Month: October 2024

That Damn Electoral College

As I have another round of medical meetings today I needed something easy to write about and what better subject than the EC?

We are mere days away from out trip to the polls and this year the focus, as always, will be on the Electoral College.

Most readers of IST know that I am not a big fan of the EC….I think it has outlived any usefulness.

But in case someone is still not aware of my feelings I can help out….

That Antiquated Electoral College Con

As long as I am going on about the EC let’s look at a little history….

The United States is the only democracy in the world where a presidential candidate can get the most popular votes and still lose the election. Thanks to the Electoral College, that has happened five times in the country’s history. The most recent examples are from 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote but George W. Bush won the Electoral College after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, and 2016, when Hillary Clinton got more votes nationwide than Donald Trump but lost in the Electoral College.

The Founding Fathers did not invent the idea of an electoral college. Rather, they borrowed the concept from Europe, where it had been used to pick emperors for hundreds of years.

As a scholar of presidential democracies around the world, I have studied how countries have used electoral colleges. None have been satisfied with the results. And except for the U.S., all have found other ways to choose their leaders.

The Holy Roman Empire was a loose confederation of territories that existed in central Europe from 962 to 1806. The emperor was not chosen by heredity, like most other monarchies. Instead, emperors were chosen by electors, who represented both secular and religious interests.

https://theconversation.com/no-country-still-uses-an-electoral-college-except-the-us-240281

That is right most countries that have tried this system have found it was a waste of time that is with the exception of the US and it fits well with the dominance of the two parties.

Then there was the debate on the system….

At the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 1787, discussions about how to choose the President were contentious. Because of the winding road the delegates took to reach the solution, the origins of the Electoral College are usually described as being either about the delegates’ distrust of the people or as a means to perpetuate slavery.

Actually, the Electoral College was about both and more. Examining the perspective of John Dickinson, a delegate from Delaware and an architect of the Electoral College who neither distrusted the people nor supported slavery, sheds light on the Framers’ intentions and how we might proceed at this moment in American politics.

Dickinson had extensive political experience before attending the Constitutional Convention. He had served as a legislator, member of Congress, and governor for Pennsylvania and Delaware. He wrote more for the Founding than any other figure, including the first draft of America’s first constitution, the Articles of Confederation (1776). He also advocated women’s rights and was an abolitionist. By 1787, he had freed all those he had enslaved and attempted to secure passage of an abolition bill in Delaware.

https://time.com/7028656/john-dickinson-electoral-college/

Then why can we not rid ourselves of this (expletive) system?

The electoral college is one of the most unusual parts of any democracy in the world. The bizarre system was invented as a compromise among the Founding Fathers more than two centuries ago – so why are we still stuck with it?

Electoral College started as a concession to small states that didn’t want to be overrun by the residents of more populous states.

“These states were really more concerned about being autonomous actors than they were about being one union,” she said. “So the electoral college was essentially a political deal, you know, to get them all together because otherwise you wouldn’t have gotten all those small states to join on.”

Kamarck said that throughout the 20th century, the winner of the popular vote always won the electoral college. But in the 21st century, the popular vote winner has lost the electoral college in two out of six elections so far.

What changed? As agriculture was automated, people gradually moved out of the middle of the country to urban areas on the coasts – but the distribution of electoral votes hasn’t been shifted to accurately reflect each state’s current population, leaving the biggest states in the union woefully underrepresented.

https://www.audacy.com/knxnews/news/local/can-we-ever-get-rid-of-the-electoral-college

Every four years I revisit my distaste for the EC and it still remains an unnecessary part of our election process.

I know it will never change but it feels good to vent once in awhile.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why Do We Believe?

That is the question that avoids a good answer….although many have tried….

For instance a couple of stories from just the last couple of weeks….

Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating people’s pets! The U.S. government directed Hurricane Helene to hit North Carolina to chase people off their property so the government can seize land in a secret effort to mine and control lithium! The government is taking FEMA money away from Americans hit by hurricanes and giving it to illegal immigrants! This is the worst economy in history. ALL of the aforementioned stories are outright lies with zero evidence to back them up, but yet, many Americans believe the lies to the point of condemning anyone who does not accept them, and they are promoting these lies as the truth.

