Sabine Hossenfelder criticizes academia and irrational constraining dogma

This ~14 minute video by Sabine Hossenfelder (PhD, physics), My dream died, and now I'm here (why academia sucks), sharply criticizes the academic Ivory Tower for timidity, at least in physics. She argues that academic science operates more like a business than an intellectually open human enterprise. She makes some good points, including a sharp accusation of misogyny.

GOP authoritarian moral rot; Wine improves with age; Talking to the flock; Israel vs Iran

The New Republic comments:

Looking back, it’s clear that one of the more fateful moments in the evolution of today’s Republican Party came when Kevin McCarthy made his abject pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago three weeks after January 6, 2021. This was, in essence, Donald Trump’s public absolution, with then-GOP leader McCarthy affirming that the Republican Party would make the construction of a monumental historical lie about the insurrection central to its identity for the foreseeable future.*

The infernal plan was to recast what was the largest outbreak of stateside political violence in memory as a just cause—while transforming the insurrectionists into victims and martyrs. By doing so, McCarthy would keep Trump and his movement safely in the Republican Party fold, ensuring the GOP electoral victories that could not be conceived of without their participation.

All of which set the stage for Mike Johnson’s groveling meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday. Billed as an event about “election integrity,” their press conference confirmed that the GOP remains as committed as ever to their disturbing post-insurrection path.

It was a deeply weird affair. With Trump hovering watchfully over Johnson, the House Speaker said that in campaigning, he’s discovered that people across the country just happen to be thoroughly obsessed with precisely the same thing that preoccupies Trump. “Everywhere we go, one of the first questions that people ask about is this issue of election integrity,” Johnson said.  

Johnson and Trump also announced that the House will pursue a new bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Johnson even rattled off a convoluted theory in which non-citizens are threatening our elections by the “design” of President Biden—a soft version of the “great replacement theory” that has become mainstreamed at the highest levels of Republican and MAGA establishment power.

Trump's authoritarianism and moral rot have taken full control of the Republican Party. Corruption, lies and crackpot anti-democracy conspiracies are the norm. Elections will be subverted into shams if Trump and his GOP get their way.

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The NYT reports, not paywalled off:

11% more adult Americans now believe that DJT is a "safe" choice!? Unbelievable but true. Terrifying. The stunning power of relentless dark free speech is on display here, yet again.

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The WaPo reports about rock solid rank and file loyalty to DJT:

Jerry Dean McLain first bet on former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social two years ago, buying into the Trump company’s planned merger partner, Digital World Acquisition, at $90 a share. Over time, as the price changed, he kept buying, amassing hundreds of shares for $25,000 — pretty much his “whole nest egg,” he said.

That nest egg has lost about half its value in the past two weeks as Trump Media & Technology Group’s share price dropped from $66 after its public debut last month to $32 on Friday. But McLain, 71, who owns a tree-removal service outside Oklahoma City, said he’s not worried. If anything, he wants to buy more.

“I know good and well it’s in Trump’s hands, and he’s got plans,” he said. “I have no doubt it’s going to explode sometime.”

For shareholders like McLain, investing in Truth Social is less a business calculation than a statement of faith in the former president and the business traded under his initials, DJT.

Even the company’s plunging stock price — and the chance their investments could get mostly wiped out — doesn’t seem to have shaken that faith. The company has lost $3.5 billion in value since its public debut last month.

As a business, Trump Media has largely underwhelmed: The company lost $58 million last year on $4 million in revenue, less than the average Chick-fil-A franchise, even as it paid out millions in executive salaries, bonuses and stock.  

And in two years, Truth Social has attracted a tiny fraction of the traffic other platforms see, according to estimates from the analytics firm Similarweb — one of the only ways to measure its performance, given that the company says it “does not currently, and may never, collect, monitor or report certain key operating metrics used by companies in similar industries.”

If this isn't personality cult reasoning and behavior, it has to be at least one heck of a tribe.

Note that Mr. McLain is 71 and has a nest egg of abought $25,000. His retirement is not going to be much fun, assuming he can retire at all. A lot of Americans, maybe ~50%, are in similar financial straits.

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The Hill and everyone else is reporting: US helps Israel repel Iran’s missile and drone attack --The U.S. helped its ally Israel repel a significant missile and drone assault by Iran, assisting with intercepting hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles. President Biden and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke following “Iran’s brazen attack” that targeted Israel on Saturday. The president said he reaffirmed U.S. support for Israel and condemned Iran’s missile and drone attacks during the call. .... Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that Israel is facing a “vicious” attack and the U.S. “must stand with its ally.

