While highly distracted with love and hope (I fell for someone – on my face!), I managed to read three good but very different books…
Otherwise, While I Should be Working
Perhaps I’ve got ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder (which negative label I would change to Attention Diversity Development), because I can’t read my email or search on-line without getting involved in forums of various sorts.
What to do with all this writing? Dump it on my EarthlyReligion readers.
If you like reading, check out some of these threads. They have to do with:
Voting
Political Ads
Journalism
Economics
Ventilators
Elon Musk and Tesla
Covid-19, WHO, CDC/censorship of potential fixes and inquisitive ideas
Zoom
Traffic Rules (especially Stop signs) and Impending Technologies
Genesis One as advising on the rest of the Bible
Darkness as Valuable
Trump’s Inauguration
Older White Men
Musical Scales and Modes
It’s as if “my work” involves speaking up on these forums.
Tried to copy/paste threads together and indicate what someone else said pertinent to my reply. Slightly rearranged, timewise. Sorry if it’s hard to follow. In the KOS forums, the bold name is listed near the weaker greyed name as replying to them.
I especially like my entry on Genesis One. It summarizes what I’m trying to do here at EarthlyReligion.
Otherwise, I’ve been busy, sheltering at home, did a Zoom sermon for my UUs of Grants Pass. It had glitches and was cut short, so I re-did it, a longer version, published elsewhere here.
Now, to the many exchanges on forums:
Some say, “Don’t complain; Vote!”
Well, yes, vote. Every two or four years express your preference on whatever compromised option we might still have. You’ll have 1/umpteen thousandths a voice.
Better is to realize voting is the least effective measure we have a citizens. It is minimal and necessary, but not optimal. Better is speaking our minds with friends, family, community, newspapers, call-in shows, and to whatever “representative” we’re stuck or blessed with.
Citizens don’t abandon the political process because it’s difficult, riling, or risky. Since the Enlightenment and the humanistic, democratic republic we inherited from it, it is we citizen who should be monitoring, improving and creating our government, not recoiling in fear, disgust, and cynical apathy from it.
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Jodyhuston
Byrd on KOS
Have to disagree with your voting comment, Byrd on Kos. We have had a long string of extremely close calls in voting. EVERY SINGLE VOTE counts, as have been proven repeatedly, and surely will this year. We need a much larger blue tsunami than we had in ‘18. We can’t afford to have anyone get discouraged and stop voting , which is what Russia wants us to do. Or worse, vote for a third party, which happened when Trump got in. There’s a time for talk and a time for action. At this point we need to claim our country back, THEN talk to our representatives about our ideas, this time. Because our futures to even HAVE a choice are at stake. America’s survival is at stake.
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Byrd on KOS
Jodyhuston
I don’t disagree with your added comment, Jody. Sometimes there are squeakers where our one vote matters, and more frequently, local elections where hardly any vote for what is more our local business. But still, voting every two or four years, while we should do it as best we can, isn’t a fuller use of our being citizens who can and should speak up and out about what kind of society, government, and environment that we deplore, encourage, or envision.
I agree, we have to take our country back — as we go. Naomi Klein’s excellent video on Covid-19 makes the point that society and government think with the “ideas lying around.” We influence such ideas or memes by our participation in them, such as here on Kos.
Vote? Yes. And much more.
3-28-20 on Kos Wrath of God forum:
paz3
kevmong1966cassian
“ What the theocrats like the ones in this article really fail to understand is that Nature is a distinct dimension of reality. “
“ God beheld his Creation, and saw that it was very good. ” The Book of Genesis
So, why trash that Creation? This seems to elude the theocrats, because their ‘theology’ is geared towards self-preservation and greed. Plus, at times, they seem in deep fear of facing death’s honesty, which may be why they always want to rush the ‘end times.’
Byrd on KOS
paz3
You’ve tapped into the main scripture pass I agree with, one of only a few in an otherwise boring, self-serving, often evil, and occasionally helpful or inspiring book.
(Otherwise, I regret that the Bible is revered. What we call the Old Testament is largely the same set of scriptures that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all use as their base. We see how such theistic religions are handling the natural world.)
The God of Genesis One (six “days” of creation myth found on page one) is Elohim, a vague word with singular and plural, male and female implications. I don’t “believe in the Bible” or believe we should, yet as a minister who cares for humanity and earthlife, I agree with Genesis One because, not only is it evolutionary in structure, each and every stage of creation is not only made but called, “good” by this non-demanding God.
I don’t know about God, but I agree with what this passage says God says about Nature (including us, males and females) — that it is “good.” (On the sixth “day” S’he says all together it is “very good.” I agree.
My whole long ministerial career (with the UUs) leads me to favor and dwell on Genesis One as fixing the confusing and backwards way Genesis Two/Three (the Garden of Eden creation myth) is presented: that it proves we are born in Original Sin that we fix by believing in the preposterous scenario favored by Christians — in Jesus as the Christ to rescue us from (the equally ridiculous and abhorrent concept of) hell.
I believe we are our bodies born of and for natural creation and to be religious we live harmoniously, healthily, and happily with each other and our environment.
