Category: Observations

Our Vulnerable Power Grid

For some time we have been told that our power grid is old and in need of an upgrade for in this condition it is vulnerable to attack….so far no one in DC has taken these warnings to heart and our grid is getting older and weaker.

A recent article points out that if just 9 power stations go down it could take the whole grid with it.

The feature in the New York Times Magazine poses a stark question: “What if America went completely dark?” After interviewing more than two dozen experts on the nation’s power grid, Christopher Cox makes the case that the question isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. The grid itself, for instance, “is perhaps the most complex machine ever built, but it was created without a master plan,” he writes. It’s more accurate to think of three grids—the Western, Eastern, and Texas Interconnections. Cox reports that a federal analysis once found that disabling as few as nine key substations across those three grids could trigger a coast-to-coast outage. A related problem is that the hardware that makes those substations work—huge, custom-built power transformers—is in critically short supply. Meaning, such a blackout could theoretically last years.

“It is difficult to overstate how completely the loss of the grid would disrupt life as we know it,” writes Cox, whose story explores how the bottleneck, combined with rising physical threats, aging equipment, and long repair timelines could combine for a life-altering catastrophe. As for those threats, Cox revisits a still unresolved 2013 attack in California in which assailants severed underground cables at a substation before snipers expertly knocked out 17 transformers in about 20 minutes. It’s unlikely that a domestic terror group could wipe out nine entire substations, notes Cox, but the feat would not be beyond the scope of a “state actor.” Read the full story, which explores what emerging tech like solid-state transformers and grid-scale batteries might do to blunt the risk.

The admin seems more worried about what name is on a building than the possibility of a nationwide loss of power….at what point does someone start thinking about our aged infrastructure?

My guess is they will wait until it happens then blame the Dems.

This is a concern and yet we vote for idiots that say nothing about a growing problem….matters not which party for they both are as useless as tits on a flashlight.

Now I know there is some opinions out there….let them fly.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Project 2025 Scorecard

Back in the days leading up to the election of 2024 myself as well as many others warned that Donny was pushing the Heritage Foundations plan named Project 2025….once in office he started using the plan from day one….

With that said should we look at the success of this plan?

Project 2025 has moved much further than most people realize, and the groups keeping count agree on the direction even when they disagree on the math.

One tracker following the blueprint across 34 federal agencies counts 321 objectives, with 141 marked complete and another 70 underway. That is roughly 44 percent finished and about two thirds either done or in motion. The Center for Progressive Reform, working with Governing for Impact, tracks a different and larger list of 532 recommended executive actions across 20 agencies and found that 283 of them, about 53 percent, had been initiated or completed within the first twelve months. The numbers differ because the lists differ. The trend does not.

On food and household assistance, the reconciliation bill carried two items straight off the blueprint. It rolled back updates to the Thrifty Food Plan, which is the formula the government uses to calculate how much money a household actually receives in food stamp benefits. Adjusting it downward does not change who qualifies, it changes how much food a family can buy. The same bill imposed stricter work requirements on SNAP recipients. Separately, staff at the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps families cover heating and cooling costs, were fired, and the program was sharply limited.

On the environment, the EPA finalized the rescission of the 2009 endangerment finding, which was the legal foundation for federal climate regulation. Interior finalized a rule narrowing critical habitat protections so drilling, mining and logging can proceed as long as animals are not directly killed. The Center for Western Priorities found that nearly 70 percent of the fossil fuel related actions in the blueprint have been implemented, with another 20 percent in progress.

On health and reproductive policy, Reproductive Freedom for All tracks 57 actions and counts 24 completed with 10 more in progress. HHS canceled 53 of the 67 grants in the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program and now requires recipients to teach abstinence as the only method. The National Institutes of Health stopped funding research using human fetal tissue.

On government structure, the administration stripped collective bargaining rights from federal workers across 18 departments, a move currently tied up in court. Treasury permanently halted collection of ownership data on private American companies that had been required under the Corporate Transparency Act. The military drew down forces in Europe, including 5,000 troops out of Germany. Four agencies have completed every objective on their list, including USAID.

…

Now what is in motion but unfinished. The Department of Education has been hollowed out with the groundwork laid to dismantle it, but it still exists, because eliminating a cabinet department requires Congress. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which the blueprint accused of being weaponized for domestic political purposes, has been targeted for major downsizing but has not been eliminated. On federal land protection, less than 20 percent of the identified actions are done, but nearly 70 percent are in progress, including efforts to rescind the Public Lands Rule and the Roadless Rule.

https://balleralert.com/project-2025-progress-completed-in-progress-pending-2026/

I would say that the implementation of Project 2025 has been a resounding success….to our chagrin….and to the country’s loss.

