Month: August 2018

 
From PZ Myers:

After that blustering buffoon badgering bison, it would be nice to see a thoughtful man behaving competently. How about this? Mark Levy was one of 21 pilots flying WWII aircraft in a British airshow, when the engine on his P-51 conked out, and he had to sputter to a landing in a cornfield. And best of all, there’s full cockpit video of the whole thing! You get to watch these magnificent old planes flying in formation, and then crisis as the engine begins to fail (and you know the pilot is going to be fine).

– More –
 

 
From Dave Dubya:

Trump made his intentions, and his authoritarian tactics, clear: “I do it to discredit and demean you all, (News media) so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”

Journalists who report his lies and the truth he denies, are accused of being the “enemy of the people”. This is the lowest depth any president has ever sunk to in the history of the nation. It is down at the very bottom, along with supporting Putin’s disinformation campaign by siding with him against two bi-partisan Senate committees, the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the CIA.

“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”

This Orwellian “Ministry of Truth” tactic is at the heart of his war on facts, the press, and dissent.

Now Trump’s fascistic attacks on the press and First Amendment are agitating his thug followers into a growing menace.

Angry mobs shout their anger, hatred and insults at newsmen covering his rallies, as he raves from the podium that they are “horrible, horrendous people.”

There is only one fitting word for all this hate, blame and false accusation from a would-be tyrant.

– More –
 

 
From North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz:

I’ve tried appealing to their sense of decency, to their capacity for compassion, to their faith in Jesus.

I’ve quietly endured thousands of their racist outbursts and homophobic rants on Twitter and at neighborhood picnics and across the Thanksgiving dinner table—in the hopes that I could find some vulnerable place beneath their fear to access later.

I’ve tried buoying pep talks and firm tough love and expressions of kindness and straight-talking challenge and attempts at affirmation.

I’ve tried discussing theology, tried sharing stories of oppressed communities, tried to offer facts in the face of a million lies generated by their President, tried to show the lessons History has already taught us about the slope we’re currently sliding precipitously down.

They have all failed to reach fertile ground.
Nothing has worked.
It’s all been fruitless.

I think it’s time to stop saying that we need to understand these people. I think we do understand them…

– More –
 

 
From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:

Former White House communications director Hope Hicks got onboard Air Force One at the Morristown, New Jersey, airport, which is near the Trump Bedminster resort where the President is staying.

– More –
 

 
From The Journal of Improbable Research:

Dr Suki Finn who is a postdoctoral research fellow in philosophy at the University of Southampton, UK, poses a question in a recent AEON magazine article : ‘Is a hole a real thing, or just a place where something isn’t?’ Pointing out that:

“[…] a better understanding of where holes lie on the material/immaterial and thing/nothing divides should fill a gap in our knowledge of reality.”

And, to clarify, uses the special example of the doughnut (‘donut’ US)

– More –
 

 
From Jonathan Bernstein:

On one hand, the fact that some media frenzies have little or no long-term effects is important and accurate, and some presidents go four or even eight years without learning not to overreact to whatever minor flap people are obsessed with at the moment. One of Barack Obama’s enormous strengths as a politician was that he was aware of that early on, and while his administration didn’t always act accordingly, overall it was a real plus for him.

But, no, it’s certainly not true that “nothing matters.”

– More –
 

 
From nojo at Stinque:

In the Declaration, right after the familiar bit about unalienable rights, there’s a passage with more than a little relevance to our travails some 240 years later:

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

This provides a simple, enduring definition of what qualifies as a legitimate government: Lacking the consent of its citizens, no government can claim to rule. Anything less leads to despotism.

The United States is, by the definition of its founders, an illegitimate, despotic government.

– More –
 

 
From Max’s Dad:

But now the Q people are showing up as the ones who have gotten to the yeah he’s a nut stage drop off. Pretty soon the Q people will get the attention of this sick cult leader and he will aim to please. The Q people, a truly sick and demented bunch of conspiracy minded nitwits, are not necessarily growing in number, but they are getting bolder. Much like the white people who think now that a Racist in Chief is in charge, they have the right to call other people the N bomb, harass people with hijabs, tell anyone not white to go back where they came from, call the cops on anyone they dont like being in their space, beat up the gays, and just be plain assholes like him, the Q bunch is out there. With their stupid Q signs and their 5 XL t shirts they are now permeating the Traitor in Chief’s “rallies”.

– More –
 

 
From Anthony Stahelski at The Moderate Voice:

The United States, which is technically still at war with North Korea, sees the country as a threat to South Korea, Japan, the East Asia region, and now to the United States itself. Through twelve American presidential administrations behavior modification has been our fundamental North Korean strategy. Behavior modification is a simple tool for guiding behavior: if people do something you like, you reward them; if they do something you don’t like, you punish them. Behavior modification can work on pets, children and employees, but, as implemented by American policy makers, it has not worked on the Kims.

Why not? The original Kim gained power through ruthlessness, and the latter Kims maintain power through fear. If the current Kim actually made the concessions required to gain rewards, he will be perceived as weak, which will diminish people’s fear and therefore Kim’s power. American presidents have failed to understand that behavior modification only works if the individual whose behavior one wishes to modify can actually be controlled by the rewards and punishments used. The Kims have proven to be uncontrollable. They have lied to receive the rewards (food and other economic aid) and gotten away with it, and our sanctions are not perceived as punishments because the Kims do not care about the suffering of their people, plus they always find ways to get around the sanctions. Regime punishment, not population punishment, is necessary and that would likely require a military intervention. No President, including Donald Trump, has been willing to seriously consider that option.

So what else can we do?

– More –