Reporter catchs Twamp in lie on Twamp(don't)care

I know, no surprise. Must be fake news, eh? The reporter keeps pressing Twamp on the new plan, which specifically states that the States can eliminate Obamacare provisions like pre-existing coverage. Twamp keeps talking around it and the reporter keeps pressing when he doesn't directly answer if he'll guarantee that everyone will have pre-existing coverage like he originally promised. Finally Twamp gets frustrated that the reporter doesn't just accept his non-answers and changes the subject. How the hell can anyone with even a quarter brain trust a single word that comes out of his mouth?

Hard Times

Heavy

Marc & Sylvie

Here's their showcase 2-step at the Peach State Dance convention. This proves that 2-step, when done by these world champions, is just as challenging and aesthetic as any advanced championship level ballroom dance.

TYT on Obama's $400K Wall Street speech

They're right. It reinforces the message that the Dem Party is in bed with Wall Street and thwarts the progressive message. Polls repeatedly show we the people favor the progressive agenda and hate both Parties for this very reason. Obama is just reinforcing it and hurting progressive changes in further elections.

Woodward and Bernstein @ WHCA dinner

Some more Twamp roasting.

Muslim is keynote speaker @ White House Correspondents Dinner

No wonder Twamp didn't show up, the thin-skinned coward.

Martin Short on The Tonight Show

Very funny interview. More like a stand-up (sit-down) routine with Jimmy playing the straight man.

Maher on Twamp voters

He accurately notes you aren't going to change them with facts. You aren't going to change them at all because they are afraid of change. He also does some good imitations of said voters.

Senator Warren on Real Time

Last night. She's her usual feisty self, fighting for we the people and putting the 1% in their place. She discusses her new book, which shows exactly how, why and when the American Dream worked and then was intentionally destroyed. She simply must be our next President.

Maher then presses her on why people voted for Twamp if they indeed agree with a progressive agenda. She responds that progressives must address the legitimate reasons for people's anger at a rigged system. Warren (and Sanders) have done this all along and they connect to the people. But the Dem Party does not and if they don't change course, and they won't, what then? She says it is we the people that are standing up and getting things done. So forget the Party; we need to do it ourselves.

Maher on Twamp's first 100 days

From Real Time last night. Even Putin is disappointed in Twamp's pathetic performance. Funny stuff as usual.

Colbert on Twamp's first 100 days

Twamp didn't get anything done but we the people did. We are standing up to the Biggest Bully and we are winning and he is losing big league.

New info on Russiagate

See this Guardian story which said that "new evidence has emerged confirming one of the major allegations asserted in the dossier.  If true, this report would, for the first time, link the Trump campaign directly to Kremlin-controlled hackers." Yes, the Twamp campaign met with Kremlin operators and hackers and paid them to do exactly what happened in the DNC hack. That is treason, no two ways about it.

Escaping poverty

See this short review of Peter Temin's book The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy. The poor are in that situation by intentional design by the top 1%. The latter can buy legislation to keep minimum wages low, while under funding educational institutions, infrastructure and public transit in poor neighborhoods. Obviously to get out of poverty those obstructions must be removed.

But that can only happen with a change in cultural beliefs, especially the canard that private industry can effectively handle public programs better than good government. And for that to change people have to wake up to the fact that said 1% are never going to change, so the only way to change that is to vote in politicians that have a proven track record of fighting for that shift. And it sure as hell ain't the Twamp Swamp, which only exacerbates the problem.

Symphony

Clean Bandit featuring Zara Larsson.

Politics

Guilty as charged.

Twamp is an arsonist

Good description of him by Senator Warren, detailing all the ways he's trying to burn down  successful and popular Obamacare. And replace it with something so cruel even his own Party won't agree to it. This woman must be our next President to repair the damage the Biggest Loser is causing.

Vanessa & James

World Team Trophy 2017, breathtaking routine.

Warren on the Financial Choice Act

Some choice. Republicans use words like 'choice' as if it gives we the people a choice, something we of course want. But that is not at all what this Act is about. The only choice is for the big banks to continue to rip off those of us without any choice in the matter. The Bill increases the cost of mortgages and student loans. It lets big banks, payday lenders and financial advisers cheat us with no accountability. It returns to allowing the same sort of antics that caused the recent financial crash. Some fucking choice, huh?

Warren as usual counters the lies used to justify the false choice argument with the facts. Which is of course why we the people love her but the Dem Party hates her, because she criticizes their gravy train.

Hartmann on Frank's article

Frank's Guardian article was linked a few posts down. Hartmann starts by documenting Frank's work on how the Dem Party sold out to Wall Street and big business while abandoning the middle class. This is exactly how they lost the rust belt vote and the election. Then Hartmann again goes off on defending the Dem Party, finding excuses for what Frank so accurately documents, saying that such Dems are in the minority in the Party. WTF Thom? Then he reports on how Obama, the nominal head of the Party, is giving a Wall Street speech for $400,000 and legitimately criticizes him, noting that this only reinforces the notion of a Dem Party corrupted by big money.

Hartmann is delusional about the Dem Party waking up

I really have to wonder why he keeps insisting that the Dem Party is waking up and returning to their FDR roots. He provides no evidence that they are doing any such thing. The Party has shown since the election that they don't even recognize that they did anything wrong! And don't blame the media for not reporting on something that is not happening Thom. You're delusional on this one buddy.

Colbert on Zombie Twamp Care

Colbert comments on the new health(don't)care plan, a zombie that has arisen to kill us all. He notes that Representatives exempted themselves from this cruel plan. There will be no vote on it this week, as the Republicans still can't get the votes from their own side to pass it. I'm glad that there are at least a few Republicans left with some semblance of conscience.

Thomas Frank on the Dem Party

Great article analyzing the Dem Party. Thing is, the Party isn't able to change course. Just look at their continued contempt for the progressive contingent. Some excerpts:


"The wreckage that you see every day as you tour this part of the country [industrial midwest] is the utterly predictable fruit of the Democratic party’s neoliberal turn. Every time our liberal leaders signed off on some lousy trade deal, figuring that working-class people had 'nowhere else to go,' they were making what happened last November a little more likely."

"Every time our liberal leaders deregulated banks and then turned around and told working-class people that their misfortunes were all attributable to their poor education, that the only answer for them was a lot of student loans and the right sort of college degree ... every time they did this they made the disaster a little more inevitable."

"What we need is for the Democratic party and its media enablers to alter course. It’s not enough to hear people’s voices and feel their pain; the party actually needs to change. They need to understand that the enlightened Davos ideology they have embraced over the years has done material harm to millions of their own former constituents. The Democrats need to offer something different next time. And then they need to deliver."

No,  it's time for progressives to let that shitcan go.