This runaway train must be stopped and it will be up to each of us to see that it is brought to a stop.

Can we do it?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

They’re Watching!

From time to time I will re-post something from my other blog. Daily Agitator, for those that have not yet found their way to it with the hope that it will lead to more readership….

The government is watching you from facial recognition to what you do at the supermarket….it is not a new thing but rather a continuation from another era…

 

The D/Bags Are Watching

If you feel like joining the movement be warned you will be scrutinized….you whole life will be poured over.

Me?

I do not care….I cannot stand by and say or do nothing.

Join us if you dare.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Unscrupulousness Of AIPAC

It is no secret around here that I dearly hate AIPAC and what it has done to our political system….it has turned our elections into good and bad the good being whatever they tell the recipient of their money and in the meantime the country suffers from their sick influence….

After AIPAC failed to defeat El-Sayed in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary—after spending $32 million—it said that it remains committed to defeating El-Sayed and his “radical, anti-Israel” agenda in the general election. Which means it is poised to sink tens of millions of dollars in supporting Republican Mike Rogers. It also said that Haley Stevens, his opponent, had presented “an authentic Democratic agenda.” Meaning that El-Sayed did not? And they think that Mike Rogers, a MAGA Trump supporter, does compared with El-Sayed?

How can AIPAC say that El-Sayed does not present an authentic Democratic agenda when his socialist stance is much more in line with the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence than most centrist Democrats’? And making it sound like AIPAC cares about an authentic Democratic agenda is deceitful, when in the same breath they make clear that they will support Mike Rogers, a Trump lackey, in the general election.

AIPAC’s one-dimensional perspective is clearer now than ever. They will fight for the unequivocal U.S. support of Israel at any cost, even if it means having the Republicans and Trump remain in power and destroy our nation.

They are like the Evangelicals to whom there was nothing more important than the creation of a conservative judiciary that would reverse Roe v Wade and other liberal policies, such as LGBT rights, even at the cost of supporting perhaps the most Godless, misogynistic President that the United States has ever had and his MAGA allies. In both cases, they have made a bargain with the devil that will ultimately cost them their souls.

https://thefulcrum.us/governance-legislation/the-unscrupulousness-of-aipac-political-spending-u-s-policy

These fools will do anything to bolster support for Israel even if it means the destruction of the nation.

One can support Israel that is their prerogative but not at the cost of our country and our way of life.   Period!

This institution should be barred from dealing out influence….well not just them….the whole concept of lobbyists needs to be flushed down the crapper.   Period.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

How To Mend A Broken Democracy

I have had several conversations here on IST and in my contact with people in my community on what will be needed to fix what is going wrong in our democracy….and of course not all the contact was positive….I do live in Mississippi which is bright Red and MAGA friendly….those interactions lead to a few ugly exchanges.

Most thinking agree that something needs to be done by the next government to repair the damage that Donny and the Band of idiots have done to this country….but will that be the will of elected officials?

An article in The Fulcrum takes a gander at the possibilities….an interesting article….

If he leaves, Donald Trump will not leave the Oval Office until January 2029. Seems like a long way off.

But whether it feels near or far, it is time for pro-democracy forces to begin thinking about the work needed to rebuild, revitalize, and improve the infrastructure and architecture of American Democracy. That should not be done as one part of a policy agenda, but as THE priority for a post-MAGA world.

Restoring and/or building a vibrant constitutional democracy will require that singular focus. The damage the Trump Administration has done and will do to the democratic fabric of American life is incalculable.

Addressing it can’t be a side gig. It will take a singular focus for a post-MAGA president to lead a “transition to democracy” in the United States and learn from the experiences of nations that have traveled that path before us.

But if you poke around on the internet, you’ll find several comprehensive projects that place the work of rebuilding democracy side-by-side with an ambitious policy agenda, many of which claim the mantle: Project 2029.

One of them holds itself out to be “a grassroots, citizen-led effort to reclaim our democracy. We are not affiliated with or supported by any political party or political action group (PAC).” But it says very little about how to rebuild democratic institutions and practices.

It offers a vision of government that does many things, like “prioritize(ing) people over profit, embracing policies informed by science, expertise, and empathy. It actively engages citizens as empowered participants in shaping their communities, rather than passive consumers of decisions made behind closed doors.”

https://thefulcrum.us/democracy/rebuilding-american-democracy-post-trump

In case no one read some of the included articles….this one caught my eye it is from a political abstract…..

