Month: January 2026

IST Saturday News Dump–31Jan26

A very cold day in South Mississippi and what better time than a news dump?

Local–For the first time in a very long time the Gulf Coast has experienced 7 days straight below freezing weather…….today at 0600 it is 19 and high is predicted to be 31….may not seem much to some but for the Deep South it is a big deal.

Personal–Monday I have a full day (yet again) of doctors….I will find out the results of my last biopsy….I am dreading that encounter.

Do you want to live to 100?

People who don’t eat meat may be less likely than meat eaters to reach the age of 100, according to a recent study. But before you reconsider your plant-based diet, there’s more to these findings than meets the eye.

The research tracked over 5,000 Chinese adults aged 80 and older who participated in the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, a nationally representative study that began in 1998. By 2018, those following diets that don’t contain meat were less likely to become centenarians compared with meat eaters.

On the surface, this appears to contradict decades of research showing that plant-based diets are good for your health. Vegetarian diets, for example, have been consistently linked to lower risks of heart disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. These benefits come partly from higher fiber intake and lower saturated fat consumption.

So what’s going on? Before drawing any firm conclusions, there are several important factors to consider.

https://www.sciencealert.com/study-finds-meat-eaters-are-more-likely-to-live-to-100-but-theres-a-catch

Functional Synthetic Life….

While the world was busy arguing over AI-generated art and essays, a team at the Arc Institute and Stanford University was training AI on a much more complex language: the code of life itself. In a breakthrough study published on the preprint server bioRxiv scientists revealed they have successfully used generative AI to design viable bacteriophages — viruses that hunt and kill bacteria.

Traditional genetic engineering is a painstaking grind of trial and error. We’re often limited by our own “human” understanding of how thousands of genetic parts interact. To bypass this bottleneck, researchers turned to Evo, a new class of “genome language models.”

Just as ChatGPT predicts the next word in a sentence, Evo was trained on millions of pieces of genetic information to predict the next nucleotide in a DNA sequence. Evo 1 used ~2.7M genomes, Evo 2 used a curated atlas of 128k organisms (with 9.3 trillion nucleotides). By learning the “grammar” of viral evolution, the AI can begin to innovate, proposing holistic genomic architectures that have never existed in the wild.

The researchers used a well-known virus called ΦX174 as their template. It’s a tiny, elegant predator that infects E. coli bacteria. This virus is called a bacteriophage, meaning bacteria-eater. By “prompting” Evo with a few snippets of ΦX174 DNA, they generated thousands of synthetic candidates. After a rigorous digital filtering process, they took 285 of the best designs and physically synthesized them in the lab.

https://www.zmescience.com/science/biology/ai-generative-design-new-virus-species/

What could go wrong?

Water Water Everywhere……for many years we were taught that the water here on Earth came to us via the many meteor strikes in the early…..but is that fat?

For many years, planetary scientists have believed that water-rich meteorites arriving late in Earth’s history (OK, the time might be late to the researchers, but it’s still 4 billion years ago) could have delivered most of Earth’s water. But in a paper (https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2531796123) published in the Proceedings to the National Academy of Sciences, researchers led by Tony Gargano at the Lunar and Planetary Institute and The University of New Mexico analyzed a large number of Apollo lunar regolith samples using high-precision triple oxygen isotopes

They can’t do the same with Earth because tectonics and constant crustal recycling have erased the meteorite bombardment record. But the Moon is stable with no atmosphere, and therefore no weather. So, it has maintained an archive: lunar regolith, the loose layer of debris produced and reworked by impacts over billions of years.

Ever since the Apollo missions brought back lunar samples, scientists have analyzed that material by studying elements abundant in meteorites but scarce in the Moon’s crust. But lunar regolith is difficult to decipher. First, meteorite impacts can melt, vaporize, and rework material repeatedly. Second, geological processes after those impacts can separate metal from silicate, which complicates trying to figure out the type and amount of material that came from meteorites.

Did Earth’s water really come from meteorites?

This is a disturbing find about our children….

An alarming proportion of kids just starting school are baffled by how books work.

In a new survey of primary, or elementary, school staff conducted by the UK charity Kindred Squared, the teachers estimated that nearly a third of students in reception class — the equivalent of pre-school in the US — did not know how to correctly use books. At times, some children even tried to swipe or tap the pages like a smartphone, reported Sky News.

