Month: April 2026

Taking It To The Streets

Tomorrow is May Day, the international day of the worker, and there should be protests and marches on a global intensity but for this post I want to talk about here in the US.

On May 1st, workers, students, and families across the United States will refuse business as usual in the next national mobilization planned after No Kings. As many as 3,000 events are anticipated across all 50 states, building on more than 1,300 May Day actions last year.

In Chicago, Illinois, the school district officially made May Day a “civic day of action” with instructional time and field trips to the 1pm rally in that city planned. In Guilford County, North Carolina, the board of education voted to provide teachers the option of attending the May Day rally to pressure legislators for much needed resources for the school district. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, more than 160 actions are planned statewide and the state will launch its Truth Commission aimed at documenting human rights violations by ICE agents. In Detroit, Michigan, the City Council passed a resolution declaring May 1, 2026 as May Day, recognizing it as a day to celebrate the power, dignity, and solidarity of working people. In Durham, North Carolina, the Board of Education voted to make May 1 a teacher workday, enabling teachers to attend the rally. Missourians are coming together across the Show-Me state to: protest corporate-backed lawmakers ignoring the will of voters by gutting paid sick days and passing an Everything Tax on working families, grow the movement of service industry workers’ efforts to unionize, halt AI data center developments, and demand corporations like Amazon and Enterprise, headquartered in St. Louis, cut ties with ICE.

Across the country, more than a dozen cities have announced plans for “No Work, No School, No Shopping” modeled off of Minnesota’s day of truth and freedom organized this past January.

May Day Strong is an effort anchored by 500 labor and community organizations making three demands:

  • Tax the Rich: so our families, not their fortunes, come first
  • No ICE, No War: no private armies to serve authoritarian power
  • Expand democracy, not corporate rule

Those demands are backed by the Real Affordability Agenda, a concrete policy blueprint covering housing, wages, health care, education, and worker power with over 100 bills to tax the ultra-rich to fund schools and critical services being presented in state houses across the country.

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/as-many-as-3000-events-anticipated-for-national-may-day-mobilization-as-workers-educators-and-communities-demand-workers-over-billionaires/

There is a massive plan for the May Day celebration…..preparations are being made….

May Day is not just a show of force. It is a test of everything we have been building. May Day is how we build the muscle to keep fighting from May 2 onward.

Workers and communities moving together is the only thing that has ever shifted power away from those who hoard it. That is what May Day is for.

To those defeatists out there they will say this is a waste of time….to them I say….’nothing ventured, nothing gained’….at least people are starting to realize that they need to be heard….to them I say keep shouting.

If the halls of government will not listen then take it to the streets and be heard.

If you are interested in the day then I can help….May Day Strong’s website has a searchable map to help people find May Day actions and sign up to host their own. Signing the May Day pledge is another way to get connected and receive more information about events.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Milestone

I usual check my stats every week as well as my Spam folder and I have been remiss and a bit lazy so it has been about 2 weeks since I last checked….in that 2 week period IST went over 500,000 hits, not breaking any records but I must admit that it feels pretty good to surpass that mark.

I would like to thank everyone who contributed to that stat…..please know that I am so pleased and so happy that you decide to spend a few minutes of your time with me and IST.

Thank you and onto a million visits.

 

chuq

Have They Had Enough?

Almost daily I see where some are predicting that the MAGA movement is losing its luster….most of them I ignore but I did read one that I just have to share with my fellow bloggers….

For those that are abandoning the MAGA there is a new support group….

Donald Trump’s promise of a new MAGA golden age for America is cracking from within. A decade into his rise to power, a growing number of his coalition’s supporters are not just tired — they are walking away.

Rich Logis, founder and CEO of Leaving MAGA, is a former MAGA podcaster and fundraiser, and the author of “One Betrayal Too Many: Why I Left MAGA.” In a speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention supporting Vice President Kamala Harris, he reflected on his experience with MAGA and why he finally left. Now he is going a step further. To encourage defectors from Trump’s coalition, his organization is paying for billboards with messages such as “You are not alone,” “Welcome home” and “Find your new community.” The campaign, which is estimated to cost $20,000, launched April 15 in Texas, and will soon expand to Florida, Pennsylvania and Iowa.

Leaving MAGA, Logis told Raw Story, is experiencing “record-high” fundraising and more MAGA followers are reaching out to the organization “than ever before.” But what is driving them out? His answer is direct and clear: the president’s lies, which Logis described as “Trump’s toxic superpower.”

