One Month Before Taking Power, GOP House Judiciary Finally Removes Tweet Praising Three Nazi Lovers

 

                "We're gonna investigate the January 6th committee!"

Chris Hayes (on ALL In)  displayed the tweet that came right out of the GOP House Judiciary on Friday:

Kanye...ELON....Trump

Displaying all three degenerate and Nazi lovers' names in one fell swoop, errr... tweet.  For more on this see:

GOP House Judiciary Deletes “Kanye. Elon. Trump” Tweet After Kanye Says He Likes Hitler | The New Republic

Excerpt:

The House Judiciary Committee Republicans finally deleted a controversial tweet Thursday expressing support for Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Kanye West—after the rapper praised Hitler and the Nazis. The House Judiciary GOP account tweeted “Kanye. Elon. Trump” in early October. The tweet stayed up through multiple controversies, including all three men seeming to embrace some form of white supremacy.

"Ye" himself is such a cockeyed kook he actually told another cockeyed kook, Alex Jones, on his InfoWars podcast:

“Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler"

And this was after Jones even gave him a chance to bail out of his Hitler worship, e.g. asking "You're not really a Nazi, are you?"  Well, Ye proved he's at least fantasizing being one, never mind Hitler would have had him gassed almost first in line (as an untermensch) at Auschwitz or Treblinka.

Ye's idiotic claim that Hitler had "something to bring to the table" was batshit nuts on its own.  The only minor thing Hitler might have had to "bring to any table" was from his homeless late teen years in Vienna, when he worked on uninspiring, inferior art.  But once he failed his art entry qualifying exam that went by the backboards.  To be replaced by hate on steroids. 

All this begs the question of why a putative GOP Judiciary honcho would  allow such damning detritus to be telegraphed and nearly a month before Jim Jordan's MAGA mutts take their seats?  Well, maybe because he's a bomb thrower at heart.  But seriously,  who knows?  We only know that these maggots can't get out of their own way.  

But as Hayes observed, the twerp that tweeted the offensive barf  (maybe Jim Jordan?) will have subpoena power beginning in January.  And we know what they plan to do: follow the example of the Hitlerian Reich courts and turn all the power of investigation back onto the investigators, a la the loser John Durham & Trump AG Bill Barr, e.g.

Watch Out for Bill Barr's Flunky John Durham to Fabricate a Report That Would "Absolve" Russia of 2016 Election Interference

by Bill Berkowitz | October 31, 2019 - 6:38am

---

Here's a bit of history for those who need some context and reference:

In ‘Hitler's Justice: The Courts of the Third Reich’

We learn:

“How many German jurists and lawyers acquiesced in the Nazi seizure of power, collaborated with the regime and legitimated it, also became involved in promoting the Aryan ideals of Nazism, meted out perversions of justice during the Nazi era, and, in short, violated their professional standards and basic morality.”

In other words, took norms of law and judicial reckoning and trashed them to serve an end of power.  Effectively negating the lawful judiciary and replacing it with a specious, fraudulent apparatus to “judge the judges”- and send them packing, to concentration camps.  (If they refused to cooperate)

This is in effect what Jim Jordan & Co. plan when they occupy the House on January 3^rd. To now turn the ‘guns’ of their specious investigations onto the January 6^th ‘judges’ – members of the J6 special committee – who found Trump and his lackeys guilty on all counts. The driving force of Jordan’s judiciary fraud committee will be to find guilty all those who found Trump and his insurrectionist slime guilty, i.e. in the hearings.  In many ways thereby mirroring the bogus investigation of Barr lackey John Durham into those who mounted the Mueller investigation of Trump.

After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, the German system of justice underwent "coordination" (alignment with Nazi goals). All professional associations involved with the administration of justice were merged into the National Socialist League of German Jurists. In April 1933, Hitler passed one of the earliest antisemitic laws, purging Jewish and also Socialist judges, lawyers, and other court officers from their professions.  Effectively, he'd terminated the normal Weimar Republic system of jurisprudence, replacing it with a Nazi impostor - but which has the full power of the Nazi state behind it- including all its horrific sanctions. See e.g.

Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State | PBS

 We know, so far, the fascist Reeps (without the Senate and the presidency) lack such sweeping power, but Jordan and his gang of reprobates can still cause a lot of misery, deadlock, chaos and consternation - especially by turning the judiciary committee's power of investigation onto the January 6th committee itself.  We do know this is among their 'boners', along with investigating Hunter Biden, why the media gave him a "pass" in 2020, as well as Anthony Fauci and the "lab theory" for Covid origin.  Get set for months, hell years, of 'anger-tainment' brought to you by many of the same assholes that brought you Benghazi.

It bears repeating here that NY Times economist Paul Krugman had it correct two weeks ago when he wrote in a column:  

"The modern G.O.P., in case you haven’t noticed, isn’t a normal political party. It barely has policy goals, other than an almost reflexive desire to cut taxes on the rich and deny aid to those in need. It certainly doesn’t have policy ideas.

Republicans spent much of the election talking about inflation. But in a news conference just after securing a narrow majority in the House, top Republicans declared that their top priority would be … investigating the Biden family."

So, as not only Krugman but also Michelle Goldman and Maureen Dowd have noted, the G.O.P. won’t help govern America.  No one with any grasp of reality will expect to see solutions for inflation, the high cost of energy, or the CO2-climate emergency.  No way. On the contrary, we will be lucky to escape the GOP reign without a major economic crisis, even a major recession, say if they play chicken with the debt ceiling.  See e.g.

• FT Columnist Edward Luce Predicts 'Only Real Damage...

 McCarthy's and Jordan's brigade of Reepster brigands, in fact, will almost surely do what they can to undermine rational and temperate governance. And Democrats, in turn, need to do whatever they can both to thwart political sabotage and to make the would-be saboteurs pay a price. That includes having a plan in place to blow off every specious subpoena.   

Reepos by their rat-roach nature always see payback and partisan power plays as an advantage in exercising oversight. The Dems need to thwart that wherever they can, especially in the place of surrendering to lawless, grandstanding "investigations."    

Meanwhile, we know that McCarthy - to get anywhere- will need support from every member of his caucus.  His problem is that at least 36 members are crazies, part of the "Freedom Caucus" that includes Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar and Lauren Boebert.  Basically, then, to get anything done he will have to give in at every step to election deniers, conspiracy mongers and other refuse. As one former GOP congressman put it McCarthy may hold the title but Marjorie Taylor Greene may well be the Speaker in practice.   

This is the circus we will now be saddled with because something on the order of 4 million Americans in 4 key states - California, Florida, Texas and New York  - thought it'd be better to have a Goop instead of a Dem in a House seat in their congressional districts.  (GOP House candidates also won a majority of white women in the nation’s suburbs.)

As Maureen Dowd put it, they may have believed they were punishing Biden and the Dems ...for whatever, but they've ended up actually punishing themselves. 

See Also:

Conservatives and the Right

Hitler Would Have Had Ye Sterilized and Gassed

by Harvey Wasserman | December 6, 2022 - 6:38am | permalink

— from Reader Supported News

The artist formerly known as Kanye West has told Tucker Carlson he sees “good things” in Adolph Hitler.

Maybe “Ye,” as he’s now called, should know Hitler would have had him sterilized, then gassed.

Indeed, as a man of color, the infamous rapper would have been subject to Nazi race laws that paralleled those imposed on Jews.

But Hitler reserved additional special treatment for those of African descent. By 1937, if he’d lived in his hero’s Germany, Ye was sure to have been forcibly neutered.

And:

Conservatives and the Right

‘This Is Nazism’: The Internet Explodes After Kanye West Praises Adolf Hitler

by David Badash | December 2, 2022 - 8:01am | permalink

— from The New Civil Rights Movement

Disgraced rapper and antisemite Kanye West on Thursday praised Adolf Hitler while in an interview with far-right extremist and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Many are expressing outrage online.

“I see good things about Hitler,” West told Jones, as Consequence reports. “Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler.”

And:

Republicans

Kanye West’s Road to Trump’s Dinner Table Was Paved by GOP and Fox News Hype

by Amanda Marcotte | December 6, 2022 - 8:15am | permalink

— from Salon

And:

Republicans

GOP Lawmaker Vows To Investigate Twitter Employees Who May Have Helped To Censor News About Hunter Biden’s Laptop

by Meaghan Ellis | December 5, 2022 - 7:46am | permalink

— from Alternet

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) is vowing to bring Twitter employees before Congress as part of an investigative effort to determine how they may have censored reports on Hunter Biden's laptop during the 2020 election cycle.