It’s sounds incredible, but it’s not the first that we’ve heard of the bizarre phenomenon. The Kindred researchers define “using” books separately from literacy, and instead focus on a child’s ability to intuit turning the pages, rather than trying to interact with them like a touchscreen. Even though 44 percent of parents believe this is something a child should be able to do, the reality according to the 1,000 surveyed teachers is that 28 percent of them can’t. Teachers in the survey, which focused on other aspects of school readiness beyond reading, also said that around a quarter of children weren’t toilet trained and couldn’t eat and drink on their own.

The findings are a grim reflection of how smartphones have taken over our lives and will add to the concerns over screen time’s impact on a child’s development. Parents are themselves addicted to their devices and pass their bad habits along, spawning whole generations of “iPad babies.”

https://futurism.com/future-society/children-schools-books-like-phones

I apologize for the brevity of this post today but I had to deal with a family crisis….hopefully all will be back to normal soon.

Enjoy your Saturday…..keep warm and smile.

As always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

On The Way To The Fed

Over a year now Donny has been doing nothing but bad mouthing the Fed and now he has his chance to modify it to his way of thinking.

President Trump has made his choice for Fed chairman. The president, who teased the announcement Thursday night, said in a Truth Social post Friday morning that he is nominating economist Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor, to replace Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May.

  • “I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best,” the president wrote in a lengthy post listing Warsh’s accomplishments. “On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting,’ and he will never let you down.”

Warsh was a finalist in 2017 but lost out to Jerome Powell, who was renominated by Joe Biden in 2021. Trump later turned on Powell and has repeatedly said he regretted not picking Warsh, the Wall Street Journal reports. “Kevin, I could have used you a little bit here. Why weren’t you more forceful when you wanted that job?” Trump said at an event in 2020. “I would have been very happy with you.” Warsh, 55, became the youngest governor in Fed history in 2006.

Warsh served as a Fed governor during the 2008-2009 financial crisis and has since become one of the institution’s sharper critics. He was long a “hawk” who pushed for higher interest rates to control inflation but has more recently changed his position and pushed for faster interest rate cuts, aligning with Trump’s position, the AP reports. Warsh, once a free-trade advocate, has also lined up with Trump on tariffs, a position that could ease tensions between the White House and the Fed if he’s confirmed. The BBC reports that Warsh has a family connection to Trump: His father-in-law is billionaire businessman Ronald Lauder, a longtime Trump donor.

Confirmation is not guaranteed, the Journal notes. The Senate must sign off, and Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican on the Banking Committee, has vowed to block Trump’s Fed nominees while the Justice Department investigates Powell’s testimony about Fed building renovations—an inquiry Powell has described as a pretext to force lower rates. Warsh emerged as Trump’s favored candidate over National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett and two other finalists, BlackRock executive Rick Rieder and current Fed governor Christopher Waller.

Do not get excited yet….he is nominated but not confirmed by Congress.

If confirmed will he be just another Trump puppet?

But he has an ever changing opinion and that tells me he will most likely do whatever Donny boy wants…I do not see him stand up against a Trump onslaught….

Do You?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

SCOTUS Will End Democracy

If you have been paying attention you will see just how SCOTUS under the leadership of a political hack, Roberts, has been stripping away the powers of Congress and subverting the course of democracy.

Over the past several decades, the Supreme Court has slowly whittled down the power of Congress and, in large part thanks to President Donald Trump’s chaotic second term in office, has already managed to dethrone Congress’ role as the most powerful branch of government, argued legal scholar Duncan Hosie Tuesday.

“For now, the supernova of Donald Trump’s presidency has muted this systemic conflict in public view,” Hosie wrote in an analysis published Tuesday in The Atlantic.

“His second term – defined by galloping abuses of executive power buttressed by Trump v. United States – has played out against a Republican Congress and Republican Court aligned, if not enthralled, with him. But this alignment is likely temporary and contingent. Should a Democratic Congress return, the conflict will roar back into view.”

That conflict, Hosie argued, is the Supreme Court’s decades-long “power grab” to strip Congress of its ability to check the power of the executive branch, define rights for Americans, and even make laws — a “power grab” that has only accelerated during Trump’s second term. And, in large part to Trump’s unprecedented tenure in the White House, the “power grab” is going largely unnoticed, Hosie wrote.

