Category: Politics

everything to do with the execution of politics

Closing Thought–22Mar23

This state senator has never met a hungry person….ergo there are no hunger issues.

It’s not clear exactly how many Minnesotans state Sen. Steve Drazkowski has met in his lifetime or during his 16 years in politics, but they have apparently all fallen into one category: well-fed. “I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that is hungry,” the Republican said Tuesday prior to a vote on providing free school meals for all K-12 students. “I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that says they don’t have access to enough food to eat.”

  • He followed it up with a joke: “Now, I should say that hunger is a relative term. I had a cereal bar for breakfast. I guess I’m hungry now.”
  • About the bill: HF 5 passed 38-26 and is expected to get Gov. Tim Walz’s signature, per NBC News.
  • Food stat I: Per a tweet from state Sen. Heather Gustafson, who authored the bill: “1 in 5 students in Sen. Drazkowski’s district qualifies for free and reduced lunch.”
  • Food stat II: Business Insider cites Feeding America’s count that roughly 340,000 Minnesotans are facing hunger, nearly a third of them children.
  • Food stat III: The nonprofit Hunger Solutions Minnesota says food pantries in the state logged 5.5 million visits in 2022, a record high, reports the Washington Post.
  • Less charged criticism: Per the Post, other critics of the bill didn’t dismiss food insecurity issues but said the bill’s $200 million annual cost would be better spent on other educational needs, such as special education, mental health support, and maintenance.

I love these guys….they sit on their high horse so everybody is as fortunate as they.

Call it lack of empathy, compassion whatever….the idiots open mouths and fire it off before brain is loaded.

At what point do these d/bags take off the blinders and see what is around them?

Just wondering.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

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Closing Thought–21Mar23

It seems the mouth of the Freedom Caucus has a brilliant idea….MTG wants to label antifa as a terrorist organization…..seriously.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said on Sunday that she will be introducing a resolution to declare Antifa as a terrorist organization on Tuesday, after blaming the group for protests at a police training facility in Atlanta.

“Antifa are domestic terrorists and I’m introducing my resolution to officially declare them a terrorist organization on Tuesday,” she tweeted on Sunday.

(thehill.com)

This is a waste of time….

Organization?

“an administrative and functional structure (such as a business or a political party)“

I am sick of this stupidity!

Antifa has no national headquarters, no national spokesperson, no one pays dues, there are no organized meetings…..there is nothing that would even suggest that they are an organized group.

Instead it is just a loose group of people who hate fascists…..and that scares the GOP….why?  Use you imagination.

I put this in the same vane as those that want to ban the BDS movement that is protests of Israel for their barbaric treatment of the Palestinian people.

This has NOTHING to do with religion (personally do not care what they believe) and more about the government treatment of a minority.

MTG is just excited that she now has a voice and can spread her unique form of hatred and stupidity.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Disturbing News About The 06 January Riot

Slowly but slowly some of the defendants are getting their time in jail and others are getting fined….all that is good news but some of the news is disturbing on another front.

You know how the Dems are going on about the protest and yet not all Dems think it was a bad idea.

More than a quarter of Republicans now approve of the Capitol riot, according to a new poll—and, puzzlingly, almost a fifth of Democrats agree. “Do you approve or disapprove of the Trump supporters taking over the Capitol building in Washington, DC on January 6th, 2021 to stop Congressional proceedings?” the Economist/YouGov poll asked 1,500 American adults, Some 27% of Republicans, and 19% of Democrats, said they either “strongly” or “somewhat” approve. The poll also found that 54% of Republicans believe “people participated in a legitimate public discourse” on Jan. 6, compared to 21% of Democrats, the Hill reports.

Some 71% of Democrats, and 27% of Republicans thought “people participated in a violent insurrection” was a more fitting description of the day’s events. Among Democrats, 90% thought former President Trump had at least some responsibility for the riot, while 43% of Republicans—and 52% of Trump supporters—thought he had none whatsoever. The poll also found that 42% of Americans, including 61% of Republicans, approved of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to release tens of thousands of hours of Jan. 6 footage to Tucker Carlson, the Guardian reports.

More result from the poll….Biden, Ukraine, etc….

The poll was taken between March 11 and March 14. Some 34% of respondents, including 63% of Republicans, said they wanted Trump to run for president in 2024. Only 26%, including 45% of Democrats, wanted President Biden to seek a second term. The numerous other issues pollsters addressed included aid for Ukraine. Some 77% supported sending the country food and medical assistance, 53% supporting sending tanks, 44% were in favor of sending fighter jets, and 26% were in favor of sending US troops.