And:

Republicans

Freedom Caucus Promises To Wow Us With Mystery Speaker Candidate. Who Will It Be?

by Joan McCarter | December 3, 2022 - 11:10am | permalink

— from Daily Kos

The House maniacs are making no bones about it: They hate Kevin McCarthy. Really, really hate him.

The trouble is, they don’t have anyone in their group that all the other Republicans don’t hate at least as much. So how do you find a Speaker? Bring in a special guest star! One who isn’t a member of the House already

And:

Kevin McCarthy

Kevin McCarthy and the Freedom Maniacs Will Play Chicken Over Speaker’s Gavel, and It’s Going To Be Hilarious

by Joan McCarter | December 2, 2022 - 8:37am | permalink

— from Daily Kos

And:

Republicans | Rudy Giuliani

House GOP Poised To Launder Rudy’s Russian Disinformation Again

by Lindsay Beyerstein | December 6, 2022 - 8:41am | permalink

— from Alternet

We’ve been warned. When the Republicans take contro

 

My 5 Main Takeaways After A Bout With The RSV (Adult Form) Virus

 

          Transition electron micrograph rendering of virus that took me down

As noted in my Nov. 26 post, one of the respiratory viruses circulating now is Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV, afflicting both kids and older adults.   According to a recent WSJ piece (p. A3, Dec. 3^rd, RSV, ‘Flu Infections Surge’):

 "Hospitalizations for RSV among kids under 5 are outpacing those for Covid-19, CDC data show. Public-health experts said the crush of patients is likely due in part to a larger pool of susceptible children compared with prior seasons, giving the virus more room to spread as people mingle indoors.

There were also some 1.7 RSV-related hospitalizations for every 100,000 people for the week ended Nov. 26 within the CDC’s 12-state RSV surveillance network."

The latter point is especially important. And while child RSV illness garners most attention - because of the hospitalization levels- adults 65 and older are definitely contributing to the RSV hospitalization ratio.

Sites like Mayo Clinic claim the adult RSV cases are "generally mild" but not the one I have had to deal with, 11 days and counting. Still unable to even summon the energy to walk briefly to the grocery to get supplies. Not on! Just five or six steps entails severe coughing and bloody sputum brought up - not conditions I'd wish to present in a public place.  And as a general takeaway let's clear up that this RSV in no short time, "weak sister" to a flu bug. Oh no. Not when it lasts over 2 weeks (for Janice) and approaching that for me.  This bug is every bit as bad as every flu I've had since 1968 but I know it ain't flu because: i) there was no fever of any kind, and ii) there were never any muscle, joint aches - as I've experienced with all previous flus. Also, no gastro issues. On the contrary my eating - caloric intake - has not abated.

So amazingly, while the miserable bug struck on Thanksgiving Eve I had no problems consuming a whole turkey thigh and at least 7 ounces of the stuffing I made the previous day.  Along with a whole bowl of cole slaw I also made.

Anyway, here are five medical takeaways - extracted from different sites (Web MD, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, UCHealth) and applied to my own encounter with this microbial beast.  (Captured in the above artwork graphic of Dr. Linda Stannard from a transition electron micrograph image)

1-  The onset of symptoms can be slow or sudden, so don't make the mistake of going out in public if you have even "mild symptoms".   In my case they began with an annoying sore throat and then terrific congestion amplified by sneezing. I knew from then there'd be no visiting on turkey day or having friends visit us.  It turned out to be a sound decision.

2- The priority from the first 12 hours on is clearing airways, air passages and keeping them clear. The sheer volume of mucous, blood and nasal detritus this beastie produces is staggering. Indeed, "preternatural", to use Janice's turn of phrase. As I learned, it required constant blowing (of nose) and coughing, as well as outright hacking-retching to get the stuff coming up and keeping air ways clear.  

This is why RSV is so critical in kids - children 8 and under- causing so many to be hospitalized.  It's because they lack the chest and upper trachea musculature to enable violent expulsion of mucous.  In this regard, and as an adult, be prepared for days of doing nothing but expel, expel, expel ....even in the middle of the night.  That is when the phlegm-mucous buildup is greatest and you will need to run to the rest room get the toilet seat open and expel noxious looking (brown, orange, red) sputum and deep bronchial detritus which has burbled into your throat - waking you up from a tentative sleep.