Retired, I’m switching to writing and speaking to this very naturalistic, humanistic, Deistic sort of religion. You can read of it if you’re interested at my site (all one word) earthly religion. I welcome synergistic agreement and intelligent other ideas there.
paz3
Byrd on KOS
You’ve tapped into the main scripture pass I agree with, one of only a few in an otherwise boring, self-serving, often evil, and occasionally helpful or inspiring book.
Not even attempting to change your thoughts, but I will stick up for the faith. What about: Love your neighbor as yourself (stated in Leviticus, and affirmed by Christ), and the teaching that everyone is your neighbor. Throw in ‘love your enemy, even the heathen love their friends.’ The one about loving your neighbor sounds synergistic to me, as each one reaches (and may teach) one.
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Byrd on KOS
paz3
Agreed, Paz3. Those and other such similar passages from the New and Old testaments are of a faith I admire. They seem to honor and fulfill the goods Genesis One tells us of. (Environmentalists and scientists do too, even if not “believing in the Bible.”)
What irks me is the rampant racism and genocide in much of the rest of it, coupled to the misleading teaching that we should believe in the Bible as if God’s word to us.
Unless those deplorable passages are seen as a violation against the natural and human goodness described in Gen One, the “subtle deceiver” continues to win, twisting innate goodness into its ruin.
paz3
Byrd on KOS
You may wish to read the Talmud for authoritative commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures, including what you characterize as ‘deplorable passages.’ They did not just spring up from nowhere, and most any Jew is going take issue with any non-Jew’s derogatory comments on sacred Hebrew scripture (‘Old’ Testament is somewhat of an insult, and that does not need to be explained), in particular if taken out of the context in which they were written.
(My base of thought is Anglican theology.)
Byrd on KOS
paz3
Such deplorable “sacred” passages and rationales are still being used, as on the Palestinians. When Jewish rabbis and Israeli policy (recently “fixed” by Jared Kushner) keeps doing this as if God-ordained, I don’t care if they do “take issue.”
Hiding behind the skirts of charges of anti-antisemitism shouldn’t protect them from outrage at snipers shooting protesters from afar, exploding their legs and killing them.
All the Jews I’ve known (mostly secular or humanistic) are fun, loving people. I like them. But their old stories as seen in what many refer to as the Old Testament, their use of hired super-soldiers in Central America, their recent alliance with Dominionists and other right-wing religious fanatics like those around Mike Pence, their involvement in Cambridge Analytica-like manipulations of social media in elections (here and in other countries), and Netanyahu/Gantz continuing to repress Palestinians in Jerusalem and Gaza — makes me resent how presumed religious sanction supports atrocious activities that sully the reputation of good Jews and their better scriptures.
Jews and Christians aren’t the only ones to claim to be chosen or have the right to convert others forcefully, but when they (or others) do I don’t see any scripture or authority as justifying such acts. That American evangelicals tend to take their rationale and justification from the Bible, no matter what it actually says or could lead to, worries me.
Of course, blaming Jews for the Bible or Israeli policy makes about as much sense as blaming Americans for how some use it to control women or trounce gays or excuse the ruination of our environment or all Trump does. Such would be sloppy generalized thinking.
That’s why I can’t agree we should teach that the Bible is God’s Word and we should accept it as told to us rather than read it skeptically or with our conscience alive to its bad parts. We should use the Bible, not be used by it or those who wield it.
Any reading of western history shows how it has been used that way again and again. With Trump/Pence in power, we’re in danger of that happening again. To quote scripture, it’s “like a dog that returns to its vomit.”
You seem decent and take offence that I dislike some Bible lessons and teaching people to believe such are automatically true and ethical. My concern is thousands of years of social and environment trouble is based on win/lose scriptures rather than the win/win ones you favor. I’m glad the latter are there, and I’m wary that the former ones are there too.
All scriptures, like all people, are fallible. Teaching that we should bend our minds and values to take any of them uncritically as if God’s Word is risky and prone to repetitive troubles.
To me, Genesis One happens to set up the standard as to just what is good or not, and the rest of the passages could be seen as fulfilling or violating those original goods. (I’m not saying the Bible makes natural goods good; I’m saying I agree with it saying it is so. It is, all together, “very good.”) As you note, Jesus (and others) tended to fulfill the original goods.
But lots of other passages twist our knowing of those natural and human goods. That’s how the Genesis Two/Three story gets told, the “subtle deceiver” prevailing in the confusion and tragedy of alienating us from ourselves, each other, our Garden, and our God. What is good is violated and lost in favor of supposed god-like judgments of good and evil.
That’s why I admired your shift away from the sorts of Republicans as Trump. You overcame the supposed “goods” they’ve become since Ike (and diametrically opposed to “the party of Lincoln”) by living up to your innate sense of what is really good. I’m sorry if I offended your sincere reverence for the Bible with my sincere wariness of it.
Sorry also, readers, for such a long entry; it happens to be what I’m interested in. I tend to think for myself rather than in boxes like “believer” or “atheist,” which can confuse or rile others. If interested, see my stuff at www.earthlyreligion.com, especially who I am and what I’m trying to do with that site.
