Charlie Puth: How Long

On the Corden show last night.

Sanders laughs at Dump on the tax scam

After discussing it with Chris Hayes, he's shown a clip of Dump saying he will be hurt by it. Sanders laughs out loud, as Dump and his rich buddies are going to make out like the bandits they are in this Bill. The struggling, hard-working Dumpsters who voted for him though will get the shaft yet again.

Ryan & Alexis @ US Open

Here's their first place winning routine in the Young Adult division. They combine west coast swing with east coast swing, lindy hop and shag.

Gary & Susan at the US Open

Here's their first-place winning routine in the Classic Division. Lots of west coast swing content, artistic choreography and impeccable performance. This is their first US Open win as a couple.

Big questions with Justin Timberlake

The latest installment of Colbert's popular segment.

Colbert on Matt Lauer

And a take down of sexual predator Dump for having the (tiny) balls to comment on it.

Carpool Karaoke with Kelly Clarkson

The latest episode in Corden's popular series. Very fun, including a surprise guest.

Warren: Tax scam eliminates health insurance for 13 million people

By eliminating the individual mandate. She provides the CBO estimates of how many will lose coverage. And those left on Obamacare, like the elderly, would have to pay a lot more for coverage. And this provision is in a tax Bill that will raise taxes on the middle class. These cruel bastards just can't get enough of torturing people to satisfy their rich masters.

Senator Warren questions HHS nominee

Meaning the nominee to head the Dept. of Health and Human Services. The Q&A makes it clear that he will indeed cut Medicaid and Obamacare in the name of some abstract and undefined 'better way.' Warren makes clear he is all smoke and mirrors.

Some conservative groups criticize Repugnantan tax scam

A key feature of the plan is to eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT). Two conservative groups, the Manhattan Group and the Illinois Policy group, say doing so would strip State funds that provides needed local social services like education, Medicaid, public safety and homeless services. When conservatives are decrying the intentional destruction of such services to pay for tax breaks to those who don't need it we can safely assume this tax scam cannot even call itself conservative. It is what it is, a tax scam that robs everyone else to further enrich their donors.

Corporate Jesus

The real meaning of Christmas.

The non-conscious nature of being

Recent paper by that name in Frontiers in Psychology. The abstract follows. Since I've long thought the opposite of what the paper claims I'll have to read and ponder this one for a bit. The introduction follows:

"Despite the compelling subjective experience of executive self-control, we argue that 'consciousness' contains no top-down control processes and that 'consciousness' involves no executive, causal, or controlling relationship with any of the familiar psychological processes conventionally attributed to it. In our view, psychological processing and psychological products are not under the control of consciousness. In particular, we argue that all 'contents of consciousness' are generated by and within non-conscious brain systems in the form of a continuous self-referential personal narrative that is not directed or influenced in any way by the 'experience of consciousness.' This continuously updated personal narrative arises from selective 'internal broadcasting' of outputs from non-conscious executive systems that have access to all forms of cognitive processing, sensory information, and motor control. The personal narrative provides information for storage in autobiographical memory and is underpinned by constructs of self and agency, also created in non-conscious systems. The experience of consciousness is a passive accompaniment to the non-conscious processes of internal broadcasting and the creation of the personal narrative. In this sense, personal awareness is analogous to the rainbow which accompanies physical processes in the atmosphere but exerts no influence over them. Though it is an end-product created by non-conscious executive systems, the personal narrative serves the powerful evolutionary function of enabling individuals to communicate (externally broadcast) the contents of internal broadcasting. This in turn allows recipients to generate potentially adaptive strategies, such as predicting the behavior of others and underlies the development of social and cultural structures, that promote species survival. Consequently, it is the capacity to communicate to others the contents of the personal narrative that confers an evolutionary advantage—not the experience of consciousness (personal awareness) itself."

What is democratic socialism?

This graphic highlights some of its platform. Not at all of course like how it's lied about by the corporate lackeys.

538 on the unpopularity of the Repugnantan tax plan

See their analysis here. They aggregated polls say roughly 33% favor it while 46% are against. But since when do Repugnantans (and corporate Dimcraps) give one shit about what we the people want? Obviously not in this case either.

Borowitz on the Dumpsters' reaction to the tax plan

He nails it again, how Dumpsters are clueless about a tax plan that gives the already rich everything and them nothing.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Jubilant Trump voters on Thursday celebrated the prospect of a gigantic tax cut that will benefit everyone but them.

Across the country, Trump supporters were overjoyed that, after months of gridlock and wrangling, the man they voted for was about to make Americans other than them wildly richer.

“President Trump has taken a lot of hits from the fake-news media, but he stood his ground,” Carol Foyler, a Trump voter in Ohio, said. “Today he honored his pledge to the American people, except for me and anybody I know.”

Harland Dorrinson, a Trump supporter from Kentucky, agreed. “When I cast my vote last November, I said to myself, ‘I sure hope this means that people with a thousand times more money than I have get even more money,’ ” he said. “Promise kept.”

Tracy Klugian, a Trump voter from Minnesota, said that tax cuts for everyone but him are an important step toward making America great again. “Look at the stock market—it’s been going through the roof,” Klugian, who has no money in the stock market, said.

But some Trump supporters, like Calvin Denoit, of Texas, were more muted. “Tax cuts that completely exclude me and my family are a good start,” he said. “But, until President Trump eliminates all environmental and safety regulations for corporations that I have zero stake in, I won’t be satisfied.”

Setting Jordan Peterson in context

Too may people have become enamored in this professor of piffle, so Ira Wells examines his popularity with the alt-right.

"Peterson may be correct that, in some cases, universities have failed to strike the right balance between protecting minority rights and preserving liberal, democratic values, including freedom of speech. [...] The problem is that Peterson folds this argument into a politically reactionary and often downright paranoid world view that appears designed to curry favour with the alt-right."

"In a conversation with Camille Paglia, he lamented that men can’t exert control over 'crazy women' by physically beating them. He echoes Donald Trump on fake news, telling followers they can’t trust the media, and makes a point of admiring Trump’s intelligence and accomplishments."

"What he is not, however, is the author of any lasting work of scholarship, the originator of any important idea, or a public intellectual of any scientific credibility or moral seriousness. Peterson’s sole discovery is that 'postmodernism' can be usefully exploited alongside the more familiar, established populist scare tactics. His message, as the intellectual guru of the alt-right, is that humanity’s natural hierarchies are under attack, that the future of Western civilization hangs in the balance of this 'war of ideas.'"

