Category: Professor's Classroom

“Just Do Something”

With all the attacks on our lives from the lunatics on the Right my question is why are we, as Americans, doing something?

Yep from time to time we have these cute little protests that garner a bit of press but they are not doing anything to change things.

It is time for Americans to once again to hit the streets and make their dissatisfaction known.

There’s a lot of hurt, frustration, and anger over the lack of American action in ‘doing’ something — anything to stop America’s support of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, US/Israeli destruction and destabilization of the region, and now, the duo’s senseless War against Iran.

Justifiably so.

Over the last few weeks in particular, I’ve had the opportunity to have a number of painful conversations with Palestinians and Iranians in the blast zone of America’s failed and flailing foreign policy. My experience over the years has only been reinforced by these conversations. Namely, that while there is a lot of hurt and anger, there is even more confusion. Where is America?

Why aren’t you doing anything?
Why don’t Americans stop this?
Why don’t Americans do anything at all?

America should be in the streets en masse. Americans should be organized to take any and all action necessary to stop genocide, the proliferation of terrorism, and now the immoral and unfounded war against Iran. I’m personally disgusted by American complacency and total lack of awareness, much less positive action — but do you really think the America that trains the hit squads and torture squads abroad is really so different at home?

…

America is not absent from action because nothing is wrong. America is not absent because no one here cares. America is absent because this country has spent decades making collective political action geographically unnatural, economically dangerous, socially isolating, politically disorienting, and — whenever it starts to become effective — punishable through job loss, criminal prosecution and imprisonment, or death. The business class, the media apparatus, the donor class, the party system, the state, and the state’s enforcement classes have all worked to build a public that is fragmented and atomized, exhausted and broke, frightened and paranoid, unimaginably misinformed and confused, and thus, nearly impossible to organize into any force capable of threatening their entrenched structures.

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-americans-dont-just-do-something-a-letter-to-everyone-in-the-blast-radius/

Should we look to France for a little inspiration?  How about Albania?

https://thefulcrum.us/ethics-leadership/lessons-from-french-protests-democracy-governance

I am sorry but the time to sit by and hope things will change is over….time for Americans to stop acting like whipped sheep and take it to the bloody streets!

Go big or go home….

whimper in the corner and wait.

Not my style.

Time to wake this country up and get the masses moving.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Has The Constitution Failed Us?

WE have a garden slug in the White House and he has by-passed the Constitution on several occasions….you know that document that guarantees us of certain rights….and our dear Donny has managed to stomp on the document with both feet.

The U.S. Constitution was ratified to create and to restrain the government. It established boundaries beyond which the government may not venture, even when it invokes national security, public order, economic necessity, emergency or the will of a popular majority. Its purpose is not to make government more powerful but to keep the government off the people’s backs.

By that measure, the American Constitution is a failure. Formally, the document physically survives, its ceremonies continue, and politicians swear their oaths to abide it. Yet functionally, the government it was designed to restrain has accumulated vast and totalitarian powers that its authors would never recognize.

…

Across these episodes, the pattern repeats itself. Government restricts speech in the name of stability, expands executive power in the name of war, weakens monetary discipline in the name of economic management, conducts secret operations in the name of security and broadens surveillance in the name of preventing terrorism. Each measure arrives with an explanation. Each emergency is declared exceptional. Yet the accumulated result is a government more powerful and a citizen less secure in his liberty. And none is countenanced by the Constitution.

Was Jefferson right that the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants? His famous language arose from the revolutionary generation’s experience and its fear of concentrated power. It expressed a belief that liberty cannot survive without eternal vigilance and a continuous willingness to resist oppression.

The deeper question is whether the Constitution can preserve liberty when the people entrusted with enforcing it benefit from its erosion. The answer depends upon whether Americans treat government as their servant or their master.