These results are very disturbing….19% of the Dems agreed with 06 January riot….seriously?

Those are not Dems they are probably so-called ‘centrist’ that think the center is the place to be.

I have been saying that Dens were not much better than the GOP….this does not change my mind in the least.

Does anyone else see a disturbing issue here?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Women’s History #3

Ever hear about Mary Edwards Walker?

Of course you have not for teaching about a tireless worker for women’s rights might turn your daughters gay.

It is a Friday so let us learn something.

Back in the days when women had very few rights Walker was an up and coming leader….

Let’s go to the year 1873….

January 1873, hundreds of women convened at the National Hotel in Washington, D.C. It was the fifth convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association and a 44-year-old Susan B. Anthony had taken the floor. She spoke of unity, forming a national women’s newspaper, and the vote. But few people were paying attention to Anthony. Even suffragist leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton was distracted, verging on annoyed. Because there, just to the side of the podium, an imposing woman stood in pants and a slimming man’s coat, waiting. Her name was Mary Edwards Walker. The first female surgeon in the U.S. Army and a prisoner of war during the Civil War, Walker, who flouted the day’s rigid gender norms, was something of a celebrity. As more and more of the crowd noticed her, they began to murmur and whisper, “she’s here!” But still Walker stood, patiently waiting for Anthony to yield the floor. When Anthony finally did so, Walker launched into a scathing critique of the NWSA, and Stanton and Anthony with it. They had abandoned the cause of dress reform, she said, giving up the fight for women to renounce health-damaging corsets. Anthony and Stanton lacked courage, she said. At a later suffrage convention, Anthony and Stanton called the cops on Walker. After narrowly avoiding arrest, Walker shouted at the pair, “you are not working for the cause, but for yourselves!”

Following the January 1873 convention, Stanton forbid any mention of Walker in the event’s official summary. Stanton and other critics derided Walker as a “she-man” and a “ghoul.” Years later, when Stanton and Anthony wrote the History of Woman Suffrage, they erased Walker and her involvement almost entirely. “They deliberately sought to conceal the queerness of the suffrage movement,” writes historian Wendy Rouse of San José State University. Rouse, who has written a new book on the topic, Public Faces, Secret Lives: A Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, uncovered many stories like Walker’s. From queer relationships known as Boston marriages to publishing radical newspapers about free love, the women’s suffrage movement was full of individuals “queering the norm,” as Rouse puts it—individuals history consciously deleted. Atlas Obscura spoke with Rouse about these queer suffragists, the female cavalries they led, and why so many of their stories have gone untold.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/trans-queer-womens-suffrage

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

Class Dismissed!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Happened To Civics Education?

I have been bitching here on IST about the ignorance the American people have on the subject of civics.

Everyday the news is packed full of incidences that illustrate the extent of the ignorance we have on the subject.

This article touches on this problem and some possible solutions.

The week of March 6 is Civic Learning Week, spearheaded by the civic-education network iCivics and marked by a gathering of civics educators and organizations in Washington, D.C. Not only is civics education a worthy cause — it is a critical one. Our nation depends on thoughtful and active citizenship for its very existence.

In a time when so much of our public discourse focuses on what divides us, it is worth remembering that we are all a part of the American political tradition. Left, right, and center — we would all do well to reflect on the tradition that makes us shareholders in a great, diverse, and idealistic nation, and why we should each do our part to keep this tradition alive through civic education. As a self-governing people, we must promulgate and reinforce the central ideas of America at every level of education and in every community.

Yet we have neglected civic education for a generation or more.

First, the progressive movement of the early 20th century challenged traditional American concepts of self-government. Instead, progressives celebrated the administrative state as a solution to the increasing complexity of society’s problems. Rather than solving problems through representative democracy, progressive leaders delegated problems to bureaucracies, and so there arose a professional expert class of civil servants. The knowledge of governing increasingly became a matter for specialized expertise.

Second, in the wake of these progressive innovations, schools lumped much of what was once known as civics and history under the heading of “social studies.” In the classroom, current events and issues often became more important than a deep understanding of our institutions, history, and national creed.

And third, in our haste to make students economically competent, we often overlooked the need for competence in the work of citizenship. In recent years, science, technology, engineering, and math have crowded out other subjects, including civics and history.

How We Lost Our Civics Education — and How We Can Get It Back

I feel without a knowledge of civics our whole system of government is doomed….but that is just me.

30 years ago the stage was set in stone for this wave of stupid…..

“There is a religious war going on in this country,” declared Pat Buchanan at the Republican National Convention in August 1993.   In the impassioned, game-changing speech he added, “It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as was the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America.”

