Saturday, December 31, 2016

FAITH, HOPE AND PRAYER - GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE


Stephanie P. - I believe that good things happen to good people and that everything happens for a reason and as it should. Persevere. Keep your head up high …  (Facebook, December 31, 16.)

YES, STEPHANIE. GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE. THAT'S WHY THE NAZIS SLAUGHTERED MILLIONS OF MEN, WOMEN, CHILDREN AND BABIES - WHY THEY CUT FETUSES OUT OF LIVING MOTHER'S WOMBS AND IMPALED THEM WHILE THE NAZIS CELEBRATED - WHILE THE JEWS PLEADED AND PRAYED FOR HELP ... THAT NEVER CAME.

GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE. THAT'S WHY DAWN MCSWEENEY ROBBED ME AND MY AGED PARENTS WITH THE HELP OF A MONTREAL POLICE OFFICER, AND ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE WE WORKED TO ELECT INTO HIGH OFFICE REFUSED TO HELP.

UNARMED CHILDREN WERE SHOT IN THE BACK IN AMERICA BY GOOD PEOPLE. YES. GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE.

POLLYANNA, I AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO SEE THAT PEOPLE STILL HAVE HOPE. DONALD TRUMP WILL SOON HAVE CONTROL OF AMERICA'S ARMED FORCES AND THE NUCLEAR ARSENAL. AND DONALD TRUMP IS A GOOD PERSON. SO DON'T FLEE TO CANADA. OUR SOCIAL SERVICES ARE OVERLOADED WITH GOOD PEOPLE IN NEED. JUST KEEP ON PRAYING FOR GOD TO COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN AND SAVE ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE.

I APPLAUD YOUR GOOD INTENTIONS AND YOUR FAITH. BUT DO PRAY. I DO. LIKE CHICKEN SOUP, IT COMFORTS US AND IT CAN'T HURT.

Friday, December 30, 2016

TOO GOOD NOT TO SHARE

PAULA WHITE SAYS TRUMP REACHED OUT TO HER....

PAULA WHITE  SAYS TRUMP REACHED OUT TO HER. DOES IT SURPRISE YOU? TRUMP TOLD THE WORLD HOW HE REACHES OUT TO WOMEN WITH HIS HAND UP THEIR SKIRTS TO GRAB THEIR "PUSSIES."
Who is Paula White, the pastor Trump chose for an inaugural prayer? - Paula White will be among the invited religious leaders leading a prayer during President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20. Here's why she is a…
WASHINGTONPOST.COM

PUTIN PARTIES WITH CHILDREN OF AMERICAN DIPLOMATS


HITLER was very fond of the children, and even in the last week of his life still took great pleasure in sharing chocolate with them, as well as giving them the use of his bathroom, which was the only one with a bathtub.

IT TAKES ONE PERSON TO KILL THOUSANDS - SAY "NO!"

Starting January 20, each of us in his or her own way will be tested: How do we resist tyranny? How do we fight back against hate? Many political actions must be taken in the months and years ahead. I'll be talking about them on this page. But it all begins with the moral courage of individuals, such as Jan Chamberlin (see below).
What do you think?
A singer in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir outlined in a resignation letter why she would rather quit than perform at Donald Trump's inauguration.
ROLLINGSTONE.COM
Phyllis Carter - IT TAKES JUST ONE PERSON TO KILL THOUSANDS. IT TAKES JUST ONE PERSON TO SAVE THE WORLD. ONE PERSON STANDING UP AND SAYING "NO" TO EVIL CAN INSPIRE A MILLION COWARDS TO STAND UP AND SAY,"NO".

Thursday, December 29, 2016

THE HORRIBLE TRUTH WE DON'T WANT TO FACE

 
Image may contain: one or more people and text

TRUMP COULD LAUNCH A NUCLEAR MISSILE OVER CANADA IN FOUR MINUTES


President-elect Donald Trump exploded a half-century of U.S. nuclear-arms policy in a single tweet last week: "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." With that one vague message, Donald Trump, who hasn't even taken office yet, may have started a new arms race.

Trump's statement set off alarms around the world, necessitating a cadre of his inner circle to flood the airwaves with now-routine attempts to explain what their boss "really meant." On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow confronted former Trump campaign manager and newly appointed Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway about the shocking tweet:

Maddow: "He's saying we're going to expand our nuclear capability."
Conway: "He's not necessarily saying that -"
Maddow: "... He did literally say we need to expand our nuclear capability - "
Conway: "...What he's saying is...we need to expand our nuclear capability, really our nuclear readiness, our capability to be ready for those who also have nuclear weapons."

