Author: lobotero

I have been a radical, labor organizer, writer, lecturer, teacher, analyst, political activist , convention delegate and I still have my sanity--who knew?

So You Want An EV?

Happy Mother’s Day to all my female readers…..may you have a wonderful and relaxing day.

Just another IST FYI post….I am doing the best I can to keep my reader informed and/or entertained….

These days the big push in automotive ads is toward the electric vehicle(EV)….Polestar, Genesis, Tesla and most major automotive brands are push one model or another…..

I had considered it but after a little research I decided against it…..cost being one, few charging stations, and then the price of the battery replacements…..all together it was not very attractive to me.

Then I read an article on EVs…..

If you are considering buying an EV then maybe you should pay close attention to this article….

It’s hard to ignore the big push for electric vehicles. It’s all around us, the talk of the news, and when the government starts offering tax credits, you know they mean business. Electric cars will be our future, whether we like it or not. 

If you’re considering purchasing an electric vehicle (EV), knowing what you’re getting yourself into is essential. With big promises of greener transportation and lower costs, it’s easy to walk in blind. So here are 12 things EV owners need to talk about that we all should know. 

Your average gas-powered car can drive 300-720 miles on one full gas tank. Your average EV range is significantly lower than this. Combining the low range of an EV with the fact that charging infrastructure is considerably lacking, it’s reasonable to worry. Imagine having half a gas tank, only two gas stations within a several-mile radius, and then crossing your fingers that the gas pumps work. I’d be panicking, too. 

I have two kids, and they panic when I stop to fill up with gas, and that only takes around 8 minutes, max. I can’t imagine having to take 30 minutes to recharge an EV every time I need a charge. Who has 30 minutes to dedicate to that in the middle of their day? Not me, that’s for sure. 

https://wealthofgeeks.com/harsh-truth-ev/

In all fairness there is a charging station going in 3 blocks from my house….but it has yet to be finished after 3 months.

Nowadays cost will be a major selling point….with the way things keep rising people will avoid this cash outlay for as long as they can.

Enjoy your Sunday and once again…..Happy Mother’s Day.

As always…..Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–11May24

Another weekend begins and I spent time searching the internet for stories that were missed by the MSM….some mundane, some interesting ans some just plain weird….

Locally things are shaping up to be another extremely hot Summer here in South Mississippi…..our night time temps have been the average high temps for May…..high 90s day and 80s after dark…..sucks.

The good news is the garden that was destroyed by the recent storm is producing tomatoes…. the first ones are in and are delicious.

Shall we begin?

I could not let the politics of the day go by without a comment….RFK, Jr is running for president…..you know him, the anti-vaxxer and all around whack-a-doodle…..he made a statement that I could not let go….

At age 70, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has touted himself as “the model of virility” up against older, less robust rivals, per MSNBC. All the while, he’s been keeping mum on his claim that, as the New York Times reports, a worm ate part of his brain. Kennedy was experiencing mental fog and memory loss in 2010 when he underwent brain scans. Several top neurologists believed he had a brain tumor. But as Kennedy explained in a 2012 deposition, one doctor told him the abnormality “was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”

Around the same time, Kennedy was diagnosed with mercury poisoning, a condition linked to serious neurological issues, likely as a result of eating too much fish, the Times reports. “I have cognitive problems, clearly,” Kennedy said in the deposition as part of divorce proceedings, in which he argued his earnings power was negatively affected by his health problems. “I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss,” he said. He also described contracting hepatitis C through intravenous drug use as a young person, but said there were no lingering effects.

This explains so much.

Until recently I was a life long Formula One racing fan but a few years back I told Sue that it was no longer man against machine and become computer versus computer….these machines tell the driver everything even when they need a tire change…..so I commented just how long would it be before there would driver-less cars in the races.

Well guess what?

Abu Dhabi’s Autonomous Racing League got off to a rough start over the weekend.

The Formula 1-style race, the first of its kind, saw its fair share of blunders and crashes, as The Verge reports, with driverless racing cars spinning helplessly and running off the track. One car even crashed into a wall after turning too early.

In short, it’s a perfect microcosm of our current efforts to develop self-driving cars: the industry’s brightest minds from around the world are still struggling to get a vehicle to reliably complete a lap, even without any other racecars around.

