STOP THE PRESSES!

After bumping his gums for a year Donny has a new healthcare plan that we all should study carefully….

President Trump on Thursday announced the outlines of a health care plan he wants Congress to take up. The move comes as Republicans have faced increasing pressure to address rising health costs after lawmakers let subsidies expire, the AP reports. The cornerstone is his proposal to send money directly to Americans for health savings accounts so they can handle insurance and health costs as they see fit. Democrats have rejected the idea as a paltry substitute for the tax credits that had helped lower monthly premiums for many people.

  • “The government is going to pay the money directly to you,” Trump said in a video the White House released to announce the plan. “It goes to you and then you take the money and buy your own health care.”
  • Trump’s plan also focuses on lowering drug prices and requiring insurers to be more upfront with the public about costs, revenues, rejected claims, and wait times for care.
  • Trump has long been dogged by his lack of a comprehensive health care plan as he and Republicans have sought to unwind Barack Obama’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act. Trump was thwarted during his first term in trying to repeal and replace the law.
  • When he ran for president in 2024, Trump said he had only “concepts of a plan” to address health care. His new proposal, short on many specifics, appeared to be the concepts of a plan, the AP notes. Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, described it to reporters on a telephone briefing as a “framework that we believe will help Congress create legislation.”
  • It was not immediately clear if any lawmakers in Congress were working to introduce the president’s plan. The White House did not offer any details about how much money it envisioned being sent to consumers to shop for insurance, or whether the money would be available to all ObamaCare enrollees or just those with lower-tier bronze and catastrophic plans.
  • The idea mirrors one floated among Republican senators last year. Democrats largely rejected it, saying the health savings accounts would not be enough to cover costs for most consumers. Currently, such accounts are used disproportionately by the wealthiest Americans, who have more income to fund them and a bigger incentive to lower their tax rate.
  • Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said the announcement was another one of Trump’s “empty promises” on health care, the Washington Post reports. “Every American should be asking themselves a simple question: are you paying more for your health care than you were a year ago?” Wyden said. “The answer ought to tell you everything you need to know about the Trump-Republican health care agenda.”

AS with anything that Donny spews out…there is little clarity but this is just an idea that will go to Congress for their take and that is where it will get more interesting.

Since this is not very clear I will hold my reservations until the final shoe drops in Congress.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why Greenland?

That is a question for the ages.

People know that I follow international relations closely and have been asking me why Greenland is so important to Donny.

I wish I had an adequate answer for them but Donny’s positions have no rhyme or reason, at least to me.

Then I read something this morning that sums it all up pretty much if you think about it….

President Trump complained about getting overlooked for a Nobel Peace Prize in a new letter to Norway’s prime minister—and tied it to his wish to control Greenland:

  • “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump wrote to Norway Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, reports Reuters.

In a statement, Stoere said he has reminded Trump multiple times that Norway’s government has no sway over the independent Norwegian Nobel Committee, per the Guardian. The letter came after Stoere and Finnish President Alexander Stubb criticized Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on European nations who won’t back the US plan to take control of Greenland from Denmark. On that front, Trump further pressed his case:

  • “Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway?” asked Trump. “There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.” He added that the world “is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”
  • Staffers for the US National Security Council have forwarded the letter to European ambassadors, reports Nick Schifrin of PBS. As for the peace prize, Trump has made no secret of his wish to receive the peace prize—and he accepted a second-hand one last week from Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

This is retaliation for a prize snub and an infantile reason.

So he will punish Norway by stealing land from Denmark…..think about that bit of stupidity (let me know if I need to explain that statement)

He is still butt hurt because nobody will give him a prize he does not deserve, is that about it?

Besides if the US takes Greenland it will be a money sucking pit that we will regret for an eternity.

Damn!  This douche bag is so pathetic and juvenile that it is almost unbelievable….

And people voted for him….not saying about their mental state is itA?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Contempt For The Constitution

I am sure that anyone with a functioning brain has seen the contempt that Donny has for the US Constitution…..he has side stepped it on so many occasions and SCOTUS has been a great help to him in his assault of the Constitution.

Bernie Sanders has written a piece that lays out this assault very well….

Donald Trump has, once again, shown his contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law. The President of the United States does NOT have the right to unilaterally take this country to war, even against a corrupt and brutal dictator like Maduro. The United States does NOT have the right, as Trump stated this morning, to “run” Venezuela. Congress must immediately pass a War Powers resolution to end this illegal military operation and reassert its constitutional responsibilities.

