Month: June 2024

North Dakota Has The Right Idea

But it does not go far enough.

I have along with others have been saying that there needs to be age limits on our elected official as well as the Supreme Court….it is time to get the old farts with old ideas into a nursing home and find some fresh blood for our leadership.

Tuesday’s GOP primary in North Dakota is now over, and the victors are celebrating. Nestled in with those announcements is one regarding a “high-profile initiative” that voters also passed: Candidates out of the Peace Garden State can’t run for US Congress (so neither the Senate nor the House) if they would turn 81 years old at any point during their term, per the AP. Axios reports that this appears to be the first state to impose a measure like this, with both that outlet and the New York Times noting the vote comes against the backdrop of the conversation on how old President Biden (81) and former President Trump (turning 78 on Friday) are as they run for the Oval Office again.

The ballot measure would effectively amend the state’s constitution. Still, lawmakers concede that the move will likely be challenged in court, as a 1995 Supreme Court ruling determined that states “cannot impose additional restrictions, such as term limits, on its representatives in the federal government beyond those provided by the Constitution.” Although there are age minimums laid out in the US Constitution—25 for the House, 30 for the Senate—there’s no cap on the max end.

Jared Hendrix, a GOP politician from Fargo who helped spearhead the North Dakota initiative, thinks his state is only the first to move in this direction, especially since US opinion polls over the past few years show that a majority of Americans would be all for maximum age limits. “I think it’s very possible that if we pull this off here, other states will follow,” Hendrix said before Tuesday’s election, per the Times.

This should turn into a movement nationwide….I feel it would be best for the country.

Term limits also means number to times they can run for office…making so they cannot skip to another election to avoid the limits as well.

Then we need to work on making candidates resign from their present job to run for another office….that could open up some room for fresh blood.

The country needs help and the system as it is now is absolutely no help….time to take a hard look at change….real change not some vague BS they call change.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Where O Where Can A Leader Be Found?

For decades now the American people have been looking for a real leader….instead we get mouth pieces for the monied few and the people have been pushed aside in the name of ‘progress’…..but sadly there is no ‘progress’ just continuing inequality and injustice.

America is divided. Partisanship is on the rise, and compromise is on the decline. Problems are getting worse instead of solved. The parties are fighting for power and rewarding loyalists. One presidential candidate is out for revenge, one struggles to read a teleprompter and a third has a brain worm.  

Americans are begging for real leadership.  

Too often, power is a chess game played by the political parties in charge, and too often, citizens are treated like pawns. Politicians point the finger at the other side to get a win for themselves, and voters are tired of that. 

Average voters have checked out because they don’t believe anything can change. They have watched the debt rise and the border be invaded — all because it’s more politically lucrative for those in power. It’s easier to fundraise off saving democracy than to actually do it. If America is serious about solving these and other problems, then Americans need to have a serious conversation about reform. 

Political power functions more efficiently through a small sphere; thus, political parties concentrate power to advance their agenda. However, our founders designed the American republic with an “extended sphere” to “take in a greater variety of parties and interests.” This makes it “less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens.” However, the concentration of power makes it easier for wealthy and corrupt factions to manipulate the spheres of government.  

We live in an age of Spoiled Power, which has cast aside our system of checks and balances, designed to protect individual liberty and national sovereignty. Years of power politics have left our chessboard without the proper pieces to defend the people from anarchy or authoritarianism. The executive and judicial branches are bloated, and the legislative branch weakened. In Congress, power has become concentrated in the party leaders, the House Speaker, and the Senate majority leader. The states’ power is limited by the 17th Amendment, and the people’s power is limited to the few by the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929. 

A spoiled patronage system is the fatal disease of a republic, but America has been infected before and survived. 

Historically, problems fester under the surface for years until they rise to infect the political mainstream. It starts with a small group of people educating one generation and then multiplies in the next generation, much like today. The modern spoiled system has been written about in books like “Act of Congress” and “Filthy Rich Politicians.” A generation of people including Phillip Wallach and Kevin Kosar have written about reform. If Americans are serious about self-government, now is the time to show it.

