Protests In Favor of Science Tomorrow

Tomorrow, April 22^nd will be the big march for Science that we’ve heard so much about.  Science needs to be stuck up for.  There was this one bogus Black evangelist I heard on a tape who was saying that Martin Luther’s reformation paved the way for experimental science and brought about the renasance.  This isn’t true because the renasance as we know it began the previous century.  Gutenburg’s printing press was the previous century and some of those innovations such as gun powder were brought about by Marco Polo’s journey to China which had things like gun powder and printing font.  These Christians like to see themselves as open to nature and experimentation and point to evolution where experimental research at first glance would seem to indicate divine creation.  But let’s look at the empirical method.  This is trial and error and the whole synthisis – antithesis and all of that stuff Hagel talked about.  I said back around February 7^th in the blog “Karmic Suicide” that empiricism is a good method and it’s better than pure subjectivism, which believes hat the human mind invents reality.  It’s certain better than “taught knowledge” if we’re talking about such learning coming from religious revelation of our leaders and being “instructed” in the Truth.  However it’s my belief that true objectivism does not throw God out of the equation entirely.  I will restate that objective truth is truth or a fact about something stands independent of our awareness or knowledge of it.  Our learning about factual truth is only being made AWARE of something that already EXISTS.  This is what I believe “natural laws” are.  They weren’t invented but merely discovered by the great thinkers of centuries ago.  I said then that empiricism is valuable so long as it serves the Truth but when it doesn’t “give you all the facts” or leads to speculation, then empiricism falls into error.  But empiricism is still a far better method of knowledge than the other methods we have discussed.  But there are Truths out there we are purely unaware of.  It’s also a scientific axiom that man is ;imperfect and that he is learning all the time.  And more exploration and experimentation will further mankind’s more complete knowledge of the Truth.  It is my belief that “God” however you believe in him, is completely neutral on whether mankind acquires this missing knowledge or not, and shouldn’t enter into our consideration.  Science has brought us a long way.  We wouldn’t know the polar ice caps are melting were it not for research.  It’s good that we research our ecological balance and keep tabs on it to know how we are faring.  They sai that the earth’s core temperature has risen from 57 to 59 degrees.  This doesn’t sound particular earth shaking.  There are an awful lot of areas of the world in the tropics where the temperature may scarcely reach 57 degrees.  You know how water absorbs heat whereas ice reflects it and keeps the earth cooler, as is the natural order of events.  Explorers have dreamed of some “northwest passage” but we aren’t going to reach it at the price of a global catastrophy.  In summation then I think it’s a good thing that we are having these  major demonstrations tomorrow on Earth Day 2017 and let’s just hope President Trump is watching.  He could learn a lot because he is the most anti ecological president we may have ever had. 

Washington (CNN) US authorities have prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, US officials familiar with the matter tell CNN.  The Justice Department investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks dates to at least 2010, when the site first gained wide attention for posting thousands of files stolen by the former US Army intelligence analyst now known as Chelsea Manning.  Prosecutors have struggled with whether the First Amendment precluded the prosecution of Assange, but now believe they have found a way to move forward.  During President Barack Obama's administration, Attorney General Eric Holder and officials at the Justice Department determined it would be difficult to bring charges against Assange because WikiLeaks wasn't alone in publishing documents stolen by Manning. Several newspapers, including The New York Times, did as well. The investigation continued, but any possible charges were put on hold, according to US officials involved in the process then.  The US view of WikiLeaks and Assange began to change after investigators found what they believe was proof that WikiLeaks played an active role in helping Edward Snowden, a former NSA analyst, disclose a massive cache of classified documents.  Assange remains holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, seeking to avoid an arrest warrant on rape charges in Sweden. In recent months, US officials had focused on the possibility that a new government in Ecuador would expel Assange and he could be arrested. But the left-leaning presidential candidate who won the recent election in the South American nation has promised to continue to harbor Assange.  So basically, Assange may never be brought to justice in the US. 