Trump’s attack on Venezuela will make the United States and the world less safe. This brazen violation of international law gives a green light to any nation on earth that may wish to attack another country to seize their resources or change their governments. This is the horrific logic of force that Putin used to justify his brutal attack on Ukraine.

Trump and his administration have often said they want to revive the Monroe Doctrine, claiming the United States has the right to dominate the affairs of the hemisphere. They have spoken openly about controlling Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world. This is rank imperialism. It recalls the darkest chapters of U.S. interventions in Latin America, which have left a terrible legacy. It will and should be condemned by the democratic world.

Trump campaigned for president on an “America First” platform. He claimed to be the “peace candidate.” At a time when 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, when our healthcare system is collapsing, when people cannot afford housing and when AI threatens millions of jobs, it is time for the president to focus on the crises facing this country and end this military adventurism abroad. Trump is failing in his job to “run” the United States. He should not be trying to “run” Venezuela.

Bernie Sanders is a US Senator, and the ranking member of the Senate budget committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress.

I love Bernie I just wish there were more recall Progressives in the Congress….the ones we have can only do so much because corporate Dems fight the progress they seek.

Time to think about that if you are considering voting in November….be the change we need.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Last Week At The Sh*t Show–18Jan26

Musings from an intellectual Dead Zone.

Another week is in the bag even though it is only 2 weeks into a new year it seems like an eternity….but the one thing that is for sure….stupid will still be stupid.

Most of us know about the protests going on and now Donny’s DOJ has an opinion on observation…..

A Department of Justice attorney said in a Minnesota federal court Tuesday that there is no First Amendment protection for observing police.

The assertion came during a hearing in the lawsuit Minnesota protesters brought against the Trump administration claiming immigration agents arrested, pepper sprayed and intimidated them without cause. While the lawsuit preceded the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, protesters cited the incident in asking the federal judge to temporarily stop federal agents from retaliating against them.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez said she would rule on the emergency petition by Thursday or Friday morning. Menendez, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, is also overseeing Minnesota’s lawsuit to end the surge of immigration agents in Minneapolis.

She questioned DOJ attorney Jeremy Newman about the legality of federal law enforcement stopping or drawing their weapons on protesters following in their vehicles, as long as they followed traffic laws.

“This overall climate of following leading to dangerous activity, I think it’s reasonable for officers to be concerned about their safety,” Newman said.

The government attorney relied on a 2023 ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8thCircuit to support his argument that observing and recording police is not a clearly established First Amendment right.

https://www.notus.org/courts/lawsuit-aclu-minnesota-ice-protesters-allege-retaliation

Concern for officer’s safety?  Who the Hell is concerned about our safety?

We know that Donny and his rabid supporters are all racist pigs…..and

Donald Trump has claimed that white people were ‘very badly treated’ in the US as a result of civil rights and affirmative action.

Trump’s second term has seen him taking aim at DEI programs across the US in rounds of funding cuts.

These were created to support people from a disadvantaged background, whether it’s getting an education, a job, and in things such as healthcare.

Trump said: “White people were very badly treated, where they did extremely well and they were not invited to go into a university to college.”

This appeared to be a criticism of affirmative action programs intended to support people from minorities.

Trump continued: “So I would say in that way, I think it was unfair in certain cases.”

The president went on to say that civil rights ‘accomplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people’.

He added: “People that deserve to go to a college or deserve to get a job were unable to get a job. So it was, it was a reverse discrimination.”

https://www.unilad.com/news/us-news/donald-trump-civil-rights-claims-202126-20260113

Seriously?  And they believe this utter horseshit.

This is who we turn to for justice……

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prosecutor in Texas who reportedly operates a white supremacist social media account is still working in an immigration court despite calls for an investigation into his online activities.

According to the Texas Observer, James “Jim” Rodden has returned to work in a Dallas immigration court, almost a year after the outlet that first reported that Rodden was behind an X account that posted hateful, racist, anti-Semitic statements.

Some of those posts included statements like:

“America is a White nation, founded by Whites … Our country should favor us.”

“All blacks are foreign to my people, dumb f***.”

“’Migrants’ are all criminals.”

https://atlantablackstar.com/2026/01/14/texas-ice-prosecutor-who-allegedly-runs-white-supremacist-social-account-back-on-the-job/

This is suppose to be a referee for our democracy…..what a damn joke!

Donny has been trying to end the Ukraine/Russia thing but so far he is drawn a zero….and now he tells why….

