Friday, June 30, 2017

And This Is Just One Of The Clocks That Are Ticking



JUST IN TIME FOR TRUMP'S SECOND TERM


A group of prominent scientists, policymakers, and corporate leaders released a statement Wednesday warning that if the world doesn’t set greenhouse gas emissions on a downward path by 2020, it could become impossible to contain climate change within safe limits.

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EXACERBATING INEQUALITIES


The most detailed economic study yet of global warming's cost to the United States finds that the Southeast and Midwest will be hardest hit.



If You Are Truly Worried About Branded Thought Creating Celebrities...

...As well as the commoditization of reality, maybe you should be giving more serious thought to the real problem: The fact that we remain with a now mutated form of economic organization; an operating system developed by linear, segmented, typographic thinking, and not the all inclusive, all at once, thinking of electrified information retrieval, which is where we are at now.

How much beating around the edges of what is going on in America can so many well intentioned political and social commentary magazines, do before they acknowledge the elephant in the room: Capitalism is done. Stick a fork in it and just hope you can pull it out again, it is so done; mutated down to something very hard, and ugly, and dangerous.

However difficult it may seem to be to conceptualize an alternative, we have to begin to do so. We have to do that and then begin the debate on how to implement it. We have to do this because what has become of what we have now is just not working any more. Pure and simple.


The Rise of the Thought Leader







The Complications Of Requiring Very Dangerous Processes

Complications made even more difficult when you think you can pay others to do them for you. Especially when the dangerous process has become an essential part of national security; no matter that you would rather not have to think about it at all, or not.

The first part of the complication, of course, comes in when concerns for profit weigh heavier than the concerns for safety. No small thing when we're talking about the safety of not only those close at hand, just trying to make a living, but of the rest of us as well because, with radiation, whether you are downwind or not, you are likely to eventually be put at risk anyway; usually in direct proportion to the seriousness of the radiation source; remembering that no dose is really safe if it might persist for a while.

I think we'd be at least safe in saying that the source described in the Science Magazine article linked below would have been quite serious.

But to get back to our other complications, we also have to acknowledge another aspect at work in this case: The fact that, concerns for safety aside, when you decide to let some commercial entity do a nasty, difficult task, and under which the work would necessarily be highly regimented, bureaucratic, and strict on what would have to be a bewildering array of rules, and regulations, concerning the work; difficulties quite separate from the also quite challenging technical knowledge that one would need to have command of. When you decide to have this kind commercial entity do all of this for you, you also have to understand that it might not attract the most gifted scientific, or engineering talent available; unless, of course, you're willing to pay obscene amounts of wage premiums to get the best.

In any case, though, what you might end up with might look very close to what we have, in fact, ended up with here. A production facility, critical in our nation's need for weapons grade plutonium (arguing the pros and cons of having these kinds weapons in the first place, though a worthy debate to have, is not relevant at all in this context. We made the choice to have them be a part of our deterrent structure so now we must stand by that choice until we can figure out how to make another choice, which is the proper context for the debate) that not only have come within (what, what may have been only a few human appendages of a chain full blown chain reaction?); but a facility that also seems incapable to implement the new safety measures to keep this sort of thing from happening again.

And so now, four years or so down the line and we are still not doing what we need to be doing with this very dangerous process we'd all like not to think about. And most of us probably won't think about it. The problem is, Congress isn't very likely to be thinking about it either, let alone the very fact of our having a de facto ex president as a supposed "Commander and Chief."

In case you haven't been paying attention this is a classic double whammy for the rest of us working people. We get it both from the inherent deficiencies of a "for profit" system, and from our supposed "representational" form of government; because representation in the context of electrified facade is absurd to the point of the very insanity you now see masquerading itself as government.

There is a lot on the line here. It is way past time you started taking action. And all you have to do is make talking about an alternative to Capitalism the main point of discussion wherever you interact on the web.

A near-disaster at a federal nuclear weapons
laboratory takes a hidden toll on
America’s arsenal




Thursday, June 29, 2017

A beautiful Thing Being Able To Connect...

...So personally, and deeply, into both form, and function; experiencing both the elegant design, and the sheer exhilaration of its expression.

What a remarkable person this woman must have been. I wish I could have known her.

CGI 3D Animated Short: "Aviatrice" - by The Aviatrice Team

Twitter Has Become A Corrupt, Vile Use Of Public Discussion...

...That stultifies the creative use of language. Everyone should stop using it ASAP.