(My base of thought is the Enlightenment and the scientific, humanistic, and democratic progress that came out of it.)
3-28-20 to Kos “Wrath of God”
llywrch
Isn’t having him as president punishment enough for the sin of electing him?
DocGonzo
The country didn’t elect him. The Electoral College elected him. The country merely inaugurated him.
Byrd on KOS
Yes, and there were more at his inauguration than at Obama’s! Liberal, leftist Fake News showed comparative photos of both events, as if the crowds at Obama’s were greater than the mostly empty white places at Trump’s. But at Trump’s there were hundreds of thousands of very white people present, so white you can’t see them. Trump saw them and bravely declared he had more, shattering their fake news lies. He knows, to quote Burns and Schriver, “In America, you can’t be too white!”
kayaker
Byrd on KOS
I was at President Obama’s inauguration.. there were so many people there.. millions.. there was no room left.. the town was like magic dust had been spread.. everyone was kind, I saw two African american gentlemen pick up a elderly white lady and put her on their shoulders so she could see.. there was no crime.. no police reports, no arrest.. Evan in the stores everyone was kind and helpful.. the magic lasted for several days (at least till I left DC)
those empty spots at trumps little party were real..You sir do not know what you are talking about.. watch something other than Fox.. P.S. I am a white female with blond hair and blue eyes..
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DocGonzo
kayaker
The post to which you replied is pretty obviously sarcasm. You didn’t think “so white you can’t see them” was obviously sarcasm?
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Byrd
Dear Kayaker, I don’t hold it against you for being blond and blue-eyed. DocGonzo is right — it was intended as sarcasm.
The “In America, you can’t be too white,” comes from a very old (50s?) Burns and Schriver comedy routine. One laments his son was born an albino. The other consoles him with that “can’t be too white” answer. I still laugh at it.
I’m whiter than ever, now that my hair and beard have gone white. I’m for being glad about being whatever color we happen to be.
Byrd on Kos to kayaker
I am touched by your description of the character of those at Obama’s inauguration, as I always am when people are deliberately kind.
I won’t watch Fox. They only lie while pumping up their anti-kindness bully natures.
fishouttah2o
DocGonzo
She’s a newbie. She might not yet get that there’s exquisite snark on this site. Hey, we’ve all had a first day at something somewhere. Amirite?
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Byrd on KOS
fishouttah2o
Yes, you’re right. I welcomed her well-intended comment. No offence was intended by me or received from her. She is sincere. Good.
I thought “snark” meant cutting comments directed to the person as a way of ridiculing their comment. I intended mild sarcasm at Trump’s silly defensiveness as to whether he deserved the presidency and inauguration, not mean snark.
As to her being blond and blue-eyed, I’m blond (or was before it went white) and hazel-eyed. Worse (or so some say) I’m male and older. It isn’t fair to diss some white people because of what other white people have done or are doing.
Dems could lose the next election for having failed to explicitly welcome older white males as part of “us.” We aren’t the prevailing stereotype. We want what brother Louis Farrakhan once described as a “white devil” out of office. Trump is embarrassing, damaging and dangerous. Lots of us older white men would agree. Lots of people of all sorts of color, age, orientation, etc., agree.
Also on 3-20-20
Justice Douglas
Dommor
Why do the Dems suck at politics so much that it’s the Republicans who do the ads that go for the jugular?!!!!
Why, why why why why??
Ballerina
Justice Douglas
Completely agree — where the hell are the Democrats ads attacking Trump for being the “do nothing” and “accept no responsibility” President? I know Washington Democrats want to be perceived as “above the fray” and “not politicizing” a crisis, but if the shoe was on the other foot (i.e. a crisis during a Democratic administration), Don the con and the Rethugs would have no hesitation to point fingers and politicize the situation. Did Democrats in Washington learn NOTHING during President Obama’s terms in office? They need to stop being so nice — it gets them NOWHERE, actually emboldens Republicans to be even more nasty, and results in losing elections, because voters perceive Democrats as being weak and lacking convictions. Are any Democrats in Washington listening??
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Byrd on KOS
Ballerina
During the Clinton and Obama administrations I noticed how Republicans don’t use argumentation, they use insult. They raise their eyebrow. They sneer. They practice relentless ridicule and obstinate obstruction. They complain about “regulations” without mentioning any specifically. They manipulate our lower brain reactivity, not our higher brain thoughtfulness.
Trouble is: it works.
I agree with you. Democrats need the pizzazz and bravery needed to simply explain how Republicans have been f**n our government, society, and environment since FDR at least. From Harry Reid on, they’ve been admirable at contending with the dirty tactics of the Reps, but lackluster with saying so, what they’d do next, and why. More AOC and Bernie, please, and then some.
3-21-20
AngryOldWhiteMan
Byrd on KOS
All of the above is true, but it is also incumbent upon ALL media to throw the bullshit flag whenever it should be thrown. A lie is a lie, independent of its source. Reporting of alleged facts (e.g., videos of anyone speaking to the press or to the public) should include the call-out of lies, USING THAT WORD, when they happen. Otherwise, the reporting is perpetuating fake news.