Twamp's first 100 days

Presented by Robert Reich. The theme: unnecessary cruelty. First up, the budget cuts many programs that help the poor while the military gets a YUGE increase. Second, repeal the Affordable Care Act where 14 million lose coverage in the next year, 24 million in the next 10 years, while $600 billion in tax cuts goes to his billionaire buddies. Third, banning Syrian refugees when no terrorist attack inside the US was ever committed by a Syrian refugee. Fourth, mass deportation of immigrants when undocumented workers in the US is down.

Colbert: Jesus does a TED talk

Not to be outdone by the Pope who recently did a TED talk, Jesus visits Colbert to do one of his own.

Millions purged from voter roles

Abby Martin of The Empire Files reports on how the Republicans are doing this. Yes, the system is rigged, but not because people are voting illegally; it's the Republicans who are denying the vote to millions. In fact, it's the Republicans that use the fake news of illegal voters to further their real news agenda of further preventing even more people from voting.

Are Twamp supporters really that stupid?

Yes they are. 96% of them would vote for him again, despite all Twamp has done to harm them and the rest of us. Only 2% regret that choice. One reason is that Twamp continues to ramp up the hateful rhetoric against those dark others. Plus many of that ilk get fed misinformation and fake news constantly by Twamp and the right-wing spin machine. And as many others have noted, many of them are suckers for strong auhoritarinan leaders. Not too worry, Clinton supporters fared a little better but not by much. Bottom line: Many Americans are idiots, so no sense in sugar coating it or being politically correct.

Twamp's tax plan for the rich

Hartmann calls it a back-door flat tax to further enrich the already rich. They will cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 15%, so how will they get enough revenue to pay the bills? Further cut social programs to help people, or course. This agenda is so transparent to anyone that keeps informed and has at least some use of their brain. But that's what these overlords are counting on, that their supporters are not that in the least through their intentional machinations.

More on the new health(don't)care bill

It will kick off the same 24 million from current coverage and drive up costs nearly twice as much for diabetes patients, and as much as 35 times higher for cancer patients. And that's if you're in one of those states that don't completely eliminate pre-existing condition coverage. It continues to cut $800 billion from Medicaid and drastically increases rates for the elderly. In addition to the Freedom Caucus, other orgs supporting it are Freedom Works and Club For Growth. You know, the ones that want bigger profits for health insurance companies at the expense of our lives.

Freedom Caucus supports new health(don't)care plan

So this should tell you that it's atrocious. It allows a waiver for some State's (Republican-controlled States to be sure) to eliminate essential benefits like pre-existing conditions coverage, ER visits and maternity care. This is exactly what the moderate Republicans that voted down the last version found reprehensible. The likelihood of it passing the House is questionable, and in the Senate even slimmer.

Republicans exempt their own health insurance from their new plan

Yep, their new plan for everyone else is not good enough for them. Currently all members of Congress are required to use Obamacare. Their new health(don't)care plan allows States to opt out of Obamacare coverage like preexisting conditions or other essential benefits required by Obamacare. However in their new Bill Republicans also put in a provision that exempt them and their staff from this opt-out. Apparently they like Obamacare enough to not want to participate in their own new plan for the rest of us. That should tell you something about this new plan.

Ivanka learned to lie from her father

And she lays it out as a strategy in her book The Trump Card. In this quote she says you don't have to be deceitful, yet in the next sentence says it's ok if you do it by omission and let a lie stand if it serves you. Once a Twamp...

Former NSA accused of a crime

Yes, the former and very temporary National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has been accused of a crime by the House Oversight Committee. And now the White House if refusing to provide relevant information on Flynn to the Committee, thereby obstructing the investigation. I'm eager to see how far this goes, hoping it leads to the impeachment and a criminal trial of the Biggest Loser ever. Below is a Fox commentator on this scandal.

Twamp's buy America, hire America lie

Yeah, it was good campaign spin to get votes, but since his inauguration he had done the complete opposite. A new study reveals that he continues to reward US companies that ship jobs and production overseas. He could sign an Executive Order preventing companies that receive tax dollars from doing so, but to date he has not even hinted at it. Twamp's big show of threatening Carrier for doing so was a circus act, since that company off shored 1000 jobs anyway. And they were rewarded for doing so with 15 new federal contracts. Democratic Congresspeople have proposed off shoring legislation to prevent it by not a peep from Twamp. Just one more in a long line of broken promises from the Biggest Liar intent on lining his and his 1% buddies pockets.

How trickle down economics works

Also see this article that goes with the graphic. Even and especially Ayn Rand would not recognize what today is called capitalism, but is in fact oligarchy, since competition was critical to her vision. Rand is rolling over in her grave and the very hint of the trickle-down piss storm.

Pros and cons: Twamp's first 100 days

According to Jimmy Fallon.

Chomsky: Republican Party most dangerous organization

In world history. Democracy Now interview that starts with this assertion. The GOP is dedicated to the destruction of human (and all) life on earth. He provides the extensive evidence to support this thesis. And the Twamp Swamp is gleefully participating in earth's and our destruction.

Colbert does another Alex Jones bit

Keep them coming, as these are funny.

Jordan & Tatania, 2017 Korea Westie Weekend

Their demonstration performance.

Dr. Seuss is relevant today

Same story, different day.

Cornell West & Nick Brana on Sanders & a People's Party

Both think the Dem Party is beyond reform and that Sanders should lead an independent People's Party movement. And they're right.

Meyers' closer look at Twamp's first 100 days

Twamp gets a failing grade on his first report card. A report card, by the way, that Twamp himself laid out for his first 100 days. Even given that failure, a poll shows he'd beat Clinton in another election. Granted Clinton was the second worst candidate ever besides Twamp, but she still beat him by 3 million legitimate votes the first time around. It goes to show that the Twamp swamp still don't respond to reality and never will.

Heather & Maks rumba

She gets a well-earned perfect score, 40 out of 40. And then she's eliminated at the end of the show while pathetic dancers like David, Nick and Boner remain in the competition?! That's what I've always hated about this show, letting the ignorant public vote so that it's more about popularity than about dancing. Anyway, an amazing performance.

Colbert on Twamp's 100-day accomplishments

That would be zero legislatively. Just writing Executive Orders isn't an accomplishment. And the latter are far better described as failures. Total score for humanity and the planet on day 100? Incalculable hell. Colbert also comments on Twamp's unintelligible interview.

Trump's unitelligible AP interview

See this article which discusses it but also links to the transcript. This is continuing evidence that Twamp is mostly unintelligible, not just in the sense of mumbling but in the sense of being so disorganized of thought as to not having intelligible thoughts at all. The only people that can possible like this are themselves 'the unintelligibles,' a good name for the swamp that the 1% have worked so hard to create via the decimation of education.

The Allure of Things

The Captain Metaphysics cartoon had me search for Bryant's paper "Time of the object." In the search I discovered his updated version subtitled: "Derrida, Luhmann and the processual nature of substances." And it is within the book The Allure of Things: Process and Object in Contemporary Philosophy (NY: Bloomsbury, 2014) edited by Roland Faber and Andrew Goffy and available free at this link.