What about Israel's brazen, vicious attack of Iran's consulate in Damascus? Right, we defend that. Is the US going to get sucked into another one of the endless supply of wars in the rage & hate-driven Middle east?

Hm, today is not a good news day. Sigh. It's a toxic news day. ☠️ 

Biden is dragging America into war with Iran on behalf of Israel

by Trita Parsi

Exec. VP at Quincy Institute

Biden is about to drag America into war with Iran on behalf of Israel. The disastrous way he has handled matters since Israel bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus shows that any shift in Biden's policy on Israel was all talk, no walk. 

 

This is Biden's latest cave to Netanyahu. 

 

According to the US, it was not given an adequate heads-up for Israel's carefully calculated bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus. Not only was it a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention, but it also risked - perhaps intentionally - ending the fragile truce between the US, Iran, and Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and Syria. By that, Israel directly and knowingly jeopardized American security and put US troops at risk. Indeed, Sec. Def Austin complained to Israel about this. 

 

A normal and appropriate response from the President of the United States would have been to strongly rebuke Israel for jeopardizing American security (this was not an act of self-defense by any stretch of the imagination), condemn the attack due to its violation of a key tenet of international law, and use that even-handedness to also press Iran to show further restraint. 

 

But this is not how Biden operates, even when Israel undermines US interests and security. Even though Biden knows that Netanyahu has an interest in prolonging and enlarging the war - which Biden has declared contradicts US interests. 

 

Instead, Biden refused to condemn Israel's escalation and flagrant violation of international law (another major reveal of how meaningless Biden's Rules Based Order talk is) and effectively blocked the UN Security Council from condemning it as well. 

 

But perhaps most shockingly, Biden then goes on to give Israel another bearhug and another standing greenlight by repeatedly stating that US support for Israel is "iron-clad."  

 

So, instead of rebuking Israel for jeopardizing the safety of American troops in the Middle East, Biden rewarded Israel. 

 

And by that, he deprives Israel of any incentives to avoid pushing the Middle East toward a disastrous regional war that also [if not averted] will engulf the US. 

 

Biden's "bearhug" on October 8 helped remove any Israeli inhibitions about how it would conduct the war. Now, Biden has once again helped remove any such inhibitions about Israel starting a regional war that America doesn't want and doesn't need. 

 

Netanyahu is lucky to have such a deferential American president. America is unlucky to have such a weak president.

 

Parsi's homepage:

Ask your doctor (or psychologist) if this post is right for you…

This original post (OP) is strictly for my fellow wonderers here.  Others need not apply, or even read it.  Just move along.  We'll take it from here. 😊

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Thanks to scientific instrumentation, we are aware of many conditions outside our visual spectrum.  Centuries ago, before such instruments were developed, we humans believed that, visually, what we saw is what there was; nothing else.  Seeing was believing, case closed.  Claiming otherwise would have been considered absurd (delusional, witchcraft, looney-bin stuff).

At that time, we did not know that, for example, butterflies and other insects could see things we could not.  We did not know that gamma rays and microwaves and other phenomena were all around us.  

With the advent of future instrumentation, it turned out that our insistence of “what we see is what we get” was wrong; shockingly wrong.  We found out that another “slice of reality” existed right there alongside ours, at the same time, in parallel time, though we did not have direct access to it without such instrumentation.  Yes, it was "there, but not there," as it were.

Here’s another example of currently inaccessible phenomena.  We know that, on the chalkboard, there has to be more than the four dimensions (length, width, depth, and time) that we experience directly.  My understanding is that scientists in the know postulate that there are some 10 or 11 other dimensions that we currently do not have any access to whatsoever; and no instrumentation yet exists to give us such access.  It’s all theoretical except for the perfect chalkboard math.  And who can deny math?  When all is said and done, I'd say math is about the only perfect, solid, “can’t get around it” type phenomenon there is left.   

Where am I going with this?  Bottom line, even with today’s technological inventions and advancements, I still have to wonder just how “lacking” our knowledge is of what’s going on around us.  We have already surprisingly and unexpectedly found out so much, since those clueless days of ancient times.

