BLOGS

All Posts (6399)

Sort by

Textbook...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 17, 2018 at 5:30am

Topics: Civil Rights, Diversity, Existentialism, History, Human Rights

Republicans: Founded in 1854 by anti-slavery expansion activists and modernizers, the Republican Party quickly surpassed the Whig Party as the principal opposition to the Democratic Party. In 1860, it came to power with the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. The party presided over the American Civil War and Reconstruction and was harried by internal factions and scandals toward the end of the 19th century. Today, the party supports a conservative platform (from an American political perspective), with further foundations in supply-side fiscal policies, and social conservatism. Merriam-Webster

Fascism: The term Fascism was first used of the totalitarian right-wing nationalist regime of Mussolini in Italy (1922–43); the regimes of the Nazis in Germany and Franco in Spain were also Fascist. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one national or ethnic group, a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach. Oxford dictionary

Friday, the campaign manager flipped to help Special Prosecutor Mueller, and himself as the cost of defense was becoming prohibitive, and at 69, spending the "rest of his life" in prison will likely be a short duration.

Also Friday at the end of a week of the Woodward book and an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times, an anonymous woman's incident with the Supreme Court nominee was proffered by Senator Feinstein (D-California). The alleged victim's name was hidden at her request. Senator Grassley was determined to plow ahead with a nomination in committee on the 20th. The charges by an anonymous person was "baseless" unless she came forward.

So, his accuser, came forward. In her own words "Now I feel like my civic responsibility is outweighing my anguish and terror about retaliation." We will see if Chairman Grassley will follow "the rule of law," give her a hearing before the senate committee vote. Senators Collins and Murkowski will have pressure on them if Kavenaugh goes before the full senate.

The Republican Party prior to the fall of Richard M. Nixon had made a Faustian compromise between my kindergarten and first grade year. They turned from their foundation in Civil Rights and prosecuting the Civil War for political expediency by pulling in the disaffected "Dixiecrats" disillusioned by the tilt that started with Harry Truman in the '48 Democratic convention towards expanding equal opportunity towards African Americans. The 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights and 1968 Fair Housing Acts were more than many could bear. They were wooed, then migrated en masse to the siren song of the "Southern Strategy" and Nixon's "law and order" platform (read: reestablishment of white supremacy). This would be slightly camouflaged by coded language, as Lee Atwater opined:

You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.” Rick Perlstein, Exclusive: Lee Atwater's Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy, The Nation

The Republican Party of Ronald Reagan I did not agree with in my youth, but I did admire aspects of it as a lot of people did. If you read novels as I did and still do, Tom Clancy and "The Hunt for Red October" or Robert Ludlum's "Bourne Trilogy" held your rapt attention. That was back when you talked about novels at work near water coolers. That was post the Vietnam era, when the country spat on vets as "baby killers." In the wake of the Iranian hostage crisis, we wanted desperately to seem "tough" and in control. We recreated a new mythology for ourselves, and catharsis with characters like Sylvester Stallone bouncing between "Rocky" and "Rambo"; we all loved Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry."and through a brash machismo, we tried to rescue our bruised national self-image in a tough-talking, B-movie actor, who's "awe shucks shrug" persona masked an agenda infused with the Janus religions of Ayn Rand worship and libertarianism. This was also prior to the "Me Too" movement and acknowledging the lingering toxicity of misogyny. AIDS was becoming a health crisis in the LGBT community that Mr. Shucks would ignore as the bodies represented by memorial quilts piled up, and pop culture along with Hollywood had a keen focus on nostalgia.

Abstract
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Hollywood studios churned out film after film that sought to recapture, revise, and re-imagine the fifties, as evidenced by films like American Graffiti (1973), Grease (1977), The Outsiders (1983), Reckless (1983), Footloose (1984), Back to the Future (1985), Blue Velvet (1986), Stand By Me (1986), and Hairspray (1988). Academic and popular critics alike have noted the peculiar fascination Hollywood had for the fifties, comparing the politics of its fifties nostalgia to the rise of the neoconservative movement that took Ronald Reagan as its avatar.

However, it is important to recognize that representations of the fifties in Reagan Era films and popular culture were far from homogeneous. Rather than a concept with discrete political or social import, "the fifties" functioned in the Reagan Era as a set of unstable signifiers, the meanings of which were the subject of intense negotiation and struggle.

Dwyer, Michael D., "Back to the fifties: Pop nostalgia in the Reagan Era" (2010). English - Dissertations. 54. https://surface.syr.edu/eng_etd/54

*****

This country has been surprised by the way the world looks now

They don't know if they want to be Matt Dillon or Bob Dylan

They don't know if they want to be diplomats ...

Or continue the same policy of nuclear nightmare diplomacy

John Foster Dulles ain't nothing but the name of an airport now

The idea concerns the fact that this country wants nostalgia

They want to go back as far as they can ...

Even if it's only as far as last week

Not to face now or tomorrow, but to face backwards

And yesterday was the day of our cinema heroes

Riding to the rescue at the last possible moment

The day of the man in the white hat or the man on the white horse ...

Or, the man who always came to save America at the last moment

Someone always came to save America at the last moment

Especially in "B" movies

B-Movie, Gil Scott Heron

This is a party, before its current avatar, that has always looked back longingly to the 1950s: when industry wasn't so global and a white male with a high school education (or less) could purchase a house and support a family. This of course was a time of segregated schools, transportation and neighborhoods by law prior to the nascent efficacy of the Civil Rights movement; an era of closeted LGBT people, who's existence I can only imagine was like constantly living in a suffocating envelope or cocoon; there weren't many Hispanic/Latino with exception of pockets in California and Texas, usually in agriculture and women - white women - were in the kitchen at home. Black women were too - mostly, but not completely as the servants of white women.

And now, they see a chance at a stolen Supreme Court seat to take us all back to those (not-so) Happy Days, a sexual assaulter appointed by a sexual assaulter to sit next to a sexual harasser to decide the future of women and their bodies, as well as people of color and LGBT and their Civil Rights. The desperation for those (not-so) Happy Days will have them lie, cheat, steal (2016 and past questionable late 20th century elections) and possibly collude with a foreign power to maintain Christian Supremacy sans White Supremacy that has had remarkable staying power.