…

The Constitution cannot save a people who have abandoned the principles from which it sprang. Ultimately, liberty survives only when the governed insist that the government remain within its constitutional limits. If it won’t, we must alter or abolish it.

America’s Failed Constitution

With Donny’s antics is the Constitution outdated?

  • Counter-Majoritarian Institutions: Critics point to structures like the Electoral College, which can allow a candidate who loses the popular vote to win the presidency, and the Senate, which equally represents small and large states regardless of population, as undemocratic.

  • Difficulty of Amendment: Under Article V, amending the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress (or a constitutional convention called by two-thirds of the states) and ratification by three-fourths of the states. Scholars note this has made formal amendments virtually unamendable in an era of deep partisan polarization.

  • Stagnant Representation: The size of the House of Representatives has been capped at 435 members since 1929, leading to massive congressional districts that critics argue fail to adequately represent a vastly larger, urbanized population.

  • Lack of Modern Explicit Rights: Some legal critics note the absence of explicit, modern guarantees (such as an explicit right to vote) compared to newer global constitutions.

It appears that it is antiquated…..and has reached is expiration date…..thanx to Donny and the Merry Band of Criminals….

I agree….if we cannot have the document to protect us from the government then it is time to alter or abolish….and start over.

Is there more that needs saying?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Sign Of The Times

Let’s talk about the creeping cancer of ignorance and stupidity….about 8 years ago I wrote about this cancerous growth on our society….

In The Age Of The “Idiotarian”

Sadly this disease has grown exponentially every since about 2009.

There are some that defend the ignorant voter….

Earlier this week I defended media horse-race coverage; this time I’m going to defend…ignorant, and even flat-out stupid, voters.

This comes up because we’re getting voter-on-the-street interviews – not to mention the regular New York Times focus groups – all of which reveals that many voters know very little about lots of things. And in the social media age, everyone gets to insult those voters; I saw one reaction that just said: ”Please just don’t vote.”

To which I’ll respond: Please do.

Not because I disagree about how uninformed voters can be. They certainly are.

So are informed voters, actually. No one in the US is a policy expert in all the things that their national, state, and various local elected officials will have to deal with, or all the policy positions candidates for all those offices hold. It’s simply not possible. There’s way, way too much. And that’s just candidate elections; there are also ballot measures. It’s a lot.

That we feel otherwise, and beat up on voters who don’t measure up, is an unfortunate consequence of US political culture, which values individualism rather than taking group cues. But democracy doesn’t depend on well-informed voters!

There are a couple of ways into this. One is that we expect too much of elections. After all, while we can’t be expert in every policy area, it doesn’t really matter because a vote is incapable of transmitting that much information anyway – all it really does is to say that we prefer this candidate to the other one(s). Not why. It’s true that various people including the candidates may interpret our votes as saying “end the war” or “implement my farm price support program” or “interact with constituents more than what the previous officeholder did,” but the vote itself is silent on that.

https://goodpoliticsbadpolitics.substack.com/p/what-about-stupid-ignorant-voters

For me there is no excuse for being an ignorant voter….but it does take time away from Instagram and god forbid that would ruin one’s day.

Sadly the uninformed make up a very large group of voters….they vote on emotional issues and not what is best for the nation….and thusly we have the era in which we live now.

This coming election will prove interesting in several ways….will the stupid win the day or will common sense win out?

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Moderates And Their Extremism

College of Political Knowledge

2026 Election Series #2

(And the series continues)

With less than a month before we go to the polls and vote for our preferences I would like to talk about what some call the largest voting block in the nation….the moderates, centrists or independents.

The term ‘moderate’ is one that I despise….it is as misleading as the term ‘independent’ (more on that in a later post)….

Let’s look at what being a ‘moderate ‘ means….

A moderate in politics is a person who holds centrist views, avoids extreme or radical positions, and prefers practical problem-solving over strict ideology.  (How many actually stand at the center?)

The supposed core beliefs….

