Month: August 2024

2024 Will Be The Pocketbook Vote

We hear almost daily that this election will be about economics…..some call it the “pocketbook vote”….people will vote for the person that they think will improve their income so they can better support their families.

I want to go on record as saying that I do not believe that BS for a moment.

Why would I make such a bold statement?

Let’s look at my state of Mississippi….which by the way is at the bottom of the economic scale….voters on local, state and national level do not vote with their wallets…..if they did this state would be a lot better off than it is today.

Many studies assume that policy issues have little bearing on voting, while the economy has a substantial impact, especially in congressional elections. Yet from 2020 to 2022, congressional voting preferences changed in fundamentally rational ways based on views, thus suggesting evidence of democratic accountability with respect to this particular issue.

“What people tell you is ‘most important’ in determining their vote is likely to be a reflection of their partisanship, rather than a source of change in their vote preferences,” conclude Mutz and Mansfield.

“It could mean that people’s perceptions of the economy are less important than journalists typically imply in their coverage. As a result, lingering effects of the Dobbs decision and general distrust of the Supreme Court may be especially influential in 2024.”

https://phys.org/news/2024-05-conventional-wisdom-americans-pocketbook-voters.html

Do Americans “vote their pocketbooks?” This near-ubiquitous cliche seems at first to pass the test of common sense. Why wouldn’t people vote for the candidates under whom they’ll do the best financially? A wealthy voter should favor the candidate who will lower their taxes. A chronically unemployed voter should support the candidate promising lavish government handouts.

In the most basic economic terms, however, this logic falls apart. If one votes, for example, to maximize the present value of their future income, the answer is to not vote at all. Given the vanishingly low probability of breaking a tie, voting isn’t worth the gasoline used to drive to one’s local fire station and cast a ballot.

Perhaps this critique says more about the limits of economic modelling than it does about voting. Slogans like “It’s the economy, stupid” and “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” suggest a bigger-picture view people can take when voting their pocketbooks. But once again, this view fails to hold water.

The concept of “voting one’s pocketbook” frequently causes partisans who don’t understand the other party’s voters to make strategic errors. It also perpetuates the destructive idea that different groups of citizens are playing a zero-sum game against each other. Finally, and perhaps most insidiously, it creates the myth that the right politician can make our pocketbooks grow.

The Myth of Voting One’s Pocketbook

I ask for your input.

Do you think Americans will vote with their wallets?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

As War Draws Closer.

The US is preparing to basically go to war with Iran if it dares retaliates for the attack on their state. The US is moving assets into the region to include ma nuke sub carrying bunches of missiles….and now the wait begins and those trigger fingers are getting itchy.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a guided-missile submarine to the Middle East and is telling the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to sail more quickly to the area, the Defense Department said Sunday. The moves come as the US and other allies push for Israel and Hamas to achieve a ceasefire that could help calm soaring tensions in the region following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut. Officials have been on the lookout for retaliatory strikes by both Iran and Hezbollah for the killings, reports the AP, and the US has been beefing up its presence in the region.

And the wait continues…..

But I thought Congress had the last say on any ‘war’ or military action….is that not the case?

Do not worry those cowards in Congress, you know the ones that get those bog checks from Israel or the defense industry, will loo the other way as they have done for many years….thus avoiding their duties as a cog in the whole scheme of federalism.

Yes that is right….this crap has been going on for decades….

With the U.S.- backed carnage in Gaza continuing and the threat of growing violence looming throughout the region (in Lebanon, Iran, and who knows where else), we need to think more deeply than ever about how the American people have historically been excluded from foreign policy decision-making. An upcoming anniversary should remind us of what sent us down this undemocratic path.

Sixty years ago, on August 7, 1964, Congress handed President Lyndon Johnson the power to wage a major war in Vietnam, solidifying its long-standing deference to the presidency on foreign policy. Not once since World War II has Congress exercised its constitutional responsibility to vote on declarations to decide if, when, and where the United States goes to war.

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution of 1964 flew through Congress, in part because most members trusted the president’s assurance that he sought “no wider war.” Their trust was misplaced. The Johnson administration kept secret and lied about its plans for future military escalation in Vietnam. It also lied about the incident used to persuade Congress to give LBJ a blank check to use military force however he wanted: the false claim that American ships had been the targets of unprovoked and unequivocal attacks by North Vietnamese patrol boats.

In fact, the United States had been fighting a secret war against North Vietnam since 1961. The U.S. destroyers that LBJ said were innocently sailing on the “high seas” were there to support South Vietnamese attacks (organized by the U.S. military and CIA) on North Vietnamese coastal villages. On August 2, 1964, these ongoing acts of war finally provoked a few Vietnamese patrol boats to chase after a U.S. destroyer which, firing first, easily disabled the small vessels. The Vietnamese managed to fire a few torpedoes but missed. There were no American casualties. Not exactly Pearl Harbor.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/08/02/blank-checks-for-war-congressional-abdication-from-tonkin-to-gaza/

History shows how Congress will do anything to avoid having to vote on war…..not good for one’s campaign for re-election.

Apparently Biden does not care for he will leave this mess he has created for the next president to deal with in whatever convoluted way they see fit.

