Day: July 22, 2025

Gypsies, Tramps And Thieves

First of all this is NOT some tribute to Cher….

I watch a lot of European mysteries and most have some sort of gypsy, traveler, Roma character in them…..and most times they are portrayed as ‘scum’ you know untrustworthy….I always wondered why this feeling.

2021 Census included a “Roma” category for the first time, following in the footsteps of the 2011 Census which included a “Gypsy and Irish Traveller” category. The 2021 Census statistics have not yet been released but the 2011 Census put the combined Gypsy and Irish Traveller population in England and Wales as 57,680. This was recognised by many as an underestimate for various reasons. For instance, it varies greatly with data collected locally such as from the Gypsy Traveller Accommodation Needs Assessments, which total the Traveller population at just over 120,000, according to our research.

Other academic estimates of the combined Gypsy, Irish Traveller and other Traveller population range from 120,000 to 300,000. Ethnic monitoring data of the Gypsy Traveller population is rarely collected by key service providers in health, employment, planning and criminal justice.

Roma defined–Roma (Gypsies) originated in the Punjab region of northern India as a nomadic people and entered Europe between the eighth and tenth centuries C.E. They were called “Gypsies” because Europeans mistakenly believed they came from Egypt. This minority is made up of distinct groups called “tribes” or “nations.”

So that lead me to the history of the Roma…..

It is frequently said in discussions about the enormity of the Third Reich’s crimes that there is insufficient attention to the mass murder of Roma. This is indisputably true. Yet it is misleading to merely add several hundred thousand Romani victims to the six million Jews annihilated by the Nazi terror apparatus. The deaths of these men, women, and children, murdered as “Gypsies,” cannot be reckoned in terms of an “also,” an “in addition to,” or “it cannot be overlooked that. . . .” One must not consider their destruction as an addendum to the Judeocide at all. While the Hitler regime’s targeting of Roma in several European countries during World War II coincided and intersected with the Holocaust, the former derived from a form of racism distinct from genocidal anti-Semitism. To understand anti-Roma racial hatred, one must examine the longer history of Roma in European culture. This article, the first of a series, prepares the groundwork for such an inquiry.

At the outset, it is important to challenge some long-held and deeply entrenched stereotypes and misnomers about Roma or, more precisely, Roma and Sinti (often “Roma” is used as a category encompassing both). The place to begin with challenging these falsehoods is with the very word “Gypsy.” Now mainly deemed a slur, the English “Gypsy,” like the Spanish “Gitano,” reveals an old, false assumption: that this is a people who originated from Egypt. Historical research has long refuted this belief. Roma and Sinti can be traced back to India, to the Punjab region. The Romani language (the source for the appellation “Roma”) is related to Sanskrit. More than a thousand years ago, they began to migrate out of India, heading westward in successive waves. They crossed the Middle East and arrived in continental Europe in the later Middle Ages.

…

This dynamic of fascination and hatred, still relatively new in European history, entered a new phase in the last third of the nineteenth century with the emergence of race theory. The attempt by race thinkers like Arthur de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain to divide humans into distinct races within frameworks of superiority and inferiority, the effort to explain culture and behavior by recourse to biology, and the fear of “race-mixing” would have terrible consequences for Romani communities.

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/roma-european-culture

If you would like to know more….The second part of this series….https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/bavarian-precedent-roma-european-culture

A more in-depth look at the culture in the UK…..

https://travellermovement.org.uk/gypsy-roma-and-traveller-history-and-culture

Answered a few of my questions but at the same time created more.

Anyone that would like to share anything on this subject please feel free to comment.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

BURDEN Act

Another excellent idea from the Dems…..but will this fly?

For decades I have been criticizing the government on their double standards toward healthcare….you see the elected people get full coverage health plan and yet they do not want the rest of us to have such a luxury…..why?

The recent bill that Donny has signed into law did a lot of cutting of different benefits and the eyes of conservs is on Medicare….but now the House Dems have put forth what I think is an excellent ideas…..

In response to Republicans’ new law giving tax breaks to the rich while gutting the social safety net, U.S. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi on Thursday introduced legislation that would force members of Congress “to personally comply with the same burdensome work requirement paperwork they imposed on low-income Americans.”