Dump re-Tweets alt-right racist in the UK

I know, no surprise. Dump was right during the campaign when he said he could shoot someone in full view of the public in Times Square and get away with it.

Senator Warren on the CFPB

Warren was instrumental in forming the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Repugnantans have been trying to destroy it ever since. Because, well, we just can't have financial protection for consumers you know. The CFPB has been doing an excellent job of getting money back to consumers that have been cheated out of it by big banks, so of course it must be stopped to protect the big banks, right? Which is why Dump illegally appointed current Director Mulvaney of the Office of Budget and Management to be the acting director of the CFPB, Mulvaney previously stating that the Bureau should be scrapped. Warren pleads that we get involved to protect it, and the consumers (meaning you and me) that it protects.

Even some Dumpsters are opposed to FCC trashing net neutrality

See this article which notes that Breitbart, Assange, Free Republic, The Blaze, The Daily Caller and the right-wing base are against this move. Why? We'll pay more and get less. Information will be filtered and repressed. It reinforces oligopoly. It's anti-competition. Seems liberals and conservatives agree on this one, but not the Giant Dump and his fetid swampers.

Dump's Christmas gift to the poor

That is, Scrooge Dump increases taxes on the poor. Noah provides the factual details on the myth of trickle down creating jobs, as well as the Repugnantan's fake previous concern over the deficit and debt, given this Bill will add $1.7 trillion to it.

Jordan & Tatiana's Showpiece

I posted this a few days ago and the cheap bastards at the US Open took it down. Here it is again below, while it lasts. My previous comments are below.

Now this is how it's done, combining west coast content, tricks, artistry and acting out the lyrics. Good thing they are not competing anymore because this is by far the best routine this year.

Olbermann on the 7 ways Dump could leave office

Quite a detailed, articulate presentation on how Dump could be forced out by any one of these seven ways. I just hope Olbermann is right and one of these seven does the job. And sooner rather than later. Btw, this is Olbermann's last commentary on the issue.

Ben & Victoria @ US Open

I posted this over the weekend but it was removed from the internet. Here it is again below. They took 2nd place in the Classic Division. My comments from the previous post copied below may be partly why they didn't win again this year?

A new routine that acts out the lyrics. Of course they are technically superb but Ben's acting leaves a lot to be desired. His expression looks more like he has gas than what the lyrics are expressing. And again, like Benji & Nicole, it's mostly technical tricks and a lot less west coast swing. I guess this is the latest trend for the pros and I must be an old fuddy duddy.

Dump now denies Access Hollywood tape

You know, the tape he's already sort of apologized for as "locker room talk." Now he's claiming that the tape is a fake in the wake of all the recent sexual misconduct allegations against other politicians. The Biggest Loser is sinking fast on his way toward impeachment and jail time.

BerniCrats making inroads in government

This article details where those who favor Sanders' agenda got elected to office. It adds up to over 400 across the US. It's not much but it's a good start.

Canada's middle class is far better than the US

Here's some of the reasons why.

The Repugnantan defense of Roy Moore

Great article on the lengths they go to in support of this child molester. Examples include "courtship between an older man and a teenage girl is consensual, biblical, good for the girl, and grounded in the natural attraction of a godly man to the 'purity of a young woman.' Alongside the purity camp is the tolerance camp. [...] These Republicans don’t deny the allegations or endorse Moore’s conduct, but they support him anyway, reasoning that other issues are more important."

Internet co-ops

Good story on how local community-owned internet co-ops can provide net neutrality despite the FCC trying to destroy it. See this link for a US map where this is being implemented.

"These locally owned networks are poised to do what federal and state governments and the marketplace couldn’t. One, they can bring affordable access to fast internet to anyone, narrowing the digital divide that deepens individual and regional socioeconomic disparities.

"Two, these small operators can protect open internet access from the handful of large ISPs that stand to pocket the profits from net neutrality rollbacks that the Trump administration announced Nov. 21. That’s according to Christopher Mitchell, who is the director of Community Broadband Projects, a project of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Mitchell, who has been tracking and advocating community-owned broadband networks for a decade, hopes that this will be the moment when people rebel against the administration’s attack on net neutrality and expand rural cooperative and municipal ISPs."

Analysis of Flynn's breaking contact with the Blight House

It seems Flynn is going to plead guilty to something, or cooperate with the investigation, or both. Flynn was very close to Dump so this should be interesting. All in all a great sign for the beginning of the end of the traitorous Dump crime family.

The Late Show's alter egos

A compilation of alter egos Colbert has used in various shows.

What is love?

Whitney Cummings provides all the answers in this stand-up routine. The reality is a lot more like how she jokes about it than the romantic bullshit women are programmed to believe.

The Lying King

He can shout it a million times from the top of Dump Tower but it's still a lie.

Thomas Mann on Pew Study of polarization

Mann challenges the President of Pew Research who claimed of the study that it undermines asymmetric polarization. Mann quotes from the study which directly challenges this biased notion of false equivalency:

• The growing gap between the two parties on the individual items making up their ideological consistency scale are mostly a consequence of Republicans taking more conservative positions.
• Consistent conservatives have much more unfavorable views of the Democratic Party than consistent liberals have of the Republican Party. 
• Republicans, especially those who are consistent conservatives, see the other party as a threat to the nation’s well-being more than do Democrats.
• Republicans who view the other party very negatively are more likely to vote than Democrats. 
• The ideological “silos” by place and friendship networks are much higher among conservatives than liberals.  The same is true for race and ethnicity as well as religious faith. 
• And importantly, as we have seen in other surveys, consistent conservatives like their elected officials to “stick to their positions” rather than “make compromises”; consistent liberals overwhelmingly prefer politicians who make compromises.

Conservatives are far more polarized

Continuing some recent posts, see this article. Conservatives are trying to defuse the studies that show they are worse in this regard, so they were ecstatic at the recent Pew Research study which seems to indicate polarization is symmetric between the Parties. But looking at the details it is clear that antipathy to the other side, and inability to compromise, is decidedly more on the conservative side. This is most pronounced in Congress, where the right has polarized much further than the left. They refuse to compromise at all, block lawfully enacted legislation, hold the country hostage with government shut down threats, block the lawful appointment of judges and filibuster any and everything they disagree with. Granted both sides do this, but the facts are clear the conservatives are far, far worse.