Other reasons are also piling up. The president’s tariffs, which have in part led to spiraling prices for food, housing, gas and other essentials. His broken promise to end “stupid foreign wars” — followed by a war of choice against Iran. The cruelty of Trump’s mass deportations, which are ensnaring and killing Americans. The Epstein files. Greed and blatant corruption. An image of the president as Jesus Christ, which he proudly shared on April 12 and, after widespread criticism, including from evangelicals, he deleted the following day.

https://www.salon.com/2026/04/28/they-voted-for-maga-now-they-want-out/

Some of the reasons that I read all the time are Donny’s tariffs, prices and unwanted wars…..those would be good reasons for leaving the movement but they were told beforehand what his plans were  for the country and the world….so I guess they thought he was just ‘goofing’ them….like I said they are not the sharpest pencils in the box.

While I was putting this post together I came across another MAGA story….

In an article published on April 28, Salon’s Chauncey DeVega takes a look at MAGA voters who are feeling increasingly frustrated with Trump but psychologically, are having a hard time “leaving” him even though the reasons for doing so are “piling up.”

“Donald Trump’s promise of a new MAGA golden age for America is cracking from within,” DeVega argues. “A decade into his rise to power, a growing number of his coalition’s supporters are not just tired — they are walking away…. The president’s tariffs, which have in part led to spiraling prices for food, housing, gas and other essentials. His broken promise to end ‘stupid foreign wars’ — followed by a war of choice against Iran. The cruelty of Trump’s mass deportations, which are ensnaring and killing Americans. The Epstein files. Greed and blatant corruption. An image of the president as Jesus Christ, which he proudly shared on April 12 and, after widespread criticism, including from evangelicals, he deleted the following day.”

…

DeVega continues, ” Leaving is not easy. For the most committed MAGA members, the movement is all-encompassing. It is their identity, social world and way of life. For many true believers, it means alienating friends, family, neighbors, and leaving the right-wing echo chamber of conspiracism, lies and ‘mass radicalization.'”

According to DeVega, “leaving” Trump and MAGA “will demand rebuilding civic trust between people who have been on the opposite side of a deep moral and political chasm.”

https://www.alternet.org/maga-voters-trump-salon/

Yo Bubba….if you cannot leave then you are in a CULT!  PERIOD!

This article just proves, to me, what worthless sheep the MAGA morons truly are….if they cannot just walk away from a useless POS like Donny then they are truly sheep to the slaughter and they deserve everything that comes their way.

Does any of this bode bad for the movement as a whole?

So is Donny losing his grip on the MAGA morons?

I say no it does not all will be forgiven in time for the next general election….for hate does not just disappear or become replaced with logical thinking.

Sorry just had to let you know what I was thinking as I read that pile of streaming manure.

Whatcha think?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Let’s Try This Stupidity Again

Back in the early days of the 2008 election a couple of guys wanted to build a new independent party (dammit!  I cannot recall what is was called)….their idea was to nominate a Dem and a Repub for a new independent ticket….it was a bomb and at best it was a political scam…..and now almost 20 years later another ‘well meaning’ billionaire has a ‘new’ idea.

Floridians aren’t getting John Morgan on the ballot—but he’s dangling six figures to rebrand their politics. The 70-year-old billionaire ended statewide speculation on Monday by announcing that he would not run for governor, reports Politico. However, Morgan does plan to launch a new state political party and will pay $100,000 to whoever comes up with its name. The contest rules will be laid out in the coming days. One that’s clear: Morgan can afford the reward: Forbes pegs his worth at $1.5 billion.

Morgan, who built the Morgan & Morgan injury law empire, has poured millions into successful ballot measures to raise Florida’s minimum wage and legalize marijuana, earning him the nickname “Pot Daddy.” The former Democrat, who is now registered as an Independent, previously flirted with gubernatorial runs in 2018 and 2024. In his Monday video, Morgan argued that “what ails us is the two-party system,” adding, “Most of us agree on most things, but if you put the D up and the R up, nothing ever gets done.”

Do not be fooled!  This is just another political scam by a billionaire that is hedging his vote in case Donny is shown the door.