The next morning, during a commercial break on the MSNBC program "Morning Joe," Trump spoke by phone with Mika Brzezinski, as she and her co-host Joe Scarborough sat in pajamas on the Christmas-themed TV set. The call was not broadcast, but when the show came back from the break, Brzezinski quoted Trump as saying, "Let it be an arms race ... we will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all."

Minutes after that aired, Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA, told us on the "Democracy Now!" news hour: "Every day, Trump says something that makes us worried, but this may be the most terrifying yet. A nuclear-arms race is the last thing that the world needs. I think about climate change. I think about economic inequality. I think about all of these major threats that we're facing as a country and as a world. Why would we add on top of that a totally manufactured, unnecessary threat?"

President Barack Obama delivered his first address on the U.S. nuclear arsenal on April 5, 2009, in Prague: "Today, the Cold War has disappeared, but thousands of those weapons have not. In a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up. More nations have acquired these weapons." Then, in 2016, he proposed a 30-year, $1 trillion dollar nuclear arsenal modernization program. When asked about Obama's record, Annie Leonard told us, "Greenpeace and many of our allies fought against President Obama's military spending, and we will fight against President Trump's military spending."

While Obama's nuclear spending continues what Albert Einstein called, in 1946, the "drift toward unparalleled catastrophe," it still adheres to the current in-force nuclear-reduction treaty between the U.S. and Russia, called New START. This calls for the reduction in the number of warheads in both nations' stockpiles from the current amount of roughly 7,000 warheads each, to 1,550 warheads each by February 2018. Trump's declarations suggest he would scrap New START and relaunch a new nuclear-arms race between the U.S. and Russia. This, in turn, could easily trigger the desire among other existing nuclear states, like India, Pakistan and Israel, to increase their stockpiles. Trump also repeatedly stated throughout the presidential campaign that he supports the acquisition of nuclear weapons by other nations, including Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia. And he has said the opposite on other occasions, which only highlights the volatility and unpredictability of this incoming commander in chief. In such an unstable world, with an increasing number of nuclear weapons, the likelihood only increases that someone, somewhere will hit the button.

Alarmed at the recent developments, one group has launched a petition urging the current president to take action. "With the stroke of a pen, President Barack Obama could take our nuclear missiles off high alert, making sure that President Trump could not launch them rashly," writes Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation. "Trump will have the unfettered ability to launch one or one thousand nuclear warheads whenever he pleases. Four minutes after he gives the order, the missiles will fly. No one can stop him, short of a full-scale mutiny. Once launched, the missiles cannot be recalled."

Yes, Obama should take the weapons off high alert, but that's not enough. Donald Trump's finger on the nuclear trigger is a terrifying prospect. It's the anti-nuclear movement that needs to go on high alert to make sure that trigger never gets pulled.

By Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan -

DEMOCRACY NOW - PBS

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

ANTI-PROPAGANDA ACT COULD BE USED TO MUZZLE FREE SPEECH

Democracy Now! 
Obama Signs Defense Bill, Establishing Anti-Propaganda Center - President Obama on Friday signed the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, providing nearly $619 billion for war and military spending.
DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG
  • Press freedom advocates are raising alarm over a little-known bill rolled into the National Defense Authorization Act, called the Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act. It will create a national anti-propaganda center.
    Phyllis Carter - JUST THE TITLE, "ANTI-PROPAGANDA" SUGGESTS THAT A TYRANT IN THE OVAL OFFICE COULD DECIDE THAT ANY DISSENT IS PROPAGANDA. THIS IS SERIOUSLY DANGEROUS.

RETURN SANITY AND DECENCY TO AMERICA


5 Things You Can Do Right Now About Donald J. Trump - Michael Moore

It's been seven weeks since Hillary beat Trump by nearly 3 million votes but lost the presidency to him. So if your head is still spinning from that mindf***, or you can't quite believe a malignant narcissist will now sit in the Oval Office, or if you are simply still working your way through the 17 stages of grief, then I am here to say to you, "There's no crying in TrumpLand -- Let's get to work!" All hands on deck! Brush your yourself off and let's get busy because: a) All hope is not lost; b) There are more of us than there are of them; and c) The roadside is littered with the ended careers of self-absorbed, narcissistic politicians whose arrogance led them to do things that caused their early resignation or impeachment. Don't think that can't happen here.