This whole situation is a massive clusterf*ck.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“Lego ergo scribo”

The Walz Attacks

As expected once Harris named Tim Walz as her VP the attacks and the sleazy would commence and it has….

That idiot war hawk in the Senate Tom Cotton accuses Walz of some sort of collaboration with China….

Within hours of Tim Walz being declared winner of the Democratic “veepstakes”, Republican accusations that he is pro-China came thick and fast.

“Communist China is very happy,” Donald Trump’s former ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, said on Twitter/X. “No one is more pro-China than Marxist Walz.”

Tom Cotton, a Republican senator, said Mr Walz owed an explanation “about his unusual, 35-year relationship with Communist China”.

MAGA War Room, an influential X account supporting Donald Trump, unearthed a 2016 video in which Mr Walz told the farming policy outlet Agri-Pulse that the US and China did not need to have an “adversarial relationship”.

But what does the record show? Republicans may want to weaponise Mr Walz’s links to China, but it’s pretty slim pickings.

Mr Walz’s personal relationship with China does indeed extend back decades.

It began in 1989 when, fresh out of college, Mr Walz began a Harvard University volunteer programme teaching American history and English at the Foshan No 1 High School in southern China.

He later set up a business with his wife Gwen organising annual summer educational trips to China. The venture lasted more than a decade and by his own estimation, Mr Walz returned to the country around 30 times.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgewpzyd91o

Well that one will fall flat and die a silent death…..but there is more….

The tag of “Tampon Tom”…..I have heard this mention several times….even on this blog….

Tim Walz continues to make headlines, as the public learns more about him, and as the GOP goes on the attack. But one law the Minnesota governor signed last year is drawing special attention, as well as generating a new derogatory nickname.

  • The law: The bill included a mandate to provide free menstrual products to students in fourth grade all the way up through 12th. CBS News calls it an effort meant to address “period poverty,” when students can’t afford necessary pads and tampons. NPR notes Minnesota is one of nearly 30 states that has such a law in place.
  • GOP attack: “Tampon Tim put tampons in boys’ bathrooms,” Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign rep, said in a statement to CBS. She made a similar claim Tuesday on Fox News, noting, “As a woman, there’s no greater threat to our health than leaders … who support putting tampons in men’s bathrooms in public schools.”
  • More: Other right-wingers also came out swinging. “She actually chose Tampon Tim,” Stephen Miller, an ex-adviser to former President Trump, wrote on X after Vice President Kamala Harris announced Walz as her running mate. Chaya Raichik, who runs the far-right Libs of TikTok social media account, posted a picture of a box of tampons with Walz’s face superimposed on it and the words “Tampon Tim” written across the front of the package.
  • Fact check: The Star Tribune‘s editorial board lauds the “compassionate” law and calls the attacks against it “ill informed,” pointing out there’s no mandate to put menstrual products in boys bathrooms—the law’s language simply allows for the products to be placed where those who need them can access them, like unisex bathrooms or the nurse’s office. “This has unfortunately been used to stoke ongoing culture wars over transgender individuals,” the authors note.
  • Misfire? Some say the GOP’s campaign against Walz won’t work. “Friends, this attack will backfire,” writes Nancy Kaffer in an op-ed for the Detroit Free Press (this columnist agrees).
  • Big-name pushback: NPR notes that “many on the left see ‘Tampon Tim’ as a compliment, including the Minnesota congresswoman who was the chief sponsor of the bill in the state House. “This law exemplifies what we can accomplish when we listen to students to address their needs,” wrote Rep. Sandra Feist, using the #TamponTim hashtag. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton weighed in as well, noting, “How nice of the Trump camp to help publicize Gov. Tim Walz’s compassionate and common-sense policy.”

Is this the best the GOP can do?

Maybe a sure sign these dullards are running scared.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Blueprints For Authoritarianism

I know there is a bunch of stuff written these days about Project 2025 and for that I am glad for there is not enough time for the whole picture to come into focus without these attempts.

There are plans within plans going on in this country and we need to be vigilant or things could drastically change for all of us.

In history there have been blueprints to bring about the ‘king figure’….Mein Kampf comes to mind and now Project 2025….

I am not arguing that “Project 2025” is directly comparable to Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto “Mein Kampf,” but there are some similarities in their political ideology and their political plans for the United States and Germany, respectively. Both documents are “blueprints for authoritarianism.” As the saying goes, often you need to be forewarned in order to be forearmed.

The antisemitic ravings of “Mein Kampf” are quite different from the unconscionable anti-immigrant markers in “Project 2025.” However, the language of the documents as well as the language of Donald Trump reveal a contempt for groups of individuals that is evil and ugly. Hitler wrote about the “Jewish peril,” which isn’t far removed from Trump’s racism going back to the “American Carnage” speech of 2017 as well as the Project’s call for mass deportations.Trump’s language has only worsened over the years, and we never should forget his Muslim ban and the reference to “shithole” countries in his first year in the White House.

The important role of Stephen Miller on behalf of Trump and the Project is stunning; Miller is Jewish but he would have made a good Gauleiter for any Fascist party. Miller has been working for years to get a nationwide crackdown on immigration. He has vowed to increase deportations by a factor of ten, to a million people a year, according to recent articles in the New York Times and the New Yorker. Project 2025 calls for “stringent reinforcement” of immigration and deportation measures, including “ramped-up workplace inspections,” and penalties for employers hiring undocumented workers.