Relating to the Captain Metaphysics comic, I like this:

"What Derrida articulates in this passage is a variation of Aristotle’s concept of primary substances; for the very being of primary substance is to exceed and be detachable from every context. Hence, in the case of New Historicism which strives to reduce an articulation to its context, we encounter a sort of transcendental illusion where the historicist is not discovering the contexture of relations that gave the work meaning, but rather creating a contexture, a regime of attraction, that generates meaning as an effect. It is for this reason that I refer to substance under the title of presence as local manifestation, for the manifestation of any substance is a function of its contingent context, such that every substance, in principle, harbors the power of falling into other contexts and thereby of manifesting itself otherwise than it does in this context. [...] Derrida’s account of time and différance gives us one way of providing a formal ontological demonstration for the thesis that substances are withdrawn" (89-90).

And the conclusion, a variation on Edwards' syntegrity:

Captain Metaphysics and the postmodern peril

I'm guessing it's about Derrida. If so he never said any such thing but it's funny anyway. He was certainly interpreted that way by the metaphysicians. Perhaps that's also what the comic was indicating at the end, when none of them including Captain Metaphysics had a clue what he was saying? Click 'read more' for the next panel.

A dancer doesn't let a wheelchair stop her

Moving performance after telling her story.

Twamp science adviser

Accurate depiction.

Supreme Corp: Ok to shoot an unarmed black man in the back

That's pretty much what they just decided. A cop pulled over a black man for drunk driving. When the cop went to put on the cuffs the man turned his back to the cop and started walking away. The victim claims the cop shot him in the back right away, the cop says the victim reached for his waistband and though he was going for a gun. There is an obvious dispute of the facts, which requires a jury trial. But the Supreme Corp sided with a lower court saying there is no dispute of the facts and so the lower court can just issue a summary judgment. Justice Sotomayor wrote the dissent.

Top 10 ways Twamp & GOP are screwing workers

The following are just the bullet points from this Economic Policy Institute post. See it for the details. These are the facts of what you voted for Twamp swampers. This is real news, and it's you that are being fed fake news to manipulate you. If you want us to quit calling you stupid then quit being stupid.


1. Protecting Wall Street profits that siphon billions of dollars from retirement savers. 
2. Letting employers hide fatal injuries that happen on their watch.
3. Allowing potentially billions of taxpayer dollars to go to private contractors who violate health and safety protections or fail to pay workers. 
4. Undermining important regulations that protect workers and consumers.
5. Allowing employers to penalize employees who don’t want to reveal their private medical information.  

The Senate Committee to investigate Russiagate is impotent

Nothing at all. The Republican Chair talks big but doesn't nothing, just like Twamp. To date there is no full-time staff, they have not issued any subpoenas, no witnesses have been called. And while the Republicans refuse to do anything the Dems are too limp to be effective. It's all a scam to appear to be doing something and nothing at all is getting done.

Where do we make budget cuts?

Do we want to be a real disaster movie?

Commentary on the Democratic unity tour

From TheRealNews below. Sanders said we can't have the kind of society we want without pointing the finger at the top 1% that do everything in their power to prevent it. Perez on the other hand refuses to do that because he, like other corporate Dems, still think they need the 1% to finance campaigns. They have no memory of the last election where Sanders raised more money than Clinton and didn't take one cent from the 1%. Also discussed is when will Sanders realize it's a waste of time and effort to team up with the Dem Party?

Image schema, khora and elementals

Continuing this post, there are many other similar notions to Sallis on khora and elements that also help to reconstruct integral theory. One example mentioned is image schema. In this Edwards et al paper they discuss how "metaphors become particularly influential by structuring the reality of virtuality" (120). Metaphors are developed from image schema. The paper emphasizes the particular metaphor of bridging, which pretty much is how image schema operate. Some relevant quotes.

“Remarkably these tensile structures have empty centres. Correspondingly, every point is visible and connectable from every other, suggesting a desirable form of transparency. […] For a tensegrity-oriented approach the centre is a virtual one, rather than being occupied by some dominant body, individual, concept or value. [...] Therefore syn-integral bridging does not follow the ideas of a metaphysical harmony, nor an underlying unity-oriented ideal(ism)" (127-8).

“This liminal bridging moves between concepts, categories and paradigms of thought and forms of practice not ‘in’ them (Chia, 1996, p. 142). It is this relational realm of in-between, with its gaps or interstices and therein unfolding ‘in-tensions’. […] Following Deleuze and Guattari (1980) […] a rhizome-bridge has no beginning or end, but is always in the middle, between things” (128-29).

"As spatial and temporal in-between, bridges and bridging serve not only for coming from one point to another, but help to overcome thinking in points at all" (129).

What is Twamp hiding in his tax returns?

Senator Warren plausibly speculates based on what we already know about the Twamp swamp.

Le Pen v. Macron in French runoff

With 92% reporting those are the two finalists in the runoff scheduled for May 7. I'm disappointed Sanders-like Melenchon isn't there. I'm not crazy about Clinton-like, former banker Macron, but like the US election Macron is far better than Twamp-like Le Pen.

Twamp is Biggest Loser in the polls

He is the best at something after all, LOSING! In a recent poll Twamp has the worst approval and disapproval percentages in the last 70 years. Of course he called the numbers fake news, so you know they are accurate facts given his delusional illness. And recall he was also the Biggest Loser in the election, down by 3 million popular votes. He's also the Biggest Loser in business, having gone bankrupt 4 times and in debt to Russia so deep he likely colluded with them in the election. There's no way around it: (not my) President is the Biggest Loser ever in the history of the world. But unlike what comes out of Twamp's silver spoon hole this is no exaggeration.

Dodson dominates Wineland

Highlights and interview in the video below. Also all of the other fighters in that division that are avoiding him with poo poo in their panties.

Repubicans only win by suppressing or denying the vote

Hartmann discusses this in the clip below. He plays a clip of Weyrich openly admitting this in 1980, and the regressives have been following this game plan ever since. This is applied to the upcoming Georgia runoff election where they are at it again in violation of federal law.

deGrasse Tyson on science and its denial

Important message about the Twamp swampers, who can't tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

Some stats on solar energy

It employs more people than Facebook, Google and Apple combined. It also employs more than all fossil fuel jobs combined. Twamp says he wants to create jobs, so this is where the job are you dimwit.

Great question

Contemporary math and Buddist catuskoti

Another one from the archive.

Here is Graham Priest's study of contemporary mathematical logic as applied to the catuskoti. One of my comments on it is here, following:

Priest discusses relations and functions regarding truth values. The Aristotelian principles against contradiction, i.e., the excluded middle and non-contradiction, rely on the function of truth values. Priest's solution around this is to make them relation values. But when it comes to Buddhist emptiness he seems to mix and match functions and relations. On one hand emptiness is based on relations, since nothing has an inherent existence but is conditioned by its relations to other things. But on the other hand it is also based on a function because the previous relations apply only to conventional reality; ultimate reality per this other Priest article posit is as "pure form" (11), itself a preconditional function for conventional reality.