  • When elites agree to compromise during regime transitions, democratization is more likely to succeed. Human agency is therefore central to successful democratization; however, it cannot be divorced from structural factors, such as class or economic interests, which incentivize elites to compromise in the first place.
  • Leadership plays a key role in guiding transition processes and can even help to break deadlocks between ideological opponents.
  • When existing patronage networks remain strong, elite defection and, hence, the likelihood of authoritarian breakdown is reduced. Conversely, when authoritarian rulers either face dwindling resources or do not co-opt key political and economic elites with patronage, their incumbency is threatened.
  • The nature of democratic transitions shapes the subsequent quality of democracy. Transitions that are “pacted” among elites may result in relatively smooth transitions to electoral democracy but they tend to permit political and economic elites to maintain their privileges, leading to less inclusive democracy.
  • The most vociferous opponents of economic liberalization may not be the marginalized mass publics but rather well-connected elites who benefited under authoritarian rule. Forging a more inclusive political and economic system is challenging, in no small part because it is difficult to dislodge authoritarian coalitions even after democratic transitions have ostensibly occurred.

Some great stuff in there but I disagree with a large part of the abstract….

I do not see any cooperation on major issues…..lobbyists will still own the Congress….oligarchs will still get their way….

That brings me to the newest brain fart by Dems…..Project 2029 (they could not even come up something in an original title….that tells me a lot)

01 Reward Hard Work

Our economy should reward hard work and not just huge wealth. We need to rebuild the ladder of opportunity for Americans and for American communities getting left behind.  (This is for the billionaires to keep them calm)

02 Give Americans Their Government Back

In today’s Washington, wealthy and well-connected people and interests call the shots and drown out the voice of the people. Government needs to work for everyday Americans – and it just plain needs to work by delivering real progress.  (Good idea but I do not think the next Congress will be capable)

03 Restore Law and Order

No one should be above the law – whether they’re on the street corner, in the corner office, or in the Oval Office. It’s time we strengthened our laws and our law enforcement to crack down on dangerous criminals, corporate wrongdoers, and corrupt public officials. (Good one….but what if we get another Donny that just ignores the laws?)

04 Make America Affordable Again

Americans are working harder but still finding it harder to make ends meet. They’re getting crunched by rising costs for housing and health care and squeezed for time as they try to take care of their kids or parents. We need to give them a helping hand and stop corporations from ripping them off.  (This one is my favorite….Just how will they go about this?)

05 Jumpstart Economic Growth

America needs to win the global race to make sure the jobs and technologies of the future in areas like AI and clean energy are here at home. New innovations need new rules of the road so that we protect consumers, lower prices, and stop big businesses from stifling entrepreneurs and competition. (Embracing AI will do little to make the workers important again….how will the lobbyists be controlled?)

06 Protect America’s Security and Prosperity

 It’s time for a new global agenda to open the doors of global economic opportunity for American workers and business and to ensure America stands on the side of democracies and not dictatorships.  (This is a shot for the M-IC to keep them calm)

All in all I think Project 2029 will not be as successful as Project 2025….using name recognition will do nothing to improve our plight.

The closing of the article says it all….

At the end of the day, the Brennan Center gets it right when it says: “A return to stable democracy requires sustained effort to revitalize democratic institutions to address the underlying weaknesses that made them vulnerable to begin with. While it may be tempting for leaders to simply revert to the status quo that existed before a country started to backslide, trying to do so may actually prolong a country’s period of instability.”

I do not believe the repair work can be finished in anything less than a whole generation for Donny and the Slugs have done damage that runs deep.

Any thoughts you would like to share?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

New Genocide Deniers

This is a re-post from my other blog, Daily Agitator, and I am just trying to expand the readership by re-posting….this is for those that may not know of my other blog.

The New Genocide Deniers

There should be NO acceptance of a genocide by anyone…..regardless of the situation.

The US should be the champion of anti-genocide issues instead we turn a blind eye for whatever reason….why?

Educate, Agitate

I Read, I Write, You Know

cogito ergo agito

 

 

Congress And AI

I have made it clear that I do not use AI and in truth I do not trust it….I prefer to do my own research and formulate my findings in my own words.

AI has wormed it’s way into just about all aspects of our lives from colleges to medicine to science to reporting and now it has a foothold in Congress.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has quietly wormed its way into drafting American laws, and the people responsible for getting bills right say it’s creating a mess.