Got It!  (Damn!  That took a lot of thinking on my poor brain)

This 2008 attempt was called Unit08

The political reform movement was founded as a non-profit organization by several political figures: Democrats Hamilton Jordan, Gerald Rafshoon, and Republican consultants Doug Bailey and Jim Jonas and the former two-term independent Maine Governor Angus King. Unity08 attempted to leverage online technology, such as secure voting, to allow American voters to determine the most crucial issues facing the country, discuss them with potential nominees, and participate in an online convention to nominate a bipartisan presidential ticket. In an interview that aired on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer in May 2006, Unity08’s founders said that the group was formed in response to the polarization between the Republican and Democratic political parties. The group also cited a poll it commissioned from Princeton Survey Research and claimed that 82 percent of Americans think that the two major political parties are unable to address the country’s problems and that 73 percent of Americans are in favor of alternatives to the two parties.

The group’s status as a non-profit organization came into question when they asked the Federal Election Commission whether the group could defer registering as a political action committee until after its candidates for the 2008 presidential election were named. A draft released by the commission in July 2006 concluded that “Unity08 must register as a policy committee and therefore is subject to the reporting requirements and limitations and prohibitions.”  In October 2006, the commission voted on the matter and declared that the group must register as a political action committee.

It stated goals were….

Unity08 had four major goals:

  • Enable Americans to rank America’s most crucial issues.
  • Empower Americans to draft or evaluate Unity08 candidates and actively engage them in debate about the crucial issues.
  • Empower Americans to nominate a bipartisan Unity ticket via an online convention and secure voting process.
  • Elect the Unity08 presidential ticket to national office.

The Unity08 presidential ticket was to consist of two candidates that come from different political parties. This bipartisan team was to propose a bipartisan cabinet in an effort to end paralysis in government. Co-founder Doug Bailey explained “What we are trying to do is to create a forum for people who are in the middle who have been left out of politics.”

Here is what ‘liberal’ bloggers thought (that would be me)

Liberal bloggers also expressed frustration with Unity08 because they contend that the group promoted “establishment” centrist or center-right politicians in the molds of Joe Lieberman and Michael Bloomberg while at the same time doing little to promote the progressive values it would seemingly represent. Chris Bowers of the political blog MyDD called the group’s supporters “rich, center-right, ‘non-partisan‘ donors who trash progressives and never criticize conservatives in power,” and claimed that the movement has no grassroots support.  Other bloggers also criticized the heavy representation of lobbyists among the organization’s officers.

It failed….why?  Lack of funds for most people saw it for what it was a political scam.

Please do not fall prey to this overt bullshit by a some billionaire to hedge his vote.

I will vote for a third party but it will not be anyone of this caliber.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Economic Inequality

The Dems should be all over this situation but instead they want to mess around with Epstein and other such nonsense none of which will improve the lives of Americans on iota.

Economic inequality should be the priority as elections start coming into view…for instance…

On Saturday, data shared by The Kobeissi Letter highlights a stark divergence in wealth growth since 1976.

According to the post on X, the real wealth of the top 0.001% of U.S. households has surged roughly 3,500% over that period.

By comparison, the top 0.01% and 0.1% saw gains of about 2,200% and 1,200%, respectively, while the average household’s wealth increased by just 200%.

The post also noted a sharp rise in ultra-wealthy households, estimating that about 430,000 U.S. households now hold at least $30 million in net worth, including roughly 74,000 worth more than $100 million.

A large share of wealth at the top is tied to financial markets. “~72% of wealth for the top 0.1% is concentrated in corporate equities, mutual funds, and private businesses,” the post said.

In contrast, lower-income households have struggled to build wealth.

“The bottom 50% of US households had more debt than assets for nearly 2 decades,” the post stated, adding that their net worth turned positive only after 2020, aided by stimulus checks and rising home values.

Summing up the trend, the post concluded: “Asset owners are the only winners.”

https://www.benzinga.com/news/politics/26/04/51903117/us-wealth-inequality-hits-record-high-as-top-0-001-gains-3500-since-1976-while-average-households-lag-at-200

Let’s be honest the plan is to pay workers as little as possible to keep the CEOs rolling in bonuses….

Janine Jackson interviewed Institute for Policy Studies’ Sarah Anderson about “successful” corporations paying poverty wages for the April 17, 2026, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

Janine Jackson: In 2024, Forbes asked, “What Is the Secret to Walmart’s Success?” The answer:

Walmart’s strategy is boring but reliable. The foundation is provided by the scale of the business, creating the fuel necessary to maintain cost leadership.

