Tag: Republicans

The Hunt For A Speaker

McCarthy is in his ‘hidden’ office licking his wounds and two major players have stepped up to slither their way into the House leadership….Jim Jordan and Scalise…..

I was wondering if the opponents would bring up the past allegations against Jordan….they did.

Jim Jordan should not be speaker of the House, according to four former Ohio State University wrestlers who claim the House Judiciary Committee chairman failed to protect them from a sexual predator. Jordan served as assistant coach of the OSU wrestling team from 1986 to 1994, when Richard Strauss was employed as a school physician. A 2019 investigative report found Strauss, who died in 2005, sexually abused at least 177 students from 1979 to 1997, including through 47 cases of rape. The 2019 investigation found coaches and athletic administrators knew Strauss was abusing male athletes and failed to stop him, though individual names were redacted in the public report. Jordan has claimed he never saw or heard about any abuse while at the school.

But some former wrestlers have disputed that. Dunyasha Yetts has said he personally told Jordan that Strauss tried to remove his shorts when he went to see the doctor about a thumb injury. “He doesn’t deserve to be House speaker,” Yetts now tells NBC News. “He still has to answer for what happened to us.” Other Strauss accusers have backed up Yetts’ claim that Jordan knew what the doctor was up to, claiming the coach took part in locker room discussions to that effect. “There’s no way he didn’t know what was going on,” says Mike Schyck, another former OSU wrestler. “Do you really want a guy in that job who chose not to stand up for his guys? Is that the kind of character trait you want for a House speaker?”

“None of us used the words ‘sexual abuse’ when we talked about what Doc Strauss was doing to us,” but Jordan “knew about it because we talked about it all the time in the locker room, at practices, everywhere,” says a third former OSU wrestler, identified as John Doe in a lawsuit against the university. In a 2018 interview, Jordan noted “conversations in a locker room are a lot different than allegations of abuse. No one ever reported any abuse to me.” But he went on to deny knowledge of these locker room discussions, too. Rocky Ratliff, a former OSU wrestler and lawyer representing plaintiffs in the suit against the school, now wants to hear him say the same under oath. Ratliff, who claims Jordan “abandoned his former wrestlers,” plans to have him deposed, per NBC.

Did this work to keep Jordan out of the Big Chair?

It appears to may have help the Repubs decide on Scalise for the Speakership….

House Republicans have landed on Majority Leader Steve Scalise as their pick for next speaker, with the Hill reporting he bested Jim Jordan in a 113-99 closed-door vote. Things will next head to the House floor, where he’ll face off against Democrats’ pick: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. The one who ends up with the gavel will be the one who emerges with the majority, which could take a while. Republicans hold a very slim majority, and ousted speaker Kevin McCarthy didn’t emerge victorious for 15 rounds.

The AP writes of Scalise, “The Louisiana lawmaker is seen as a hero to some after surviving a mass shooting on lawmakers at a congressional baseball game practice a few years ago.” The Hill adds, “Scalise’s nomination marks the pinnacle of his congressional career, which began in 2008 and has spanned more than nine years in leadership, including stints as Republican whip and, most recently, majority leader.” Sources tell CNN that a full House vote won’t happen today, with interim speaker Rep. Patrick McHenry expected to call a recess when the House meets at 3pm.

Several GOP lawmakers have already said they won’t vote for Scalise, and it’s unclear whether he has a path to winning a majority. “Surprises are for little kids at birthday parties, not Congress,” Rep. Thomas Massie said in a post on X. “So, I let Scalise know in person that he doesn’t have my vote on the floor.” Rep. Max Miller said he would vote for Jordan even if Jordan asks his supporters to vote for Scalise, the Washington Post reports.

This ought to be fascinating.

Let The Games Begin!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will Republicans Ever Wake Up?

I mean they champion their own oppression….why?

That’s right I said ‘oppression’!

I recently ask this question of my fellow Mississippi voters….

Magical Time In Mississippi

(This had been sent to a magazine, Mississippi Today, but so far no word if they will run it)

Now I see people are starting that very question of GOP voters as well….

When will Republican voters figure out how badly they’re getting screwed by Republican politicians?