The United States was alerted nearly a decade ago to Steve Bannon’s Leninist “destruction of the administrative state,” and Project 2025 moves in this direction, calling for partisan control of the Department of Justice and the FBI. The Project wants increased military participation in domestic law enforcement, stressing the use of the Insurrection Act of 1807 to put down revolt or even civil unrest in the United States. Even peaceful protests could be targeted. The Germans had nearly one decade of warning regarding Hitler’s interest in destroying the parliamentary system, but never took his views seriously. We seem to be following the German pattern. Are we Germany 1933?

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/08/01/blueprints-for-authoritarianism-mein-kampf-and-project-2025/

This “Plan’ came from the Heritage Foundation….the same place that one of their people stated that Stalin had a good idea…..

The far-right Heritage Foundation — which is the chief group pushing the authoritarian Project 2025 initiative — once heaped praise on Russian dictator Joseph Stalin for his socially conservative policies.

On the social media platform Bluesky, journalist Faine Greenwood posted snippets from a 2022 post on Heritage’s website by researcher Emma Waters. In the article, Waters — whose bio notes that she works at Heritage’s “Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion and Family” — made the argument that the totalitarian Russian leader was pro-family despite his regime killing millions of people.

“Joseph Stalin had an utter disregard for human life, and his regime claimed the lives of 9,000,000-20,000,000 of its own subjects. Yet even Stalin understood that society depended on strong, intact families,” Waters wrote.

https://www.alternet.org/project-2025-divorce/

Is that really someone you want to look up to at any time?

You should read this especially!

Did you know that there is a ‘secret’ part of 2025?

However, there is even more to Project 2025 than the public is aware of.

The lawmakers pointed out that while the people behind the blueprint promised to be transparent, this apparently does not apply to one section of the plan.

“[T]he entire ‘Fourth Pillar,’ the ‘180-Day Playbook’ which you describe as a roadmap of comprehensive, concrete, early actions for each federal agency, remains shrouded in secrecy,” they write, and they called on the Heritage Foundation to disclose these parts of the document.

“You have conspicuously declined to publish or disclose any of the prioritized early actions that we believe would obviously be the most important parts of Project 2025,” they write.

This includes the executive orders, presidential directives, and other actions that would drastically remake the federal government and the US as a whole.

House Dems to Heritage Foundation: Show Us the Secret Part of Project 2025

Then there are those ‘training’ videos….

Project 2025, the controversial playbook and policy agenda for a right-wing presidential administration, has lost its director and faced scathing criticism from both Democratic groups and former President Donald Trump. But Project 2025’s plan to train an army of political appointees who could battle against the so-called deep state government bureaucracy on behalf of a future Trump administration remains on track.

One centerpiece of that program is dozens of never-before-published videos created for Project 2025’s Presidential Administration Academy. The vast majority of these videos — 23 in all, totaling more than 14 hours of content — were provided to ProPublica and Documented by a person who had access to them.

The Project 2025 videos coach future appointees on everything from the nuts and bolts of governing to how to outwit bureaucrats. There are strategies for avoiding embarrassing Freedom of Information Act disclosures and ensuring that conservative policies aren’t struck down by “left-wing judges.” Some of the content is routine advice that any incoming political appointee might be told. Other segments of the training offer guidance on radically changing how the federal government works and what it does.

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election

Since everyone pisses and moans about taxes, especially the dullards on the right, then maybe you should focus on what “2025′ would do to you if it becomes the law of the land….

An economic analysis of the far-right Project 2025 agenda crafted by at least 140 former Trump administration officials shows that the plan would result in higher taxes on working-class Americans and “corporate welfare” for the rich and large businesses.

Conducted by the Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), the new analysis notes that Project 2025’s sprawling “Mandate for Leadership” would establish a “two-rate individual tax system of 15% and 30% that eliminates most deductions, credits, and exclusions.”

Such a system, according to the JEC, “would force many middle-class families to pay thousands of dollars more in tax payments.”

“Together, these changes to tax rates would mean that a family of four earning $90,000 per year would have paid roughly $2,300 more in taxes last year,” the JEC found. “If the Child Tax Credit was also eliminated, this family would have paid roughly $6,300 more. Meanwhile, millionaires would pay a lower top tax rate.”

The analysis also points to Project 2025’s push for a “national sales tax,” a highly regressive proposal endorsed by dozens of Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives.

A national sales tax would “force working families to pay more at the grocery store, gas pump, and any other place they buy
goods or services,” JEC said Thursday, noting that past GOP proposals “would have hiked the cost of essentials like groceries and housing—usually exempt from state and local sales taxes—by 30%.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/project-2025-taxes

Can you see just how bad things would be if we elect a person that would do everything possible to enact these provisions?

If not then this country is in serious terrible.

The more the GOP is hammered with the Project 2025 thing the more Americans learn and the more they dislike the ideas behind the mask….

There’s been some infighting among conservatives lately over a package of sweeping conservative policy proposals known as “Project 2025.” Conservative groups developed the plan as a sort of wish list for if former President Donald Trump gets reelected, and it contains policies widely considered to align with his vision for governance. But the former president’s campaign has disavowed the project and recently went so far as to say its “demise would be greatly welcomed,” while Trump urged his supporters to boo it at a campaign rally.

