We are a nation of Immigrants

[Sorry I have been so silent. Difficult times for me. But I will suddenly have a little more free time, to post what I have been meaning to post.]

I go through phases of being into Gogol Bordello, so I'd forgotten about this, but it seems pretty goddamn fucking appropriate right now.

get ready Trump: you'll be going down soon enough.

Preventing American Citizens from Voting is the most Anti-American thing our politicians are doing right now

I don't care who you are or what your party affiliation is, if you are not outraged by the fact that our politicians are doing everything in their power to prevent our fellow American Citizens from voting, then you are unquestionably anti-American, anti-democratic, anti-Constitution, and definitely unpatriotic.  Yes, these disgusting voter suppression tactics are clearly targeted at Democratic voters; but they will undoubtedly also affect plenty of Republican voters and prevent them from voting too!  But it just doesn't matter what their party affiliation is, because voting is a fucking Constitutional right—not a privilege, but a right—that every single American citizen has, and that no politician nor government official should ever be allowed to stand in the way of.  (What does the Constitution actually say about voting rights?)



And by the way, the fact that citizens convicted of a crime in 48 states have their voting rights taken away, either temporarily or permanently, is also, I would argue, un-Constitutional and anti-democratic.  Criminal disenfranchisement laws are just plain unjust.  So what if you've been convicted of a crime?  You are still a human being and you are still an American citizen, and therefore you still should be owed the same basic right to a voice as every other American citizen has.  Because the right to vote, along with the right to free speech, is fundamental to the very nature of our democracy.  Because both the right to vote and the right to free speech are fundamentally about having the right to a voice, each citizen having an equal voice, and that that voice cannot and will not be silenced by any governmental force, because doing so is nothing short of antithetical to what a democracy is.

Dear Senators,

You do realize the extreme backlash you will face if you vote to confirm Kavanaugh, right?

You do realize that you are supposed to be representing the American people, and the American people have spoken loudly and clearly that they do not want Kavanaugh, right?

And you do realize that your names will be inscribed into history as being forever attached to what will be historically remembered as the Kavanaugh scandal, don't you?

You do realize the shame that will bring upon your families, now and in the future, don't you?

I mean, surely you must realize these things, right?

And you do realize, you do remember, that there are several other factors that ought to disqualify Kavanaugh from being awarded one of the highest job promotions in the entire nation, right?

Catching up on a bit of yesterday's news...

This is on the topic of the anonymous NYT op-ed piece.
Just a reaction to one particular discussion on a major news broadcasting network:

Why the hell are people talking about loyalty to the president, as in this particular president, as something that is even relevant at all to talk about?!

One of the fundamental principles of our democracy is that any sort of political loyalty, especially to the president, is loyalty to the office, not the person.  Because that is one aspect of what it means to have loyalty to the country, one aspect of what it means to be patriotic.

And another fundamental principle of our democracy is the absolute refusal of despotism, the absolute rejection of absolute authority.  To go against the authority of the president is not just a far cry from treason; it can be the ultimate form of patriotism and loyalty.  (A higher loyalty, perhaps? ...)

Now let me add, just because I know some people will think I am saying something I am definitely not saying:
That does not guarantee it is the right thing to do or the best option in this or that set of circumstances; but sometimes, it will be.  Whether or not something is patriotic has nothing to do with whether or not it is "correct" or the "right" thing or the best option, or whatever.
 

"But, but, but,... Putin says it wasn't Russia!"

I never thought I would be moved to make such a crude and vulgar statement here, but,

Wow, Trump, you are fucking pussy.

For all your talk of strength and being a man, you are the most cowardly coward the world has ever seen.

You are weak.
A crybaby weakling.
A fucking joke.

Sad!

Does this country have the courage to change? Maybe.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Wow.
That's fucking awesome.

still

It is a bit unnerving getting mail from the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security...
Despite that it is regarding something that is not a negative thing.