President Donald Trump is pointing the finger at an unlikely target after his much-touted efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine failed to gain traction.

Asked why U.S.-led peace talks have stalled, Trump blamed the victim of the invasion, claiming it was the Ukrainian leader’s fault. Asked directly what was standing in the way, he gave a one-word answer to Reuters: “Zelensky.”

At the same time, Trump argued that Moscow is prepared to conclude the conflict, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin is eager to bring the nearly four-year invasion to a close. “I think he’s ready to make a deal,” Trump said, adding, “I think Ukraine is less ready to make a deal.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-says-humiliating-peace-plan-111120792.html

That is typical of this shriveled up raisin of a leader.

We know that Donny and his band of thugs are stealing oil from Venezuela and selling it…..according to the admin it is for the people of Venezuela….if so why is the cash being sent to an offshore account?

President Donald Trump’s administration will keep the money generated from the sale of Venezuelan oil across multiple bank accounts, the largest of which is located in Qatar, according to a report.

Senior officials told Semafor that the U.S. has now completed its first sale of the South American country’s oil in a deal worth $500 million.

They justified the decision to hold some of the proceeds in the Gulf state, rather than in U.S. banks, by pointing out that it is a neutral location from which the funds could be freely and safely moved without risk of seizure.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-venezuela-oil-revenue-qatar-bank-b2901312.html

Does anyone believe this bullshit?

I know many of us think that he will find a way to cancel the midterms…..but will he?

With a historic low approval rating and never-ending outrage over the Jeffrey Epstein files, Trump is already bracing for Republicans to suffer heavy losses at the polls.

The 79-year-old said that seems to be the tradeoff for winning the White House.

“It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” Trump told Reuters.

Historically, the party in power almost always suffers losses in midterm elections, as voters seek balance. Republicans currently hold slim majorities in Congress and are already bracing for the backlash. That is, unless Trump just pulls the plug on the whole thing.

The president gloated that he had already accomplished so much that “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”

https://radaronline.com/p/trump-cancel-midterm-election-impeachment-fear-reason/

Remember the promise of the $2000 tariff check of Americans?  Well Donny does not…..

Donald Trump has been stunned by his own words.

When asked about his previous statements on wanting to send Americans $2,000 tariff checks, the president was baffled and questioned ever making such comments, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

Trump, 79, forgetting his numerous comments on tariff checks fueled criticism of his mental acuity.

…

“You’ve promised $2,000 checks to Americans based off of your tariff revenues. When can they expect those?” Roger asked the Commander-in-Chief.

“I did do that? When did I do that?” Trump replied.

Rogers attempted to refresh the president’s memory, saying, “Well, I mean, your —” before Trump interrupted, “Yeah, I’m thinking. Well, I did $1,776 for the military.”

Trump referred to $1,776 “Warrior Dividend” checks he and the Department of Defense said would be sent to more than a million U.S. service members.

https://radaronline.com/p/donald-trump-baffled-question-quoting-his-promise-send-tariff-checks-americans/

This from one of Donny’s Tech Bros….teah these guys are the backbone of American democracy….

From the Alien and Sedition Acts to various Red Scares, American history is littered with panicked attempts to curtail the First Amendment to defend the status quo. Israeli multi-billionaire Shlomo Kramer is the latest to make the case — arguing that the country must control its citizens’ speech in order to survive, an astonishingly bold assertion from someone who isn’t even a US citizen.

In a recent interview with CNBC, Kramer argued that free speech protections are leading the US down the wrong path.

“You’re seeing the polarization in countries that allow for the First Amendment and protect it, which is great — and I know it’s difficult to hear, but it’s time to limit the First Amendment in order to protect it,” he told the CNBC hosts. “And quickly before it’s too late.”

…

Asked to clarify exactly what he meant about limiting the First Amendment, Kramer told CNBC that the government must take control of social media to avoid negative polarization — in other words, online debate.

“I mean that we need to control the platforms, all the social platforms,” he explained. “We need to stack, rank the authenticity of every person that expresses themselves online and take control over what they are saying, based on that ranking.”

“The government?” CNBC host Sara Eisen asked.

“The government should, yeah,” Kramer confirmed. “They should do that. And we need to educate people against lies.”

https://futurism.com/future-society/tech-billionaire-shlomo-kramer-speech

If you are worried about the midterms then I suggest you pay attention to what the Tech Bros are doing…..for it the election is stolen who better to lead the charge?