That’s likely because a growing majority of Americans are hearing about the controversial proposal, and a significant share also disapprove of it and closely associate it with Trump, despite his concerted attempts to distance himself from it.

https://abcnews.go.com/538/americans-dont-project-2025/story

Dems should just keep punching away with the attacks on ‘2025’….the more we learn the more it is disliked.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Shoes On The Wire

A special kudos to the US women’s soccer team for winning the gold medal for the 5th time.

Another Sunday and I try hard to find something that is anything but the mundane crap of the last week…..stuff that could inform as well as entertain….and that is a daunting task…..especially for a blog.

This past week I had to drive around looking for an address that Sue needed and spotted something that use to be very familiar but has lost a bit of its luster over the years.

Sue says that my mind never stops thinking and that I ask so many questions that she gets a headache…..this session began when I noticed a pair of sneakers dangling from the phone wires.

Our drive brought about the question where did these shoes come from and what the Hell do they mean?

Odd as it may seem, power lines have become a somewhat popular source of urban fascination. People have wondered why they sometimes sport brightly colored balls, why chunks of trees sometimes hang from them, or why birds love to use them as perches.

While these mysteries have ready explanations, another utility phenomenon doesn’t: Why do people often see pairs of shoes dangling from power lines?

Lauren Cahn of Reader’s Digestcovered a few possible reasons, and not all of them are benign. One popular theory holds that the shoes may be a signal that there’s gang activity in a given neighborhood. Tying the laces of shoes together and tossing them over the lines is a form of staking out territory.

Plausible? Sure. But Cahn couldn’t find any police departments that would confirm. However, a 2015 story from WBEZ in Chicago quoted a “high-ranking member” of the Bloods who corroborated the theory, saying that the shoe-throwing was intended as a notice to rival groups. The source also stated that the shoes could mark that someone had been killed or “knocked […] out of his shoes.” Other stories echo the idea that the shoes could be an impromptu memorial.

An adjacent explanation is that the shoes are a kind of advertisement to illicit drug consumers that narcotics are available in the area. Unlike the gang theory, this one holds credence with some police departments and city councils, including in Alabama and Mississippi. Because it’s ambiguous—as opposed to, say, a large “Buy Drugs Here” sign—it’s possible dealers might be willing to “advertise” with a pair of sneakers.

Other sources cited nothing more than juvenile mischief. Kids may toss old shoes up as a mild form of vandalism or possibly to antagonize a friend or family member. Though they’d need access to a stray pair of shoes—prying them off a child and then tossing them seems impractical. When shoes go missing, it’s usually one at a time, which is why it’s more common to see just one shoe on the side of the road than two.

The most innocuous explanation? That it’s simply a rite of passage. One columnist for Hidden City Philadelphia wrote in 2012 that the practice was common in the 1970s as a way of discarding old or outgrown sneakers. Because some lines had multiple pairs, it appeared that the tossing was often kids emulating behavior.

More recently, students at the University of Michigan observed that the act was simply commemorating their graduation. Shoes dangle from lines near rented student housing, and some have names of graduates and dates written on them.

There’s likely no one motive for the shoe-tossing. It may, however, be in decline. Chicago, for example, received more than 1100 requests to remove the shoes in 2008. Those numbers had dropped by 71 percent by 2014.

Whatever the motive for tossing them, the shoes pose a risk of interrupting the power line’s performance. Often, utility companies will honor requests to have them taken down.

(mentalfloss.com)

Just in case you have an inquisitive mind….and now you know.

And that is it for this Sunday….I hope everyone has a joyful day and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–10Aug24

Another Saturday….another excruciating ‘Dump’…..

The 2024 Summer Olympics is winding down…..the Paralympics will be gearing up….

Locally–we have broken 11 high temperature records so far in 2024….ain’t we lucky?

I would like to start this Saturday with food news….and other stuff….

I adore dark chocolate even the 100% stuff and now some troubling news….

Every so often, a study emerges touting the benefits of eating chocolate, with dark chocolate earning special praise. New research, however, has unearthed toxic heavy metals in dozens of dark-chocolate products sold by Amazon, Whole Foods, and GNC, among other retailers. For the peer-reviewed research published Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, scientists from the George Washington University picked up more than 70 products containing cocoa to test for toxicity over an eight-year period from 2014 to 2022, looking especially for lead, cadmium, and arsenic. The researchers found that 43% of the products they put through the paces had unacceptable levels of lead, using California’s guidelines as a barometer, while excessive cadmium showed up in 35% of the products, which weren’t called out in the study by name or manufacturer.

The Golden State allows 0.5 micrograms a day of lead before warranting a red flag; this research found some daily servings of dark chocolate contained up to 3.316 micrograms. Meanwhile, arsenic levels fell within acceptable limits for all the products. Interestingly, organic products studied by the researchers featured more contamination than nonorganic products. The Guardian notes that it’s suspected lead is seeping into chocolate products during drying, processing, or packaging, while cadmium is thought to be a contaminant in soil. Still, although ingesting excess heavy metals can lead to health issues, some experts aren’t pressing the panic button just yet.