'It's Like Quitting Smoking': Writer On Leaving Twitter

The Bottom Line Here For Me Is Simply That It's The Money...

...And the obsolete economic operating system that makes money possible, that are the real problems we will still need to solve, even if other problems have our immediate attention.


Fundraiser At Donald Trump Hotel 'Worse Than The Teapot Dome Scandal'






What A Surprise...

...More of exactly what I've been talking about. You know, about the down side of the electrification of the stimulation of want? And how we're awash in it virtually all of the time now?

And the more inured we get, or nearly buzzed out, the harder the signal strength will become, with ever more precise engineering, to compensate; across all channels and modalities. Twenty four seven.

Is there any way you could possibly see this as being, in any way, good for us? Good certainly for those who will profit from it, but for the rest of us? Can there be any wonder whatsoever as to why crazy is becoming the norm now?


IT KNOWS WHAT YOU'RE ASHAMED OF


The web browser is a dissatisfaction-seeking machine. Every search query we input reflects a desire — to have, to know, to find. And the machine can exploit our deepest, darkest vulnerabilities.





If We Really Wanted To Do Startup Right...

...We'd start up our own, employee owned nation. One that no longer has any need for commercialized "disrupters." We could make both our own stability, as well as our sense of value.

Talk about "what a concept!"


ALTERING THE TERRAIN


The famed incubator is now trying to make the whole world think like a startup.




The Problem Of Tracking Important, Specialized Skill Sets

What we see illustrated in the Digg link below is another example of what is a critical information flow that is not being kept track of. Much similar to the problem police departments across the nation have in hiring new officers; not knowing very often, as things currently stand, the full work history of a new hire.

You can easily see here why one institution, or organization, or whatever else, might want this kind of information not only collected reliably, and in a standardized format, but to also then have justified access to it. You can also see why this sort of thing would need protections in place to protect the rights of those whose livelihoods depended on that information being accurate in the first place, and not subject to unauthorized access. No less so any more than a person's medical history is currently protected (flawed though even that might be).

The fact is that we certainly have the ability to set up these kinds of critical information structures; and the network infrastructure is obviously available, but the rubber that meets the road here, unfortunately, is as it always is in this dysfunctional economic operating system or ours: The setup costs, and the then follow on support costs, never mind the argument about whether it should be a private, or public agency, would be just another budgetary item Congress wouldn't have a clue as to how to even prioritize, let alone actually fund.

And don't forget, where there's information, there's blood in the water as far as profit sharks are concerned.

All of this goes away, however, if we accepted the fact that we have to, absolutely, have a new economic operating system. Especially if it were one that de emphasized specialization (you obviously can't get rid of it, nor would you ever want to, but I do think, with the right application of new technology, it can be de emphasized) as my alternative would. How could it be otherwise if we shared doing all of the things that needed doing (to keep our communities going) to the greatest degree possible? Recognizing, and accepting, that this percentage wouldn't be very high in the beginning, but with patience, and ongoing determination, it could be made to be a good deal higher than most of you might imagine.

The thing to remember here is that this would have to be done as part of a full, nation wide mobilization. Just as if we were like the "Greatest Generation," back in WW 2. And in that do you also have to remember the fact that we retrained millions to do things they probably wouldn't have ever even dreamed they would be doing otherwise. Women became machinists, aircraft assemblers, and even pilots. Men became mechanics, boiler operators, medics, logistics masters, and even soldiers, on every kind of ship, Army and Airforce base.

To do this may well be the most difficult thing a society as ever undertaken; transforming themselves on such a fundamental basis, but that in no way means it cannot be done. And as impossible as that may seem to you now, compared to the chaos that is coming if we do nothing, I guarantee you will be looking back to this opportunity missed with a much more informed perspective.

This means you have to start taking action now, in spreading the word that Capitalism must go, and the debate on what to replace it with must begin. Even the longest journeys as they say.


'PASSING THE TRASH'


Erik Shapiro was accused of making unwanted sexual advances on a student, but when he went to a new university, the allegations were kept under wraps, exposing a major problem with how sexual harassment accusations get addressed in higher education.


So Typical Of The Blinders Most Of The Political Leadership Have Today Concerning The Absurdity Of Market Determined Skill Values

Rather than question the economic operating system that creates such impossible contradictions for social health (valuing teaching so little that it can't even live near the students who need instruction) in the first place, the leadership in San Francisco seeks to put a miserable bandaid on the problem by suggesting the allocation of a few tens of millions in order to create affordable housing artificially.