The beauty of our republic is that it runs on a multiplicity of small spheres. Staffed effectively with virtuous Americans, it’s the strongest form of government. Americans are thoughtful, hardworking intelligent people. The system of spoiled power, however, does not encourage America’s best to be politically active. This means we are not sending our best and brightest to Washington.  

Serious politicians should discuss reforming our republic. Citizens should demand it. As fictitious Madman Don Draper said, “If you don’t like what is being said, then change the conversation.” 

(thehill.com)

I am sorry to say but I think the days of strong leadership is long gone….today it is weak leaders that are the beck and call of wealthy donors….the peasants are no long calling the shots.

I agree we need strong leadership….but where will we find such a person….in Biden?  Or in Trump?

There are your choices and sad choices they are.

More to come!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Trump And Project 2025

Back in February of this year I wrote about the ‘Plan’ that the Heritage Foundation came up with as a blueprint for Trump and his transition team….all 900+ pages…..but now bloggers are all over this ‘Plan” they would not be so shocked if they would visit IST….this is for those that missed my analysis of Project 2025……

Project 2025

If for some reason if you need other motivation….

Donald Trump has made no secret of his determination to govern as a “dictator” if he regains the presidency, and that’s got his critics warning that his reelection would spell the end of democracy. But Trump and his allies are too smart to go full Kim Jong Un. Rather, the former president’s enthusiasm for the authoritarian regimes of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Tayyip Erdoğan, and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán suggests the models he would build on: managing elections to benefit himself and his Republican allies; gutting public broadcasting and constraining press freedom; and undermining civil society. Trump, who famously demanded that the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential voting be “recalculated” to give him a win, wants the trappings of democracy without the reality of electoral consequences. That’s what propaganda experts Edward Herman and Frank Brodhead once described as “demonstration elections,” in which, instead of actual contests, wins are assured for the authoritarians who control the machinery of democracy.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/project-2025-democracy-fcc-fec/

I once again bring up the subject for there is a story that Trump is trying to walk back his support for this disastrous plan for his administration….

Project 2025 (and its auxiliary Trump’s “Agenda 47”) are a plan by right-wing extremists and other authoritarians to end America’s multiracial democracy and to replace it with a White Christian nationalist plutocracy.

A conspiracy is a plan by two or more people operating in private to advance their interests and goals above those of some other person(s) — or in this context the American people. Project 2025 is not a conspiracy. These plans are exhaustively detailed in a book titled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” and are regularly discussed at conferences, in interviews, and in other public forums. Project 2025 and its related plans, like Agenda 47, were not hatched overnight. As author and journalist Anne Nelson and other experts have been extensively documenting, Project 2025 and the other right-wing extremists’ and neofascists’ plans to end America’s multiracial democracy have been years and decades in development:

But ignore it at your peril. The massive tome is the latest iteration of a four-decade-long process of crafting right-wing policies to dismantle the federal government, deregulate industry and eliminate consumer protections and public health measures, while installing a regime controlled by fossil fuel interests and the Religious Right. Not coincidentally, the members of its advisory board have been making headlines attacking American institutions at a grassroots level, in preparation for the big takeover—ranging from Moms4Liberty’s assaults on local public schools, to the Koch-founded Institute on Energy Research’s war on climate initiatives.

Project 2025 lays out specifics for hundreds of policy objectives affecting every area of public life. Many of them affect three primary areas: first, the dismantling of environmental regulations, clean energy measures, and climate policy; second, a rollback of civil and political rights for women and LGBTQ populations and the elimination of public health measures; and third, a massive purge of career civil servants and the concentration of power in the Executive branch in the White House, to consolidate an entrenched authoritarian regime.

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/30/is-now-trying-to-downplay-project-2025/

A good sign right?

I think not.  I think they are just trying to play the election game and shy away from controversy before the election….if you bother to read the ‘Plan’ you will see that it is right up Trump’s alley.