In 2025, the Economist explained to readers “How Walmart Became a Tech Giant—and Took Over the World.” The answer, well, founder Sam Walton, a “trucker-capped, pickup-driving penny-pincher,” had a simple idea: “Keep costs low, pass savings on to customers, win market share, harness scale to further lower costs, and listen as the cash registers sing.”

Early this year, Inc. Magazine gave us “One Bold Decision Helped Make Walmart a Trillion-Dollar Company.” That story says:

Early this year, Inc. Magazine gave us “One Bold Decision Helped Make Walmart a Trillion-Dollar Company.” That story says:

Most experts see the company’s tremendous growth as a triumph of technology, including AI, and that’s certainly true. Walmart has used its heft, highly efficient warehouse network and the ubiquity of its stores as a competitive advantage.

But oho, the shocker, the big reveal, is that former CEO, Doug McMillon, “visited Walmart stores and asked the people working there what they needed. He listened to their answers and he started paying them more.”

Well, I hope you’re sitting down for this: “To begin with, every associate, as Walmart calls employees, would earn at least $9 an hour and soon move up to $10 an hour.” McMillon took home $27.4 million in 2024.

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-all-about-keeping-wages-at-poverty-levels-to-overpay-their-ceos/

There you have a simple plan….give the voters something that will help make their wallets fatter and you have hit on a winner.

But instead the Dems crawl back to the high dollar donors and become their representatives not those of the people….they will be losers as long as they lay with the dollars.

You can change that but instead you had rather stand on the sideline and wish for change….and whine about your plight.

Not coming as long as you have that kind of attitude.  PERIOD!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

WTF? A UAE Bailout?

This Donny move needs to be spotlighted.

I recently read that Donny is considering a taxpayer bailout of an oil rich country, the UAE….

President Trump said he is considering a financial bailout for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an autocratic state experiencing an economic downturn due to the war in Iran. If the Trump administration does use public resources to rescue the UAE, it will be assisting a country that has partnered extensively with the Trump Organization and the Trump family.

On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that UAE Central Bank Governor Khaled Mohamed Balama “raised the idea of a currency-swap line” during meetings in Washington, D.C., last week with Treasury Department and Federal Reserve officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Officials from the UAE said that they “had so far avoided the worst economic effects of the conflict but might still need a financial lifeline.” According to the Journal, a formal request has not yet been made.

UAE officials argued that the war between the U.S. and Iran could damage the country’s economy and harm its global financial standing. The war has already damaged the country’s oil and gas infrastructure, and Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has cut off oil shipments that are a key source of dollar revenue.

https://popular.info/p/trump-floats-taxpayer-bailout-for

I say bollocks to that!

Donny will do anything for his oil buddies….including throwing taxpayer money at them to preserve his standing with the wealthy.

Let them learn what it is like.

Then after ranting about this situation I read that the UAE is considering leaving OPEC….

The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday that it will leave the oil cartel OPEC and its wider OPEC+ group effective Friday, a move rumored for some time as the Emirates chafed under production restrictions and increasingly had frostier relations with neighboring Saudi Arabia. The UAE has been a longtime member of OPEC, first through its emirate of Abu Dhabi in 1967 and later when the UAE became its own country in 1971, reports the AP. But the UAE has been increasingly trying to leverage its own foreign policy in the Middle East, which has contradicted some positions of Riyadh over time—particularly as Saudi Arabia began to directly challenge the Emirates in trying to draw foreign investment as the kingdom opened up under assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“This decision reflects the UAE’s long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile, including accelerated investment in domestic energy production, and reinforces its commitment to a responsible, reliable, and forward-looking role in global energy markets,” the UAE said via its state-run WAM news agency. “Following its exit, the UAE will continue to act responsibly, bringing additional production to market in a gradual and measured manner, aligned with demand and market conditions.”

Saudi Arabia long has been considered a heavyweight of OPEC, an oil cartel based in Vienna that has seen some of its market power wane as the United States increased its production of crude oil in recent years. Saudi Arabia and the UAE increasingly have competed over economic issues and regional politics, particularly in the Red Sea area. The two countries had joined together in a coalition to fight against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in 2015. However, that coalition broke down into recriminations in late December, when Saudi Arabia bombed what it described as a weapons shipment bound for Yemeni separatists backed by the UAE. Saudi broadcasters long based in Dubai, the economic hub of the UAE, have pulled back to the kingdom in recent months as tensions rose.

Come Friday the UAE will be an independent oil producer…..what will that mean?

