Month: September 2025

Last Week At The Sh*t Show–07Sep25

Another week of craziness some of it bordering on silly coming out of Foggy Bottom….a week of chaos, lies and at some point silliness.

The past week was filled with more threats at American cities, the renaming DoD, killing people in boats, more threats and chest pounding….

The best report for me was the request for donations for Donny….

In late August 2025, online users claimed an official fundraising email from U.S. President Donald Trump asked for $15 donations and began, “I want to try and get to heaven.” Snopes received reader emails about this matter, and users also searched our website for information.

One X user shared a screenshot of the purported message, and wrote (archived), “Trump sent out an email at 8 am this morning saying ‘I want to try and get to heaven.’ Pretty weird to send out when you’re trying to reassure people that you’re healthy!”

An official, Trump-led political action committee truly sent the email with the “get to heaven” subject line, in which he asked supporters for $15 donations. In the message, Trump said God saved him during the July 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, and told supporters to “never surrender.”

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fundraising-email-heaven/

Do you really someone that causes all this chaos in heaven?

Donny has said that no American troops would be in Ukraine and now a work around….. 

Donald Trump is in talks with European allies about allowing armed contractors to help build fortifications to protect American interests in the country.

The plan is being devised as a workaround after the US president promised that American troops would not be stationed in Ukraine.

US contractors could be deployed to help rebuild Ukraine’s front-line defences, new bases and protect US businesses.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/08/30/trump-talks-deploy-private-army-ukraine/

Then the White House released a letter of Donny’s ‘Life Lessons’…..

Read them for yourself…..

https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-releases-bonkers-list-of-trumps-11-life-changing-lessons/

I would have thought he would have said for us to take up golf for a better life.

Donny has claimed that he ended 7 wars in 7 months….but has he?

As President Donald Trump tries to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, he has been highlighting his track record in peace negotiations since starting his second term in office.

Speaking at the White House on 18 August, where he was pressed by European leaders to push for a ceasefire, he claimed: “I’ve ended six wars… all of these deals I made without even the mention of the word ‘ceasefire’.”

The following day the number he cited had risen to “seven wars”.

The Trump administration says a Nobel Peace Prize is “well past time” for the “peacemaker-in-chief”, and has listed the “wars” he has supposedly ended.

Some lasted just days – although they were the result of long-standing tensions – and it is unclear whether some of the peace deals will last.

Trump also used the word “ceasefire” a number of times when talking about them on his Truth Social platform.

BBC Verify has taken a closer look at these conflicts and how much credit the president can take for ending them.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y3599gx4qo

I guess we can give him a pass on 5 of those ‘wars….after all he was sitting president at the time of the ceasefire.

It has been 7 months (seems like an eternity) since Donny took office…..and as per his usual self he has had the Mexican two step of the mouth….these are the dumbest until now….

Whether you love him or hate him, Donald Trump is undoubtedly unafraid to speak his mind – even if it means getting ridiculed mercilessly by the internet.

From the invention of “covfefe” (does anyone know what that is yet?), to the claim that you “can’t be too greedy” (and don’t we know it), there’s truly no shortage of comedy gold that leaves the president’s mouth.

So, naturally, we’ve rounded up the 25 stupidest things Donald Trump has ever said… subjectively, of course.

In Trump’s first joint address since taking office in January, he praised his own stance on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives, tax cuts and trade tariffs. But, viewers were quick to point out the moment that saw the president claim that the Biden administration had spent $8 million dollars to make “mice transgender”.

(There is so much more…..read on)

https://www.indy100.com/politics/trump/donald-trump-most-stupid-quotes-funny-biden-2673963343

It is good to be the president files…..

In what Public Citizen called “the greatest corruption in presidential history,” US President Donald Trump and his family added $5 billion in cash to their fortunes this Labor Day as his new cryptocurrency was opened to the public market.

The currency, known as WLFI, is owned by World Liberty Financial, a company founded by the president’s sons, Donald Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump. A Trump business entity owns 60% of the company and is entitled to 75% of the revenue from coin sales.

Crypto is now the dominant source of Trump’s wealth. As an investigation by the anti-corruption group Accountable.US found last month, “President Trump’s net worth could roughly be $15.9 billion, with about $11.6 billion in uncounted crypto assets,” meaning that the digital currencies now make up 73% of his total net worth.