“I don’t think this is a massive cause for alarm,” Brian Pavilonis of the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, who wasn’t involved with the study, tells ABC News, noting that lots of common foods contain low levels of heavy metals. Although young kids and pregnant women may be more at risk, some experts say that concern for most other people would typically arise only if someone was scarfing down “pounds and pounds” of dark chocolate a day, or eating dark chocolate alongside other foods that also contain higher levels of heavy metals. The New York Times adds that most of the chocolates examined in this study were below the FDA’s lead-level mandate. “I’m still eating chocolate, and I will be eating chocolate later today,” study co-author Leigh Frame tells ABC. Still worried? The As You Sow nonprofit keeps a running list of toxins in chocolate products.

More bad news for processed meats….

New research presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference showed that frequently eating ultra-processed meats such as hot dogs, sausage, bacon, and salami may increase the risk of dementia. Using data collected over four decades, the findings haven’t been published in a peer-reviewed journal yet, but they gave professionals a peek at “one of the most robust studies” linking diet to cognitive decline, as Dr. Maria Carrillo, the chief science officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, tells NBC News.

  • The study: The research tracked over 130,000 US adults for up to 43 years. About 8.5% of participants, 11,173, developed dementia, and the researchers were able to compare their typical consumption of processed meat.
  • Frequency mattered: Per the New York Times, participants who ate about two servings of processed meat weekly were at a 14% greater risk of developing dementia than those who ate it far less often (less than three servings a month). They also found that each additional serving of meat daily was linked to another 1.6 years of cognitive aging, specifically in regard to language and “executive function,” per NBC.
  • Theories: While ultra-processed foods are linked with declining brain health, we don’t know why. Theories posit they are bad for vascular health, they replace food with vital nutrients, and they damage brain cells.
  • Supporting evidence: NBC notes that the study’s demographics were limited—conducted on a mostly white group with above-average socioeconomic status—and may not represent the general population. But other studies out of Brazil and the UK also have linked cognitive decline to diets high in ultra-processed foods.

Damn!  I enjoy a bologna sandwich every now and then.

Food for thought….’ento-veganism’….

The ento-vegetarian, therefore, does not eat meat or fish, but insects. An ento-vegan is then obviously someone who follows a complete plant-based diet and adds insects to it. This may sound crazy at first, but the main considerations that make these groups choose to eat insects are in the area of sustainability. The cultivation of insects produces high-quality proteins through the use of ‘waste streams’. Nevertheless, using the term Vegan could be problematic as the Vegan philosophy
involves not breeding nor killing any animals. As much as farming insects could sustainable and ethically be, it stills involves breeding and killing animals.

(jiminis.com)

But wait does the insect need to be killed?

I may be hungry but I will have been really hungry to eat bugs.

As I explained last week my daughter and I exchange stories of deaths that are ruled suicide and there is more to it than that…I have a good one….a woman apparently stabbed herself 20 times….

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from the family of a Philadelphia woman whose 2011 stabbing death was initially ruled a homicide before the medical examiner switched it to suicide after police objected. First-grade teacher Ellen Greenberg, 27, was found in her apartment with 20 stab wounds, reports the AP. Police considered her death a suicide because her apartment door was locked from the inside and her boyfriend—who said he found her after breaking down the door—had no defensive wounds.

Philadelphia Medical Examiner Marlon Osbourne initially ruled her death a homicide, noting the large number of stab wounds, including 10 to the back of her neck. After police publicly challenged the findings, Osbourne switched the ruling to suicide without explanation. Greenberg’s parents are seeking to have the ruling changed back to homicide. The city has objected, arguing that state law “makes clear that a medical examiner can be wrong as to the manner of death yet cannot be compelled to change it.”

In Tuesday’s order, the Supreme Court said it will consider whether “executors and administrators of an estate have standing to challenge an erroneous finding recorded on the decedent’s death certificate where that finding constitutes a bar or material impediment to recovery of victim’s compensation, restitution or for wrongful death, as well as private criminal complaints.”

On a somber note….Utah is the latest book banning debacle…….

Utah has given schools statewide a list of 13 books deemed “pornographic or indecent” that must be “legally disposed of,” including Margaret Atwood’s Oryx & Crake and Judy Blume’s Forever. They have been banned under a new state law that requires books to be outlawed statewide if they are banned by at least three of the state’s 41 public school districts, or two districts and five charter schools, the Guardian reports.

  • Schools and librarians have traditionally considered factors including literary and artistic value when deciding if a book should be allowed in schools, the New York Times notes, but the Utah law says school boards should put “protecting children from the harmful effects of illicit pornography over other considerations.”
  • The full list, which can be seen here, includes six books by fantasy author Sarah Maas. The graphic novel Blankets by Craig Thompson is the only book of the 13 with a male author.
  • The law went into effect on July 1. It applied retroactively, and school districts were asked to re-evaluate books they had already banned and submit lists to state authorities, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
  • In a post on X, Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression programs at the PEN America free-speech group, said “many states have passed laws to facilitate book bans,” but Utah is the first “to outlaw a list of books.” “This is literally the government saying that Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood, cannot be shelved in public schools,” he said, per the New York Times. The group said the list “will likely be updated as more books begin to meet the law’s criteria.”
  • The law says the banned books “may not be sold or distributed,” the Guardian reports. Kasey Meehan, Pen America’s Freedom to Read program director, says the guidelines will “undoubtedly result in dumpsters full of books that could otherwise be enjoyed by readers.” She says the list “will impose a dystopian censorship regime across public schools,” going against “local preferences” in many cases. She adds: “Allowing just a handful of districts to make decisions for the whole state is anti-democratic.”