3-You will still need to eat - and a lot - to sustain energy, which will be sapped over days from all the nose blowing, coughing, expectoration. Janice asked me to estimate the mass of detritus and mucous we each have expelled since the disease began and I told her with a straight face: "A pound each, plus or minus maybe an ounce."

The bloody thing is, you aren't able to exercise, though you can still eat (I was still able to finish - with Janice - all our 10 lb. turkey and stuffing etc. over four days). The function of the food, eating - for both of us - was to get us through the misery days, especially including the pumpkin pie and ice cream.   The problem?  The combination of no exercise plus all that holiday food packs on the pounds, likely puts lipid panels, blood sugars into a tailspin.  But it can't be helped, and no physician advice to "cut calories while you're ill" will work with this virus.  

4-  Keep at least a dozen boxes of Kleenex tissues handy - per person.  We needed at least that many.  Just over the initial span of four days I filled 4 small plastic grocery bags alone with bloodied, mucous-saturated tissues.  These were used both during the day an at night - when the congestion was often the worst and required the use of a nebulizer as well as my oxygen concentrator machine, e.g.

While use of the machine - at  least for limited periods each night-  did manage to keep airways clear at least for an hour or so, the process was often interrupted by nasal mucous buildup.  This would be right near where the cannula is placed so I was compelled to get up and blow out the mucous -ok, bloody snot - about 5- 6 times a night.  The process ended up saturating 15- 2o tissues at a go, but did allow me to keep using the O2 machine.  I always kept at least a plastic empty bag near my bed to collect the toxic waste.   

5- As the symptoms ease up don't be lulled into thinking you're done with it.   That means no showers until at least the nasal and chest congestion (including any cough) are gone.  Then, if you do go out - as I tried to do on Saturday- wear a mask!  (I quickly realized I had zero energy after waking up so had to give up  within 5 minutes of getting my jeans on.) The mask - which will for sure be worn when I see our primary doc Thursday-  is not to do any "virtue signaling" as the idiot Bill Maher has claimed.  Rather it's to protect others from a nasty virus that has the potential to kill - if they have weak immune systems or chronic respiratory conditions.

At Day 11, apart from the vast fatigue - which rivals even what I endured with the Hong Kong flu in December, 1968-  the most enduring aspect is the brain fog. To give you a small idea, just to finish this post took something like 15 edits, re-dos - over 5 days -  on account of encountering assorted random  "word salads", non-sequiturs.  So bear with me and don't expect remarkable, scintillating posts when I do get back to regular issues!

This RSV bug is serious and don't let anyone tell you anything different. It's out there with the flu and Covid-19 in a microbial horribilis triple threat and you can't afford to be stupid if you want to get through the season intact and not end up on a ventilator in a hospital bed.  And if you should get it, your best friends will be Dayquil-Nyquil, Zyrtec, Mucinex and plenty of Riciola (sugar free) cough lozenges-  as well as Kleenex tissues.

See Also:

RSV in Older Adults and Adults with Chronic Medical Conditions | CDC

 

Mensa - Is It Really Full Of Conceited Boors?

 

A year ago I noted the horrific attacks on a fellow Mensan, Michelle, featured on the cover of a Mensa Bulletin Issue  (see graphic) with her tats in  full view. In the wake of the cover image, she was mercilessly pilloried- mainly by older Mensans and some of the remarks can be read here:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2013/12/older-mensans-ought-to-be-smarter-than.html


This again elicited the question of whether Mensans are just plain vicious, conceited boors or is it was an age thing. Some further clarity arrived with the essay 'Let It Go', by Ellen Voie, appearing in the Nov/Dec issue of the Bulletin, p. 12. Interestingly, the sub-header was: 'Civilizing Blunt Communication Among Mensans'.  Voie, while noting the dangers of stereotyping "because Mensa members have so little in common",  also observed:

"However, there is one thing I have noticed from this highly intelligent group of individuals. They are very blunt. I thought about using the word 'candid' or even 'frank' but blunt works better."

She then delivered a few examples, including:

- When one member or other was trying to deliver a Power Point presentation at a Mensa event and people immediately began pointing out typos, shouting "You misspelled a word!"