Let’s not forget the ever popular, for now, the Dems are controlling the weather and directing hurricanes to punish Red States.  (If this one does not make you laugh then you have a serious problem).

But why do so many latch on the these ‘theories’ and run with them?

Did NASA fake the moon landing? Is the government hiding Martians in Area 51? Is global warming a hoax? The answer to these questions is, “No,” yet a committed subculture of conspiracy theorists vigorously argues the opposite.

Many scholars dismiss conspiracy theorists as paranoid and delusional. Psychological data bolster their case: people who harbor conspiracist thoughts are also more inclined to paranoid ideation and schizotypy, a mild form of schizophrenia. As conspiracy theory expert Timothy Melley of Miami University has put it, these beliefs are often dismissed as “the implausible visions of a lunatic fringe.”

Yet these antiestablishment ideas are surprisingly widely held. According to a national poll released last April by Public Policy Polling, 37 percent of Americans believe that global warming is a hoax, 21 percent think that the U.S. government is covering up evidence of the existence of space aliens and 28 percent suspect a secret elite power is plotting to take over the world. Only hours after the bombing at the Boston Marathon, people suggested, in YouTube videos and elsewhere on the Web, that the attack might have been an inside job and even that the entire event was a hoax.

With so many people ascribing to weakly supported explanations for news events, belief in conspiracy theories cannot be a mere symptom of pathology. The questioning of officialdom is critical to a functioning democracy, as the recent revelations of the National Security Agency’s electronic surveillance efforts illustrate. Yet new data suggest that conspiracy theories can diminish public engagement, eroding interest in issues of great political importance. Attaining a better understanding of why these ideas persist can help us devise new ways to combat misinformation.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-people-believe-conspiracy-theories/

I will go with the delusional thing.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The 2024 ‘No’ Vote

I have read several reports telling me that younger voters will stay away from the polls….even some of the older voters are not all that thrill and are considering not voting in this election.

If that is true why do they consider not voting?

The last time Richard Brown voted was in 2008. He had caught a couple of presidential debates on TV, and found himself liking what the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, had to say. And as a Black man, he was excited by the idea of voting for the country’s first Black president.

Then in 2012, he decided not to bother casting a second ballot for Obama. It wasn’t that he had soured on the president — he just didn’t think it was necessary. “He’s already in office … [so] I kinda figured he didn’t need my help,” Brown said. He was willing to take the time out of his day to cast his vote, but he didn’t think it would have an impact on the outcome. “I know it’s kind of a stupid thought, but I feel like one missed vote isn’t going to change anything.”

Twelve years later, though, he’s planning to vote again. It’s not because Brown, who is now 53 and lives in the Midwest, is newly hopeful that his vote will matter. In fact, he’s not at all confident that the candidate he’s supporting, Joe Biden, will win. But the stakes of this election feel personal. Over the past four years, some of his friends have changed the way they act and talk, saying hateful things about Obama or sharing racist memes on Facebook.

“I’m not even really keen on Biden,” Brown said. “It’s more so that Trump is bringing racist rhetoric out of a lot of people.” Those kinds of comments are “really hurtful to me, disrespectful to me,” he said. So he’s decided to vote again this year: “This way, if [Biden] does lose the election, I can’t say that it was my fault because I didn’t vote.”

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/non-voters-poll-2020-election/

I can understand for I find myself not at all thrilled with the two major candidates and any independents are not going to have a shot at the big chair….so not voting is an option, just not for me, but an option nonetheless.

Beyond that there are about 5 reasons some people will not vote….

Voting is a right that allows citizens to make their voices heard, but the reality is that as many as half of eligible voters in the US still don’t participate in the election process. 

The US lags far behind most other developed countries when it comes to voter turnout. Only 55.7% of Americans voted in the 2016 presidential election, and even less of the population, 36.4%, voted in 2014, according to the Pew Research Center. 