Integral/transpersonal theory hybrid

From the archives:

One source I've quoted and commented on at length is Jerry Goddard's free e-book, Transpersonal Theory and the Astrological Mandala: An Evolutionary Theory. Chapter 3 goes into the TP models of Wilber, Grof and Washburn. E.g., in this post I said:

"In Chapter 6 of Goddard’s Transpersonal Theory he reiterates something I said in the Krishnamurti 2 thread about Gebser. Previous structures are not holonically subsumed into the next higher structure. The lower structures continue to develop laterally within the dominant higher structure. However successively higher structures up to the mental-ego are by nature “divisive” or exclusive into a higher-lower polarity whereby one pole is dominant, and higher tends to at least consciously (epistemologically) subsume the lower. Nonetheless ontologically the repressed (and previous) pole (structure) continues to develop but unconsciously and it is not until the so-called centaur structure (Geber’s IA) that we begin the return arc of integration of our formerly repressed structures. This conscious return then finds those previous structures having gone through their own developments unbeknownst to us so that they are not the immature magical and mythical worldviews they were on the upward arc of development. Add in the conscious ego’s recognition and integration of them and we get an IA structure that holds all of the structures as they are without contradiction."

Following that post is a quote from the referenced chapter 6. The entire thread is called States, Stages, the Wilber-Combs Lattice and the Fold and is one such Integral/Transpersonal theory hybrid.

Colbert reams Alex Jones again

He starts with the continuing saga, then does another funny impression.

How Governor Pence caused an HIV outbreak

Oh yes he did.

TYT discusses the Dem unity tour

Good discussion. Why is Sanders doing this? What does he hope to accomplish? The verdict is that he truly but naively believes that the Dem Party will come to their senses after losing all those elections and embrace the progressive populist agenda. And Sanders is wrong in this assessment, as their is daily evidence that the Party will not and cannot change. Meanwhile the Party likes the framing of unity to woo the progressives but we're too smart to fall for it. Again they don't get it and never will.

Democratic unity tour falling apart

Did anyone really expect this to work? Did Sanders? Sanders touring with Perez has only heightened the differences between the progressives and the corporate Dems. Sanders has no hesitation in naming Wall Street and big corporations as the cause of our problems, while Perez continues to hem and haw around those issues. The Dem Party still thinks to win in '18 all they need to if focus on the same story of trying to win wealthy urbanites instead of minorities and rural white Americans. This tour is a transparent attempt to woo progressives to the Dem Party and Sanders is being played the stooge for participating in it.

Maher's monologue last night

As usual, astute political analysis topped with funny stuff.

Maher's earth day new rule

He tells us to quit with the bullshit fantasy of moving to Mars when we have to wake up and take care of the earth NOW.

GA Republicans caught rigging runoff election

I know, no shock to anyone given it's typical of Republicans to lie, cheat and steal elections. And they're trying to do it again. Federal law is clear that even in runoff elections the voting registration deadline is 30 days before said election. Not for the Georgia Secretary of State though. He said the registration deadline is 92 days before the runoff election, thereby preventing new registrants from voting. It's just one voting suppression rule after another with these regressives.

Taibbi on new book about Hillary Clinton

See his story here. The book is full on campaign insiders revealing that Clinton had no ethical rudder or sincere progressive values. It was all about power and money. The Dem Party, along with the Clintons, need to be dumped by any progressive worthy of that name.

Fox viewers to boycott Fox over O'Reilly's firing

Please, go ahead and continue the stupidity you've long demonstrated by being one of his viewers in the first place. Fox is the prime propaganda outlet programming idiots like you, so cut off your nose to spite your face. If you boycott Fox then they go under and then some people might wake up and quit being brainwashed. So by all means, boycott the very place that turned you into the idiots you are. Have at it.

Colbert's 420 monologue

Colbert on O'Reilly's prophetic '98 novel

The novel is about a brash TV journalist who got fired from his job. Colbert reads from it and it's O'Reilly basically talking about himself. Big surprise, I know.

America is regressing

See this review of Peter Temin's book The Vanishing Middle Class. An excerpt:

"The richest large economy in the world, says Temin, is coming to have an economic and political structure more like a developing nation. We have entered a phase of regression, and one of the easiest ways to see it is in our infrastructure: our roads and bridges look more like those in Thailand or Venezuela than the Netherlands or Japan. But it goes far deeper than that, which is why Temin uses a famous economic model created to understand developing nations to describe how far inequality has progressed in the United States. The model is the work of West Indian economist W. Arthur Lewis, the only person of African descent to win a Nobel Prize in economics. For the first time, this model is applied with systematic precision to the U.S. 

"The result is profoundly disturbing. In the Lewis model of a dual economy, much of the low-wage sector has little influence over public policy. Check. The high-income sector will keep wages down in the other sector to provide cheap labor for its businesses. Check. Social control is used to keep the low-wage sector from challenging the policies favored by the high-income sector. Mass incarceration - check. The primary goal of the richest members of the high-income sector is to lower taxes. Check. Social and economic mobility is low. Check."

The French elections

Continuing this post, Hartmann and guest discuss the French elections and possible lessons the US could learn about progressive populist candidates like Sanders.

Colbert lampoons Alex Jones again

And again it's quite funny.

Colbert's farewell to O'Reilly

He says what a lot of us are thinking.

Communalism: A Liberatory Alternaive

Excellent article on "developmental trends in evolution" that are non-hierarchical, or what Caputo calls hier(an)archical. It accepts evolutionary complexity without the hierarchical misstep. I've argued at length on how the notion of hierarchical complexity is literally meta-physical. From the introduction:

"Communalism is the all encompassing term given to a comprehensive theory and practice that seeks to reconstruct society along ecological lines. It is based in the essential premise that all environmental problems are rooted in social problems. Along with global climate change, problems such as widespread pollution, deforestation, and species extinction are all anthropogenic in their source. Assessing these issues as a whole, we can see that our society is simplifying the environment on a global scale. In fact, it is undoing the achievements of evolution by creating a more simplified, inorganic world. 1

"Communalism holds an objective set of social ethics that reflect the most developmental trends in evolution, including greater choice, dynamic stability, and diversity. Supported by these ecological trends, Communalism provides a foundation to act against injustice, domination, and hierarchy, which are neither “natural” nor inevitable features of society.

Warren on Twamp Swamp Obamacare chaos

She nails it again on when they repeal Obamacare it's going to hurt millions (and kill tens of thousands) of Americans and they don't seem to really give a shit. Warren lays out many of the intentional consequences of this action, as well as the measures the Swamp plans to take to derail Obamacare in the interim.

Who gets the most pie?

Good graphic of the situation.