Any thoughts on this situation?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

‘Revenge Can Be Justified’

From the lips of Donald the Orange….

It is nothing new for Trump to voice his desire to punish anyone that goes against him….these days that means mostly Dems with a sprinkling of Repubs in there.

His most recent statement should send shivers up American’s spines….

Former President Trump is threatening revenge for his fraud conviction while asserting that the country is worse off after he became the first US president convicted of a felony. Trump sat down Thursday with Dr. Phil McGraw, who suggested the presumptive Republican presidential nominee didn’t have time to “get even” with his critics, echoing Trump’s own claim from January that he’ll be too busy for retribution. “Well, revenge does take time, I will say that,” Trump replied, per the Hill. “And sometimes revenge can be justified, Phil, I have to be honest. Sometimes it can.” Trump has been making similar comments of late.

“It’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to, and it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them,” Trump told Newsmax‘s Greg Kelly on Tuesday, per the New York Times. And on Wednesday, he told Fox News‘ Sean Hannity he had “every right to go after” Democrats “based on what they’ve done.” “And it’s easy, because it’s Joe Biden, and you see all the criminality, all of the money that’s going into the family and him,” he added. In another interview that aired Thursday, Trump told Phoenix TV station KNXV he was considering prosecuting his opponents. “I thought it would be a horrible thing to do to Hillary Clinton,” Trump said of the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. But “the world is different now.”

Trump told Dr. Phil that “the country is really worse for what they’ve done.” But “the people of our country get it,” he said, claiming his campaign had pulled in about $400 million—”numbers that nobody’s ever heard of in politics before”—since his conviction. Even months before his conviction, Trump and his allies were plotting to use the federal government to target, investigate, and prosecute his critics and opponents, should he be elected to a second term as president, according to reporting by the Washington Post. “Donald Trump is so consumed with personal grievance that he does not care who he hurts so long as Donald Trump benefits,” a Biden campaign rep said Wednesday, per the Post.

Is this feasible?

If Trump wins in 2024 could he actually go after those that have ‘wronged’ him?

Should Trump win reelection in November, would he truly pursue punitive reprisals against his political foes? And if he does make good on his many longstanding threats, what would that look like?

https://theweek.com/politics/donald-trump-prosecute-enemies-reelection

Will he make good on his threats or is he just stroking his wanker like some crazed baboon?

Personally I think, if he wins, that he will get his DOJ to start lots of investigation and for him to ramp up the verbal attacks by his sycophants most notably FOX News.

How successful he will be will be just a waiting game for the country and in the end a waste of time….but is that not what DC does best?  Waste time and resources?

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Assault On Free Speech

The country and most of the world is voicing its disapproval of Israel’s onslaught in Gaza….protests have erupted all over the US mostly lead by university students and it has begun to spill over in the general public (shades of the 60s and 70s).

Congress has taken up these protests by making it against federal statues to voice an opinion or carry out a boycott….in other words they are trying to silence the voices of dissension.

What is driving this assault on free speech?

It should be no surprise that so much of the Congress’s attention in recent months has been devoted to the alleged dangers of people saying things and reading things. The foreign policy establishment in the US has been increasingly pushing for ever more US involvement in Ukraine and the Middle East while agitating for a new Cold War with China. As war fervor spreads, freedom always fades. 

Fortunately, there is growing voter opposition to US involvement in these active war zones, and regime agents have been unable to whip the taxpayers into a paranoid hysteria with the ease of decades past. The old bipartisan consensus supporting whatever new war the regime cooked up appears to be disappearing. Support for various wars is now a highly partisan issue. For example, a majority of polled Republicans say the US regime gives “too much” aid to Ukraine, and there is an active faction of Republicans in the Congress opposed to ongoing US involvement in that ten-year-old dispute. Meanwhile, support for the State of Israel’s mass-murder campaign in Gaza is in free-fall among Democrats. According to Gallup, 75 percent of Democrats oppose Tel Aviv’s current military campaign. (Notably, 60 percent of “independents” also oppose Israel’s war in Gaza.)