The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League saw eight teams competing, using identical Dallara Super Formula SF23 cars. The vehicles’ 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines can produce around 550 horsepower, and seven Sony cameras provide a 360-degree view from the spot where a human driver would usually sit.

While the cars were the same, each team had its own software engineers writing code and training AI algorithms to have their driverless machines race around the purpose-built Yas Marina Circuit.

In many ways, it’s the natural evolution of Formula 1 racecar driving, given our obsession with driverless vehicles. Who needs those pesky human drivers when you can have algorithms battle it out on your behalf?

https://futurism.com/the-byte/self-driving-formula-1-car-crashes-into-wall-at-first-autonomous-race-event

How long before this becomes the norm rather than the exception?

The tragic story of the three bodies found in Mexico and you will not believe the motive for their deaths…..

Prosecutors say the two Australians and one American killed during a surfing trip to Mexico were likely murdered by thieves who wanted to steal the tires off of their pickup truck. Authorities in Baja California said relatives have confirmed the identities of the three men, whose bodies were found in a remote well near a beach Friday, as Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their friend, American Jack Carter Rhoad. The trio disappeared during a camping and surfing trip along the coast south of Ensenada, the BBC reports. They’d been posting pictures of their adventures before vanishing around April 27, the AP reports.

The thieves “may have been looking for trucks in this area,” chief state prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez says. Spotting the truck and tents, the thieves may have attempted to steal the truck tires when the men came back and saw what was happening. “Surely, they resisted,” the prosecutor says, at which point the suspects shot them—all three had been shot in the head—and dumped their bodies. A fourth body, which had been in the well much longer, was found at the same time as the three men, and authorities say it’s possible the same suspects had dumped another body at the difficult-to-access location after a previous crime. Three people were being questioned in the case.

Okay, how sick is that?

Time for some climate news…..

For millions of years, natural carbon sinks like terrestrial forests and ocean ecosystems have kept the Earth’s atmosphere in a happy balance—then humans came along and mucked everything up. Now, scientists are racing to find ways to clean up the anthropogenic mess we have created over the past two centuries and maintain a planet that’s habitable for future Homo sapiens.

The methods for fixing this problem are as varied as the climate threats we face. One idea is adding baking soda to concrete to help absorb carbon. Another is spreading ultra-fine concrete across agriculture fields to the same effect (while also improving crop yields). Some companies manufacture massive machinery designed to suck up carbon while others focus on creating 2D-structures that can trap greenhouse gasses before the escape from factories across the world.

Now, a new solution by Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University—in partnership with a variety of U.K. universities, as well as the China University of Science and Technology—has created a material that researchers described as a porous “cage of cages,” meticulously designed to capture both carbon dioxide and an even more potent greenhouse gas, sulfur hexafluoride. Using computer modeling to accurately predict how these molecules would form into this nesting doll of cages structure, the researchers created this material from oxygen, nitrogen, and fluorine to help sequester carbon faster than Earth’s natural, tree-based process. The paper was published last week in the journal Nature Synthesis.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a60652670/material-carbon-capture-faster-than-trees/

Can you put a price on health?  Well one company can.

Luxury fitness company Equinox is launching a new membership that costs more money than a lot of people make in a year. The Optimize by Equinox personalized health program will cost $3,000 per month, with the price of basic gym membership bringing the total to at least $40,000 a year, CNBC reports. Equinox says it is partnering with Function Health—a lab test start-up with a mission of helping people live “100 healthy years”—to give members personalized plans on improving health and longevity.

Equinox says Function Health will test for 100 biomarkers, and the gym will carry out its own fitness tests to come up with plans that will include 16 hours a month of coaching and training, including sessions with sleep coaches and nutrition coaches. “It’s the same as Formula One or an athlete, where you are given a team of top experts in all these different verticals, to design a program based on all the data that we collected,” Equinox exec Julia Klim tells CNBC.

Equinox says the program will be rolled out later this month in New York City and Highland Park, Texas, with other US locations to follow. The company was hit hard by the pandemic, when gyms were closed for extended periods, but it said earlier this year that it is getting back on track financially. The company said it had secured $1.8 billion from investors to refinance $1.2 billion in loans and fund an expansion to add dozens of new clubs worldwide, reports the Financial Times.

All I can say is “there is a sucker born every minute”.

A little more health news….

Japanese scientists are set to kick off the world’s first clinical trials of “tooth regrowth medicine” at the Kyoto University Hospital, The Mainichi reports.