Why are most of these books written by women?

Will this become the template for other Red States to dictate what your children can read?

I thought of these morons were all about parental control or was that just bullshit?

‘Renewable’ energy has become popular and the focal point of many of a debate…..but is there a down side?

As countries including Aotearoa New Zealand embrace renewable energy production, a recent study sheds light on some overlooked impacts of this transition.

While the benefits of renewable energy are well-established, researchers are also examining the less discussed economic and social impacts of the move towards ‘green’ energy.

A study appearing in SSRN shows that the shift to renewable energy sources, such as solar and , has led to increased and a decrease in .

“Our findings show that the energy transition is not a neutral process and that it carries significant consequences,” says Professor Emilson Silva, director of the University of Auckland Energy Center and co-author of the study.

“It directly impacts people’s lives.”

https://phys.org/news/2024-08-renewables-food-prices.html

Just thought you should see this study.

That be it for I have run out of meaningless stuff to report….plus my fingers are tired.

Enjoy your Summer Saturday and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Being In Debt

A couple of points that are missing from the campaign trail.

We all know that the country works on debt….we constantly spend more than we take in….and yet no one wants to fix this problem because it might piss off a corporation or two.

Our national debt has a record high ….

It’s a record no one is happy about: The gross national debt in the US went above $35 trillion Monday, a first. The number (which, specifically, was $35,001,278,179,208.67) was noted in the Treasury Department’s daily report on America’s debt, the New York Times reports. Debt is accumulating at a quick clip, with the $34 trillion mark just having been passed for the first time in January, and the $33 trillion mark last September, Fox Business reports. Last month, the Congressional Budget Office said the national debt is on track to pass $56 trillion in the next decade.

he Times notes that given how little Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have said about the topic while campaigning for November’s presidential election, the problem will likely “only worsen in the coming years.” Social Security and Medicare largely drive the national debt, and there is resistance across the board to implementing cuts to those programs. Plus, interest rates are high, and some federal programs have proven more expensive than their original estimates. Meanwhile, federal budget deficits are also on the rise; the latest estimate for this year’s deficit is $1.9 trillion, which would be the third-largest in the country’s history and $200 billion more than last year’s.

Since neither candidate has said much about this problem it must not be important.

We could fix this problem, yes it would take time, by making the lay-about corporations pay their flippin’ taxes….

The country is not the only debt problem…..individual debt has also hit a record amount.

Americans owe more money than ever on their credit cards: $1.14 trillion. That’s after consumers added $27 billion to their tab in the second quarter, a 5.8% jump from the year before, a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York says. Credit card delinquency rates increased, as well, CNBC reports. Borrowers ages 18 to 29 and 30 to 39 had the biggest delinquency increases; the New York Fed said those groups probably were heavily affected by COVID-19. They “may have overextended during the pandemic,” researchers said.

Americans used some of their pandemic-related federal stimulus money to pay down their credit card debt in 2020, said Ted Rossman of Bankrate in a statement. But balances shot up again starting in 2021, he said, per CBS News, “fueled by a post-pandemic boom in services spending as well as high inflation and high interest rates.” About 9.1% of credit card balances went into delinquency in the past year, the New York Fed found. The Urban Institute reported in May that more consumers are using credit cards to stay afloat, with 60% of them paying for their groceries that way. Overall, Rossman said, “More people are carrying more debt for longer periods of time.”

Credit cards are keeping some families afloat in this time of extreme prices…..

This will come back to bite us in the butt.

To paraphrase Marx….Credit is the opiate of the masses.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Swiftboating Returns

Swiftboating?

For those with short memories let me take you back 20 years to 2004….

The term swiftboating (also swift-boating or swift boating) is a pejorative American neologism used to describe an unfair or untrue political attack. The term is derived from the name of the organization “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” (SBVT, later the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth) because of their widely publicized—and later discredited—political smear campaign against 2004 U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry.  Since the 2004 election, the term has come to commonly refer to a political attack that is dishonest, personal, and unfair.

(wikipedia)

I bring this blast from the past up because the Trump minions are swiftboating Walz…..

JD Vance appears to have settled on a line of attack against his rival to be vice president, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz—and it revolves around military service. The details:

