Day: April 29, 2026

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”