In addition to the tokens owned by World Liberty Financial, it found that two Trump-affiliated companies owned 80% of the $TRUMP meme coin as of May and had collected over $324 million in fees since Trump took office in January.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-5-billion-crypto

Another Sunday and more the same…..please if you feel like going out and enjoying the day…..please….as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–06Sep25

Another week ends and another of my now famous ‘Dump’….

Local–Good news is the weather has been cooler than normal….bad news is there is a storm brewing that for now is heading in our direction….all we can do is watch and hold our breath.

Personal–In the past 2 weeks I have had a bunch of Playstation Spam in my folder….I have never written nor research video games I guess they just like my style…LOL

My respite from the cancer stuff is near over…..after a month being off I return for more poking and prodding, doctors, treatment, and assorted irritating visits.

Enough mundane stuff…..time for the grits and the gravy…..

Let’s begin with the debate over plant-based or meat…..

The US has deployed at least nine warships toward Venezuela, and some US officials have suggested in comments to Axios that the operation could be “Noriega part 2,” referring to the 1989 US invasion of Panama that led to the ouster of Manuel Noriega. Maduro has vowed to fight if the US attacks, warning on Monday that he will declare a “republic in arms.”

Consider protein as Lego pieces,” says Rahul Kamra, Keto Coach And Founder of Ketorets.

“They are composed of amino acids, which are the fundamental components of life,” he adds.

Ginni Kalra, Head Dietetics at Aakash Healthcare, adds, “Proteins are a nutrient that our body needs for growth, repair, and energy. Plant proteins are present in foods like dals, beans, soy, nuts, and seeds. Animal proteins are present in milk, curd, eggs, chicken, meat, and fish. Both supply essential amino acids to the body, but in different amounts.”

https://www.ndtv.com/lifestyle/is-plant-protein-better-than-animal-protein-experts-weigh-in-9203164

I still prefer my meat.

Of course with all the stuff around processed foods there had to be another study….

A new study suggests that diets high in ultraprocessed foods may negatively affect not just overall metabolic health, but also male reproductive health. In their research published Thursday in the journal Cell Metabolism, scientists from the University of Copenhagen enrolled 43 healthy men, ages 20 to 35, and assigned them to alternating three-week diets: one rich in ultraprocessed foods and another featuring mostly unprocessed ingredients, with a three-month break between phases. All meals were provided to control calorie, protein, carb, and fat intake.

Despite matching calories across the two diets, men gained roughly 3 pounds and increased body fat when eating ultraprocessed foods, while also showing declines in sex hormones linked to fertility—specifically, lower levels of a follicle-stimulating hormone. They also showed trends toward reduced testosterone and sperm motility. The ultraprocessed diet also led to higher levels of the chemical cxMINP, a phthalate often found in plastics, which the authors suggest could contribute to the observed hormonal changes. “Calories from minimally processed foods and calories from ultra-processed foods are not equal, so to speak,” study co-author Romain Barres tells the Washington Post. “They don’t have the same consequences on our bodies.”

The study also noted that men eating unprocessed diets had higher levels of lithium, seen as a positive (it helps regulate mood), but also slightly elevated mercury and PFAS chemicals, likely from seafood and cookware, respectively. Ultraprocessed foods—think chips and other packaged snacks, sugary cereals, and soft drinks—now make up more than half of Americans’ daily calories. These foods are engineered with additives, refined grains, and little fiber, making them shelf stable and not as expensive, but also less nutritious.

I do not have much to worry about for my snacks are mostly fruit, nuts and cheese.

More health stuff…..research into cancer and its treatment….

Colorectal cancer is unique in having its own microbial “fingerprint,” according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK and the second deadliest. The research, which appears in Science Translational Medicine, could help doctors better understand how this cancer develops, how aggressive it might be, and even how a patient might respond to treatment.

The team studied (WGS) data from nearly 9,000 cancer patients. The analysis also challenges scientific claims that all cancers are associated with a unique microbial fingerprint.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09-dna-analysis-colorectal-cancer-unique.html

Then we have Sperm Bots….to help treat fertility problems….

A team of researchers at the TechMed Center of the University of Twente has transformed real sperm cells into tiny, magnetically controlled microrobots. These sperm bots can now be tracked in real time using X-ray imaging, a breakthrough in medical microrobotics.