— Desperate workers struggle with soaring rents (courtesy of Republican-donor hedge funds);
— lack of healthcare (12 GOP-controlled states still refuse to expand Medicaid for under-$15,000/year workers) is literally killing Americans;
— wages have flatlined since Reagan declared war on workers in 1981 while the merely rich have become the morbidly rich;
— Americans pay 10 times as much as Canadians for some drugs because Republicans block any effort to bring competition to that marketplace;
— at the same time Trump and his GOP buddies in the House and Senate borrowed $1.7 trillion to fund a tax giveaway to his billionaire buddies, student debt passed the $1.7 trillion mark…

Yet somehow the “conservative” base voters never seem to figure it out. Why?

Most Republican voters don’t think much about it, but there are two very distinct layers to the GOP. It’s like a pyramid with a capstone at the very top.

The vast base of the pyramid are the white voters who Richard Nixon invited into the party after the Democrats embraced racial equality in 1964/1965 with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

https://www.rawstory.com/thom-hartmann-2665383048/

So basically it is a racial thing?

Well….yeah!

Have you ever thought about what will replace t6he smartphone?

Just as the land line and the flip phone were replaced so shall the smart phone….but with what?

If aliens landed on Earth today and reported back what humans looked like, they might describe a glowing rectangular appendage attached to one of our dangling limbs.

Virtually everyone carries a smartphone today — about 93 percent of Americans — which makes it the most used technology in our lives, second only to TVs at 96 percent. (More Gen Z and millennials have a phone than a television.)

ven more impressive, perhaps, is the fact these things didn’t exist until just over 15 years ago.

And no wonder: Your smartphone has evolved into a digital Swiss Army knife, of sorts. Along with serving as a critical messaging tool, it’s also your web browser, camera and camcorder, music player, gaming console, navigation unit, step counter, flashlight, personal AI assistant, and digital wallet.

Oh, and the damn thing makes calls, too.

So, what’s next now that smartphones are mature and every new iPhone or Android is just a slightly faster and better version of the same glass slab?

One prediction is more screens — and perhaps even closer to (or on) our faces, such as mixed reality headsets that fuse the real world around you with digital information superimposed on top of your view. The other school of thought is fewer screens, maybe with smaller wearable devices, à la Internet of Things (IoT), and an “ambient computing” approach in which technology seamlessly (and somewhat invisibly) integrates into our daily lives, allowing us to return to being present.

https://www.inverse.com/tech/next-in-tech-after-smartphones

Smart phones is as far as it will go for me.

 

GOP Debate #2–27Sep23

Sit back and enjoy this magical journey into the minds of the ‘Sh*t Show participants.

But first a small amount of background.

The Republican National Committee announced Monday night that the other seven candidates who participated the first time around did make the cut, which included donor requirements (at least 50,000 unique donors, at least 200 of which had to come from at least 20 states or territories), polling requirements (3% or more support in two national polls or 3% in one national poll plus two polls from Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina), and the signing of a pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee.

Those seven are Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, Doug Burgum, and Mike Pence, the AP reports. Former President Trump is once again opting to skip the debate in favor of giving a speech to union workers in Michigan. On Monday, Trump gave a speech that Fox News broadcast live, until Trump mentioned that he skipped the first debate—which was hosted by Fox—at which point the network cut away, Yahoo News reports. So far, just Trump, DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and Haley have met the even-more-difficult requirements to participate in the third debate, which will take place in Miami in November, Politico reports.

THe night was anything but exciting….ion fact it was just a bunch of idiots taking shots at each other and the frontrunner.

Christie tried to be cute….Haley attacks….DeSantis struts like the depot he thinks he is….and the rest was pretty much a snooze.

Yes, the seven GOP candidates on stage are fielding a wide range of questions on policy—and talking over each other quite a bit—but an absent Donald Trump is surfacing as a topic, too. Chris Christie, for example, even floated a derisive new nickname for the former president. Speaking into the camera, the former New Jersey governor addressed “Donald” directly: “I know you’re watching,” he said, because “you can’t help yourself.” He then accused Trump of being afraid to appear on stage with his GOP rivals to defend his record. If Trump continues to skip the debates, “no one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore,” said Christie, per the AP. “We’re going to call you Donald Duck.”

Haley tries to be clever…..

