Month: August 2024

IST Saturday News Dump–31Aug24

This is a long weekend, the Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of Summer and as usual I have a massive ‘Dump” to drop.

Locally….hot but not extreme…..little rain….this weekend in my state, Mississippi, there is the 2nd Amendment Tax free weekend…one does not pay taxes on firearms or ammo….but what can one expect from a deep red state?

Personally….Doctors visit is over with and I must sit and wait for the test results so I can return for more talk and decisions.

Enough of the uninteresting stuff!

On the food scene…..a new seaweed farm…..

In a super-green offensive against carbon emissions, the world’s first commercial seaweed farm inside a wind farm is slated to open off the coast of the Netherlands.

The pioneering aquaculture plot will be located within Hollandse Kust Zuid (HKZ), a set of 139 wind turbines in the North Sea around 18 kilometers (11 miles) away from The Hague and Zandvoort.

Set to start operating this fall, the farm will cover 5 hectares (12.4 acres) and is expected to produce at least 6,000 kilograms (13,227 pounds) of fresh seaweed in its first year. 

It’s the brainchild of North Sea Farmers, a Dutch non-profit group, who set up the project with the help of €1.5 million ($1.67 million) funding from Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund. 

https://www.iflscience.com/worlds-first-seaweed-farm-within-a-wind-farm-opens-this-fall-75661

Most everyone knows that the climate is changing….and some point to cow farts as a big part of the problem….now scientists are trying to change that…..

“It’s completely out of the box,” University of California at Davis professor Ermias Kebreab tells the Washington Post. “Nobody has done it before.” The reference is to an attempt to change the stomachs of cows through gene editing to make them belch less methane, a greenhouse gas. The belching is why cows are blamed for 4% of global warming, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. “If they succeed, they could wipe out the world’s largest human-made source of methane and help change the trajectory of planetary warming,” write Shannon Osaka and Emily Wright. The story explores the $30 million experiment now underway between UC-Davis and the Innovative Genomics Institute—and personified in a 4-week-old Holstein calf named Sushi.

The calf has been fed oil distilled from red seaweed—which is known to decrease methane in cows but impractical to implement on a large scale. The goal is to figure out how the oil is changing Sushi’s stomach and replicate the process through genetic engineering. In theory, this could be transferred into a probiotic pill that could be fed to all cows when they’re young, thus transforming their microbiomes for life. The Post notes that the experiment has scientific star power behind it: The institute working with UC-Davis was co-founded by Jennifer Doudna, a Nobel winner who helped pioneer CRISPR gene editing. It’s possible that if researchers pull off the feat in cows, it can be replicated in other methane-producing animals such as goats and sheep

Read the full story

What a crock!  Maybe time would be better spent finding news ways to get the real culprit, humans, to change their minds and attitudes.

Talking about climate change and the extreme heat…..

Summers in America have been getting deadlier every year since 2016, with a record 2,325 heat deaths last year, according to a new study. Even that number, researchers say, is probably an undercount because excess heat kills in many ways and different counties record deaths in different ways.

  • “The way that death certificates are filled out, the people that are filling them out don’t always know the full circumstances that led to the death. So we’re only probably scratching the surface of it,” study co-author Jeffrey Howard, associate professor of public health at the University of Texas at San Antonio, tells CNN. “The fact that you see this trend tells me that there’s probably many more deaths that we just are unable to measure.”
  • Howard and other researchers looked at death certificate data from 1999 to 2023, USA Today reports. They found that between 1999 and 2016, the number of heat-related deaths went up and down from year to year, with the overall trend a decline of 1.4% per year. But a sharp upswing began in 2016, with heat-related deaths jumping an average of 16.8% from that year to 2023.
  • The study, published in American Medical Association journal JAMA, found that heat deaths were concentrated in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas. “These are all hot areas, so you may expect that, but so much more could be done to plan for these hot days,” Howard says.

But there is nothing to worry about or so I am told by the deniers.

How about education….we have one candidate that wants to do away with the Dept. of Education and some others that want to trash the parts that remain….and here is what we get when education is attacked.