I do not say these things because I am filled with optimism. In fact, I think the first thing we all have to do in order to move on is to admit out loud what we already think privately: As bad as we know it's going to be, it's actually going to be worse. A lot worse. Now cheer up and read on...

THE FIVE THINGS EACH OF US MUST DO THIS WEEK

1. MAKE YOUR PRESENCE KNOWN. Your Senators and Members of Congress are home right now, in your town (or a nearby town), for their holiday break. Their office is open! You don't need an appointment. Just show up (to find out where the local office is click here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and type in your zip code). Go there (take a friend!), walk in and say "I'm a constituent and I'd like a few minutes with my Congressman/woman." He/she may be busy, so tell them you'd like to speak to someone on the staff for a couple minutes. Most local congressional offices are LOATHE to turn anyone away because to them you are that one vote who could vote them out of office. Tell the person you get to speak to why you want the Congressman to block all the damage Trump is going to do (cite examples). If he/she is a Republican, they will explain why they "support the new President." You then must politely tell them you and everyone you know will work to unseat them in 2018 if they don't act independently from Trump. The calmer and cooler you say this, the more they will believe it. If your rep is a Democrat, tell him/her that you expect them to AGGRESSIVELY fight the Trump agenda -- and if they don't, you will work with others to support a true progressive in the Democratic primary in 2018. Tell them that millions of us will do what the Tea Party did to the Republicans: primary them and toss them out of office. Say it politely, thank them, then leave. You actually showing up in person to do this is as powerful as 100 letters or a large demonstration on the street in front of their office. Do this and post it on social media. Post it on my Facebook or Twitter and I'll try to re-post/tweet as many as I can.

2. WRITE TO THE DNC TONIGHT. It will take 5 minutes. Send a quick email to the Democratic National Committee (http://my.democrats.org/page/s/contact-the-democrats) and tell them you want them to elect Congressman Keith Ellison as the new chairperson of the Democratic Party. He is the future and everyone else is the past. Here's what the old guard gave us: TWICE in 16 years the Democratic candidate WON the vote for President but LOST the White House. Incredible! This has to stop! Ellison and the progressive wing of the party must take us forward. Keith has the backing of Bernie Sanders and myself, but also the endorsement of some of the old guard who've come around to see the error of past ways (Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, etc.). In addition to being born in Detroit, spending his adulthood as a community organizer and now representing the Twin Cities in the House, Ellison is also the only Muslim member of Congress. He was one of the few members of Congress brave enough to back Bernie. He will fight to turn this around and, as a son of the Midwest, bring that part of the country back from the dark side. Let's flood the DNC with emails tonight (and cc: the your state Democratic Party, too - you can look up their email address on Google).

3. FORM YOUR OWN RAPID RESPONSE TEAM. By New Year's Day this Sunday, I want you to ask 5 to 10 friends, family members, co-workers, classmates or neighbors to be part of your Rapid Response Team. Pick a name for it -- the "Doyle Family Rapid Response Team", the "Oak Street Rapid Response Team", the "Seabrook High School Rapid Response Team", the "Gilmore Girls Fan Club Rapid Response Team", etc. Set a plan to contact each other online as soon as word goes out on any given day to oppose what Trump and Congress are up to. Your Rapid Response Team will agree with each other to email elected reps, make calls, post on social media, go to protests and/or organize others at work, school or in the neighborhood. Through my own social media sites, as stuff happens, I will send out instructions immediately as to what we all must do. Sign up now to follow me on my Facebook (facebook.com/mmflint) and Twitter (twitter.com/mmflint) if you don't already. Form your team this week. I'm personally organizing a Rapid Response Team in the apartment building where I live. We need to get prepared and be ready now. If we wait til late January to organize, it will be too late.

4. MAKE PLANS NOW TO BE AT THE INAUGURATION WEEKEND PROTESTS! We need millions in the streets in DC -- and that's what it looks like it's shaping up to be. The big march will be the day after the Inauguration - the Million Women March on January 21st. Click here for details https://www.facebook.com/events/2169332969958991/. On January 20th - Inauguration Day - a call has been gone out to non-violently disrupt the proceedings. Go to http://www.disruptj20.org/ and learn about civil disobedience on that day. Planes and trains are already selling out, as are hotels. Contact the above sites to get info on buses and housing (or charter your own bus from your town). Everyone who can should be there. If you can't make it, find (or organize) a local protest in your area. Take the day off. No one should be silent that day.