From the perspective of the neoconservatives and other foreign-policy “elites” in Washington, this is all awful news, and something must be done. That “something” turns out to be attacks on freedom of speech and independent media. Apparently, it is not enough that the federal government collude with social media corporations to fight “disinformation” and other opinions not approved by the regime. It is also “necessary” that the War Party insert into federal law new presidential powers over media outlets. 

https://mises.org/mises-wire/war-hysteria-fuels-new-attacks-free-speech

Making it an offense to criticize Israel is just BS….the criticism can be stated without it being linked to religion….but that matters not when AIPAC is paying these slugs in DC to protect them from criticism.

I will not be silenced….you do what you like but until Israel starts acting like a responsible nation then I shall continue my writings.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is This A Step Forward?

The carnage has been raging in Gaza since October and in that time there have been many calls for a ceasefire to get humanitarian aid to the civilians that are starving and in need of medical assistance.

Finally a glimmer of hope…..I did say a ‘glimmer’.

The US achieved a rare victory at the United Nations on Monday, when the Security Council endorsed the three-phase peace plan that begins with a ceasefire in Gaza. The vote was 14-0; Russia abstained but did not block the measure. The move adds to the international pressure on Israel and Hamas to end the fighting, the New York Times reports. The resolution states that Israel has accepted the US-backed plan’s terms and urges Hamas to do so, per the BBC. “Israel has already agreed to this deal,” US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, per the Hill, “and the fighting could stop today if Hamas would do the same.”

Israel’s acceptance has been muddied, though, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying publicly that the attacks on Gaza shouldn’t stop before Hamas’ military capability is destroyed and all hostages are released. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Netanyahu on Monday to lobby for the ceasefire, and he was in Egypt earlier in the day to build support for it. “My message to governments throughout the region is: If you want a ceasefire, press Hamas to say yes,” Blinken said in Cairo.

Hamas released a statement after the vote welcoming such provisions as a prisoner exchange and reconstruction in Gaza. Russia’s ambassador complained that the Security Council doesn’t know exactly what the US has agreed to with Israel. The US asked the council to take its word that Netanyahu’s government accepts the terms, declining to spell that out in the wording. Despite that issue, Vasily Nebenzya said Russia abstained because the plan had broad support among Arab countries, per the Times

Keep in mind I did say a ‘glimmer of hope’.

But for those that keep a shut mind here is the full text of a plan announced by Biden.

This framework’s purpose is the release of all civilian and military Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip whether living or not whom have been detained during all periods in exchange for a number that will be agreed upon of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, and restoring a sustainable calm which would achieve a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, the reconstruction of Gaza, opening of the border crossings, and facilitating movement of people and transfer of goods.

The framework agreement is made of 3 stages which are interconnected, subject to the following:

The First stage (42 days):

1. Temporary cessation of military operations by both Parties and the withdrawal of Israeli forces eastwards away from densely populated areas along the borders in all areas of the Gaza strip including Gaza valley (Netzarim axis and Kuwait roundabout) as mentioned below.

2. Temporary cessation of aerial movement (military and surveillance) in the Gaza strip for 10 hours daily, and for 12 hours daily during days where exchange of hostages and prisoners will take place.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-war-text-ceasefire-proposal-approved-israel

The plan is pretty thorough and a bit convoluted….but at least there is a plan and now is the time for such cessations to begin.

MSM is reporting that HAMAS has not responded to the proposal….not so….

Al Jazeera has obtained a copy of the Gaza ceasefire proposal that Hamas said it accepted on Monday. The deal, which was put forward by Egypt and Qatar, would come in three stages that would see an initial halt in the fighting leading to lasting calm and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Palestinian territory.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/6/text-of-the-ceasefire-proposal-approved-by-hamas

Now we wait for the other shoe to drop and I am sure it will be doing so sooner than later…..what will be the stumbling block this time?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why No Outrage?

How many times have you heard about Russia or China using trolls to influence everything from elections to phone carriers?

