, Jr Make A Difference?

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

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

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

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

I love it when a political plan goes to crap.

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

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

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Good That Was Trump

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

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

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

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

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

Anything anyone would like to add?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

TikTok–A Step Closer

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

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

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

Is TikTok truly dangerous?

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

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

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

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

What do you think this proposed ban is all about?

Is this truly a freedom of speech thing?

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

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

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

All good questions that deserve good answers….

Your thoughts included.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Remember Terrorism?

First of all….I would like to wish everyone a ‘Happy Earth Day’….

Now he is a subject that has taken a backseat in the media….and because it is under reported the American people have moved on to the point of blocking this out of their minds.

AQ is a mere shadow of its former self and ISIS, well ISIS is still there and still performing acts of terror and mayhem.

Then just recently the world got another wake up call….the attack in Moscow.

With its “war on terrorism,” the United States launched a global campaign against the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks as well as a number of other targets. The campaign probably created more terrorists than it killed. Moreover, U.S. interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq—the first with only a tangential relationship to al-Qaeda, the second with no connection whatsoever—killed a huge number of civilians as well.

Having failed to accomplish its poorly defined objectives, the United States eventually refocused on other national security threats. The “war on terrorism” disappeared from the headlines. Today, the world is more worried about the wars conducted by states: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s attack on Gaza, and the potential conflict between China and Taiwan.

But as the latest attack in Moscow demonstrates, some terrorist organizations are still going strong. On May 22, militants associated with the Islamic State chapter in Afghanistan attacked concertgoers at a Moscow venue, killing more than a 100 people. It was a shocking reminder of how vulnerable states can be in the face of determined non-state actors.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or Daesh according to the Arabic acronym) is perhaps the most prominent terrorist organization operating in the world today. It emerged from the wreckage of the U.S. war in Iraq and the civic uprising against Bashar al-Assad in Syria. For several years beginning in 2014, these radical Islamists managed to govern a vast swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria. Though it attracted recruits from around the world, ISIS also attracted the enmity of a range of states that otherwise didn’t agree on anything else. After repeated attacks by these diverse states—the United States, Russia, Syria, Iraq—the self-declared caliphate collapsed in 2019.

Even without its mini-caliphate, the Islamic State persists. It still launches attacks within Syria and wields considerable influencein the huge al-Hol facility in eastern Syria for detained ISIS fighters and their families (along with many unfortunates who have no connection to ISIS).  It still has something of a foothold in Southeast Asia. Several groups in both the Sahel and in sub-Saharan Africa are still operating.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/09/the-return-of-terrorism/

Terrorism did not go away nor was it defeated….however the importance in the media did go away….but now with this attack there should be a renewed interest in the happenings around ISIS and other groups bent on destruction and death.

But after all how important can it be when we have an election to fret over?

How will this play out?

Your thoughts, please.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That Morning Cup Of “Joe”

Yep that time again, Sunday and a day of either FYI or history, sometimes both.

I believe it was last Sunday that I wrote about the dangers lurking in decaf coffee……

Decaf Drinkers Beware!

I truly adore my cups of coffee in the mornings it makes the day a bit brighter…..but what do you know about coffee other than it is a great starter for the day?

The bad news is that there could be higher prices on the horizon….the Eastern horizon….

Coffee prices this morning are sharply higher, with arabica climbing to a 1-1/2 year high and robusta coffee posting a new all-time high. Coffee crop concerns in Brazil and Vietnam are fueling fund buying of coffee futures. Somar Meteorologia reported Monday that Brazil’s Minas Gerais region received 15.8 mm of rainfall in the past week, or 74% of the historical average. Minas Gerais accounts for about 30% of Brazil’s arabica crop. Robusta coffee is surging to new record highs on fears that excessive dryness in Vietnam will limit the country’s robusta coffee production.