This development, now published in npj Robotics, could open new doors in , drug delivery, and infertility diagnostics.

Sperm cells are naturally fast, flexible swimmers that can navigate the complex environment of the female reproductive tract, making them promising candidates for use in medical microrobotics. Sperm cells are nearly impossible to see inside the human body using traditional imaging methods like X-ray. They’re small, low-density, and nearly transparent to radiation.

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-sperm-bots-cells-coated-magnetic.html

We have been remembering Hurricane Katrina after 20 years….there is one sad problem that still persist….

Two decades after Hurricane Katrina, Alabama’s Dauphin Island is facing a stark reality: It’s literally washing away. The 14-mile barrier island, which took a massive hit during Katrina in 2005—losing 1.5 miles of its west end and more than 300 homes—has continued to erode, battered by storms and rising seas, reports CBS News.

Locals, including Mayor Jeff Collier, now contend with a shrinking landmass and an uncertain future. Some residents still pay taxes on lots that are now underwater, with vacationers swimming over what used to be neighborhoods. Collier says plenty of homes are still standing, albeit in precarious positions—some basically in the Gulf—but admits it’s just a matter of time before they, too, are washed away.

Efforts to keep Dauphin Island above water aren’t cheap. Last year, the town managed to rebuild some of its east end beach using Deepwater Horizon settlement funds, pushing the Gulf back by up to 400 feet. But erosion is relentless, and another major restoration—this time on the west end—carries a $60 million price tag. The town is scrambling for funding, cobbling together grants and settlement money, and upgrading its stormwater systems to handle even routine rainstorms.

A sad report for in my youth Dauphin Island was a popular road trip destination.

I am a dog persaon and I write a lot about them but I realize that there are cat people coming to IST as well and I will try to do better in informing them as well….

Cats can suffer from dementia as well as us humans…..

Many cat owners don’t realize that just like humans, cats can suffer from dementia. A recent paper has even found many similarities between feline and human dementia, finding that cognitive impairment may develop in similar ways.

Some of the symptoms of dementia in cats are even similar to what we might see in humans—though not all of them, of course. Knowing what signs to look out for is important so you can provide your cat with the best care during this phase of its life.

Feline cognitive dysfunction syndrome (also known as feline dementia) is an in a cat’s cognitive abilities. It’s generally characterized by behavioral changes that cannot be attributed to other .

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-cats-dementia.html

Well sports fans that does it for me on this Saturday…..go out and enjoy the nice weather (if there is some in your area) and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

The Loss Of A Pet

For my last post of this week I thought I would write something that does not involve Donny or is sick supporters.

There are things in our lives that bring on grief and one that hits some the hardest is the loss of a beloved pet.

For some it is a heartbreak that is hard to overcome.

But why is this?

Losing a pet cuts deeper than most people expect. The silence in the house is heavy, every corner reminds you of what’s gone, and even the smallest habits feel undone. Anyone who has lived with an animal knows the absence is not just about them—it’s about a part of you no longer there. The constant presence, the steadiness you leaned on, disappears in an instant.

So, how long does that absence stay sharp? There isn’t a fixed answer. Grief doesn’t move by the calendar. It rises and falls, sometimes gently, sometimes suddenly, and it looks different for everyone. What we do know is that grief has a shape, and there are ways to carry memory forward while leaving room for healing to take hold.

When a pet is gone, the loss shows up in the smallest parts of the day. The morning walk doesn’t happen. The food bowl stays in the corner. The greeting at the door never comes. What you lose isn’t just the animal but the rhythm of living alongside them.

For people who spent most of their day with a pet—especially those at home—the silence can feel endless. Older adults and anyone living alone often feel it even more, because that companionship gave shape and purpose to their days. And for many children, saying goodbye to a pet is the first time they face what loss really means.

Grief doesn’t disappear overnight, but small steps can ease the weight. Some people write out their thoughts or address letters to the pet they’ve lost, finding relief in putting feelings on paper. Others set up a corner of the home with a framed photo, a planted tree, or an object that keeps the memory close.

What often helps most is talking with people who understand. Friends might not know what to say, and you may hear “it was just a pet,” which cuts deep. That’s where support groups, online communities, or even a good therapist come in. And if other pets are still in the house, keeping their routines steady can steady you, too.