“The short-term convergence of the branches should not obscure the larger transformation: Congress is no longer the first branch of government,” Hosie wrote. “The same gale-force winds of polarization that split Congress into warring camps has also produced a Republican-appointee-dominated Court systematically constraining congressional power while expanding its own.”

The threat of the Supreme Court’s ongoing “power grab” was so dire, Hosie warned, that it could very well bring about an end to the United States’ “constitutional democracy.”

https://www.rawstory.com/supreme-court-2674879295/

This exactly the outcome that the outcome that I have been warning about over the past decade (probably longer)….this is just what will happen when political hacks are nominated then confirmed….they are destroying democracy and helping those that are doing the deeds in every way they can.

If these people cannot do their part at preserving this democracy then it is time to get rid of them and start over….when I say ‘get rid’ I mean remove them from office in any fashion that is necessary.

If they continue down the path they have chosen it will not be long to there is nothing left of the nation we built over the past 250 years.

Time for a change!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Sacrificial Lambs

With all the chaos created in Minneapolis has stared getting out of hand our Little Donny steps in to crush his own people….

Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem met with President Trump in the Oval Office for two hours Monday evening, reports the New York Times. It’s seen as the latest sign of Trump’s quick pivot on Minneapolis after a bipartisan backlash over the shooting of protester Alex Pretti. Noem’s job appears safe, according to the Times, but she has been essentially replaced in Minneapolis by border czar Tom Homan. Also out of Minneapolis is Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino. Both he and Noem, along with Stephen Miller, had quickly painted Pretti as a domestic terrorist out to kill federal agents, but the backlash ensued when video and eyewitnesses contradicted that narrative.

Trump fielded calls on Sunday from Republicans including Sen. Lindsey Graham warning him that the White House’s immigration agenda was at risk because of the grim TV images, and that Trump needed to make moves quickly, reports the Wall Street Journal. Getting rid of Bovino was an easy first step, per Axios. “He’s a cowboy, and it was a mess,” a source familiar with the president’s thinking tells the outlet. “It was only escalation, and no one was going to back down. Homan going in is a good thing. Someone needed to step in.”

Trump also adopted a much friendlier tone toward Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after the two spoke by phone on Monday. The Journal reports on part of a deal they struck: Trump would pull some federal agents out of the city if Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey provided more cooperation to the remaining agents who are trying to arrest people in the US illegally. The first agents are expected to leave on Tuesday. House Democrats, meanwhile, plan to open an investigation into Noem next week as part of a push to impeach her, reports the Washington Post.

What is this sick game Donny is playing?

He creates chaos and then when it goes too far he tries to look concerned and sacrifices some people around him…..

Or does create chaos first in LA then Chicago and other points until the disaster of Minneapolis and then he calls off his goons and moves them to the next victim city….is this a tactic to make a case for the Insurrection Act?

How much more pathetic can Donny get…..don’t answer that we know he is not finished.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Whose Oil Is It Anyway?

Do you think that once Saddam was executed and the oil starting flowing again that the resource was turned over to the Iraqi people…..if so think again….

Now that the Iraqi government elections did not turn out the way the US wanted their only source of income is being threatened….

Iraq had a parliamentary election in late 2025, with the results ratified in mid-December. This, as usual, led to a scramble to try to form a majority coalition out of a large number of political parties that gained meaningful seats in a situation where the plurality was only 11.74%, far short of the ability to form a government without a slew of partners.

This is always a challenge, and involves a lot of internal compromise over cabinets and coalition structure. The US, however, is making this dramatically more challenging by threatening to withhold materially all of Iraq’s oil revenue from the Iraqi government if the coalition isn’t to their satisfaction.

The US is able to do this, because in post-occupation Iraq, their oil revenue is held in US dollars at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, right where the US can easily get at it or restrict its transfer to the Iraqis whenever the mood suits them.

Shi’ites have a majority of the seats in Iraq’s parliament in practice. That’s no surprise as they are the majority of the population. Carving out a coalition of Shi’ites is easier said than done, however, because many of the parties are at odds with one another. Adding to that, the US has decided that Shi’ite parties that are still aligned with armed factions are “Iran-backed” and therefore “incompatible with building a strong partnership between the United States and Iraq.”

In practice this means that the threat is if the government includes any of the Shi’ite blocs which the US considers “Iran-backed” then Iraq will immediately lose all of its oil revenue for displeasing the US.

