A Time of Tumult, Yeah - But That Doesn't Mean A Time To Lose One's Mind Or Bearing

                                                                

             National Guard arrests students on USF campus May 5, 1970

USF student confronts politician over his Vietnam War stance

That we are now in an election year riven by tumult and trepidation is obvious. The largest campus protests in 56 years go on unabated even while we are witness to the first ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president. At the same time a spate of restrictive abortion laws have been hatched throughout the red states.  Some so draconian they seek to prosecute women attempting to go to abortion states for the procedure.. Add to that two world-rattling wars – in Gaza and Ukraine- whose horrific daily death tolls are so often overshadowed by domestic crises.

 

As a recent piece in The Washington Post put it:

 

“From coast to coast, Americans have been thrust under a cloud of chaos that seems to thicken with every breaking-news alert. And in an already contentious and consequential election year, there is seemingly no relief ahead.”

 

According to Preeti Kulkarni, a freshman at George Washington University- quoted in Sunday’s Wapo-  whose campus has been riven by clashes over Gaza:

 

“Everything is on fire,”  

That description also could have applied to those of us living in 1968. First there were the two major assassinations: of Rev. Martin Luther King in April, then of Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in June. There then followed violent attacks on anti-Vietnam War protesters in Grant Park in Chicago at the Democratic Convention in August, 1968.  This saw numerous student protester heads bloodied by clubs compliments of overreacting police, e.g.

1968 Democratic National Convention: The Mess in Chicago | Retro Report | PBS LearningMedia

The rage against the Vietnam War went on for years and its nadir was likely the massacre of four students at Kent State in May, 1970,

When the National Guard Arrived at Kent State, Images From 1970 - The Atlantic

I was attending the University of South Florida at the time, completing my degree in astronomy, and had been finishing a stellar evolution research paper on May 5, 1970 when National Guardsmen burst into the dorm (Beta Hall) and searched the rooms. They were seeking any and all perps who may have had a hand in setting off a bomb at the USF Administration Building. A photo of some of the "protesters or interest" is shown at top. Also, once things had quieted down (three days later), another image emerged of a student protester talking to a politician about his pro-War stance.  Fortunately, the students in Beta Hall  - and other dorms  - managed to get through that period with no violence, which had scarred so many other universities.

 The point is that events "being on fire" doesn't mean one's brain must also be on fire. This is so long as one uses critical thinking capacity to set priorities for this time of tempest and uses mental centering techniques to avoid distraction.  In the case of the USF anti-war hippie student (lower pic)  it meant putting his rage against the war under control to engage with a Tampa politico.  No raising of voices, just a calm exchange.  An effort to reach a point of reason, beyond the unreason.

 In the case of today's upheavals over Gaza it means putting down social media contact for most of the day and engaging in meditation or other mind-calming practices instead.   It also means grasping that free speech does not include bombing or setting fire to administration buildings, breaking and entering into offices, and harassing or punching Jewish students.  

Also being smart enough not to carelessly use genocide tropes, chants and signs where they don't apply. The use of "Genocide Joe" or similar signage in fact just makes those who employ them look ignorant, uneducated or even stupid.  It shows me they have no concept of actual genocide such as occurred in Rwanda (1994) or the Holocaust. Conflating the Israelis' collateral deaths in Gaza (from their indiscriminate attacks) with a planned elimination hatched by Joe Biden is thus sheer madness and gross imbecility. 

 There is no analogy whatsoever and any college student using it ought to be educated on actual genocide, such as carried out by the Nazis, e.g.  as shown in the excellent PBS series: The U.S. and the Holocaust', especially the last part:

2:10:51

The U.S. and the Holocaust | “The Homeless, Tempest-Tossed ...

If actual genocides were taught properly, e.g. the Nazis use of Zyklon B in gas chambers to kill millions of Jews, such as at Mauthausen concentration camp,

                                          

 Then the historic connections could be exposed, not the spurious, fake imitations used by political poseurs, anti-Semitic rabble rousers and historical morons.

  This is why in a post not long ago (Feb. 28)  I had written:

"Ever played three-dimensional chess? That is the rough equivalent of what President Biden is playing right now to try to get the autocratic fool Benji Netanyahu under control. It's not easy because the conflict for which Gaza is now the pivot has been going on since 1948.  It will not be solved overnight or even in one election year.  That means maturity of mind is needed to parse all its dimensions. Want to know what I suggest for these young  twitchy Turks (who some recent polls also show that 20% believe the Holocaust was a myth):  Get a hold of the book 'O Jerusalem' and read it!  Then you will at least have some grasp of the issues."