With that speech, Buchanan launched the current round of the culture wars three decades ago. Today, white Christian conservatism has matured into a unified religious, political and social movement exercising power at both the federal and state levels.

And “the soul of America”?  This question is, once again, being fought over.  Among those battling over the definition of America in the 21st century is those who can best identified as the new Last Ditchers.

The New “Last Ditchers”

We need to be very vigil or our beloved system will become as the dodo….and without a good knowledge of civics can save us from ourselves.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Far Right Demands

Let’s start the week with some outrageous Right wing demands.

These are the demands being made by House far righters, the Freedom Caucus, (love the name it is anything but about freedom)….

The debt ceiling debate is about to begin and these are the demands from the far right for that debate.

A cadre of far-right Republicans announced Friday that they may only vote to raise the debt ceiling if Congress agrees to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in social spending, limit federal agencies’ future budgets, and abandon progressive elements of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.

Since Washington’s arbitrary and arguably unconstitutional borrowing limit was breached in January, the Treasury Department has implemented “extraordinary measures” enabling the U.S. government to meet its obligations for a few additional months. Unless the Biden administration takes unilateral action to disarm the debt ceiling, Congress has until sometime between July and September to increase or suspend the nation’s borrowing cap. If Republicans refuse to do so, the U.S. is poised to suffer a catastrophic default.

Led by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), the House Freedom Caucus said Friday in a statement that its 45 members would “consider voting” to raise the debt limit if their colleagues in the House and Senate agree to:

  • Eliminate Biden’s $400 billion student debt cancellation plan;
  • Rescind unspent Covid-19 relief funds;
  • Nix nearly $400 billion worth of clean energy investments approved in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA);
  • Repeal the IRA’s roughly $80 billion funding boost for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS);
  • Restore Clinton-era work requirements on welfare recipients;
  • Require congressional approval before any major federal regulations can take effect;
  • Cap future federal spending at 2022 levels for the next 10 years; and
  • Find “every dollar spent by Democrats that can be reclaimed for the American taxpayer.”

This is the official release from the Caucus…

Image

I see lots that will effect the common voter and very little about actually decreasing the “reach” of government.

I love these ‘small government’ conservatives and their alt-right blowhards.

What crap!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–09Mar23

Most of us bloggers keep an eye on our region so that we may comment on the developments that effect our country.

Since I live in the Gulf South I keep an eye on the US mini dictator, the governor of Florida DeSantis (I had better be careful or he may send the Floridian thought police after me)…..

DeSantis recently went to California to make a speech at the Reagan Library to promote his new book…..

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Sunday blasted “leftist politicians” and touted his state’s “massive gains” in a speech in California amid speculation that he’ll jump into the 2024 presidential race. 

“We’ve witnessed a great American exodus from states governed by leftist politicians imposing leftist ideologies and delivering poor results. And you can see massive gains in states like Florida, who are governing according to the tried and true principles that President Reagan held dear,” DeSantis said in remarks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Southern California with the Orange County GOP, as reported by The Washington Post. 

The governor said he was there “to share the Florida Blueprint to preserve and protect freedom” as he promotes his new book, “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival.”

(thehill.com)

One more Floridian cock-up…..

“To Protect And Preserve Freedom”….except for women, gays, education, books and dogs….whose freedom is he trying to preserve?

There is so much more….

DeSantis has appointed a person to the Disney Oversight Board…..and he believes that tap water is turning our boys gay…..you read that right!

One of Ron DeSantis’ appointees to a special district that will oversee Walt Disney World once amplified a conspiracy theory that tap water could be turning people gay, according to a report from CNN.

Ron Peri, the CEO of The Gathering, a Christian ministry, also disparaged homosexuality, calling it “shameful,” according to CNN.

…

In a video of a January 2022 Zoom discussion, Peri claimed, without evidence, that higher levels of estrogen in the water from birth control pills led to lower levels of testosterone in men.

“So why are there homosexuals today? There are any number of reasons, you know, that are given. Some would say the increase in estrogen in our societies,” he said, according to the CNN report. He also linked homosexuality to disease.

Peri also said, according to the KFile report, “There are a lot of unhealthy effects of a homosexual lifestyle. There are diseases, but it goes beyond that.”

(thedeadline.com)

Oh to be in Florida…..NOT!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–07Mar23

My friend Dr. Rex (https://hrexach.wordpress.com/ ) has turned me unto this situation in Florida by the mini dictator DeSantis….he has crapped on individual choice, and books and education and now he is coming for the first amendment in Florida.