It is disgusting that cyber attacks go on a cowards way of dealing with controversy.

And yet when it comes to these attacks by Israel absolutely no one with the exception of NYTimes has nothing to say…..why is that?

Israel has spent millions on a covert and still-active influence campaign targeting the US public and lawmakers in an effort to boost support for its war in Gaza, according to reporting by the New York Times. Commissioned by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, the $2 million campaign allegedly involved Tel Aviv political marketing firm Stoic and dozens of tech startups, which were tasked with spreading pro-Israel messages. Starting in October, hundreds of fake accounts across X, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit began trying to rally support for the war in the US and Canada while dismissing claims of human rights abuses. The accounts were made to appear as if they were controlled by North Americans when, in fact, they were linked to Israel’s own government.

Public support for Israel’s war in Gaza has been falling steadily with reports of widespread bombing and civilian deaths. The operation, “the first documented case of the Israeli government’s organizing a campaign to influence the US government,” shows “the lengths Israel was willing to go to sway American opinion,” per the Times. It was an “irresponsible, reckless, and anti-democratic act,” says Achiya Schatz, executive director of FakeReporter, an Israeli watchdog group that first identified the campaign in March, per Politico. At least 128 members of Congress were targeted, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Politico reports, citing data from FakeReporter.

FakeReporter found the campaign had limited reach, with fake accounts gaining more than 40,000 followers. In a statement last week announcing it had disrupted the effort, Meta also claimed the campaign hadn’t reached a large audience. Many of the posts were crafted using ChatGPT. Some referred to antisemitism on college campuses and suggested Jewish people were being persecuted. Some included Islamophobic content, per Haaretz. The statement “I gotta reevaluate my opinions due to this new information” appeared across 118 posts. Some linked to fake news sites that shared material to promote Israel’s stance on the war, the Times reports. The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs has denied involvement.

(I must be doing something right for have one of these bastard trolls that comes to IST….he goes to Spam but he still tries to sneak in from time to time)

Interference in our government and we just shrug it off……why is that?

I realize that cyber attacks are common place these days….but if we are gonna go off and sanction or whatever lame ass response against say Russia or China why is Israel exempt?

We get butt hurt when other nations interfere in our elections and such then why do we turn a blind eye to Israel doing the very thing that we condemn others of doing?

Now we see who controls Congress and the Executive office…..don’t we?

I have About had enough of this preferential treatment Israel gets…..time to reassess our relationship with this country.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden Apologizes

WTF?

It seems that over last week the president set about apologizing to Zelensky for cash outlays delays….

Again I ask….’WTF?’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked President Biden for America’s support in his country’s fight against Russia—and Biden apologized for the six-month delay to the latest military aid package. “I apologize for the weeks of not knowing what’s going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass,” he said during their meeting in Paris on Friday. “Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally.” Russia launched an offensive and gained territory in parts of Ukraine during the gap in funding from the US, the Hill reports.

  • “We’re not going to walk away.” “We’re still in,” Biden told Zelensky. “Completely. Thoroughly.” He added: “You haven’t bowed down. You haven’t yielded at all. You’ve continued to fight in a way that’s really remarkable,” per the Washington Post. “We’re not going to walk away from you.”
  • Zelensky pleads for WWII-style unity. Zelensky thanked US lawmakers for passing the aid package and called for unity, the AP reports. “It’s very important that in this unity, United States of America, all American people stay with Ukraine like it was during World War II,” he said. “How the United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe. And we count on your continuing support in standing with us shoulder to shoulder.”
  • Pointe du Hoc speech. Biden drew a parallel to Ukraine in remarks at a D-Day commemoration ceremony Thursday. He will make another speech in Normandy on Friday, at Pointe du Hoc, where Army Rangers scaled 100-foot cliffs on D-Day, the New York Times reports. Ronald Reagan delivered what was considered one of his most powerful speeches at the same spot 40 years ago. He praised the “boys of Pointe du Hoc” as the “champions who helped free a continent.” In remarks Biden is expected to echo on Friday, Reagan denounced isolationism, saying it “never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent.”