In a story about the current state of colleges and universities in the US, the Wall Street Journal cites a stat that might worry current and prospective students:

  • More than 500 private, nonprofit four-year schools have closed in the last 10 years, triple the number from the previous decade. The numbers are from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.
  • An estimated 1.25 million students were affected, with the story noting that the numbers don’t include closures at for-profit schools.

In broad strokes, fewer students are heading to college today than a decade ago, with rising costs seen as a huge factor. The pandemic only accelerated the trend. A post at BestColleges.com reports than at least 62 public or nonprofit colleges have closed since March 2020, and it has a list of notable ones. The Journal notes that the trend is not expected to reverse anytime soon, with small liberal-arts schools at most risk. The full story focuses on the real-life experiences of students caught up in the closures.

I was taught that you should never stop learning….but that was me.

A new twist for a museum……

a museum in France is retaining just one part of the “no shirt, no shoes, no service” policy. Marseille’s Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, or Mucem, is letting visitors to its new Naturist Paradises exhibition experience the 600 pieces on display in the nude one evening a month—so long as they have shoes on. “It’s to avoid getting splinters,” Eric Stefanut of France’s FFN naturist organization tells the Guardian in reference to the parquet floors.

The museum is typically closed on that night. “Therefore, visitors taking part are naturists and are naked,” per the museum, which noted 80 unclothed visitors attended its August event. (See photos from that night here.) Naturism is defined as “a way of life in harmony with nature characterized by the practice of communal nudity with the intention of encouraging self-respect, respect for others, and for the environment.”

The museum touts France as being at the forefront of the lifestyle, noting it “is the world’s leading tourist destination for naturists,” though the AFP notes there is no official ranking. Still, the museum is convinced: France’s “temperate climate and the presence of three seas have facilitated the establishment of communities, which—with the exception of Switzerland—have few real equivalents elsewhere in Europe,” it says. The exhibition closes Dec. 9

I do not know of any special fares to travel to France for this….but I guess check with your carrier.

Finally….another royal wedding….this time it is Norway and boy is it scandalous….

The big day is almost here for the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, to marry self-professed shaman Durek Verrett of the US on Saturday in a picturesque corner of southern Norway. The wedding comes amid widespread criticism of the couple’s actions and waning support for Scandinavian royals, per the AP. Martha Louise, 52, and Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, have attracted headlines with their alternative beliefs. She’s fourth in line to the Norwegian throne but said in 2022 that she’ll no longer officially represent the Norwegian royal house in order to work more closely with her American fiance.

The princess—she has retained the title—has said she can talk with angels, while Verrett, 49, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits and has a medallion that helps ward off spells and cure diseases. They became engaged in 2022. Once married, Verrett will not have royal titles or official duties. In a 2019 deal, Martha Louise and Verrett agreed not to use her connection to the royal house or her title for commercial purposes. But earlier this year, Martha Louise labeled bottles of gin with her title and launched the brand in time for the wedding, defying King Harald V’s directive that she shouldn’t profit from her royal status. The label was eventually changed. The couple also sold their wedding photo rights to a British celebrity magazine and the film rights to Netflix.

The deals prompted protests from Norwegian media, which says it goes against local practices. The couple has often lashed out against the press while promoting themselves on social media. Meanwhile, Marius Borg Hoiby, the eldest son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit and stepson of Crown Prince Haakon, is suspected of causing bodily harm and criminal damage. He has confessed that he was intoxicated and was taking cocaine when he was briefly arrested Aug. 6 in Oslo. Borg Hoiby, the son of Mette-Marit from a previous relationship, has no royal titles or official duties. The scandal, along with the upcoming royal wedding, have seriously eroded support for the Norwegian monarchy. King Harald has remained silent about the issues. More here.

Sorry about that but a little gossip makes for an interesting morning.

That is it for this wonderful day….please if you are celebrating Labor Day then….as always Be well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego scribo”

Harris/Trump Comparisons

+++I regret that this may be my only post today for I have a round of doctor’s visits starting rather early….I will check back whenever I have a free moment….hopefully I will be back tomorrow.+++

This is an IST FYI post…..

The election looms large and now would be a good time to look at a comparison of the two camps on policies that are shaping this vote.