Their "great again" has since the existential threatening presence of President Obama been quite literally by "any means necessary" (Malcolm X). We just didn't fathom how much power meant to them.

So, when do we stop calling them "republicans"?

Republicans: Founded in 1854 by anti-slavery expansion activists and modernizers, the Republican Party quickly surpassed the Whig Party as the principal opposition to the Democratic Party. In 1860, it came to power with the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. The party presided over the American Civil War and Reconstruction and was harried by internal factions and scandals toward the end of the 19th century. Today, the party supports a conservative platform (from an American political perspective), with further foundations in supply-side fiscal policies, and social conservatism. Merriam-Webster

Fascism: The term Fascism was first used of the totalitarian right-wing nationalist regime of Mussolini in Italy (1922–43); the regimes of the Nazis in Germany and Franco in Spain were also Fascist. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one national or ethnic group, a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach. Oxford dictionary

Which definition...fits?
Read more…

Cynical Capitalism...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 14, 2018 at 5:30am
Image Source: AARP, which up to this moment, I didn't realize was so "woke."

Topics: Climate Change, Existentialism, Global Warming, Star Trek

The home world of the Ferengi species is Ferenginar. The Ferengi have a culture which is based entirely upon commerce. They follow a code of conduct known as "The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition." These rules ordain conduct such as "Never place family before business." Reportedly these rules are subject to interpretation depending upon the situation. Plea bargaining is a legal tradition, as is the purchasing of an apprenticeship following the Attainment Ceremony. There is no distinction between business and pleasure in Ferengi culture. Source: Star Trek (the link to Ferenginar is priceless)

In THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world-- through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.

At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq’s civil war, a new law is unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country’s vast oil reserves…. Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the “War on Terror” to Halliburton and Blackwater…. After a tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts.... New Orleans’s residents, scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be reopened…. These events are examples of “the shock doctrine”: using the public’s disorientation following massive collective shocks – wars, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters -- to achieve control by imposing economic shock therapy. Sometimes, when the first two shocks don’t succeed in wiping out resistance, a third shock is employed: the electrode in the prison cell or the Taser gun on the streets.

Naomi Klein, though a Canadian author is a national treasure, that despite the faux-existential crisis between our nations initiated by a baboon. The Shock Doctrine came out in 2007, 6 years after 9/11; 11 years ago and her follow on books This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate and The Battle For Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists follows the same theme: using the misery of others by climate, terrorism and war for profit. She is the proverbial "voice calling in the wilderness" metaphorically speaking, minus the camel's hair wardrobe and proto Paleo diet of locusts and wild honey. Quite literally, it is about the only planet the human species currently lives and exists on.

We may not be able to reverse climate change, but we can adapt to it—and climate change isn't all bad for the construction industry. Construction Business Owner tells us that climate change means warmer winters and a prolonged construction season for many states. And as the pressure grows to reduce our carbon footprint, new solutions and innovations are introduced within the construction industry each year. Source: Concentra: The Effects of Climate Change on Construction

We had literally decades to address this repeated, slow-moving catastrophe. There is only one thing that delayed any actions to mitigate it.

Profit. The crass, self-serving reason nothing about guns, climate change, terrorism or wars get any better. There are businesses that require this chaos. It's a part of their business model. Serenity and world peace are death knells to them. We see this in every American mass shooting that increases the profits of gun manufacturers, causing hand ringing and naval gazing by the news media, until the next shiny object diverts our attention. We saw it when we stumbled into Iraq on the manufactured lie of "weapons of mass destruction," the prelude to "alternative facts." Martin Paredes in Medium took a humorous stab at 47 rules of acquisition sans our twitter freak with presidential seal.

Star Trek: Deep Space 9. I had to give you the original.

Puerto Rico's death toll was raised from 64 to almost 3,000, approximating 9/11. The current resident of the executive mansion made his first tweet all about "no Russian collusion" on the 17th anniversary and a fantasy collaboration between his democratic opponent, the FBI, foreign spies and his Russian benefactors. He then denied almost 3,000 American citizens (which I doubt he knows they are) died at all. Puerto Rico is still under stress, they still have limited access to electrical power and in North Carolina, I have little confidence in the efficacy of government assistance from a raging lunatic.

The campus closed Wednesday at 5:00 pm. We await Hurricane Florence, whose eye proceeds up the Carolina coasts. An estimated 1 million people evacuated South Carolina, the highways converted to one-way lanes out. I have supplies for several days; no water's on the shelves in grocery or convenience stores. Gas stations have plastic bags on pump handles. This reminds me of Hurricane Sandy in upstate New York, when people from Manhattan drove up to gas up (get in a few fights) and drive back. This reminds me of Katrina: the citizens called "refugees" by the news media; in central Texas - grocery shelves stripped of water, food and empty pumps - the monstrous eye, the survivors on rooftops, the stratification of society before we called it by its modern nom de guerre "income inequality" and which sides of New Orleans recovered and which were purchased as distressed properties and gentrified. It would remind me of "heck of a job, Brownie," except the reality of failure would just be denied, "explained" and parroted by cult ditto heads. I have somehow been on a jury to witness the effects of climate change up close. It's something I didn't think I volunteered for.

For a very brief, shining moment, the republican presidential candidate George W. Bush talked about "compassionate conservatism." It was short-lived, as compassion led to diversity, black pres, healthcare and gay marriage. What is within the darkest bowels, hidden from view by "winks and nods" with coded language eventually erupts like a boil or a pimple; it is an infection that must emerge, and cannot be denied its day in the sun.

And, "We The People" breathlessly, daily await that rancid zit, who might actually tweet its first jumbled, insane thoughts during morning bowel movements.
Read more…

Apokolips...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 13, 2018 at 5:30am
Image Source: DC Wiki

Topics: Existentialism, Global Warming, Politics

Apokolips is a fictional planet appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The planet is ruled by Darkseid, established in Jack Kirby's Fourth World comic book series, and is integral to many stories in the DC Universe. Apokolips is considered to be the opposite of the planet New Genesis. Wikipedia

Apokolips is an ecumenopolis with burning firepits, extant in between dimensions, occupying a 'frequency' somewhere between the physical universe and Hell; the war that destroyed the Old Gods and created New Genesis and Apokolips separated the Fourth World from the rest of the universe proper, leaving it accessible by Boom Tube.