People’s motivations for voting vary. They might believe voting is their civic duty and that their ballot has the power to make a difference. Others just want to fit in with their peers, or their anger about a certain issue drives them to the polls. 

The reasons people don’t vote are just as complex. While full voter participation helps maintain a fair and functioning democracy, everything from logistics to socioeconomic status can get in the way.

Here’s a list of five things stopping Americans from voting. 

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/why-people-dont-vote/

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Liar! Liar!

It is election time and lies are spread like peanut butter…..but of all the lies which is the most prolific? Lies are an essential part of the modern campaign strategy, well political lies have always been there so saying ‘modern’ is misleading.

My post is along the lines of one from my friend John….

Scandal of the Century: Why Republicans Can’t Tell the Truth

Which of our two parties spread the most crap?

The creator of a top political fact-checking website has finally revealed which party lies more: Democrats or Republicans.

Bill Adair, who started the Pulitzer Prize-winning website PolitiFact, admitted that – despite his claims over the years – he was, in fact, keeping tabs and found the GOP to be the most liberal with the truth.

In 2012, Adair was asked which party lies more by a caller on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal and claimed he “didn’t keep score.”

The former Washington Bureau Chief for the Tampa Bay Times has since left the nonprofit fact-checking company and so said he can now “talk freely” about who is more deceitful.

Appearing on Washington Journal 12 years later, as part of a media blitz to promote his new book Beyond the Big Lie, the fact checker admitted he “was lying” in 2012 to show his company was “truly nonpartisan.”

By PolitiFact’s tally, the Republican party was actually lying “far more” than the Democrats – and since then, Adair, has found the disparity between the parties has only grown.

Between 2016 to 2021, Republicans lied 55 percent of the time, compared to Democrats 31 percent of the time, according to Adair’s company’s investigations of politicians’ statements.

“I think we need to talk about it because the fact that there are so many lies coming from the Republicans, it’s really affecting our discourse,” he said

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/republicans-democrats-lies-bill-adair-fact-check-politifact-trump-b2631493.html

According to this report the GOP tells the most lies….who did not see that coming?

Now that we have established that….let us ask Why does Trump lie so often?

When it comes to lying in politics, Donald Trump is in a class of his own. According to the Washington Post, he made 30,573 false or misleading claims in his four years as president, increasing year-on-year from six per day in his first year to 39 per day in his fourth.

Although other presidents have lied to the public, none have lied like this. Some of Trump’s lies are trivial, and many are self-aggrandising (“Nobody builds better walls than me”). Then there are his more egregious lies, like the one about the 2020 presidential election being “stolen” – demonstrably and dangerously contrary to the facts, with serious consequences for the nation and public trust.

And these lies can cut through. Research by political scientists Kevin Arceneaux and Roy Truex found that this “big lie” about the stolen election was very “sticky”. Around 50% of Republican voters believed it, regardless of any emerging contrary evidence. The researchers also found that belief in this lie boosted Republican supporters’ self-esteem – as they weren’t “losers” after all.

https://theconversation.com/why-does-donald-trump-tell-such-blatant-lies-241192

I have an easier answer….because he can and get away with it.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

51K And Counting

We hear a lot about what is happening in Ukraine…..Ukraine attacks Russia….Russia bombs a village…..NATO sends arms and stuff and the US sends money…..those are the sensational headlines these days but what is really happening in Ukraine under the headlines?

I know they are having a problem with people avoiding the draft but is the problem deeper than that?

It appears that desertions are becoming a major problem in the Ukrainian army….

The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office has opened 51,000 cases of desertion through the first nine months of 2024. The number of soldiers abandoning their posts is likely to double last year’s total. 

The Times of London reported data from the Ukrainian government showing that “51,000 criminal cases were initiated for desertion and abandonment of a military unit between January and September of this year.” El Pais previously noted that 45,000 Ukrainians were being prosecuted for desertion from the start of the year through August. Al-Jazeera says the number is at least 30,000 desertions. 