Asymmetric polarization

Continuing this post see this story. Clinton supporters consulted multiple media sources for their information, including some on the conservative side, while Dump supports lived in a biased media bubble. Some excerpts:

"The CJR study, by scholars at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, at Harvard Law School, and the MIT Center for Civic Media, examined more than 1.25 million articles between April 1, 2015, and Election Day. What they found was that Hillary Clinton supporters shared stories from across a relatively broad political spectrum, including center-right sources such as The Wall Street Journal, mainstream news organizations like the Times and the Post, and partisan liberal sites like The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast.

"By contrast, Donald Trump supporters clustered around Breitbart — headed until recently by Stephen Bannon, the hard-right nationalist now ensconced in the White House — and a few like-minded websites such as The Daily Caller, Alex Jones' Infowars, and The Gateway Pundit. Even Fox News was dropped from the favored circle back when it was attacking Trump during the primaries, and only re-entered the fold once it had made its peace with the future president."

Jordan & Tatiana's Showpiece

At the US Open. Now this is how it's done, combining west coast content, tricks, artistry and acting out the lyrics. Good thing they are not competing anymore because this is by far the best routine this year. Update: the cheap bastards took this down.

Ben & Victoria at the US Open 2017

A new routine that acts out the lyrics. Of course they are technically superb but Ben's acting leaves a lot to be desired. His expression looks more like he has gas than what the lyrics are expressing. And again, like Benji & Nicole, it's mostly technical tricks and a lot less west coast swing. I guess this is the latest trend for the pros and I must be an old fuddy duddy.

Update: the cheap bastards took this down.

Jesse & Patty at the US Open

Continuing this post, here's their showcase routine. While it also had plenty of tricks it had more west coast swing content. And in my humble opinion, it also had more artistry and musicality.

Update: the cheap bastards took this down.

Update on the F*ck Dump sticker story

Continuing this story, the woman who had the "F*uck Dump and f*ck you for voting for him" story has been updated below. She added a new sticker with the same sentiment for the Sheriff who arrested her. And now she's selling the stickers faster than she can produce them. A good freedom of speech and American business success story.

Liberals and conservatives are not equivalently biased

Continuing this post, here is a meta-analysis called "Ideological asymmetries and the essence of political psychology" by John T. Jost, Political Psychology, Vol. 38, No. 2, 2017. Some excerpts:

"Aggregating across 181 studies involving over 130,000 research participants from 14 different countries, we confirmed that political conservatism was positively associated with intolerance of ambiguity, need for cognitive closure, personal needs for order and structure, cognitive/perceptual rigidity, and dogmatism. In addition, liberalism was positively associated with integrative complexity, uncertainty tolerance, cognitive reflection, and need for cognition" (179).

Hartmann on fascist governments

He goes into Mussolini's fascist government, where corporations ruled it, to what we're getting now in the US. He makes the strong case that the US is indeed now fascist according to how Mussolini defined and implemented it. He focuses on how Dump has virtually eliminated climate change from the narrative at the behest of the Koch brothers and fossil fuel companies.

Benji & Nicole @ US Open

They had a new routine with new tricks and new music. Excellently performed of course but I found it so emphasized the tricks that there was little classical west coast swing in it at all. Update: the cheap bastards took this down.

Tech companies against FCC killing net neutrality

This article asked for some of them to comment on the issue. Some of the giant tech companies like Facebook, Google and and Netflix said that net neutrality is crucial to openness, fairness, innovation, competition, democracy. You know, all those things the fascist oligopoly hates.

Are liberals and conservatives equivalently biased?

See this article, which notes: "'How can you even compare the topics liberals are biased about to the topics conservatives are bias about! — know that it is possible to be both biased and correct." If you're biased about being correct that is a good and healthy bias, and not at all like being biased about fake news. It is indeed a false equivalence by those who falsely think we have to be 'fair' with people that are just plain wrong.

From the referenced meta-analysis: "While both sides of the political aisle preferentially seek out information that supports rather than challenges their political views, several studies have found this tendency to be more pronounced in conservatives than liberals" (21). On p. 22 they specifically address the 'false equivalence' by saying it is "inaptly characterized," but also acknowledge in the same paragraph that finding such equivalence can be problematic. Looking for such equivalence to be 'fair' is itself a bias that tainted this meta-analysis to compare those liberal views as based on reality to be equivalently 'biased.' Balderdash I say!

Stand up battle with Jerry Seinfeld

First Seinfeld does a bit, then Fallon does one as Seinfeld. Fallon does a funny Seinfeld impression.

Thanksgiving teen slang

Seth Meyers updates us on the latest for this holiday.

Dump revealed highly sensitive and classifed info to Russia

Remember when Dump had 2 Russian envoys to the Blight House and revealed classified intelligence  to them out of childish pride? And then Israel decided to quit sharing such intelligence while the rest of the world wondered WTF was going on? This article reveals what exactly that intelligence was, a covert Israeli intelligence operation that thwarted an ISIS plot to put bombs in laptops. Can Dump voters even spell the word treason?

Is Flynn cooperating with Mueller?

This article thinks so, given that Flynn's lawyers have told the Blight House they can no longer communicate with them on the case. The noose tightens further.

Member of the FCC on net neutrality

Jessica Rosenworcel is one of the members of the FCC. A member who favors net neutrality. She encourages us to get involved and contact the FCC with out opinions. She also said:

"Net neutrality is the right to go where you want and do what you want on the internet without your broadband provider getting in the way. It means your broadband provider can't block websites, throttle services or charge you premiums if you want to reach certain online content. [...] Wiping out net neutrality would have big consequences. Without it, your broadband provider could carve internet access into fast and slow lanes, favoring the traffic of online platforms that have made special payments and consigning all others to a bumpy road. Your provider would have the power to choose which voices online to amplify and which to censor. The move could affect everything online, including the connections we make and the communities we create."

Ben & Victoria

Jack and Jill at Boogie by the Bay 2017.

Lady Gaga - The Cure

On the American Music Awards. I love the music and the performance, but the sentiment of fixing someone with their love is romantic naivete at best and generally far, far more destructively delusional.

National Security Adviser thinks Dump is an idiot

According to this story, McMaster told the CEO of a tech company that Dump "is an idiot, a dope, and has the smarts of a kindergartner." Just about everyone already knows this except for the most programmed ignoramus. But it's nice to hear Dump's own Cabinet publicly admit it.

Corporate Dims join Repugnantans to deregulate banks

Yes, this is exactly what corporate Dims are about: Feeding Wall Street to our detriment. TYT discusses a Bill nine of these Dimwits are sponsoring with the Repugnantans to do exactly that, deregulating the very same type of subprime lending that caused the last crash.