I also noted that protesters today, like those in 1968, 1970, needed to educate themselves on the background to the conflict.  To that end I also recommended either getting hold of the book, O Jerusalem, or watching the superb (1960) movie Exodus. Failing to do that means the college protesters have no basis in history to grasp what they are reacting to.  They are simply unthinking, reacting automatons.

Back to cooling the fevers in the upset brain and its microglial cells. Hell, even outdoor tasks like gardening or weeding can still the 'beast' within the brain (namely the microglial cells) ceaselessly churning neurons into varied states of agitation. My point?  No one has to be driven to mindless rage, chaos or hysteria if one can get control of one's brain and reactions to events. 

Donna Jackson Nakagawa's superb book 'The Angel and the Assassin' -

 On how brains can go haywire if their microglial cells get out of control and 'eat' the brain synapses, is instructive and ought to be read by everyone to grasp the mental dynamics of current events.  This is especially applicable in today's superheated  media  (and social media) environment. Her book also includes practical methods by which to calm and control the brain.  Methods which can be readily harnessed so these cells become one's allies instead of one's enemies. In what I behold happening now, too many protesters' microglials have become their enemies - hence the torrent of counterproductive actions.

Of course, no one can control events, but we always have the option or choice to control our reaction to them. So we can either let outer events wreak havoc and turn our neurons to jelly, or we can take command using ancient tried and true methods in combination with critical thinking and basic reasoning.  

Let's take the last and apply to this election year, which has so many in a tizzy. Ali Velshi on MSNBC yesterday made it simple: 

"This election is binary, and you are either voting to preserve and defend our democracy or to dispose of it. Whatever else is going on has no bearing on that choice, not the upheaval in Gaza, any issues with Biden or inflation or anything else. You vote to preserve what we have then we can deal with the rest after securing it."  

In other words, leave out all the dog whistles and distractions. You either have the power to save our democracy by voting for Joe Biden, or the power to bring it down by voting for a lying traitor, rapist and grifter. Nothing else matters. Considering a third party vote or not voting at all as a "protest" means one hasn't grasped the gravity of the situation. And in that case shouldn't even be out and about protesting.

See Also:

"It’s Not the Economy; it’s the Constitution!' - 

And:

2024 Elections

‘God Help Us’: 2024 Electoral College Could Be Decided by This Lone Congressional District

by Carl Gibson | May 5, 2024 - 6:25am | permalink

— from Alternet

The 2024 presidential election is expected to be another extremely close contest, with the winner of the Electoral College likely eking out a victory with just tens of thousands of votes across a handful of swing states. But control of the White House could come down to who wins Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District.

Bloomberg reported that both Democrats and Republicans are campaigning hard in Douglas County — which includes the Omaha area — in the 2024 cycle. The 2nd district is known as a "blue dot" in a typically deep-red state that has reliably voted for Republican presidential candidates in every election dating back to 1964. Nebraska is one of the two states in which individual congressional districts each cast their own electoral vote (the other being Maine), with the overall winner of the state getting two electoral votes. And with 538 Electoral College votes up for grabs, a scenario could emerge in which both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are in a virtual tie and the entire election comes down to who wins in Omaha.

And:

Would Voters Be So Gung-Ho Voting For Trump If They Knew His Mom's Opinion Of Him? 

The (Equivalent) Electric Circuit Model For A Reliability Description of Compact Solar Flares

 Many, if not most problems in flare prediction arise from an inability to formulate a coherent, quantitative model or description of a flare. Part of this can be traced to a continued deficiency in instrumental resolution. Most flare researchers believe at least a minimal optical resolution of 0.1 arcsec is needed to distinguish the flare release site in the corona. No known instruments deliver this, although the Webb telescope might if adjustments are made.

   Apart from resolution issues, other serious problems have their genesis in the mode of description chosen, including the quantitative formulation. For example, treatments based on the analysis of the indigenous magnetic fields currently occupy a predominant role. The majority of these are based on MHD (magneto-hydrodynamic) theory wherein low frequency, long scale length and quasi-neutral (electric charge) assumptions are introduced into the plasma physics.

 In fact, MHD represents the end product of successive information loss in the transition from Vlasov theory to two-fluid theory to one-fluid theory and thence MHD, but remains the go-to approach e.g.