It will be surely be one of the most repeated lines of the night: “Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber,” Nikki Haley told Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday during the GOP debate. The shot came as Ramaswamy defended his decision to join TikTok even though it’s banned from government devices because of its ties to the Chinese government, per Fox News. Ramaswamy said he did so because it’s vital for Republicans to reach younger voters, though he added that as president, he would try to ban children under the age of 16 from using “addictive social media.”

Haley accused him of hypocrisy—”this is infuriating, because TikTok is one of the most dangerous social media apps that we could have”—before launching the zinger about feeling dumber. She further accused her younger rival of partnering with Chinese firms on business ventures. “We can’t trust you,” she told him. In response, Ramaswamy said, “We would be better served as a Republican party if we’re not here hurling personal insults.”

DeSantis was smug and a bit comical….

While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was the very last candidate to speak Wednesday night, he made a point to go after Trump when he finally did so. The former president, he said, “is missing in action” because he’s skipping another debate, per the Washington Post. DeSantis made the case that Trump’s spending has paved the way for today’s inflation and thus he should be on stage to defend his policies.

But Americans in their competitive zeal need winners and losers…..so here are the results from last night….

Republican presidential candidates, minus frontrunner former President Trump, debated again on Wednesday night—and as in last month’s debate in Milwaukee, Trump is being seen as perhaps the night’s biggest winner. “This was another debate where the guy leading by 40 points was not onstage and took only the slightest of blows from those who were onstage,” writes Andrew Propkop at Vox. “It was also another debate where there was no clear winner—no breakout star that could be elevated to Trump’s main challenger.” Verdicts on the candidates who were actually on the stage:

  • Ron DeSantis. The Washington Times puts the Florida governor among the losers, saying: “The man is in second place and not moving. He didn’t do anything in this debate to change that calculus. And then there’s that awkward forced smile.” Liz Peek at Fox News, however, says DeSantis was a winner, “helped by low expectations,” who may have cemented his hold on second place with some effective attacks on President Biden.
  • Nikki Haley. A winner, according to SE Cupp at CNN. The former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor “was laser-focused on exposing the weaknesses of the candidates who did bother to show up—more so than anyone else on the stage,” Cupp writes.She pointedly took on Florid
  • Tim Scott. The senator from South Carolina was among the winners, with a lot more energy than in last month’s debate and a willingness to mix it up with rivals, says Sally Goldenberg at Politico. “At times, he risked undermining his affable persona, but it was a risk worth taking as Scott needs to demonstrate to GOP donors that he’s a reasonable alternative to Trump,” Goldenberg says. “On Wednesday, he made progress on that front.”
  • Vivek Ramaswamy. The biotech entrepreneur was considered one of the winners of the first debate but a lot of pundits put him in the losers’ column this time around. He “struggled to handle the attacks his opponents threw at him on Wednesday evening,” and there were plenty of them, per the Hill. One of the night’s standout lines came from Haley, who told Ramaswamy “Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber” as he tried to explain why he joined TikTok.
  • Chris Christie. Another loser, according to Andrew Stanton at Newsweek. With his outspoken criticisms of Trump, “it was no surprise that he again found himself in hostile territory Wednesday evening, and his attacks against the former president fell flat,” with some audience members booing, Stanton writes.
  • Mike Pence. “The absence of sustained arguments about Trump himself and Jan. 6 stripped away the most interesting aspects of his candidacy, and what remained was just boredom and anachronism,” says Ross Douthat at the New York Times.
  • Doug Burgum. The North Dakota governor also failed to make much of an impact. He was “in desperate need of a knockout performance … and while the governor tried to steal the spotlight throughout the debate, he was unable to land a punch,” according to the Hill.
  • The debate was held at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, and Adam Wren at Politico has another entry for the losers’ column. “Even though I watched a few candidates wander over to his gravesite not far from the media file tent earlier in the day, I was struck by how little candidates namechecked the Gipper even on his home turf,” he writes.

There you gp….all the fun you missed.

Actually the whole damn stage were losers including the moderators….

All in all a thoroughly wasted time for the networks….they should have stuck with profit seeking and left this pack of idiots to their own devices to get heard by the voters.

Now aren’t you glad the Old Professor has so much time on his hands?