It’s a bigger problem then it seems on the surface, because the major Shi’ite blocs almost all have some ties with militias in some form or another. The expectation had been that the State of Law Party might parlay their 6% vote and fourth place finish into a return to power for former premier Nouri al-Maliki. Controversial given Maliki’s past, it is also seemingly impossible to argue that State of Law isn’t aligned with armed factions.

A lot of big parties have some ideological and practical ties to the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), which are Iran-backed and while nominally integrated into Iraq’s own military, it’s almost impossible for any meaningful Shi’ite faction to not have any ties to them.

The PMU were historically scores of smaller militias, generally Shi’ite, generally Iran-aligned, and they merged over a decade ago to counter the rise of ISIS, which seemed convenient at the time, but which the US now seems to see as politically unpalatable.

This is not the first time the US has threatened to use their de facto control over Iraq’s oil revenue to coerce them. In 2020 after the assassination of Qassem Suleimani, Iraq threatened to expel US forces from Iraq in protest, and President Trump at the time threatened to seize their oil revenue in retaliation if they did so.

US Threatens To Cut Iraq Off From Oil Revenue Over Government Composition

I post this to posit a question….is this type of blackmail what the Venezuelan people have to look forward to in the future…..if their elections do not turn out the way we want we steal their oil from them?

At least Iraqi oil revenue is held in the Federal Reserve and not like Venezuelan oil which is in an offshore account where Donny can get his grubby hands on easily.

And now Iran is being threatened….and they have a huge reserve of oil….will they be the next in a long line for thievery?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Are Tariffs Still A Good Idea?

One more time for the mentally slow.

Well no but then I have never thought that they were a good idea….but there are some out there that will defend the tariffs as a good idea for raining cash for the US….but those are the least intelligent amongst us.

According to a new study, of the $200 million the United States made from President Donald Trump’s tariffs in 2025, 96% was paid by American buyers. The study drew from data covering over 25 million transactions valued at nearly $4 trillion.

A major selling point of President Trump’s series of tariffs on other countries was that they would pay the United States for their imports and, in turn, boost the American economy. However, the study, published by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany, found the opposite occurred.

“The 2025 US tariffs are an own goal: American importers and consumers bear nearly the entire cost. Foreign exporters absorb only about 4% of the tariff burden—the remaining 96% is passed through to US buyers,” the report stated.

The study claims that while U.S. customs revenue surged by approximately $200 billion in 2025, trade volumes collapsed, and export prices did not fall. The study cited the tariff hikes the U.S. imposed on India in August 2025.

“We compared Indian exports to the US with shipments to Europe and Canada and identified a clear pattern,” Julian Hinz, Research Director at the Kiel Institute and one of the authors of the study, explained. “Both export value and volume to the US dropped sharply, by up to 24 percent. But unit prices—the prices Indian exporters charged—remained unchanged. They shipped less, not cheaper.”

Basically, the study found that instead of other countries paying the tariffs to the United States and growing the U.S. economy, American consumers faced higher prices as companies passed the tariffs on to them. The tariffs also reduced trade volumes, meaning Americans not only paid more, but they also had fewer options.

Study: 96% of the $200 Billion the US Made From Trump’s Tariffs in 2025 Was Paid by American Buyers

This study’s findings are exactly what I wrote about when all these useless tariffs were proposed by Donny and his band of idiots.

You are paying that cost of the tariffs….do I need to keep pointing it out or will you still embrace this idiot as some sort of magic genius that will solve all out problems?

If so then you really need to pay attention or at least learn some basic economics….it really is not that hard.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

ICE For The Winter Olympics

We are less than a month away from the winter Olympics in Italy and as usual Donny has a plan to try and fuck up the gathering….

Trump fielded calls on Sunday from Republicans including Sen. Lindsey Graham warning him that the White House’s immigration agenda was at risk because of the grim TV images, and that Trump needed to make moves quickly, reports the Wall Street Journal. Getting rid of Bovino was an easy first step, per Axios. “He’s a cowboy, and it was a mess,” a source familiar with the president’s thinking tells the outlet. “It was only escalation, and no one was going to back down. Homan going in is a good thing. Someone needed to step in.”

Trump also adopted a much friendlier tone toward Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after the two spoke by phone on Monday. The Journal reports on part of a deal they struck: Trump would pull some federal agents out of the city if Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey provided more cooperation to the remaining agents who are trying to arrest people in the US illegally. The first agents are expected to leave on Tuesday. House Democrats, meanwhile, plan to open an investigation into Noem next week as part of a push to impeach her, reports the Washington Post.