  • Walz served in the National Guard for 24 years before retiring in 2005 to run for Congress in Minnesota. Politico notes that Walz filed his paperwork to run in February 2005, roughly a month before reports came out that his unit might be deployed to Iraq and about five months before the official orders were issued.
  • A former Guard colleague, Al Bonnifeld, says Walz knew of the potential deployment and wrestled with whether it was the right time to run for office. “He told us that he wanted to run for Congress, and he was in a tough spot, because he was pretty sure we were going to Iraq,” Bonnifield told NewsNation, per the Hill. But, Bonnifield noted, “we didn’t have orders. We didn’t have any kind of orders at all.”
  • The Washington Post has one of the most thorough explorations of all this here. It includes the views of those such as Bonnifield, who praise Walz’s service, as well as those who served with Walz and are critical of him.
  • Vance is essentially accusing Walz of cowardice and of inflating his service, attacks reminiscent of the infamous “swift boat” attacks on John Kerry in the 2004 election over his Vietnam War record, per USA Today. The story notes that Chris LaCivita, who led the attacks on Kerry, is now a senior adviser to the Trump campaign. The criticism of Walz on this front has surfaced previously in his Minnesota elections, without success. (Two Guard retirees wrote this scathing letter in 2018.)
  • Vance also is calling attention to a Walz quote from a campaign event a while back in Minnesota (and being trumpeted by the Harris-Walz campaign) in which he referred to the “weapons I carried in war.” Walz never saw combat, prompting Vance’s jab: “Well, I wonder. Tim Walz, when were you ever in war?” For the record, Vance served four years in the Marines and went to Iraq, but he served in a communications role there and did not see combat, either, per the New York Times.

This is not all that surprising for when you have no defined policies then you personally attack your opponent hoping that the idiots will fixate on the BS and not on their lack of direction.

It worked well when used against Kerry and Trump hopes it will once again be a death blow.

This election is all about jibes and insults not policies and solutions.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Harris/Walz: Radical Leftists?

Please do not make me laugh.  Only a mental midget would think that Harris or Walz is a radical Leftist.

Anyone that believes that crap is smoking crack.

Some yahoo on FOX (go figure) stated that Harris is the most leftist candidate in history….I guess he never heard of Eugene Debs. (For Christ sake look it up)

I was impressed with Harris when she came out as a senator and endorsed the Green New Deal and Medicare For All….but does that make her a radical Leftist?

No it does not!

I am a radical Leftist and have been for 60 years and Harris is nowhere close to being radical…..an opportunistic Dem….then yes.

Some progressives in the Democratic Party would like to see Harris as someone like themselves, but there is little basis for it. She fully supported Biden’s economic and social programs—the most significant in half a century—most notably the American Rescue Plan Act ($1.9 trillion) to support business and workers during COVID, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act ($1.2 trillion), and the Inflation Reduction Act ($369 billion) to deal with climate issues. Vice-president’s never present their own views, and neither did Harris.

She has also completely supported Biden’s foreign policy, backing Israel and its war on Gaza, supporting Ukraine against the Russian invasion, and opposing China’s rival imperial ambitions. Harris’ reputation for being more progressive regarding Israel is based on statements like this one a few days ago after her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” she said. “The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time — we cannot look away in the face of these tragedies,” she said, adding, “I will not be silent.”

Perhaps she will not be silent, but she has not said how she would change U.S. policy, if at all.

I have been waiting for her to back away from any true progressive ideas just to garner votes.

She started backing away when in 2019 and her run for the Dem nomination…..and this will not stop….

During her short-lived 2019 presidential campaign, Harris was a supporter of single-payer healthcare, a fracking ban, and a federal jobs guarantee. No longer. On July 26th, a campaign official told the Hill that Harris “will not seek to ban fracking if she’s elected,” even though she had previously said there was “no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” The following day, CNN reported that “the vice president no longer supports a single-payer health care system,” despite having co-sponsored Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill back in 2017. And on July 31, a Washington Examiner exclusive revealed that Harris has “changed her position” on a federal jobs guarantee—a component of the Green New Deal she backed in 2019—and no longer supports that either. 

Moreover, moving to the right on policy will not prevent Trump and his proxies from attacking Harris as “dangerously liberal,” a line they’ve already started using. This is a lesson Democrats should have learned in the Obama years. No matter how much Barack Obama tried to portray himself as a reasonable centrist and make compromises with Republicans, he was still attacked as a “socialist” whose healthcare plans would lead to “death panels.” Today, the GOP is not going to suddenly say “Well, I guess we should stop attacking Harris as a radical.” But her abrupt U-turns on policy will allow them to deploy a second line of attack, namely that she’s untrustworthy and doesn’t keep a consistent position on anything, which wouldn’t be wrong. 

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/its-a-bad-idea-for-harris-to-abandon-progressive-policies

Harris was one of 16 co-sponsors of Sanders’s socialized health-care plan branded as “Medicare for All,” which would have cost $34 trillion over a decade, according to the left-wing Urban Institute. It would also have necessitated kicking about 180 million people off their private insurance plans. She also signed on to the Senate version of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s radical Green New Deal.

In 2019, as the Democratic primaries took off, there was fierce competition to the left of Joe Biden. Harris dug into her support for banning private insurance before (unconvincingly) trying to take it back. She called for banning fracking and offshore drilling. She said those who crossed the border illegally shouldn’t be treated as criminals and called for getting rid of ICE and starting from scratch. She advocated banning AR-15s and confiscating them (under the euphemism “mandatory buybacks”).

This will continue for the policies that got her elected to the Senate will now be liabilities….so progressives do not too excited on the Harris/Walz team.

Now Walz…..

Clips of Tim Walz have spread widely, helping cement him as Kamala Harris’s pick to run alongside her as vice-president.