Time to learn the issues and stop leaning on a worthless social media site for your decision.

Keep in mind this is a very simplistic analysis and if further info is needed go to their websites for that info….

We will begin with the Harris camp….

Student loan debt and medical debt

  • Harris is adamant that medical debt should not count toward consumer’s credit reports. She has also said she is “committed to continuing to relieve the burden of medical debt,” and praised North Carolina’s move to abolish the debt of 2 million residents.

Climate goals

  • Harris was staunchly anti-fracking and called for a federal ban on the oil and gas extraction process during her 2020 presidential bid, but in the years since she has become more lenient. She claims that she no longer wants to ban the process, but has yet to elaborate on her energy plans for the future.

Health Care

Price gouging in medicine is so prevalent that dozens of television shows have used the open secret for material. The Biden-Harris administration started capping drug prices for life-saving medicine like insulin in 2023, and made vaccines available at no cost with the Inflation Reduction Act. The plan has saved senior citizens an estimated $1.5 billion in its first year, by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.  

Border and Immigration

  • Harris has been working to increase funding along the Mexico border for several years now, and has overseen diplomatic efforts with Central America. Under her watch, a crackdown on asylum claims was implemented and is expected to continue. Her border plans include increased funding for ICE, tighter policy to limit migrant surges, more border security in the form of increased border patrols, and more detention beds in facilities to house more asylum seekers.

Abortion access

  • America has the highest maternal death rate of any developed country, and Harris has endeavored to bring attention to the elevated death rate of women of color for decades. She was the first vice president to give a speech at a Planned Parenthood Clinic, and went on a “fight for reproductive freedoms tour in 2024 to oppose the “extreme attacks throughout America.”

Foreign Policy

  • While Harris has expressed “serious concerns” over the civilian deaths in Gaza, she has declared “unwavering commitment” to supporting Israel. She has emphasized the need to free the Israeli hostages from Hamas custody and has emphasized the need for Israel to vacate Gaza once a ceasefire and a “permanent end to the hostilities” is struck.
  • Harris is fully behind the Ukrainian efforts to oust Russia’s invasion. She has met with President Zelenskyy to discuss energy assistance, humanitarian needs, and securing weapons and other resources. She believes not helping Ukraine bolsters Russia’s assets and has sworn to stay in NATO saying, “NATO is the greatest military alliance the world has ever known.”

Police funding

Economy

  • Harris aims to remove the tax on tips, pledges not to raise taxes on those making less than 400k a year, and is expected to release her proposed tax cut plan for the middle class soon. She has opened investigations into big grocery chains like Kroger to assess price gouging, and has a 3-section plan to address the lack of affordable housing across the country.

Now we move on to Donald Trump’s policies (or so they are stated at this point in the cycle)….

Economy

  • Trump wants to eliminate taxes on tips as well as social security. He has called for 10-20% tariffs on imports from all countries aside from China, for which he proposes a 60% tariff.
  • He wishes to expand on the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and has promised tax cuts for people of all income levels and businesses. Trump is also focused on grocery prices and has promised an executive order to “defeat inflation.”

Climate goals

  • Trump aims to open federal land, like state parks, for housing construction and oil and gas exploration. He intends to “unleash American energy” by dismantling the Green New Deal and investing in more oil, gas, diesel, and electricity by tapping into America’s “God-given abundance of Oil, natural gas, and clean coal.”

Trump claims that climate change is a hoax, and is staunchly pro-deregulation when it comes to the environment. He intends to withdraw from the “unfair” Paris Climate Agreement and is anti-clean energy, often complaining about wind turbines.

Crime

  • Trump promises to increase police funding, hire new officers, and retrain existing police forces. He intends to dispatch the National Guard into “high crime communities,” and imprison violent offenders and career criminals behind bars indefinitely.
  • Trump will “defend Law and Liberty” by defending the Second Amendment and upholding religious freedoms including the right to pray in public schools. He intends to appoint as many “constitutionalist” judges as he can.

Foreign policy

  • Trump wants to expand military spending, rehire “every patriot who was unjustly fired,” and install a state-of-the-art missile defense shield. He has broadly promised to “restore our standing in the world and American leadership abroad,” and calls for an “end to globalism and an embrace of patriotism.”