5. YOU SHOULD RUN FOR OFFICE. Yes, YOU. Why not? Who else do you think is going to do it? I'm not saying you have to be the next Senator from Michigan, but why not run for State Rep. or school board or city council? At the very least, run for precinct delegate in the local Democratic Party. It's time to stop carping about politicians and become one. But a different kind of one! I ran for and got elected to the school board at 18-years old. Form your campaign committee now for the elections in 2017 and 2018. (If you need me, I'll even offer to be your honorary chair!) You know you can do this. We have no choice. We've left it up to others - yes, Democrats - and they are inept and continual losers. Haven't you had enough? Run for office, any office!

There you go. 5 Easy Pieces. Start tonight. And spread this around.

ALL HANDS ON DECK!

Michael Moore

A REAL JEW CANNOT SUPPORT DONALD TRUMP OR NETANYAHU


A REAL JEW LOVES JUSTICE, NOT MONEY.

A REAL JEW DEFENDS THE WEAK AND THE POOR AND REFUSES TO ASSOCIATE WITH TYRANTS.

A REAL JEW DOES NOT BOW TO DICTATORS.

CUTTING A SLIVER OFF YOUR PENIS DOESN'T MAKE YOU A JEW. THAT IS DOGMA, NOT FAITH.

WEARING A YARMELKE DOES NOT MAKE YOU A JEW.

A BEARD DOES NOT MAKE YOU A JEW.

A LOT OF MONEY DOES NOT MAKE YOU A JEW.

KNOWLEDGE OF THE TORAH DOES NOT MAKE YOU A JEW.

A JEW MUST BE A MENSCH, A PERSON OF SUBSTANCE AND GOOD CHARACTER.

YOU CANNOT BE A JEW AND SUPPORT DONALD TRUMP, NO MORE THAN A MENSCH OF ANY FAITH COULD SUPPORT HITLER.

SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER. DO NOT SELL YOUR SOUL.

ARE YOU " THE ENEMY " ?


Democracy Now!
PBS

"To associate [The Rockettes] with Mr. Trump, who has a public history of degrading women, objectifying women, in my opinion, really tarnishes what The Rockettes embody and stand for." 

Autumn Withers, former member of the Radio City Rockettes.

Phyllis Carter  - LADIES AND GENTLEMAN - NO AMOUNT OF MONEY, TITLES OR ADVANTAGE CAN JUSTIFY SELLING YOUR SOUL. IN THE LONG RUN, TO THE OWN SELF BE TRUE AND IT FOLLOWS, AS THE NIGHT, THE DAY - THOU CANS'T NOT THEN BE FALSE TO ANYONE.

WHAT WILL YOU TELL YOUR GRANDCHILDREN ABOUT YOUR OWN ACTIONS IF TRUMP TAKES OVER YOUR SOUL WHILE HE TAKES OVER THE WORLD?

COUNT YOURSELF AMONG THE RIGHTEOUS GENTILES, JEWS, MUSLIMS AND SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH AND RESIST TYRANNY BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.

THE GERMAN JEWS THOUGHT THEY WERE GERMAN CITIZENS. THEY WERE NOT GANGSTERS OR THIEVES OR TROUBLE MAKERS. THEY WERE DOCTORS, STORE KEEPERS, TEACHERS, SCIENTISTS, TAILORS, MUSICIANS, WRITERS, EXCELLENT CITIZENS. THEY DID NOT KNOW WHAT HITLER WOULD DO TO THEM.

AMERICANS WHO SUPPORT TRUMP THINK THEY ARE EXEMPT FROM WHAT HE IS GOING TO DO TO THE "OTHERS" - THE MUSLIMS, MEXICANS, ANYONE WHO DOES NOT HAVE WHITE SKIN AND ORANGE HAIR.

"I DON'T WANT THE ENEMY TO KNOW WHERE I AM COMING FROM" - DONALD TRUMP SAID.

ANYONE WHO OPPOSES DONALD TRUMP - IS THE ENEMY.

ACHTUNG ! ACHTUNG !