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

Time Is Running Out For The GOP

Tonight is the second GOP debate in the series and Trump still holds a commanding lead…..the time is running out for candidates to make their move to give Trump a descent race.

Let me break it down for you….

The way things stood Monday remain how they stand just hours before the Republican presidential debate Wednesday in California, with two notable candidates not expected to take the stage. FOX 26 Houston reports that former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson didn’t make the cut, while former President Trump, far and away the GOP frontrunner in polls despite his four recent indictments, is skipping the debate to instead head to Michigan to meet with striking autoworkers. The debate will be moderated by Fox News’ Dana Perino and Stuart Varney, as well as Univision’s Ilia Calderon, and will be hosted on the Fox Business Network from 9pm to 11pm ET, per the New York Times. It will also air on Fox News and Univision and stream on Fox Nation, Univision, and Rumble. More on what to expect:

  • Catching up with the candidates: The AP runs through how each of the competitors did during the last debate, and where some may now stand with voters. Set to take the stage Wednesday night: former VP Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
  • Ghost of the Gipper: Voice of America places its focus on the debate’s venue—the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, where the specter of No. 40 looms large. The location “brings back the views of a former president who still serves as a conservative model to the party,” VOA notes.
  • What else to watch for: CNN expands on the Reagan vibe, as well as on what else to expect during the show. For one, the news outlet anticipates “major divides on abortion,” after Trump recently opened “what could be the party’s most significant policy fissure.”
  • Peerino’s take: The debate’s host thinks “it is time for a breakout moment,” and predicts that’s exactly what the candidates will be vying for. “The debate is not just to showcase these candidates,” she tells the Hill. “It’s for one of them to say, ‘I can be [Trump’s] main rival.'” She adds, “You’ll see some posturing.”
  • Delicate attack: Political analyst Lara Brown agrees with Perino, telling USA Today that she expects Wednesday’s debate to be “more contentious and more confrontational” than the first one when it comes to Trump. It’s a fine line, though, she says, with candidates having to jockey for position without alienating GOP voters who once supported the former president. She notes some Republicans are worried that “if they hit him too hard or cut too close to the bone,” his supporters will “cancel” them from the party.
  • Blunting Trump’s ‘momentum’: The AP notes Republicans’ “growing urgency” to present a candidate that might be able to gain ground on the frontrunner. “It’ll be interesting to see whether or not folks realize that the sand is going through the hourglass pretty quickly right now,” GOP strategist Kevin Madden says.
  • At stake for DeSantis: One candidate under the spotlight in particular is the Florida governor, who’s running more than 40 points behind Trump in recent polls. “It’s too late for just a fine performance,” Republican pollster Christine Matthews tells the AP. “DeSantis has gone from leading alternative to Trump to just one of the pack of challengers, and he will be under pressure to perform.”
  • ‘Fake’ debate: That’s how Zack Beauchamp frames Wednesday’s event for Vox, writing that it will be “a cosplay of a competitive election—and a distraction from an ugly truth.” That truth being that it doesn’t look like anyone will be able to catch up with the former president. “At this point, the only things that could stop Trump are his death or incapacitation,” Beauchamp notes.

There you have it….all the information you need to watch (if you so desire) the next debate and what is at stake for these candidates.

For anyone interested I will watch the debate for I am a political junkie and will post detail analysis here on IST tomorrow.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Billionaires, Bigots And Bullies

If you had to pick three words to describe the modern GOP these three would do it very simply.

The GOP has abandoned even a pretense of caring for our country and supporting democracy at home and abroad. Now all they care about are bigots, billionaires, and bullies.

There was a time in this country when most Americans — regardless of political affiliation — agreed on a basic set of principles:

— Comity in politics is a good thing, as is compromise in the name of the public good.
— We want “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for all Americans.
— America defends other democracies.
— Politicians don’t interfere with the criminal justice system to help their friends.

— Trying to overthrow our government is treason.
— Business supports America because America makes it possible for business to grow and prosper.
— Political parties put the nation first and individual politicians second.

The Democratic Party still supports all these ideals, sometimes to their detriment, like when they refuse to “fight dirty” by creating sketchy scandals like “her emails” and “Benghazi.” While these may give the party a short-term benefit, most Democrats realize the long-term harm to the nation isn’t worth the temporary gain.