Under the Illinois Democrat’s Bringing Unfair Reporting Duties to Electeds Now (BURDEN) Act, federal lawmakers “would be barred from enrolling in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program unless they submit monthly proof of ‘community engagement,’ the same bureaucratic reporting required of Medicaid recipients,” his office said.

Krishnamoorthi’s two-page bill would also force members of Congress to file the same paperwork as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients to verify eligibility, employment, and income. The proposal comes less than two weeks after President Donald Trump signed congressional Republicans’ budget reconciliation package.

The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act is expected to leave 17 million Americans without health insurance, and, according to an Urban Institute analysis, an estimated 22.3 million families are projected to lose some or all of their SNAP benefits.

“President Trump’s reckless ‘Large Lousy Law’ forces millions of vulnerable Americans to jump through hoops just to keep food on the table or get the medical care they need,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement. “If congressional Republicans think these burdens are appropriate for struggling families, then members of Congress should shoulder them too. The BURDEN Act simply says, if you want taxpayer-funded health coverage, prove you meet the same standards you’re imposing on the American people.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/big-beautiful-bill-medicaid

I would have like to see a bill that would make the officials responsible for their own health plan…..that is until the rest of the country gets their consideration from these lay-abouts.

AS long as this has come up…..what about making a case for single payer plan?

Privatization of publicly funded Medicare and Medicaid, managed care, and “value-based payment”1 have failed to reduce cost or improve population health despite over 30 years of trying, and a new paradigm for health policy is needed. This article summarizes key health policy concepts and the implications of different payment systems and offers recommendations for design of an optimally cost-effective system enabling universal high-quality care at lowest cost.

Key Concepts

1. Should Health Care be Financed as a Public Good or with Market Competition?

Public funding is appropriate for essential public services necessary for everyone—funded by taxes and paid for with budgets based on cost of operations, with no opportunity for profit or loss. Examples include police and fire departments, public schools, the military, roads and bridges, and government services. Health care should be added to this list. Other industrialized countries with far more cost-effective universal systems treat health care as a public good, not a commodity.

Marketplace financing uses competition, market forces, private enterprise, and opportunity for profit and risk of loss. This works well for consumer goods, industry and manufacturing, hotels and restaurants, fuel and food production, and housing (except for those in poverty). These are appropriately subject to market forces, but health care is not.

2. Ethics: Professional vs Commercial Ethics

…..read more….

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/22/365176/

Single payer or Medicare For All, gets my vote then the health table will be equal for all Americans….sad that some do not want that to ever happen.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Tariffs To The Left….Tariffs To The Right

Since our boy Donny has taken office he has imposed tariffs on most of the world….from an island populated by penguins to the nation of China, which has tariffs already of about 145%….all because Donny wants to punish China for its one sided trade with the US.

Consumers are started to see prices increase as these tariffs start taking effect.  But just how badly is these policies hurting the Chinese economy?

China’s economy has shown strong growth in the first half of 2025, growing by 5.3 percent despite ongoing trade tensions with the United States. The growth rate has exceeded Beijing’s targets, showing the resilience of the world’s second-largest economy.

According to The Washington Post, the impressive economic performance comes as Chinese manufacturers have increased their exports during a temporary pause in the trade war. This surge in exports has been a key factor in supporting China’s economic growth, as both customers and producers took advantage of the trade war ceasefire.

Trump’s decision to increase tariffs to 145 percent in April has proven ineffective in slowing China’s economic progress, while American consumers face significantly higher prices on everyday goods due to these tariff policies. The Chinese economy has defied Washington’s expectations, weathering the trade war better than many U.S. officials had predicted.

Following the May truce that helped ease trade tensions, negotiators from both countries are now working to transform the temporary agreement into a permanent trade deal, though Trump has already made significant concessions to China in previous negotiations. The deadline for these negotiations has been set for mid-August.

https://wegotthiscovered.com/news/trumps-145-tariffs-prove-useless-as-chinas-booming-economy-defies-washingtons-dire-predictions/

So these extreme tariffs are hurting nobody but the consumer….was that the plan all along?

What Donny and his ‘expert’ panel of morons overlooked is China is a member of the BRICS and as such have a built in trading partners.

BRICS is short for the countries that make up the economic bloc that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and some say South Africa.

I have said all along since the very beginning that these tariffs are not going to save anything on the contrary it will cost the consumer heavily in an economy that does not need more pressure of the consumer.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”