Tight robusta coffee supplies from Vietnam, the world’s largest producer of robusta coffee beans, are a major bullish factor. On March 26, Vietnam’s agriculture department projected that Vietnam’s coffee production in the 2023/24 crop year could drop by -20% to 1.472 MMT, the smallest crop in four years, due to drought. Also, the Vietnam Coffee Association said that Vietnam’s 2023/24 coffee exports could drop -20% y/y to 1.336 MM. In addition, Marex Group Plc forecasts a global 2024/25 robusta coffee deficit of -2.7 million bags due to reduced output in Vietnam.

https://www.barchart.com/story/news/25518464/coffee-prices-surge-on-global-crop-concerns

You are in luck on this Sunday I can fill a few of your knowledge gaps about this magical elixir……

That coffee you slurped this morning? It’s 600,000 years old. Using genes from coffee plants around the world, researchers built a family tree for the world’s most popular type of coffee, known to scientists as Coffea arabica and to coffee lovers simply as “arabica,” the AP reports. The researchers, hoping to learn more about the plants to better protect them from pests and climate change, found that the species emerged around 600,000 years ago through natural crossbreeding of two other coffee species. “In other words, prior to any intervention from man,” said Victor Albert, a biologist at the University at Buffalo who co-led the study. published Monday in the journal Nature Genetics.

  • These wild coffee plants originated in Ethiopia but are thought to have been first roasted and brewed primarily in Yemen starting in the 1400s. In the 1600s, Indian monk Baba Budan is fabled to have smuggled seven raw coffee beans back to his homeland from Yemen, laying the foundation for coffee’s global takeover.
  • Arabica coffee, prized for its smooth and relatively sweet flavor, now makes up 60% to 70% of the global coffee market and is brewed by brands such as Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, and Dunkin. The rest is robusta, a stronger and more bitter coffee made from one of arabica’s parents, Coffea canephora.
  • The arabica plant’s population fluctuated over thousands of years before humans began cultivating it, flourishing during warm, wet periods and suffering through dry ones. These lean times created so-called population bottlenecks, when only a small number of genetically similar plants survived. Today, that renders arabica coffee plants more vulnerable to diseases like coffee leaf rust, which cause billions of dollars in losses every year.
  • Researchers from Nestlé, which owns several coffee brands, contributed to the study. The study clarifies how arabica came to be and spotlights clues that could help safeguard the crop, said Fabian Echeverria, an adviser for the Center for Coffee Research and Education at Texas A&M University who was not involved with the research.

I have given you the good news and the bad and even threw in a little history….but now the question is what makes coffee taste so damn good?

What is the best way to tell how a coffee is going to taste before you make it? Contrary to belief, the flavor of your coffee isn’t always determined by where it came from. It’s a combination of the microclimate the coffee plant grew up in, nutrient levels in the soil, age of the plant, rainfall (or lack thereof), roast level and one hundred and one other variables that shape and reshape the bean within the coffee plant’s fruit.

But there’s an argument to be made that no variable — other than maybe roast level — has a more plainly noticeable effect on coffee flavor as the “process,” something that’s stamped on any decent bag of coffee, which simply refers to how the coffee bean is removed from the cherry.

https://www.gearpatrol.com/home/natural-vs-washed-coffee/

Now that I have given you the history and the important questions I would like to close with some medical news about coffee….

Coffee is one of the world’s most popular beverages, cherished for its flavor and the boost of alertness it offers thanks to its caffeine content.

Recent research has highlighted another potential benefit of coffee: its association with a lower risk of developing liver disease.

This article explores the evidence behind this finding, offering insights into how drinking coffee could help protect liver health.

The liver is a crucial organ that plays a vital role in filtering toxins, aiding digestion, and regulating metabolism.

Liver disease includes a range of conditions such as hepatitis, fatty liver disease, and cirrhosis, which can progressively damage the liver, impairing its ability to function effectively. Finding ways to prevent liver disease is therefore of significant interest in medical research

https://knowridge.com/2024/04/coffee-and-liver-health-a-surprising-connection/

Damn!  Time for another cup!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday….if weather permits go out and enjoy the day…. and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–20Apr24

Another Saturday and another week closer to the oppressive heat of South Mississippi…

I would like to apologize to my readers for this News Dump is a bit thin….it was all Musk and Taylor and Trump and Biden and Israel–blah, blah, blah…..it was a helluva chore to find something interesting and entertaining for this Saturday.

It appears that while we strive to live longer some biologists say that might not be a good idea….