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flatmotor
AngryOldWhiteMan
C’mon! The main stream media is owned by corporations whose principal objective, increase shareholder value, is anchored in federal law. MSM exists because fiction sells. They have no legal and little moral obligation to anyone other than their owners and customers.
Again: Entertainment sells. The first requirement of propaganda is that it entertain people enough to keep their attention. Enough of that and it alters human thought processes.
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Byrd on KOS
flatmotor
Yes, Flatmotor, entertainment sells and journalists are employed and paid or not according to employer’s agenda. But journalists also care about the truth and try to say it.
I agree with AngryOldWhiteMan that lies should be called lies, not given “equal balance” or evaded with euphemisms. Call it a lie if it is, and call him a liar if he persists and refuses to correct earlier lies.
Trump hates journalists. He’s part of the world-wide fascist mindset that resents and kills them. Trump gloats about lying. It’s entertaining to his base, like watching cage fighting.
Lately I’ve come to value what we’ve been told to distrust and resent: journalists and politicians. We will always have one sort or another of these. But who? And how do we acknowledge and support the better ones?
My gratitude to such truth-tellers as Chris Hayes and Naomi Klein and to my local (Oregon) Democratic representatives and senators. My resentment and sympathy to those areas of our country viewing Fox News (and their ilk) and liking the Trump/Republican ruination of America. Lying and anti-social behaviors have become a sport to them.
3-21-20 on Cleantechnica forum re Musk to create masks and air filters:
Kudos for Elon Musk and his team! His response also illuminates clearly what is wrong with “the economy” in the US: it is completely profit driven regardless of morals and long term vision. If it is cheaper to relinquish the manufacture overseas because labor laws and environmental protection are weaker there, no worries as long as it brings “profits”. CEO’s responsibilities are to make profits (their bonus is tied to it) for the shareholders, NOT to help society in general, and laws to align business interests to societal interests are slowly being eroded. For example reopening wilderness areas that were previously protected to oil & gas exploration, selling national park properties etc. CEO’s know about finance and spreadsheets, not much about what their companies sell ..
ByronBradley XCLN • a few seconds ago
Those who cheer the profit system and inflict it on us like to remember Adam Smith urging we act selfishly, forgetting he also said something like “with a mind to the public good.” Corporations are protected from considering this; their fiduciary responsibility is to maximize profits for shareholders – period. (As Henry Ford discovered when sued for providing a decent wage for his employees.) What we’re left with is psychopathic CEOs getting rich serving other disconnected shareholders getting rich no matter what it does to people, society, or our environment. What we need is a government that denies corporate status to any who violate the public good.
3-23-20 to Cleantechnica re: Elon Musk possibly making masks and ventilators:
Elon has repetitively shown that not only does he have a “can do” attitude, he has a “does do” record of accomplishments. Paper masks and mechanical ventilators don’t take a rocket scientist to create, but rocket (and automotive, etc.) engineers could devote their abilities and facilities to getting lots made.
Assigning an adept team to get them quickly made and distributed would be a further extension of his “massively transformative purpose,” only here as a social rescue.
I envision him doing this and selling them at cost, not for profit. This would accomplish two good things. It would supply a significant part of a huge world-wide need. It would endear Tesla to the world for doing so quickly and affordably.
(then, same issue at CT, on 3-27-20)
Good question. We don’t need price gouging now.
I not only think Tesla could provide a temporary emergency supply at cost, that “at cost” should have higher salary people’s income scaled back to an average but adequate income.
Such a move would endear the Tesla brand for many years to come. If the GM ventilators were to cost $12,500 and Tesla’s $1,250, and Americans were made aware of that, who would buy which cars in the coming years? And besides, which company would actually be involved with heroic rescue and which merely pursuing profits at the expense of misery and death?
(then, in CT’s Steve Hanley article on Tesla saying they would provide them for free:
ByronBradley • a few seconds from now
This goes beyond my suggestion that Tesla make and distribute ventilators at cost (and even include all upper-level employees and CEOs earning only a working wage as part of that “at cost”). This temporary offer is free!
I hope Tesla shareholders agree with this. Musk and company will be viewed as heroic – with good reason and lasting reputation. Would that other entitled and able people (some referenced here in this forum) similarly step up and contribute what they can to our common plight.
I’m not “on my knees” “worshiping” him for saying this. I merely admire able people who serve our common good. In this age of puffed up empty braggarts, let’s give credit where it is due. Kudos to the whole Tesla team for doing this!
MadMark ByronBradley • 3 hours ago • edited
If you get infected and need hospitalization, which I hope you don’t, you may find the true heros are the doctors and nurses working around the clock trying to keep you alive.
ByronBradley MadMark • a few seconds ago
Sure, plus the grocery clerks and everybody helping to keep us going, but doctors and nurses especially.
3-23-20 to New York Times forum on article noticing loss of smell as potentially symptomatic of the virus:
Glad the NYT published this balanced article and forum. My concern is that symptoms, ways to ward the virus off, and treatments that haven’t yet been proven effective by the WHO or the CDC are being denied public posting, possibly for fear people will take possible fixes for certain ones.