December 27, 2016

Monday, December 26, 2016

SVETLANA ALEXIEVICH SHARES VICTIMS' EXPERIENCES OF CHERNOBYL


https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2015/alexievich-lecture_en.html

The are still building nuclear reactors while trying to dig a hole deep enough into the Earth to bury the poison they have already created.


TRUMP AND HITLER - THE POLITICS OF DECEPTION


The word Gleichschaltung is often translated from the German as "coordination" and refers to the process of - politically speaking - getting in line. It often appears in books about the Nazi era. German Jewish philologist Victor Klemperer and German journalist Joachim Fest wrote about the personal cost of coordinating in their respective memoirs. German author Sebastian Haffner and Americans including journalist William Shirer wrote about the propaganda and politics of coordination.
German-born Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt, in one of her last interviews, explains it best.

"The problem, the personal problem, was not what our enemies did, but what our friends did. Friends 'coordinated' or got in line." And this coordination was not necessarily due to the "pressure of terror," said Arendt, who escaped Germany in 1933. Intellectuals were particularly vulnerable to this wave of coordination. "The essence of being an intellectual is that one fabricates ideas about everything," and many intellectuals of her time were "trapped by their own ideas."

People rejected the uglier aspects of Nazism but gave ground in ways that ultimately made it successful. They conceded premises to faulty arguments. They rejected the "facts" of propaganda, but not the impressions of it. The new paradigm of authoritarianism was so disorienting that they simply could not see it for what it was, let alone confront it.

The faulty premise that empowered Hitler and helped place him in the German mainstream was called the Dolchstoss or the legend of the "stab in the back." It argued that, despite all of the evidence to the contrary, Germany was winning World War I only to have politicians surrender prematurely.

Hitler, as a political figure, was the embodiment of this hack theory. While many rejected Hitler's anti-Semitism and bellicosity, his deep sense of having been wronged by Germany's surrender in World War I ― a war in which he fought ― gave him authenticity. It also created a hole in the German Republic's legitimacy that he and his followers barreled through.
Before there were the camps and murders - and the euphemisms to hide all of the camps and all of the murders - there was this feel-good lie that should have been dismissed - along with the people telling it, from the beginning.

In today's United States, the suggestion that illegal immigration is the cause of the economic struggles of working-class whites is an American Dolchstoss. Mechanization, globalization and the decline of unions have affected working-class whites to a far greater extent than illegal immigration - or immigration of any kind. And this is not an obscure fact or liberal talking point. Yet many who supposedly reject Trump's scapegoating of illegal immigrants seem willing to concede it.

The debates about how or what, if anything, workers can do to combat this reality are endless, but the claim that immigrants are to blame is the talking point of the demagogue, not a reflection of economic reality.

When the decline of working-class jobs was perceived as a problem for African-Americans primarily, the neoliberal and conservative positions were much less sympathetic. According to William Julius Wilson's 1996 book, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor, "Between 1967 and 1987 Philadelphia lost 64% of its manufacturing jobs; Chicago lost 60%; Detroit 51%." This meant hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, disproportionately affecting African-Americans. The solution from conservatives? "Migrate" was black conservative Shelby Steele's prescription. "Get new skills," said others. And even more popular was "behave more like Asians." Yet whites need an entirely new mythology, even if that mythology hurts prospects. According to a recent Politico article by Dana Goldstein, "America: This Is Your Future," "Rust Belt cities that are attracting immigrants are in better shape than those, like Dayton, Ohio, with fewer foreign-born residents." Yet, "the people who are upset about immigration live in areas where immigration has had very little impact. A lot of the upset is symbolic." The symbolism and the propaganda form a kind of feedback loop, each reinforcing the other, regardless of the underlying truths - or lack thereof.

In his 1940 book, Germany: Jekyll and Hyde, Haffner explains this relationship between impression and propaganda, even for those opposed to the Reich. He writes, "Outside of Germany people often wonder at the palpable fraudulence of Nazi propaganda, the stupid incredible exaggerations, the ludicrous reticences concerning what is generally known. Who can be convinced by it? They ask. The answer is that it is not meant to convince but to impress. It addresses emotion and fantasy. Nazi propaganda seeks to create in our minds tenacious ideas and fantasies."