Now, finally, for the questions:

1. Do you think that someday even more advanced technology will be developed to detect other phenomena that is currently outside our so-called modern-day instrumentation?  Or do you believe that we’ve gone as far as we can, instrumentation-wise? 

2. Regardless of having the needed instrumentation, do you believe there is something else (more) out there, other than what we currently know about?  If no, and if past centuries don't serve as prologue, what makes you so cocksure there’s nothing more?

3. If yes, there is something else (more), what could that something possibly be? (e.g., gods, spirits, afterlife, soul separation from the body, other parallel realities, multiple side-by-side versions of oneself, nonsensical oxymorons such as those square circles, solid liquids, other.)

Let your mind wander as it wonders.  Let’s brainstorm together.

(by PrimalSoup)

Exxon move to expand power to pollute; DJT lies gain traction

The Lever reports:

Exxon Declares War On Its Dissenters

The fossil fuel giant is suing investors to intimidate them from ever trying to influence corporate decisions.

ExxonMobil has launched an extraordinary lawsuit against two investment firms for the alleged offense of filing climate-focused shareholder proposals. The fossil fuel giant’s underlying goal: killing a federal regulatory effort that would make it easier for all U.S. shareholders to voice environmental and social concerns about the companies they own.

Critics say the company is also trying to intimidate shareholders from ever proposing such resolutions again in the future — under threat of being tied up in expensive litigation and incurring punitive financial penalties.

If successful, the Exxon lawsuit could set a legal precedent wrestling control away from regulators and cracking down on activist investors working to enact more climate-friendly policies.

And if DJT gets re-elected, we can rest assured that ExxonMobil will be free to pollute, cause the sea level to rise 50 feet, and make species go extinct as it wishes. 

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The WaPo reports about DJT's progress in converting lies into truths among his supporters:

Trump has made significant inroads in convincing Republicans that his lies are the truth. That applies to election integrity especially — the basis of Trump’s “big lie.”

Even more significant, Americans appear to have diverged on the meaning of honesty itself. Among Republicans, fewer now say that Trump regularly makes misleading statements. Slightly more view him as more honest than they did in 2018, despite an extraordinarily large amount of evidence that Trump often does not tell the truth. During Trump’s presidency, The Fact Checker documented more than 30,000 misleading or outright false claims, and since he began his second campaign for the White House against Joe Biden, he’s introduced new falsehoods to his catalogue: Inflation is “almost 50 percent” under President Biden; “nearly 1 million jobs held by native-born Americans” have been lost to immigrants. In a single December interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump made 24 false or misleading claims in five minutes — one every 12.5 seconds.

Six years ago, just about 1 in 4 Republicans (26 percent) agreed that millions of fraudulent votes were cast in the 2016 election. Now, 38 percent of Republicans — and 47 percent of strong Trump supporters — believe that is the case. Among all Americans, belief in this false claim hardly changed because Democrats moved sharply in the opposite direction from Republicans. Trump often made this claim to justify his loss of the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016, when the electoral college propelled him to the Oval Office.

Trump has convinced 70 percent of Republicans — and 81 percent of his strong supporters — that Biden won the 2020 election because of voter fraud, though not a single allegation has been proven. Slightly more than one-third of Americans overall believe this.

 

Voters who support DJT tend to be very low information voters and significantly deceived by years of DJT's lies. The power of those people to vote based on truth has been taken from them by deceit. Unfortunately, votes based on lies count just as much as votes based on truth. 

Puttin' your foot into it

 Man oh man, did I ever put my foot in my mouth yesterday (Germaine knows what I mean).

It got me thinking. How often we do it. How embarrassing when we do.

Makes me think of big time and important people when they do it. 

Trump does it a lot. But manages to shrug it off. Biden does it a lot. And we apologize for him.

Some is deliberate. Some is speaking without thinking. Some is reacting (as I did yesterday) without fully comprehending what we are reacting to.

Here is the irony.

It depends on who does it. We won't excuse it in someone but will excuse it in others. Again - thinking of important people. If a Republican says something - not asinine, just off the cuff and therefore silly, we have a different reaction than when a Democrat does the same. 

Human nature? Or just laziness? We should think twice before speaking or reacting? AND how should we feel when we get caught with our foot in our mouth?

Ok for you, but not for me? In short, I know Germaine has already forgiven me (I hope) but how quick are we to judge others who put their foot into it without realizing that we are prone to doing the same?

Whether online, in real life, or in politics - especially in politics.