Any blogger mentioning Florida’s governor or a state legislator would be required to register with the state under newly proposed legislation experts say would surely violate the First Amendment. Senate Bill 1316 states any person who writes “an article, a story, or a series of stories” about “the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature,” and is paid for their services must register with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics within five days of publication. Authors would also need to submit monthly reports describing what posts mention officials, with links; the compensation received; and the individual or entity behind the payment—or face daily fines of $25 up to a maximum of $2,500 per report, per WFLA.

“If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register,” reads the bill, per NBC News. It also requires that “bloggers file notices of failure to file a timely report the same way that lobbyists file their disclosures and reports on assessed fines,” per WFLA. The legislation, to take effect immediately upon approval, excludes newspapers or similar publications. It defines a blog as “a website or webpage that hosts any blogger and is frequently updated with opinion, commentary, or business content”—which may or may not apply to YouTube video bloggers. The bill is authored by Jason Brodeur, a Republican state senator who’s “been the subject of frequent criticism in the media,” per Florida Politics.

“Paid bloggers are lobbyists who write instead of talk. They both are professional electioneers,” Brodeur tells Florida Politics. “If lobbyists have to register and report, why shouldn’t paid bloggers?” Yet “it’s hard to imagine a proposal that would be more violative of the First Amendment,” Ron Kuby, a First Amendment lawyer, tells NBC. Brodeur has authored other bills experts say would be unconstitutional if passed. One would prevent journalists from shielding the identity of anonymous sources if sued and automatically presume information from such sources to be false, the Orlando Sentinel reports. It “empowers the rich and powerful to basically go after people who say things they don’t like,” Bobby Block of the Florida First Amendment Foundation tells the outlet.

All he needs now is to start wear some sort of uniform and his ‘style’ will be made.

If he is successful this may go to the Supreme Court…..and we know how those political hacks work….don’t we?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

End Of An Era

The news has come out that effects me and anyone who participated in the antiwar movement from the 70s.

The person that released the secret info to the public through the Pentagon Papers has very little time left in this world.

The “Pentagon Papers”?

This is for those too young to give a shit about this historic incident.

The Pentagon Papers, officially titled Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force, is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States’ political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. Released by Daniel Ellsberg, who had worked on the study, they were first brought to the attention of the public on the front page of The New York Times in 1971.  A 1996 article in The New York Times said that the Pentagon Papers had demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration had “systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress.”  (Some things never change…think Ukraine you dullards)

The Pentagon Papers revealed that the U.S. had secretly enlarged the scope of its actions in the Vietnam War with coastal raids on North Vietnam and Marine Corps attacks—none of which were reported in the mainstream media. For his disclosure of the Pentagon Papers, Ellsberg was initially charged with conspiracy, espionage, and theft of government property; charges were later dismissed, after prosecutors investigating the Watergate scandal discovered that the staff members in the Nixon White House had ordered the so-called White House Plumbers to engage in unlawful efforts to discredit Ellsberg.

(wikipedia)

Daniel Ellsberg is dying.

Daniel Ellsberg, who copied and leaked documents that revealed secret details of US strategy in the Vietnam War and became known as the Pentagon Papers, said he has terminal cancer and months to live. Ellsberg posted on his Facebook page Thursday that doctors diagnosed the 91-year-old with inoperable pancreatic cancer on Feb. 17 following medical scans. Doctors say he has three to six months to live, he said. Ellsberg said he has opted not to undergo chemotherapy and plans to accept hospice care when needed, the AP reports.

The documents in the Pentagon Papers looked in excruciating detail at the decisions and strategies of the Vietnam War. They told how US involvement was built up steadily by political leaders and top military brass who were overconfident about US prospects and deceptive about the accomplishments against the North Vietnamese. Ellsberg, a former consultant to the Defense Department, provided the Pentagon Papers to Neil Sheehan, a reporter who broke the story for the New York Times in June 1971. Sheehan died in 2021. Sheehan smuggled the documents out of the Massachusetts apartment where Ellsberg had stashed them, illicitly copied thousands of pages, and took them to the Times.

President Richard Nixon’s administration got a court injunction arguing national security was at stake and publication was stopped. In June 1971, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing publication, and the Times and the Washington Post resumed printing stories. The Nixon administration tried to discredit Ellsberg, an effort that included Nixon aides orchestrating a break-in at the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. Ellsberg was charged with theft, conspiracy, and violations of the Espionage Act, but his case ended in a mistrial when evidence surfaced about government-ordered wiretappings and break-ins. “When I copied the Pentagon Papers in 1969, I had every reason to think I would be spending the rest of my life behind bars. It was a fate I would gladly have accepted if it meant hastening the end of the Vietnam War,” Ellsberg wrote.