Researchers from the Japanese startup Toregem Biopharma are planning to enroll patients who were born missing some or all of their teeth from birth, a condition called congenital anodontia, for the trials.

The patients will receive an antibody treatment that deactivates a protein called USAG-1, believed to stop “tooth buds,” which most people have, from developing into either baby or permanent teeth.

People with the condition conventionally resort to getting implants or dentures. However, Toregem’s treatment could provide them with a “third option,” as co-founder Katsu Takahashi explained in a statement, as quoted by Nikkei Asia.

The team is hoping to treat not only those who haven’t been able to grow teeth from birth, but eventually also those who are simply missing teeth due to cavities as well.

https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientists-test-medicine-grow-new-teeth

All this apprehension over the next election….is it as deep as reported…..this could answer that question…..

Worried about how November is going to go, or if Civil War the movie might come to fruition in real life? Talk to Bill Rigdon, whose company Building Consensus Inc. is tasked with erecting panic rooms, bunkers, and the like for an uneasy population. What he’s being asked most these days is: “‘How can I protect myself with the upcoming election and the civil unrest that I’m watching on the news every day?’ People are scared to death,” Rigdon says, per Fox Business, which notes his specialization lies in “state-of-the-art steel-reinforced concrete structures that are equipped with high-tech mechanical and electric installation.”

Rigdon, a consultant for the 2002 film Panic Room, says there’s always been a healthy demand for his services among celebrities, but there’s been an increase in interest overall over the past several months, especially in New York City. In addition to the ostensibly impenetrable exteriors of his safe spaces, Rigdon’s security plan can incorporate such features as electrified door handles; colored pepper spray that “will temporarily blind the intruders and stain their clothing, making them easier to identify if they try to escape,” per ForumDaily; and even drones that drop nets on those fleeing. It’s not a task for amateurs, Rigdon says.

“I once had a Fox News reporter who had a whole plan for a basement bunker where 13, 14 people could stay for a period of time,” Rigdon tells Curbed. “But there was no bathroom.” The outlet notes that “Rigdon would neither confirm nor deny the client was Roger Ailes.” There have been other periods when experts saw a spike in panic room requests, including during the peak of the pandemic, amid the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, and after the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, when both Democratic and GOP politicians started reaching out to bolster their home security.

It is good to be rich!

Finally the weird news of the week….it has everything to do with underwear….

In 2014, three different countries decided to ban a certain piece of clothing that women often wear. While seemingly controversial at first, especially since the ban was specifically targeted toward women and might seem as if government officials were attempting to control what they wore and how they dressed their bodies, the choice was actually rooted in the well-being of women’s health.

Maybe all women need to reconsider what kind of underwear they wear.

According to CNN, lacy underwear was effectively banned due to new regulations in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, but rather doing it because of modesty, it’s for safety reasons. The regulation requires clothing in contact with the skin to contain at least 6% cotton.

Any underwear below this threshold will not be available in stores, and both production and import of these will also stop in these countries. This regulation is said to be designed to protect consumers against synthetic garments that don’t absorb enough moisture and can eventually lead to skin problems.

https://www.yourtango.com/self/russia-belarus-and-kazakhstan-banned-womens-lace-underwear

Sorry sports fans but that will have to be enough for this Saturday for I have a garden that needs attending to daily.

Hoping you guys have a wonderful Saturday and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–10May24

From time to time I give news from my state of Mississippi not that anyone would give a crap but rather to show just how goddamn backwards it is here in the ‘New South’….

After months of rhetoric the legislature passed a bathroom bill….wasted time and wasted days….but let me ask will there be ‘bathroom monitors’ to see who is using the ‘right’ bathroom?  If so is that not a privacy issue?  Who decides who will be the ‘pervert’ of the day?

Then the worthless bunch of panty waste passed a bill on what is known as ‘squatted cars’….I know….HUH?

Squatted vehicles — also called Carolina Squat — are those whose front fenders are 4 inches or higher than their back fenders, making the vehicles appear to be squatting. Lawmakers say the vehicles pose a danger to the driver and to others on the roads.

Several states throughout the South have banned “squatted” vehicles in recent years. Now, Mississippi is included in that list.

Gov. Tate Reeves signed House bill HB349 into law that prohibits squatted vehicles from public streets and highways. The new law takes effect July 1.