Elementals as image schemas

Michael started a FB IPS thread on dualistic metaphysics here. It got around to Sallis' definition of elementals. Some of my comments follow.

In the Chorology review Sallis talks about elementals as imaginative spatio-temporal determinations that correspond to various logical categories. That's pretty much what image schema are. Another way of looking at elementals is Edwards' different lenses, e.g. holarchical, bi-polor, cyclical, standpoint, relational (24 in all). In part 8 of his ILR interview he says of them:

"These lens categories tap into some basic relationships that exist in the human experience of reality. Consequently, they show up within every attempt to understand, explain, or get some handle on the complexity that exists within and around us and between us and through us. I see them as coming out of some kind of morphological fault line in the Kosmos, windows that we create and which we are drawn to look through, proclivities that we innately possess as sentient beings who act and imagine."

It is no coincidence that his different lenses are strikingly similar, if not identical, to the various pre-conscious image schema (IS). IS literally ground our theories in the body/mind through its interactions with culture and nature. And they also maintain duality but are not metaphysically dualistic. Or as LP implies, quadality. But given Edwards' 24 lenses, and the innumerable image schema, it might be more appropriate to call it Mutual MultiAlity. Aka Multipli City as my neologistic kosmos address for this.

Petition: maintain net neutrality

Please consider signing the petition here. The text:

Grassroots activists won an epic victory two years ago when together we pushed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to pass strong net neutrality rules. Hundreds of thousands of CREDO members and millions of others fought for years to protect the free and open internet with net neutrality – the principle that internet providers must treat all users’ content equally. In 2015, we finally won.

Now, Trump’s FCC chairman is quietly moving to scrap the rules. Earlier this month, news reports revealed that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wants to give up the FCC’s role in protecting internet users and instead ask companies to voluntarily police themselves.¹ If he’s successful, the hard-fought victory to protect our rights on the internet will be lost.

Tell FCC Chairman Ajit Pai: Don’t kill net neutrality.

Just as telephone companies connect callers without regard to how much they can pay, the internet under net neutrality is classified as a protected utility. Internet providers can’t block content, slow traffic, or create “fast lanes” to prioritize websites whose owners pay more.² Net neutrality protects our privacy, keeps broadband prices competitive and helps new companies to innovate. That’s why consumer groups and internet businesses like Google, Facebook and Netflix all strongly support net neutrality and oppose Pai’s plan to kill it.³

Pai’s plan for the internet looks a lot like Paul Ryan’s plan to repeal Obamacare.

KY coal company to build solar farm

Even Kentucky coal companies realize the coal jobs are gone and are making the transition to renewable energy. I guess businesses will have to do the work of that transition, as the Twamp swamp is regressing backward into the dark ages.

O'Reilly fired from Fox

So says this report, but has yet to be confirmed publicly by Fox. I hope it's true, that there is justice in this world, that even Fox's cash cow can't get away with sexual harassment. This will be a victory for human rights.

Senator Warren on Twamp's 'accomplishments'

When asked about this she responded in the clip below that Twamp signed off to make it easier for employers to steal their employees wages. He signed off to make it easier for companies to hide the facts when they kill or maim employees. He signed off to make it easier for financial advisers to rip off their clients. He signed off on Trump(don't)care to eliminate 24 million for healthcare coverage. She reiterates we need to stay focused on what he does and quit chasing the imaginary squirrels he throws up as flak.

Ossoff goes to GA runoff

The Democrat Ossoff only got 48% of the vote in Georgia's runoff election to fill the seat long held by Republicans He needed 50% to win. However his closest competitor was the Republican Hendel with 20%. So now it goes to a runoff election between those two. Many are saying that this election is a bellwether on how the '18 mid-terms will go: Will people vote more Democratic due to Twamp's disastrous tenure?

Senator Warren with Fallon

Last night. When asked what Democrats need to do she said : 1) stay in the fight against tyranny; 2) stay focused on the issues and don't get distracted by Twamp's constant misdirections; 3) clearly elaborate progressive values and policies. See the clip for more.

Colbert's monologue

On the tax day demonstrations against Twamp and his idiotic response, Spicer's idiotic responses to it, thermonuclear war with N. Korea because of two Child Kings in charge, Twamp's cowardice and more.

The White House visitor log

Colbert opened last night with this satire on the White House deciding to no longer release the visitor log.

France's Sanders surging in the polls

France's version of Sanders, Melenchon, now has 19% in the polls compared with the far right and center right candidates at 23%. He has an agenda very similar to Sanders but he has formed a new Party instead of choosing one of the others. He thinks that his people's agenda cannot be implemented within the current Party system and it must be changed. He's pushing for a Constitutional Convention to do so, changing the system to one of proportional representation. And he's within striking distance of the major candidates! This is what the Sanders movement also needs to do. See the article for the details.

Artifacts and texts in the evolution of consciousness

Is the subtitle of Wm. Irwin Thompson's book Coming Into Being. I like this quote:

"What McLuhan recognized, but did not explicitly state, was that our new highly advanced electronic media if used by evolutionarily unadvanced mortals will lead to cultural annihilation. These new media that work with the speed of light require a new spiritual consciousness of Light. They are so fantastically efficient that they cannot work to the good unless we are good; they only can be safely used if we tell the truth and live in the Truth. If we try to check and control them for lesser purposes, such as power, gain, misrepresentation, and the accumulation of wealth for private property in cyberspace, then blockages in the flow will generate distortions, noise, and a generalized cultural entropy in which no human relationships are possible...

"Nothing less than truth, goodness, and a Buddhist universal compassion are going to get us through this transition from industrialization to planetization. Our level of consciousness has now become the biggest obstruction to the continuity of human existence. We have made normalcy nonviable, so we have opted for an 'up or out' scenario in cultural evolution. We either shift upward to a new culture of a higher spirituality to turn our electronic technologies into cathedrals of light, or we slide downward to darkness and entropy in a war of each against all" (9-10).

Twamp/GOP plan to destroy social security

Tim Canova of Progress For All discusses how they plan to do this. The plan is to eliminate the 12.4% payroll tax that funds SS and to implement a value added tax (VAT) to make up the difference. The VAT tax raises the price of goods which hits lower and middle income families the hardest, thereby negating the savings from eliminating payroll tax. Once again it's a plan to rob the poor to pay the rich, a reverse Robin Hood. Maybe Robin' the Hood?

Colbert lampoons Alex Jones

A good skit on Jones' insanity. He starts with the news on Jones' lawyer claiming that he is only playing a character doing performance art, then proceeds to the skit. He also comments on how Twamp takes Jones' supposed act as reality. But then again, so does Jones, as both live in an alternative world.

North Korea's lame posturing

Colbert is back after yet another one-week vacation. Seems he takes more vacations that Twamp! In this skit he makes fun of N. Korea's war posturing.

Simone & Sasha

She came in 2nd again, with 2 out of 4 judges giving her a 10, her first 10s of this season.