Yes, I am still going to make a defense of James Comey, despite the recent statements by the FBI regarding their investigation into Comey's actions and decisions.  In fact, nothing they said has changed my view at all; if anything, my view has been reinforced.

-- The past couple of weeks have been chaotic, making it impossible to do any writing.  (Just to be clear, some of that chaos was welcomed.)  Hopefully I can get some done in spite of my current situation for the next several days: caring for my grandmother because she has fairly advanced Alzheimer's.  You have no idea how challenging it is caring for someone with Alzheimer's until you are doing it everyday for at least a month or two; because only then do you experience how much it consumes your day to day life.  I did it pretty much everyday for about ten months straight.  Not by myself, no, because you cannot do it by yourself when the person reaches these more advanced stages and can never be left alone. --

I don't know if Trump has any clue whatsoever about what he is doing with North Korea, but let me just say this:
While it is true that he failed to make a "deal" of any kind with Kim Jong-un, failed to get any real promises out of Kim, failed to get anything out of it at all while giving Kim more than Kim could have ever expected to get from a U.S. president, the humanitarian crisis that is North Korea should take precedence over the politics of interacting with a dictator and his regime who do not deserve legitimacy from political recognition of him as a national leader like any other.  Obviously, no one wants to give Kim what he wants; however, can we really continue telling ourselves that we stand on higher moral ground if we continue to knowingly turn our backs on all of the citizens of North Korea, who are the victims of such appalling human rights' violations, just because not turning our backs on them would require us to find some way to work with a brutal dictator(ship)?  When is enough, enough?

Apologies

My sincerest apologies to anyone who actually reads this blog, that I still have yet to fulfill my promise of writing my defense of Comey, and just posting in general.  I assure you, I have been working on it, when I can.  As you know, I do not here divulge of personal details – and besides, this time there are some federal legal reasons to motivate my usual tight-lippedness – so all I can say is, there has been quite the hustle and bustle in my life the past several weeks.  (Actually, the past several months; or maybe I should just say, most of the past year.)  And I am not one who can usually easily shift mental gears, so it has been a bit of a challenge finding the mental focus to be able to write.  Especially since the many other things swirling about my life are actually somewhat important, and have the tendency to be slightly urgent.  But what tops the cake is that, four days ago, my iMac died – for good this time, as the HD was clicking, so that's that, and I did get 10.5 years out of it, so, it was time, and I am hoping, hoping, a new iMac is plausibly possible soonishly – followed the next day by the onset of a particularly horrendous version of the common cold, which has not yet quite passed. 

But anyway, there is a lot going on for me, but I can make a better effort to post here, and I know that I ought to.  It does pain me that I regularly have so many thoughts, so many things to say, so many things to share, that yet remain confined within the walls of my own mind – my own mind, the only thing I have ever felt that I have to give to the world –

Trump pulls U.S. out of the Iran Deal

Why is Trump suckling off Netanyahu's teat?

John Dean on Trump

John Dean's perspective: Trump has already exceeded everything Nixon did, and is now much more intimately involved in the coverup than Nixon ever was: "Trump is Nixon on steroids and stilts."
Sure, he's a contributor on CNN, but with all due respect, considering the role Dean played in Watergate, what he has to say is certainly worth listening to and taking seriously for consideration.  His authority on the matter is not without some credibility.

Getting to know Jupiter

The fact that we mere humans engaging in and utilizing science(s) can build and send machines to low-Jupiter orbit and continue to communicate with those machines and receive data they collect is most certainly a testament to the epistemic standing and credibility of science(s) as a collection of investigative methods for gaining knowledge and understanding that towers above the epistemic standing and credibility of just about every other method intended for gaining knowledge and understanding.

We had no idea that Jupiter's poles are such complex cyclonic storm systems! https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180308.html (Note: that's an infrared (composite) image; i.e. not the coloring we would see with our own eyes (or instruments calibrated to the light wavelengths equivalent to our eyes). In other words, read the caption to the image.)