  • The Center Ground: Moderates sit in the middle of the left-right political spectrum. They often combine ideas from both liberal and conservative viewpoints.
  • Pragmatism: They judge issues on a case-by-case basis rather than following a rigid political playbook.
  • Preference for Compromise: They view political cooperation and bipartisanship as essential for good governance.
  • Cautious Change: They support gradual reform rather than sweeping, sudden, or revolutionary changes to society

There you have what politicians and political pundits want you to believe are where most Americans stand….I do not believe that in the least and the last few elections prove it.

These are what the media calls ‘swing voters’….personally I do not believe this at all.

Nowadays “Moderates’ embrace a radical view….

We’ve been hearing a lot of panicky warnings lately after Democratic primary voters chose socialists and other leftists instead of “moderates” in several major elections. The alarm bells got louder this month after Michigan’s progressive Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens – who was, the New York Times reported, “the moderate establishment-backed candidate.”

The soothing “moderate” label routinely goes to candidates like Stevens who’ve supported continual arming of Israel. She “benefited from about $62 million in advertising spending from half a dozen outside groups,” the Times noted. “Over half of that sum came from the super PAC arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the country’s most influential pro-Israel group.”

What’s so “moderate” about supporting genocide?

Politicians are also routinely dubbed “moderate” when they’re running interference for extreme income inequality and deadly healthcare inequities – helping to block popular policy options like tax hikes on the rich and Medicare for All, which is supported by three-quarters of Democrats.

The Democratic base is fed up with a system that gives inordinate power to the wealthy and to large corporations. In the real world, the so-called “moderates” are aligned with a status quo that continues to inflict widespread suffering and preventable death at home and abroad.

To hear timeworn party strategists like James Carville and Paul Begala tell it, leftwing candidates are duping the Democratic electorate. As this month began, Carville threatened to leave the party. Begala made headlines by declaring, “I don’t like the socialists. I can’t stand them.”

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/moderates-support-extreme-injustice/

Moderates want the status quo to remain….all the corruption, the lies, the total lack of empathy for the people…..change is not in their playbook….and without change this country will never move forward….we will remain at the mercy of corporations and their agents like pundits.

What crap!  If anyone is duping the electorate it is these corporate stooges that want the cash to continue to flow.

Some voters are finally seeing what we have been telling them for a generation….moderates are not working for them but rather for themselves and their wallets.

I just wish that the American voter would spend more time looking and researching their candidates and make better decisions on their trip to the polls….but apparently time on Instagram is far more important than improving their lives.

Let the debate begin.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

High Prices–What Could Be Done

NOTE:  This will be it for me today for there is a hurricane headed in our direction and I need to make sure the house in good shape to take the punishment.

We Americans are struggling with the high prices of everything from Food to gas….we can blame the government for useless tariffs and such but it actually runs deeper than that premise.

Our presidents have struggled, from time to time, with rising prices and this will delve into what happened and happen was tried….and mostly failed.

The ‘solutions’ seem to be around election time with the hopes that their meager attempts will be met favorably by the voters that were suffering under the crush of rising prices.

Rising prices make angry voters. Small wonder, then, that presidents look for quick ways to tamp down those prices.

The rub is that presidents don’t have the power to reduce inflation. The Federal Reserve Board can influence inflation by raising interest rates, but without precision. In any case, presidents don’t want higher rates, especially in an election season. And always the most powerful operator in the room is markets, not the president or the Fed.

So chief executives resort to trying short-term magic, what one might call “electoral economics.” Look where you may in our history, you see the same result. A bit of prestidigitation may sometimes appear to control prices long enough to help the president. But only sometimes. And the magic never holds long term.

…

In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy worried about inflation. Although annual inflation rates did not rise much above 1 percent at the time, wages were rising faster. Kennedy believed that wage increases reflected and caused inflation. In general that wasn’t true. Nonetheless, the president wanted to keep wage growth in line with productivity growth, which averaged about 3 percent per year. He also aimed to limit price hikes to normal cost markups.