Normani & Val

She retook the lead last night with this performance, where 3 out of 4 judges gave her a 10.

John Wayne

And while I'm on a Gaga kick:

The Cure

New one from Lady Gaga. I really like the multi-pronged song structure, with not just verse and chorus but with a pre-chorus and bridge.

My gal Khora

Some good stuff from the archives:

From this post of mine:

"Wilber's metaphysical ground wherein all forms arise [...] seems much more like Plato's archetypal realm of Ideal forms that step down into the sensible world and 'in'form it. Granted Wilber doesn't see them as 'pre-formed' but rather much more amorphous involutionary and morphogenetic 'potentials.' Still, it seems this is part of the involutionary versus evolutionary dualistic scheme with one side being origin and absolute, with the other being result and relative. Derrida's differant khora is both outside and within that duality, not taking sides, as it were, but providing the stage upon which they play out their differences and similarities."

From this post of Caputo commenting on Derrida:

“When we think of Plato we think of the two worlds or regions allegorized in the cave: the upper world of the intelligible paradigms, the sphere of invisible and unchanging being in the sun of the Good that shines over all, as opposed to the sensible likenesses of the forms in the changing, visible world of becoming.... When presented with a neat distinction or opposition of this sort—and this distinction inaugurates philosophy, carves out the very space of 'meta-physics'—Derrida will not, in the manner of Hegel, look for some uplifting, dialectical reconciliation of the two in a higher third thing, a concrete universal, which contains the 'truth' of the first two. Instead, he will look around—in the text itself—for some third thing that the distinction omits, some untruth, or barely remnant truth, which falls outside the famous distinction, which the truth of either separately or both together fails to capture, which is neither and both of the two.

"In the Timaeus the missing third thing, a third nature or type—khora—is supplied by Plato himself. Khora is the immense and indeterminate spatial receptacle in which the sensible likenesses of the eternal paradigms are 'engendered,' in which they are 'inscribed' by the Demiurge, thereby providing a 'home' for all things.... This receptacle is like the forms inasmuch as it has a kind of eternity: it neither is born or dies, it is always already there, and hence beyond temporal coming-to-be and passing away; yet it does not have the eternity of the intelligible paradigms but a certain a-chronistic a temporality. Because it belongs neither to the intelligible nor the sensible world Plato says it is 'hardly real.' Moreover, while it cannot be perceived by the senses but only by the mind, still it is not an intelligible object of the mind, like the forms. Hence, Plato says it is not a legitimate son of reason but is apprehended by a spurious or corrupted logos, a hybrid or bastard reasoning. Khora in neither intelligible being nor sensible becoming, but a little like both, the subject matter of neither a true logos nor a good mythos” (83-4).

From this post on Sallis' Chorology:

EPA sued for allowing pesticide that harms children

That's right, the Environmental Protection Agency refused to ban a pesticide that has been scientifically confirmed harm kids. The EPA needs to be renamed to the Environmental Destruction Agency.

New poll: fewer believe Twamp's lies

This article discusses the poll in which only 45% of Americans think Twamp is keeping his promises, down from 62% in February. That drop includes 11% from Republicans and 9% from conservatives. Even former swampers are starting to wake up to the fact that Twamp is full of swamp gas and not to be believed anymore.

GOP solves public healthcare issue

Said of course tongue-in-cheek. Continuing this post, there's the soda tax which is the most direct way to make those with poor health habits pay for the costs incurred to the system. Same with the cigarette tax. If you buy a product known to cause ill health you pay up front when you buy the product.

It eliminates the privacy issue, since the proposed public health insurance system in the previous post would have to monitor an insured's health habits in order to rate them properly. But hey, the Republicans just voted to allow ISPs to sell off our private information to the highest bidder, so they can also sell our personal health information to health insurance companies. Problem solved. Thanks for the unintended consequences of you usual idiocy GOP.

If Trump Drank Ayahuasca

JP does a humorous satire on how Twamp would change if he'd participate in ingesting this drug in a ceremonial setting. High fantasy.

Corporate Dems want Bernie voters

But they refuse to embrace the policies Sanders fights for. They just want his email lists and to give him the appearance of being accepted by the Party to get the voters but have no intention of actually implementing any of his policy proposals. Don't be fooled Bernie; run like hell away from their trap.

A political theology of the earth

Right up my alley. From Catherine Keller's FB post, some excerpts from this article:

"My current project – a political theology of the earth – solicits the messianic against the sovereign in order to call the so-called people to their power; it privileges a prophetic eco-sociality over a Eusebian hierarachy, imperial or economic; it supports local movements of planetary resistance to the new merger of capitalism with white male authoritarianism.

"It does not read the earth as sovereign subject but rather as live nexus of entanglements in which the political must at long last begin making itself at home, in the oikos that is now under apocalyptic siege. The time is short. But here we stand –I am thinking here of Standing Rock today just as much as the Luther quintecentennial—in the materiality of our relations, and demanding for all earth-dwellers the oikonomics of economic justice and the oikumene of a religio-cultural pluralism. Calculable impossibility is no excuse; rather it may mark the apokalypsis, the dis/closure, of the possible. It is the incalculable opening, Benjamin’s 'narrow door.' To an unbounded breadth."

Some upcoming CIIS public seminars

That is, the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. One is on Kelly, Mickey and Robbert's new book on The Variety of Integral Ecologies. Another is on Jorge Ferrer's new book Participation and the Mystery.

Alex Jones, performance artist?

That's what Jones' attorney is arguing in court after his wife sued him for complete custody of their children. The wife says Jones constant spewing of hate and violence is bad for the kids. So the only defense the attorney has it that it's just an act, a performance art shtick. The wife isn't buying it, as it hurts the kids no matter the spin. And I wonder what his fans think of this spin, given they take his every word as Gospel truth and fact.

Twamp borrowed money from Russia in 2008

So says former chief of British Intelligence agency MI6. At that time no US bank would loan Twamp money due to his bankruptcies. It is unknown what the conditions were of those Russian loans and whether that has had influence over Twamp. To be continued.

Neoliberalism is a self-serving racket

So says Monbiot in this clip. While it might have started as a sincere philosophy of individual freedom and hard-earned reward, it now exempts billionaires from any social responsibility whatsoever. And in that environment it also intentionally eliminates democracy.

Twamponomics

In this clip Reich calls Twamp to task on congratulating Boeing for building its new airliner in their South Carolina plant. Reich lists all of the parts that were built in other countries and explains why Boeing used those foreign parts. Those countries pay better wages and have better pensions and health benefits, so those workers do a better job and produce better parts that function more efficiently, are safer and last much longer. Those countries also have better and free high education and strong labor unions. And yes, they also have higher taxes to pay for having a happier, more well educated and trained workforce that produce better products. They also have much stronger health, safety and labor laws. Boeing of course couldn't give a shit about all that, they just want the best parts. But the above is exactly how you get them.