Military

  • In addition to the National Guard changes mentioned above, Trump intends to continue with the work his administration started in 2016. He claims to have enhanced veterans’ healthcare choices and expanded mental health access, but Millitary.com paints another picture. He has no concrete ideas for how he will continue to help veterans.

Domestic policy

  • Trump is a hard-core advocate of free speech and promises to punish any federal agency that tries to infringe upon the right. He promises landmark legislation to limit social media platforms from restricting free speech.
  • He intends to reform election laws by limiting state and local officials from making changes, banning “unsecured drop boxes and ballot harvesting,” and by banning private money in local elections.

Trump will “drain the swamp” by imposing congressional term limits, banning taxpayer-funded campaigns, and banning members of Congress from becoming lobbyists or trading stocks.

  • Trump will “drain the swamp” by imposing congressional term limits, banning taxpayer-funded campaigns, and banning members of Congress from becoming lobbyists or trading stocks.

Healthcare

  • Trump’s healthcare plans involve stopping all COVID mandates and “restoring medical freedom,” an end to surprise billing by implementing transparent pricing and reducing the price of prescription drugs and health insurance premiums. He claims that he “will always protect Medicare, Social Security, and patients with pre-existing conditions.”
  • Trump has remained mostly ambiguous when it comes to abortion, but he has promised to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone. He outsources much of his abortion stances to his advisers, who have spearheaded the campaign against a woman’s right to choose.

(wegotitcovered.com)

Like I stated earlier….very simplistic but a good primer if you are still scratching your head on who to cast a vote for in November.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

New ‘Bug’ On The Horizon?

We all remember the dark days of the Covid thingy…..and now out of China could there be a new worry?

As with Covid starting in China a new bug has escaped the just 90 miles off the Coast of the US….

More than 20 people returning to the US from Cuba have been infected with a virus transmitted by bugs in recent months, federal health officials said Tuesday. None have died, and there is no evidence that it’s spreading in the United States. But officials are warning US doctors to be on the lookout for the infection in travelers coming from Cuba and South America, the AP reports. Here’s a look at the illness and what sparked the alert:

  • What is Oropouche virus? Oropouche is a virus that is native to forested tropical areas. It was first identified in 1955 in a 24-year-old forest worker on the island of Trinidad, and was named for a nearby village and wetlands. It has sometimes been called sloth fever because scientists first investigating the virus found it in a three-toed sloth, and believed sloths were important in its spread between insects and animals.
  • How does Oropouche virus spread? The virus is spread to humans by small biting flies called midges, and by some types of mosquitoes. Humans have become infected while visiting forested areas and are believed to be responsible for helping the virus make its way to towns and cities, but person-to-person transmission hasn’t been documented.
  • How many cases have there been? Beginning late last year, the virus was identified as the cause of large outbreaks in Amazon regions where it was known to exist, as well as in new areas in South America and the Caribbean. About 8,000 locally acquired cases have been reported in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, and Peru. Some travelers have been diagnosed with it in the US and Europe. The CDC said Tuesday that 21 US cases have been reported so far—20 in Florida and one in New York— all of whom had been in Cuba. European health officials previously said they had found 19 cases, nearly all among travelers.
  • Are there other concerns? In Brazil, officials are investigating reports that infections might be passed on from a pregnant woman to a fetus — a potentially frightening echo of what was seen during Zika outbreaks nearly a decade ago. The CDC has recommended that pregnant women avoid non-essential travel to Cuba and suggested all travelers take steps to prevent bug bites, such as using insect repellents and wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants.

Please do not rush out and buy up all the toilet paper….this is just an FYI to let my readers know what is lurking just offshore.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Look At Tim Walz

There has been much written about Harris’ pick to be VP (generic white guy)…..analyzed from many angles from his military service to his time in state government.

Most pundits point to him as as ‘progressive’ (I do not see it but that is what the MSM wants us to believe) I read a piece written by people that were around when Walz was in state government….