Colbert on Dump's Thanksgiving

Dump decided to shut down his charitable foundation because, you know, he hates giving to those lazy bastards that brought it upon themselves.

The end of net neutrality

What we can expect soon.

Dispelling more myths about climate science & scientists

Katherine Hayhoe dispels the myth that climate scientists are biased because they are in it for the money. She then debunks other common myths against climate science. Warning: Facts ahead so regressives can now shield their eyes and ears and loudly shout "Na na na na na."

Conservatives against Roy Moore

Doug Jones, Moore's opponent, is using conservatives standing up for women over Party in his latest ad.

Starbucks not-gay cups

Colbert jokes about the absurd conservative attack on Starbucks holiday cups showing two women holding hands like its animal rape or worse.

Dump endorses Roy Moore

Because we need to take Moore's total denial into account. And, of course, the fact that the Senate need his vote to implement their tax plan and the rest of their insidious agenda.

The FCC is also gunning for the alt-right

Uygur informs us that the alt-right should be up in arms about the elimination of net neutrality too, since the big ISPs will curtail their content given its anti-establishment agenda cutting into their profits. This really is a free speech issue.

The end of net neutrality is the start of fascism

Harmann discusses the head of the FCC, a former Verizon lawyer who is gutting net neutrality so that ISPs can slow down or even block content they don't like. Or if they will provide any such content, it will be a premium charge. Controlling information and media is a key step toward fascism and we're well down that road.

Colbert on Roy Moore's pedophilia

He shows a clip of Moore talking about when he first fell in love with her at a dance recital when she was 15.

Conway: Tax cuts more important than child molestation

She admitted it. One day she says a Senate seat isn't worth child molestation, a few days later she says tax cuts are worth it in the case of getting Moore in the Senate. At least she gets her, and the Repugnantan Party's, priorities straight.

The Party of Moore and Dump

Senator Flake of AZ was caught saying that "If we become the Party of Roy Moore and Donald Trump, we are toast." Dump couldn't resist Tweeting about it.

Julianne Hough's tribute to choreographer Marinda Davis

Davis is terminally ill and choreographed this number for Hough to show through dance the challenges of the illness.

Lindsey & Mark on DWTS

The best contestant dance of the night while doing their freestyle. Lindsey actually played the violin flawlessly while dancing!

Senator Warren on the Colbert show

Explaining who benefits from the Repugnantan tax plan. Hint: It's not the 99%.

Myths of the 1%

Excellent NYT article. Some excerpts:

"Almost all of the growth in top American earners has come from just three economic sectors: professional services, finance and insurance, and health care, groups that tend to benefit from regulatory barriers that shelter them from competition.

"A new book, by Brink Lindsey and Steven Teles, argues that regressive regulations — laws that benefit the rich — are a primary cause of the extraordinary income gains among elite professionals and financial managers in the United States and of a reduction in growth. about how people in the upper middle class have shaped both legal and cultural norms to their advantage. From different perspectives, Joseph Stiglitz, Robert Reich and Luigi Zingales have also written extensively about how the political power of elites has undermined markets.

"Problems cited by these analysts include subsidies for the financial sector’s risk-taking; overprotection of software and pharmaceutical patents; the escalation of land-use controls that drive up rents in desirable metropolitan areas; favoritism toward market incumbents via state occupational licensing regulations (for example, associations representing lawyers, doctors and dentists that block efforts allowing paraprofessionals to provide routine services at a lower price without their supervision)."

Real Christianity: The Boston Declaration

Stunning document produced by humanitarian Christians. A few brief excerpts follow. See the link for much more.

"As followers of Jesus, the Jewish prophet for justice whose life reminds us to, 'Love your neighbor as yourself' (Mark 12:31) we hear the cries of women and men speaking out about sexual abuse at the hands of leaders in power and we are outraged. We are outraged by the current trends in Evangelicalism and other expressions of Christianity driven by white supremacy, often enacted through white privilege and the normalizing of oppression. Confessing racism as the United States’ original and ongoing sin, we commit ourselves to following Jesus on the road of costly discipleship to seek shalom justice for the least, the lost, and the left out. We declare that following Jesus today means fighting poverty, economic exploitation, racism, sexism, and all forms of oppression from the deepest wells of our faith."

Borowitiz on Dump's main fear regarding Moore

Trump Warns That Dumping Roy Moore Could Start a Dangerous Trend of Believing Women
by Andy Borowitz

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Breaking his silence on Alabama’s embattled Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that dumping Roy Moore could start a “dangerous trend” of believing women.

“I think we need to be very, very careful here,” Trump told reporters. “This is not just about Roy Moore. This is about our country deciding that we are going to start believing women, something that we have never done before.

“This is a very dangerous road we’re heading down,” he said.

Trump cautioned that, if instituted, a new practice of believing women would “totally destroy” the system that the country already has in place. “For years we’ve had a system of believing men,” he said. “It’s worked very well. It’s done a great job.”

He said that he was considering a number of measures to stem the tide of women’s credibility, including an executive order banning women from giving believable accounts to the press. “That’s something we’re looking into,” he indicated.

Trump painted a doomsday scenario of what might happen if the “very bad trend” of believing women gained traction in the country. “If people believe Roy Moore’s five accusers, what happens to a man who has, say, about twenty accusers?” he asked. “I don’t like where this is going.”

Fox News censured by UK's Ofcam

Ofcam is the UK's media regulator. They censured Fox for violating impartiality rules, particularly Hannity and Carlson.

Franken's accuser has other motives?

See this story. Therein is a video of the same USO tour where Tweeden accused Franken of his unwanted behavior. In the video Tweeden rubs her ass on the guitar player, and when he grabs her ass she grabs his back. On the same tour she kissed a soldier on stage apparently without his consent.

So what could be her possible motive for going after Franken, given how own behavior on the tour? She just signed a book deal with Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which has ties conservatives with the likes of Bannon and the Mercers. Sounds like a good publicity stunt to get some sales. That it's at the expense of a Senator's career, one which has fought for women's rights, seems irrelevant to this woman who has her own sexual harassment issues.

Repugnanatan Governors running from Dump's stench

After the recent election where 2 GOP Governors got replaced by Dems, now others are trying to figure out how to distance themselves from that giant, stinking pile of Dump.