Why you are a loser

It's your own damned fault, can't you see?

Why Megyn Kelly left Fox

According to this story, in addition to herself being sexually harassed at the network Kelly complained to top execs at Fox that O'Reilly was a sexual predator. And O'Reilly then accused Kelly of disloyalty, a bridge too far for her. She turned down a 4-year, $100 million Fox offer. And her diagnosis of O'Reilly turned out to be true.

Sanders still most popular in new poll

And not only Sanders but the issues he fights for are the most popular, like free college tuition, Medicare for all and importing drugs from other countries. So why the hell does the Democratic Party keep fighting a populist to lead the charge for the Party? Because they'd rather suck big money's teat to enrich themselves and let the masses starve. Wake TF up Sanders and lead a progressive Party movement. We the people are behind you and we'd not only defeat the Dem Party in primaries but the GOP in elections all the way down the line.

Johnson wins 10 consecutive title fights

And ties Silva's UFC record. He dominated Reis last night. Highlights below.

Fallon's SNL monologue

Ok, it's not so much a monologue as a performance. He sings Bowie's "Let's Dance" with a production dance number that is quite good. At first I though he was lip syncing, but knowing he's good with imitating voices, especially in song, I think it's really him singing.

McCarthy plays Spicer again

And again nails that pitiful less than half wit in an Administration that together doesn't equal even one wit.

The (not my) President's game show

This SNL skit highlights how Twamp demeans and cheapens the highest office in our land.

Sanders and Perez on a unity tour?

WTF? This clip wonders why Sanders would do this with Perez, given Perez and the corporate Democratic Party establishment have proven they don't want anything to do with their own progressive wing. This has been reinforced since the last election as well. He speculates that perhaps Sanders thinks he can influence Perez on this tour to be a genuine populist, but it seems give the history it is the opposite: Perez and the Party and just playing to appearances to get the progressive vote when they have absolutely no intention of following through on progressive promises. It's say to see Sanders being played this way, just like he was during the election.

Self-responsibility in healthcare

People have to be responsible for their health choices, as they end up costing society when their bad choices cause self-inflicted illness. Some argue this is how insurance works. Partly true, as the healthy should invest in the health insurance system to care for the sick and elderly. But there's a difference between those that get sick not through their own choices but from age or environmental or other circumstances beyond their control.

I used to underwrite insurance and those applicants that had a history of bad choices, and consequently repeated paid losses, had to pay more for that insurance if they were eligible at all. And they had to undergo risk management, having our company come in to their practice to analyze their bad behavior and they had to correct it to maintain insurance. If they did not then there their insurance was cancelled.

The biggest freeloaders are at the top

Good article showing this truth. The top by far are not the job creators or those that got their though their individual grit and hard work. They are vampires feeding on everyone else while giving nothing in return. They are the rentier class: "Leveraging control over something that already exists, such as land, knowledge, or money, to increase your wealth. You produce nothing, yet profit nonetheless. By definition, the rentier makes his living at others’ expense, using his power to claim economic benefit."

US domestic Neo-Nazi terrorism

You don't hear the Twamps or Bannons of the world talking about this because they lead and incite it. In this clip a former Neo-Nazi says we need to call it what it is and strongly fight it because it is a growing threat to our democracy.

Just how warped Bannon and his ilk are

Bannon considers those in the White House with whom he's feuding Democrats. But even traitor Roger Stone accurately calls them establishment Republicans. Granted the corporate Dems are virtually indistinguishable from such Republicans on financial matters, but on social matters that's an entirely different story. And they are nothing at all like progressive Democrats. It tell us just how far out into lunatic fanatic-land Bannon and his Neo-Nazi coterie is.

Mar-a-Lago gets 13 health code violations

So what! From Twamp's caveman point of view it's just government interference in the marketplace. Let the market decide if people live or die from food poisoning or rat infestation. Public safety doesn't even register to his little brain.

Sanders on what's needed for progressives to win

In this interview they start with the progressive Dem losing by a narrow margin in KS. Sanders says the Dems need to invest in a 50-state plan, promote a progressive populist message and take on Wall Street. The DNC has proven time and again since the last election, including in the recent KS election, that they are not only not willing to do that but instead keep their same losing game plan. Dump the Biggest Loser Dem Party Bernie.

The DNC sabotages a progressive again

While meanwhile backing a corporate Dem with loads of cash. James Thompson, an avowed Berniecrat, defeated a corporate Dem in the primary to run for the Kansas seat left open by Pompeo, who became the CIA Director. And yet the DNC came up with the same lame excuses not to support him as they gave for Sanders: a populist message just won't win elections. WTF? A populist message beat the shit out of them in the last several elections, albeit an authoritarian one based on lies and manipulation. And yet the DNC is backing a corporate Dem in the GA election. Please listen closely Bernie and progressive Dems: The Democratic Party has not learned a damned thing, they still hate your type, and it's time to leave that piece of shit Party.

Historic Democratic victories in Illinois

Yep, they made history in some IL Republican strongholds where Dems have never won before. See the link for the details. Seems the Republicans capitulating to the Twamp Swamp is having an effect. Let's hope the trend continues into the '18 mid-terms.

Twamp's threat to kill Americans if his wealthcare bill not passed

Again, no exaggeration. Twamp threatened to withhold subsidies to the poor on Obamacare if Twamp's own health(don't)care plan doesn't pass. His plan would also kill Americans in denying coverage to 24 million who already have coverage, as well as kill elderly Americans who will not be able to afford the new coverage. So basically Twamp threatens to kill Americans if we don't approve his plan which will also kill Americans. See a pattern here?

War with North Korea inevitable?

See this story. Twamp sends an 'armada' (in his words) off N. Korea to threaten them if they follow through with another nuclear test. N. Korea say if the US interferes with the test they are prepared to go to war, including using nuclear weapons. Twamp likely feels he needs a war to boost his failing ratings, so is this the nuclear war we've been dreading? And started by two Child-Kings with inadequacy issues?

Can Colbert defeat Twamp?

Hartmann interviews a Professor on the role of political comedy and satire in resisting unsavory leaders. She claims that satire encourages creative and critical thinking, whereas most news instills fear and shuts down such thinking. Hence the Twamps of the world use fear tactics and shun comedians. They also discuss if a leader can handle being satirized or not and what that means. It seems dictators can't handle it, Hitler even executing comedians. While Twamp hasn't gone to that extreme (yet), he doesn't take it well at all and tries to silence them in other ways, like demeaning them personally and instilling hate for them in his swamp creatures. Bottom line: comedy and satire are highly effective tools in battling dictators so let's use this weapon profusely in the resistance.

Is humanity progressing?

So asks Brandan Robertson in this article where he poses this question to Gary Zukav, Gabrielle Bernstein, John Gray, Glennon Doyle Melton and Angela Davis. I appreciated this from Zukav: "[S]ocial structures that continue to be based on power as the ability to manipulate and control [...] have no salvage value." Capitalism is dead and cannot be salvaged, at all.