In Haffner's time, the tenacious ideas and fantasies were the subhuman images of the Reich's enemies. Many Germans rejected the "facts" of this propaganda: that Czechoslovakia or Poland posed existential threats to Germany and the German people, but the impression of the propaganda remained. "The image," Haffner wrote, "of the Czechs and Poles as a snub-nosed, unpleasant, dwarfish half-ape brandishing a revolver, whip or rubber truncheon at a number of barely clad women, children, and blond men bound to posts." Who could trust such a person? Why risk it?

Trump's propaganda about Mexican rapists and Muslim terrorists operates in a similar way. The informed listener knows that most rapes are committed by perpetrators that are known to the victim. They know that most terrorist attacks in the United States are committed by non-Muslims, but the impression that those groups are not to be trusted - that to trust them is taking an unnecessary risk - remains.

The impressions born of the propaganda give birth to discussions that worsen the problem. Commentator Van Jones, for example, debated CNN panelists recently about discrimination against Muslims. To support his argument that Muslims are not the enemy, he cataloged many of the positive attributes of the Muslim community as if Americans that are hostile to Muslims are acting in good faith based on bad information rather than cherry-picking incidents to support their underlying prejudices. Jones reminded viewers and other panelists that Muslims have low crime rates, high educational achievement and high rates of entrepreneurship. The fact that it needs to be said demonstrates the relative power of the people asking the questions to those who must answer. It morphs questions about Muslims into a kind of Muslim Question that exists not to seek answers but to emphasize the otherness of the Muslim community and to limit its rights.

While on the campaign trail in February, Trump urged followers to "knock the hell" out of protesters, promising to pay their legal bills if they were arrested and charged. That same February in Fort Worth, he promised a crowd that he would "open up our libel laws" so that news outlets can be sued for writing "false" or "purposely negative" articles. In July, he urged Russia to interfere in the election on his behalf, later saying he was joking. In September, he urged still other supporters to "monitor" polling stations. In October, he promised when victorious to throw his rival, Hillary Clinton, in jail. And just recently he advocated revoking the citizenship of Americans who burn flags.

So, in the last year, Trump has flirted with or, maybe more his style, groped and pawed at totalitarianism, yet the advice from many is to "give him a chance" - or to coordinate.

In 1949, Harvard psychologists Jerome Bruner and Leo Postman performed a study that helps explain the contradiction. Bruner and Postman recruited two dozen college students to participate in a study of perception and expectations. The experiment involved playing cards.

Participants were shown a series of cards. Most of them were standard playing cards, but included in the series were several trick card: a black four of hearts, a red six of spades, a red six of clubs, to name a few. Each card was presented, and the participant was instructed to identify it correctly.

There were four possible reactions to the trick cards. The first was "recognition," or describing the trick card accurately. The second was "disruption," or being confused by the card and as a result be unable to describe it. The third option was "compromise," which mixes the incongruities in the cards: the black four of hearts is reported as "grayish"; the red six of spades is reported as "purple."

The fourth and most common reaction by far was "dominance." The participants expected to view a normal series of cards, so when faced with a trick card their minds approximated, and the trick card became the most similar normal card: a red spade was identified as a red heart or diamond; a black heart was identified as a spade.

The report of the study, "On the Perception of Incongruity: A Paradigm," said, "Our major conclusion is that perceptual organization is powerfully determined by expectations built upon past commerce with the environment. When such expectations are violated by the environment, the perceiver's behavior can be described as resistance to the unexpected or incongruous."

The participants could only see what they expected to see. Their minds coordinated. For many Americans, the expectations of the game are divided government, stability and continuity regardless of what the candidate promises. However, if the new regime has embraced authoritarianism, then there will be trick cards in the deck that have to be identified correctly and challenged.

"Patriotism" became a trick card in Klemperer's memoir and study of Nazi language, The Language of the Third Reich. Klemperer wrote of a Jewish neighbor, Frau K, who continued to speak with pride about Germany and the "Fuhrer," despite having been deemed subhuman by the regime. Patriotism and deference to leadership - respect for the office of the president, as we call it - might have elevated Frau K in the old paradigm, but in the new one it worsened her condition.

"Divided government" became a trick card in Shirer's 1960 history, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, when Hitler pushed through the Enabling Act and, "In five brief paragraphs," took the power to legislate, approve treaties, and initiate constitutional amendments away from Parliament. A divided government essentially "committed suicide," according to Shirer, and bequeathed its power to a dictator.