It seems that Dept of Labor has gone full nazi…..

The U.S. Department of Labor posted a video to X with a caption critics are saying is eerily similar to a motto out of 1940s Germany.

“One Homeland. One People. One Heritage,” the post’s caption read. “Remember who you are, American.” The video included in the post shows a statute of George Washington in the foreground and a compilation of American war propaganda playing the background with unsettling, dark music playing.

https://www.themirror.com/news/politics/department-labor-slammed-using-slogan-1613843

This one is a bit out there and maybe one of the “Onion’ posts…..but just in case I felt I needed to add it today….Donny has chosen the World Cup to make a statement of sorts….(this a/hole has got to be the center of attention at all costs)

Lee has claimed that Washington insiders have told him the US president has already written a speech that will “change humanity forever.” According to the Daily Star, the address will confirm that mankind has made its first contact with aliens. The date selected for the announcement is said to mark exactly 79 years since the US Army released an official statement claiming it had recovered a “flying disk” following a reported UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico.

That statement was later retracted, with officials insisting the debris was actually from a high‑altitude balloon used to monitor Soviet nuclear tests. Despite repeated claims from whistleblowers that US defence chiefs have secretly been reverse‑engineering crashed UFOs ever since, Pentagon officials continue to publicly deny that there is any evidence extraterrestrial life exists.

Lee, however, believes the anniversary of the Roswell announcement will be used by Trump to “address the nation and the world to confirm the reality of extraterrestrial life, UFOs, and potential first contact.” Speaking to the Daily Star, he said: “Sources close to the Trump administration tell me the speech is complete and ready. This is not a drill. This is not speculation. This is the real deal. The date is no coincidence.

“The truth about what crashed in the desert all those years ago will finally be acknowledged from the highest office in the land. This will be the most important announcement in human history. With the FIFA World Cup drawing global attention to North America this summer, the timing guarantees billions will hear the message. Roswell truthers, UFO believers, and sceptics alike are bracing for what could be the ultimate ‘I told you so’ moment.”

https://www.givemesport.com/donald-trump-planning-world-cup-announcement-change-humanity-shock-claim/

That Was The Week That Was……and a sad week it was.

Please have a great Sunday and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–17Jan26

It’s back!  The “Dump” returns and we all can be secure to know that there is little useful info included.

Local–We have had a wild week in temps from near 80 too mid 30s…..the Coast is gearing up for Mardi Gras which means there is an ocean of color…purple, green, gold….

 

Personal–Treatment well….I feel like crap and now I have to for another biopsy on my lung which is always a joy.

We start with advances in mental health….

The guidelines for psychiatric treatment may be in line for a significant update if a sweeping new study holds up. An international team analyzed DNA and medical data from more than 1 million people with one of 14 psychiatric diagnoses and discovered that the ailments share more overlapping genetic roots than previously thought, according to a news release at the University of Colorado Boulder. Rather than 14 separate entities, the genes clustered into five broader groups, the researchers report in Nature. As the Washington Post explains, that raises the possibility for more streamlined treatment—and perhaps fewer different pills.

  • Metaphor: “The kind of medical metaphor I’d offer is that if you went to the doctor with a runny nose, cough, and sore throat, and you got diagnosed with runny nose disorder, cough disorder, and sore throat disorder, and prescribed three separate pills, we would consider that sort of a medical misstep,” study co-author Andrew Grotzinger of CU Boulder tells the Post.
  • Five groups: The five groups laid out in the study are substance-abuse disorders; compulsive disorders such as anorexia and Tourette’s; “internalizing conditions” such as depression; neurodevelopment issues such as autism; and a fifth category that includes bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, which share 70% of genetic drivers. “Genetically, we saw that they are more similar than they are unique,” says Grotzinger.
  • Future shift? The findings could eventually push psychiatry toward diagnoses grounded more in biology than in symptoms observed during office visits, but far more research will be needed before that happens. Still, “if you look at what the genes are telling us, it suggests that these different categories are more fundamentally related at the biological level than we had thought,” says another co-author, Jordan Smoller of Mass General Brigham’s Center for Precision Psychiatry in Boston.

Always finding but seldom any action…..

Do you pick your nose?