++++Keep in mind this is not my analysis but by those that were there with Walz…..++++

This week, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was officially endorsed as the 2024 Democratic Party nominee for Vice President at the Democratic National Convention. Since being named the VP pick by the Harris campaign, Walz has received extensive praise for his military background and ‘folksy’ personality (read: midwestern white male); and for his accomplishments as Minnesota Governor, including signing bills that provide free school lunches for children, and set a 100% carbon-free electricity standard. Social media has exploded with memes positioning Walz as a Midwestern folk hero, that dad who “puts $20 in your back pocket so you won’t run out of gas,” or drops everything to dig your car out of a snowbank. Media outlets and nationally known left-leaning activists and commentators have fully embraced this narrative around Walz. As it turns out, Governor Walz and his team have been carefully cultivating this media narrative for nearly two years, the deployment of a long and strategic political calculus befitting of someone who clearly harbors major political ambitions.

For those of us who have had a front row seat to some of Walz’s machinations and political decision-making in Minnesota for the past several years, reconciling the current media narrative around Walz with what we’ve seen with our own eyes has been disorienting. For our own part, we are scientists who frequently came up against the Walz administration as we worked to join the broad and Indigenous-led movement to stop “Line 3”, an enormous tar sands oil pipeline owned by the fossil fuel giant Enbridge that now runs through 300 miles of sensitive northern ecosystems and sovereign treaty territories of Indigenous people in Minnesota. Tar sands oil is some of the dirtiest fuel on the planet; greenhouse gas emissions from the oil running through Line 3 is equivalent to that of 50 coal plants annually, more than the entire state of Minnesota emits alone. This pipeline crosses the headwaters of the Mississippi River, and oil spilled from the pipeline would devastate native flora and fauna, including wild rice, a threatened and sacred food of the Ojibwe people in Minnesota. In the heat of the current political climate, as Tim Walz is being highlighted by some as a “climate champion” and a “true progressive,” our years fighting his administration’s approval of this pipeline leaves us with quite a different understanding of his political choices and gamesmanship.   

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/08/23/the-whitewashing-and-greenwashing-of-tim-walz/

Again I would like to remind you that this is NOT my opinion offered here as FYI on the candidate by those other than the MSM.

I know, I know….he is better than Vance….but so is my dog but she would make a lousy VP…

But people should also know who they are voting for beyond the holding of the nose.

Keep in mind that very few politicians are the same person that promised you the world for your vote….they will eventually show their true colors.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Oh Tulsi, Seriously?

I admit it back in 2020 primary season I was a supporter of Tulsi Gabbard basically because of her antiwar positions…..and apparently I was hoodwinked, which does not happen often, in supporting her run for the nomination.

Since her exit from politics after she dropped out of the 2020 race she has become this person that bears no relation to the candidate of the 2020 election…..she has now started showing her true colors….

Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has endorsed Donald Trump, furthering her shift away from the party she sought to represent in the 2020 presidential election and linking herself to critiques of Vice President Kamala Harris and the chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal. Gabbard, a National Guard veteran who served two tours of duty in the Middle East before representing Hawaii in the House, said Trump “understands the grave responsibility that a president and commander in chief bears for every single one of our lives,” per the AP.

Gabbard appeared with Trump in Detroit on Monday at the National Guard Association of the United States on the third anniversary of the 2021 suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed 13 US service members and more than 100 Afghans. Gabbard, now an independent, praised Trump for “having the courage to meet with adversaries, dictators, allies, and partners alike in the pursuit of peace, seeing war as a last resort.” She condemned the Democratic White House for the US now “facing multiple wars on multiple fronts in regions around the world and closer to the brink of nuclear war than we ever have been before.”

Gabbard was known during her four House terms for taking positions at odds with her own party’s establishment. She was an early and vocal supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential primary run, which made her popular with progressives. Not seeking reelection in 2020, Gabbard ran for president herself instead, saying that US wars in the Middle East destabilized the region, made the US less safe, and cost thousands of American lives, and that Democrats and Republicans shared the blame. She tore into Harris’ record during a primary debate and ultimately outlasted her in that race. Also Monday, Trump’s team said Gabbard would moderate a town hall with Trump on Thursday in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Seriously?

How does a person go from supporting a progressive like Bernie to endorsing a far Right candidate like Trump?