Have you ever wanted to live longer? Well you’re certainly not alone, but a scientist has explained why this could prove to be bad for the human race.

Human history is filled with people and whole societies who wanted to live longer, to have immortality or at least escape death.

But biologist Venki Ramakrishnan has explained why humans living for significantly longer would drastically change society and not necessarily for the better.

Speaking to ABC News to promote his new book Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality, Ramakrishnan explained how our bodies age and why lengthening the average human life might not be all it’s cracked up to be.

In simplistic terms he stated that aging is essentially the accumulation of damage over time but due to the body’s sophisticated repair mechanisms, we are regularly repairing this damage.

https://www.unilad.com/news/health/humans-living-longer-biologist-venki-ramakrishnan-819788-20240418

This is ma timey-wimey thing….does time exist?

Modern physics suggests time may be an illusion. Einstein’s theory of relativity, for example, suggests the universe is a static, four-dimensional block that contains all of space and time simultaneously – with no special “now”.

What’s the future to one observer, is the past to another. That means time doesn’t flow from past to future, as we experience it.

This clashes with how time is conceptualised in other areas of physics, such as quantum mechanics, however. So is time an illusion or not? One approach to find out would be to try to prove that time is unreal using logic alone.

https://theconversation.com/how-logic-alone-may-prove-that-time-doesnt-exist-227817

Climate change is warping our seasons…..

The seasons aren’t what they used to be.

People who live in Earth’s middle latitudes are accustomed to a spring, summer, autumn and winter. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, you may have noticed plants flowering earlier than usual. It’s not your imagination: a 2022 study revealed that spring blooms are arriving a month sooner in the UK due to climate change.

For a new series on the seasons and how they’re being warped by a warming climate, over the coming months we’ll be examining the consequences of these wrinkles in nature’s calendar.

Other species can’t coordinate their activities around a date and time. Plants, the bedrock of most ecosystems, stay up to date by paying close attention to changes in light and temperature says Paul Ashton, head of biology at Edge Hill University.

Plants are among the first to know when the days start to contract in autumn, as they use a pigment called phytochrome to detect changes in red light.

https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-warping-the-seasons-221893

I did not need this research for I have known this for at least 5 years and my fruit trees have told me.

A new twists for unionization….doctors.

A new generation of doctors struggling with ever-increasing workloads and crushing student debt is helping drive unionization efforts in a profession that historically hasn’t organized.

Why it matters: Physicians in training, like their peers in other industries, increasingly see unions as a way to boost their pay and protect themselves against grueling working conditions as they launch their careers.

What they’re saying: “We deserve an increased salary to be able to afford to live in one of the most expensive areas in the United States,” said Ali Duffens, a third-year internal medicine resident at Kaiser Permanente’s San Francisco Medical Center.

https://www.axios.com/2024/04/15/doctors-union-gen-z-millennial

As the rush to ban books there is an alarming amount of banning….

U.S. school districts banned more books during the first half of the current academic year than during the entire last scholastic year, a report published Tuesday revealed.

PEN America recorded 4,349 book bans across 52 school districts in 23 states during the fall 2023 semester, more than double the 1,841 titles that were prohibited during the spring term and more than the 3,362 volumes reported banned nationwide during the entire previous academic year.

…

The report found that Florida again had the highest number of banned books, with 3,135 proscribed titles across 11 school districts. In Wisconsin, PEN America recorded 481 banned books in three districts—including 444 titles blacklisted in the Elkhorn Area School District following one parent’s request. Iowa and Texas—with 142 and 141 forbidden titles, respectively—round out the report’s top four book-banners.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/book-bans-in-schools

Again I apologize for the lack of attention getting news…..apparently it was an off week.

Go out and enjoy your Saturday….I will return tomorrow with more stuff.

As always Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Like 8 Year Old Brats

While the Speaker tries to work around the BS in the House there is a war of words and insults kinda like a couple of kids in the sand box sniping at each other for whatever reason…..

We have MTG the most laughable dork and then there is Gaetz who just likes being a thorn in the side of whoever gets in his sight.

But back to the war of words…..