It’s not just the “weird” of it all: he’s been able to run through a list of what Democrats want, and what he’s done as governor during a banner time for Democrats in his state, that articulates to voters what they would be voting for, not just the danger of what they’re voting against. He speaks plainly and pragmatically, showing the commonsense policies his party stands for.

Walz, 60, was born and raised in small-town Nebraska. He became a teacher, first in China, then in Nebraska and finally in Mankato, Minnesota, where he taught geography and coached the high school football team. He was the faculty adviser for the school’s first gay-straight alliance chapter in 1999, long before Democrats nationally stood for gay rights. He also served in the army national guard for 24 years, enlisting at age 17, a role that took him around the country and on a deployment to Europe. And like JD Vance, Walz has a penchant for Diet Mountain Dew.

(theguardian.co.uk)

I do not know much about Walz so I cannot say much at this time.

Harris picked him with the hopes that is bona fides as a progressive will help her run….

He has started off badly with me…..he refused to meet with voters…..why?

In March, Walz lauded the “uncommitted movement”, describing the initiative to pressure President Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire as “engaged”. 

“These are voters that are deeply concerned as we all are. The situation in Gaza is intolerable. And I think trying to find a solution, a lasting two-state solution, certainly the President’s move towards humanitarian aid and asking us to get to a ceasefire, that’s what they’re asking to be heard. And that’s what they should be doing,” Walz said.

“We’ve gone through this before. And we know that now we make sure we’ve got eight months [to the election]. We start bringing these folks back in. We listen to what they’re saying,” the governor added.

But according to several activists in Minnesota, not only has the governor refused to meet with Palestinian families who have lost relatives in Israel’s war on Gaza, he has barely acknowledged their concerns and and demands.

(middleeasteye.net)

If true then that would be strike one .

I will continue to monitor these and other concerns to help my readers understand a few things that the MSM probably will not cover.

I am sure someone will say that they are better than the other guys.

That is a given but it does not preclude me looking at all aspects of the positions.

Stay Tuned!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

News From The Front

The Ukraine/Russia front that is…..

This does not seem to be a popular meme these days…..I think all the propaganda and armchair analyst that know everything about nothing have moved on.

Enough said about buffoons.

Looks like we may have an all out cross border war going on……Ukraine enters Russia …..

Vladimir Putin is calling it a “major provocation.” NBC News refers to it as an “unprecedented cross-border incursion.” Russia on Tuesday said as many as 300 Ukrainian troops had attacked the Kursk region in southern Russia with support from tanks and armored vehicles. The details remain somewhat hazy, Ukraine’s leaders have not confirmed the attack, and the AP reports open-source monitors have not yet verified the claims. The Guardian, however, reports it got confirmation from a junior official that an attack was underway. More:

  • On the ground: Things are murky, with Russia’s Defense Ministry originally stating the “Ukrainian sabotage group retreated to its territory,” per the Guardian. But Russian military bloggers have suggested the Ukrainian troops were not pushed out but rather made it up to 9 miles deep into the territory, and the New York Times reports the Ministry confirmed fighting was continuing on Wednesday.
  • What could make it ‘unprecedented’: The Times explains that Ukraine’s previous cross-border assaults involved armed groups of Russian exiles that had military backing. This attack, however, appears to be the work of Ukrainian troops.
  • Implications: If confirmed, NBC News reports it “would mark a dramatic shift in strategy” and raise “questions about why Ukraine might have launched an incursion into Russian territory with regular troops just as military observers say it’s bleeding soldiers and weapons in the vulnerable east, particularly near the towns of Pokrovsk and Toretsk in the Donetsk Region.”
  • Analysts’ take: Those NBC News spoke with suggested Ukraine could be trying to force Russia to shift troops to an area that hasn’t seen much action since spring 2022, or it could be a “publicity stunt” designed to grab the world’s notice.

Now there is an idea I had not considered….a PR stunt….but when I think about it it makes sense….the world has turned a blind eye to this particular conflict and something is needed to return the attention to Ukraine.

Will this continue or will it be short lived?

Will Ukraine use its new F22 jets and attack deeper into Russia?

Did Ukraine sacrifice troops to make a point?

What will they do?

This is getting to the point of ridiculous….this conflict needs to be resolved and save what lives they can now.

Keep in mind that this war is all about the money and will continue as long as there is cash to be made…..

Lindsey Graham voiced out loud part of an agenda that is usually hidden from public view or the media – it isn’t talked about (admitted) openly. It’s a veritable “gold mine,” Graham confessed, and America can’t afford to lose control of it. Here’s the translation of Graham’s admission:

It’s About the Money.

Our reliably hawkish Republican Senator is well known for provocative statements. As early as 2022 (at the beginning of the Ukraine war) Graham was all in for regime change in Russia, when everyone else in the West was trying to downplay such a prospect. Moreover, he is quoted as saying at a press conference with Zylensky that “Russians are dying” in the war, while US aid was the “best money we’ve ever spent.”

But with the panache and subtlety of a train wreck the good senator created another stir recently, admitting on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” why Russia must not be allowed to prevail in Ukraine. The latter possesses $10 to $12 trillion worth of rich deposits of critical minerals.

https://original.antiwar.com/F_Andrew_Wolf/2024/08/05/us-ukraine-russian-war-its-about-the-money/

Not a fan of Graham’s but in this case he is being up front about this conflict.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”