At the start of the year, Kiev was estimated to have between 500,000 and 800,000 active-duty soldiers and an additional 300,000 reservists. The Ukrainians have also sustained casualties fighting to defend from Russian advances and amid Kiev’s Kursk invasion. 

Kiev has struggled to fill its ranks with fresh soldiers, leading Ukraine to drop its conscription age from 27 to 25. As Kiev is still facing manpower shortages, American politicians are pushing Ukraine to drop draft age to 18. Ukraine has also resorted to allowing prisoners to leave jail if they join the military 

One Ukrainian who deserted told the Times that prison was a better option than the military because “at least in prison, you know when you will be able to leave.” 

The number of Ukrainians that Kiev is prosecuting for desertion has significantly increased throughout the war. In 2022, the number was 9,000, and it had more than doubled to 24,000 last year. 

(libertarianinstitute.org)

What seems to be the problem? (he asked)

They believe the war’s future looks bleak due to insufficient replacements. “Why are we retreating? Because we have no rotations, we don’t rest, and we are demoralized,” explains Shkoda, the code name of an officer from an anti-drone unit in the 46th Brigade.

This soldier, like others interviewed last week in this conflict zone, is referring to the growing problem of army deserters. The Ukrainian Attorney General’s Office reported that there have been nearly 100,000 desertions since the start of the war, with more than half occurring this year alone. This represents about 10% of all personnel in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. “I had a friend we called England. He fought throughout the war along the front lines — in Robotine, Soledar, Kherson… He was exhausted, unable to continue, and the commanders didn’t give him with a break. A few days ago, he just left, like that.”

(elpais.com)

If this is the case then it sounds like support for this war is dwindling and the only people that relish the fight is Zelensky and NATO and the MSM why else would this not be reported?

Time for someone to step up and try to hammer out some sort of ceasefire before it is too late….if it is not already.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Cornell West For President

A mere couple of weeks before we vote so I thought I would do a little FYI…..please refrain from any snarky remarks…..once again….just FYI to let people know there is more than the pathetic two running in the 22024 election…..since the media is ignoring I thought I would do the right thing and bring the news out.

I have written many times that the last time I voted for a winner in a presidential election was 1976….and my streak may continue with the 2024 vote.

I am a weird bird for I vote my principles and not some easy out like voting for the least objectionable candidate…..and almost every time I am accused of helping elect this idiot or that…..but it is my vote and I have no one to answer to but my own conscience….so nay-sayers can piss off.

Last election season I was duped by Gabbard and I supported her as a Dem later I found out what a racist homophobe she really is…..I will try not to make that mistake again.

This next election is turning out to be dumb or dumber….no Repub nor Dem has any business being a candidate they are all as corrupted as corrupt can be.

So when the news came out of a possible third party candidate that I know and admire his work I was pleased to see that I may have a person to vote for this time around.

That person is Cornell West….

Another big name is entering the 2024 presidential race, though not for one of the two main political parties. Dr. Cornel West, the well-known progressive scholar, philosophy professor, and activist, said Monday that he will run for the nation’s top office on the People’s Party ticket, the New York Times reports. The third party was founded by Nick Brana, a member of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign team, but Sanders himself declined a bid from the party for him to get involved before the 2020 election, in which he again ran as a Democrat. West, who has taught at Yale, Princeton, Harvard, and, currently, Union Theological Seminary, says he is concerned with “the destruction of American democracy,” and that he is more concerned about voters than other politicians, whether Democrat or Republican, Politico reports.

“Neither political party wants to tell the truth about Wall Street, about Ukraine, about the Pentagon, about big tech,” the left-wing academic said in a campaign video posted to Twitter; in the video he referenced a 2022 interview in which he called former President Trump a “neo fascist” and President Biden a “milquetoast neoliberal.” (He’s also criticized former President Obama, and Forbes says he’s a non-Marxist socialist and Christian who has supported Sanders in the past and considers himself a populist alternative to mainstream politicians.) West says he is concerned with issues including the living wage, affordable and guaranteed housing, abortion rights, universal health care, mass incarceration, and climate change. “I enter in the quest for truth, I enter in the quest for justice, and the presidency is just one vehicle to pursue that truth and justice—what I’ve been trying to do all of my life,” West said.