OPEC just lost a cornerstone member at the worst possible time. The United Arab Emirates’ decision to walk away from the producers’ group strips OPEC of about 13% of its capacity and one of its few members able to quickly pump more oil—right as war in Iran has shut the Strait of Hormuz and scrambled Middle East alliances, reports the Wall Street Journal. “It’s the hardest blow ever,” Homayoun Falakshahi, a senior oil analyst at commodities data company Kpler tells the newspaper. “It raises the question about whether OPEC can survive.” The sentiment is widespread:

  • It’s “the beginning of the end” for the alliance, Saul Kavonic of MST Financial tells the BBC. The UAE is OPEC’s fourth-largest producer behind Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran, accounting for about 3.6 million barrels a day, or 3% of the global supply, per the New York Times.
  • The effect on prices will be minimal in the short term because of the war, but the longer-term effect is harder to gauge. Greater volatility is one likelihood, per the Times. “But beyond the oil market implications, a deeper fault line is at play,” per Semafor. “The UAE’s move is the latest sign that it is no longer willing to go along with historic alliances it views as unnecessary purely for the sake of harmony.”
  • The nation has been signaling a break with OPEC for a while as its ties with Saudi Arabia in particular have frayed, per Reuters. The UAE no longer wants to be constrained by OPEC quotas, and it “would have both the incentive and the ability to increase production, raising broader questions about the sustainability of Saudi Arabia’s role as the market’s central stabilizer,” analyst Jorge Leon of Rystad tells the outlet.
  • One other common refrain is that the move is seen as a win for President Trump, who has previously complained that OPEC was “ripping off the rest of the world” with inflated prices, per Reuters. The BBC sees the move as opening the door to closer ties between the US and the UAE.
  • The break leaves 11 core members at OPEC, notes the Washington Post: Algeria, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.

Bet prices go up.

Why is no one talking about a taxpayer bailout for a foreign country?

This is going to bite the US in the ass in several ways.

Need I say more?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Story For All Times

Sorry for the delay in posting this but events have been moving rather quickly these days.

Recently with our war with Iran one of our jets was shot down and its pilot was behind ‘enemy lines’ and of course the mentality of no one left behind’ it became a heroic story for the media.

But with Pistol Pete and Donny’s chest thumping another chapter to this saga came out….

It was billed as an awe-inspiring mission that highlighted the astonishing ingenuity and sophistication of the world’s most powerful military.

But now the story of how an American air force crewman of an F-15 fighter jet was rescued in Iran is at the centre of an extraordinary online debate over whether it was all an elaborate smokescreen to cover up a disastrous US attempt to snatch Tehran’s enriched uranium.

One post by a defence commentator on X, which described the official story as ‘nonsense’, has attracted 1.5 million views.

Details of the drama – tailor-made for a Hollywood action film – were given by a triumphant Donald Trump two days after the plane was shot down.

The mission to rescue one airman, he said, involved a staggering ‘air armada’ of more than 155 planes, including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refuelling tankers and 13 rescue aircraft, as well as hundreds of special forces troops.

The actual on-the-ground rescue was carried out under the cover of darkness by a strike force led by Navy SEAL Team 6 – the US military’s most elite unit – and Delta Force commandos flying in on two Special Operations transport planes also carrying small helicopters for the mission.

But a technical foul-up – the planes got bogged down on a muddy runway – allegedly necessitated a second rescue mission with US bombers creating a ring of fire around their makeshift air base to repel Iranian forces.

The missing aviator is now safe, according to Trump, who says the team that extracted him suffered no casualties.

…

But the events surrounding the ‘rescue’ are now being hotly disputed, not least by Iran. So who is telling the truth?

Suspicions about the White House version of events have been fuelled by the lack of information about the rescued air force colonel, the plane’s weapons systems officer, who has only ever been referred to by his call sign, ‘Dude 44 Bravo’.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15730295/Why-believe-mission-rescue-downed-airman-Dude-44-Bravo-really-smokescreen-audacious-attempt-snatch-Irans-uranium.html

Please read the attached article it has a good sequence of events…..

Now is this just a conspiracy theory in the making or is it a truth that is being used to sell the war?

It will make excellent fodder for a made-for-TV movie….maybe that is the plan all along.

Then I saw another story about this rescue plan…..where Donny was eliminated from the decisions…..