I can no longer take her and her words seriously.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Are You Willing To Die?

Before I go any further I want to state that I am antiwar (this is for those that may be visiting for the first time) and I have been since 1970….I do not support these petty wars of expansion and make no mistake that is exactly what it is.

The title is a question that has been asked of Americans…..Are you willing to die for other countries?

Now the answer is in….

A July poll shows that a majority of the American public does not support sending U.S. troops to defend Taiwan or Ukraine, sentiment that lines up with findings from other recent surveys on these heated subjects, which suggests that Americans appear to be warming to restraint and non-interventionism in international affairs.

Indeed, another poll, conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in February found that a majority of Americans (56%) do not believe that the United States should pick a side in Israel’s war on Gaza. And a more recent survey from Council this month found that just four in ten support the United States sending troops to defend Israel if attacked by its neighbors.

Similarly, Americans’ suspicions of foreign intervention were uncovered in a recent YouGov poll, which found that 79% said that they only support intervention if the U.S. were directly threatened (that number significantly dropped to 49% if an ally were attacked). In the same study, the only recent war that a majority of Americans viewed as justified was World War II.

Despite these findings, Washington continues to push forward with fanning the flames of war around the world, whether being slow to work toward peace settlements in Ukraine and Gaza, stoking conflict with China, or throwing gargantuan amounts of money, unnecessarily, at the Pentagon and thus, the weapons industry.

“The general through line of the polling data is there is a disconnect between official U.S foreign policy and the preferred policies of the American people,” Tucker Kass, spokesman at Defense Priorities which conducted the July survey, told Responsible Statecraft concerning their findings. “The policy coming out of D.C. is interventionist but the American people, at least based on the answers we received, support a more judicious, more discerning policy that would frankly be wiser than current policy.”

The Defense Priorities poll also found that just 22% of those surveyed support the United States defending Ukraine. Forty-six percent opposed while 32% were neutral. Thirty percent said they support America militarily defending Taiwan against China, while 37% opposed and 33% were neutral. Additionally, a plurality of Americans surveyed, 44%, agreed that avoiding war with China is more important than Taiwan’s autonomy.

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/america-polling-interventionism/

Please don’t get me wrong….yes the US has the right to defend itself when attacked….but we do not have the right to finance every little mash up on the horizon. 

That is money wasted.

So I am glad to see that Americans are starting to see the folly of intervention….but sadly that does not make a difference for us peasants do not have the monetary clout to make our wishes into reality.

The Congress, who is suppose to be the sole entity to intervene and is a corrupt entity that will do what the money tells them to do.

And that is the truth of it.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Price Gouging What Is Missed

Since Biden touched on this subject and now Harris has jumped on it with both feet, much has been written abut the idea….I too have written about it and now I found another side to the subject….this one is from The Moderate Voice…..

One week ago, Vice President Kamala Harris told a North Carolina audience that she planned to propose a federal ban on price gouging for food.

In criticizing Harris, the Washington Post editorial board demonstrated its lack of basic economic theory. Then various news organizations jumped from “price gouging” to “price controls” (a la Nixon). Now Cato Institute economist Scott Lincicome insists farm policy is the culprit behind food price increases.

Thirty-seven states already have laws on the books that prohibit “price gouging” in the lay person’s understanding of that phrase. This type of prohibited price gouging concerns taking advantage of high demand or supply restrictions during an emergency (a hurricane is coming and then it landed).

Another lay definition of price gouging is charging an excessive price “because a corporation has the power to do so, aka Ticketmaster.”

What pundits don’t get about the Harris “price gouging” proposal

A fascinating op-ed….I do not necessarily agree with their assumption but I include it for my readers to have as many sides of the policy as I can locate.

After reading the piece please let me know what you think.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A New “Pax Romana”

Not another Project 2025 post?

Sorry but yes….I do not think too much can be written about one of the scariest documents in American history.

There can never be too much written about this attack on our democracy.

I love what Trump and his gang of minions are doing or should I say are trying to do….kinda reminds one of the Roman Empires “Pax Romana” (Roman Peace)….

Since I have brought it up let’s look at a few things….