YouTube removed a video offering a potential link between mere heat in the nostrils to deactivate the virus there, as did my local NextDoorMeighbor. Angry objectors said, basically, don’t you dare share unapproved ideas. As proof, they referenced a WHO study discounting mere warm climates instead of the hotter and more deliberate use of saunas and heating nasal passages. Evidently, other similar SARS viruses are susceptible to heat.
Instead of welcoming our sharing our anecdotal experiences or possible and feasible prevention and treatments, and what other countries are using, as would be the early part of a scientific investigation, they are deleted and disparaged.
We should be able to share what might be true in addition to what meager methods as are approved – like social distancing. Loss of smell applies to many conditions, but it could be a helpful symptom of Covid19. My appreciation to the NYT for publishing it and allowing readers to comment.
To Teja’s Forum:
Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall, Who’s the Fakest of Them All?
“The
mind that is not baffled is not employed.”
~ Wendell Berry
Dear readers, are your minds baffled by the current state of the world?
My mind is unhinged by this article in The New York Times: “That ‘Miracle Cure’ You Saw on Facebook? It Won’t Stop the Coronavirus.”
I just don’t know what to believe! What is fake news, and what is even faker news?
Before reading that article, I believed that the posts with home remedies for treating the virus were truth.
After reading that article, I felt like mental constructs were coming undone, but then a suspicious thought arrived on the scene: What if the vaccine makers are paying the media to debunk the healing power of home remedies… Who’s the fakest of them all?
But then again, I can (at times) be easily duped. The posts with natural remedies seemed convincing. I mean, why would I have doubted the suggestion to gargle with warm salt water?
Can you relate to my frustration here?
Sending much love from my quarantine to yours…
With a
baffled mind,
StarFire Teja
(My post to her site)
I’m with you about this sloppy reporting. They say they haven’t proven that sunlight and heat can affect the virus, but they don’t say whether that means “at all” or at what sunlight does do, or at what temperatures is the virus degraded. For “proof” they cite a WHO report that mere outdoor temperature isn’t shown to prevent the spread, but they don’t evaluate the 133 F in the nose hypothesis, and the one study cited for temperature is a jargon-riddled report that they raised the test temperature to normal body temperature (up from the somewhat cooler temp in the nose) as if that was a pertinent test or answer to the issue of what temperature does degrade the virus. 133 F was ignored in dismissing it, citing a single nearly indecipherable jargon-laden study of 96 F, yet done as a final answer in an article claiming to debunk myths. Does salt water have no effect at all on the virus, or merely unproven to totally kill it? If it has an effect, how helpful is it? UV light shouldn’t be used on the skin for fear of burns, they say. At all? Tanning booths always burn too much? UV couldn’t be used on surfaces and utensils? Medicines the Chinese use should be ignored? Walks outside are good for overall health and ease of mind. OK, what else is? What about sleep? If it doesn’t kill the virus, should it be dismissed as “debunking” Fake News in helping to strengthen our overall immune system? Where is the helpful advice amidst all this debunking? Shelter in place and wait for medicines and ventilators that won’t be there, believing only WHO and NY Times authorities?
I am alarmed at how authoritarian this approach is, people believing and obeying authorities who have clunky “no” advice or help other than ignore what some report as helpful. YouTube is pulling down feasible offerings to our common situation. NextDoorNeighbor prevents speculation. The NY Times offers shoddy evidence embedded in flimsy answers. Should we now avoid vitamin C and garlic? Saunas? I still wonder what beneficial or potentially helpful mechanisms are inherent in sunlight, heat, salt, and other things we already have and could perhaps use beneficially.
I agree with you and Wendell Berry. Thanks for being baffled. We’re in this together, and together is better than being at the mercy, mercilessness, and bureaucratic chunkiness of the authorities.
3 sec
I’m trying to send my upcoming YouTube Livestream into a Zoom meeting. I’m familiar with how to use OBS and YouTube. But every Google search I try reverses my request, using Zoom into YouTube.
I’m assuming the larger Zoom meeting in an adjacent town will be able to simply find my YouTube stream on their browser and show it as that part of the larger set of events that are being managed distant from me. (A UU Church Service using Zoom into which I want to stream my YouTube-generated sermon.) Is this accurate. I find no answers on Google otherwise. Thanks. (Hope I get this in time.)
sgrotte13
JustFixIt
If by some miracle I actually get a CV check from THE LORD GOD DER FUHRER’S NAZI/FASCIST/KKKER CROOKED ADMINISTRATION, I will cash it & send up to 10% of it to the Democratic Party to defeat THE LORD GOD DER FUHRER trump & all THE REPTILIAN -QUISLING-TRUMPANZZE PARTY Congressional members who are up for re-election or election starting with the 2020 elections.
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patmcoll
sgrotte13
Me too. Tempted to send 100% of it to save the nation. Remember when America was run by…well.. uh… Americans? Where did the Trump worshipers come from?