The population is a downtrodden lot, including many kidnapped from other worlds before being 'broken.' The majority of the population are called "Lowlies", a bald and fearful race that has no sense of self worth or value. The Lowlies are subject to constant abuse that ends only with death. Slightly above them are the Parademons, who serve as the keepers of order on the planet. Higher above the Parademons are the Female Furies, who are Darkseid's personal guard. (Male Furies also exist, but are less common.) They are blessed with unnatural strength and longevity and are allowed to develop as individuals. This exposure to new concepts often results in them developing comical or garish personalities that contrast strongly with the immense sadism that is required to reach their position. The leaders of the Furies are Granny Goodness, who sports the appearance of a matronly old woman while being the most powerful of the guards, and Kanto, who enjoys a unique position as Darkseid's master assassin. The chief guard, Big Barda, had a third position under Granny, which has not been filled since her defection from the group. DC Wiki

As if the name Apokolips wasn’t foreboding enough for this place, the planet is actually just one massive city that is peppered with raging fire pits. These pits are engines of war and torture, fueled by the very fire that stems from Darkseid himself. It is where the armors and weapons of the Parademons are forged and where they learn that pain is no obstacle, merely a nuisance. Apokolips Now: 15 Crucial Facts About The Justice League Movie Villains, Comic Book Review

And now...

The Trump administration has been working to rollback rules instated by the Obama administration that would limit how much methane gas could be vented to the atmosphere at oil- and gas-drilling and processing operations. In a press release today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it is proposing to relax Obama-era rules, saving the industry $484 million in avoided energy costs.

But the EPA is expected to justify its rules with analysis. That analysis (PDF) suggests that this regulatory rollback will also come with costs in the form of 308,000 short tons of methane emitted between 2019 and 2025. For context, the Aliso Canyon gas leak three years ago represented the largest accidental release of methane in US history, and over the four months that workers struggled to plug that well, 107,000 short tons of methane are estimated to have been released.

That is a serious amount of methane with serious climate consequences in the short-run. Methane is many times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, though it decomposes in the atmosphere more quickly. Carbon dioxide sticks around in the atmosphere for a longer time, but each individual molecule of CO2 has less of a warming effect than a molecule of methane.

The EPA's own analysis also says than an additional 100,000 short tons of volatile organic compounds and 3,800 short tons of hazardous air pollutants would also be emitted, compared to keeping the existing rules in place.

Trump admin. proposes rollback of methane rules to save industry $484 million The new rules would save regulatory costs for industry at a huge cost to climate. Megan Geuss, Ars Technica

...Apokolips...
Read more…

Florence...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 12, 2018 at 5:30am
At 2:30 a.m. EDT (0630 UTC) on Sept. 11, the MODIS instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite looked at Hurricane Florence in infrared light. MODIS found coldest cloud top temperatures around the eye, as cold as or colder than minus 80 degrees (yellow) Fahrenheit (minus 112 degrees Celsius). Surrounding the eye were thick rings of powerful storms with cloud tops as cold as or colder than minus 70 degrees (red) Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 degrees Celsius). Credit: NASA/NRL

Topics: Climate Change, Global Warming, NASA, Stochastic Modeling, Research, Weather

Predictive Modeling: Another good reason why science is important.

Sep. 11, 2018 – NASA Satellite Finds Hurricane Florence Undergoing Eyewall Replacement

NASA’s Aqua satellite provided an infrared look at powerful Hurricane Florence early on Sept. 11 that indicated it was likely undergoing eyewall replacement.

Intense hurricanes can and often undergo an eyewall replacement cycle. That happens when a new eyewall or ring of thunderstorms within the outer rain bands forms further out from the storm’s center, outside of the original eye wall. That ring of thunderstorms then begins to choke off the original eye wall, starving it of moisture and momentum. Eventually, if the cycle is completed, the original eye wall of thunderstorms dissipates and the new outer eye wall of thunderstorms contracts and replace the old eye wall. The storm’s intensity can fluctuate over this period, initially weakening as the inner eye wall dies before again strengthening as the outer eye wall contracts.

Florence (was Potential Tropical Cyclone 6) 2018, NASA

Read more…

Water Worlds...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 11, 2018 at 5:30am
In a new study, Asst. Prof. Edwin Kite finds ocean planets could stay in zone of habitability longer than previously assumed. Copyright istockphoto.com

Topics: Astronomy, Astrobiology, Astrophysics, Exoplanet, Planetary Science, Space Exploration

The conditions for life surviving on planets entirely covered in water are more fluid than previously thought, opening up the possibility that water worlds could be habitable, according to a new paper from the University of Chicago and Pennsylvania State University.

The scientific community has largely assumed that planets covered in a deep ocean would not support the cycling of minerals and gases that keeps the climate stable on Earth, and thus wouldn’t be friendly to life. But the study, published Aug. 31 in The Astrophysical Journal, found that ocean planets could stay in the “sweet spot” for habitability much longer than previously assumed. The authors based their findings on more than a thousand simulations.

“This really pushes back against the idea you need an Earth clone—that is, a planet with some land and a shallow ocean,” said Edwin Kite, assistant professor of geophysical sciences at UChicago and lead author of the study.

As telescopes get better, scientists are finding more and more planets orbiting stars in other solar systems, called exoplanets. Such discoveries are resulting in new research into how life could potentially survive on other planets, some of which are very different from Earth—some may be covered entirely in water hundreds of miles deep.

Analysis by UChicago, Penn State scientists challenges idea that life requires ‘Earth clone’

Louise Lerner, University of Chicago News

Read more…

Breakthrough...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 10, 2018 at 5:30am
Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered pulsars as a PhD student.Credit: David Hartley/Shutterstock

Topics: Astrophysics, Diversity, Diversity in Science, Nobel Prize, Pulsar, Women in Science

Fifty years after discovering pulsars — compact rotating stars that emit beams of radiation — astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell has been awarded one of the most lucrative prizes in science: a US$3-million Breakthrough prize. Thought by many to have been snubbed for a Nobel prize for the discovery1, Bell Burnell, 75, has been recognized by the Breakthrough committee with a special award in fundamental physics for both her scientific achievements and her “inspiring leadership” over the past five decades.