 - In the Bulletin Letters section, instead of disagreeing with a concept or idea, it is suggested that other writers are "idiots} (or morons)

-At other events when a person expresses some further interest in a topic already covered, or asks what is construed as an unnecessary question,  detractors call for a Mensa "re-test." This is taken to be the ultimate insult one Mensan can hurl at another.

My own battles against fellow Mensans (Evan and Jon Wright) were well documented in The Bulletin and also in letters back and forth where I flatly called the pair "high grade morons" after Evan J. Wright asserted that I was "writing nonsense" because I noted the much higher absorption of CO2 in the oceans. According to Wright:

 "That's preposterous! If the oceans absorbed carbon dioxide they'd all turn into carbonated liquid, or soda pop! Does anyone see that? NOOO!"

Jon Wright - proving the apple never falls far from the tree- then defended his pop calling me the "moron" and belching I needed a "re-test". Meanwhile, his pop went off again, in the Jan. 3rd, 2012 Wall Street Journal letters (understandable given the WSJ is firmly anti-global warming) babbling:

"Having studied this subject for about 50 years from a research engineer's viewpoint and having read hundreds of articles and scientific reports during this time, I must say that sunspots are probably a factor, more so than Earth's elliptical orbit..."

It was hard not to roll on the floor laughing at this bollocks, all in an effort to escape anthropogenic global warming.

Strangely, neither Wright could explain the increasing acidity of the oceans when pressed, though any scientifically literate citizen would grasp that the world's oceans have about 30% higher acidity as a result of the chemical reaction: H2O + CO2 -> H2CO3, in other words, the production of carbonic acid. Which shows that merely because one belongs to Mensa doesn't mean he or she knows diddly or can argue coherently.

Back to Ms. Voies' plea, she wrote - invoking the song 'Let it go' from the flick Frozen:

"The next time you disagree with another Mensan's opinion, don't challenge his or her character, just question the facts. If you see a typo on a slide don't be in a race to point it out. We know it's there and are trying to ignore it for the presenter's sake.  The next time you find yourself questioning someone's intelligence when they ask a question, let it go."

Well, how about if they claim in a Bulletin letter the oceans would "turn to soda pop" if CO2 was absorbed? Can I call them morons then?

Anyway, while her advice is understandable it is doubtful Mensans will suddenly turn into polite members of the Socratic Debate Society anytime soon. And we aren't all 'goodie two shoes' good guys merely because we belong to Mensa either. As Thomas de Shazo writes in the most recent issue of Intertel's * Integra:

"One reason we are not dedicated to benevolence with our heady resources is that no moral compass attaches to high IQ. We have our full share of petty thieves, Wall Street class criminals as well as Ted Bundy types. 'Evil' is as randomly linked with genius as with dunce."

Indeed, and boorishness and nasty language too, can attach to those of us in high IQ societies as well as any other organizations. Which leads to another deShazo observation:

"There is not much correlation between high IQ and consistent good sense. Every one of us strays off the reservation with a really stupid act once in a while."

Having said all that, let's be clear not all Mensans are vicious boors, even a majority. One of the most delightful evenings wifey and I spent was ten days ago, attending the local Mensa Holiday Party which also featured a "White Elephant Gift Exchange".  In that fun event members each bring a gift they no longer want, valued between $15 and $25 and put it in a pile then each randomly draws a number from a bowl. Number 1 goes first and selects a wrapped gift from the pile and must open it before the group. Number 2 can either do the same or grab the gift (if they like it) from Number 1. This goes through all the numbers until the last person, who can either pick the last gift or grab someone else's. Wifey and I each brought a book we'd already read, and no longer wanted, and we ended up with a bottle of Cabernet wine from another couple. (Actually I grabbed it first, then the guy took it back 15 numbers down, then after wifey's Bailey's was snatched, she used her late ticket to snatch the wine back- by which time no further exchanges of the item were allowed - two max.)

None of the 44 odd people misbehaved, insulted another (say because a gift they prized was grabbed) or delivered obnoxious jokes. We all had a great time, but also perhaps because the subjects of politics, religion or phony science never reared their ugly heads.

-----
* Intertel is the next IQ society up from Mensa, for which one must place in the top 1 percent of IQ test scores, as opposed to the top 2 percent.