Other states that have banned squatted vehicles include North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Tennessee this year enacted a similar ban, which also takes effect in July. Alabama legislators are currently considering whether to ban squatted vehicles.

Fines for violating the new laws vary from state to state. In Mississippi, citations will come with a $100 fine the first offense. Subsequent violations will come with higher fines. Even though the new law goes into effect July 1, the fines will not start until January, to allow squatted vehicle owners time to have their vehicles put back to their original form. Law enforcement will still issue citations, which will count toward the number of offenses when it comes to the amount of the fines.

(aol.com)

First take a look at the states that have banned these tricked out cars.

Is it me or is it the states with a large black population?

Now I ask….what about all these rednecks and their trucks that are 9 feet off the ground?  Why are those not dangerous?

While we are at it….how about a ban on those 20 foot luxury 4 door pick-ups….no one needs a truck that big.

How about our newest 4th district representative?

Our last election saw the do-nothing representative, Palazzo, lose a bid for re-election to some jerk wad and a bigger douche, Ezell….well Rep. Ezell is in hot water for being stupid….

A Palestinian-American activist is pressing charges against U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell of Mississippi for allegedly assaulting her on Capitol Hill.

Ezell, who is currently running for reelection, was shown in a video posted Tuesday with Sumer Mobarak, a member of a feminist political advocacy group based in California called Code Pink.

One of the activists can be heard asking Ezell about the Israel-Hamas war and whether he thinks Israel should accept a ceasefire proposal or if he wants “this genocide to continue?”

Another person off-camera asks: “You want the killing of my people, my Palestinian people?”

“Oh, why don’t you shut up?” Ezell says in response. “Knock it off!” He then appears to reach out with his hand and knock the cellphone filming him to the ground.

“These China-backed protesters want to harass and intimidate Members of Congress into ending our support for Israel and our opposition to Hamas terrorists,” Ezell said in a statement. “I will not be harassed or intimidated by the Chinese Communist Party, Hamas, or their supporters, and I will continue standing with our Israeli allies against terrorism.”

Code Pink says on its site that “China is not our enemy.” According to a 2023 New York Times investigation, the group—which describes itself as a “feminist grassroots organization working to end U.S. warfare and imperialism, support peace and human rights initiatives”

(mississippitoday.org)

This old dinosaur, Ezell, is using a tired old meme of a communist party.  A question was asked….that is no intimidation in my book…why not not give a straight answer instead of some hilly-billy bully reaction?

Apparently he has to wait for his staff to try and cover his ass for he is too dim to do it himself.

This is what us peasants in Mississippi have to deal with…..stupid waste of time on laws that apply to only a certain quarter of the population.

I hope you have a great Mother’s Day weekend….and as always…..Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Cancellation Of Medical debt

I know people that are trying to pay off their debt for the medical expenses…..it is not easy for them. Why doesn’t someone do something?

Enter Sen. Bernie Sanders…..

Studies have shown that millions of Americans owe a combined $220 billion in medical debt, with 1 in 5 adults saying they don’t expect to ever be able to pay off the bills. A group of congressional Democrats on Wednesday proposed knocking the amount down to zero. “People in our country should not be going bankrupt because they got cancer and could not afford to pay their medical bills,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said Wednesday in a statement. The legislation would remove the debt from credit reports and severely limit future debt from accruing, the Hill reports.

The legislation would cancel existing debt through a new federal grant program, per the Guardian. It would alter the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to keep creditors from collecting old medical bills and change the Consumer Credit Reporting Act to prohibit credit agencies from reporting information about unpaid health care bills. Rep. Ro Khanna, one of the co-sponsors, talked about the stress the debt causes. “I’ve met people who say they’re just resigned to having this debt ruin their credit, and they don’t pay it, but they have this kind of harassment and anxiety while they’re dealing with a chronic condition like cancer or diabetes,” he said.

The burden of medical debt is not evenly distributed. An analysis by KFF Health News found that people with disabilities were more than twice as likely to be in medical debt than those without a disability. In addition, 13% of Black Americans have the debt, compared to 7% of white adults and 8% of Hispanic adults. Ensuring that people are not plunged into debt because they saw a doctor or went to an emergency room is “kind of human decency,” Khanna said.