In short, the president wanted to push down unruly prices somehow, without being too obvious about the effort.

In January 1962, Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisers set “guideposts for noninflationary wage and price behavior.” These measures were labeled “guideposts” because the administration understood that Congress would not approve formal price controls.

https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/presidents-high-prices

So the question can be asked….can presidents actually do anything about rising prices?

No, U.S. presidents cannot directly control or quickly curb rising prices, as inflation is driven primarily by global market forces and independent monetary policy.

What Presidents Cannot Do
  • Set prices: Direct price controls or freezes fail long-term and often cause shortages.

  • Control the Federal Reserve: The central bank independently manages interest rates to fight inflation.

  • Fix global commodities: Daily oil, gas, and grocery prices respond to worldwide supply and demand, not executive orders.

  • Command the economy: The massive U.S. market operates mostly through private business and consumer decisions.
What Presidents Can Do (Indirectly)

  • Fiscal policy: Sign or veto spending bills and tax packages, though congressional approval is required and short-term impacts are minimal.

  • Regulatory and executive actions: Adjust federal rules on domestic energy leasing or target corporate consolidation through antitrust enforcement, though these effects take years.  (Donny loves his EOs….but would he try to use them for good?)

  • The bully pulpit: Publicly pressure companies or industries to moderate price hikes, though this relies on persuasion rather than legal enforcement.  (This will not happen for Donny loves his corporate leaders….everything he does is for their benefit)

As it stands today the president can only throw crap at the problem and hope it will work itself out before the next election.

I am an old fart and remember the days, the mid-70s, and the fight inflation of the Ford government….and the WIN program….

On October 8, less than two months after becoming president, Ford addressed a joint session of Congress and declared inflation “public enemy number one.” Unlike Nixon, however, Ford avoided formal mandates. Instead, he retreated to moralizing and recommending, a version of Kennedy’s approach.

Ford urged businesses to restrain prices and wages. He encouraged the public to conserve energy and reduce spending to curb demand. The White House launched the “Whip Inflation Now” campaign, complete with red-and-white “WIN” buttons handed out to citizens. To promote anti-inflation ideas, Ford created a Citizens’ Action Committee that included consumer advocates, business executives, labor leaders, economists, and policy experts. The administration also established the Council on Wage and Price Stability.

Ford’s campaign had virtually no effect on prices. If anything, it undermined his administration’s credibility on economic policy. WIN buttons became a national joke. Some Americans wore them upside-down to read “NIM”—for “No Immediate Miracles” or “Need Immediate Money.”

I remember the beginnings of the ‘generic’ food….the cans with white labels ans black printing…..money was saved but the program was a bust just a short 5 months after it began.

This will give you an overview of the attempts by presidents to control prices….but in the end capitalism won out and we were saddled with ever rising food prices….

https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/presidents-high-prices

We can add Donny to the list of failed programs and the average person struggles and no one will look beyond the markets to settle prices down.

That approach is a cop out….period.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Laws Of Stupidity

These dark days of rampant ignorance I am reminded of something Ben Franklin said…. “We are all born ignorant, but must work hard to remain stupid”….never more true than today.

For years I have been saying that if anyone wants to see where this country is heading they need to watch the movie, Idiocracy, it was very prophetic.

I even wrote about earlier….

“Idiocracy” Is Coming True!

As we get further into the reign of Dear Donny he exemplifies the basic laws of stupidity.

Today, as we witness one of the dumbest wars in history unraveling in Iran, an inept health and human services secretary working to bring back measles and polio, a Republican Party wherein only 20 percent view the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as a violent insurrection but 71 percent deny Joe Biden won the 2020 election, and an administration that refuses to properly regulate AI and crypto industries that threaten the economic well-being and safety of all, Cipolla’s contention is as apt now as when he first proposed it in The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, in 1976—an era when the country, and indeed the world, was similarly roiled by sociopolitical rage and seemed on the brink of a catastrophe.