“I cannot think of a more deserving scientist to win this prize,” says Chiara Mingarelli, an astrophysicist at the Flatiron Institute in New York City. “In addition to being both a pioneer and a giant in the field, Bell Burnell is the highest calibre role model — a champion for women in science, who speaks out against the many inequities faced by women in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] fields.”

The Breakthrough prizes were launched in 2012 and are funded by entrepreneurs including Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg. Awarded in fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics and each worth $3 million, they are usually handed out in December, based on selections made after an open nomination process. But the selection committee can decide to make special awards, bypassing the standard nomination procedure, to those they deem particularly deserving. Previous special awards have been given to Stephen Hawking, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) collaboration for the discovery of gravitational waves, and seven CERN scientists who co-ordinated the hunt for the Higgs boson.

Pulsar discoverer Jocelyn Bell Burnell wins $3-million Breakthrough Prize

Zeeya Merali, Nature

Related link:

Scientist Robbed of Nobel in 1974 Finally Wins $3 Million Physics Prize — And Gives It Away

Rafi Letzter, Live Science

Read more…

Imperious Manchurian...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 7, 2018 at 4:41am
Ferdy on Films - The Manchurian Candidate

Topics: Commentary, Existentialism, Politics

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." Orange Satan, Snopes

Note: The disdain of a conman is he has no respect for his marks. If they fall for his shtick, he respects and fears them far less than the clear-eyed who won't be fooled.

Mutt without Jeff? Corn beef sans cabbage? Unthinkable. Knebel without Bailey? Well, it's hard to tell the difference. It's still the same sort of push button/panic button story about politics from the Pentagon to the Hill, only this time one of the levers got stuck close to the beginning. The one called Idea. This is, namely, that a president of the United States, and he's got his button (The Bomb), has lost his other buttons. He's mentally disabled. No one suspects that Mark Hollenbach, a figure of great rectitude and a strong drive for excellence, is paranoid. Except Jim MacVeagh, a senator, whom he has just tapped as his next running mate. Jim, young, attractive, but lazy, has a family. He also has had, on the side, Rita, ""the urgency and solace of sex."" As the F.B.I. investigates this, at Hollenbach's instigation, Jim tries to persuade others just before a private Summit meeting. They remain unconvinced, think Jim is disturbed, and only Rita can supply the evidence until the President's unreasonableness becomes apparent elsewhere, and action, sadly missing throughout the book, is finally taken...Let's see now -- it could be Fredric March, Kirk Douglas, Ava Gardner. Oh, no, that was Seven Days in May. This isn't.

KIRKUS REVIEW, "Night of Camp David" by Fletcher Knebel.

There has been the flourishing of a cottage industry, from "Fire and Fury" by Mike Wolff; "A Higher Loyalty" by Former FBI Director James Comey; "What Happened" by Former Secretary and presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton; "Unhinged" by Omarosa Manigault Newman and the soon-coming "Fear" by Bob Woodward. It's been a great year for authors; terrible for trees. He has been referred to as "a poor man's idea of what a rich man is like." He refers to himself in third person with the single syllable contraction of his name to invoke a Mafia kingpin. He's more a caricature of a caricature of actual mob bosses: imagining himself Vito or Michael Corleone of "The Godfather," when he's actually Fredo.

The New York Times Op Ed from a staffer that is internal to this "administration" is literally the icing on the cake. I am not sure if a five-deferment draft dodger, serial adulterer that pays off the silence of his mistresses and insults all of our allies, but routinely avoids insulting a foreign adversary with all the deference of a sex worker to a pimp can call the author "gutless." This is a Constitutional Crisis as David Frum, former speech writer for President George W. Bush (he was the "axis of evil" guy), opined such in The Atlantic. Real patriots step out of the shadows into the light. Real courageous actors don't "look the other way" and get tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation to the same Wall Street entities that caused the last Great Recessions (almost becoming a Great Depression). We appear determined to prove the definition of insanity.

Hans Christian Anderson's "The Emperor's New Clothes" has been shortened to a byword and pejorative "the emperor has no clothes," shouted originally from the mouth of a small child of his constituency in the story, saying what the more reserved adults around him dared not say. It is stating the blatantly obvious as the "Southern Strategy" grandparents of MAGA supporters once did, now parroted by their progeny:

"The Manchurian Candidate" as a movie came out in my birth year. It, like Knebel's Camp David is admittedly dystopian. It was a plausible thriller during the Cold War with the former Soviet Union that posited a hostile power could have unparalleled and unwanted influence on a political figure; the potential for controlling the office of the presidency. Plausible, but until recent events unthinkable. Life is stranger than art.

"Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over." Op Ed by Anonymous in the New York Times

Read more…

Impulse Speeds...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 6, 2018 at 5:30am
The simulated radio images in this not-to-scale artist's illustration show superfast jets blasting from the black hole created by the merger of two neutron stars, a dramatic event observed in August 2017. In the 155 days between two observations, the jet appeared to move 2 light-years, a distance that would require it to travel four times faster than light. This "superluminal motion" is an illusion created as the jet is pointed nearly toward the Earth; it is actually moving at about 97 percent light speed. Credit: D. Berry, O. Gottlieb, K. Mooley, G. Hallinan, NRAO/AUI/NSF

Topics: Astrophysics, Cosmology, Einstein, Special Relativity, Star Trek

The dramatic neutron-star merger that astronomers spotted last year generated a jet of material that seemed to move at four times the speed of light, a new study reports.

"Seemed" is the operative word here, of course; the laws of physics tell us that nothing can travel faster through space than light. So, the superluminal motion was an illusion, which was caused by the jet's (still very fast) speed and the fact that it blasted almost directly at us, researchers said.

"Based on our analysis, this jet most likely is very narrow, at most 5 degrees wide, and was pointed only 20 degrees away from the Earth’s direction," study co-author Adam Deller, of the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, said in a statement from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), a facility of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).

Faster Than Light? Neutron-Star Merger Shot Out a Jet with Seemingly Impossible Speed

Mike Wall, Space.com

Read more…

Brownian Penroses...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 5, 2018 at 5:30am
Moving pictures: microscope image of a quasicrystal two days after release. The right half has been color coded. (Courtesy: Po-Yuan Wang and Thomas Mason/Nature)

Topics: Brownian Motion, Einstein, Quasicrystal, Theoretical Physics

A quasicrystal made from tiny Penrose tiles that undergo Brownian motion has been created by Po-Yuan Wang and Thomas Mason at the University of California-Los Angeles. The duo was able to track changes in the 2D structure as tiles moved around, observing a range of effects including melting. As well as shedding further light on the properties of quasicrystals, the new lithographic fabrication technique could be used to study a wide range of colloidal systems.