Military advisers intentionally excluded President Donald Trump from the command room during the recent high-stakes extraction of a downed American airman in Iran, fearing his erratic temper would jeopardize the mission, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a senior administration official.

The move came during a period of intense agitation for the president. Following the downing of a US jet by Iranian forces, Trump reportedly spent hours screaming at aides in a nearly empty West Wing, haunted by the specter of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. “If you look at what happened with Jimmy Carter… it cost them the election,” Trump privately fretted, according to sources familiar with the matter.

To mitigate the risk of impulsive interference, aides opted to provide the commander in chief with updates only at “meaningful moments,” rather than the minute-by-minute tactical feeds being monitored by the National Security Council.

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-893485

If true it was a wise idea…..

Thoughts?

I Read. I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Bi-Partisan Investigation

Just days ago there was another ‘attempt’ on poor Donny’s life and as usual he and his demented minions ran to the cameras to make some wild statement….playing Donny as a victim they have started blaming….

As if right on key….that blonde bimbo Leavitt did what they always do…..blame the Dems….

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt applauded President Donald Trump’s “calm in the face of chaos” after a suspected shooter attempted to take his life for the third time at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, using the moment not only to condemn political violence but also to press an urgent case for strengthening national security funding.

“President Trump is fearless because he loves this country, and he is willing to put his own life on the line to deliver on the promises that he made to the American public,” Leavitt told reporters, emphasizing that while political disagreements are inevitable, “those disagreements must remain peaceful.”

Her remarks came as she returned to the podium despite plans for maternity leave, saying the seriousness of the “attempted assassination” against the president and other administration officials required immediate public communication about the administration’s response.

Leavitt sharply criticized what she described as the long-running “demonization” of Trump by Democrats, media figures and what she called a “left-wing cult of hatred,” arguing that years of rhetoric labeling Trump a “fascist” or “threat to democracy” have contributed to a climate that enables violence. She claimed the suspected shooter’s manifesto was “indistinguishable” from language commonly seen on social media and in public discourse.

https://abc3340.com/news/nation-world/white-house-press-secretary-karoline-leavitt-blames-democrats-rhetoric-for-inciting-political-violence-after-president-donald-trump-assassination-attempt-correspondents-dinner-ballroom-shooting-suspect-cole-tomas-allen-manifesto-kimmel-first-lady-melania

Then there is the reaction from Congress after the growing incidents of political violence…..

“We need a bipartisan national commission for political violence in this country. I heard Sen. Tillis speak,” he added. “We should look at social media. We should look at mental health issues. We should look at language. But we need to do something to bring the temperature down.”

Moments before Khanna’s appearance, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) spoke to Welker about the need for an end to political violence, describing social media as an “amplifier” and “instigator” that targets “vulnerable people.”

“In many cases, we’re seeing people who are committing these horrible acts have behavioral health and other challenges, stability issues in their lives,” Tillis said, adding that what “American people need to do is take a breath, confirm their facts, talk to their elected officials, think a bit before they judge people.”

Tillis continued, “They all have a role to play. And we in elected office do as well. Our words matter. The weight of our words matter, and we need to be very measured in the way that we use them.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5850124-bipartisan-commission-political-violence-khanna/

Let me save them some time…..this is happening because of the spread of racism, loss of rights and the raping of this country by a megalomaniac and his buddies…..the people are tired of this assault on them and their country.

This is hilarious on the face of it…..this commission will be a toothless tiger it will ramble on with whitewashed bullshit and try to find a scapegoat.

They know what is happening and they are running scared…..as they should.

Bi-partisanship….the great lie of American politics.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Shameful Experimentation

Time for some history….(this is where you can tune out if so desired)….

Most of us old farts remember the horrific medical experimentation done by the likes of Mengele, Eichmann, Himmler, et al.,…these quacks used prisoners as guinea pigs….and they were condemned by the rest of the world as purveyors of genocide.

The sad part is the younger generation cannot seem to come up with one prison camp name…..

In 2025, 48% of Americans ages 18-29 could not name a single concentration or death camp, according to a survey by the nonprofit Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which works to secure compensation and restitution for Holocaust survivors.

Another 53% of surveyed Americans said that they had encountered Holocaust “denial or distortion while on social media.”

Given their ages, approximately 70% of living Holocaust survivors will likely die by 2035. As they do, more and more people will never hear firsthand experiences about the atrocities Nazis perpetuated during the genocide of European Jews.

My research shows that Holocaust education and awareness, though, doesn’t always follow a linear path.