Researchers are investigating a “potentially scary” link between nose picking and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dirty fingers introduce bacteria into the nose, resulting in infections that could lead to crusting, tissue damage and nosebleeds and now scientists are testing the theory that trauma to the nasal lining may transmit germs to the brain, possibly resulting in inflammation and amyloid plaques being formed, in line with the progressive neurodegenerative condition. Researchers have never been able to pinpoint the exact cause of Alezheimer’s which gradually impairs various brain function such as memory, thinking, reasoning and judgment, and some have shifted their focus to the crucial nose-brain axis, the pathway between the nasal cavity and central nervous system.

The brain’s smelling-processing centers are among the first areas damaged by Alzheimer’s, so researchers have used smell tests as a non-invasive form of screening for the disease’s risk. A 2022 study conducted by researchers at Griffith University in Australia found that nose picking can lead to Clamydia pneumoniae, which is bacteria causing respiratory tract infections into the olfactory nerve in the noses of mice that then travel to the brain, resulting in cells depositing amyloid beta protein. The fragments cling together to form sticky plaques, which disrupt cell communication and can result in brain cell death, memory loss and dementia.

https://www.iheart.com/content/2026-01-13-potentially-scary-link-between-alzheimers-nose-picking-revealed/

An attack on AI?

To push back against AI, some call for blowing up data centers.

If that’s too extreme for your tastes, then you might be interested in another project, which instead advocates for poisoning the resource that the AI industry needs most, in a bid to cut off its power at the source.

Called Poison Fountain, the project aims to trick tech companies’ web crawlers into vacuuming up “poisoned” training data that sabotages AI models.  If pulled off at a large enough scale, it could in theory be a serious thorn in the AI industry’s side — turning their billion dollar machines into malfunctioning messes.

The project, reported on by The Register, launched last week. And strikingly, its members work for major US AI companies, according to The Register’s source, who warns that the “situation is escalating in a way the public is not generally aware of.”

“We agree with Geoffrey Hinton: machine intelligence is a threat to the human species,” reads a statement on the project’s website, referring to the British computer scientist who is considered a godfather of the field, and who has become one of the industry’s most prominent critics. “In response to this threat we want to inflict damage on machine intelligence systems.”

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/poison-fountain-ai

This is the one that I most enjoyed….always with humor…..it seems troops are getting some free stuff….

The owners of a Toronto-based sex toy shop made a bizarre discovery after opening two returned items that were sent back from a US naval base in Bahrain.

As CTV News reports, cofounder Grace Bennett recalled discovering two letters from the Pentagon, which effectively told her business to — in her words — “stop sending butt plugs to Bahrain.”

And while it may sound like the Pentagon was acting out of sexual shame, the issue instead stemmed from “pornographic materials or devices” not being “allowed into the Kingdom of Bahrain.”

Most puzzlingly of all, Bennett’s business, a sex toy store called Bonjibon, doesn’t even send its products to Bahrain due to local laws and regulations. She suspects somebody had forwarded the packages to Navy personnel stationed in Bahrain from abroad roughly a month apart.

https://futurism.com/future-society/pentagon-butt-plugs

As a cancer patient I am always looking for some good news…..

Seven out of 10 Americans diagnosed with cancer now make it at least five years, a threshold experts say marks a turning point in the disease’s grip on the country. The American Cancer Society’s new annual report finds five-year survival has climbed from about 50% in the 1970s and 63% in the mid-1990s to 70% for patients diagnosed between 2015 and 2021. In most cases, the risk of cancer recurring falls dramatically after five years. The group estimates 4.8 million cancer deaths have been averted since 1991, largely because of better treatments, earlier detection, and fewer people smoking, reports NBC News. “Now we’re seeing the fruits of those investments,” said lead author Rebecca Siegel.

Two treatment shifts are leading the charge: immunotherapies, which train the immune system to identify and attack tumors, and drugs that target specific cancer-driving genes or proteins. Myeloma’s five-year survival rate has nearly doubled since the mid-1990s, from 32% to 62%, Siegel said, calling immunotherapy “game changing” for that blood cancer. Targeted and immune-based drugs have also pushed five-year survival for regional lung cancer to 37%, up from 20% in the mid-1990s, per a release.

The outlook is far from uniformly bright. Though cancer mortality rates are falling, incidence rates for many common cancers, including breast cancer, are on the rise, per ABC News. The ACS projects more than 2.1 million new cancer cases and over 626,000 deaths in the US this year, with obesity perhaps playing a role. Siegel also warns that cuts to federal cancer research funding, widening racial disparities in cancer burden, the expiration of some Affordable Care Act subsidies, and pandemic-era interruptions in screening could slow or reverse gains. Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee reported a 31% decrease in cancer research grant funding in the first three months of 2025, compared to January-March 2024.