Personally I do not see why an American president had anything to apologize for…..I mean Ukraine has gotten countless millions in cash and equipment….and the president apologizes?

There are countless programs in this country that would love to get uncountable millions….but it is far more important to keep some god awful war going.

Zelensky should be thankful for the assistance but instead he bitches that we and our allies have not done enough.

Personally I am disappointed that Biden felt he had to apologize for anything…..maybe using American ordinance to kill civilians if he must apologize for anything.

Then there was Biden’s Pointe du-Hoc speech where he invokes the words of Reagan on isolationism.

President Biden invoked the Army Rangers who scaled the cliffs on Pointe du Hoc on D-Day as he delivered a speech at the Normandy site on Friday, saying they’re “asking us to do our job, to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy.” He described how the 225 Rangers ran toward Nazi gunfire and clawed their way up the precipice after Nazis cut their ladders and ropes. The heroes of that day, Biden said, would want Americans to fight Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Europe. In 1984, Ronald Reagan delivered a speech in the same spot in Normandy, warning against American isolationism.

  • “As we gather here today, it’s not just to honor those who showed such remarkable bravery that day, June 6, 1944,” Biden said. “It’s to listen to the echo of their voices. To hear them. Because they are summoning us.”
  • “They’re not asking us to scale these cliffs,” the president said, per CBS News. “But they’re asking us to stay true to what America stands for. They’re not asking us to give or risk our lives. But they are asking us to care for others in our country more than ourselves.”

(Seriously?  Care more for our country?  Is that why Ukraine and Israel get whatever they want and children go hungry in America?  Seriously?)

He threw out the hint of how bad isolationism is for our country…..while echoing Reagan….

Isolationism is the political and economic policy of avoiding involvement in international affairs. It is a strategy of protectionism which generally seeks to avoid economic entanglements with other nations. It is often used to protect a nation’s resources, economy, and citizens from the perceived dangers of international relations.

Isolationism is not synonymous with xenophobia, but rather a rejection of the idea that a nation must rely on foreign influence or support to remain strong. Examples of successful isolationist nations in modern history include North Korea and Cuba.

Wanting our money to remain here is not isolationism…for if you think that multi-national corporations will withdraw from the world economy then you are smoking crack.

Most opponents just want the US to stop or at least slow down the forever spending on forever wars….is that too much to ask?

On a side note:  Pres. Biden looks old and frail in his speeches….not a good look for his re-election push.

I have had enough of the tough talk….I want to see some action that illustrates the Congress and the president actually cares about the people of this country more that others.

So far I have not seen this at all.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why Do People Hate People?

Another Sunday in the Deep South…..extreme heat and no rain….some things just do not change.

Moving on to more important stuff.

I read a site entitled ‘The Conversation’ it has some really good articles….they even have a Kids section and this conversation was started by a 9 year old from Oregon.

“Why do people hate people?”

A fascinating question asked by a 9 year old…..plus it is an excellent question that deserves a proper answer.

Have you ever said “I hate you” to someone? What about using the “h-word” in casual conversation, like “I hate broccoli”? What are you really feeling when you say that you hate something or someone?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes the word “hate” as an “intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury.” All over the world, researchers like us are studying hate from disciplines like education, history, law, leadership, psychology, sociology and many others.

If you had a scary experience with thunderstorms, you might say that you hate thunderstorms. Maybe you have gotten very angry at something that happened at a particular place, so now you say you hate going there. Maybe someone said something hurtful to you, so you say you hate that person.

Understanding hate as an emotional response can help you recognize your feelings about something or someone and be curious about where those feelings are coming from. This awareness will give you time to gather more information and imagine the other person’s perspective.

So what is hate and why do people hate? There are many answers to these questions.

https://theconversation.com/why-do-people-hate-people-224252

I do not know if the answer is adequate for her question but this site did do a good job at explain hate and the thoughts around the idea.

So let me ask you, my reader…..why do people hate people?