I applaud Bernie’s bill and its supporters….at least these people are looking out for the American people and not who gets the biggest piece of taxpayer pie.

A great idea in my book….but it will go nowhere in Congress….for you see the insurance industry has buckets of money to throw that those in Congress to do their bidding.

So sad just how screwed up this system is when a debilitating illness can leave you in a refrigerator box under a bridge somewhere.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Dems To The Rescue

Freedom Caucus ideologue MTG has made it clear that she does not want Speaker Johnson to remain in the position and she will lead the charge to oust him from the speakership.

But it looks like her effort was dashed ……Johnson was saved by the Dems….

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s attempt to oust Speaker Mike Johnson was met with boos, laughter, and 359 votes against in the House on Wednesday, quelling the Georgia Republican’s long-threatened revolt. Greene’s measure won the support of only 10 other Republicans and 32 Democrats, 163 of whom backed keeping Johnson while seven voted present. GOP members booed as Greene introduced her measure earlier in the day, the Washington Post reports. When Majority Whip Steve Scalise immediately moved to kill it, nearly all members yelled their approval, with only the voices of Greene and GOP Rep. Thomas Massie heard to say “nay.” Laughter followed.

“This is the uniparty for the American people watching,” Greene said as she was being booed. Afterward, Johnson expressed appreciation to the members who declined to end his speakership after six months. “Hopefully, this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118th Congress,” he said. “It’s regrettable, it’s not who we are as Americans, and we’re better than this.” He had the support of Donald Trump, who posted online Wednesday that “this is not the time” for a motion to vacate. Trump called Johnson a “good man who is trying very hard,” per CBS News.

ohnson and Greene had met a couple of times this week, though he denied negotiating with her to keep the job. Demands by Greene and Massie, per the Post, included that Johnson act to:

  • Allow no more aid to be sent to Ukraine this year.
  • Put only bills on the floor that most Republicans support.
  • Move to defund all Justice Department investigations of Trump.
  • Pass a dozen individual spending bills or institute a 1% reduction across government agencies.

Johnson did not give the pair an answer.

Did Trump in his insistence that the GOP unite help save Johnson’s job?

Did the Dems save Johnson’s speakership out of the kindness in their hearts?

Did the Dems get anything for their help?

Is MTG done with her symbolic antics?

How much more time will be wasted in the attempts to make a Speaker resign?

Do they not realize that the country is circling the drain and they play games.

Once again please tell me what we pay these slugs to do.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Zelensky In The Crosshairs

A report has come out of Ukraine that a couple of Army officers have been implicated in a plot to assassinate Zelensky….

Two of Volodymyr Zelensky’s own colonels are accused of joining a Russian plot to assassinate him. Multiple assassination plots have surfaced previously, but the BBC notes this one stands apart because of the military officers involved. They were allegedly working with Russia’s FSB—successor to the KGB—and had been recruited before the war began, per the New York Times. The colonels worked in the Ukraine agency responsible for keeping top officials safe.

Among other things, they’re accused of trying to recruit men willing to kidnap and kill Zelensky from among his bodyguards. Both are charged with treason, and one with preparing a terrorist act, reports CNN. Other high-profile targets were Vasyl Maliuk, who runs Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency, and Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of military intelligence.

The story line is that they were acting on orders from Russia.

But were they?

Is this a story concocted to garner some sympathy since Ukraine sees to think we are not doing our part in their war with Russia.

Or could this have been an attempted coup?

Or could it be two disgruntle commanders that are tired of seeing their troops die needlessly and were taking matters in the their own hands?

Or could this be just another bullshit line from the War Department to keep the media on their side?

Whichever it is I want to see more details but I guess they may not be forthcoming.

Waiting….waiting….

If this was such an attempt by Russia why is the news and the sources so thin?

Was this just another government lie like the yellow cake uranium in the early 2000s?

I will be watching and reading for more information….but I fear this is all we may get.

The two Ukrainian officials are being held on suspicion of treason and of preparing a terrorist act.

The SBU said three FSB employees oversaw the organisation and the attack.

One of them, named as Dmytro Perlin, had been recruiting “moles” since before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Another FSB employee, Oleksiy Kornev, reportedly held “conspiratorial” meetings “in neighbouring European states” before the invasion with one of the Ukrainian colonels arrested.

In a released interrogation with one of the suspects, they can be heard describing how they were paid thousands of dollars directly by parcels or indirectly through their relatives. It is not clear whether he was speaking under duress or not.