Evaluating truth claims

In this FB IPS thread the issue of evaluating an other's truth claims came up. Tom suggested that either the one making the claim, and/or others evaluating it, label it under headings like 'science' or 'religious belief' or 'trusted authority.' But then there's the issue of others tagging someone else's truth claims according to their own biased truth claims. E.g., Wilber tends to label those who disagree with him as mean greenies, while Twamp labels anyone who disagrees with him as fake news.

All of which is not to say some truths are not better than others. Hence IPS forum seeks at least some partial consensus as to what constitutes an IPS. Even though we tend to agree that there are multiple ways to formulate an IPS (or metatheory), and on some of its key ingredients, there is still a lot of battling for legitimacy or supremacy of one's favorite position(s), a good thing. And of course evaluating each other's favs based on our own favs, sometimes not as good.

It is though why I use Habermas as a fav trusted source, since he directly addresses validity claims in different domains based on postmetaphysical communicative action, especially his chapter on Mead in Postmetaphysical Thinking. I'm definitely not shy to wear my sources on my sleeve. Or to cross-check my sources against each other in forming my own idiosyncratic confluence.

Heart does Stairway to Heaven

At the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors as part of the Led Zeppelin tribute. Great performance that moved the honorees.

Hiplet

Ballet/hip hop fusion.

Ben & Victoria

Ben Morris & Victoria Henk - Saturday Night Demo at Club 412 in NYC for the Metro Swing Intensive.

Don't Say

From the Chainsmokers debut album.

Monbiot reviews Doughnut Economics

See it here. Some excertps:

"We cannot hope to address our predicament without a new worldview. We cannot use the models that caused our crises to solve them. We need to reframe the problem. This is what the most inspiring book published so far this year has done. In Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, Kate Raworth of Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute reminds us that economic growth was not, at first, intended to signify well being."

"Raworth points out that economics in the 20th century 'lost the desire to articulate its goals'. It aspired to be a science of human behaviour: a science based on a deeply flawed portrait of humanity. The dominant model – 'rational economic man', self-interested, isolated, calculating – says more about the nature of economists than it does about other humans. The loss of an explicit objective allowed the discipline to be captured by a proxy goal: endless growth."

"The aim of economic activity, she argues, should be 'meeting the needs of all within the means of the planet'. Instead of economies that need to grow, whether or not they make us thrive, we need economies that 'make us thrive, whether or not they grow'. This means changing our picture of what the economy is and how it works."

Sam Maher on the terrapan

Nice.

What is enlightenment?

Good article on the nature of enlightenment from practitioners of 4 different traditions. From the Mahayana practitioner: "The quality of enlightenment is basically being free of any thought processes." From the Zen practitioner: "The teachings therefore emphasize removing hindrances to seeing clearly so that one can abide in the clarity of reality as it actually is."

And as to abiding in "reality as it actually is," is that postmetaphysical by the IPS forum's definition? E.g., this post on Habermas:


"Habermas adopts a more naturalistic, 'postmetaphysical' approach (1992a), characterized by the fallible hermeneutic explication or 'reconstruction' of shared competences and normative presuppositions that allow actors to engage in familiar practices of communication, discourse, and inquiry. In articulating presuppositions of practice, reconstructive analysis remains weakly transcendental. But it also qualifies as a 'weak naturalism' inasmuch as the practices it aims to articulate are consistent with the natural evolution of the species and located in the empirical world (2003a, 10-30, 83ff); consequently, postmetaphysical reconstruction links up with specific forms of social-scientific knowledge in analyzing general conditions of rationality manifested in various human capacities and powers."

As to being free of thought processes, recall this from David Loy:

Nunes exposed by his own committee as a fraud

Yes, both Dems and Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have now seen Nunes' so-called evidence of a illegal wiretapping campaign against Twamp. And both sides confirm that the evidence proves it was no such thing other than a political stunt.

FBI monitored former Twamp aid Carter Page

Last summer the FBI obtained a secret FISA court order to monitor Page. Such orders are not easy to obtain. The FBI believed Page was colluding with the Russian government so had to provide evidence to the court to obtain permission to monitor him and got it. The noose is tightening.

Judge strikes discriminatory TX voter ID law

Saying the law had 'discriminatory intent,' meaning it aims to discriminate against a certain segment of society on racial grounds. In Texas? No!

Mario Robau west coast swing pattern

As taught by Brian B.

Whole Lotta Love

Good version with Michael Winslow singing the lyrics while doing drum, lead guitar and sound effects with his voice.

Fish stories

Good one.

Republicans sold your private information

Here is what the GOP voted to allow ISPs to sell. Your "financial and medical information. Social Security numbers. Web browsing history. Mobile app usage. Even the content of your emails and online chats." Is that what you want? If not join freepress.net to fight back.

Same old regressive illogic

Spicer's idiotic comments about Hitler and chemical warfare

Spicer said Hitler didn't use chemical weapons on innocent civilians. Hello! Remember the death camps and gas chambers? WTF Spicey. When reminded of this fact he hemmed and hawed and stumbled like the bumbling idiot he is.

Finance is a blood-sucking vampire

Nothing more. And it needs a wooden stake through its heart, which in this case is Elizabeth Warren for President.

Never Give Up

I finally saw Lion. Deeply powerful, moving film. Wow.

Russia (and cronie Twamp) complicit in chemical attacks

Fox News reports that Russia had chemical experts at the Syrian airfield from which was launched the chemical attacks on Syrian civilians. So Russia had to know what was on that base and how it was to be used. Not only that, a Russian drone spied on the hospital where chemical victims were taken and a Russian plane then bombed that hospital in an attempt to cover up the attack. Combine this with the fact that Twamp gave advance notice to the Russians about the US missile strike on the Syrian airfield and it's no leap of logic to see that Twamp is colluding with Russia in such chemical attacks while trying to give the opposite impression. Hello!

The cost of Twamp's golf weekends

In his first 11 weeks he's already spent twice the taxpayer money on weekend travel getaways as Obama spent in a year. And this after both Twamp and the GOP constantly harped on Obama's vacation travel costs. Why not a word on this now?

Joe Rogan and Sam Harris on universal basic income (UBI)

Good discussion of the inevitable: At some point due to automation and other factors there will be no more work so what then? UBI helps us to decouple own sense of self-worth with profitable work and allows us to define it much more humanely. Also discussed is the shift to renewable energy jobs, which dwarf fossil fuel jobs. Climate change has to be considered in such discussions.

The crisis of capitalism

Hartmann first sets up how big money corrupts government by privatizing the commons. Part of that commons is governmental responsibility for public safety. He then discusses (around 10:00) how a private contractor that makes stop lights increases its own profits and increases fines paid to cities, but also increases the number and severity of car accidents. So both the contractor and the city sacrifice public safety for more money. Is something wrong with this picture?