And of course, in this do they even bother to consider the desires of the teachers? To consider whether they might not be so hot on the idea of living in what amounts to city provided barracks? Or to think of the further class divisiveness that this would ordinarily create; putting a socially important holder of a skill in an automatically stigmatized, and segregated, living area? Will they start doing the same for all of the other socially important skill sets we don't properly value now? Will those who do child day care be ostracized like this as well? Those who take care of our elderly? The list could certainly be continued, depending on what you see as socially important. Hell, are the people who collect our garbage any less important (I think you get the idea)?

The point here is simply this; At some point those who are in a position of making important social decisions have to just stop trying to put band aids on these kinds of contradictions; the very contradictions that have so amply demonstrated that Capitalism is indeed well past its use by date.

The Elusive Teacher Next Door


See Also:


NO INSURANCE, NO DOCTORS


The disparities partly stem from a lack of access to care — but access is complicated.






Wednesday, June 28, 2017

If Repealing The Affordable Care Act Has Died The Death It So "Richly" Deserves...

...Should those of us who resisted feel good about it?

I ask this question in the light of listening to Lawrence O'Donnell's report last night on just how humiliating this defeat was. If you believe Mr. O'Donnell, and I have to say he makes a very good argument for his case, it wasn't just nine GOP members of the Senate who ended up being against this legislation, but rather that only five senators, including Mitch McConnell, who were actually willing to vote for it; with the reluctance on that side of the isle being split between seeing the legislation as being not nearly mean spirited enough, and those who thought the exact opposite.

And let's also be clear about the Democratic side. Though they generally do want people to have the care they need, you still have a pretty wide spread between Bernie Sanders on the Left, and the more conservative members distinctly to the right of him; and that gulf exists because the Dems don't know how to pay for health care any more than the republicans do; and when you are talking about a segment of our economy as large as health care is, that's a real problem. Especially when you consider that the Affordable Care Act is still in desperate need of repair.

What do you suppose is going to happen to that much needed effort now? And do you suppose, even if the Dems get back a good portion of the House in the coming midterm elections, they'll be able to propose the kinds of repair that will make a difference? Something that might actually pass a still GOP controlled Senate? Even if you have what you think are magic charms (like the supposed swell of support from kicking a de facto ex president out of office, along with the sycophants who supported him)? If you think it will be any kind of a truly good outcome you are whistling in a kind of dark I don't even want to try to imagine.

What really amazes me here, though, from both sides of our current two party spread, is how unwilling everyone is to accept that Health Care can't be done now as it should be done. It just can't. And that is precisely because it shows the ultimate absurdity of using "cost," calculated in the cold abstractions of money, which has to be taken from someone. And just like everybody wanting to go to heaven, but nobody wanting to die, you automatically get what is one of the hallmarks of an fundamentally defective form of social organization; the same run around of who pays and who benefits. Just as with National Defence. Or as with tackling, comprehensively, what needs to be done on climate change. Or as with affordable housing for everyone, just to name a few examples.

The simple fact of the matter is that "cost," that also has to factor in the capricious nature of both profit, and the value of skills, just isn't going to cut it any more.

No, only by figuring out how we can change things around (getting rid of that old operating system) so that our ability to have what we need, and want, is based on calculations of "effort, (where the effort is our own, cooperative endeavor, in the most direct sense, community to community)" can we have any hope of being able to meet those needs, and wants. And until we do we are going to be spending mountains of precious time spinning our wheels, getting all agitated and angry at each other, with nothing but good ratings for the news shows, and a lot more very sick (physically and mentally) people, to have to show for it.









Once You Put Profit Into The Equation...

...All notions of validity become quite problematic; as if science didn't have enough to deal with probability wise already. What really saddens me, though, is the lack of outcry from scientists on just how bad the influence of money is on true, objective inquiry. If anybody ought to be pumped up progressives it is them. The debate on climate alone should be cause enough for scientists everywhere to demand that we get rid of our mutated, and out of date, economic operating system.


COULD USE SOME PEER REVIEW


It is an industry like no other, with profit margins to rival Google – and it was created by one of Britain’s most notorious tycoons: Robert Maxwell.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Everything You Need To Know About How Unhealthy GOP Greed Is

The charts, as well as the Morning Joe commentary, says it all. A huge tax break for the rich while the rest of us have to go back to not having any kind of affordable healthcare.

