Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts

Monday, March 18, 2024

The Republican Party: A Puppet On Many Strings

"Republicans have been trending toward Putin fandom for more than a decade but with each passing year the stakes get higher, the propaganda gets more brazen, and what they're willing to support gets more grotesque."

Click on the link below to get the full picture of what is controlling the US Republican Party presently:




Thursday, March 14, 2024

Donald J Trump: The Dullest Knive In The Drawer (BUT - - -)

"But hold on. I ask myself: How could Trump have become president, and now clinch the Republican nomination for the presidency for a third time, if he doesn’t have something in the brain bank? Even if Trump doesn’t read, can’t follow a logical argument, and has the attention span of a fruit fly, I keep believing he must have some intelligence.

"Well, it turns out there’s another form of intelligence, called 'emotional intelligence.'

"Emotional intelligence is a concept developed by two psychologists, John Mayer of the University of New Hampshire and Yale’s Peter Salovey, and popularized by Dan Goleman in his 1996 book of the same name.

"Mayer and Salovey define emotional intelligence as the ability to do two things: 'understand and manage our own emotions,' and 'recognize and influence the emotions of others.'

"True, Trump hasn’t displayed much capacity for the first. He’s thin-skinned, narcissistic, and vindictive. As dozens of Republican foreign policy experts have put it: 'He is unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood. He does not encourage conflicting views. He lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate criticism.'

"Okay, but what about Mayer and Salovey’s second aspect of emotional intelligence — influencing the emotions of others?

"This is where Trump’s brain outperforms the brains of ordinary mortals. He knows how to manipulate people. He has an uncanny ability to discover their emotional vulnerabilities — their fears, anxieties, prejudices, and darkest desires — and use them for his own purposes.

"To put it another way, Trump is an extraordinarily talented conman."

Click on the link below for the full picture of his stupidity:

Seriously, again, how dumb is Trump?

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

An Evangelical Pastor Helps In Getting Democratic Party Votes

"Our guest this week recently traveled down to the border to confront the so-called “Army of God” as part of a larger project of providing alternative ideologies to Christian nationalism. Doug Pagitt is a pastor, author and the executive director of Vote Common Good, an organization aimed at influencing evangelical Christians. His group has been on a nationwide tour focused on directly engaging evangelicals in key swing states with the hope of swaying a critical percentage of them against former President Donald Trump. Pagitt believes a small portion of these voters are swayable and that if they are engaged, election outcomes can be flipped. He joins WITHpod to discuss the trajectory of evangelical politics, what he’s learned on tour, and what’s at stake in this year’s election."

Click on the link below for an hour podcast that delves into what one evangelical pastor is doing in an attempt to get fellow evangelicals who are wavering over Trump/MAGA to see enough reality regarding the 2024 vote to do the right thing:


Friday, March 8, 2024

Free Speech: IT IS NOT ABSOLUTE

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

There has been a consistent interpretation of the concept of the First Amendment to the US Constitution since its inclusion in the Bill of Rights as the FIRST of ten amendments: it is not absolute. A traditional phrase to teach this reality is: "You can't yell fire in a crowded theater.". In other words, if it incites harm, it is not constitutional. 

Given the above, it is objectively evidenced that many (? most) statements from every present-day conservative/MAGA Republican are unconstitutional. So, the question is: WHY ARE THEY ALLOWED TO USE MEDIA UNOPPOSED CONTEMPORANEOUSLY?  It is more than time to not only restore the Fairness Doctrine but make it inclusive of ALL media, with the requirement of instant/immediate fact-checking. With the wide knowledge base easily accessed by media today, this is now possible - - - use it!!!

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Christian Nationalists: A Wide Demographic

"Based on a substantial survey of 22,000 adults from across the country, new polling from the Public Religion Research Institute on Christian nationalism confirms that Christian nationalism is strongly linked to voting for Republicans, higher church attendance and white evangelical Protestant affiliation. But not for everybody. The poll finds that a substantial percentage of Black and Hispanic Americans are Christian nationalists. It also finds that Black people who identify as Christian nationalists diverge politically from their white and Hispanic counterparts."