An Italian economic historian and UC-Berkeley professor who’d seen fascism firsthand and was writing in the wake of the Vietnam War, Cipolla wanted to determine how advanced societies commit truly stupid acts. Originally crafted for his friends, but selling over half a million copies once published, his treatise lies somewhere between satire and serious scholarship, involving a bit of humor and speculation while also applying the laws and language of scientific inquiry and a valid argumentative style. As he wrote in the introduction:

Let me point out at this juncture that most emphatically this little book is neither a product of cynicism nor an exercise in defeatism—no more than a book on microbiology is. The following pages are in fact the result of a constructive effort to detect, know, and thus possibly neutralize one of the most powerful dark forces that hinder the growth of human welfare and happiness.

Cipolla divided people into four groups: the helpless, whose actions harm themselves but benefit others; the intelligent, whose actions benefit themselves and others; the bandits, who enrich themselves while harming others; and the stupid, whose actions harm others while producing no benefit to themselves. This latter group is Cipolla’s main concern. “No matter how high are one’s estimates of human stupidity,” he wrote, “one is repeatedly and recurrently startled by the fact that a) people whom one had once judged rational and intelligent turn out to be unashamedly stupid; b) day after day, with unceasing monotony, one is harassed in one’s activities by stupid individuals who appear suddenly and unexpectedly in the most inconvenient places and at the most improbable moments.”

…

The theory rest on five “laws,” which are as follows:

  • Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
  • The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
  • A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
  • Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people infallibly turns out to be a costly mistake.
  • A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.

https://newrepublic.com/article/215721/trump-basic-laws-human-stupidity-carlo-cipolla

Can we say right on?

When I was in college after I returned from Vietnam I read this study in the year 1978 (yes I am an old fart)….after witnessing the Vietnam War first hand and up close I wanted to know why we must do such things…..and I see not much has changed in all those 50 years.

Read the study and see just how accurate he was in 1976.

Now this brings me back to an old saying….’can’t fix stupid’.

Anything to add?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Moderates, Centrists And Independents

College of Political Knowledge

2026 Election Series #1

To some these are different techniques in approaching government….but to me they are very similar.

AS the 2026 mid-term elections draws near there will be lots said in the MSM about these people…personally I think it is all so much bullshit but that is just me.

I will be write posts on all three of these so-called voters, some of it will be re-posts from days gone by that I wrote whenever I see these terms used.

Have I mentioned I think all that coverage is bullshit?

We know for a fact that Donny’s brand of MAGA will be on the ballot and many seem to think that will be enough to make people vote for Dems….I do not believe that….I do not care what the polls say….their predictions could be just so much farting into the wind.

But let’s look at the so-called political beasts….

While the terms centrist, moderate, and independent are often used interchangeably to describe voters and politicians who sit between the two major political parties, they actually refer to distinct concepts.
The primary difference lies in the fact that independents are defined by their lack of official party affiliation, moderates are defined by the non-extreme temperaments or positions they hold relative to their chosen party, and centrists are defined by their specific ideological stance of blending left- and right-wing policy solutions.
 Direct Comparison

Feature Centrists ⚖️ Moderates 🤝 Independents 🚫
Core Definition An ideological stance that deliberately mixes policies from both the left and the right. A political temperament that avoids ideological extremism and favors incremental change. A party status meaning the person is officially unaffiliated with any political party.
Party Affiliation May be independent or hold membership in a major party. Usually registered members of major parties (e.g., “Moderate Democrats”). Strictly unregistered with major parties; rejects party labels.
Primary Goal Finding synthesized, effective policy solutions regardless of political origin. Achieving stability, compromise, and bipartisan consensus between opposing sides. Evaluating candidates individually based on issues rather than party loyalty.
Ideological Consistency Often highly opinionated with a consistent, balanced mix of views. Generally sits closer to the political center of gravity but leans toward their home party. Highly diverse; can range from radical libertarians to center-of-the-road voters.
1. Centrists: The Ideologues of the Middle

Centrism is a proactive political outlook rather than just a passive avoidance of the extremes. Centrists believe that neither the far-left nor the far-right has a monopoly on good governance.