Senator McCaskill on the Repugnantan tax bill

She calls them on their lies and vehemently presents the facts in the Bill as analyzed by the CBO. Go get 'em Senator.

Forbes op/ed on Repugnantan tax plan

This is from Stan Collender, who has served on the House and Senate Budget Committees.

"If it's enacted, the GOP tax cut now working its way through Congress will be the start of a decades-long economic policy disaster unlike any other that has occurred in American history. There's no economic justification whatsoever for a tax cut at this time. U.S. GDP is growing, unemployment is close to 4 percent (below what is commonly considered full employment), corporate profits are at record levels and stock markets are soaring. It makes no sense to add any federal government-induced stimulus to all this private sector-caused economic activity, let alone a tax cut as big as this one."

So why then are they doing it? Payback to their rich masters, eh?

The true meaning of Thanksgiving

Party before morality and country

The View panels discusses how Evangelicals don't care about morality if their candidate is a Repugnantan. And yet there's the hypocrisy that if a Democrat commits what is in their mind an immoral transgression, like birth control or being gay.

Michelle Wolf

On Night of Too Many Stars. Some really funny commentary on men and women.

Nicholas & Alexis

All Star Jack & Jill, DC Swing Experience (DCSX) 2017:

Colbert, Stewart & Colbert team up

In Night of Too Many Stars fundraiser. Then Samantha B intervenes on the white guy comedy club.

New People's Party challenges Dimocrapic/Repugnantan duopoly

Jimmy Dore on how both big Parties are basically one Party on issues of big money and could care less about the rest of us. Both decimated unions, repealed protective banking legislation, gutted welfare, expanded wars and consolidated Wall Street banks and so on. Hence the need for the People's Party as an alternative. He interviews Nick Brana who is leading that charge by building progressive coalitions.

The 12 women who accused Dump of sexual misconduct

Since Dump just had to say something about Franken, and that he believes his accuser, then Tapper at CNN shows the hypocrisy in Dump denying credibility to his own 12 named accusers.

Sanders on the Repugnantan tax plan

He dispels the lying spin and reveals the truth of what's in this Bill. The rich get 50% of the tax breaks. By 2025 the small tax breaks the middle class will get will be eliminated and half of that demographic will then see a tax increase. Tax rates for corporations moving abroad with be lower, thus motivating them to leave the country and taking American jobs with them. The effective corporate tax rate is already about 14%, so cutting the nominal rate down to 20% effectively means no more taxes from them. And the $1.7 trillion deficit created by these breaks will be paid for by cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. On top of that, it repeals Obamacare's individual mandate, thereby gutting that program.

Wallace interview Mnuchin on Fox News Sunday

Mnuchin spins bullshit while Wallace keeps asking the same question over and over again about the tax cuts favoring the rich and corporations while screwing everyone else.

SNL: Wikileaks

Their cold open with Dump Jr. and Assange.

SNL: Weekend Update

Topics include all the recent sexual harassment cases, the Repugnantan tax plan, and Jeff Sessions memory problems discussed with Kate McKinnon as Sessions.

One feminist perspective on Franken

She's a feminist but also a realist. She thinks that Franken should certainly accept a reasonable punishment but not be removed from the Senate. Why? Because he at least admitted the problem and is willing to undergo an investigation and is willing to atone. And just removing him set the precedent for other Democrats also guilty of such behavior. Since the Dem Party is consistently the only one that fights for womens rights, to just start dumping when we know the GOP will never reciprocate just further endangers those rights down the road. So punish him yes. Fire him, no. She talks about the kinds of punishment he should get in the link.

Maher interviews Bill McKibben

Climate catastrophe has arrived. And while the rest of the world is doing something about it, Toxic Dump is accelerating it for his own enrichment.

The Trojan Horse tax cut

Robert Reich on the Repugnantan plan, facts versus lying spin. And who pays for these cuts for the rich? We the people in drastic cuts to needed social programs and infrastructure.

Colbert breaks down the Uranium One/Mueller conspiracy insanity

Louie Gohmert wants to get Mueller fired because he thinks he's in cahoots with Clinton and Uranium One. It's amazing the lunacy that happens when ideology trumps reality.

Maher interviews Chelsea Handler

She's on a mission to get women elected through Emily's List and she's succeeding. The panel then discusses the larger issue of a culture that supports white male dominance, and one that has destroyed the ability to think critically and contextually. Also with the Frankin/Moore issue, Dems need to defend Franken by putting their behavioral differences in context instead of just caving and kicking him out of the Senate for some misguided sense of fairness.

The true meaning of the season

Maher's new rule on what this holiday season is all about. You know it's not the conventional meaning. Maher then plays the ghost of Christmas past to confront Dump with who he used to be, and who he is now.

Maher's monologue

Topics include Roy Moore and Al Franken, and the false equivalence drawn between them. Maher wants to start a #metoo campaign for those who can tell the difference.

Mueller issues subpoena to Dump campaign

According to Bloomberg, the subpoena is to more than a dozen Dump campaign officials for documents related to links with Russia. The noose tightens by the day.

Texas woman says Fu*k Dump and those who voted for him

On the back of her truck! And a sheriff thinks she's violating the law but the ACLU cited a Supreme Corp decision "that protects using vulgar language in public." So I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment in its own terms.

Jordan Peterson: the stupid man's smart person

Some excerpts from this article giving some perspective on Peterson and his fans.

"There is no polite way to put this [...so] I’m just going to say it: Spend half an hour on his website, sit through a few of his interminable videos, and you realize that what he has going for him [...] is that Jordan Peterson is the stupid man’s smart person."

"It’s easy to assume Peterson is deserving of respect. A lot of what he says sounds, on the surface, like serious thought. It’s easy to laugh at him: after all, most of what he says is, after fifteen seconds’ consideration, completely inane. But in between his long rambling pseudo-academic takes on common self-help advice and his weird fixation on Disney movies, is a dreadfully serious message.

"What he’s telling you is that certain people—most of them women and minorities—are trying to destroy not only our freedom to spite nonbinary university students for kicks, but all of Western civilization and the idea of objective truth itself. He’s telling you that when someone tells you racism is still a problem and that something should be done about it, they are, at best, a dupe and, at worst, part of a Marxist conspiracy to destroy your way of life."

Some details of the Repugnantan tax plan

See this, which uses Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation for the projections. In the next decade households earning $75,000-$100,000 will no longer get any tax cut. Those under $75,000 will get tax increases. While those over $100,000 get bigger tax breaks commensurate with greater income.