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kfb
patmcoll
They were always there. trumpo just figured out
the correct measurements for their koolade cocktail. And so they guzzled all the same hatred
and that’s what they have in common.
please vote BLUE in 2020 so we’re still alive in 22! NEVER trump
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patmcoll
kfb
I am 81 and a lifelong Republican. UNTIL… UNTIL… Trump was elected. He is not a Republican, at least what the Republican Party has stood for since Abe Lincoln. Now the Party, headed by a draft dodger, a guy who likes high priced call girls, who cheats school kids out of their tuition, a phony who has told over 10,000 lies since being elected(you can find them listed one by one in the Washington Post files, a person who cheats on his taxes and on and on….has lost a lot of it’s supporters. There are always some who don’t care about ethics, honesty or morality. (PT Barnum said there’s a sucker born every minute. ) They will still support him. NOT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Byrd on KOS
patmcoll
Would that honorable Republicans like you reemerge!
But if the Trumpistas prevail, vote Dem. Or at least, don’t vote for them or send them money. Send your thinking to them and share it with your circle.
These phony braggarts and bullies are the utter opposite of “The Party of Lincoln.”
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patmcoll
sgrotte13
Incredible what has happened to this once great country. Before Trump we may have been lulled into the idea that Americans were intelligent and moral. BOY have our eyes been opened. Makes us understand how Adolph Hitler was able to fool enough people to get into power and ruin Germany in those days.
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patmcoll
Byrd on KOS
AMEN Brother!! I hate to admit it but as a guy who started and ran American businesses in the Middle East for some years, as I look back their governments were more moral and honest than ours has become. I had offices in Kuwait, Oman and Jordan and did business in the Emirates. Honorable people, honest government, ethical and moral folks in government. Wish we still had those characteristics in Washington. We are not the great, “looked up to” country that we were just a couple of years ago. It is incredible the influence just one “bad apple” in government can cause. Trump with his dishonesty, immaturity, name calling, un-presidential demeanor and low morals are a real “downer” for the U.S.A.
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Byrd on KOS
patmcoll
I share your concerns Patmcoll, both for the decency of typical middle eastern people and our former government, and for our current “bad apple” president and the “downer” naziish people and processes still excusing and advancing him.
patmcoll
Byrd on KOS
THANKS my friend! It seems to me that we have become
too arrogant and this may be natures way of taking us down a peg. In
history, people who got too big for their britches have been taught a tough
lesson.
A great example of a bad example can be seen by Trump’s comments a few weeks
ago when he said this virus fear was overblown. I watched him as he said
this was a hoax, that the Democrats were responsible, that it will be over
quickly. While I am an old guy, a lifelong Republican, I have
never supported this unqualified person. I have seen good
presidents and some not so good, but never anyone with the morals and lack of
intelligence of this “person”. The world awaits a better, smarter,
more honest, more moral, more perceptive and more humble person in leadership
in the United States. Almost anyone in the country would be better.
I am available to take over the job but would need 3 weeks notice so I can finish up some volunteer jobs and make sure my Russian connections won’t tell any tales about me. Oh, and I will need to pay off the rest of the “ladies”… we presidential candidates all have some “ladies” to pay off!! It’s our “thing”!! {:-)))
I can’t believe this stuff is happening in the United States!!!
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patmcoll
Even though you’re a Republican, I’d vote for you over him, based on what you’ve posted here.
I don’t mind your bringing some “ladies” with you to office. Powerful men (like the current Thai king, I hear) tend to do that.
I don’t deplore Trump’s liking the ladies. That’s between he and his wife. (Well, I don’t like how he treats them.) It’s everything else he’s done that his base base cheers that I deplore.
patmcoll
Byrd on KOS
THANKS!!! I WAS a Republican. No longer!!! I am fairly lenient but I do have my standards!!! Even if they are LOW standards!!!
IKE was my hero, and most other Republicans reflected my values. I think Trump has NO values except idolizing himself. Really a pathetic scene. I feel sorry for him. IKE was my guy. I write some stories and here is an IKE short little message. If you have just a minute, take a look. hilltopglimpses.blogspot.com/2013/01/ike-and-final-approach.html
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Byrd on KOS
patmcoll
That is some good writing about Ike, Pat!
Though as a boy I favored Adlai Stevenson, Ike was the only Republican I’ve admired other than Tom McCall of Oregon and Nixon’s Attorney General Richardson, who quit rather than enable corruption.
Your memory of him and tribute to him are enthusing. Compared to others since, he was the only good one. I mostly liked him.
What I didn’t like of that era was the unctuous imposition of God and sanctimony into our Pledge and on to our money.
I was also chagrined to learn his famous and apt term “the military-industrial complex” originally included “-congressional complex.”
By ignoring that aspect and further co-opting Christians into their ever-worsening cause, it’s been increasingly bad for us and the world.
Thank God there are decent Republicans and Christians out there. They need to speak up to reclaim their party and religion. So, thanks for your doing so!
iambart
patmcoll
Who let the dogs out???? Give those cockroaches a voice and they’ll crawl out from the woodwork.
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iambart
Maybe they’re proud of being ‘deplorable,’ but excitedly feign righteous indignation when accused of it.
It’s part of the “attacking with defensiveness” psychosocial strategy successfully advancing ever since the belligerent Tea Party. (Well, I guess that’s how earlier fascists and even earlier inquisitioinists inflicted their self-righteous violence and crudity on their hapless victims too.)