Click on the link below for more:


Friday, March 1, 2024

Conservative Brains: ARE They Different?

"Do MAGA conservatives’ brains prevent them from changing their minds? Scientists may have proven this in a fascinating study."

Psychological research has previously pointed to the evidence that conservatives and liberals think differently (link). However, I am a case study of being able to change my thinking from very conservative most of my life (just turned 79 years old) to very liberal. It would have been interesting if I had this testing before and after. In any event, the video at the link below is interesting:


Tuesday, February 27, 2024

A Fresh Look At The Luddite Movement

"'Luddite' should never have become the epithet that it is as the Luddites were never afraid of or opposed to technological advancement, they only opposed the exploitation of workers and the degradation to society that came with the unfair distribution of the benefits of the targeted technology."

Click on the link below for an enlightening podcast:


Sunday, February 25, 2024

A Look At MAGA Brainwashing

"Dr. Steven Hassan is a licensed mental health professional and recognized expert on cults. His book, The Cult of Trump, examines how Trump has built a base with fanatical devotion. Dr. Hassan correctly predicted that there would be violence after the 2020 election if Trump did not win."

Click on the link below for an in-depth look at the frailty of the human brain and how cult leaders easily take advantage of it:

Top CULT EXPERT Diagnoses Trump & MAGA Brainwashing

Voting Rights Continue To Be Under Attack

"The Department of Justice, created in 1870, was initially formed in part to enforce Reconstruction-era laws aimed at ensuring voting rights for formerly enslaved people. Yet, nearly 150 years later, voting access is still under attack. Eric Holder made history as the first black U.S. Attorney General, serving in the Obama administration. Holder now serves as the chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which focuses on fighting back against gerrymandering to achieve fair maps. He joins WITHpod to discuss the fight for voting rights, growing redistricting concerns nationwide and how concerned he is about the possibility of former president Donald Trump being reelected."

Click on the link below for the podcast:


Saturday, February 24, 2024

Cults: A Hard Nut To Crack

"A few years ago, I did a video about cults and predicted that we live in conditions that make cults thrive. Today, a few years later, that seems to be the case, with cult activity skyrocketing not just in the US but worldwide. Today we look at what’s causing this problem, and what you can do if a friend or loved one goes a little too far down the rabbit hole."

Click on the links below for some advice against this major problem that notoriously is difficult to attack:



Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Civility: A Character Trait Lost In The MAGA Swamp

"Alexandra Hudson is a writer, public speaker, and the author of The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves. She joins Preet to discuss her book, the difference between politeness and civility, and the many figures that have inspired her—from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Larry David."

Click on the link below for an enlightened point of view regarding the times in which we are living:


Sunday, February 18, 2024

Ukraine And Russia: A History Lession

"Although few Americans paid much attention at the time, the events of February 18, 2014, in Ukraine would turn out to be a linchpin in how the United States ended up where it is a decade later."

Click on the link below to better understand the connection between the Republican Party/MAGA and Putin/Russia:


US Immigration And Crime: Beware Of Republican Gaslighting

"Across a variety of studies that use different years of data that focus on different areas of the United States – with some exceptions, there’s some nuance there. I don’t want to deny the nuance – in general, on average, we do not find a connection between immigration and crime, as is so often claimed. The most common finding across all these different kinds of studies is that immigration to an area is either not associated with crime in that area, or is negatively associated with crime in that area. This means more immigration equals less crime. It’s rare to find studies that show crime following increases in immigration or with larger percentage of the population that are immigrants."

Click on the link below for more:


Saturday, February 17, 2024

Why We Need More REGULATED Capitalism

"The need to hold industries to high safety standards seems like an obvious priority. Yet in reality, questionable business practices are widespread -- from deep-fakes to mass data collection. Vanderbilt University Professor Ganesh Sitaraman says it is time for Congress to clamp down on rampant use of artificial intelligence and tighten regulations on the aviation industry. He joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss his latest book 'Why Flying Is Miserable and How To Fix It.'"

