Positive thinking as government shaming

The Congressional regressives are trying to tie social service recipients to a requirement for cognitive behavioral therapy, aka positive thinking. If someone is in a negative situation it is their responsibility to adapt to it by changing their approach, not complain about the negative situation. Which of course in no way addresses the negative situation itself.

"So we need to ask what are the circumstances that the government are expecting people claiming benefits to accept stoically. Sanctions? Work fare? Being forced to accept very poorly paid work, abysmal working conditions and no security? The loss of social support, public services and essential safety nets ? Starvation and destitution?"

And the answer is yes, we must face poverty wages and starvation as if it is a choice of our attitude rather than an intentional system of indentured servitude. This serves only to silence legitimate complaints about the system and thereby maintain its inherent privileges.

Democratic socialism and capitalism

This graphic describes democratic socialism, which is not anti-capitalism. Sanders is of this variety. I've often said this is the necessary transition toward the neo-Commons, which is not so much anti but post-capitalist. The likes of Sanders set the necessary governmental prerequisites for us to go post, like promoting co-ops and the like. The State capitalists, aka the oligarchic fascists, will have none of this, and it's necessary to be anti-fascism. Unless one wants to argue for the healthy aspects of fascism to be included?

Reich on rigging the market

In his post today he redirects the focus from downward redistribution of wealth to the poor to the rigged system that predistributes wealth upward in the first place. This is due to the extra money we’re paying compared to other countries for pharmaceuticals, Internet communications, home mortgages, student loans, airline tickets, food, and health insurance.

Prominent KKK members exposed

See this article. No surprise really that these Republican Senators and others are members of this blatantly racist organization. Some examples:

"US Senators Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), John Cornyn (R-Tx.), Dan Coats (R-In.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.). Several mayors of major US cities, including Madeline Rogero of Knoxville, Tennessee; Jim Gray of Lexington, Kentucky; Paul D. Fraim of Norfolk, Virginia; Kent Guinn of Ocala, Florida; and Tom Henry of Fort Wayne, Indiana."

More to come.

IMF concludes direct causal relationship between unions and income equality

See this article for the details on the International Monetary Fund study, then ask: Who wants unions and who wants to destroy them? An excerpt:

"A new study from the International Monetary Fund concludes that unions reduce inequality and foster a healthier economy for everyone, mainly by preventing the wealthiest among us from keeping the fruits of a collaboratively created prosperity for themselves.The IMF study shows that a reinvigorated labor movement is essential to both a just economy and a well-functioning democracy."

Consciousness on/off switch

See this article.

When [...] the claustrum is electrically stimulated, consciousness — self-awareness, sentience, whatever you want to call it — appears to turn off completely. When the stimulation is removed, consciousness returns. [...] Curiously, even though stimulating the claustrum removed consciousness, the patient was still awake. Consciousness is often discussed in relation to wakefulness, but seemingly they are not as closely connected as originally thought."

Is this your God?

Fifth Structure Emergence in Economics

By Peter Pogany. He uses Jean Gebser to analyze the different  historical forms of economics, and the emerging form that goes post-capitalist. Excerpts:

"Since the history of consciousness is also a history of social consciousness, which is never without economic interpretations, it is mirrored by the history of economic thought."

"By the end of the 18th century, cultural evolution demanded global-scale organization to maintain its accelerating mode. The chaotic transition that began with the French Revolution and ended in the early 1830s led to the establishment of the world’s first global system (GS1), characterized by laissez faire and metal money. It lasted from approximately 1834 (the “birthday of the industrial proletariat” [Polanyi], a year of intense legislation in Britain concerning the poor) until the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

"The period 1914-1945 was another chaotic transition that brought the second and current global system (GS2) -- mixed economy/weak multilateralism -- into existence. (Until the end of the Cold War, socialism remained an unsuccessful alternative for global self-organization.)

Minority Report

I've been catching up on the new tv series, Minority Report. It's a sequel to the PKDick short story and movie by the same name. After finishing the 3rd episode I'm hooked. Hawk-Eye was just instituted, a police surveillance and profiling system that predicts future behavior based on historical behavioral patterns. Reminds me of suggestions for an integral profiling system.

What I am

Philosophy, is the talk on a cereal box
Religion, is a smile on a dog