(bbc.com)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden’s Speech–Pure Fecal Matter

I am sure that this most recent speech by6 Biden is to placate AIPAC and their money. He went before the audience and spewed crap.

Biden in an effort to keep money flowing made what has been called his ‘antisemitism’ speech.

President Biden on Tuesday condemned what he called “a ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world.” His speech at a DC ceremony remembered victims of the Holocaust and referenced the ongoing pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses:

  • Ancient hatred: “We’re at risk of people not knowing the truth,” Biden said of the Holocaust, per the AP. “This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world.” He asked Americans to push back against an “ancient desire to wipe out the Jewish people off the face of the Earth.”
    Hamas: “People are already forgetting, are already forgetting that Hamas unleashed this terror,” Biden said of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. “It was Hamas that brutalized Israelis. It was Hamas that took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten.”
  • Campuses: “On college campuses, Jewish students [have been] blocked, harassed, attacked, while walking to class,” Biden said, per Politico. “Antisemitism, antisemitic posters, slogans calling for the annihilation of Israel, the world’s only Jewish state. Too many people denying, downplaying, rationalizing, ignoring the horrors of the Holocaust and Oct. 7. … It is absolutely despicable, and it must stop.”
  • Campuses, II: “I understand people have strong beliefs and deep convictions about the world and America,” the president said, per the New York Times. But “there is no place on any campus in America, any place in America, for antisemitism or hate speech or threats of violence of any kind.”
  • Israel: “To the Jewish community, I want you to know: I see your fear, your hurt and your pain. Let me reassure you as your president, you’re not alone. You belong. You always have, and you always will. My commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad, even when we disagree.”

Point one….yes there are some silly people that hate the Jews….I am nbot saying there is NO antisemitism just he is trying to link any action to the current situation on college campuses.

Point two….Yews HAMAS attacked Israel….but is that any different from the wandering bands of armed Israeli settlers that intimidate, destroy crops and homes and kill average West Bank Palestinians? (Of course not to worry the MSM will seldom report on these actions)

Point three….I am sure somewhere there has been some neo-Nazis that have harassed Jewish students….but if that is a wide occurrence where has the media been?   Where is Biden when students of color are harassed?

Point four….Not much to say other than electioneering plain simple.

Point five….Keep the money flowing and we will keep the support alive.

Biden’s uttering was pure bullshit…..he will say whatever AIPAC the money tells him to say…..keep in mind that Biden since 1999 has taken $4.2 million dollars from AIPAC….I would say it is money well spent.

This is nothing more that a made up ‘scare’….

I’ve been watching and thinking about the nationwide campus antiwar demonstrations in support of the suffering Palestinians of Gaza, and the appalling reaction to and “coverage” of those events. Something important needs to be addressed.

I won’t be concerned here with the violence committed by anyone, including the police, or by lesser misconduct, such as occupying and damaging buildings and other violations of university rules. It’s also irrelevant whether the demonstrations stand any chance of ending Israel’s onslaught or ending U.S. and university complicity in it, or whether most of the pro-peace demonstrators share a libertarian orientation. (Not likely.) All that is for another time.

I want to examine the overwhelming depiction of the demonstrations as nothing more than rank antisemitism – the blind hatred of all Jewish people because and only because they are – by birth, blood, belief, or practice – Jewish.

https://original.antiwar.com/srichman/2024/05/06/another-bogus-antisemitism-scare/

The media has help set up this bogus depiction.

Despite all the coverage of the protests over Israel’s war in Gaza, it can be remarkably difficult to understand what the players are actually saying. On social media, partisans on both sides cherry-pick extreme comments or incidents as a way to suggest that their opponents are comprehensively rotten. Others invoke broadly held values—free speech, peaceful protest, human rights—without explaining how they apply in specific circumstances. And many of the media stories have only worsened the confusion, by employing imprecise and euphemistic language that obscures more than it illuminates.

As a result, the American public remains badly informed about both the war itself and the movement against it, a dynamic that has steadily grown worse as campus protests—and the rate of (sometimes violent) arrests—has intensified. This lack of clarity may be especially damaging to people who both oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza and want to see long-term peace—a group long marginalized by Israel hawks and expansionists—but who may also find themselves surprised and troubled by the stated objectives of many of the groups leading the protests. And there is a growing risk, as the backlash to the protests grows both more violent and more litigious, that the extreme claims, demands for ideological purity, and rejection of nonviolence advanced by some of the protest leaders will undermine a movement that many liberals agree is morally urgent.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/israel-gaza-war-protest-movement/678303/

Is there antisemitism?