Should Hillary Clinton be impeached?

The Kimmel team interviews people on the street with this question. The ones they showed didn't even know the meaning of impeachment, yet they hated Clinton so much they wanted it done to her. This is a sad comment on our country that this level of idiocy decides elections.

Colbert: Senator Frankin leads into more on Moore

Now it's Frankin's turn. Which is just a lead in to more about Roy Moore.

Benji & Nicole @ Boogie by the Bay 2017

Here's their winning showcase routine. It's pretty much the same routine they did at the US Open last year, but still awesome and stunning.

Dems file articles of impeachment

The 5 charges are: obstruction of justice; violation of the foreign emoluments clause; same for the domestic emoluments clause; undermining the federal judiciary, and; undermining freedom of the press. All of them are factual and accurate, and all have a solid Constitutional basis. But hey, you really think the Repugnantans actually give a damn about the Constitution?

Shep Smith of Fox debunks the Uranium One bullsh*t

Yeah, Dump and the Repugnantans are back again on this supposed crooked deal Clinton made while Secretary of State. And they want a special counsel to investigate. Smith goes over the facts and debunks it, as Clinton had nothing to do with its approval. Yes, there were contributions to the Clinton Foundation from the guy who owned Uranium One, but that was before she was even Secretary of State. It's nice that even Fox has at least one, and perhaps only one, respectable reporter.

Christmas C'mon

A new  holiday release from Lindsey Stirling, featuring Becky G.

Dump appoints another lackey to the Fed bench

This time it's a lawyer with 3 years experience who has never tried a case. Why that's just the sort of experience needed for the job, consistent with pretty much every other nomination Dump's has done for all posts. Oh, and this nominee happens to be married to a White House lawyer, also consistent with the methods of the same old crooked swamp.

Kimmel on Roy Moore

And Moore's lame excuse that it's an acceptable cultural difference to molest children. It's the same excuse from the Evangelicals, only using Biblical references to make it sound ordained. Kind of like human slavery was a cultural difference so that makes it ok too. Oh yeah, that one is true too of many in this same demographic.

Colbert with a Roy Moore update

And how Mooore supporters are now using anti-Semitic robocalls to discredit the Washington Post.

The varieties of self-transcendent experience

See this article. The abstract:

"Various forms of self-loss have been described as aspects of mental illness (e.g., depersonalization disorder), but might self-loss also be related to mental health? In this integrative review and proposed organizational framework, we focus on self-transcendent experiences (STEs)—transient mental states marked by decreased self-salience and increased feelings of connectedness. We first identify common psychological constructs that contain a self-transcendent aspect, including mindfulness, flow, peak experiences, mystical-type experiences, and certain positive emotions (e.g., love, awe). We then propose psychological and neurobiological mechanisms that may mediate the effects of STEs based on a review of the extant literature from social psychology, clinical psychology, and affective neuroscience. We conclude with future directions for further empirical research on these experiences."

A key factor is in how such experiences are interpreted. Even framing such experiences as self-transcendent is prejudicial, as if there is a transcendent realm with which we have direct access. These experiences can be easily interpreted from a postmetaphysical perspective that requires no transcendent antecedent. Much neuroscientific research has shown the various aspects of self, and that while such experiences may indeed go below the rational, narrative self structure, they in fact utilized the prelinguistic core self. For example, from Thompson on dreamless sleep:

Roy Moore was banned from a mall and the YMCA

Even in Alabama they knew right from wrong in the case of Moore trolling for teens. Except the AL Evangelicals, that is.

Colbert on Sessions memory problems

Seems the Attorney General is trying to protect himself from the coming radioactive trials.

Dump Jr. and Wikileaks

Colbert explores the news that this contact did take place contrary to prior denials.

Carpool karaoke with Pink

The latest in Corden's popular series.

Automaticity and control in skillful action

See this article in Philosophical Psychology, 30:7, 2017. The abstract:

"From our everyday commuting to the gold medalist’s world-class performance, skillful actions are characterized by fine-grained, online agentive control. What is the proper explanation of such control? There are two traditional candidates: intellectualism explains skillful agentive control by reference to the agent’s propositional mental states; anti-intellectualism holds that propositional mental states or reflective processes are unnecessary since skillful action is fully accounted for by automatic coping processes. I examine the evidence for three psychological phenomena recently held to support anti-intellectualism (choking under pressure, expertise-induced amnesia, and expert confabulation) and argue that it supports neither traditional candidate, but an intermediate attention-control account, according to which the top-down, intention-directed control of attention is a necessary component of skillful action. Only this account recognizes both the role of automatic control in skilled action and the need for higher-order cognition to thread automatic processes together into a unified, skillful performance. This applies to bodily skillful action in general, from the world-class performance of experts to mundane, habitual action. The attention-control account stresses that, for intentions to play their role as top-down modulators of attention, agents must sustain the intention’s activation; hence, the need for reflecting throughout performance."

Repugnantan tax plan

Who benefits? No need to guess, the facts are in.

The Dump cactus

This is how much Dump brags about the size of his penis, when in reality it's minuscule.

Ben & Victoria

Pro couples classic division at Boogie by the Bay 2017. Awesome routine with some new things from last year. It's no wonder they are the reigning champions in this division.

VP Biden on Trump

On the Colbert Show last night. He's right that we are in a battle for the soul of America. Are we a democracy that respects the rights of each person or on the verge of hateful Nazism that at best only persecutes other people via authoritarianism if not outright fascism?

Repugnantans admit to being bribed

Hartmann discusses how Chris Collins and Lindsey Graham openly admitted that they take bribes for legislation. And yet they are immune from bribery laws?

Jordan & Lindsay on DWTS

Once again he earns a perfect score. Very well done.

Colbert on Roy Moore

Mean Tweets: Jimmy Kimmel edition

In this edition, celebrities read mean Tweets about Kimmel.

50 Alabama pastors support Roy Moore

Continuing the last post, child molestation seems common for these pastors too.

Sexual predation is common for fundamentalist Christians

Nice expose by a woman who grew up in that movement. This seems common in these Christian circles, and is sanctioned by the parents on supposedly Biblical grounds. Hence the defense of Roy Moore. And it's all illegal, let alone immoral and despicable.

Sanders on the Dimocrapic Party

Sanders has the analysis right but it seems he still thinks the Party will listen and can be reformed. The recent election was not just a referendum on Dump but the Dim Party, but will they listen? Especially when he suggests doing away with super delegates, closed primaries and caucuses, and being transparent in the DNC?