According to Politico, congressional staffers and outside advocacy groups are increasingly turning to chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT to write legislative text, forcing the House Office of Legislative Counsel (OLC) to clean up after them.

“AI is good for a lot of stuff,” Daniel Schuman, executive director of the American Governance Institute, explained before warning, “But it’s not capable of drafting legislation that you would want to enact into law.”

One person who advises congressional offices said the OLC now spends “more time trying to fix AI-drafted legislation than it would take for them to draft it from scratch,” noting AI models reportedly stumble over fine legal distinctions, such as whether funding should be structured as “a tax credit, deduction, exclusion or grant.”

According to one congressional staffer tasked with doing a deep read of the proposed legislation, lawmakers have no idea what is coming down the road due to errors and citations that won’t hold up to scrutiny when conflicts arise.

“It’s absolutely terrifying, and no one is thinking about it yet,” they predicted.

The risks aren’t hypothetical, Politico is reporting. Case in point: In June, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s (R-FL) office published an amendment summary that still contained the unedited chatbot phrase “Claude responded.” Luna acknowledged on X that “my staff used AI to correct a draft text and didn’t edit,” which raised alarms at the time.

Ari Hershowitz, a lawyer and technologist who has worked with the office to integrate tech tools into the legislative process, admitted that without checks, it’s “a guaranteed way of introducing thousands of bugs into our legal system.”

(rawstory.com)

Just another attempt to not do their jobs…..allow AI to write the bills and then more time with the high dollar donors.

This is what our political system has become….and I find it disgusting and pathetic.

Anything to add?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

8 Million And Counting

What is the scoreboard for you might question….this is just to let the world know what Donny and those slugs that are in his employ are doing to the health of this nation.

The unprecedented healthcare cuts that President Donald Trump and the Republican Party enacted last summer have impacted people in all 50 US states, stripping insurance coverage from around 8 million Americans total and wreaking havoc on hospitals and other providers nationwide.

The advocacy group Protect Our Care on Tuesday released state-by-state fact sheets detailing how many people have lost Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Affordable Care Act coverage due to Republican policy decisions, including the party’s roughly $900 billion in cuts to Medicaid and decision to let enhanced ACA subsidies expire, sending premiums skyrocketing.

“Eight million Americans have lost their health care because Donald Trump and Republicans decided they would rather hand out tax breaks to billionaires than protect working families,” said Brad Woodhouse, the president of Protect Our Care. “Every day that healthcare becomes more expensive, a family is forced to make an impossible choice between putting food on the table and staying covered, a senior is forced to ration their medication, and an expectant mother has to travel farther to access maternity care.”

(commondreams.org)

I still say let’s give Medicare For All (M4A)…..what have we to lose?

To be honest I want to give you an opposing view….this is from the website Reason….keep in mind their slogan is “Free Minds and Free Markets”….so with that in mind they are basically on the side of for profit healthcare…

“Free healthcare is cool,” comedian Shane Gillis recently said on The Joe Rogan Experience. “We should have that.”

“You should treat the entire country like it’s a community,” Rogan replied. “If you had a community, would you want the sickest person to fucking die who could be very valuable if you could take care of them, and do you have the resources to take care of them?”

While support for “free” healthcare in the United States is not new—Harry Truman campaigned on universal health insurance in 1948, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) has popularized the “Medicare For All” slogan in recent years—the policy has received renewed interest of late. The Democratic Socialists of America have made universal healthcare “at no cost to individuals” a key component of their party’s expensive platform.

But it is not just political hopefuls who like the idea of universal healthcare; academics seem to as well. A recent study by the Yale School of Public Health claims that single-payer universal healthcare would save more than 100,000 lives a year, and would supposedly cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace. The study, which has not been peer-reviewed yet, appears to come to its conclusions by modeling a scenario that assumes cheaper pharmaceutical prices, less administrative overhead, reduced fraud, and fewer emergency visits.

…

The U.S. healthcare system has plenty of problems. While the promise of “free stuff” may sound tempting, the experience of countries with universal healthcare should make Americans deeply skeptical of the idea that putting the government in charge of the entire system is a panacea.

https://reason.com/2026/08/19/universal-healthcare-sounds-great-heres-whats-happening-in-countries-that-have-it/

The part about long waits for treatment….when I needed a gastro doctor it took me 14 weeks to get an appointment….we have those long waits, maybe not as stark as others but they are there.

If they are against M4A then how about giving Americans the same coverage as Congress people?  It is free and their waits are shorter and their drugs are mostly free….how about that for a solution?

In case there are those that still do not know what M4A is….let me help….here are the basics….