Click on the link below for the details of corporate monopoly abuse highlighting the airline industry as an example:


Wednesday, February 14, 2024

The "Deep State" Conspiracy Theory: The Truth And Its Harm

"UCLA School of Law professor Jon D. Michaels argued that compared with developing governments such as Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey, governmental power structures in the United States are "almost entirely transparent".[43][44][45] Michaels argues that the American 'deep state', which includes federal agencies responsible for regulation, welfare, crime prevention, and defense, and the employees who operate them, fundamentally differs from Trump's use of the term in five important respects:[43]

  • Not Elitist – In the US, bureaucrats come from a diverse range of socio-economic backgrounds, especially when compared to those in the Middle East, and even Western Europe.
  • Not Shadowy – American agencies are generally "transparent and accessible", in comparison to those of the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.
  • Not Monolithic – the American deep state is "internally diverse and fragmented."
  • A Bulwark, Not a Battering Ram – actions of civil servants in the US are inherently defensive, not proactive.
  • Not an Extraconstitutional Force – the bureaucracy should be seen as part of the constitutional system of checks and balances in the US, which often serves as a final check on presidential or agency overreach."
(Wikipedia

Click on the link below for more:


Sunday, February 11, 2024

Social Media, Conspiracy Theories, And Quackery

"Tesla Biohealing, which has no connection to the car company, is part of a growth industry marketing unproven cures and treatments to conspiracy theorists and others who have grown distrustful of science and medicine. Experts who study such claims say they’re on the increase, thanks to the internet, social media and skepticism about traditional health care.

"'There have always been hucksters selling medical cures, but I do feel like it’s accelerating,' said Timothy Caulfield, a health policy and law professor at the University of Alberta who studies medical ethics and fraud. 'There are some forces driving that: obviously the internet and social media, and distrust of traditional medicine, traditional science. Conspiracy theories are creating and feeding this distrust.'

"Blending the high-tech jargon of Western science with the spiritual terminology of traditional and Eastern medicine, these modern salesmen claim their treatments can reverse aging, restore mental acuity or fight COVID-19 better than a vaccine. They promise better health, but what they’re really selling is the idea of insider information, the promise of a secret known only to the wealthy and the powerful.

"So-called medbeds are one of the flashiest, most expensive, and least credible. 'Medbeds are coming,' exclaims a woman in one TikTok video. Similar videos have been seen millions of times on the platform.

"According to believers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, medbeds were developed by the military (in some versions, using alien technology) and are already in use by the world’s richest and most powerful families. Many accounts claim former President Donald Trump, if he wins another term in the White House, will unveil the devices and make them free for all Americans."

Click on the link below for more:

Miracle cures: Online conspiracy theories are creating a new age of unproven medical treatments

Saturday, February 10, 2024

Transgender Treatment Satisfaction

While the Republican Party and conservatives, in general, are supporting bills in many states attacking transgender treatment (link), the largest satisfaction survey of individuals who have received transgender treatment was just released. The bottom line is that they are overwhelmingly satisfied with the results of their treatment. Click on this link for a 3-minute video presenting the details. Just another example of anti-expert/anti-science from the Republican Party.



Republicans Reject Experts

Click on the links below for examples of the decades-long anti-expert attitude of the Republican Party:

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/10/what-caused-the-u-s-anti-science-trend/

https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/08/politics/republican-national-security-letter-donald-trump-election-2016/index.html

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-reason-some-republicans-mistrust-science-their-leaders-tell-them-to/

https://newrepublic.com/article/158436/republican-murderous-anti-intellectualism

https://www.amazon.com/Republican-Brain-Science-Science-Reality/dp/1118094514

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Choose how you look at reality wisely. Yes, it is a binary choice.

Choose how you look at reality wisely. Yes, it is a binary choice.
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