Until relatively recently, scientists had assumed that all crystals have translational symmetry. This means they comprise a periodically-repeating unit cell of atoms that fills space without any voids. In contrast, quasicrystals do not have translational symmetry – they possess rotational symmetry – but also fill space without any voids.

The unexpected discovery of quasicrystalline materials was made in 1984 by the Israeli materials engineer Dan Shechtman, who was later awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Although the discovery was first met with skepticism, hundreds of solid-state quasicrystals have since been discovered. Furthermore, researchers are looking at potential applications of quasicrystals that range from aerospace to coatings of surgical and kitchen utensils.

Brownian motion melts a quasicrystal of tiny Penrose tiles

Soft Matter and Liquids, Physics World

Read more…

Slipshod and Hubris...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 4, 2018 at 5:30am
Operation Upshot-Knothole at the Nevada Test Site on April 18, 1953. Credit: Getty Images

Topics: Biomedicine, Commentary, Existentialism, Nuclear Power, Philosophy

As someone who recalls doing "duck and cover drills," I consider everyday a good day when this is not my sunrise.

The United States is not prepared to deal with the aftermath of a major nuclear attack, despite North Korea’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons and the increasing tensions between nations overall. That was the blunt assessment of public-health experts who participated in a meeting last week on nuclear preparedness, organized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The gathering is “an acknowledgement that the threat picture has changed, and that the risk of this happening has gone up”, says Tener Veenema, who studies disaster nursing at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and co-chaired the conference in Washington DC.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States’s research and preparedness efforts for a nuclear strike have focused largely on the possibility of a terrorist attack with a relatively small, improvised 1-kilotonne weapon or a ‘dirty bomb’ that sprays radioactive material.

But North Korea is thought to have advanced thermonuclear weapons—each more than 180 kilotonnes in size—that would cause many more casualties than would a dirty bomb (see ‘Damage estimates’). “Now that thermonuclear is back on the table, we’re back to people saying, ‘We can’t deal with this,’” says Cham Dallas, a public-health researcher at the University of Georgia in Athens.

U.S. Is Woefully Unprepared for Nuclear Strike, Sarah Reardon, Scientific American

Related link:

10 Chilling Facts About The MAD Doctrine – Mutually Assured Destruction, Joris Nieuwint, War History Online

Read more…

Product Review Updates #4

Posted by Stephen Alexander on September 3, 2018 at 7:00am

Occasionally, I will alert fellow members to product updates by creators I have reviewed in the past year or so. 

Here's what I found this week since I had extra time because it RAINED TOO MUCH!!!

  • Chessmasters by Insane Comics is gone. Even their back issues on Comixology are gone too. I was waiting for #6 to come out before buying the whole set. It's a shame. I think the writing crew is still active though at their facebook group Second Sight Studios.
  • Resistance: Battle of Philadelphia has finally past production! Releases Sept 7! Look for it at their site here. I was going to review it myself but someone else beat me to it.
  • Lawrence Johnson Sr. has made more stories (and audiobooks!) in the Da'quan detective story that continued in Murder on the Eros Star. They are up at Amazon and Smashwords. You can read the latest here.
  • Apparently, Marcus Stokes, director of The Signal, has worked on an episode of The Flash airing this winter? I think that's what his site says. You can see for yourself (and his other projects) here.

That's all I got this month. If you see a creator I've reviewed doing new stuff, post a comment down below.

Read more…

Silencing Future Springs...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 3, 2018 at 5:30am

Topics: Climate Change, Ecology, Economy, Existentialism, Politics

The above is a very insightful interview from Chris Hedges, which its introduction gives a provocative image (not meant to be demeaning to the poor, nor sexist to women). In the Fermi Paradox that wasn't a paradox and apparently, wasn't Fermi's, the tantalizing, generic question of "where are the aliens?" may simply be answered by: if there were any, their civilization was probably consumed by their hierarchal rich.

Silent Spring began with a “fable for tomorrow” – a true story using a composite of examples drawn from many real communities where the use of DDT had caused damage to wildlife, birds, bees, agricultural animals, domestic pets, and even humans. Carson used it as an introduction to a very scientifically complicated and already controversial subject. This “fable” made an indelible impression on readers and was used by critics to charge that Carson was a fiction writer and not a scientist.

Carson’s passionate concern in Silent Spring is with the future of the planet and all life on Earth. She calls for humans to act responsibly, carefully, and as stewards of the living earth.

Additionally Silent Spring suggested a needed change in how democracies and liberal societies operated so that individuals and groups could question what their governments allowed others to put into the environment. Far from calling for sweeping changes in government policy, Carson believed the federal government was part of the problem. She admonished her readers and audiences to ask “Who Speaks, And Why?” and therein to set the seeds of social revolution. She identified human hubris and financial self-interest as the crux of the problem and asked if we could master ourselves and our appetites to live as though we humans are an equal part of the earth’s systems and not the master of them.

Carson expected criticism, but she did not expect to be personally vilified by the chemical industry and its allies in and out of government. She spent her last years courageously defending the truth of her conclusions until her untimely death in 1964.

Source: Rachel Carson dot org

Read more…

Of Primates and Propaganda...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 31, 2018 at 5:30am

Topics: African Americans, Civics, Civil Rights, History, Human Rights, Politics

Definition of MONKEY WITH

informal : to handle or play with (something) in a careless way : to monkey around with (something) I told you not to monkey with the lawn mower.

Definition of MONKEY

: a nonhuman primate mammal with the exception usually of the lemurs and tarsiers : a person resembling a monkey : a ludicrous figure : dupe

: mimic, mock : to act in a grotesque or mischievous manner Merriam-Webster

Definition of PROPAGANDA

1 : capitalized : a congregation of the Roman curia having jurisdiction over missionary territories and related institutions 2 : the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person 3 : ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; also : a public action having such an effect Merriam-Webster

Only hours after their primary election victories, DeSantis appeared on Fox News and called Gillum an “articulate” candidate, adding: “The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting this state. That is not going to work. It’s not going to be good for Florida.”