  • The Policy Mix: A centrist might strongly support a robust social safety net (traditionally a left-wing view) while simultaneously advocating for strict fiscal conservatism or strong border enforcement (traditionally right-wing views).

  • Examples: Organized political groups like the Forward Party or the Problem Solvers Caucus in Congress focus heavily on structural, centrist reforms like open primaries and ranked-choice voting.

2. Moderates: The Pragmatists and Conciliators
Moderation describes the intensity of a person’s political beliefs. A moderate typically operates within a major political party but acts as a check against the party’s more radical or progressive wings.

  • The Approach: Moderates prioritize governance, stability, and consensus over ideological purity. They are the legislators most willing to cross party lines to negotiate deals.

  • Examples: Groups like the New Democrat Coalition or the Republican Governance Group are coalitions of moderate lawmakers who work to pull their respective parties back toward practical legislation. Recently, moderate Democrats launched initiatives like the “Promise to America” to explicitly reaffirm capitalist, non-socialist platforms.
3. Independents: The Unaffiliated Bloc

Being an independent is a statement about institutional alignment, not necessarily about a person’s exact political views. Gallup polling data consistently shows that independents make up a massive portion of the electorate, often matching or outpacing registered Democrats and Republicans.

  • The Spectrum: It is a common misconception that all independents are middle-of-the-road voters. While many describe themselves as moderates, a significant percentage actually hold solidly conservative or liberal beliefs but choose to remain outside the two-party system due to partisan frustration.

  • Behavior: They are typically swing voters who judge candidates case-by-case, or they are voters who feel completely unrepresented by modern political platforms.

There you have the ‘differences’ in the political terms….but to my way of thinking they are the same animal with minor differences….these are canned definitions.

The confusing one is ‘independents’….they look at all candidates without a party affiliation….but in reality they are just disenfranchised voters and will settle on one or the other of the political parties.

Then there is the dream of bi-partisanship….these days it is nothing more than a pipe dream and a not so funny joke.

These so-called voters are still supporting the corporate greed and corruption that both parties breed…..the voters hang onto the lie that either party can change the greed and corruption in politics.

Any thing to add?

Stay tuned for I will look deeper into each of these so-called voters and make my analysis known.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That Damn Strait!

The Strait of Hormuz has been in the news almost daily so I decided to take a look at some history (you guys know I cannot pass up a history lesson)….

I found an interesting piece about the UK and their involvement in the region in the 70s….(I hope some of my UK readers will help shed some light on this piece of history)….

Previously secret military files reveal links between the use of torture by British forces in Oman and Northern Ireland during the 1970s.

An army major who led the worst of these interrogations in the Gulf would later earn a senior role in a secretive intelligence unit in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles.

Although that unit colluded with paramilitaries, the officer involved appears to have been promoted to MI5’s most senior role in Northern Ireland.

The interrogations done by his men in Oman were more extensive than previously reported and would be considered illegal by today’s standards.

They were employed as part of a counter-insurgency campaign waged for Sultan Qaboos, a pro-British dictator installed in Oman after an MI6-backed coup in 1970.

U.K. support for Qaboos was driven by a desire to secure oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, which is flanked by Iran on one side and the disputed Musandam peninsula to the south.

British planners helped Qaboos annex Musandam in 1970, creating an Omani exclave separated from the rest of the country and surrounded by the Trucial States (which are now the United Arab Emirates).

Britain inserted elite SAS troops into Musandam in December 1970 to round up suspected rebels.