Uninsured Rate Would Spike Under GOP Bills, Charts Show




Monday, June 26, 2017

Maybe You Need To Come Up With A New Idea For A Change...

An idea that might actually make a difference, and thus be worth voting for?


LEFT, OUT OF THE CONVERSATION


"The ongoing rancorous debate among Democrats about whether and how to reach out to Trump voters might be a distraction from a far more pressing and challenging concern: figuring out how to turn potential left-leaning voters into actual ones."
  

No Shit Sherlock...

...And why do you think we aren't ready? Could it be an elephant in the room no one wants to acknowledge?



TOO HOT TO WRITE THIS KICKER


"We've built entire infrastructures with particular temperatures in mind."

See Also:


OFF THE CHARTS


Weather maps typically use shades of warm, yellow-based colors to denote warm weather, but with near-record temperatures in California, Nevada, and Arizona this week meteorologists have blown through their "color box."

Because You Sell With Whatever Works...

...No matter what the true costs might be.


ALEX JONES, PILL PUSHER


A seller of dietary supplements is succeeding by promising power to the aggrieved.
  

Except, Of Course, Those Of Us Who Can Afford "Totally."

‘Nobody Can be Totally Happy’: Trump Sounds Off on Senate Healthcare

Which Is Sadder, The Fact That This Is Happening At All...

...Or that it might only now become a political issue? Which, of course, it won't because of the depth of political cowardice out there now, as well as the intellectual cowardice.

The truth is that there is an elephant in the room as far as political discourse is concerned; an elephant no one wants to acknowledge: old economic nostrums just are not working anymore. Why do you think the Democrats are at such an impasse as to what to suggest to do about it, as they struggle in vein to find a new identity?

The Republicans, on the other hand think they can do what money, and power, have always allowed them to do; just ignore it all. But that's not going to work much longer if things start falling apart from the center out. And things will do so if no one but them has the discretionary income to buy much of anything more than, say, the quick, quite lovely buzz of an addiction; because gods know that this "out" at least provides something to become deeply involved in, on the cheap, even as it is both all too brief, and horribly destructive as well.

The thing is, of course, deep involvement is what we all desperately crave. Deep involvement that has meaning. Involvement where it automatically becomes obvious that we matter. That we are not only needed, but are listened to, and our concerns given the same weight any other involved citizen might get. The same kind of involvement that Capitalism cannot provide for the majority of us any more. But then, that's what happens when a thing is no longer relevant to the reality you are now living in. Something that all of the addictions, and all of the ignoring one could ever imagine, won't change.

Retail Displacement Remakes Job Force, Looms as Political Issue





Sunday, June 25, 2017

Sure, This Is Greed, Plain And Simple...

...But it is also a tragic example of how, in our current mutated, and outdated, economic operating system, if a thing can be commoditized, it will be; and if no one is there to keep watch, corners will tend to be cut. And to add insult to injury, too often does that corner cutting tend to grow until the process in questions breaks of its own extreme exploitation, but the real insult is that we keep going round in this cycle of this shameless disregard for any kind of morality whatsoever.

The thing is, the burden of responsibility, once such cycles are discovered, and understood, falls to the rest of us for letting things continue as they are any longer. We must do something because the political system now, so soaked in Big Money, is incapable of doing anything this important; at least as it pertains to fundamental morality, and social equity. They can't do it for Health Care. They can't do it for critical new infrastructure. They can't do it for the environment. And they can't do it for the reasoned assessment of what ought to be national priorities (in the face of what is becoming permanent world crises mode).

If all of us were involved in all of the things that make a town, or city, or whatever, work, we wouldn't need to be worried about watching over what would otherwise be a purely for profit transaction. A transaction done by someone who seeks, in significant portion, to keep costs low, and profit margins high. Whereas, of course, in our own community we would be doing it because it needed doing (because we found the consensus to make that choice), and we would be relying on one another to do it right; the very people we would be working side by side with, switching task posting every week or two (as each community would figure out for itself), moving across most of the spectrum of what it takes to keep it all working; in effect challenging each other to do what's right for everybody.

Just another statement of a condition that you condone by default if you just sit back and do nothing to bring the debate for an alternative to the forefront of public consciousness.

Florida’s Billion Dollar Drug Treatment Industry Is Plagued by Overdoses, Fraud

See Also:

OUCH


A new book investigates the ways people in pain are being swindled, and explains what actually works.