(apnews.com)

What part of the Olympics should be a concern for ICE?

What is Donny lame ass game?

With this stupid announcement Italy has responded to Donny’s plan….

Milan’s leader says ICE agents aren’t welcome in the city following reports that they’ll have a role in US security at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics kicking off next week. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the reports Tuesday, per CNN, saying ICE would have a “security role” but would not conduct immigration enforcement operations. ICE said its Homeland Security Investigations division would support the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and the “host nation” to consider risks from “transnational” criminal groups, while conceding that “all security operations remain under Italian authority,” per CBS News.

HSI has helped with security at various international events, including Olympic Games, per the AP. But there’s intense backlash to the plan this year given the international uproar over ICE operations and the killings of US citizens, including Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala on Tuesday blasted the alleged plan, calling ICE “a militia that kills” in an interview with Italian media. He accused the agency of entering homes on its own authority and said there was no guarantee of adherence to Italy’s “democratic security management methods.” “It’s clear that they’re not welcome in Milan,” he said. “We can take care of their security ourselves.”

Veteran Italian lawmaker Carlo Calenda warned the “out-of-control militia … must not set foot in Italy,” per CNN, while former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte urged officials to stop “bowing” to the US. Despite his criticism, Sala acknowledged the diplomatic realities of challenging Washington, asking rhetorically, “Could we ever say no to Trump?” But the answer may be yes. According to the BBC, Italy’s interior ministry insisted Monday that “ICE will certainly not operate on Italian national territory.” The backlash, including several public petitions, intensified after Italian state TV aired footage from Minneapolis that showed ICE agents threatening to smash the windows of a vehicle carrying its crew.

It is sad that Donny creates the chaos on our cities now he wants to do the same internationally.

WTF?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Wicked Witch Of Foggy Bottom

With the chaos that they have created….they are now trying to tamp down the problem…. Blondi has offered a deal to the Gov of Minnesota….

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz demanding the state take three specific actions before federal immigration agents would consider reducing their presence in Minneapolis, including handing over voter rolls.

In the letter, Bondi blamed both state and local leaders for the unrest that has come in response to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations. She said that Walz could “restore the rule of law.”

The letter comes after a Border Patrol agent shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, during a federal immigration enforcement operation. The shooting of Pretti comes less than three weeks after Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot dead by an immigration agent in the same city.

Both incidents have sparked widespread protests and condemnation. In the case of both shootings, conflicting narratives have come from federal and state officials, and video footage taken by bystanders at both incidents has sparked questions and criticism.

Federal agents said that Pretti resisted violently, and Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said that an official fired “defensive shots.” Walz, though, has said that this account is “nonsense” and “lies.”

https://www.newsweek.com/pam-bondi-ice-minnesota-shooting-tim-walz-letter-voter-files-11413859

Walz should send him a finer portrait and say GFY….

Since that will not work Donny has decided to give Walz a call….

It appears that President Trump is looking to lower the temperature on tensions in Minnesota. In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump said he had a “very good call” with Gov. Tim Walz, adding that, “we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength.” As the Hill notes, it’s a notable shift from Trump’s previous criticism of Walz, whom he blamed for inflaming tensions in Minneapolis.

  • Walz has not commented yet on the call, but a spokesman for his office said Trump agreed to consider reducing the number of federal agents in the state, and to speak with federal officials to ensure an independent investigation into the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, per the New York Times.
  • Separately, Trump also announced that he was sending border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to oversee ICE operations in the state, reports Politico. Homan “has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there,” Trump wrote, adding that Homan will report directly to him.
  • Trump said he spoke with Walz about Homan, adding that Walz was “happy” with the move. Homan and Walz are expected to speak directly soon.
  • Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem publicly welcomed the move, saying Homan’s experience would aid both fraud investigations and efforts to remove “violent criminal illegal aliens off the streets of Minneapolis.” Noem has been taking flak on the left and right for her defiant public comments about the violence in Minnesota, including the killing of Pretti.

“Similar wavelength”?  Does anyone serious believe that crap?

You want to believe that your policies are causing the problem and yet you and Walz are on a similar wavelength?

What bullshit is this?

Looks like Donny is back pedaling again…..he recently met with the other witch of Foggy Bottom, Noem….

Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem met with President Trump in the Oval Office for two hours Monday evening, reports the New York Times. It’s seen as the latest sign of Trump’s quick pivot on Minneapolis after a bipartisan backlash over the shooting of protester Alex Pretti. Noem’s job appears safe, according to the Times, but she has been essentially replaced in Minneapolis by border czar Tom Homan. Also out of Minneapolis is Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino. Both he and Noem, along with Stephen Miller, had quickly painted Pretti as a domestic terrorist out to kill federal agents, but the backlash ensued when video and eyewitnesses contradicted that narrative.

Trump fielded calls on Sunday from Republicans including Sen. Lindsey Graham warning him that the White House’s immigration agenda was at risk because of the grim TV images, and that Trump needed to make moves quickly, reports the Wall Street Journal. Getting rid of Bovino was an easy first step, per Axios. “He’s a cowboy, and it was a mess,” a source familiar with the president’s thinking tells the outlet. “It was only escalation, and no one was going to back down. Homan going in is a good thing. Someone needed to step in.”

Trump also adopted a much friendlier tone toward Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after the two spoke by phone on Monday. The Journal reports on part of a deal they struck: Trump would pull some federal agents out of the city if Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey provided more cooperation to the remaining agents who are trying to arrest people in the US illegally. The first agents are expected to leave on Tuesday. House Democrats, meanwhile, plan to open an investigation into Noem next week as part of a push to impeach her, reports the Washington Post.

The narrative is getting away from Donny so it is time to move on to another ‘hot stop’.

This is all a planned tactic I do believe.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Then There Is Minneapolis

Yep the trigger happy goons of ICE have shot and killed another citizen….but that is becoming commonplace.

I watched several different videos and the situation was preventable but apparently the Goons are not trained to diffuse but rather to use deadly force.

There are a few editorials from around the nation.

The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis over the weekend continues to dominate the headlines. Here’s a look at four editorials on the aftermath, and there seems to be a common theme from both the left and right:

  • “It’s time to de-escalate in Minneapolis, Mr. President,” the editorial from the right-leaning New York Postbegins. It ends by asserting that “the American people didn’t vote for these scenes, and you can’t continue to order them to not believe their lying eyes.” The piece faults Pretti for “clumsily interfering” with ICE agents, but it also levels criticism at the “hasty and misleading rhetoric” coming from the administration about him. It goes after Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem in particular on that front, suggesting she “take a break from her self-promoting and combative TV hits.”
  • In similar fashion, the conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal writes that Trump “would be wise to pause ICE enforcement in the Twin Cities to ease tensions and consider a less provocative strategy.” The editors write that Pretti “foolishly” tried to interfere with ICE agents, but say that he should have been arrested, not killed. It also faults Noem and Trump aide Stephen Miller for their rhetoric. “Their social-media and cable-TV strategy is to own the libs, rather than to persuade Americans.” That puts the burden on Trump himself.
  • The Minneapolis Star Tribune worries that the entire state is at a “dangerous edge” and sees one solution: “What is not open to debate is this: The current ICE surge in Minnesota must be paused. … An ICE pause would not represent abolition. It is governance. It is an acknowledgment that tactics producing sweeping disruption, mounting injury and now multiple civilian deaths are failing their own stated aims.”
  • The New York Times is in sync with the above. “The temperature in Minneapolis is dangerously high,” the editorial reads. “There is an urgent need for the federal agents deployed to the city to step back and take a breath before more Americans are hurt or killed. Those protesting the Trump administration have an equal obligation to avoid violence.”
  • The Washington Post, meanwhile, demands an independent investigation into the Pretti shooting, adding that ICE “needs to be bound by laws, oversight and accountability” and that US citizens “need to be secure in exercising their First and Second Amendment rights without worrying they’ll get gunned down.” Trump tapped into Americans’ concerns about immigration in his reelection, but he’s now guilty of “overreach,” they write. “If Trump won’t change course on his own, can Republicans in Congress save him from himself?”

This is getting out of hand…..these hard solutions to problems are doing nothing to make this country safer….it is creating chaos and that chaos is used to justify the hard nose tactics of the ICE Goons.

The anger that is being felt is expanding….Donny has sent ICE to Maine and they are not being met well at all….