• Why The MHD Regime Is Preferred In Doing Solar Physics...

While it’s true that magnetic fields are more readily measured than currents (especially in the region of the solar atmosphere where solar flares occur) it is also true that currents are essential for a complete understanding of the flare process. More specifically, the circuit approach more readily ensures that boundary conditions will not be neglected. It also allows incorporation of plasma properties in a more general way.

The use of equivalent circuits for different magnetic field configurations is not new, as a survey of the literature can disclose (e.g. Alfven and Carlquist, 1967[1], Alfven, 1981[2], Spicer, 1982[3], and Leibacher and Stein, 1982[4]). An example of a closed magnetic configuration, incorporating a cavity resonator structure, is shown in Fig. 1.

                         Equivalent Circuits for a simple compact loop with L, C, R components

 The adoption of such equivalent circuits allows a novel flare forecast technique to be presented, an approach first noted in 1988[5]. This is in conjunction with the reliability concept used in electrical engineering systems. For years now, n-component systems have been shown to follow predictable survival laws based on how the components are connected in a network, and the probability of failure of the whole system when any given component (or combination) fails.[6]

In an analogous way, once a circuit approach is used, a solar flare can be depicted as a failure of an n-component system. These “components” are the current carrying arches-loops and finer structures therein linked to self-inductance, and resistance elements. Each loop or arch has associated with it a resistivity r in its contained plasma, and hence over a length L and constant cross-sectional area A, it will have a resistance:

R =  r L/ A

If the single loop or arch is symmetric and has two foot points, such that loop length can be equally apportioned, then it makes sense that one can have:

R1 =  r L1/ A  = r L2/ A 

where L1 = L2 =  L/2

Local space charge regions also occur within solar loops, over which large potential differences can be generated. Usually multiple double layers of a particular scale (e.g. 10 cm) are required, but the result is to act as an effective capacitor. Such a “capacitor” is depicted in the circuit as C.[7]

Transient Solution for Failure:

The simplest analog to a pre-flare circuit conforms to the configuration of Figure 1.Here we have a simple loop with opposite magnetic polarities at each end (“foot”) bounded by a much higher density photosphere. We say the footpoints of the loop are effectively “line tied.”  We assume also, without loss of generality, that the circuit is completed below the photosphere using conductive plasma.

The resulting L-C-R circuit has a current flowing parallel to the magnetic field provided the plasma Beta b < < 1. The loop itself is a plasma tube with semi-toroidal geometry (see the Frontispiece graphic – bottom of page 1, done using MathCad), bearing plasma of resistivity: h  = R L’ / A where R is the resistance, L’ is the total circuit length (in general L’ > L) and A is the uniform cross-sectional area of the tube. The capacitance C = e L’ where L’ is as before and e is the dielectric constant of the plasma.  This is given by[8]:

e  =   1  +  (i 4p s)/ w

 where  s is the conductivity and w the plasma frequency: 

(4p n _o e /m_e)^1/2.

The self-inductance is of the order (L/c), where c is the velocity of light.

Current in the system is generated from an emf E(t) which is motional so time-dependent. It arises from the relative displacement of the dipole feet at points P1 and P2 on the photosphere, such that:

1)                                                E(t) =   ò ^P2 _P1  (v X  B)  dS

where the integration is from P1 to P2 as the upper limit.  Identification of failure, or onset of the flare in the circuit is coincident with finding the solution to the differential equation:

2)                                      L (d² I/ dt² ) + R (dI/dt) + I/C =  dE/ dt

 

where all symbols are as previously defined. If (2) is divided through by L one obtains:

3)                                        (d² I/ dt² ) + R/ L (dI/dt) + I /LC =   1/L(dE/ dt)

The solution will be I(t),  a transient response function. This differential equation can be recast in terms of the associated Green’s function with I(t) º G = G(t,T) with the change in back emf dE/ dt replaced by the Dirac Delta function  d (t – T) and the problem treated from the viewpoint of distributions.