---------------

Addendum:  12/28/22

From the November/December Mensa Bulletin (p. 10) one letter writer has endorsed his support for an earlier (Sept.) proposal of ways to "Make American Mensa Nicer."   The letter writer came to this after attending a number of RGs (regional gatherings) in which "niceness" was in short supply in the Hospitality and gaming rooms, especially after politics and religion entered discussions.  Yes, it might be a great idea, but somehow I suspect half of Mensans won't agree as it would "curb their free speech."

  (Originally appeared as "Mensa: Is It Really Full Of Vicisou Boors? in December, 2014)

Let's Admit It: If You Succumb To "Fake News" You Might Be A Dummy

 

           "Of course it true dat Dems eat babies and sacrifice 'em to Satan!"

We are, to put it bluntly, immersed in an information cornucopia. There is simply no excuse for anyone of normal intelligence to get things wrong or be misled. Hence, the reports of "fake news" posted at Facebook taking gullible people in is beyond belief.  Anyone with a grain of sense knows that news outside authorized sources, like Facebook posts, has to be cross-checked. If a person then is still taken in, as in one FB post during the election campaign that "Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump" then that person must be a dummy.

Reinforcing this was Froma Harrop's recent astounding findings - appearing in her Nov. 20 Denver Post column('I'm Leaving Facebook, Won't You Follow Me?'), that nearly all the Facebook fake news items were generated outside the U.S. and often by kids - playing the American public. She wrote:

"Kids in a town in Macedonia (that’s near Greece) created over 100 pro-Trump websites, spreading phony reports such as FBI plans to indict Hillary Clinton. The Make America Great page outsources the writing of fraudulent news to a couple in the Philippines."


Did they know something most pollsters don't? Yeppers, that too many Americans are dumb as rocks and don't check their facts, or dismiss them as incredible.

Harrop adds:

"Compounding the evil, Facebook’s design makes fake stories from fake sites such as the nonexistent Denver Guardian look like stories from the very real Denver Post. And no, blocking fake news sites from ad revenues is not going to stop politically motivated lying.Facebook further degrades the national conversation by creating echo chambers. Its algorithm directs the “news” people like to their like-minded friends."

With travesties like this no surprise the Oxford Dictionary's choice of post- truth as 2016's "word of the year". It defines post -truth as "relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping pubic opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief"


 Stanford's  Robert N.  Proctor recently asked (NY Times, 'Climate Change In Trump's Age Of Ignorance'):

"People like to think of us as living in an age of information, but a better descriptor might be “the age of ignorance.”

How did we get into this predicament? Why are we about to inaugurate the most anti-science administration in American history?"

I noted in an earlier post that deniers and believers in codswallop merit no tolerance, because in this age of Google and abundant knowledge it's inexcusable not to have the right material at your hands, if you make even a modest effort. But denialists especially aren't so invested, as Proctor pinpoints the key issue:

"We now live in a world where ignorance of a very dangerous sort is being deliberately manufactured, to protect certain kinds of unfettered corporate enterprise. The global climate catastrophe gets short shrift, largely because powerful fossil fuel producers still have enormous political clout, following decades-long campaigns to sow doubt about whether anthropogenic emissions are really causing planetary warming. Trust in science suffers, but also trust in government. And that is not an accident. Climate deniers are not so much anti-science as anti-regulation and anti-government."

Auden Schendler writing in the Sunday Denver Post exposes one major consequence of Trump's minority election:

"Trump’s election almost certainly dooms us to warming beyond the 2 degrees Celsius threshold identified by scientists, because many of the rules put into place by President Barack Obama — the Clean Power Plan, the Paris treaty, even mileage standards on cars — can be undermined by a new president. Beyond two degrees, feedback loops like forest die-off, ice-melt and methane-release take us to an ever warmer world"

This is something I've complained about before in terms of the pernicious mind virus inherent in agnotology, the deliberate cultivation of skepticism for economic, political ends.. But it goes beyond that in the willingness of too many of our fellow citizens to treat information and actual, verifiable knowledge like food choices in a cafeteria - where you just pick what you want and it's all relative to one's preferences.. No it is not.

The libertarian climate denier who disavows the data from ice core analysis and satellite sea ice mappings does himself no favors. Worse, if he invests his gray matter into beliefs that there is a "global warming alarmist conspiracy" and controversial scientific papers are deliberately excluded from publication..