Do you buy Eco-friendly TP?

Toilet paper, a product used for a few seconds before being disposed of forever, is typically made with trees, energy-intensive manufacturing processes, and chemicals that can pollute the environment. Experts say more consumers are seeking toilet paper made from recycled content or sustainable materials, but as the AP reports, it can be hard to know what to look for. Sustainable toilet paper often costs more, but can have significant environmental benefits. According to the Environmental Paper Network, a coalition of nonprofits, more than 1 billion gallons of water and 1.6 million trees could be saved if every American used one roll of toilet paper made from recycled content instead of a roll made from forest fibers. Some recommendations for reducing your TP-print:

  • Toilet paper from recycled fibers: North American toilet paper has traditionally been made of fibers from trees in Canada and eucalyptus plantations in Brazil. Pulp from the trees is bleached to create a bright white color, but the chlorine that’s often used can hurt the environment. Large amounts of electricity and heat are used to remove moisture and form square sheets. Increasingly, manufacturers are making toilet paper from recycled paper products, which avoids material from freshly cut trees, and are using chlorine-free bleaching techniques.
  • Evaluating sustainability claims: A life cycle assessment calculates the environmental impacts from when a tree is a seedling to when its fibers are converted into toilet paper. Some companies add those labels to packaging to show that their processes have been vetted. The Natural Resources Defense Council also publishes an annual report that grades toilet papers from A+ to F. Aria, Green Forest, Natural Value, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods 365 100% Recycled received the highest letter grade in 2025.
  • Bamboo: Alternative materials such as fast-growing bamboo are often billed as more sustainable than trees, but consumers should focus on toilet paper made with recycled materials instead, said Ronalds Gonzalez, an associate professor at North Carolina State University. Pollution from manufacturing processes can reduce the benefits of using bamboo.
  • Bidets: Bidets allow people to rinse after using the bathroom so they can reduce or avoid wiping. Bidets are a sustainable alternative to conventional toilet paper because “you’re not using any sort of logging, it’s water that’s already coming to your household and it’s very little water,” says Kory Russel, assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Oregon.

That wraps up this week’s dump….I hope everyone has a great Saturday and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Economy Is Booming!

+++Today I return to the chemo chair so I do not know how I shall feel afterwards so this may be my only offering for today.  I apologize.+++

 

I am really sick of these bastards that push this mound of fecal matter….the media and especially Donny…the average person sees NO benefit from the economy that we are told is going great guns.

The only sector that is ‘booming’ are those financial twats that manipulate the markets…..they are making money….but Betty Jo is not and she is paying 20% more for just about everything.

Then if you want sticker shock then I suggest you try grocery shopping…..then telling that the economy is booming.

A year into President Trump’s second term, the grocery checkout line is telling a very different story than the one coming from the White House. While Trump told a Detroit crowd this week that “grocery prices are starting to go rapidly down,” federal data released the same day show the cost of food at home is still climbing—and at the fastest monthly pace in years, the New York Times reports. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, supermarket prices rose 2.4% over the past year and 0.7% in December, the sharpest monthly jump since October 2022. Dining out costs rose by about the same amount last month, the biggest monthly jump since 2022, per Axios.

Some staples have surged far more: beef is up 16.4% from a year ago, coffee nearly 20%, lettuce 7.3%, and frozen fish 8.6%. Ground beef hit a record $6.69 a pound in December; it was $5.61 a year prior. Eggs are a rare bright spot, down about 21%, and many dairy prices have slipped—but five of six major grocery categories are higher, and overall food prices are now almost 26% above where they were five years ago. NPR has tracked Walmart grocery prices at a Georgia location since 2018, and reports that on average, prices of the staples they track went up 5% over the past year.

Experts say there’s no single culprit. Weather, fertilizer, machinery, fuel, and shifting consumer tastes all play a role, while a yearslong drop in cattle herds is keeping beef prices elevated. Trump’s own policies are also in the mix: tariffs have made imported items like coffee, bananas, and some tropical produce more expensive and pushed up the cost of packaging materials such as aluminum. Immigration crackdowns have also tightened farm labor in some regions, forcing crops to rot in fields in some states.