Roman poet Juvenal coined the phrase “bread and circuses” nearly 2,000 years ago for the extravagant entertainment the Roman Empire used to distract attention from imperial policies that caused widespread discontent. Imagine the lavish banquets, gladiatorial bouts, use and abuse of young men and women for the pleasure of the rich, and so much more that characterized the later years of that empire. And none of it seems that far off from the situation we, in these increasingly dis-United States, find ourselves in today.

Although the Roman Empire described itself as being in favor of life and peace, the various Caesars and their enablers regularly dealt death and destruction in their wake. They spread the Pax Romana (the Roman Peace), including a taxation system that left the poor in debt servitude, a military that caused terror and violence across the then-known world, and a ruling authority that pitted whole communities against each other, while legislating who could associate with whom (passing marriage laws, for instance, that banned gay, inter-racial, or even cross-class marriages). The emperor in power in Jesus’s time, Caesar Augustus, was known for ushering in a Golden Age of Moral Values that went hand in hand with that Pax Romana, and it meant war and death, especially for the poor.

Fast forward millennia and that world bears a strange resemblance to the media distractions, violence, and regressive policies that MAGA and other extremists are pushing forward in our times. Whether it’s Donald Trump’s assertion that “I alone can fix your problems”; Supreme Court and state legislative attacks on reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, and trans youth in the name of family values; cuts to welfare, healthcare, worker’s rights and other life-sustaining programs to protect corporate interests; the militarizing of endless communities by allowing guns (especially AR-15 rifles) to proliferate, while offering only thoughts and prayers to the victims of violence, the MAGA movement is promoting culture wars and extremist policies under the banner of Christian nationalism. In doing so, its leaders are perfecting a disdain for the excluded, exploited, and rejected that hurts the poor first and worst, but impacts all of society.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/07/30/project-2025-a-new-pax-romana/

The similarities are there just updated to fit into this society….

If you still have your head in the sand about Project 2025….then maybe this will get the juices flowing…..

The 67-page report published by Media Matters for America lays out in detail Trump’s close ties to Project 2025 and examines specific policy proposals included in the agenda, which—if implemented—would affect every area of American life, from the workplace to the environment to reproductive rights and other fundamental freedoms.

“Project 2025 lays out an extreme far-right agenda that would impose draconian restrictions to the lives of everyday Americans,” Media Matters vice president Julie Millicansaid in a statement. “If enacted, not only would it gut the checks and balances that our country relies on, but it’s a clear threat to our democracy, as our government could be weaponized against us as part of a concerted effort to control how we live our lives.”

“Project 2025’s extremist goals make clear what’s truly at stake,” Millican added.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/media-matters-project-2025

This report will be easier to read than the 900 page document…..why not learn for what you want.

Is Project 2025 what you want for your beloved country?

But if Trump is beaten in November then that should end Project 2025 as well, right?

Dream on, McDuff!

The glimpse of a potential victory for Kamala Harris in the presidential election has cast a false sense of security about the storm brewing around an increasingly radical Republican party. It is naïve to think that Trump’s loss would magically erase the Republican underbelly that is planning for a complete restructuration and reduction of government responsibility and civil freedom. Whatever happens, the proponents of a new radical Republican government are clearly in it for the long run, and they have made their aggressive intentions clear regardless of the election outcome. Even though it started two years ago, Project 2025 – the unpleasant offspring of the Heritage Foundation think-tank – has only recently made greater news following the hopeless outlook of Biden’s desperate presidential campaign.

Why Project 2025 is a Threat Even If Trump Loses the Election

FOR GOD’S SAKE KNOW WHAT YOU ARE VOTING FOR BEYOND SOME GUY THAT PUSHES ALL YOUR BIASED BUTTONS.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Writ, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Thing About ‘Price Gouging’

Price gouging is a major thing now the Dem candidate has issued a statement on what she will do to stop the situation….I like the thought but it will be a fart in a hurricane.

First people do not understand the practice of price gouging…..and this article tackles the practice and tries to explain it so we all can grasp what is going on.