The post-Trump GOP, however, has rejected them all. Instead, it’s become the party of Putin, bin Salman, and Orbán, rejecting out of hand George Washington’s warning about partisanship replacing patriotism and, increasingly, rejecting the very idea of democracy in our republic.

https://www.rawstory.com/hartmann-radio/

In short the question….Has the GOP become anti-American, anti-government and anti-United States?

Today, the Republican Party is openly rejecting this historic view of America’s destiny, the ideal of ever-greater inclusion, of support and compassion for our fellow human beings, of our willingness to work and even fight to support democracy both at home and around the world.

This is a crisis because a nation without a positive vision of itself, without a moral compass that points toward ever-more-inclusive democracy, inevitably becomes a nation heading toward anarchy and autocracy.

While the seeds of fascism and anti-Americanism have a long history in this country (check out the story of Smedley Butler and the attempted coup against FDR, or the rise of the Klan in the 1920s and the American Nazi movement in the 1930s), it has never before so completely seized one of our two main political parties that its leadership would openly reject Americanism and embrace foreign dictators.

https://www.alternet.org/can-the-gop-be-stopped-from-crushing-america-s-historical-vision/

Many people see Trump’s raise as his attempt to become an authoritarian or dictator if you like….now ask what can we do about it?

Donald Trump is a dictator in waiting. Like other dictators, he is threatening to put his “enemies” in prison – and to do even worse things to them. These are not idle threats or empty acts of ideation: Donald Trump is a violent man who is a proven enemy of democracy and freedom.

These threats of violence against his enemies are part of a much larger pattern of violent and dangerous behavior that is only growing worse as he faces criminal trials and the possibility of going to prison for hundreds of years.

In “banana republics” the enemies of the leader and the regime are usually imprisoned, tortured, executed, and face death squads and mass executions. Trump himself has publicly expressed his admiration for murderous dictators and autocrats such as Vladimir Putin and N. Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

The corporate news media — with MSNBC being a notable exception — as is their policy, mostly ignored Trump’s most recent threats to kill and imprison President Joe Biden and the other “enemies” of the MAGA movement. Ignoring the danger will not make it disappear or otherwise go away; moreover, to ignore Trumpism and neofascism is to normalize them.

https://www.salon.com/2023/09/07/plans-to-become-a-dictator–denial-will-not-save-you/

Trump and the anti-American GOP are a serious threat to our beloved country….I know this is nothing new…..but it bears repeating and often or we could lose what so many have died to protect.

At what point to voters stop worrying about crap and consider the health and existence of our society….a society that use to be the envy of the world and now we are nothing more than a joke among nations.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Those Fiscal Responsible Republicans

You know who they are….they are the ones shouting loudly for spending cuts in social programs, environment programs, just about all programs with the exception of the Pentagon which gets more than it asks for in the budget.

This past ‘debt crisis’ deal found the poor being whacked on the pee pee….and yet these same ‘spend thrifts’ have a plan….

They think they deserve a pay raise…..

After taking the global economy hostage to secure painful cuts to aid programs and other federal spending, House Republicans are proposing a pay raise for themselves and other members of Congress for the coming fiscal year.

Roll Callreported Thursday that under spending legislation approved by the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee last month, members of Congress “would stand to receive a 4.6%, or $8,000, pay increase” in 2024. Most members of Congress currently make an annual salary of $174,000, putting them in the top 10% of U.S. earners.

“Lawmakers last received a cost-of-living increase in 2009,” the outlet noted, “but House Republicans left out the traditional language blocking a cost-of-living increase for members from this year’s Legislative Branch bill.”

The Republican-led push for a congressional pay increase comes just weeks after GOP leaders negotiated a debt ceiling agreement with President Joe Biden that imposes new work requirements on older recipients of federal food aid, a change that experts say is likely to strip benefits from around 750,000 low-income people.

Congressional Republicans are also pushing for even steeper cuts to federal spending than were agreed upon in the debt ceiling deal, threatening a government shutdown.

Meanwhile, the House GOP is working to pass legislation that would hand the top 1% of U.S. earners $28 billion in tax cuts next year.

(commondreams.org)

Seriously?

I bunch of lay abouts that work 3 days a week and about 5 months a year think they deserve a pay increase….if anything since they can get nothing done legislatively they owe the taxpayers a refund.