In time, the sharpest edges of grief fade, but the bond doesn’t vanish. Living with the loss often means finding ways to keep your pet present in daily life. Some people foster or volunteer, channeling their love into helping other animals. Others keep smaller rituals, like greeting a photo in the morning or holding onto a favorite toy, as a way to stay connected.

At some point, you may think about bringing another pet home. That choice is personal and comes on its own timeline. A new animal doesn’t replace the one you lost, but it begins its own story alongside the memory that never leaves.

(alwayspets.com)

My dogs have helped me through some rough times in the past and their loss put a hole in my soul.

Coping with the loss is a personal thing similar to the loss of a family member (which the pet is in my mind).

Time really does not heal the wound of a loss….at least it has not for me.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scrbo”

Is Your Vote Still Secret?

One of the great things about voting is that it is done in secret and only you know where you placed your vote….but is all that about to change?

The Trump administration has stepped up efforts to obtain personal information about tens of millions of voters across the country, including seeking sensitive data such as partial Social Security numbers.

The push, overseen by the Department of Justice, comes as President Donald Trump asserts a larger federal role in elections ahead of next year’s midterms, which are set to determine which party controls Congress during his last two years in the White House.

In recent weeks, state election officials have received letters from Harmeet Dhillon, who oversees the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, seeking unredacted copies of states’ voter registration databases. The information includes voters’ names, birthdates, addresses, and driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.

The agency has told states that the information is necessary to ensure compliance with a federal law that requires states to maintain accurate voter registration rolls.

But some state officials who have received the missives argue that the Justice Department is overstepping its authority, given that states, and not the federal government, run elections and carry out voter-roll maintenance. Election officers in several states are refusing to comply with the demands, citing the need to guard voters’ privacy.

“We’re going to fight as far as we have to against this,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, told CNN in an interview. “I’m not going to give up the personal identifying information of my voters. It’s just not going to happen.”

State officials such as Fontes say they already have procedures in place to review the accuracy of their voting lists on a rolling basis. Any dataset about voters that states might send to the federal government would offer just a snapshot in time of a state’s voting population, and the information quickly becomes out of date, he added.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/01/politics/trump-voter-demands-social-security

I can understand the reasoning behind the voter ID initiative but this is just out right a crime…..your vote should be a secret unless you want the world to know your decision.

Just another nail in the coffin of voting rights being driven by Donny’s personal security force….the DOJ.

Too many Americans accept this invasion into their privacy under the guise of fighting voter fraud…..a fake crisis used to control the outcome of elections and punish those that may vote against Donny and his creepy band of sycophants.

Why do the mentally challenged allow this invasion of rights to continue….are they that stupid?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Finally An EO That Makes Sense

Today Little Donny will make it official by using his Magic Sharpie yet again to sign an EO renaming the DoD as the Department of War….something I have been writing for several years….

President Trump plans to sign an executive order Friday to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War, his latest effort to project an image of toughness for America’s military. The Republican president can’t formally change the name without legislation, which his administration would request from Congress. In the meantime, the AP reports that Trump will authorize the Pentagon to use “secondary titles” so the department can go by its original name. The plans were disclosed by a White House official, who requested anonymity ahead of the public announcement, and detailed in a White House fact sheet.

The Department of War was created in 1789, the same year that the US Constitution took effect. It was renamed by law in 1947, two years after the end of World War II. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth posted “DEPARTMENT OF WAR” on social media after the executive order was initially reported by Fox News. Trump and Hegseth have long talked about changing the name, and Hegseth even created a social media poll on the topic in March. Since then, he has hinted that his title as defense secretary may not be permanent at multiple public events, including a speech at Fort Benning, Georgia, on Thursday. He told an auditorium full of soldiers that it “may be a slightly different title tomorrow.”

In August, Trump told reporters that “everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War. Then we changed it to Department of Defense.” When confronted with the possibility that making the name change would require an act of Congress, Trump told reporters that “we’re just going to do it.” “I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that,” he added.

he move is just the latest in a long line of cultural changes Hegseth has made to the Pentagon since taking office at the beginning of the year. Early in his tenure, Hegseth pushed hard to eliminate what he saw as the impacts of “woke culture” on the military by not only ridding the department of diversity programs but scrubbing libraries and websites of material deemed to be divisive.