How sad is that?   6 million dead and no one can be bothered to remember them.  But I guess you gotta be old to remember this shit.

The US and others were just as guilty of unethical experiments like Tuskegee Syphilis Trials, the UK’s Porton Down Chemical Trials, and others were also involved…..

Research involving human subjects is littered with a history of scandal that often shapes people’s views of the ethics of research. Often the earliest cited case is English physician Edward Jenner’s development of the smallpox vaccine in 1796, where he injected an eight-year-old child with the pus taken from a cowpox infection and then deliberately exposed her to an infected carrier of smallpox.

Although Jenner’s experiment was, fortunately, successful, the method of exposing a child to a deadly disease in this way would undoubtedly nowadays be seen as unacceptable. Perhaps the most notorious cases of unethical research were revealed during the Nuremberg trials concerning Nazi experiments on concentration camp prisoners. This “research” included involuntary sterilisation, inducing hypothermia, and exposing subjects to diseases such as tuberculosis.

There are also examples of government-run research that took advantage of the vulnerability of the subjects to ensure their participation and which resulted in the subjects experiencing severe harms, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis trials or the UK-run Porton Down chemical experiments in which 11,000 military personnel were exposed to mustard and nerve gas between 1939 and 1989.

https://theconversation.com/human-experiments-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-39876

But one of the most horrendous experiments was done by the CIA, the MKULTRA….

MKUltra[a] was an illegal human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used in altering human behavior.[1] The term MKUltra is a CIA cryptonym: “MK” is an arbitrary prefix standing for the Office of Technical Service and “Ultra” is an arbitrary word out of a dictionary used to name this project. The program has been widely condemned as a violation of individual rights and an example of the CIA’s abuse of power, with critics highlighting its disregard for consent and its corrosive impact on democratic principles.[2]

Project MKUltra began in 1953 and was halted in 1973. MKUltra used numerous methods to manipulate its subjects’ mental states and brain functions, such as the covert administration of high doses of psychoactive drugs (especially LSD) and other chemicals without the subjects’ consent. Additionally, other methods beyond chemical compounds were used, including electroshocks,[3] hypnosis,[4][5] sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, and other forms of torture.[6][7]

Project MKUltra was preceded by Project Artichoke.[8][9] It was organized through the CIA’s Office of Scientific Intelligence and coordinated with the United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories.[10] The program engaged in illegal activities,[11][12][13] including the use of U.S. and Canadian citizens as unwitting test subjects.[11]: 74 [14][15][16] MKUltra’s scope was broad, with activities carried out under the guise of research at more than 80 institutions aside from the military, including colleges and universities, hospitals, prisons, and pharmaceutical companies.[17] The CIA operated using front organizations, although some top officials at these institutions were aware of the CIA’s involvement.[11]

Project MKUltra was revealed to the public in 1975 by the Church Committee (named after Senator Frank Church) of the United States Congress and Gerald Ford‘s United States President’s Commission on CIA Activities within the United States (the Rockefeller Commission). Investigative efforts were hampered by CIA director Richard Helms‘s order that all MKUltra files be destroyed in 1973; the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on the sworn testimony of direct participants and on the small number of documents that survived Helms’s order.[18] In 1977, a Freedom of Information Act request uncovered a cache of 20,000 documents relating to MKUltra, which led to Senate hearings.[11][19] Some surviving information about MKUltra was declassified in 2001.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra

Read this if you are not familiar with the tactics of the CIA and how they manipulated American citizens with horrific experiments.

Do not condemn anyone until you see what the CIA is capable of doing….

Korean prisoners of war in the 1950s were subjected to early MK-ULTRA experiments while in American custody, according to recently declassified CIA documents which confirm these experiments for the first time.

The only reporting that previously referenced Koreans being used as guinea pigs for these experiments was journalist John Marks’s landmark 1979 book, The Search for the “Manchurian Candidate.” Using CIA documents, Marks traced the now-infamous MK-ULTRA project to its start, when it was known as Project Bluebird. In the book, Marks describes how, in October 1950, 25 unnamed North Korean POWs were chosen as the first test subjects to receive “advanced” interrogation techniques, with the overt goal of “controlling an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against such fundamental laws of nature as self-preservation.”

CIA Ran MK-ULTRA Experiments on Prisoners of War in U.S. Custody, Declassified Docs Confirm

I wish I could say that this type of human abuse has been eliminated but I bet that it still goes on and under tight secrecy……use Iraq as an example.