 

4)   d² G/ dt²   +  2 a (dG/dt) +   w_o² G =  d (t – T)/ L

where the response a = R/ 2L   and w_o =  1/ Ö(LC), or the natural frequency at which the dipole oscillates.  Note here that the impulse d (t – T) = 0  for t < T, hence I(t) = 0. This is the “steady state” solution: associated with the ongoing stability or “survival” of the dipole. By contrast, we are only interested in the case for t >  T, e.g. the transient or complementary solution. In particular, the solution we seek, on inverting the appropriate Laplace transforms is[9]:

5)   I(t) =  G(t, T_o) = G(t, 0) =    1/ w  [exp (- at) sin (w t)]                       t > T_o

Where w = [(w_o² -   a²)]^1/2

Not surprisingly, the current impulse becomes infinite when C = 0 and L = 0 at current interruption. In the case considered here, the failure bears a direct analogy to what happens in high power transmission lines when the current is suddenly switched off. That is, there is an explosive release of the inductive energy.  That this can be predicted makes the equivalent circuit approach a useful ansatz for compact solar flare behavior.

---

[1] H. Alfven and P. Carlquist: 1967, Solar Phys., 1, 220.

[2] H. Alfven: 1981, Cosmic Plasma, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, Holland.

[3] D.S. Spicer: 1982, Space Science Rev., 31, 351.

[4] J. Leibacher and R.F. Stein: 1981, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Special Report No. 392.

[5] P.A. Stahl: 1988, ‘A Reliability Description of Compact Solar Flares’ in The Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 20, No. 2, p.748.

[6] M.A. Kaufmann: 1969, La Confiance Technique, Dunod, Paris.

[7] A double layer is typically “the simplest space charge distribution that gives a potential drop in the layer and a vanishing electric field E on either side.” (Hannes Alfven, Cosmic Plasma, 1981, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, Holland.)

[8] In a more general sense, one can have: e = e(r) + ie (i) where e(r) is the real part and e (i) the imaginary part of the dielectric constant. In the case used in the text I have assumed: e (i) > > e(r).

[9] The problem posed will resemble that for the forced oscillations of a damped harmonic oscillator such that: x’’ + 2 ax’ + w_o² x = f(t). The Laplace transform of this is analogous to the one in the text for I(t).

Trump Allies' Plan To Sideline Fed & Devalue U.S. Dollar May Prove An Economic Calamity If Dotard Gets Into Office

                                                                      

                     "I gonna devalue the dollar and people're gonna love it!"

"Even as Republicans denounce President Biden for the inflation that occurred on his watch, Trump’s advisers have been floating policy ideas that could be far more inflationary than anything that has happened so far...There are also reports that Trump advisers, obsessed with the trade deficit, want to devalue the dollar, which would indeed help exports but would also be clearly inflationary — raising import prices and overheating a U.S. economy that is already running hot. (In fact, our economic strength is probably the main reason the dollar has been rising.) 

And even as they talk about weakening the dollar, Trump advisers are reportedly discussing punishing other countries that reduce their use of the greenback — which seems both contradictory and to involve a delusional view of how much economic power even America possesses." - Paul Krugman, 'Trump Is Flirting With Quack Economics', April 29, NY Times

“How catastrophic would a second Trump presidency be? Worse than you think. Worse, even, than I had feared — before I read his recent Time magazine interview in which Donald Trump lays out his plans. They are, in a word, insane. Imagine the National Guard, perhaps aided by active-duty military units, fanning out across the country to round up and deport all undocumented migrants, believed to number roughly 11 million. 

Imagine these men, women and children being held pending deportation in vast detention camps. That’s what Trump told Time he would do. .. Imagine the National Guard also being sent into cities to fight crime, whether or not governors request such assistance.” -  Eugene Robinson, Washington Post yesterday,  ‘(Trump keeps warning us about his second term. Are you listening?’)

The Wall Street Journal front page story from last weekend ('Trump Allies Draw Up Plans To Blunt Fed's Independence') didn't mince words, noting: 

"Donald Trump's allies are quietly drafting proposals to erode the Federal Reserve's independence if the former president wins a second term....Former Trump administration officials and other supporters have in recent months discussed a range of proposals from incremental policy changes to assertions the president himself should play a role in setting interest rates.....The 10-page document also includes a plan for devaluing the dollar."  

 Seriously?  These forlorn MAGA maniacs are actually considering devaluing the buck as well as setting interest rates to suit Trump?  Do any of his munchkins have any idea how much more misery they will be in if he goes through with it? How much more they will pay at the grocery, given how much less their greenbacks will be worth - not to mention the hurt from the 10 percent tariffs the twit plans to impose on all foreign goods (which is really a tax on Americans.) 