This will take Congressional vote to become a permanent thing…..any bets on the outcome?

Yet more policies to return the US society to the years before WW2 when everything was good….women had few rights, segregation was the rule of the day, history was taught by mental midgets…..all just where Donny wants the country to be.

I agree with the decision to rename the DoD….I agree in principle but not in reasoning.

In case anyone is interested on why the War Department became the Defense Department in 1949 here is a bit of history and the thinking that was behind the original change.

“There was never a unified cabinet level defense secretary of war. There was a secretary of war, but that was the secretary of the Army,” Lee said. “The War Department did not run the nation’s wars. It ran the nation’s Army at war.”

https://taskandpurpose.com/history/what-is-the-department-of-war/

While I like the idea of naming the positioon because it is more in war than defense I do not see this as a positive step coming from this administration.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Now It’s Window-Gate

I am exhausted trying to keep up with the stupid and arrogant crap that comes out of the White House these days….7 months and the mind is on overload….

The newest thing is crap being thrown from the White House…..

President Trump said Tuesday that a video circulating online that showed items being tossed out of an upstairs window of the White House was created with artificial intelligence, despite his press team seeming to confirm the veracity of it hours earlier. Trump, who has boasted of being an expert in building design as he takes on remodeling projects at the White House, told reporters that the video has “got to be fake” because the windows, he said, are heavy and sealed shut, per the AP.

  • The video, which circulated Monday, appears to show a small black bag and a long white item being tossed out of a window on the building’s east side. Trump blamed the video on AI, saying the creation of fake videos was one of the downsides of the technology, but then said, “If something happens that’s really bad, maybe I’ll have to just blame AI.”
  • Hours earlier, the White House seemed to verify that the video was real when it told several news outlets that inquired about the video that it was “a contractor who was doing regular maintenance while the president was gone.” The White House didn’t respond to a message later Tuesday about the discrepancy.
  • Trump denied that the windows can be opened and said, “I know every window up there.” He went on to claim each window weighs about 600 pounds, and that “you have to be pretty strong to open them up.” After Trump viewed the video on the phone of Fox News reporter Peter Doocy, the president again said the windows are sealed and blamed AI.
  • Hany Farid, a digital forensics and misinformation expert at UC Berkeley who reviewed the video, said he didn’t detect any digital watermarks that are sometimes inserted into images at the point of AI generation. “The shadows in the scene, including the shadow cast by the tossed bag, are all physically consistent,” Farid says. “The motion of the waving flags have none of the telltale signs that you often see in AI-generated videos. The overall structure of the White House appears to be consistent.”
  • Former first lady Michelle Obama, in a 2015 appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, seemed to gripe about the White House window situation, noting, “The windows in our house don’t open.”

I see we have a new culprit to which he can attach blame…..AI…..was he tired of using ‘fake news’?

Just another crazy lazy day in DC.

Geez I love this useless stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is There Any Doubt?

For several months there has been a meme going around that Repubs are pushing a white nationalist agenda….of course that meme has been disputed by conservs….

This is from a speech given by a MAGAt Repub rep from Missouri, Sen. Schmitt…..given to a conserv meeting….

At the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Republican Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri proposed a new direction for his party—essentially arguing for the self-styled “party of Lincoln” to abandon Lincoln for white nationalism.

Schmitt’s speech took issue with the “old conservative establishment” for embracing legal immigration, instead positing that there are select true Americans to whom the country belongs.

“That’s what set Donald Trump apart from the old conservatism and the old liberalism alike: He knows that America is not just an abstract ‘proposition,’ but a nation and a people, with its own distinct history and heritage and interests,” Schmitt said. The Continental Army soldiers at Valley Forge, Pilgrims at Plymouth, pioneers in Missouri, and “Kentucky settlers repelling wave after wave of Indian war band attacks,” Schmitt said, “believed they were forging a nation—a homeland for themselves and their descendants.”

“America, in all its glory, is their gift to us, handed down across the generations. It belongs to us. It’s our birthright, our heritage, our destiny,” the senator continued. “If America is everything and everyone, then it is nothing and no one at all. But we know that’s not true.”

He went on: “When they tear down our statues and monuments, mock our history, and insult our traditions, they’re attacking our future as well as our past. By changing the stories we tell about ourselves, they believe they can build a new America—with the new myths of a new people. But America does not belong to them. It belongs to us. It’s our home. It’s a heritage entrusted to us by our ancestors. It is a way of life that is ours, and only ours, and if we disappear, then America, too, will cease to exist.”