As the Trump administration continues to insist it is targeting violent criminals as it ramps up immigration enforcement operations in Maine—while releasing details about just a small fraction of the more than 100 people federal agents have reportedly arrested so far—residents in the state are expressing growing anger over the operations that have seen their neighbors, friends, and coworkers hauled away in unmarked cars by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In at least two cases in Portland on Thursday, ICE agents pulled drivers out of their cars and left the vehicles running in the street.

A crowd gathered as agents detained a Lyft driver near the University of Southern Maine, with residents calling the masked officers “Nazis” and demanding, “If you’re so proud, show your face!”

“Rot in hell!” one person yelled, while others said, “Fuck you, Nazis!”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/ice-agents-in-maine

Will Donny and his ICE Goons incite another riot in Maine?

This is starting to look like a tactic…..swoop in create havoc then depart before it gets even worse….so far it has been LA, Minnesota, and most blue areas….is he looking for that one that will push Americans to the brink and he can invoke the Insurrection thingy?

Why are you still sitting on the sidelines?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Mississippi–The Old Switch-A-Roo

WE all know the game the GOP is playing with gerrymandering….they are making it so that any minority vote is diluted given them a win.  My state did so recently in the Northwestern part of the state to try and nullify the minority vote because it is a bastion of liberal voters.

There attempt went to Federal Court and it did not turn out well for them…

A federal court has ordered Mississippi to redraw its 2022 state legislative maps in several areas after concluding those maps unlawfully dilute the voting strength of Black Mississippians.

Civil rights advocates challenged the maps and showed at trial that the maps violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Plaintiffs presented extensive expert testimony and testimony from Black Mississippians from across the state to show that the political process in the challenged legislative districts was not equally open to Black voters.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Mississippi, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Mississippi Center for Justice, and civil rights attorney Carroll Rhodes filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP and voters from across the state.

The court ruled that multiple new Black-majority districts should have been created — at least two in the state Senate and one in the state House. In the absence of Black-majority districts, stark racial polarization, combined with the history of racial discrimination in the state and other factors, deprives Black voters in the state of the right to participate equally in the political process, in violation of Section 2.

The ruling, issued last night, requires the creation of new Black-majority Senate districts in the areas around DeSoto County in Northern Mississippi and in and around the city of Hattiesburg, and a new Black-majority House district in Chickasaw and Monroe counties.

Federal Court Orders Mississippi’s State Legislative Maps to Be Redrawn

Now the state GOP is asking what to do, what to do?

One state senator thinks he has a ‘good old boys’ alternate plan….

State Senator Michael McLendon has introduced new legislation that would offer state grants to encourage state and local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Senate Bill 2329, known as the Mississippi Glacier (ICE) Act, creates a first-of-its-kind state grant program to support Mississippi law enforcement agencies that partner with ICE through the federal 287(g) program. The bill establishes a dedicated fund to reimburse local agencies for costs tied directly to enforcing federal immigration law, including detention bed space, equipment, training, travel, and lodging.
“Mississippi is not going to pretend illegal immigration is someone else’s problem,” said Senator McLendon. “If you are here illegally, we are going to work with ICE to detain you and send you back to the country you came from, which more often than not is a far greater punishment than jail.”
Under the legislation, only agencies that formally partner with ICE through a signed 287(g) agreement are eligible for funding. Grants will be awarded by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety on a first-come, first-served basis, ensuring fast and efficient support for agencies that are willing to help enforce federal immigration law.
The Mississippi Glacier (ICE) Act creates a special fund within the State Treasury to ensure long-term, stable support for participating agencies.
McLendon said SB 2329 is also a direct response and solution to the burdens illegal immigration places on taxpayers and already crowded local jails throughout Mississippi.
“Housing illegal immigrants is costly,” said McLendon. “This bill will help alleviate that burden on sheriffs and county governments so that money can be used to hire more deputies, buy more equipment or improve infrastructure.”
Currently, the federal 287(g) program allows state and local agencies to assist ICE through task force, jail, and warrant service models. SB 2329 is designed to dramatically expand Mississippi’s participation in all three, effectively creating a statewide force multiplier for ICE.
The Mississippi Glacier (ICE) Act would take effect July 1, 2026, if passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor.
(desototimes.com)
Now I look for the lies to start to make it out like that area of the state is a haven for ‘illegals’ and crime riddled….that will be the excuse to bring in ICE to intimidate the citizens of these liberal bastions within a deep red state.
If this is successful look for other red states to implement some form of this tactical lie….
Crafty old farts, huh?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“Lego ergo scribo”