The Florida Democratic party immediately decried DeSantis’s comment as racist. “It’s disgusting that Ron DeSantis is launching his general election campaign with racist dog whistles,” said the party chairwoman, Terry Rizzo, in a statement emailed to reporters. The Guardian

*****

It has to be exhausting to his staff that have to spin every inane tweet sent after morning bowel movements.

It has to be exhausting to his lawyers who probably give adequate advice to a guy who's more used to "winging it" and going from his pretentious, expansive gut.

It IS exhaustive to turn on the news for coverage of his latest insane stream-of-consciousness riff in 140 misspelled characters; endless lies, slurred speech and rude behavior. His predecessor was barred from giving a "back-to-school" pep talk in predominately red, decidedly racist districts (I had a back-and-forth with the Texas superintendent of the high school my youngest son attended - he eventually blocked my emails and ignored my calls). The biggest fear now from the orange Satan would be the number of "F-bombs" he'd likely drop veering off the teleprompter.

He's the poster-child of WAS[P] privilege that exasperates "the other" more qualified women, minorities that prepare for promotion and see the rug snatched from under them from ignoramus nincompoops. I enclose the "P" as White Anglo Saxon is physically evident: he's as marginally Protestant as his mastery of "Two Corinthians." His ascendancy has only revealed the evangelical community's callous hypocrisy. "Family values" is a pejorative, as 81% of them voted for the p---y grabber, and follow someone more in line with Damien in "The Omen" series than Yeshua of Nazareth.

DeSantis decries any charges of racism, post appearances on a network that has a viewer demographic of 94% white, 3% Hispanic/Latino; 2% Asian, 1% African American and that he personally made appearances on with 93 million dollars of free airtime to appeal to that almost exclusively home to the white anxiety demographic and one powerful conspiracy theorist.

We are well past "depending on what the meaning of the word is 'is'" into the realm of fantasy; the land of make believe. A recorded interview with Lester Holt (a republican, I might add) is suddenly "fudging" because the Dear Leader says so, and his ditto heads nod, mumbling something about the "deep state." Truth and reality are under daily assault, and it IS exhausting because we're dealing with a person with serious mental health issues, the most blatant being bigotry, demonstrated from the days he was a registered democrat. There is equal-opportunity to being an asshole.

Calling African Americans monkeys has recent examples in the Obama family depicted as chimpanzees (especially in Russia); Wulf D. Hund, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Department of Socioeconomics, University of Hamburg, and Charles W Mills, John Evans Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, Northwestern University wrote an essay in The Conversation (published on Huffington Post, South Africa): "Comparing Black People To Monkeys Has A Long, Dark Simian History." It goes back to the cringe-worthy observations by news reporters regarding the diction of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell. How EXACTLY is a general supposed to speak other than with perfect diction? The point was so racist, Chris Rock made it a part of his stand up.

Stacey Abrams in Georgia, Andrew Gilliam in Florida and Ben Jealous (my fraternity brother) in Maryland represent the changing demographics of the nation, its inexorable diversification. This is occurring after centuries of genocide (Native Americans); kidnapping and miscegenation of African Americans, multicultural relationships and marriages both gay and straight since Loving and immigration - both legal and illegal - that have some decrying the "melting pot" and looking backwards: to a time that "never was," when the nation had the "purity" of a blanched broth. Entropy and "times arrow" points forward, and forward typically denotes progress, and change.

We do this...together, all cultures; genders, republicans, democrats, independents as a NATION, without an outside hostile force selecting our leaders like "useful idiot" pawns on a grand chessboard - where the jester is only conversant in tick-tack-toe.

Fandango movie trailer: Active Measures

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Read more…

Alien Climate Change Scenarios...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 30, 2018 at 5:30am
University of Rochester illustration / Michael Osadciw

Topics: Astrobiology, Climate Change, Mathematical Models, Planetary Science, SETI

Researchers developed a mathematical model to determine how alien civilizations might cope with climate change. The research was led by astrophysicist Adam Frank, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester. The researchers looked at the problem of civilized planets facing climate change from an astrobiological perspective.

Frank says in a statement, "If we're not the universe's first civilization, that means there are likely to be rules for how the fate of a young civilization like our own progresses. The point is to recognize that driving climate change may be something generic. The laws of physics demand that any young population, building an energy-intensive civilization like ours, is going to have feedback on its planet. Seeing climate change in this cosmic context may give us better insight into what’s happening to us now and how to deal with it."

The Four Scenarios:

1. Die off
2. Sustainability
3. Collapse without resources
4. Collapse with resources

My vote is #2.

Researchers Envision Four Climate Change Scenarios for Civilization-Planet Systems

Science, Space and Robots

#P4TC: ET and Climate Change...June 25, 2014

Read more…

Evidence of Things Unseen...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 29, 2018 at 5:30am
Schematic illustration of charge carriers confined within a TMD flake comprising different thicknesses. Charge carriers in the ground state (blue) can be excited upon resonant light excitation to a higher state (pink). Credit: ICFO/Fabien Vialla
Topics: Laser, Nanotechnology, Optical Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Semiconductor Technology

All deference to the Apostle Paul. It seemed an apropos title to the post.

Semiconducting heterostructures are key to the development of electronics and opto-electronics. Many applications in the infrared and terahertz frequency range exploit transitions, called intersubband transitions, between quantized states in semiconductor quantum wells. These intraband transitions exhibit very large oscillator strengths, close to unity. Their discovery in III-V semiconductor heterostructures depicted a huge impact within the condensed matter physics community and triggered the development of quantum well infrared photodetectors as well as quantum cascade lasers.

Quantum wells of the highest quality are typically fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy (sequential growth of crystalline layers), which is a well-established technique. However, it poses two major limitations: Lattice-matching is required, restricting the freedom in materials to choose from, and the thermal growth causes atomic diffusion and increases interface roughness.

2-D materials can overcome these limitations since they naturally form a quantum well with atomically sharp interfaces. They provide defect-free and atomically sharp interfaces, enabling the formation of ideal QWs, free of diffusive inhomogeneities. They do not require epitaxial growth on a matching substrate and can therefore be easily isolated and coupled to other electronic systems such as Si CMOS or optical systems such as cavities and waveguides.

