October 18, 2019

Is Obama creating a precedent for transparency the autocrats will have to follow?

This is not a celebrity endorsement. Obama is a world leader.

https://twitter.com/bumblebee134/status/1185053374808506368?s=20

October 14, 2019

Trump's Stooges Throw A Tantrum Because Adam Schiff Won't Let Them Spy On Impeachment

BY JASON EASLEY

Trump’s Stooges Throw A Tantrum Because Adam Schiff Won’t Let Them Spy On Impeachment

https://www.politicususa.com/2019/10/14/trumps-stooges-throw-a-tantrum-because-adam-schiff-wont-let-them-spy-on-impeachment.html

"SNIP.....

Rep. Jim Jordan threw a fit after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff tossed Trump spy Rep. Matt Gaetz out of the closed impeachment interview of Fiona Hill.


Rep. Jim Jordan tweeted:

Rep. Jim Jordan

✔@Jim_Jordan

.@RepAdamSchiff is conducting his secretive impeachment proceedings in the basement of the Capitol, and now he’s kicked @mattgaetz out of today’s deposition.

This testimony should be available to every member of Congress and every single American. What is Schiff hiding?

20.5K

1:34 PM - Oct 14, 2019

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Jim Jordan is lying. Rep. Jordan knows that closed-door hearings are restricted to only members of the committee or committees who are holding the hearing. Members of Congress aren’t allowed to crash closed-door hearing. Gaetz isn’t a member of any of the committees that were holding the joint hearing, therefore, he can’t be in the room.

......SNIP"

October 13, 2019

Just saw a special on obesity on the Passionate Eye on CBC Television

in Canada. Metabolism is greatly affected by the time you eat. Don't eat after dark. Have your big meals early in the day. And busily looking after your house by cleaning and gardening all day will burn more calories than an hour at the gym. Like almost double. Bigger people burn more than smaller people. Eat all different kinds of vegetable and other plant based fiber to get a big diverse flora going in your gut. Fast food and restaurant eating has gone way up in the past generation and the dishes you eat there have 65% more calories than what you cook at home. The typical british cooking is bad. I can't remember the rest right now. My sister has a diet which is lean protein, a little healthy fat and lots of veggies at every meal. No sugar and carbs only in whole grains once a day. I lost 20 pounds in two months on it. There is also something in trial right now which is the hormones people who have had bariatric surgery have. The hormones that tell them they are so full they could not eat another thing. People are testing out injecting those hormones in obese people for a month and it works. They lose a ton of weight and feel full. They just don't know if it is safe so far so they have only tested it for a month on each person. Looks promising. I do have all these issues. So i'm going to try and eat earlier and better. Goid luck to you.

https://gem.cbc.ca/media/media/the-passionate-eye/episode-123/38e815a-00fd66983dd

October 9, 2019

It is not much of a power grab the GOP has accomplished in the last 40

years, and under Trump, if the constitution becomes unmoored and new precidents are set. The GOP relies on the constitution to enforce the corruption it has legalized over the years. They want the supreme court they own set in stone. They want gerrymandering set in stone. Citizen United alive and well. That is one reason why the some republicans, and their networks and websites, are suddenly for impeachment.Trump is acting like a termite to wood. He's digging tunnels in the constitution all over the place. Whole thing could collapse. A constitutional convention could occur. California might insist on increased senate representation. Reforms of GOP's corruption of the building blocks of the usa could occur. And how would the republican strict constitutionalists decide on Trump's obstruction? Would Trump supporters blame them if republican Supreme Court supported the constitution and democratic impeachment by deciding the House subpeonas are legal? Kind of a Sophie's choice for movement conservatives on the Supreme Court.

October 5, 2019

I think she said "both extremes" to be diplomatic. Rice has lived in Canada.

And worked here. She knows health care works great when it is public. Even in provinces with small populations. So too it is great when government pays 2/3rds of college expence. But she is right about voters in democracies have to be well informed and work at that. The republicans undid that civic engagement and enlightenment in their base. My grandfather took control of a small German town at the end of WWII. He was totally professional to the people because that is what winning a war required. Show them a better way. The people got together and gave him a german gun because he was so fair. I don't think he wanted to treat them with respect. He had almost died at least once. I think he lost a driver when Polish tanks ran right over his jeep while they were heading for the front. They left my grandfather for dead and found him wandering around a day later in a daze. Head injury. He used to go to Montreal after the war to visit the famous Dr. Penfield and be examined. But as the War ended, showing humanity to your captive townsfolk was the best weapon he had in his arsenal. Humanity means mercy sometimes. Sometimes it means sharing your pain and sometimes it means showing your anger. So too Susan Rice talks of two extremes and the need for americans to be informed. How else do we get there? We are at a turning point.