The View discuss Dump's endorsement of Putin

Even Meghan McCain finds it despicable, for Dump to believe Putin, a man who is out to destroy democracy and America, over our own intelligence agencies. #treason

Healthcare in Japan

In this regard they are beating the sh*t out of the US.

To win progressives must fight fiercely

As Maher has joked, Democrats don't even bring a knife to a gun fight; they bring a covered dish. No amount of reason, negotiation or compromise is going to work with Repugnantans. Even framing isn't going to work with them. They win because they fight and they fight hard. And that's the only thing that's going to defeat them: The willingness and the capacity to fight back with ferocity. 

Sanders, Warren and a few other progressives know this and they continue to win elections. Namby-pamby Democrats that think we need to be kind to those who hate us, that we need to understand and reach them and thereby they will reciprocate are not only in denial but delusional. When faced with hateful bullies you punch them in the face, not invite them to a housewarming party. If only the reality of this article could reach them then more of them would win. But as the author concludes, it's doubtful it will, as many of them still believe in the false Enlightenment notion that reason, or even better framing, wins the day. Some excerpts:

McConnell admits he lied about Senate tax plan

He and Repugnantans promised the middle class would see a tax cut, not an increase. And he finally had to admit that it's not true. Quite the opposite is true. See the link for the factual details of his blatant lie.

Neuroscience study: Dancing mitigates aging decline

See the study here in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience, 15 June 2017. From the abstract:

"Dancing seems a promising intervention for both improving balance and brain structure in the elderly. It combines aerobic fitness, sensorimotor skills and cognitive demands while at the same time the risk of injuries is low. [...] Hence, dancing constitutes a promising candidate in counteracting the age-related decline in physical and mental abilities."

SNL parodies the Democratic National Committee

Good skit highlighting how tone deaf the DNC is, not understanding the recent progressive victories, instead trying to fit them into its worn out establishment, losing frame. The very end is a funny reminder of this.

Roy Moore & Jeff Sessions, SNL cold open

SNL Weekend Update on the Democratic wins

And other news of the week.

Jet Li's new tai chi movie

See below. It's more like a short film, about 22 minutes. I study tai chi as a martial art so enjoy the choreography. I still though don't care for the supernatural injections into it. I know, it's supposed to be a sort of mythical poetry but for me it distracts from the real skills developed in this practice. Also I dislike the notion that one particular style, like tai chi, is superior to all others. It depends entirely on the individual practitioner's skill and quite a few other variables in each encounter, not the style.

The real problem of consciousness

See this article. A few excerpts:

"A new picture is taking shape in which conscious experience is seen as deeply grounded in how brains and bodies work together to maintain physiological integrity – to stay alive."

"The brain is locked inside a bony skull. All it receives are ambiguous and noisy sensory signals that are only indirectly related to objects in the world. Perception must therefore be a process of inference, in which indeterminate sensory signals are combined with prior expectations or ‘beliefs’ about the way the world is, to form the brain’s optimal hypotheses of the causes of these sensory signals."

"A number of experiments are now indicating that consciousness depends more on perceptual predictions, than on prediction errors. [...] We’ve found that people consciously see what they expect, rather than what violates their expectations."

More on Dump's treason

Dump's Veterans Day treason

As a veteran I find this excuse for a man to be a traitor to my country.

A major difference between the 2 Parties

Yes, I have lots to complain about with the corporate Democrats. But this isn't one of them.

Good diatribe against Roy Moore supporters

I feel this way too. Moore is running for the Alabama Senate seat vacated by Sessions. He was twice elected and twice removed as a judge on the AL Supreme Court for violating the law. As a judge he was the lone dissenting vote on convicting the rapist of a 12-year old. He's now been accused of sexual assault on a 14-year old. And the so-called religious right are defending him and denigrating the victim! So here are a few things the author said about this demographic and with which I wholeheartedly agree:

"Hey, Trump voters: I don’t give a f*** what Bernie or anyone else says about your needs, anxieties, or economic troubles.When you can justify the rape or assault of children, I’m f****** done with you. You pedophile-loving, sexual-assault defending, Bible-thumping, Putin-worshipping, evil, authoritarian racist losers can all drown for all I care. (Or, what would be more likely, shoot each other up.) If these are the values of the so-called 'heartland', than f*** the heartland. You embrace hatred of your fellow man, yet promote lust for someone’s else’s child. Then you have the sick audacity to say you promote 'family values'. You don’t need economic help--you need psychological help."

Some of the populist progressive agenda

Thomas Frank on the Paradise Papers

And the myth of beneficent wealthy people that sustain our economy. We built up this myth of the well deserving rugged individual entrepreneur that built his fortune by himself. And not only that, but that their hard work will trickle down to us via good jobs to provide us with the opportunity to do the same thing. But the reality is they are greedy bastards that do not give one f*ck about anything other than their own wealth and power while expecting us to pay for the very infrastructure that they exploit to further their own ends.

Interview with the co-author of the Democratic autopsy

Jeff Cohen is one of the co-authors of the autopsy and is interviewed by The Real News.

1. The Party cannot appeal to the working class if they continue to be tied to corporate money. Replace the corporate Dems with authentic progressive candidates.
2. A progressive populist agenda in necessary to win. That includes public college free, universal healthcare, jobs programs, green jobs programs that can put people to work.
3. Party money must be spent on outreach to the working class, including young people and people of color. What goes along with this is that the Party has to actually give a f*ck about these people again.

Sarah Silverman interview

She talks about her new show, and how you can't use facts to change people. What's needed, and what she does on her show, is accept and love people the way they are which establishes a common bond. I personally don't have the patience for that.

Checkin in on Jared

Maher's new rule on Kushner, giving an update on his duties and how well he's achieving them. Hint: Not! He proceeds to the rest of Dump's swamp, equally inept and ludicrous.

Maher's monologue

He covers the weeks political news, including: sexual predator Moore's Senate run and the Repugnantan defense of the behavior; how liberals arrest their sexual predators while conservatives elect them; Dump's Asia tour; and the progressive election wave.

Maybe Coming Soon

Funny bit with Colbert and Segel previewing some of their joint new movies.

Rep. Larson on corrupt Repugnantan tax plan procedure

He's makes us aware that the Repugnantans had no (zero) hearings or expert witnesses on a plan they concocted behind closed doors to the benefit of their monied benefactors and to the detriment of the rest of us. Excellent rant that lays bare the reality behind this travesty.