Notice how angry populists and raving religionists (from Christian Dominionists, etc. to Islamic Jihadists) are pushing their cruel and violent ways on their worlds while claiming to be defending their people, morals, and society? There was no ‘culture war’ until liberal, humanistic, intelligent people were attacked for allegedly starting it.
3-27-20 to Cleantechnica forum on article about Tesla’s self-driving to auto-stop at stop signs.
- I object to having to stop at all stop signs and red lights. As is, “You Must Stop,” no matter whether there is a need to avoid others or not. As could be, the law would be “Stop if you Must.” When we approach intersections where and can clearly see there is no one in the free lane, we should be able to roll through. When we have a stop sign or red light and there is someone in the free lane, we then must stop. The signs still regulate traffic, but we would obey them differently. This still requires driver responsibility, just as all other driving does, such as staying in our lane on two-lane bi-directional traffic. It expects drivers to avoid crashes but it doesn’t require them to stop for no one and nothing. How many needless stops are we making as a nation every day and how much pollution, cost, and wasted time are we participating in always stopping for no one and nothing?
The point of the signs and lights is to regulate the flow of traffic, and they do that now. But they demand we stop for no good reason, wasting brakes, time, and gas, putting the car in the worst polluting realm. It serves the fossil fuel industry to waste that gas, but it doesn’t provide safety. When we can easily see there is no one there, we should be able to safely roll through. We recently in Oregon have been allowed that for bikes; it should be expanded for cars.
People react angrily to this idea, imagining all sorts of crashes. What I ask of those considering this change of law is to watch and evaluate whether they would be able to follow the change safely and to imagine whether others could as well. In my experience, probably 80% of stops are not needed. In busier areas, or in places where we can’t clearly see the cross-traffic, we would continue to stop and go according to the sign or light. In non-busy intersections, why are we stopping and accelerating for no one and nothing other than tickets?
Because this idea is viewed as too radical, states and cities would be reluctant to change the laws. But as an interim measure shy of a major change to the law (complete with a public education campaign to explain why it is better and how it works) city or state police could be empowered to deem whether someone violated the law by proceeding when they shouldn’t and not stop or ticket those who roll through without causing pause, threat, or crash. Such cities could be experiments on how it is followed and enjoyed or not. If it is liked better and turns out to be safer, it could be expanded by law.
I expect many will react, alarmed at all the crashes they imagine. What I ask of CT readers is to start evaluating what you would do at intersections were the law changed. Are there any readers out there who have thought this for themselves? I’m not urging drivers to break existing laws; I’m wondering if they can be changed so traffic can flow better and safer with such a change.
But I think you must make the assumption that people are 100% aware of their surroundings. A friend of mine rode a motorcycle through an intersection, the perpendicular traffic had a stop sign. An elderly gentleman rolled through the stop sign and crippled the motorcyclist. Claimed he did not see the motorcycle, and didn’t have much defense for rolling through the stop sign.
I live in Seattle and see people rolling through intersections, jockeying to get through the intersection with no knowledge of who got there first, or the standard rule of courtesy to the vehicle on the right.
ByronBradley Mike Beard • an hour ago
Thanks, Mike. Both of these examples are violations of existing laws and the potential changes. Safety and courtesy still need to apply in either case.
Ken Shouldice ByronBradley • 23 minutes ago
I love to watch the simulations of what intersections will look like in the future when the cars all talk to each other and there is no traffic signal. While the intersection can handle many times more traffic with having to stop or queue, the thought of this just makes me break out in a sweat. One yahoo with a broken or missing transponder shows up and I expect that intersection to come to a halt.
ByronBradley Ken Shouldice • a few seconds ago
Good forward thinking. My idea is more of a software (as in our laws, brains and driving skills), while technology will probably do this even better, as you envision.
Such interactive coordination between cars at intersections could be similar to the “Magnalock Convoys” I also envision. Trucks and cars could ride in each other’s airstreams on the freeways, cutting the air only once at the front, like a train on the road.
Ways of signalling to join in or get out at exits could be devised. The problem of multi-car crashes might be solved by an immediate brake and veer pulse through the line from last car to front immediately, should a crash or danger be needed at the front or along the line.
Such a system would save a lot of gas, diesel, or battery. All cars could contribute a bit to the slight load they would then share – far, far less than what we now must use by each car and truck cutting it’s own tube through the air. My understanding is that air resistance takes more energy than moving weight above 35 MPH, increasingly so with speed.
I started to offer this idea on HeroX, but quickly saw I haven’t the engineering or economic skills to design and promote it. But Elon and people like him might.
Both ideas – keep rolling at intersections when possible and driving in air tunnels – would save a lot of current, but perhaps unneeded, pollution and expense.
Same day to CT, this on light at night.
I believe we need the dark night. I am offended by bright light pollution, be it from a neighbor’s glaring yard light or the annoying blue-light LEDs on much of our electronic devices. Both hurt my eyes and brain. I wince at the annoying intrusion.