 I mean, just consider the sheer chutzpah entailed in going public with such a plan  six months before a general election. And with the orange-hued standard bearer of the cult having to appear in court each day for a trial over his sleazy sexual hijinks, and using go-betweens to try to conceal them using fraudulent transactions.  

Given how much this Turd sleeps during the proceedings  e.g. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2024/04/15/trump-fell-asleep-in-court-twice-reporters-say/?sh=5eeb52795688

it is a wonder he has anyone with two brain cells ready to vote for his sorry ass. But there are, including many in the key swing states. They believe they are so much worse off now with Joe Biden, that they are prepared to put a traitor maggot rapist back into power, as well as doing so indirectly.  This in reference to the young voters who are now bailing on Biden because of Gaza, believing a Trump term will be better.  Think again, kiddies! Trump will pick up where he left off in 2017 with Muslim deportations.  

But none of this should be surprising, given the Trump MAGA cult is now so confident they will have enough goobers to pull the levers for Dotard  Nov. 5 they even allowed an interview with TIME magazine on his extremist plans, e.g.  

Which include: carrying out a deportation operation designed to remove more than 11 million people from the country, construction of migrant detention camps, deploying the U.S. military (in violation of Posse Comitatus) to herd immigrants into camps and have deployments at the border and inland.

Trump will also: let red states (i.e. the former Confederacy) monitor women's pregnancies (using GPS on cells) and prosecute those who violate abortion bans.

He also plans to: gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, e.g. to shoot protestors, and oh by the way - close the White House pandemic preparedness office and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his assertion the 2020 election was stolen. 

The closing of the pandemic preparedness office is especially noisome and short sighted given we may be in store for an avian flu pandemic.  Are his minions really ready for truck loads of corpses in body bags to be piled up like cordwood?  

It isn't at all perplexing that the Trump blueprint was first laid out by paleo-conservative icon Edmund Burke. He believed the great mass of humans were incapable of reason and maintained "their base inclinations should be frequently thwarted, their will controlled, their passions brought into subjection."  

This could only be accomplished by "subjecting them to a power outside themselves."  Sick sociopathic narcissist that he is, Trump fancies himself grabbing that power and he yearns to wield it. He just needs to hope enough unreasoning cretins are lurking in the battleground states to vote him back in. 

 Back to the plans for the Federal Reserve.  Most worrisome aspect, according to the WSJ: 

 "Trump former advisers with more traditional views worry of consequences if political interference leads investors to conclude the central bank is willing to tolerate higher inflation.  These could include: raising long term interest rates on mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and student debt - especially when the government has to roll over trillions of dollars in debt annually."

One former Trump administration official described the prospect of Trump influencing interest rates as horrifying." 

 We also learn from the piece that Sen. Thom Tillis (R, NC) "wouldn't condone efforts to interfere with fed policy."  Also, "lawyers studying the issue believe the president lacks the power to fire Fed governors over a policy disagreement."

But this stuff is emanating from people unacquainted with the ways of autocrats and wannabe dictators.  Because, for sure, if Trump manages to sneak in again he will extend his reach and power to all federal agencies as well as purported "independent" ones like the Federal Reserve.  They also forget Trump had no trouble firing former attorneys general, and those in other high places.

Again, people need to wake the hell up and crawl out of the news cycle aggravation pit.  The one focusing on Gaza, Pro-Palestinian college protests, inflation or whatever other hobgoblin is currently fucking up so many brains as evidenced in polls showing the orange maggot even or ahead of Biden. None of which makes sense given the orange fungal roach admitted days ago he'd only accept the election results if he won.

See Also:

Trump keeps warning us about his second term. Are you listening?

And:

Donald Trump

Would "Dictator" Trump Kill his Rivals?

by Thom Hartmann | May 2, 2024 - 6:27am | permalink

— from The Hartmann Report

TIME magazine reporter Eric Cortellessa spent hours interviewing Donald Trump, producing a shocking cover story this week. Converting one of his opening paragraphs into bullet points for readability, he summarized that Trump fully plans:

— “To carry out a deportation operation designed to remove more than 11 million people from the country, Trump told me, he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland.
— “He would let red states monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans.
— “He would, at his personal discretion, withhold funds appropriated by Congress, according to top advisers.
— “He would be willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn’t carry out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with a tradition of independent law enforcement that dates from America’s founding.
— “He is weighing pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury.
— “He might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn’t paying enough for its own defense.
— “He would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the White House pandemic-preparedness office, and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen.”