…

Schmitt failed to include any nonwhite people in the true-American pile. He did, however, include his German ancestors, who came to America in the 1840s: a time when, he omitted to mention, arriving European immigrants were met with no shortage of nativist challenges to their American-ness.

(rawstory.com)

Reading what this jughead had to say leaves no doubt what he thinks of everyone that is not a W.A.S.P.

Is there any doubt?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Stirring The Pot Of Conflict

Recently the US attacked a boat off the coast of Venezuela that was said to be carrying members of a drug cartel….but was it?

And then the DoD head, Hogsbreath stated that it may not be the onbe and only such attack.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Wednesday didn’t rule out the possibility of the US military pursuing regime change in Venezuela and suggested more US strikes on boats in the region were coming.

Hegseth made the comments in an interview on Fox News on Wednesday morning, the day after the US bombed a boat in the Southern Caribbean that it claimed without evidence was carrying drugs, marking the first US kinetic military action in the name of combating drug trafficking, though the real purpose of the attack may be part of a new push to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

“We have assets in the air, assets in the water, assets on ships because this is a deadly serious mission for us, and it won’t stop … with just this strike,” Hegseth said. “Anyone else trafficking in those waters who we know is a designated narco-terrorist will face the same fate.”

When asked if the goal was regime change in Venezuela, Hegseth said that was a “presidential decision” and added that “we’re prepared with every asset that the American military has.”

Brandan P. Buck, a historian and Foreign Policy Research Fellow at the Cato Institute, told Antiwar.com that it was unlikely the Trump administration would have much success trying to combat drug trafficking with military strikes.

“The US military’s strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat is a significant escalation in the long and failed war on drugs. It is unclear if the administration’s goal of deterring drug trafficking through lethal force will be achieved, but such a strike is unlikely to succeed in this way,” Buck said. “As long as the United States remains a multi-billion-dollar drug market, criminal organizations will continue to take risks for massive profits. One strike on one drug-running boat is unlikely to change that calculus.”

Buck also noted that it was unclear what the administration’s real goal is. “The strike also raises alarming questions about its true near- and long-term objectives. It is plausible that the Trump Administration is using the strike as a trial balloon for expanded military action against cartels throughout the region, or against the Maduro regime in Venezuela,” he said.

…

The US has deployed at least nine warships toward Venezuela, and some US officials have suggested in comments to Axios that the operation could be “Noriega part 2,” referring to the 1989 US invasion of Panama that led to the ouster of Manuel Noriega. Maduro has vowed to fight if the US attacks, warning on Monday that he will declare a “republic in arms.”

(antiwar.com)

This is just another muscle flexing exercise that could very well get out of hand.

Does the US really need to be more involved in the failed War on Drugs?

After 50 years of this war and billions spent and the drugs are still coming…..how long must these cretins waste time and money?

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

“I Ain’t Dead”

Over the weekend social media exploded with all kinds of conspiracies on why Donny had not been seen or heard from in a couple of days…..but never fear he had something about these conspiracies….

Sometimes it feels like barely an hour can go by without hearing from President Trump. So when he didn’t appear for one day, then two, then three, speculation started to swirl online about his health. Not even a few glimpses of the president visiting his golf course over the weekend were enough to stanch the social media rumor mill fueled by political opponents. Trump was asked directly about it Tuesday at his first public event in a week, the AP reports. “How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?” asked Fox News’ Peter Doocy. “Did you see that?” “No,” the 79-year-old Trump responded flatly. The senators and administration officials gathered around him for the Space Command headquarters announcement shifted their weight and smiled.

The president said he wasn’t aware that people were wondering if he had died, but he had heard there were concerns about his health. “I knew they were saying, like: ‘Is he OK? How is he feeling? What’s wrong?'” Trump said, calling the speculation “fake news” and saying he “was very active over the weekend.” Recently, Trump has been seen with bruising on the back of his right hand, sometimes poorly concealed with makeup, and swelling around his ankles. The White House has said Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, which means veins in the legs can’t properly carry blood back to the heart, causing it to pool in the lower legs. It’s a fairly common condition for older adults.