Everything more about the Juno Mission:
https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/main/index.html

It is also worth checking out NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/index.php

And, as a side note, because I can't resist pointing it out:
The generous amounts of openness and transparency with which all of this kind of scientific research is done is more than enough to diffuse the plethora of conspiracy "theories" about anything to do with any of this kind of scientific research and work. And I have to put scare quotes around 'theories' because they don't deserve to be called theories, because they're really just a bunch of hypotheses strung together with a few or more facts that are cleverly misrepresented and misconstrued, while other facts are intentionally ignored. To be called a theory requires meeting some rather rigorous and stringent standards and criteria, which includes, by the way, being open to modification (or even replacement) due to new and well-confirmed findings (data, experimental results, discoveries, etc.).

[trying to get back into the habit of writing and posting]

"But there’s a brand new show for you to watch today So all the Western eyes can look the other way"

Glad to have just learned of this band, Algiers

2020

Okay, I get why tons of people are in favour of Oprah running in 2020…
In the very least, I will say this:
We were extremely concerned about Trump's conflicts of interest. Now, if there's anyone who actually has what you might want to call a powerful business / financial empire – as opposed to someone who merely desperately tries to convince you that he does – it's Oprah.

So, shouldn't we be just a tad bit concerned about Ms. Oprah's conflicts of interest?

Evolution, the fall of U.S. life expectancy, and journalists vs. the government

Ya, it's been far too long since I've written anything. For now, I wanted to share one of my new favourite podcasts, and share episodes from two other podcasts because the topics and discussions are deeply fascinating and important.

This Week in Evolution
Admittedly the topics and discussions are very science-heavy and can get rather technical – these are real and practicing scientists after all – but if you have enough background knowledge to follow it and understand both what they're saying and the implications of it, it's great stuff.
I also appreciate that they talk about scientific practice, i.e., what scientists actually do, what it's like working in this or that lab with a team of other scientists, how scientists collaborate with each other, how they get funding, the process of writing up their findings and getting them published, what fieldwork is like, the kind of equipment they use, their methodologies, and perhaps most importantly, when they get things wrong, when they make mistakes, when things turn out very differently from what they expected, etc., and how they proceed forward from that, what they learn from it, what silver linings they find, what new questions are opened, and so on. And of course, much of that is coming from their own personal experiences as scientists. Getting that "side of the story", so to speak, can be very helpful and eye-opening to the rest of us non-scientists to understand science better. (And I use the word "science" there as a catch-all term to include: scientists, scientific practices, scientific research, experiments and studies, scientific findings, scientific publications, scientific hypotheses, scientific theories, scientific claims, scientific knowledge, the applications of scientific findings and scientific knowledge, etc.)

An episode from Vox's The Weeds: Why is U.S. life expectancy falling? Plus, political elites are biased about what they think the general public thinks; and, why pushing for unpopular policy is bad for democracy.
Very thought-provoking stuff there.

An episode from The Intercept's Intercepted: All the news unfit to print: James Risen on his battles with Bush, Obama, and the New York Times
From the intro:
"James Risen is a legend in the world of investigative and national security journalism. As a reporter for the New York Times, Risen broke some of the most important stories of the post 9/11 era, from the warrantless surveillance against Americans conducted under the Bush-Cheney administration, to black prison sites run by the CIA, to failed covert actions in Iran. Risen has won the Pulitzer and other major journalism awards. But perhaps what he is now most famous for is fighting a battle under both the Bush and Obama administrations as they demanded — under threat of imprisonment —the name of one of Risen’s alleged confidential sources. In the end, Risen prevailed and refused to testify and he was not locked up. But during the course of his case, there were rulings that could have far reaching implications for journalists, particularly in a climate where the president of the United States is characterizing news outlets as enemies of the people, contemplating arresting reporters, and is conducting at least 27 leak investigations. All before the end of his first year in office."

Enjoy!
But more importantly, think!