Like I stated so far West is along my line of thinking about the world and US position within it.

But since Gabbard I will be researching West’s positions very carefully for I will not be duped again.

Update:  Since I wrote this draft news has come out that West will seek the nomination of the Green Party.

Progressive activist Cornel West announced he is seeking the Green Party nomination for president in 2024 after declaring his candidacy for the People’s Party nomination last week. 

West said that he decided to run as a candidate for the Green Party to try to build a “broad United Front and coalition strategy.”

“In the spirit of a broad United Front and coalition strategy, I am pursuing the nomination of the Green Party for President of the United States,” West tweeted Wednesday.

He asked people to “support this unprecedented effort to empower precious poor and working people here and abroad. I thank the volunteers of the People’s Party for the initial launch!”

(thehill.com)

I have supported the Green Party in the past and may do so again….but as always I will research closely.

More updates:  West has passed on the Green Party and will run as a true independent…..

Progressive activist Cornel West said Thursday that he is no longer running for president under the Green Party banner. Instead, the high-profile African American thought leader will run as an independent.

“I’m running as an Independent candidate for President of the United States to end the iron grip of the ruling class and ensure true democracy!” West wrote on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

“People are hungry for change,” he added. “They want good policies over partisan politics. We need to break the grip of the duopoly and give power to the people.”

I like the sound of that…..party politics is what has gotten this country where it is today….screwed up!

His policies can be found here….

https://www.cornelwest2024.com/platform

For more information this is an interview with West on Democracy Now…..

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/6/7/cornel_west_2024

Have you noticed that the media has downplayed anyone other than the two candidates?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

My Vote At The Crossroad

I wish that I could say that I have made up my mind for the 2024 election….but I cannot.

We are sitting at 2 short weeks before our trips to the polls.

We have two major candidates that stand for nothing that I hold dear.

I have said many times that I have not voted for a winner in presidential elections since 1976….during all that time I have voted usually for a third party….not that any of the candidates were that appealing to me but rather their platforms were more in-line with my principles.  Never have I ever regretted the vote I cast.

That brings us to this election….I still think that a third party and/or an independent candidate would get my vote…..and then brace myself for the unbending stupidity about my doing so would elect this person or that…none of which I agree….

Why Your Third-Party Vote Is Not Wasted

My argument is that it is MY vote and I shall put it where I think it will do the most good for this country not because of some personality that is all show and no action and what actions they do take is usually for the benefit of business not the people.

I have not noticed an uptick for independent candidates….if this was any other election but this one I would see this as a good sign….but sadly it is not…..but it is a good sign for the people are starting to see just how corrupt and do nothing the two parties have become.

Now let us look at nightmare scenario that is forming.

Let’s say the independent s make it so that neither major candidate gets the required number of electoral votes to win the election outright….what then?

Then it would fall to the House to elect the president….

If you don’t believe the 2024 presidential campaign can get any more bizarre or anxiety-inducing, just wait.

70 percent of Americans have indicated that they don’t want the major presidential candidates they now appear stuck with. A substantial percent of Democratic voters and a majority of Republican voters don’t want President Biden to run because of his age and perceived cognitive issues. A substantial number of Republicans and a majority of Democrats don’t want former President Trump to run because of his perceived legal issues.

…

If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the Presidential election leaves the Electoral College process and moves to Congress. The House of Representatives elects the President from the three (3) Presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes. Each State delegation has one vote and it is up to the individual States to determine how to vote. (Since the District of Columbia is not a State, it has no State delegation in the House and cannot vote). A candidate must receive at least 26 votes (a majority of the States) to be elected. The Senate elects the Vice President from the two (2) Vice Presidential candidates with the most electoral votes. Each Senator casts one vote for Vice President. (Since the District of Columbia is has no Senators and is not represented in the vote). A candidate must receive at least 51 votes (a majority of Senators) to be elected. If the House of Representatives fails to elect a President by Inauguration Day, the Vice-President Elect serves as acting President until the deadlock is resolved in the House.