Before you set about condemning the nazis just look around the US has been no better.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Shots Fired!–Update

Yesterday I wrote about the drama at the ‘Correspondents Dinner’……a Donny drama…..in case you need a refresher…..

Shots Fired!

There is now more that can be said…..

As usual Donny had to dash in front of the cameras and make it into a drama that he could exploit….

The man suspected in a shooting outside Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner—described by President Trump as a “sick person”—was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, two law enforcement officials told the AP. “When you’re impactful, they go after you. When you’re not impactful, they leave you alone,” Trump, safe and uninjured and still in his tuxedo, said at the White House two hours later. “They seem to think he was a lone wolf.” There was no immediate indication of any other involvement, and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said she had “no reason” to believe anyone else was involved. Video posted by Trump showed the suspect running past security barricades as Secret Service agents ran toward him.

“There does not appear to be any sort of danger to the public at this time,” Bowser said at a separate news conference. All officials protected by the Secret Service were evacuated. Those in attendance included Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio—and many other leaders of the Trump administration on a night when the nation is at war with Iran. “Today we need levels of security that probably nobody has ever seen before,” the president said. But he also said, “We’re not going to let anybody take over our society.” After an initial attempt to resume, the event was scrapped for the night and will be rescheduled. A law enforcement officer was shot in the bullet-resistant vest but is expected to be OK, several sources say. The suspect was allegedly armed with guns and knives when he stormed the lobby outside the ballroom where the event was taking place, as Trump was seated onstage

The president commended the Secret Service and suggested that the shooter wasn’t close to breaching the ballroom, the AP reports. Trump, describing what was going through his mind as the shots rang out, said he initially believed it was a tray being dropped, noting that the noise was “quite far away.” But the first lady, he said, was “very cognizant” that it was a shooting. “I think she knew immediately what happened,” the president said, recalling that his wife told him, “That’s a bad noise.” He said he wanted the dinner to continue, but law enforcement preferred it to be rescheduled. He also struck a somber tone, telling reporters that being president is “a dangerous profession” and that attempted violence against him is “part of the job.”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said charges related to Saturday night’s attack will be filed shortly, and that the nature of the charges would be obvious considering what had happened at the dinner. Blanche stressed that “the investigation is obviously ongoing and just started.” FBI Director Kash Patel, flanking Trump, said the agency is examining a long gun and shell casings recovered from the scene, as well as interviewing witnesses from the dinner. He urged anyone with information to come forward.

What about the alleged shooter?

Social media posts that appear to match the California man arrested Saturday in the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer. A May 2025 profile photo of Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, appears to match the appearance of the man in a photo of the alleged attacker being taken into custody that was posted Saturday night by President Trump. The photo, posted to the social networking site LinkedIn, shows him in a cap and gown after graduating with a master’s degree in computer science from California State University-Dominguez Hills.

Allen, 31, earned a bachelor’s degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He listed his involvement there in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns. Bin Tang, a computer science professor at California State University-Dominguez Hills, told the AP that Allen took a few of his classes before graduating. “He was a very good student indeed, always sitting in the first row of my class, paying attention, and frequently emailing me with coursework questions. Soft spoken, very polite, a good fellow. I am very shocked to see the news,” Tang said.

A local ABC station in Los Angeles included an interview with Allen during his senior year of college as part of a story about new technologies to help people as they age. He had developed a prototype for a new type of emergency brake for wheelchairs. Allen contributed $25 to a Democratic Party political action committee in support of Kamala Harris for president in 2024, according to federal campaign finance records.

Allen’s online resume says he has worked for the last six years at C2 Education, a company that offers admissions counseling and test preparation services to aspiring college students. A 2024 post on the company’s Facebook page listed Allen as the company’s teacher of the month. The company did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday night. Allen also posted that he had developed a video game for the Steam platform based on molecular chemistry. A post under Allen’s name said he was working to develop a new “top-down shooter” combat game set in outer space.

That explains everything….he donated $25 to Harris campaign….

How long will Donny harp on this event….how long can he extend the drama and his victim-hood?

He started immediately using it to further his warped agenda.

All these supposed chances and no one is good enough to make good on the attempts…..bollocks!

Someone on social media wrote….stop interrupting my night unless he is dead…..a cold hard truth these days.

Since I refuse social media I will let my dear friend Pete let you know the skinny…

Bad Acting

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”