September 29, 2019

The whistleblower is under federal protection tonight because they are worried

about their safety. 60 Minutes.

September 29, 2019

Trump said today "democrats want to take away your healthcare".

I laughed because it is so untrue but what if he were trying out an election strategy in the case Biden or Harris don't win and Elizabeth Warren or Bernie do. They are taking away your healthcare means the ACA and private health insurance would be gone and replaced by medicare for all. Nobody will remember that Trump has been trying to implode it. He could win on private healthcare being taken away. He could. Just an fyi for the general election.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/donald-trump-dumb/

September 28, 2019

Virtue Signalling: So why are we using such anthropological words in a snide way?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_signalling

Wikipedia

Read in another languageDownload PDFWatchEdit

Virtue signalling is the conspicuous expression of moral values.[1] Academically, the phrase relates to signalling theory and describes a subset of social behaviors that could be used to signal virtue—especially piety among the religious.[2] In recent years, the term has been more commonly used within groups to criticize those who are seen to value the expression of virtue over action.

......

"Virtue-signalling" is also used as a pejorative term, denouncing empty acts of public commitment to unexceptional good causes such as changing Facebook profile pictures to support a cause, participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge, offering thoughts and prayers after a tragedy, celebrity speeches during award shows, and politicians pandering to constituents on ideological issues.[6]

The term was popularised by James Bartholomew in an article in The Spectator on 18 April 2015 to mean "public, empty gestures intended to convey socially approved attitudes without any associated risk or sacrifice".[7]

......

CriticismEdit


Adam Smith Institute Executive Director Sam Bowman opined that the meaning of the term popularised by James Bartholomew misuses the concept of signalling and encourages lazy thinking.[5]In The Guardian, Zoe Williams suggested the phrase was the "sequel insult to champagne socialist"[12]while fellow Guardian writer David Shariatmadari says that while the term serves a purpose, its overuse as an ad hominem attack during political debate has rendered it a meaningless political buzzword.[11]

....SNIP"

I once had a psychopath try and isolate me from my friends. One of them he got to start using the term 'bonding,' somehow in regards to our conversations and relationsjip in a really pejorative way. I knew then it was over if she was making fun of our friendship. Of course we were bonding. That is what friendship is about. Anthropologizing normal behaviour is a way to dehumanize and undo the bonds we share with each other. Do we think our side of the debate is virtuous? Of course. Do we communicate that? Yes. Is that normal or something to be memed into something nasty...changing the way we connect with each other? And oh look who invented and spread the words. Are some people less authentic in how they communicate their beliefs? I suppose so. Has that always be the case? I suppose so. Are these people on a journey of sorts and 'faking it till they make it'? In some instances. We always talk about walking the walk. Should we all stop the way we naturally communicate with each other because some neoliberal and a writer at the Spectator want us to change our behaviour so they invented a couple of words to take the humanity out of humanity? I think not. I don't see the right calm down the pro-life fires which is how they virtue bond as a party or question the authenticity of their own politicians on the issue of abortion (because it is such a productive political instrument). Why should we question each other and stop trusting each other on the left? What separates us and psychopaths is regular people know the emotional value of words and we bond on that. Don't let the right undo our connective tissue with their games.

September 23, 2019

Maybe Nancy Pelosi is using GOP tactics on gun control in regards to

impeaching the President? The GOP never solve the gun control issue so they can have it as an open wound during elections and say the government is coming for your guns. If there was an assault weapons ban and reasonable vetting on gun ownership democrats could say it is all done. No reason to fear anything else. Not reason to vote as a gun humper. Same with impeachment. If democrats impeach Trump it will get killed by Mitch McConnell in the Senate we know for sure. Republicans can then say "Dems tried to impeach but it failed. Trump's issue with obstruction and Ukraine have been looked into. It is already done. Trump was innocent". IMHO.

September 22, 2019

In some way the movement conservativeon the right in the USA had to wait for the greatest generation

to age past 85 to really do this social engineering experiment. People did not put up with McCarthyism very long before rejecting it en mass in the 50s. They knew Hitler and like characters. Really there is good and bad with every generation. The people who came to be before the 1950s were maybe not as naive as there was an evil man in every town and they had been through at least 2 wars. They had stories and sayings and names for con men and their actions that we are just relearning right now. I watched MASH and they used the term flim flam man and gaslighting and like terms in the script quite often. In other ways the older generations lived with unrecognized privilege if they were white men. So we are better off now with our knowledge. But if the right wing ignores that knowledge with a specific agenda in mind then we are back to bad times in the past. Really USA used to manufacture for the world and didn't compete with europe (after wars), asia or the communist block so there were excess good manufacturing jobs and union barganing power. Those workers were lucky and unlucky (many did not come home from the wars or came home damaged). So good and bad. Lucky and not so lucky. Wise and naive. All of us. Because we are human beings.