That is it for me on this Spring Sunday…..I have burgers to cook and a garden to look after….so I shall bow out until tomorrow when I shall return with more stuff.

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

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–08Jun24

Another marvelous Saturday and another wonderful news dump.

Locally the weather has been hot….the garden is still producing….blueberries, tomatoes, peppers….figs are a couple weeks away.  We have been enjoying the fresh delicious produce.

Traffic on IST this past week has been slow….I hope it is because the weather has been cooperating and people are out enjoying themselves…..but I am truly thankful for those loyal and committed readers that visit and comment every day….I cannot thank them enough.

I will start with a fad that I do not understand…Tattoos.  What is the point of becoming the illustrated man/woman?

A woman of Samoan descent is upset at the tattoos….the traditional ones that are now trendy among those that want to waste money.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/morgansloss1/non-polynesians-with-polynesian-tattoos

I agree with her and as well with non-NA that gets Native American tattoos….it is disrespectful.

Most anyone that cares about the environment knows of the floating island of plastic debris in the Pacific….there is now a possible help in its control….

A fungus living in the sea can break down the plastic polyethylene, provided it has first been exposed to UV radiation from sunlight. Researchers from, among others, NIOZ published their results in the journal Science of the Total Environment. They expect that many more plastic degrading fungi are living in deeper parts of the ocean.

The Parengyodontium album lives together with other in thin layers on plastic litter in the ocean. Marine microbiologists from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) discovered that the fungus is capable of breaking down particles of the plastic polyethylene (PE), the most abundant of all plastics that have ended up in the ocean.

The NIOZ researchers cooperated with colleagues from Utrecht University, the Ocean Cleanup Foundation and research institutes in Paris, Copenhagen and St Gallen, Switzerland. The finding allows the fungus to join a very short list of plastic-degrading marine fungi: only four species have been found to date. A larger number of bacteria was already known to be able to degrade plastic.

https://phys.org/news/2024-06-fungus-ocean-plastic.html

Mother Nature seems to always provide an answer of the stupidity of us humans.

Dead and a elected representative…..

Rep. Donald Payne Jr. died in April, but that didn’t stop him from winning New Jersey’s Democratic primary for his onetime House of Representatives seat Tuesday. Payne had been running for re-election unopposed when he died at age 65, and the filing deadline for the primary passed before his death, the New York Post reports. New Jersey’s filing rules did not allow anyone to replace him in the primary after his death, so a special primary election, which the Washington Examiner reports will be competitive, is planned for July 16. Nearly a dozen Democrats have already said they will run, Fox News reports.

The winner of that contest will likely win the special general election in September in the deep-blue district, which includes Newark, and will finish Payne’s term, which ends in January. Democrats also need to find someone to run in the regular general election in November for the term that starts in 2025. Payne was a “much-beloved congressman” who held his seat for more than a decade, per the Post. His father, Donald Payne Sr., was the state’s first Black congressman and held the seat before his son; he served for decades until his death in 2012.

Dead he will do less harm to the country than is alive cohorts.

Louisiana has a solution for sex abusers…..

Louisiana judges could order surgical castration for people convicted of sex crimes against young children under legislation approved Monday, and if Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signs it into law, the state apparently would be the first with such a punishment. The GOP-controlled Legislature passed the bill that gives judges the option to sentence someone to surgical castration after they have been convicted of certain aggravated sex crimes—including rape, incest, and molestation—against a child under 13, per the AP. A handful of states—including California, Florida, and Texas—have laws allowing for chemical castration. In some of those states, offenders can opt for the surgical procedure. But the National Conference of State Legislatures said it’s unaware of any states that allow judges to impose surgical castration.

For more than 16 years, judges in Louisiana have been allowed to order those convicted of such crimes to receive chemical castration, though that punishment is rarely issued. Chemical castration uses medications that block testosterone production to decrease sex drive; surgical castration is a much more invasive procedure. “This is a consequence,” Republican state Sen. Valarie Hodges said in April. “It’s a step over and beyond just going to jail and getting out.” The bill received overwhelming approval in both of the GOP-dominated chambers. Votes against the bill mainly came from Democrats. However, a Democratic lawmaker—state Sen. Regina Barrow—authored the legislation.