Medicare for All would transform the program into a single-payer health insurance program that would provide all Americans with healthcare coverage.

Single-payer healthcare systems, also called universal healthcare, are currently in place in various countries worldwide. These healthcare systems can have differing elements, such as:

  • how the health insurance is paid for
  • how the healthcare is delivered
  • how the health facilities are owned and operated

So yes I support M4A and will do so as long as I kind breathe on my own.

How about you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Restore Oil Flow Without Hormuz

The big deal these days is Donny and his delusional idea for the Strait of Hormuz but none of them will restore the flow of oil….is there answer to some sort of restoration?

This article covers the possibilities and god knows oil companies do not want to go without their money maker….

The largest global oil shock on record has catapulted U.S. gasoline prices above $4 a gallon, rekindled inflation and set the stage for November’s midterm elections.

It all traces to fighting in a narrow strip of water thousands of miles away. Iran’s near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz choked off a trade route responsible for about 20% of global oil supply, or nearly 21 million barrels of oil each day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency. A U.S. blockade of Iranian ships deepened the crude shortage.

On-again, off-again negotiations have shown little sign of a breakthrough, encouraging oil producers and Gulf nations to seek out other trade routes, some of which are already transporting millions of barrels each day.

Those alternatives, in theory, could eventually restore most of the lost oil flow and provide relief at the pump, some analysts told ABC News, but construction would take several years and require major investment. Still, they said, the approach may offer a durable fix, heading off future flareups in the Strait.

“You’ve already got some projects in the works. I don’t see any turning back,” Tom Seng, a professor of energy finance at Texas Christian University, told ABC News. “Nobody wants to get stung without a solution again.”

Shipping traffic in the Strait has declined sharply since the outbreak of war in Iran, according to oil data company Kpler. An average of about 13 ships crossed the Strait each day last week, the firm said in a post on X, down from more than 100 ships per day before the recent conflict.

https://abcnews.com/Business/gas-prices-fall-companies-build-oil-routes-bypass/story

The pipeline idea is a fanciful one….it will go through some unstable areas to make it to market….and then how will they secure the pipeline from attacks that will stymie oil flow?

Let me guess….the US military will provide security for these operations, right?

I think this is a bad idea….and if instigated would come back to bite us in the ass.

What do you guys think of this ‘plan’?

On a side note….there is talk of after the war with Iran that US would draw down its presence in the region….

The US military is considering reducing its military presence in the Persian Gulf, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, as many of its bases in the region have been badly damaged by Iranian attacks.

Many of the US bases in the Gulf had been evacuated before the US and Israel launched the bombing campaign against Iran on February 28 due to their vulnerability, and some have been essentially abandoned following heavy Iranian attacks.

The Post report said that the damage to US bases in the Gulf has “prompted a once-in-a-generation chance for the Pentagon to reconsider its presence in the region” and that the Pentagon had already signaled it may not rebuild its Gulf bases to how they were before.

Sources told the paper that Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), has been involved in discussions about the future of the US military presence in the region and supports holding deliberations on potentially moving troops west from the Persian Gulf.

Notably, a pullback of US troops from the Persian Gulf has been one of Iran’s conditions for a deal to end the conflict. Iranian officials have frequently said that they believe this war will lead to a US “retreat” from the region.

(antiwar.com)

Does anyone think oil companies will allow this to take place?

I don’t.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Just Can’t Fix Stupid

As you already know I like using that term….can’t fix stupid at lot….but according to some there is more than one type of stupid.

Here is that breakdown for you….the 5 laws of stupid….

The most dangerous person in the room may not be the greediest, cruelest, or mentally wackiest. It’s the stupid people you always have to watch out for.

A selfish person usually wants something. Find the incentive, and you can often predict the behavior. The more dangerous person harms others without helping themselves — and may even suffer alongside their victims.

That’s one of the hallmarks of stupidity, as outlined in The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, a satirical essay written in 1976 by economic historian Carlo M. Cipolla. He did not define stupidity through IQ, low education, or ignorance. He defined it through outcomes: Who gained, who lost, and whether the damage served any purpose.

Cipolla did not present these as literal scientific “laws”. He used satire and a simple payoff model to make a serious point: intelligence, education, and status do not prevent people from making decisions that harm both themselves and others. In his framework, stupidity is not a fixed trait. It is a pattern of behavior defined by its consequences.

–onto Law number one–

https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/5-laws-of-stupidity/

I believe that Number 5 is the most profound.

The current admin is proving #5 is spot on.

Anything to add?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”