As far as the bruising, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it’s from “frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin,” which Trump takes regularly to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. Trump pointed out Tuesday that he gave a few interviews during the days when he wasn’t appearing publicly, plus he was posting on Truth Social, his social media site. He wrote some “long Truths,” as the posts are known, and some “pretty poignant Truths.” In one of those posts, from Sunday, he said he “NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE.” On CNN Tuesday morning, anchor Audie Cornish had a short discussion about the topic, the AP reports. “At one point the term ‘Trump is dead’ was trending on social media,” Cornish said. “Not true.”

So all that wishful thinking by so many was for naught.

I am sure that the conspiracies will remain just subdued for now.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Donny Changes Presidents

During his first presidency Donny was all a tither over Andrew Jackson….I think because Jackson loved being a bully….and now in his second term Donny has a new idol, McKinley.

In his first term, President Trump’s favorite commander-in-chief, other than himself, was Andrew Jackson, the hatchet-faced, self-made populist who relished turning Washington upside down. Now he’s partial to the barrel-chested, unfailingly polite William McKinley, a champion of American expansionism as well as of tariffs, Trump’s favorite second-term policy. Trump’s shift, rather than merely swapping one infatuation for another, demonstrates how his mindset and priorities have evolved, the AP reports. The Republican president’s admiration for McKinley fits with his current politics, which are different from when Trump first took office in 2017. A key political target for Trump back then was the elites, which his administration predicted might crumble in the face of a Jackson-like working class uprising.

In his second inaugural address, Trump lauded McKinley as a “natural businessman” who “made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent.” Trump used a Day 1 order to restore the name of North America’s tallest peak to Mount McKinley and he has repeatedly named-checked the 25th president more recently, while his weighty tariffs have left the world bracing for the kind of trade war not seen since the days of the McKinley Tariff Act of 1890. The White House says the shift isn’t a departure from Trump’s first-term goals, but simply his leaning harder into new tools—in this case, tariffs—to achieve them.

“President Trump has never wavered from his commitment to putting working-class Americans above special interests, and his channeling of President McKinley’s tariffs agenda is indicative of how he is using every lever of executive power to deliver for the American people,” said spokesman Kush Desai. The president’s Jacksonian impulses aren’t all dormant. He imposed some first-term tariffs and now is shaking up Washington with his efforts to slash the federal workforce and stock the bureaucracy with loyalists. He’s also prioritized antagonizing “elites” at Ivy League universities and top law firms.

(Click for more, including the other side of McKinley’s tariffs that Trump doesn’t mention.)

He adores McKinley because basically of tariffs…..but McKinley mismanaged so many things during his tenure as leader of the ‘free world’….

It is true that the self-styled “tariff man”—his political opponents preferred the more derisive “Napoleon of protection”—was the biggest public face of mercantilism during America’s high-tariff era of 1870–1912. As a congressman, he wrote what came to be known as the “McKinley tariff” of 1890, and as president he signed another increase in 1897.

But a funny thing happened after the U.S. came out of the Panic (and subsequent four-year depression) of 1893: Goosed by sharp increases in domestic iron and copper production, Americans had too many goods chasing too few consumers. And McKinley himself began agitating to tear down some of those trade barriers

“What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must have a vent abroad,” he said in September 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. “The excess must be relieved through a foreign outlet, and we should sell everywhere we can, and buy wherever the buying will enlarge our sales and productions, and thereby make a greater demand for home labor. The period of exclusiveness is past,” he continued. “The expansion of our trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial wars are unprofitable….If perchance some of our tariffs are no longer needed, for revenue or to encourage and protect our industries at home, why should they not be employed to extend and promote our markets abroad?”

McKinley’s presidency was ended by an assassin’s bullet the very next day.

Even before his late-life pivot to freer trade, McKinley had long been a champion of reciprocity, i.e., the bilateral, mutually beneficial reduction of targeted, asymmetrical tariffs. Or, as he put it in his first inaugural address, “the opening up of new markets for the products of our country, by granting concessions to the products of other lands that we need and cannot produce ourselves, and which do not involve any loss of labor to our own people, but tend to increase their employment.”

https://reason.com/2025/04/06/trump-is-wrong-about-mckinleys-tariff-legacy/

Who will get the nod next year?

He picks the worse to emulate….but that is always expected…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”