Surprisingly enough, intersubband transitions in few-layer 2-D materials had never been studied before, neither experimentally nor theoretically. Thus, in a recent study published in Nature Nanotechnology, ICFO researchers Peter Schmidt, Fabien Vialla, Mathieu Massicotte, Klaas-Jan Tielrooij, Gabriele Navickaite, led by ICREA Prof at ICFO Frank Koppens, in collaboration with the Institut Lumière Matière—CNRS, Technical University of Denmark, Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, CIC nanoGUNE, and the National Graphene Institute, report on the first theoretical calculations and first experimental observation of inter-sub-band transitions in quantum wells of few-layer semiconducting 2-D materials (TMDs).

Nano-imaging of intersubband transitions in few-layer 2-D materials, Phys dot org

More information: Peter Schmidt et al. Nano-imaging of intersubband transitions in van der Waals quantum wells, Nature Nanotechnology (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41565-018-0233-9

Read more…

Hobbits, Bots and Vaxxers...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 28, 2018 at 5:30am
Russian agents exploit anti-vax messaging to stir up discord. PETER DAZELEY/GETTY IMAGES

Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Computer Science, Computing, Human Rights, Internet, Politics

From Friday's post: “Putin’s thesis is that the American constitution is an experiment that will fail if it is challenged in the right way from within,” Mitchell continued. “Putin wants to break apart the American republic not by influencing an election or two, but by systematically inflaming the fault lines within our society. Accepting this fact is absolutely essential for developing a long-term response to the problem.”

Russian online users known as trolls are taking to social media to sow public conflict about vaccination, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

In what sounds like a hybrid story joining Star Trek and The Hobbit, US researchers from George Washington University, the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University found that bots, trolls, cyborgs, content polluters and other actors stimulate distrust in the efficacy of vaccination to prevent diseases.

Many of these actors spread false or misleading information, but sources identified as Russian in origin produce messages that argue on both sides of the discussion, with the aim, the researchers suggest, of “promoting discord”.

“Accounts masquerading as legitimate users create false equivalency, eroding public consensus on vaccination,” the report finds.

“These trolls seem to be using vaccination as a wedge issue, promoting discord in American society,” says Mark Dredze, one of the authors of the study.

If you are among the few that don't think our elections were compromised in a directed assault, this is more personal. Vaccinations impact what the CDC refers to as herd immunity. That has helped to eliminate diseases - mostly to children - that used to prove fatal to them.

This is Russia literally trying...to kill us.

Research finds Russian trolls, bots, stoke US vaxxer conflict, Jeff Glorfeld, Cosmos Magazine

Read more…

Trump Madness- A Fistful of Treason

Posted by Winston Blakely on August 27, 2018 at 12:41pm

    Here's something to tickle your fancy. A trump parody t-shirt.

    Yes, the commander in thief gets his due... on 100% cotton, that

    is.

     Please feel free to wear it at the upcoming Impeachment Party

    or anytime you choose.  Link is below for you to enjoy.

     

      Get yours today and support your local artist...

              https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/3035612-fistful-of-trump?store_id=152428

    

           thank you

Read more…

Admiration and Gratitude...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 27, 2018 at 5:30am
Image Source: NASA link below

Topics: African Americans, History, Diversity, Diversity in Science, NASA, Women in Science

When Jasmine Byrd started her job at NASA about two years ago, she knew nothing about Katherine Johnson, the mathematician and “human computer” whose achievements helped inspire the book and movie “Hidden Figures.”

At that point, the release of the film was still months away. But excitement was building — particularly at Byrd’s new workplace. She’d arrived at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, where Johnson spent her entire, 33-year NACA and NASA career.

Soon, Byrd felt a strong connection to a woman she’d never met, nearly 70 years her senior.

“I was just enthralled with her story,” said Byrd, a project coordinator for NASA’s Convergent Aeronautics Solutions Project. Today, she works inside Langley’s Building 1244, the same hangar-side location where Johnson crunched numbers for the Flight Research Division in the 1950s.

“I am thankful for the bridge that Katherine built for someone like myself to easily walk across,” Byrd said. “It helps me to not take this opportunity for granted. I know there were people before me who put in a lot of work and went through a lot of turmoil at times to make sure it was easier for people like myself.”

Jasmine Byrd, who works as a project coordinator at NASA's Langley Research Center, looks at an image of Katherine G. Johnson in the lobby of the building named in Johnson's honor. "I was just enthralled with her story," Byrd said. Credits: NASA/David C. Bowman

As Katherine G. Johnson’s 100th birthday — Aug. 26 — approached, many Langley employees expressed admiration for the woman whose math powered some of America’s first triumphs in human space exploration.

Johnson did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard’s May 1961 mission Freedom 7, America’s first human spaceflight. At a time when digital computers were relatively new and untested, she famously checked the computer’s math for John Glenn’s historic first orbital spaceflight by an American in February of 1962.

Those are just two bullet points in a brilliant career that stretched from 1953 to 1986.

Her 100th birthday was recognized throughout NASA and around the world. But at Langley, the milestone created an extra measure of pride and joy.

NASA:

At Langley, Admiration and Gratitude Multiply on Katherine Johnson’s 100th Birthday

Read more…

The Mendacity of Dopes...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 24, 2018 at 5:30am
MAXIM SHEMETOV / REUTERS

Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Existentialism, Human Rights, Politics

“Putin’s thesis is that the American constitution is an experiment that will fail if it is challenged in the right way from within,” Mitchell continued. “Putin wants to break apart the American republic not by influencing an election or two, but by systematically inflaming the fault lines within our society. Accepting this fact is absolutely essential for developing a long-term response to the problem.” The problem Mitchell was describing has a kind of heads-I-win-tails-you-lose quality to it as far as Putin is concerned: Not only has the Russian leader tried to exploit political polarization over issues like race and guns, his attempts to do so have themselves become deeply divisive—to the point where even Trump’s advisers frequently find themselves at odds with the man they serve.

Part of Mitchell’s argument—which might be viewed favorably by a president who has taken particular umbrage at the notion that Putin sought to help him defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race—was that the Russian government isn't necessarily interested in supporting a specific politician, party, or ideology. Instead, it simply wants to sow chaos in the United States to advance its own goals, which it sees as threatened by America’s preeminent position in the world. Mitchell cited the revelations on Tuesday that suspected Russian government hackers have been targeting conservative U.S. think tanks and promoting “fringe voices” on both the left and the right on social-media sites like Facebook.