Of course there is and there is plenty of anti-black or Asian or pick a race and there will be some misinformed dullard that will hate them…..but the media and especially the president does not need to feed crap to the American people.

Enough said.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“It’s Good For World Peace”

It is official that bill to Ban TikTok was signed by Biden….but that was not what the bill was really about….TikTok was just the cover for a massive spending bill for the War Department and its piglets that suck in its teats.

It has been awhile since the vote and the signing and not much in the news these days….is TikTok really a threat or is it something else?

The real meat of this bill was the aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan….

Packed into the $95 billion bill is $61 billion to spend on the Ukraine proxy war, $26 billion to support Israel, and $8 billion for military aid for Taiwan and other spending in the Indo-Pacific region to prepare for war with China. It also includes a mechanism that could ban TikTok if its China-based parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest within nine months and gives the federal government the power to steal frozen Russian assets.

The legislation includes $61 billion for the proxy war in Ukraine, much of which will go to US weapons makers to replenish US stockpiles. It includes over $9 billion in economic aid in the form of repayable loans, but Ukraine is not actually expected to pay it back. Another provision will authorize the US to sell off frozen Russian assets, which could be used to pay the loans. CNN previously reported that the Biden administration will also be able to cancel the debt.

The bill also includes $26 billion to support Israel. About $9 billion will go toward humanitarian aid in Gaza and other places, while the remaining $17 billion will go toward military aid to support the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and replenish Israeli air defenses. The aid is on top of the $3.8 billion in military assistance that Israel receives from the US each year.

Another $8 billion will go toward military aid for Taiwan and other spending in the Indo-Pacific region to prepare for a future war with China. It includes $1.9 billion to replenish weapons sent to Taiwan and regional countries and $2 billion in Foreign Military Financing, a State Department program that gives foreign governments money to purchase US weapons. Over $3.3 billion will go toward submarine infrastructure in the region.

(antiwar.com)

Even a Repub Mitt Romney, who I seldom agree with, has seen the real reason for the assault on TikTok….

In a conversation with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) acknowledged that banning TikTok has such strong support in Congress because the social media platform has hurt Israel’s public relations battle.

“Some wonder why there was such overwhelming support for us to shut down, potentially, TikTok or other entities of that nature,” Romney said at the McCain Institute this past Friday. “If you look at the postings on TikTok and the number of mentions of Palestinians relative to other social media sites, it’s overwhelmingly so among TikTok broadcasts.”

The official justification for targeting TikTok is the unfounded allegation that it’s a Chinese spy tool because its parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. But Romney’s comments suggest the real purpose of the renewed push to ban the app after a similar effort failed years ago was to censor news coming out of Gaza and pro-Palestinian content.

Blinken blamed social media in general when asked by Romney why Israel was losing the global PR war. Palestinian journalists have been able to broadcast to the whole world the atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza using social media, including graphic videos of dead or wounded children being dug out of rubble following an Israeli airstrike.

(antiwar.com)

I’d bet you are wondering what the title is all about….world peace?

President Biden…claimed the legislation, which funds the proxy war in Ukraine and Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, is good for “world peace.”

“It’s a good day for America, it’s a good day for Europe, and it’s a good day for world peace, for real. This is consequential,” Biden said.

“My commitment to Israel, I want to make clear again, is ironclad. The security of Israel is critical,” Biden said.

Have you heard such total bullsh*t….ever?

Biden just keeps spreading his fecal matter.

Geez Nelly how much does AIPAC pay this old fart for such outright lies?

What a f*cking hypocrite!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Once Upon A Time In The South

Many years ago slaves were the norm in the South…..then progress was made and these slaves were free but they had to be equal but separate……black waiting rooms, bathrooms, separate schools, etc etc.

The came the great awakening and civil rights prevailed and from the ashes of the old South rose the promise of the new South.

What a magical story….but do not kid yourself!

All that racism just went underground until the rise of the great pretender…..and slowly all that bigotry has once again arisen to show its ugly face.

Take for instance in my state of Mississippi….