Declassified has previously found that while one member of the Shihuh tribe was being questioned, he refused to give up his ceremonial dagger and was shot in the arm, shoulder and neck.

It can now be revealed that another detainee who allegedly escaped in March 1971 was shot in the back and shoulder.

Regarding the incident, Geoffrey Arthur — British political resident for the Persian Gulf — told Conservative Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home:

“We might also eventually have to face questions as to why such persons had been detained and/or interrogated by British forces at Sharjah, but we would naturally try to prevent this aspect getting out.”

When Britain Used Torture to Control the Strait of Hormuz

These are events we knew nothing about (that is why it is called a ‘state secret’)….but it is fascinating to shine a light on this portion of the region’s history.

I hope my UK readers may have some further information that I do not have and if anything needs corrected please do just that.

Side Note:  the war is costing average Americans dearly….

By late September, the total cost of the higher gas and diesel prices triggered by President Trump’s war against Iran exceeded $103 billion, according to my organization’s analysis of the federal government’s energy data. And those higher prices aren’t showing any sign of slowing. If current trends hold, the price tag by the end of this year will approach $180 billion.

For the average household, that comes out to $750 extra so far, and that figure is on pace to top $1,300 by year’s end.

For a family of four with two drivers, those costs are even higher, topping $1,000 already and slated to be over $1,700 by the end of the year if the war continues. Our interactive tool, online at itep.org/iran-war-fuel-cost, lets you punch in your region and household size to get a sense of how much your family’s costs are rising.

There you go….is it not about time to end this stupidity?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Marxism, Socialism, Communism–Oh My!

Over my lifetime those accusations were thrown at me almost continuously….are they accurate?

Maybe in my younger days we could say they were somewhat accurate.

Today those accusations have become forefront in the midterm elections….all because some DSA candidates have been making in-roads into the system.

Fearmongering has almost seemed to work in the conservs favor….it was used on McGovern, Obama, etc and that was for the national title but it has been used in the past for state and local elections….fear has worked in conservs favor for decades.

How about in the 2026 elections….will it work?

“Because they want — they think, over two or three cycles, they will elect enough Marxist socialist communists to take over the means of production. That means no more private property ownership. Compare that agenda with some crazy things that people have said in their past. I think — I think that the choice here is very simple. I think Republicans are going to win up and down the ballot around this country, and we’re going to defy history, grow the majority, and move the country forward, just as we have been doing for this Congress in the last year-and-a-half or more.” -Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, on CNN 9/13 interviewed by Jack Tapper.

It is so clear that anti-“Marxist socialist communists” propaganda is something that we’re going to be hearing for the next 50 days as the Trumpfascist Republicans attempt to get US potential voters to deny the reality of their lives, what they are experiencing and feeling and thinking, and instead be full of nervousness and fear about the “MSC” threat. Those in areas where there are competitive House and Senate districts will particularly be inundated with a ridiculous number of ads along these lines.

Will this have much effect?

It’s easy to say a loud “NO,” it will not, given Trump’s abysmal ratings in the polls, the fact that Trump, as of now, plans to try to turn the election into a referendum about him personally, and the many polls showing that it is a definite possibility that the Democrats will win not just the House—likely—but the Senate. Frankly, it is reassuring on an emotional level to be aware of these realities. It helps to mitigate the very legitimate anxiety it is easy to feel right now.

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/marxism-socialism-communism-oh-no/

Personally, I do not think these insults will work….most people are fed up with their lives thanks to the bad decisions this president has made….after saying that do I think the Dems will win?

I think they will….the House for sure but the Senate will be a bigger hill to climb….but anything is possible these days.

The MSM is doing their part in this campaign of fearmongering….a nationally accredited journalist (their term not mine)….has been doing his part….

Karl Marx believed that “Democracy is the road to socialism.” Socialists seem to have found a generation of dupes to buy their ahistorical, fanciful pitch. A new poll shows 43% now have a positive view of socialism. An astonishing 65% of Democrats have a positive view. Socialism is now the rage on the left.