Fascism (noun):
often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition Merriam-Webster

Racism (noun):
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races. Dictionary.com

White supremacy (noun):
The belief that white people are superior to those of all other races, especially the black race, and should therefore dominate society. Oxford Dictionaries

The radical and religious right had long ago convinced themselves that Vladimir Putin and Russia were their friends. Whereas I and more sane members of the human species look upon "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood as a fanciful dystopian novel, and highly imaginative rendition on Netflix (I'll reserve my commentary on the end of season 2). Other elements of our human family, more familiar with the fearful, reptilian portion of our evolved brains, look upon it, "1984" by George Orwell and "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley and Russia's methods...as blueprints.

The election of the first and only African American in the history of the republic, to that point 232 years in 2008, set up revulsion on the "white" right that culminated in racist birtherism, witch doctor bone-in-nose bigotry with respect to the Affordable Care Act; effigies of the 44th president either burned, hung (or, both) and the memorable "pray for the president" bumper stickers from a bizarre verse application of Psalms 109:8 - 10 (shortened to verse 8, but understood in total):

"8 May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. 9 May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. 10 May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes."

Excerpt from "Black Labor, White Wealth: The Search for Power and Economic Justice," (August 1, 1994) Claude Anderson, Ed. D., Chapter 2: Power and Black Progress:

Chapter 2, page 33, subsection titled:
Numerical Population Power
     In a democratic society, the numerical majority wins, rules and decides. The theoretical rights of a minority, may or may not be respected, especially if they are a planned minority. Numerical population power is the power that comes to those groups that acquire power through their sheer size. The black population peaked in the 1750s when slaves and free blacks accounted for approximately 33 percent of the total population. The high numerical strength of blacks caused fear and concern among whites. They feared the loss of their own numerical power. Word of black Haitians successful slave revolt in the 1790s had spread across America and reportedly ignited several slave revolts in Southern states.

     The First U.S. Congress enacted the first naturalization law that declared American to be a nation for "whites only." The naturalization act and other income incentives attracted a mass influx of legal and illegal European ethnics, followed by Asian and Hispanic immigrants a century later. The immigration quota for blacks remained zero until their total percentage of the population declined to nine percent. By making blacks a planned numerical minority, white society assured its dominance in a democratic society where the majority always wins. Source: Sample chapter

This is the metastasis of "The Southern Strategy" a rancid, racist tactic that was birthed on the heels of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. It was and is a desperate bid for power. It predates itself as the definition of "white" changed from excluding everyone except "Nordic stock" Europeans (the English, mostly) to eventually including the previously excluded: Italians, Jews [and ironically] Russians all had tiny quotas. The resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and the nascent eugenics movement in the United States fueled and influenced immigration policy in the earlier part of the last century. Admittedly, despite its reprehensible aims, it worked remarkably well for quite a while.

A president with decidedly African features, he and his wife both educated at Ivy League schools and a pitch-perfect family did not personify the fictional "Huxtables" before the fall of Mr. Cosby to their many detractors. The continual reminder that the country is becoming browner only ignited more fear and resolve to fight a demographic shift not in their favor of continual predominance circa 2042 - 2045. Their resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue transmitted a well-worn, white supremacist trope regarding farmland in South Africa (it's returning the farmland to their original, African owners), but he needs a distraction since his  former campaign manager and former personal lawyer were both found guilty on a total of 16 felony counts in a matter of minutes. Their visceral reaction to them was an existential crisis, a call to arms; a "white genocide," ironically feared by the descendants of those that caused it well before the "Trail of Tears" for Native Americans. It caused Roger Ailes to see the power of televised propaganda and cater to an audience that were well past facts post the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine and the rise of listening to Rush Limbaugh on AM Talk Radio and his "ditto head" clones; well past reasoned discourse before Twitter came online. What facts can be revealed are rebuffed by an avalanche of lies, there are no "gotchas" for a party that with the help of Karl Rove started "creating their own realities" a long time ago. A sizable chunk of the electorate has been in this "post-truth" Twilight Zone for decades.

All they needed was a useful idiot avatar, and a master spy to push the republic over the precipice. Ironically, if successful, the 2nd Amendment along with all others in a theoretical fall of our republic would become meaningless as in Russia, there is no right to bear arms that "former Americans" would recognize or appreciate. The imagined confiscation by government "jackbooted thugs" may be under the flag of a foreign power that duped the gullible:

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

For the sake of all liberal democracies and humanity on the PLANET, they...MUST...fail.

Read more…

Tip of the Iceberg...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 23, 2018 at 5:30am
An artist’s impression of the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, which operated at Earth’s moon from 2008 to 2009. A new analysis of data from NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument aboard the spacecraft has found evidence of exposed water ice in dark craters around the moon’s poles. Credit: NASA/Indian Space Research Organization

Topics: Astrophysics, Moon, NASA, Planetary Science

Deposited in perpetually dark craters around the poles, the ice could be a boon for future crewed lunar outposts

The view that Earth’s moon is a dried out, desolate world may be all wet.

A new analysis of data from the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan 1 orbiter, which operated at the moon from 2008 to 2009, has revealed what researchers say is definitive proof of water ice exposed on the lunar surface. Gathered by NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) spectrometer onboard the Indian probe, the data all but confirm extensive-but-tentative evidence from earlier missions hinting at water ice deposits lurking in permanently shadowed craters at the moon’s poles. Such deposits could someday support crewed lunar outposts while also revealing previously hidden chapters of the moon’s history. The results appeared in a study published August 20 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Based on M3’s measurements of water ice’s near-infrared absorption features at and around the lunar poles, the study’s authors concluded the ice is only exposed in around 3.5 percent of the craters’ shadowed area, and is intermixed with large volumes of lunar dust. Such sparse coverage and heterogeneity suggests this lunar ice has a substantially different history than similar deposits found on other airless rocky worlds, such as Mercury and the dwarf planet Ceres, where water ice in permanently shadowed craters is more abundant and of greater purity.

Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt, Water Ice Exists on the Moon, Leonard David, Scientific American

Read more…