Low-income shoppers are feeling the increases first and hardest, especially those who temporarily lost SNAP benefits during last year’s government shutdown. Grocery executives say many are trading steak for ground beef, stocking up less, shifting to store brands, and chasing promotions—and they’re now seeing similar behavior from middle-income households. With the Agriculture Department expecting roughly similar grocery inflation again next year, Democrats are leaning into affordability ahead of November’s midterms, arguing that Republicans presiding over still-rising food costs can’t credibly claim victory over inflation. As Axios reports, “broad inflation relief is little consolation for Americans if they aren’t seeing it reflected in grocery bills.”

And to make things worse that idiot that sits in the Golden Throne keeps lying his ass off about prices are dropping rapidly….would someone please tell him to STFU or provide PROOF…..which he cannot do for there is no proof for his damn lies.

If you support that man please inform me to why it is that you think he deserves your support.  (I doubt there will be any truthful answers just regurgitation from the morons in DC)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Project 2025–What Has It Done So Far?

We start a new year, a year where a person put a radical political agenda into force, Project 2025…..but in that year how has the plan made out?

In the months leading up to his election, President Donald Trump insisted that he had nothing to do with the far-right vision for his second administration known as Project 2025, a Christian-nationalist blueprint to remake the federal government. As the year draws to a close, a crowd-sourced effort, as well as trackers from advocacy organizations and labor unions, show that his administration has implemented roughly half of the goals laid out in the document’s 920 pages.

Project 2025 is rooted in injecting narrower interpretations of gender, sexuality and race in federal policy. It calls for ending nearly all of the U.S. government’s efforts to achieve equity, including the collection of data that could be used to track such outcomes across the public and private sectors.

It suggested eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. It also recommended removing out of every rule and regulation terms like sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender equity and gender awareness, along with abortion, reproductive health and reproductive rights.

The blueprint also suggested transforming the FBI into a politically motivated entity, abolishing the Department of Education and dismantling the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).

The White House has made progress on all these fronts — through a series of executive orders and also politically motivated hirings, firings and restructurings that have fundamentally expanded the president’s influence and power across all branches of government.

There is a saying in Washington, D.C., that personnel is policy: the people put in charge of implementing key policies shape their ideologies. Russell Vought, one of Project 2025’s key architects, heads Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, which he has likened to the “nerve center” through which a president can exert their influence across the federal government. Peter Navarro, who wrote Project 2025’s section on trade, is a top trade adviser to Trump. Brendan Carr, who wrote a section suggesting reforms to the Federal Communications Commission, is now in charge of the agency.

Here are some specifics on parts of Project 2025 that have been implemented and how they could impact women and LGBTQ+ Americans:

Reproductive rights

(READ ON)

How much of Project 2025 has actually been accomplished this year?

I would say for someone who did not know what the plan entailed has done a damn good job of destroying everything the Heritage Foundation wanted destroyed.

Keep in mind Donny is not through yet….more attempts to come I am sure.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Show Me Your Papers”

ICE is in the process of hiring more malignant thugs so they can go door to door searching for anyone that they can bully.

It has become a scene from a bad war movie where the Gestapo is harassing people on the street to produce their papers.

And it is getting worse especially if you are a person of color…..they will zero in on you for the strong arm tactics….

“Your papers, please” is the almost universal cultural sign that you’re in an authoritarian police state. The phrase originates in the classic movie Casablanca, set in a Nazi-controlled city during World War II. The very first line in the movie is a police officer asking a scared civilian, “May we see your papers, please?”, shortly followed by the civilian being summarily executed.

This scene is becoming reality in Minneapolis. As indicated in multiple videos posted to social media over the last few days, ICE agents are roaming the streets and detaining random people for what they describe as “citizen checks”, demanding proof that they are American citizens.

“I parked my car and began walking toward the 24 Somali Mall where I suddenly 4 men who looked like soldiers suddenly jumped out of a car and surrounded me . They told me they needed to verify whether I was a citizen. I was scared. I was devastated. I never imagined that something like this could happen to me in the United States.”

The modus operandi seems to be for ICE to patrol the streets searching for any non-caucasian, before surrounding and threatening them. A victim says they pointed out that there’s no requirement for a person minding their own business to carry ID. The officer then told them, “OK, do you have some ID, then, please? If not, we’re going to put you in the vehicle, and we’re going to ID you.”

This is apparently done non-consensually through a facial recognition system, with ICE snapping an image of you and running it through their system to see if they have the right to haul you off to a detention camp.

https://wegotthiscovered.com/news/were-doing-a-citizen-check-ice-demanding-to-see-your-papers-will-detain-you-if-you-dont-have-id/

This is getting pathetic and anyone that condones this treatment is despicable….