There were many others, but "dominance" made them difficult to recognize. Joachim Fest writes in his memoir Not I, "At first, the countless violations of the law by our new rulers still caused a degree of disquiet. But among the incomprehensible features of those months, my father later recalled, was the fact that soon life went on as if such state crimes were the most natural thing in the world." Those months would turn to years. Not the thousand years that Hitler had predicted, but enough to cause millions of deaths.

We should not waste our time or imaginations trying to reconfigure Trumpism to explain why all of the "good people" supported him. It is more important to see it for what it is and resist. Hopefully, they will join us. If not, it will not be necessary to call them names, they will have named themselves.

Huffington Post

BERNIE SANDERS DARES TO SPEAK THE TRUTH - PHILADELPHIA, NOVEMBER , 2016



https://www.democracynow.org/2016/11/30/watch_bernie_sanders_full_speech_in

Saturday, December 24, 2016

ROCKETTES TOLD, DANCE FOR TRUMP OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES

 
HEIL TRUMP !

They danced for Liberace. They danced for George W. Bush. But some of the Radio City Rockettes, America's most beloved precision dance group, famous for their yearly holiday spectaculars, are drawing the line at president-elect Donald Trump.
On Dec. 22, the Rockettes' parent organization, Madison Square Garden Company, announced that the group will perform at Trump's presidential inauguration in January, an affair that has thus far been sorely lacking in A-list performers. (Even local high school marching bands have turned the gig down.)
Instead of embracing the assignment, some Rockettes responded with unease. "Finding out that it has been decided for us that Rockettes will be performing at the presidential inauguration makes me feel embarrassed and disappointed," one Rockette wrote on Instagram. Another called it "problematic" to be "forcing dozens of women to go and perform for this man."
Their concerns triggered a swift rebuke from the Rockettes' union, the American Guild of Variety Artists. "It is a job, and all of you should consider it an honor, no matter who is being sworn in," a "high-ranking" union official reportedly wrote in an email obtained by a Broadway news publication. "The election is over and this country will not survive if it remains divided."
The email went on to imply that Rockettes would risk their full-time employment by refusing to dance in the celebration:
We have received an email from a Rockette expressing concern about getting "involved in a dangerous political climate" but I must remind you that you are all employees, and as a company, Mr. Dolan obviously wants the Rockettes to be represented at our country's Presidential inauguration, as they were in 2001 & 2005. Any talk of boycotting this event is invalid, I'm afraid.
"Everyone is entitled to her own political beliefs, but there is no room for this in the workplace," the email reportedly went on to tell the Rockettes—a troupe of 80 dancers, of which about 30 perform in each show. "If you are not full time, you do not have to sign up to do this work. If you are full time, you are obligated. Doing the best performance to reflect an American Institution which has been here for over 90 years is your job. I hope this pulls into focus the bottom line on this work." Quartz reached out to the union, as well as the Madison Square Garden Company, for comment, but neither immediately responded.
Fellow entertainers are showing support and sympathy for the reluctant Rockettes. One quipped on Facebook, "What could be more fitting for this inauguration than forcing a group of women to do something with their bodies against their will?"

Willing or not, the Rockettes seem to be the biggest performers lined up for Trump's inauguration. (The inaugural committee also announced this week that it has secured the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.)

Asked by CNN whether there are any stars the inaugural committee is still keeping under wraps, Trump's spokesman Boris Epshteyn said, "We are not putting on Woodstock."
Epshteyn continued: "It's not about artists. My top three people I'd like to see at the inaugural are Donald J. Trump, Donald J. Trump and Donald J. Trump."
Meanwhile, Trump himself responded to the entertainment world's snubs with defiance.

GLORY TO THE PRESIDENT AND HIS FIRST "LADY"

I EXPECT IT WON'T BE LONG UNTIL TRUMP'S FACE IS ON THE AMERICAN MONEY AND HIS WIFE'S NUDE PHOTO IS ON THE BACKSIDE.

MELANIA TRUMP – AMERICA'S FIRST "LADY"

PHYLLISCARTERSJOURNAL.BLOGSPOT.COM
http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.ca/2016/11/melania-trump-americas-first-lady.html

SADISTS WHO TORTURE ANIMALS DO NOT DESERVE TO LIVE.

 
After years of pain and exploitation on fur farms, rabbits are killed and tossed away. Common deaths include strangulation, neck-breaking, suffocation, poisoning and anal electrocution. It is time for retailers to stop selling fur and to end their support…FORCECHANGE.COM