As I noted before, most of these "skeptics" are really pseudo-skeptics: they adopt the venerable verbal mantle of skeptic but in fact do so in an unfounded, unaccountable way. They actually possess the necessary intellect to ferret out the truth and DO the research but are too damned lazy to do it. They don't want to read 15 or 20 papers that thoroughly debunk their idiotic beliefs, they'd rather just go to climate denier websites, imbibe the misinformation and repeat it. Especially with the conspiracy aspect.

One of the best exposes of their methods and dynamics has come from Yale Law school prof and science communication researcher Dan Kahan.  He has concluded that their information processing is almost entirely determined by their deep-seated political values and cultural identities. Thus, a white libertarian member of  Intertel, for example, will see global warming science as just one more vehicle of  subversive force backed  by the "untermenschen"  to be used against his precious economic values and Eurocentric ideals. All of this is then attributed to "global warming alarmism", as an expeditious cover for his own abysmal laziness, ignorance and cynicism. At this point, his thinking is already so corrupted and contaminated it's almost impossible to break through on any rational or critical thinking level.

At the other end of the post-truth spectrum are those who can't even be bothered to invoke rationalizations, they simply believe whatever nonsense is expelled from a moron's mouth. Especially a moron full of himself with pretensions to national leadership like Donald Trump. Hence, Atlantic columnist David Frum's reference to Trump's dishonesty as "qualitatively different than anything before seen in a major party nominee".

Such as saying Mexicans coming to the States were "rapists", Ted Cruz' dad was involved in the Kennedy assassination and climate change was a "hoax invented by the Chinese."  (See my next post, however, as Trump appears to have changed his position on this).

But what has gotten the attention of those like Frum, David Brooks, and others is that none of his idiotic spoutings mattered to those who supported him. It was as if truth was dead, all facts passe. If the Trumpster said it, especially with gusto, it has to be true. As my German sister-in-law put it, the only example she ever recalled that came close was Adolf Hitler.. He could repeat a lie often and via about ten different versions, getting the masses to believe each merely by the passion injected.

But it goes beyond passion, also involving the medium used, and in Trump's case, Twitter. Or what I refer to as a "mini medium" allowing for only 140 characters and hence an absolute minimum of complex thought. One is basically reduced to the equivalent of a series of language cartoons.  This also harkens back to the medium used  constituting the basis of the message, as Marshall McLuhan first pointed out in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. 

If then Twitter is essentially a cartoon language medium it will be most deftly exploited by a cartoon persona, which is precisely what Trump is when you dissect him: Bigger than life, believes he can actually be a President and billionaire businessman simultaneously (he can't) and capable of spouting any nonsense that erupts within his synapses realizing a lot of receptive brains will simply imbibe it in unthinking fashion. Those brains themselves the equivalent of cartoons if they receive his tweeting expulsions  and absorb them uncritically. So, little wonder there is no parsing of the messages or analytical processing. Tweets do not lend themselves to any critical processing.  Hence, there is much greater probability of taking them literally.

A big question that arises now is whether Trump will continue his tweeting as President. There is a good case to be made that this would be akin to hiring a 12 year old as his speech writer. Bottom line is we expect more gravitas in our Presidents and the office itself - if one is going to insist on ""respect" - demands a certain level of decorum. This simply can't be achieved by tweets, unless one is willing to be viewed as an unreconstructed adolescent. So, like it or not, Trump- if he wishes to be taken seriously by those beyond his cartoon tweet and re-tweet community - will have to put on his big boy pants and put the Twitter away. Better yet, give his phone to Melania for safe keeping.

That will be a good thing because it will open him up to the potential for really, finally addressing his millions of daffy supporters in a serious way. Also, using media less likely to be hijacked by 14 year olds in Macedonia to create fake news posts on Facebook.

At least one can hope!

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/neal-gabler/70096/who-s-really-to-blame-for-fake-news-look-in-the-mirror-america

Excerpt:   
"Fake news thrives because there is a lazy, incurious, self-satisfied public that wants it to thrive; because large swaths of that public don’t want news in any traditional sense,. So much as they want vindication of their preconceptions and prejudices; because in this post-modernist age, every alleged fact is supposed to be a politico-economic construct, and nothing can possibly be true; and because even rationality now is passé. Above all else, fake news is a lazy person’s news. It provides passive entertainment, demanding nothing of us. And that is a major reason we now have a fake news president."

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This post originally appeared in November, 2o16

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