This is a letter from Daniel Ellsberg to his supporters….

Dear friends and supporters,

I have difficult news to impart. On February 17, without much warning, I was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer on the basis of a CT scan and an MRI. (As is usual with pancreatic cancer – which has no early symptoms – it was found while looking for something else, relatively minor). I’m sorry to report to you that my doctors have given me three to six months to live. Of course, they emphasize that everyone’s case is individual; it might be more, or less.

I have chosen not to do chemotherapy (which offers no promise) and I have assurance of great hospice care when needed. Please know: right now, I am not in any physical pain, and in fact, after my hip replacement surgery in late 2021, I feel better physically than I have in years! Moreover, my cardiologist has given me license to abandon my salt-free diet of the last six years. This has improved my quality of life dramatically: the pleasure of eating my former favorite foods! And my energy level is high. Since my diagnosis, I’ve done several interviews and webinars on Ukraine, nuclear weapons, and first amendment issues, and I have two more scheduled this week.

As I just told my son Robert: he’s long known (as my editor) that I work better under a deadline. It turns out that I live better under a deadline!

Living on a Deadline in the Nuclear Age. Some Personal News From Daniel Ellsberg

This man meant a lot to us in the movement….his guts and his drive has been an inspiration for all us that are concerned about the state of our war machine.

His voice will be missed….there are so few voices left in the antiwar movement…..and these days we need all we can get.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

When Stupidity Is King

Have you seen the movie “Idiocracy”?

It explains a lot that is happening these days….plus it was released in 2006….very prophetic.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/

When did the GOP lose it’s collective mind?

In 1960, the sociologist Daniel Bell published a book titled The End of Ideology that argued the ideological battles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries had subsided. A “rough consensus” had emerged, Bell wrote, at least in the West, on the need for a welfare state, a mixed economy, and political pluralism. President John F. Kennedy echoed Bell’s theme in a speech at Yale’s 1962 commencement. “The central domestic issues of our time,” Kennedy said,

relate not to basic clashes of philosophy or ideology but to ways and means of reaching common goals—to research for sophisticated solutions to complex and obstinate issues…. What is at stake in our economic decisions today is not some grand warfare of rival ideologies which will sweep the country with passion, but the practical management of a modern economy.

The moment didn’t last. Ideological warfare resumed in the United States with the rise of the New Left in the late 1960s and with the rise of the New Right in the early 1980s. Today, those ideological storms have subsided. This time, though, ideology is over not because right and left have reached rough consensus; far from it. The contest is done because the Republican Party walked off the field. We have arrived at the end of GOP ideology.

https://newrepublic.com/article/170274/gop-lost-brain

Personally I agree with those people that think this ‘stupidity’ is a threat to our beloved society…..

It may sound like an insensitive statement, but the cold hard truth is that there are a lot of stupid people in the world, and their stupidity presents a constant danger to others. Some of these people are in positions of power, and some of them have been elected to run our country. A far greater number of them do not have positions of power, but they still have the power to vote, and the power to spread their ideas. We may have heard of “collective intelligence,” but there is also “collective stupidity,” and it is a force with equal influence on the world. It would not be a stretch to say that at this point in time, stupidity presents an existential threat to America because, in some circles, it is being celebrated.

Although the term “stupidity” may seem derogatory or insulting, it is actually a scientific concept that refers to a specific type of cognitive failure. It is important to realize that stupidity is not simply a lack of intelligence or knowledge, but rather a failure to use one’s cognitive abilities effectively. This means that you can be “smart” while having a low IQ, or no expertise in anything. It is often said that “you can’t fix stupid,” but that is not exactly true. By becoming aware of the limitations of our natural intelligence or our ignorance, we can adjust our reasoning, behavior, and decision-making to account for our intellectual shortcomings.

https://www.rawstory.com/amp/threat-of-stupidity-2659443906

This stupidity just keeps getting deeper and more dangerous by the year.

Have you noticed that most of the GOP banning around the states are of those things that scare the GOP the most?

“I feel like there is a coddling of the conservative mind,” said Reid. “The conservatives don’t have the confidence that their ideas can be sold on the basis of presenting them as ideas. They have decided that we can’t convince people to do what we want and live by our religion, so we will tell the federal government to enforce it. I don’t like this book or drag shows. The thing that I feel uncomfortable with, I don’t feel confident that I can convince people to come to my side, so I need the power of federal government to ban the things that make me uncomfortable.”

That attitude, Reid said, looks like “an intellectual collapse and sense of defeat.”

https://www.rawstory.com/intellectual-collapse/

Was it Forrest Gump who said ‘stupid is as stupid does’?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”