There was a police shooting incident in Paris they preempted normally TV scheduling for though there was little information.  I guy shot three police officers and one of them died and two of them were wounded.  The assailant in term was shot dead.  People are saying this may be part of a grand terrorist attack of some kind.  There is an election between a liberal and a conservative in a few days and I wonder if this incident will sway the voting public to vote in favor of security.  They say French police normally don’t carry guns but in this case they were armed and French citizens were taking pictures of that.  Trump was in the middle of a White House press conference with the leader of Italy and there was a lot of translation stuff going on.  He was asked about Syria and Turkey and also this latest attack in Paris. 

This is Thursday April 20, 2017 and supposedly marijuana day.  Norman Goldman is just coming on.  Paul has lent me a total of five cigarettes today and Ron has lent me his first, and yet I was craving a cigarette just now.  They call pot 4-20.  It has something to do with meeting at 4:20 in the afternoon and Norm will talk Canibus any time.  Norman has used it as medicine when nothing else would help his back.  Norm recommends it for PTSD also.  OK.  It’s also “Protest in favor of Science” day but I haven’t heard of any pro science or pro ecology demonstrations.  Maybe they’re saving that for Saturday.

One of the things Marx got right was the alienation of the producer/ worker from the output of his/her labor. The alienation is not just a loss of ownership; it’s also a loss of agency and a psychological alienation from the entire mode of production.  The workers’ alienation from the output of their labor doesn’t vanish just because the state owns the means of production; rather, the “capitalist” elite is replaced by a political elite and a state-clerisy managerial class.  “Socialism” is simply another flavor of state-cartel capitalism; Orwell would be proud of all the simulacrum self-serving “socialists” who have managed to enrich themselves at the expense of those actually producing goods and services.  Calling state-cartel finance-capitalism “socialism” doesn’t make it socialist.Orwellian double-speak doesn’t change the neofeudal nature of debt-based state-cartel finance-capitalism.  Let’s boil it down to its essence: if the producers don’t directly own/control the output of their labor, it’s capitalism, not socialism. State ownership/ control is nothing but the state-cartel coin turned over.  The only truly socialist system would be comprised of worker-owned collectives and co-ops, and privately owned and operated small enterprises.  In a truly socialist system, global corporations would pay such high entry fees and taxes that they could not compete on price against local worker-owned collectives/ co-ops.  In a truly socialist system, state functionaries would be banned from accepting bribes, campaign contributions, seats on philantro-capitalist foundations, corporations, etc., and barred from taking jobs in corporations after leaving state employment.  In state-cartel economies, “socialist” or otherwise, the system optimizes corporate profits, influence and agency. In a truly socialist system, worker-owned collectives/ co-ops and small business are optimized and corporations are de-optimized.

SPECIAL MARIJUANA DAY EDITION of a two month old compilation without any spoken word in it.  The three songs that were added are "Alice's Restaurant", which is kind of assiciated with marijuana even though there's nothing about grass in the song.  Then "Dave".  And then we have "South of Heaven", which continues the apocraliptic theme of the cover and content.  Go back to "Record" in the address bar then hit "older posts" and enter the title in Google find and you should locate it.  This version was released yesterday in the Federation.  

KEYS TO THE KINGDOM - released April 20th. 2017

Prelude / Tyrant (Judas Priest)
Writing on the Wall (Ted Nugent) **
Victims of the Fury (Robin Trower)
When Friends Fall Out (Guess Who)
Electric Funeral Pyre (Black Sabbath)
The Four Horsemen (Metallica)
Night Rider (Electric Light Orchestra)
Sketches of China (Jefferson Airplane) *
All This and More (Procol Herum)
One of These Days (Ten Years After)
Revolution No 9 (The Beatles)

Dave (Chich and Chong)

South of Heaven (Slayer)

Alice's Restaurant (whole song) (Arlo Guthrie)