Repugnantans push their tax plan after progressive wins

So the people have spoken in the recent elections, including some who vote Republican, that they far prefer the progressive populist agenda. But their leaders in Congress are basically saying "fuck you" and pushing full steam ahead with a tax plan that does exactly that while giving the rich an even bigger piece of the American pie. Meyers explains:

Cyborgasm

Colbert's funny commentary on the latest and greatest in sex robots.

Kimmel talks to Conway on the Dump/Putin meeting

This puppet Conway is not far off from the real one.

Colbert on Dump and China

Especially the bromance between Dump and the Chinese President Xi. For all of Dump's tough talk on China he caved and sucked up to (and off?) Xi. Or as Colbert expressed it: Dump's nose was up Xi's ass.

Sam Smith: Too good at Goodbyes

Sam Smith on the Corden show last night.

Sanders on the Unity Reform Commission

This article highlights a letter written by Sanders asking "supporters to sign a petition calling on DNC Chairman Tom Perez to accept, support, and implement the findings of the Unity Reform Commission." Some excerpts of his letter follow:

"Here’s the problem: the strategy the Democratic Party has been pursuing in recent years has failed. Since 2009, Democrats have lost more than 1,000 seats in state legislatures across the country. Republicans now control the White House, 34 out of 50 governorships as well as the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. In dozens of states, the Democratic Party is virtually non-existent. Too much is at stake for our country and our people for us not to learn from our past failures and move forward in a way that makes the Democratic Party stronger so we can take on and beat Trump and the right-wing Republican agenda."

"In order to do that, we need to rethink and rebuild the Democratic Party. We need a Democratic Party that opens its doors to new people, new energy and new ideas. We need a Democratic Party that is truly a grassroots party, where decisions are made from the bottom up, not from the top down. We need a Democratic Party which becomes the political home of the working people and young people of this country, black and white, Latino and Asian and Native American … all Americans."

How to get a gun in Japan

Yes, I and millions of other Americans want something similar to this in the US. The NRA fear-based myths of taking your guns away is just that, fake news. Japan has responsible gun ownership and it results in far fewer shooting deaths and far more responsible gun use. The key to every right, including gun ownership, is responsibility. You know, that conservative talking point on other issues that magically doesn't apply to guns.

Positve correlation between inequality and mental illness

Continuing this post, this article in the The British Journal of Psychiatry (Nov 2010, 197 (6) 426-428) asserts that "greater income inequality is associated with higher prevalence of mental illness and drug misuse in rich societies. [...] Studies have shown that physical health is better, levels of trust higher and violence lower in societies where income is more equally distributed." The good old US of A is leading the pack in both inequality and mental illness. So sure, give us more guns but expect a different result?

Paisley and Underwood on Dump's Tweets

At the Country Music Awards last night. Even country folk at getting it.

Mean Tweets: Country music edition

The latest installment in Kimmel's popular segment. Some pretty funny ones.

Jokes Seth can't tell

The latest installment in this popular segment. It's just not PC for Seth to tell these jokes as a white male.

Colbert: Dump is responsible for the recent election results

Colbert rips him a new Dump hole for losing several elections.

Jon Stewart visits Colbert

To promote their upcoming benefit "Night of Too Many Stars."

How fake news works

Great article from Moyers & Company. It's obvious why those in power are decimating educational institutions. Some excerpts:

"I emphasize that social-media feeds, message boards and various other forms of internet chatter do not make for credible research outlets. My soft landing occurs with the display of academic journals and journalistic publications with solid reputations as reliable disseminators of information."

"The problem is not just that Americans don’t know. It is that they don’t know what they don’t know, and they don’t know how to figure it out. Like my students who attempt to meet their research requirement on Twitter, American voters are misinforming themselves with lies and inaccuracies from unreliable sources."

"The most consequential offenders in the dissemination, and success, of fake news are not the Russians or social-media company executives, but the American education system, and the parents who are content with raising children who know little about their country, much less about the rest of the world."

"What the scandal of 2016’s hacks, Russian meddling and disinformation proves, is that a significant portion of Americans are ungovernable and unfit for the task of citizenship in a free country. It certainly does not have to stay that way, but reversal would demand an entirely new approach to education, popular political discussion and the preparation of children for the adult world."

Decision tree: Actions against murder

Accurate summary graphic:

Fortune: Dump/GOP tax cuts the biggest wealth grab in modern history

And that's the headline from Fortune Magazine, quite the conservative big business mouthpiece. If even they can see the Dump/Repugnantan agenda as a wealth grab that's saying something. An excerpt:

"On Nov. 2, Republicans in Congress finally released the details for their tax plan. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a massive overhaul of the tax code and spending priorities—and nothing short of a boon to the very wealthy at the expense of everyone else."

As to the Dump/GOP claim that this tax plan benefits the low and middle income brackets:  "Those are bald-faced lies." See the link for the factual details supporting this obvious conclusion.

DNC chair Perez's empty promises

He said he'd follow the DNC rules and bylaws, which require neutrality on candidates. Yet he won't abolish super delegates which explicitly violates that rule. He claims he welcomes progressives into the Party, but every action to date belies that. He's offered no concessions to progressives nor enacted any of their proposed reforms. So why do some progressives like Sanders and Hartmann continue to believe him?

Attention, not self

New book. The blurb:

"Jonardon Ganeri presents an account of mind in which attention, not self, explains the experiential and normative situatedness of human beings in the world. Attention consists in an organisation of awareness and action at the centre of which there is neither a practical will nor a phenomenological witness. Attention performs two roles in experience, a selective role of placing and a focal role of access. Attention improves our epistemic standing, because it is in the nature of attention to settle on what is real and to shun what is not real. When attention is informed by expertise, it is sufficient for knowledge. That gives attention a reach beyond the perceptual: for attention is a determinable whose determinates include the episodic memory from which our narrative identities are made, the empathy for others that situates us in a social world, and the introspection that makes us self-aware. Empathy is other-directed attention, placed on you and focused on your states of mind; it is akin to listening. Empathetic attention is central to a range of experiences that constitutively require a contrast between oneself and others, all of which involve an awareness of oneself as the object of another's attention. An analysis of attention as mental action gainsays authorial conceptions of self, because it is the nature of intending itself, effortful attention in action, to settle on what to do and to shun what not to do. In ethics, a conception of persons as beings with a characteristic capacity for attention offers hope for resolution in the conflict between individualism and impersonalism."