Like clothing styles, if you wait long enough, socialism tends to come back into style with generations with no memory of past failures. However, it is an astonishing trend in one of the most prosperous nations on Earth that outlasted a history cluttered with the broken failures of socialist and communist systems.

A new slick packaging of socialism has emerged with leaders such as Zohran Mamdani offering to teach people of the “warmth of collectivism.” The Democratic Socialists of America are enticing voters with narratives like “Imagine the end of capitalism.” Those words promise voters that there is a brave new world without landlords, debt, mandatory work hours and “food, education, energy, medicine and transportation… are common goods and utilities.”

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jonathan-turley-socialism-back-style-democrats-buying-pitch

See what I mean?  Fearmongering bullshit!

All that is assuming the elections will be above board and totally up and up….and we know the Donny has never been an up to up type of guy.

I am pulling for the DSA candidates….we can do a lot better than what we have now….and I think the new guys will be better….better until special interests move in.

I will be watching and holding my breath that new leadership will win the day.

Anything you would like to add?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Open Letter From Iran To America

***This may be my only post for I have to go for a scan today and will be nuked up with iodine and it does not sit well with me….I may return later if I am feeling better.***

+++This is post as an FYI….there is no endorsement on my part….+++

There are some that may not be interested in what Iran has to say about the continuing war…..I found it an interesting shot at Donny….warning it is a lengthy letter but it does attempt to answer some of those nagging questions at has plagued this subject for years….

An Open Letter to the Honorable People of the United States of America

Indeed, God does not alter the affairs of a people until they alter their own affairs.

—The Holy Qur’an 13:11

To the honorable people of the United States of America—the scholars, the students, and the media persons,

We begin this letter by saluting the noble souls of God’s greatest prophets—Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, may His peace and blessings be upon them all.

Seven months ago, the US military, launched an unprovoked war, in violation of the international law, against Iran by attacking an elementary school in Minab, murdering 168 innocent schoolchildren along with their teachers. Simultaneously, they attacked the offices of Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, martyring His Eminence and several members of his family, including his 14-month-old granddaughter.

To date, the war has claimed the lives of more than 3600 Iranians, the vast majority of them civilians, including 400 children. Eight universities, three hospitals, and eight schools have been bombed. Yet, despite the unprecedented acts of cruelty and violence suffered by the Iranian nation during this war, the United States and Israel have suffered a crushing defeat, while the Islamic Republic of Iran has achieved a decisive victory.

As the first casualty of the endless wars waged by the US government has without exception been the truth, with the American people perpetually receiving the greatest harm as the result of the US government’s campaign of deception, we wish to highlight some of the facts that are being withheld from the American public. After all, it is the American taxpayers who will have to bear the cost of America’s unjust wars, and so they deserve to know the truth.

Let’s start by considering a few questions. Why has Iran prevailed in its conflict with the U.S., whose military enjoys an annual budget one hundred times that of Iran’s armed forces and possesses a stockpile of weapons and munitions that dwarfs what is available to the Iranian military by an enormously lopsided ratio?

– Why do Iranians chant, “Death to America”? Are they hostile to the American people?

– The US government claims that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) is a terrorist organization. Is this true?

– Why have the vast and extensive efforts of the U.S. government over the past nearly five decades to restore its domination over the Iranian people continually failed?

– Why is the US, if the present course continues, rapidly heading toward decline?

….Read on….

https://en.mehrnews.com/news/248182/IRGC-writes-an-open-letter-to-American-people

Once you get past the religious then it tries to answer some questions that have been lingering for decades…..

I realize that this letter will not be met with open minds for there is too much bias but it still should be read.

I will say that it sets forth a good exp0lanation of what Iran is about….whether you believe it or not it is far more coherent that anything Donny has ever said.

Please let me know what you think…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”