Can you believe these douche bags?

They want to cut benefits across the board for poor and low income workers and think that deserves a pay raise.

These assholes have some nerve!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Remember The ‘Nanny State’?

Some may not be old enough to remember the slang used to describe a Democratic agenda…the years in the 80s and 90s was when it was most used.

Conservatives (AKA GOP) criticized the agenda of environmental and financial regulations, as well as most social programs as a form of central planning and that would be Soviet style government.

But where did the term ‘Nanny State’ come with….surely American conservatives were not clever enough to come up with this on their own….

Well they did not….

It is of UK origin that conveys a view that a government or its policies are overprotective or interfering unduly with personal choice.

Basically it means a government that makes decisions for people that they might otherwise make for themselves, esp those relating to private and personal behavior.

Fast forward until today…..(sound of time speeding by)….

Look closely at the agenda of the modern American GOP….These ‘people’ are experts at such political slurs…..

Political slurs and simplistic slogans are damaging democratic discourse and policy making. In place of open and clear debate, we see unfounded assertions, innuendo, and smears. Influential—and often wealthy—elites (they are this, though pretend otherwise) have sold a myth that they stand against the self-serving control of liberal intellectualism. These elites shun reasoned argument (we’ve had enough of experts…). They close down reasoned discussion of social and political values. And claiming to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with persons who are disaffected, disenchanted, and disenfranchised, their rhetoric masks myriad entrenched commercial and political interests.

The rhetorical technique of crying “nanny state” is an example of such crushing of sensible public discussion.

(bmj.com)

Sad that jingoism and slurs are the way of policy debate these days….few to no actual discussion on policies occurs anymore just the slurs  and outright lies.

Will the Americans ever wake up to their plight under the watchful eye of backstabbing politicos?

This country will continue to suffer and the innuendoes will continue to fly….but we have a chance to change the direction of this country, as we do every 4 years, sadly I do not see any change coming….we will continue to hate and lie, especially to ourselves.

The GOP is trying to control individual choices, education, who can vote and where….if that does not sound like a ‘nanny’ state then I do not know what does.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

AUMF In The Crosshairs

I have been calling for the end of the Authority to Use Military Force (AUMF) for years and I would expect that some Dems would be in the forefront of this effort….but nope….the Dems are taking a backseat to the radical GOPers…..

Some GOPers have introduced a plan to end our endless wars…..

A group of Republican senators on Thursday introduced a bill to repeal the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) that was passed in the wake of the September 11th attacks and is still being used to justify wars today.

The End Endless Wars Act was introduced by Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), JD Vance (R-OH), and Mike Braun (R-IN). The legislation would repeal the 2001 AUMF 180 days after its enactment.

“If there exists any desire to reclaim our Constitutional power and send a message to the world that we are a nation of peace, Congress should pass this bill and repeal the 2001 Authorization for war. After all, the 2001 AUMF never intended to authorize worldwide war, all the time, everywhere, forever,” said Sen. Paul, according to a press release from his office.

Sen. Lee said the 2001 AUMF has “become one of the many instruments of misuse, and it is time for members of Congress to end this authority that keeps us in endless wars.” Sen. Braun said that no president should “have the authority to singlehandedly wage war” and called to “return this power to the people and repeal this authorization that has far outlived its’ purpose.”

The 2001 AUMF currently authorizes war in Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and several other countries. There’s been a push in Congress to repeal the 2002 AUMF that was used for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but that authorization is not used today, and repealing it won’t end any current wars.

In March, the Senate voted to repeal the 2002 AUMF and the 1991 AUMF used for the Gulf War. At the time, Sen. Paul attempted to include an amendment to the legislation to repeal the 2001 AUMF, but it failed in a vote of 9-86.

(antiwar.com)

I do not care where the end comes from as long as the act is repealed.

But I fear this will go down in defeat as well….the defense industry has deep pockets and Congress has their hands out after all re-elections are coming up.

Even the Dems have become corruptible….especially from the arms people.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Those Blanket Approvals

A recent survey and the GOP numbers for support for this person is dwindling…..

Less than half of Republicans have confidence in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “do the right thing regarding world affairs,” according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center that highlights the growing partisan divide over the war in Ukraine.