If the bill becomes law, it can be applied only to those who’ve been convicted of a crime that occurred on or after Aug. 1 of this year. Barrow has said she hopes the legislation will serve as a deterrent. “We are talking about babies who are being violated by somebody,” Barrow said during the April meeting. While castration is often tied to men, Barrow said the law could also be applied to women. The bill, and chemical castration bills, have received pushback, with opponents calling it “cruel and unusual punishment” and questioning the procedure’s effectiveness. Some Louisiana lawmakers have also asked if the punishment was too harsh for someone with a single offense. “For me, when I think about a child, one time is too many,” Barrow responded.

More here.

In my opinion this does not eliminate the problem…..the desire will still be there and if one cannot perform then they will find other ways to get their jollies.

A ‘living computer’…..

Switzerland-based startup FinalSpark claims to have built a unique computer processor made from 16 mini brains made from human brain tissue, Tom’s Hardware reports — and they are positioning this “living computer” as an alternative to silicon-based computing.

And now, other researchers can remotely access the startup’s biocomputer, the Neuroplatform, to conduct studies on, say, artificial intelligence, which typically requires enormous resources.

“One of the biggest advantages of biological computing is that neurons compute information with much less energy than digital computers,” FinalSpark scientist and strategic advisor Ewelina Kurtys wrote in a company blog post earlier this month. “It is estimated that living neurons can use over 1 million times less energy than the current digital processors we use.”

The startup takes brain organoids, small samples of human brain tissue derived from neural stem cells, and places them in a special environment that keeps these organoids alive. They then hook up these mini brains to specialized electrodes to perform computer processing and digital analog conversions to transform neural activity into digital information.

The concept of living computers has been around for quite some time now. Last year, for instance, scientists hooked up neurons to electrical circuits, resulting in a device that could perform voice recognition.

https://futurism.com/neoscope/mini-brains-human-tissue-living-computer

Whatcha think?  Is this good or bad?

A study says the society is moving too fast for evolution to keep up.

Research is showing that many of our contemporary problems, such as the rising prevalence of mental health issues, are emerging from rapid technological advancement and modernization. A theory that can help explain why we respond poorly to modern conditions, despite the choices, safety, and other benefits they bring, is an evolutionary mismatch.

Mismatch happens when an evolved adaptation, either physical or psychological, becomes misaligned with the environment. Take moths and some species of nocturnal flies, for example. Because they have to navigate in the dark, they evolved to use the moon for direction. But due to the invention of artificial lighting, many moths and flies are drawn to street lamps and indoor lights instead.

The same happens for humans. A classic example is our “sweet tooth,” which motivated ancestral humans to search for calorie-rich foods in nutritionally scarce environments. This sweet tooth becomes mismatched to the modern world when food companies mass produce foods laden with refined sugars and fat, hijacking an otherwise useful trait. The result is tooth decay, obesity, and diabetes.

https://studyfinds.org/society-change-too-fast-evolution/

A Scientific break through…..

While smell plays a considerable role in the social interactions of humans—for instance, signaling fear or generating closeness—for ants, it is vitally important. Researchers from New York University and the University of Florida found that a key protein named Orco, essential for the function of olfactory cells, is also critical for the cells’ survival in ants.

Their study showed that mutating the orco gene in Harpegnathos saltator jumping dramatically decreased the number of olfactory neurons, suggesting that Orco is necessary for the development and life of these cells. The findings, published in Science Advances, offer insights into the cellular and molecular basis of how animals socialize.

“Understanding how the nervous system develops is among the most pressing challenges in modern neuroscience,” said Bogdan Sieriebriennikov, a postdoctoral fellow in NYU’s Department of Biology and the study’s first author.

https://phys.org/news/2024-06-protein-enables-ants-cell-death.html

That is it for this Saturday….go out and enjoy late Spring and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”