Price gouging in the popular imagination has a “know it when you see it” quality, but it is actually a well-developed body of law. A typical price-gouging claim has four elements. First, a triggering event, sometimes called an “abnormal market disruption,” such as a natural disaster or power outage, must have occurred. Second, in most states, the claim must concern essential goods and services. (No one cares if you overcharge for Louis Vuitton handbags during a hurricane.) Third, a price increase must be “excessive” or “unconscionable,” which most states define as exceeding a certain percentage, typically 10 to 25 percent. Finally, the elevated price must be in excess of the seller’s increased cost. This is crucial: Even during emergencies, sellers are allowed to maintain their existing profit margins. They just can’t increase those margins excessively.

…

Price-gouging bans are broadly popular—except among economists. The reason is that, in the perfect world of simple economic models, allowing sellers to charge whatever they want during periods of heightened demand is actually a good thing: It signals to the rest of the market that there’s money to be made on the product in question, which in turn leads to more supply. Accordingly, prohibiting gouging leads to less production of essential goods and services. Plus, letting prices rise helps ensure that the product will be sold to the people who value it the most.

Here, regular people seem to understand a few things that economists don’t. During an emergency, such as a natural disaster, short-term demand cannot be met by short-term supply, setting the stage for sellers to exploit their position by raising prices on goods already in their inventory. The idealized law of supply and demand predicts that new investors would rush in, but the real world doesn’t work like that. A short-term price spike won’t always trigger the long-term investments needed to increase supply, because everyone knows that the situation is, by definition, abnormal; they can’t count on a continued revenue boom. During a rare blizzard, sellers might jack up the prices of snowblowers. But investors aren’t going to set up a new snowblower-manufacturing hub based on a blizzard, because by the time they had any inventory to sell, the snow would long be melted. So after the disruption, all goes back to normal—except with a big wealth transfer from the public to the company that raised prices.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/08/economists-kamala-harris-price-gouging/679547/

So is Harris pandering?  I think so.

Vice President Kamala Harris called for a federal ban on “price gouging” on groceries. From a strictly economic standpoint, there are so many things wrong with this proposal that I don’t know where to begin.

But the worst of it isn’t in the policy analysis — it’s in what this pandering says about the chances of a serious discussion of difficult issues with the American voter.

Let’s start with the policy analysis. Even without referring to the current situation, there are three well-known problems with a ban on price gouging. First, grocery stores typically have extremely low profit-margins, on the order of 2 percent or less, reflecting their limited pricing power in a competitive industry. So this is not the right sector — if there ever is one — to target with price-controls.

Second, it is very difficult to define price gouging. How do you distinguish it from a rise in prices owing to shortfalls in supply or surges in demand?

Third, any controls on prices will constrain incentives for producers to bring additional goods and services to markets. This is why price-controls usually lead to shortages more injurious than the price increases they are designed to stop.

Harris’s call for price controls on groceries is more pandering than policy

I want to hear specifics….ideas are good but specifics will convince me.

Will this be just another promise that will be swept under the rug of the Oval Office?

You tell me.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Few Words About Political Parties

The roster is set we have our GOP candidate and that for the Dems so the duel begins.

Let’s look at the system we have today and try to assess its validity.

Do political parties truly have a place in our system?  Do we really them them?

Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people.

From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare, they have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.

To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.

The deliberate betrayal of its trust by the Republican party, the fatal incapacity of the Democratic party to deal with the new issues of the new time, have compelled the people to forge a new instrument of government through which to give effect to their will in laws and institutions.

Unhampered by tradition, uncorrupted by power, undismayed by the magnitude of the task, the new party offers itself as the instrument of the people to sweep away old abuses, to build a new and nobler commonwealth.

Those words were from the 1912 Progressive Party platform of Teddy Roosevelt……as accurate today as they were over a hundred years ago (some things seldom change).

I have been preaching of the uselessness of political parties for over a decade….

Are Political Parties Really Necessary?

As the long awaited 2024 election approached I gave another thought on the 2 party system….

The Two Parties Are What Is Wrong

I still hold to the idea that these parties are unnecessary if people would choose their support through knowledge and not some popular social media star.

Political parties are killing our beloved country and our break the mold system that started us down the road of world admiration.

So sports fans….do we really need these parties?

Any thoughts to share?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”