Only 44 percent of Republican respondents said they had confidence in Zelensky, while 71 percent of Democrats expressed support for the war-time leader — a 27 percent split between parties. 

The divide held when respondents were asked if they held favorable views of Ukraine in general, with 52 percent of Republicans and 77 percent of Democrats saying they had a positive opinion of the country.

The survey joins a long list of recent polls showing that the Republican base is increasingly skeptical of U.S. policy toward Ukraine. Notably, the growing partisan divide appears to have had little effect on the policy preferences of GOP leaders in Congress. 

While House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had signaled before the midterm elections that he would not support a “blank check” for Ukraine, he rolled back those remarks last week and pledged that the U.S. will continue its military assistance “as long as I am Speaker.”

But GOP presidential candidates have been more willing to express concerns about U.S. support for Kyiv. Former President Donald Trump said in January that the war was a “tragic waste of human life” and claimed that, if he was still in the White House, he would be able to rapidly negotiate an end to the conflict.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — Trump’s leading challenger — has also expressed cautious skepticism about the value of backing Ukraine to the hilt and appeared to call for a ceasefire in April.

Poll: Less than half of Republicans have confidence in Zelensky

But I do not think the Zelensky has much to worry about for the arms industry owns the Congress and while support may be less now the blood letting will continue.

Besides the American people have this lust for blood and guts war (the indoctrination has become complete)…

For various reasons, America’s ruling class has a great love of war, even as America’s non-ruling-classes have a general indifference to it, as long as its destructiveness is kept overseas and out of sight.

It’s strange indeed that we have such faith in war: such faith in destruction as being progressive. Americans are a hyper-aggressive and trigger-happy bunch, quick to anger, slow to think. Fear, anger, and pride make us a menace to various peoples on the receiving end of American firepower, yet somehow we see ourselves as reasonable peacemakers. Such a mass delusion can only be sustained through massive propaganda, a “victory culture” if you will, supported by all those Hollywood war movies, TV shows featuring SEALs and the like, military pageantry at sporting events, and so on.

William Astore on America’s Faith in War

Besides some disinformation will be passed on to help the support grow…..like always it is glowing and bullsh*t.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Reagan’s Assault On Social Security

No news dump for today…Still recovering from the eye injury….Sue has taken my PC and tablet away from me….but she left my phone for me to entertain myself….I hope to be back 100% on Monday….thanx for bearing with me while I get my eye back to normal….I will try to get caught up with my comments then.

As usual the GOP is attacking Social Security every time they have some small amount of power they want to screw the seniors of this country.

But where did all this hatred begin with?

To answer that question easily….it began with Reagan in the 1980s.

In 1983, just before signing legislation that cut Social Security benefits, then-President Ronald Reagan declared that “we’re entering an age when average Americans will live longer and live more productive lives.”

But Reagan’s assumption of ever-rising life expectancy in the U.S. turned out to be false, according to a new analysis, a fact with painful consequences for those who saw their Social Security benefits pared back thanks to the 1983 law’s gradual increase of the full retirement age—the age at which one is eligible for unreduced Social Security payments.

As Conor Smyth wrote Monday for the People’s Policy Project, a left-wing think tank, the Social Security Amendments of 1983 hiked the full retirement age “from 65 in 2000 to 67 at the end of 2022.”

“What this actually meant was not that the age at which people could retire and start drawing Social Security benefits changed—that remained at 62,” Smyth explained. “Instead, by raising what’s called the full retirement age (FRA) by two years, the law effectively cut benefit levels across the board, regardless of the age that any particular individual began claiming Social Security benefits. The result is that those retiring at 62 today face a 50% greater penalty for retiring before the change than they would have before 2000.”

The 1983 law was an outgrowth of a special presidential commission headed by Alan Greenspan, a right-wing economist who would go on to serve as chair of the Federal Reserve for nearly two decades.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/reagan-social-security-cuts

This is a perpetual thing….if it is a GOP Congress then seniors benefits are in danger….which is amazing because the GOP’s greatest supporters are those that will suffer the most if they ever fulfill their wish of destroying the Social Security program.

Why is that?

Are these voters uninformed or just ignorant?

Why does anyone vote against their best interests?

Why?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”