What if no candidate wins 270 electoral votes?

With the House controlled by the GOP, no matter how small the margin, and that party in bed with the Trumpian mindset we could be looking at a Trump win.

Now do you see my quandary?

My vote could throw this thing into a House election….in a different time I would laugh it off as corrupt politics at work….but it is different this time around.

Do I hold with the convictions of my principles or do I hold my nose and vote for an old fart that may not live another 4 years?  And his successor is not someone that I would ever consider worthy.

Then there is the other ‘guy’ whose policies are so far right that it scares me and the party he controls just keeps with its trek right….no where would I consider a vote for these people (being polite as possible)

Now I stand at the crossroad.

Three paths are before me….one is one that I would never travel….one is a road that holds no hope for the people of this country….and the last road is more in line with my principles but could be disastrous for the country.

I try to vote with my head and the policies that I think could benefit the most people not the party that promises and seldom has any inclination of fulfilling those promises.

My head is telling me to look beyond the two corrupt parties, which I have done on numerous occasions, but then the thought brings me back to those damn crossroads.

What to do?  What to do?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ever Have One Of Those Days?

You know the kind of day I mean….bad medical news, bad financial news, job loss, auto repair and on and one…..

But this guy had a day to remember….

The Kentucky man’s body had made it as far as the operating room where they were to harvest his organs when Natasha Miller says she realized a problem: The dead donor wasn’t dead. It was October 2021, and she had been tasked with preserving the donated organs for transplantation. But the man who was to supply those organs was “moving around—kind of thrashing,” she tells NPR of that day at Baptist Health hospital in Richmond, Ky. “And then when we went over there, you could see he had tears coming down. He was crying visibly.” The procedure did not move forward—the two doctors who were to remove the organs backed out, and Miller describes a “very chaotic” and upsetting scene. More on what allegedly happened, and the fallout:

  • “TJ”Hoover II. They were told the 36-year-old had overdosed and was brain dead. Rhorer says that as he was being taken to the OR, she saw his eyes open. “He was tracking. His eyes were tracking us,” she tells WKYT. “We were told it was just reflexes, just a normal thing. Who are we to question the medical system?” Rhorer is now Hoover’s caretaker.
  • What Miller says she heard: Miller worked for Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA) and says that when the case coordinator called KODA to discuss the situation, the coordinator was allegedly told to “find another doctor to do it.” Miller recalled the coordinator responded, “‘There is no one else.’ She’s crying—the coordinator—because she’s getting yelled at.”
  • From another KODA employee: Nyckoletta Martin, who also worked as an organ preservationist for KODA, wasn’t present in the OR, but says she had read the case notes, and found them concerning. Prior to harvesting, cardiac catheterization is carried out to evaluate the health of the heart. Per the case notes, “The donor had woken up during his procedure that morning for a cardiac catheterization. And he was thrashing around on the table,” Martin says.
  • KODA’s stance: “No one at KODA has ever been pressured to collect organs from any living patient,” it said in a statement. “KODA does not recover organs from living patients. KODA has never pressured its team members to do so.”
  • An investigation: Martin shared her concerns via a letter to the US House Energy and Commerce Committee, which in September held a hearing on organ procurement organizations. The Kentucky state attorney general’s office says the allegations are being reviewed. The federal Health Resources and Services Administration is said to be investigating as well.

All I could say after reading this report was….”HOLY CRAP”!

Anything to add?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Lessons In Foreign Policy

I have been working in the arena of international relations for many many years and I have watched the policies of the US go down the toilet since 1975…..and they just keep getting worse and since GW onward it has been a complete disaster.

These ten lessons are what many of us have watched take shape since those days…sad to say our policies in the Middle East have been the most f*cked up….