One of Speaker Mike Johnson’s seconds and one of his opponents tossed insults Thursday in the course of a confrontation on the House floor over the speaker’s performance. Three Republicans gathered around Johnson to give him an earful about his plan to put aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan to a vote this week: Reps. Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Tim Burchett. Rep. Derrick Van Orden went up to the three and dared them to file a motion to remove Johnson; he later told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he was trying to “call their bluff.” During the ensuing debate, Van Orden called Gaetz “tubby.”

The Wisconsin freshman said he only used “tubby” after Gaetz called him a “squish”—which Van Orden said he assumed meant he was being insulted as a soft person. The term is sometimes used by Republicans to imply colleagues are insufficiently Republican. Gaetz, who has not committed to the effort to oust Johnson, later told reporters he found his clash with Van Orden “puzzling and concerning.” He added, “The only thing I gleaned from it is that Mr. Van Orden is not a particularly intelligent individual.”

Van Orden said he went up to the group to back Johnson because “everybody needs a swim buddy.” He said Gaetz and other GOP hard-liners are “destroying our majority.” If they succeed, he said, and Donald Trump wins the election, he’ll be dealing with an “obstructionist House of Representatives run by Democrats.” As for Gaetz as an individual, Van Orden said he’s a bully. “The only way to stop a person from bullying you is to push back hard,” he said.

I have been saying for years what a collection of idiots and morons the House has become…..and they just keep proving me right almost daily.

These people are not in DC to govern in the best interests of the country….no they are there to disrupt and act up.

By the way…..Speaker got his foreign aid for Ukraine and Israel and others but needed the Dems to help…..

With rare bipartisan momentum, the House pushed ahead Friday on a foreign aid package of $95 billion for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, including for humanitarian support, as a coalition of lawmakers helped it clear a procedural hurdle to reach final votes this weekend. Friday’s vote produced a seldom-seen outcome in the typically hyperpartisan House, with Democrats helping Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan advance 316-94. Final House approval could come this weekend, when the package would be sent to the Senate, per the AP. It was a victory for the strategy Johnson set in motion this week after he agonized for two months over the legislation.

Still, Johnson has had to spend the past 24 hours making the rounds on conservative media working to salvage support for the wartime funding, particularly for Ukraine as it faces a critical moment battling Russia, but also for his own job as the restless right flank threatens to oust him over the effort. “There’s a lot of misinformation about what we’re doing here and why,” Johnson told the conservative host of The Mark Levin Show. “Ukrainians desperately need lethal aid right now. … We cannot allow Vladimir Putin to roll through another country and take it,” he added. “These are very serious matters with global implications.”

What will this cost the Speaker?  What did the Dems want in return?  Will the Freedom Caucus take this lying down?

These people , Freedom Caucus, make me sick!

We deserve better!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Retaliation For The Retaliation

Well the long awaited and much anticipated Israeli response to Iran’s response for the attack on their embassy in Syria…..has started…..

As of mid-night….and the unfolding events will make it necessary for regular updates…..

ABC News has reported that a US official said Israel launched an attack on Iran early Friday morning. Other reports say explosions have hit Syria and Iraq, with aircraft activity reported in the area.

Iran’s Mehr news agency reported explosions in the Iranian province of Isfahan. Sources told Mehr that the explosions were the result of air defenses destroying three drones.

According to CNN, the US knew Israel was planning to hit Iran with the understanding that nuclear sites wouldn’t be targeted. Iranian media is reporting that nuclear sites in Isfahan are safe.

On Thursday, Iranian officials warned that if Israel targeted nuclear sites, Iran would launch “tit-for-tat” strikes on Israeli nuclear facilities. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has also warned of a major response to any type of Israeli attack.

Israel’s attack was a response to Iran launching missiles and drones at Israeli territory, which came in retaliation for Israel bombing Tehran’s consulate in Damascus. The Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic facility marked a huge escalation in Israel’s targeting of Iranians in Syria and killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including a high-level Quds Force commander.

President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US would not support an Israeli offensive attack on Iran. However, the US has said it will continue to defend Israel, signaling it will intervene if Iran responds.

(antiwar.com)

Here we go…Israel is getting what it has wanted for a long time….direct US support for their damn adventurism.

Good luck keeping the US out of this…..just a bit of advice for Biden.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”