Recently at a protest at the University of Mississippi things got ugly and disgusting…..

Republican Georgia Congressman Mike Collins came under fire Friday over a social media post applauding video of white University of Mississippi students racially abusing a Black woman participating in a campus protest for Palestine.

Collins posted the video—in which numerous people can be heard grunting like apes and one young man is seen jumping up and down like a monkey in front of the Black woman—with the caption, “Ole Miss taking care of business.”

Collins—or whoever’s in charge of his social media accounts—sparred with Black leaders who called out his racism. When former Democratic Ohio state senator Nina Turner said the video showed “anti-Blackness,” the congressman shot back, “*Anti-terroristness.”

When Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) accused Collins of “fueling white supremacy,” the Republican retorted, “Don’t take down any more signs at our workplace, please” along with a photo of the Democrat triggering a fire alarm in a House of Representatives office building last year.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/ole-miss-racist-video

Only a POS would justify the actions of these people….nothing can justify using such tactics whether you agree or disagree with the protest.

This is not an isolated case especially here in Mississippi.

The New South my ass!  It is just the Old South with cosmetic work around the edges.

Update:

There will be consequences for the University of Mississippi student accused of taunting a Black student who was participating in a pro-Palestinian protest by mimicking a monkey or ape last week. The Phi Delta Theta fraternity says the man seen making monkey-like noises on video of the incident was previously a member, but was kicked out on Friday, the Hill reports. Ole Miss also launched its own investigation into the incident; the university’s chancellor said the actions of counter-protesters, who outnumbered pro-Palestinian protesters, included “hostility and racist overtones.” Meanwhile, the far-right congressman from Georgia who originally seemed to endorse the racist jeers heard at the demonstration is backtracking a bit, the AP reports.

n a statement Monday, Rep. Mike Collins defended his posting of video that included the racist jeers (he said he “did not believe that to be the focal point of the video shared at the time”) but acknowledged that he has since realized “that there certainly seems to be some potentially inappropriate behavior that none of us should seek to glorify” in the video. He said that he believes any schools “that [do] not allow the occupiers to run roughshod over the 99% of students who are there to learn and enjoy college are taking care of business,” but that he denounces racism or discrimination

This news will change NOTHING!

The ugliness or racism is still a large part of the fabric of Mississippi and amount of clever words will change it.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Just Another Corrupt Dem

Go figure!

Nothing new here.

Since few seem to be interested in the whole 2024 thing……I will change gears for awhile.

Americans are beginning (finally) to see that there is very little different between Dems and Repubs in our Congress…..both can be bought.

A senior Dem in the Senate, Menendez, was caught red handed and now a prominent Dem in the House is accused of bribery…..

Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and his wife were indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges and taken into custody Friday in connection with a federal probe into ties between American business leaders and the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, per the AP. From 2014 to 2021, Cuellar and his wife accepted nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico, and in exchange, Cuellar agreed to advance the interests of the country and the bank in the US, according to the indictment. The Department of Justice said the couple surrendered to authorities on Friday.

  • Example: Among other things, Cuellar agreed to influence legislation favorable to Azerbaijan and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the floor of the House, the indictment states.
  • Denial: Cuellar released a statement Friday declaring innocence. “Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas,” he said. “Before I took action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm. Furthermore, we requested a meeting with the … prosecutors to explain the facts and they refused to discuss the case with us or hear our side.”
  • Money: The payments to the couple went through a Texas-based shell company owned by Imelda Cuellar and two of the couple’s children, according to the indictment. That company received payments from the Azerbaijan energy company of $25,000 per month under a “sham contract,” purportedly in exchange for unspecified strategic consulting and advising services. “In reality, the contract was a sham used to disguise and legitimate the corrupt agreement between Henry Cuellar and the government of Azerbaijan,” the indictment states.
  • A search: The FBI searched the congressman’s house in the border city of Laredo in 2022, and Cuellar’s attorney at that time said Cuellar was not the target of that investigation. That search was part of a broader investigation related to Azerbaijan that saw FBI agents serve a raft of subpoenas and conduct interviews in DC and Texas.

There is not a big difference in the people in Congress….both are corruptible and greedy….and yet we keep voting for these parties time and time again and expect a different outcome….what was it Einstein said about that?

This criminal activity runs deep….from the White House to state and local officials….greed is a prime motivator.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”