Enough Already by Scott Horton is a must-read for anyone who wants to know the truth about US foreign policy in the Middle East for the last 35 years. Horton starts his exposé with the 9/11 tragedy, and then details all the terror wars up until today. Among all the facts and figures, Horton teaches ten important lessons. Each chapter focuses on a specific country, but these lessons are woven throughout each.

Lesson 1—The US is Not Loyal to Its Allies

“If you want to know who America’s next enemy is, look at who we are funding right now.”—Dave Smith

I used to think this statement was an oversimplification, but it is deadly accurate. Our government routinely makes allies only to turn around and attack them years later. One clear example is what would become al Qaeda. In the 1980s, the US armed Afghan resistance fighters to oppose Russia in Afghanistan. After 9/11, al Qaeda became the archenemy of the US. Then, about ten years later, they started arming them again to fight in Iraq and in Syria.

In Afghanistan, the US supported the Taliban during the Clinton administration. Then multiple presidents fought a 20-year war against them only to give full control of Afghanistan back to the Taliban in 2021.

The US followed the same pattern with Iraq. The US armed them against Iran during the 1980s. They supported Hussein all the way to Iraq War I in 1990. Then they bombed and sanctioned the country until they captured him in 2003 and had him executed.

Lesson 2—The US Prolongs Wars

Without US involvement in the Middle East, both sides in a conflict would be similar in strength and have less resources to continue. In the Yemen War, the US sends arms to Saudi Arabia, who then sends them to their allies in Yemen to fight the Houthis, even though the Houthis “won” years ago. Take the US out of the equation and the Saudi’s allies wouldn’t be able to continue the war.

The same thing happened in Somalia when the US armed Ethiopian forces to invade. Continued US support incentivized the Ethiopian groups to continue fighting after it started. Outside the Middle East, this lesson played out the exact same way in the Ukraine-Russia war. Plus, the US stopped peace negotiations between Zelensky and Putin through their proxy Boris Johnson.

(there are 8 more lessons)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/ten-lessons-us-foreign-policy-enough-already

The US needs to turn over a new leaf and go back to being the voice of reason in the world…..we started losing our way in 1992 and the decline has never slowed down.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

TP And History

You guys know me if it is Sunday then I must find some obscure subject to post about and today it is toilet paper.

We Americans love our TP at the very hint of some crisis on the horizon we run out a stock up on the commodity whether it is needed or not…..and that got my little grey cells working….what about some historic perspective on TP…..

And so the story goes…..

I wish this was solely about TP but sadly it is about hygiene more than a single thing.

Throughout history, people have used many questionable methods to wipe after going to the bathroom. Without the luxury of toilet paper, early American colonists reached for the next best thing: corn cobs. In fact, corn cobs made such great TP that rural Americans continued the practice into the 20th century.

On the toilet paper spectrum, corn cobs fall somewhere between “makes sense” and “oh no.” Closer to the “makes sense” end is any printed material: newspapers, the Sears catalog, the Farmer’s Almanac, you name it. People used to bore a hole through their Farmer’s Almanac and hang it from a nail in their house or outhouse, be it for reading or for wiping. The custom became common enough that in 1919, publishers started selling it with a pre-drilled hole—and they continue to do so today.

Firmly in “oh no” territory, on the other hand, are pottery shards. Ancient Greeks and Romans used these vaguely circular ceramic fragments, known as pessoi, to scrape their posteriors clean. It’s even been suggested that some pessoi began as ostraka: broken ceramics that ancient Athenians used as writing material. If, for example, your community was deciding whether to exile a certain menace to society, you voted by inscribing the person’s name on an ostrakon. Repurposing these ostraka as dung scrapers is about as insulting as it gets.

On the latest episode of The List Show, host and Mental Floss editor-in-chief Erin McCarthy discusses historical hygiene hacks. From porridge deodorant to pee detergent, the ways people kept clean in the past will make you hug your toiletries extra tight tonight.

From scrapers to corn cobs to Sears catalog pages to Angel Soft…..we have come a long way, baby.

Now are you not pleased that you came to visit?

Thanx for stopping by today and have a great Sunday and as always….Be well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”