At least the Gestapo did not hide behind face coverings and dark glasses….a cowards way to hide.

This is NOT normal for a country that is suppose to be the beacon of democracy….look at it anyway you choose but…..

Are you ready for the coming hassles?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Trying To Make sense

For year now many people have been trying to make sense of the policies and actions Donny has taken….there have been a wealth of opinions…..but I read one that will make you think….

Donny’s actions start to make sense if one considers this one thing….

It can be hard to work out what might be going through Donald Trump’s head at the best of times, but lately his actions have seemed to be increasingly bizarre and reckless.

However, all of those actions become much easier to understand with one simple perspective shift: Trump knows he is dying, he doesn’t have much time, and he won’t have to face any consequences, at least not in this life.

Trump often doesn’t seem too stressed about consequences, and that’s felt especially true since he won the 2024 election. But over those four years out of office, he came close to facing very real consequences. He was tried and found liable and guilty in both civil and criminal court. It’s not unreasonable to suggest that he was well on his way to being bankrupt, imprisoned, or both. The only thing that saved him was the presidency.

If Trump leaves the White House again, he’ll be at risk of those consequences again, along with all the other ones that he has racked up over the last few months. While Steve Bannon has become the latest supporter of Trump seeking an unconstitutional third term, and Trump still refuses to rule that out, it starts to feel more likely that Trump will avoid walking out of the White House not by changing the Constitution, but by shuffling off his mortal coil while still in residence.

Trump’s health is clearly failing. He’s been seen struggling with stairs and has even mused that Obama was better at navigating them. His cognitive health might well be in decline, and his instances of random word association in public comments appear to be getting worse.

While Trump and his cronies claim that his medical reports generally show that he is in the finest health any person has ever been in, the number of those reports recently should raise an eyebrow. In early October, he had what he called a “semi-annual physical” at the Walter Reed National Medical Center. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed it was a “routine yearly checkup.” The problem is that he already had his annual physical in April.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/11/everything-donald-is-doing-makes-sense-if-hes-dying/

Like I said many opinions that is just one….but if you read it and think about it it is an interesting concept.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Real Cost Of Trump Tariffs

Donny brags about how much money he has made off of these tariffs and that it will pay for so many things…..but there is a real cost of all this silliness.

President Trump’s policies aren’t just affecting affordability ot everyday items for shoppers, but even businesses are feeling the heat. While some names, including Costco, have sued the administration for tariff refunds, more than 700 US businesses filed for bankruptcy in 2025, the highest number since 2010 and a 14% increase from the previous year. Tight credit, high interest rates, persistent cost pressures, and growing import costs as a result of Trump’s chaotic trade tariffs are a few of the reasons for this spike. In contrast to earlier patterns that were dominated by retail bankruptcies, this year’s impacted industries were primarily industrial, such as manufacturing and transportation, while consumer-focused companies, such as fashion, suffered large losses as inflation forced them to prioritize necessities.

Notably, the first half of the year saw 17 significant bankruptcies involving businesses with assets over $1 billion. Chapter 7 liquidations and Chapter 11 reorganizations made up the total number of filings. Along with other significant firms like Rite Aid, high-profile filings included 23andMe, Hooters, Nikola, Spirit Airlines, and Party City, The Washington Post reported. The figures were calculated according to a recent survey by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Despite Trump’s ‘Made in America’ proposals, which gave momentum to tariffs favoring local production, federal data showcased that the manufacturing sector shed more than 70,000 jobs in November. According to economists, businesses that rely heavily on imports are finding it difficult to control the increased expenses brought on by Trump’s reciprocal tariffs. As Americans cut back on non-essential spending due to inflation, consumer-facing businesses, especially those that sell discretionary goods, are seeing an uptick in bankruptcy filings.

“These companies are acutely aware of the affordability crisis confronting the average American,” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at Yale’s School of Management, stated. “Those with pricing power will pass on the costs over time. Others will fold,” he added. Manufacturers and suppliers have been severely impacted by tariffs on steel and energy-related equipment, especially in the renewable energy sector. Increased tariffs on imported solar equipment and the loss of government clean-energy incentives caused PosiGen, a solar installer located in Louisiana, to file for Chapter 11 in November.

https://marketrealist.com/why-did-700-bu/

Looks like the first year of the Uncle Donny tour was just peachy….the only people that will make out from this is Donny’s billionaire buddies that are helping eliminate any competition….so much to that elusive ‘free market’….

Not to worry it will only get worse.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”