I suspect maneuvering in darkness not only opens our iris, it ripples into our entire physiological system, probably the parasympathetic (calming half). I also miss the spectacular Milky Way for all the needless street lights and car lots brightly lit all night. We broadcast waste into space, spending energy and money benefiting no one and nothing.
Even the safety argument is counter-logical. Bright light in our eyes commands the iris close, making it even harder to see into shadows. Bright lights create the shadows we could have looked into but then can’t. Oncoming headlights blind us to the view we formerly had, and our eyes don’t relax as fast as they contract, so we’re left vulnerable to blindness for a while after till they slowly readjust.
The night is like sleep, we’re only beginning to understand its value to us and the rest of life.
3-28-20 On Cleantechnica re: ventilator needs
Electricity Electricity • a day ago
Thanks for this reporting, Steve. I was hoping the child’s son-in-law was spending his time insider-trading. It’s horrifying to learn he’s in the chain of command for urgent healthcare needs.
ByronBradley Electricity Electricity • a few seconds from now
The inept son-in-law (or someone more competent) should also be rushing the tests out. Lack of tests means only front-line workers and those already showing symptoms get tested here, always behind the need. S. Korea did ample testing of most everyone, thereby catching those who hadn’t known they were infected and so could quarantine before infecting others.
The cry for ventilators should be mirrored with a cry for tests.
3-26-20 to Griff Hamlin (Guitar Teacher) lesson and forum on Musical Scales:
Thanks, Griff!
A few thoughts:
1. Thinking of an octave of 12 equal-spaced notes rather than 8 unequal ones makes the math and movement on the frets easier. In such a system, instead of a 1,3,5 as indicating a major chord, it would be 1,5,8, or if minor, 1,4,8. If a 7th is involved, it would be a 1,5,8,11 for a major 7th (so-called in our current system), and a 1,5,8,10 for a dominate “7th”. I like your counting in “half-steps” because they’re equal-spaced. Easier for spacial awareness on fretboards.
(As an aside, I sometimes wish I could imagine the chord laid out on a circle with 12 equal slots available, the 0 and the 13th being the same place, only a layer above if the circle were seen as a spiral. There’d be a easily seen geometry that would lend itself to harmonic resonance or dissonance, a spacial-pictorial way of seeing how notes or chords relate.)
2. A fun way to acquaint our ears to various modes is to start (or drone) on some notes as home base while making the others relate to it. For instance, in the key of C droning on C as the tonic and playing all the other white keys on a piano puts you in Ionian mode, the familiar “Do, Re, Me, Fa, So” scale that most of our music uses. But drone on the A of that same set of notes puts us in the Aeolian mode, the so-called relative minor of C. But it gets better. Drone on the D and play the Dorian mode. G gets us to the Mixolydian, our favorite blues scale. E is interesting. F is jazzy. B is strange but fun. Using the piano makes this easy to see and hear, but the same set of chordal relationships and scales apply to any other key than C.
3. One thought about enharmonic notes. We wouldn’t want to think of going from Eb to E, for that is the same letter. We’d instead think of it as going from D# to E, for then the A-G (or G-A) letters are still in place in a scale. I also think of going from, say E to Eb when I want to flat the E (as in bending a C major chord to a C minor one). But in terms of learning music, I’ve noticed there are two realms other than all white keys on the piano, the flat realm and the sharp realm. If I wonder how to read a note or call a note I don’t mix flats and sharps. Picky, but perhaps useful in mental understanding.
4. All the modes and scales discussed so-far have to adjacent 2nds in them. In C Ionian, they’re the EF and the BC. In A Aeolian they’d be BC and EF again, but in another place. All other steps would be so-called whole steps, what you’ve presented here as two half-steps. Knowing where the adjacent seconds are helps orient all other notes, for they’d be whole steps, not half.
(But even more interesting and fun to play is the Hungarian or Harmonic Minor. Take A Aeolian (the relative minor of C major) and instead of using the dominate 7th (the G), skip it and play it as the G#. This creates three adjacent seconds in the scale and an unusual big gap (a step and a half) between the 6 and the sharpened 7th (now adjacent to the tonic A). Sounds complicated, but it’s easy to see and use. Drone in A, play all the white keys, but avoid the G and play it as a G#. It’s a very fun, dancy, squirmy sort of mode.)
Anyway, you asked what we thought, and these are some thoughts your initial explanation of the scales with various steps within them popped up for me. They’ve been on my mind. Distancing myself at home and glad for your occasional lessons. Thanks for asking.
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Dear Byron Bradley! This is a very long post!!! I just scrolled through to get an idea of how long it was, and lo and behold, there was my blog post in the middle of it! I was quite surprised and delighted! Thank you for sharing!!! I will try to read all of this post soon, but like you, I’m feeling a bit ADD and can’t seem to focus on one thing for too long! I’ll read what I can though… Anyhow, thanks for all you do to raise the vibrations of the planet. You’re a good one! Stay safe… Read more »
I did it, I read this post… 🙂
I got a little lost in the last part about music notes, so I just skimmed that, but otherwise I read the whole post!
Very interesting… you’re a good thinker and a good, good human being.
I’m so glad to know you!