The Atlantic: Olgan Khazan: ‘ Why It Was Easier to Be Skinny in the 1980s’

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Source:The Atlantic– Jane Fonda’s workout routine?

Source:The New Democrat 

“There’s a meme aimed at Millennial catharsis called “Old Economy Steve.” It’s a series of pictures of a late-70s teenager, who presumably is now a middle-aged man, that mocks some of the messages Millennials say they hear from older generations—and shows why they’re deeply janky. Old Economy Steve graduates and gets a job right away. Old Economy Steve “worked his way through college” because tuition was $400. And so forth.”

Read more of Olga Khazan’s piece at The Atlantic

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Source:Bony To Bombshell– “The Skinny on Why You’re Skinny — Bony to Bombshell”

“More than a third of adults in the United States are obese. This statistic is often attributed to a confluence of unhealthy dietary practices, sedentary lifestyles, and genetics. But we may be missing the bigger picture.

A 2015 study revealed that people today are 10 percent heavier than they were in the 1980s—even with the same diets and exercise regimens. A new episode of The Idea File investigates the plethora of complex factors that may be contributing to our increasing BMI, including a changing microbiome and toxic chemicals in the environment.”

Also from The Atlantic

I guess what I’ll be talking about here is not so much skinny vs. fat, but skinny vs. strong and big bone, skinny vs. curvy people, skinny vs. healthy. As opposed to skinny vs fat, which is what The Atlantic is talking about here.

When I was growing up ( in the 1980s and early 90s, for the most part ) if you were even curvy and big bone , a lot of young women let’s say especially of a suburban, preppy background saw you as fat. Back then the most beautiful women were considered tall, blonde, of Anglo, Scandinavian, or Northern Slav ethnic background, and were rail-thin. In the 1980s valley girls were in and big bone strong women were out, regardless of their racial or ethnic backgrounds. Valley girls dominated American pop culture really up until the early 90s or so when we started learning about the dangers of self-starvation and being too skinny, as well as tobacco.

By the time I graduated high school in the 1990s, valley girls were still around, but you also had strong, curvy, big bone girls and women. You also had tall, athletic looking girls and women. Girls and women who looked like pro tennis players and other professional female athletes. Hip hop and R&B was becoming huge in the 1990s with young Americans of all races and ethnicities and you were seeing women who obviously weren’t valley girls, but strong, healthy, athletic looking women instead.

Go up to the late 1990s with the return of skin-tight, dark wash, designer denim jeans and skin-tight denim jeans that were purposely designed for girls and women with curve appeal and rail-thin goes out and curve appeal comes in and has been with us for 20 years now. Even valley girls today who walk around staring at their smartphones with their favorite cup of coffee in their hands, who are addicted to celebrity culture, who talk and act like their favorite so-called celebrities, have curves and are even tall and curvy. Even if they also have Scandinavian blonde hair.

When I was growing up, seeing a tall blonde woman with curve appeal, was as common as seeing whales flying over skyscrapers. Perhaps more common than that, but you get the idea. Today, tall, curvy, sexy blondes, who are also valley girls, the girls and women who are supposed to view curve appeal as fat, are common today. Because curve appeal is not just in, but becoming universal where skinny women are trying to get stronger and develop their own curve appeal.

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CBS News: President Trump Has Fired National Security Adviser John Bolton

President Trump has fired national security adviser John Bolton, live st_

Source:CBS News– Former President Donald Trump NSA John Bolton.

Source:The New Democrat 

“National Security Adviser John Bolton handed in his resignation Tuesday morning at President Trump’s request, the president announced on Twitter. Bolton had clashed with other members of the administration, notably Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on foreign policy issues.”

From CBS News

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Source:CNBC– “President Trump says he’s fired National Security Adviser John Bolton”

I’m not a dove obviously as a JFK Liberal, but John Bolton is way to the right of me on foreign policy and national security and yet I see President Trump’s firing of National Security Adviser John Bolton as a bad thing.

Whatever you think of John Bolton’s politics at least as it relates to foreign policy and national security, at least he’s a professional. Unlike a lot of if not most of the people that Donald Trump trusts ( assuming he actually trusts anyone ) who are really just yes men and women to the President and at best right-wing political activists who look at public policy exclusively through cultural and partisan lens, instead of looking at issues and policy based on the evidence. Whatever you think of John Bolton, at least he was giving the President of the United States sound advice, based on evidence. And not just telling the President what he wants to hear just to stay in his good graces.

As far as who might replace John Bolton; what sane, sober, intelligent, national security and foreign policy professional person, which is exactly what the President of the United States needs from their NSA, would take this job and work for President Donald Trump, when you know you could get fired simply for doing your job. Donald Trump, has never been a man who makes decisions based on evidence and what’s the right thing to do, especially if the evidence and facts contradicts what he should do.

The President could appoint another yes man like a Michael Flynn and see that person crash and burn within a few months, because we learn that person has business contacts and interests in countries that are at odds with us that this person failed to disclose in their background check. Or the President could appoint another professional like a Henry McMaster or John Bolton who’ll get fired simply for doing their jobs. Donald Trump is not the king of reality TV for nothing: he’s nothing if not unreliable and unpredictable.

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Last Week Tonight: John Oliver- The Filibuster

Filibuster_ Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Source:Last Week Tonight– A 19 minute John Oliver filibuster on the filibuster and not one Senator objected. LOL

Source:The New Democrat 

“John Oliver explains why filibusters exist, why they shouldn’t, and why it’s stupid to drink coffee like a cat.”

From Last Week Tonight

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Source:The AV Club– “John Oliver filibusters the filibuster on Last Week Tonight” 

I guess my question for John Oliver would be: does he want to end the filibuster today, or as soon as the next Democratic Congress is sworn in with a Democratic President, like let’s say in January, 2021. Which would be the next possible opportunity for Democrats to have complete control of Congress and The White House at the same time.

The honest and unfortunately less popular view for ending the filibuster is that people who actually take this view is that they don’t believe in the filibuster, period. They want complete democratic rule and for the majority to rule at all times. Which was the view that Tom Harkin who served in Congress for 40 years, including five terms in the Senate took. He hated the filibuster all together and wanted to completely eliminate it, regardless of who was in control of Congress and who the President was.

But unfortunately the more popular and common view when it comes to the filibuster in Congress whether they’re in the House or Senate, Democrat or Republican is: “we’re in favor of the filibuster, when the other party is in control of the Senate. Especially when they’re also in control of the House. And even more important than that: when the other party is in control of Congress and the presidency. If we have a large minority in the Senate or just 41 seats, we want to able to use that power to stop the majority party at all times.”

“But when we’re in control of Congress, we want to eliminate the Senate filibuster, because we see at as undemocratic and an absolute abuse of power by the minority against the majority.” At least that’s what Democrats and Republicans would say if they were under oath or under truth serum, because even jail is worst for them, then admitting to their constituents that they’re just a bunch of hyper-partisan, hypocritical, lying assholes.

It’s one thing to be against the filibuster, but then the obvious would be why: do you see it as an obstructing Congress to do their jobs, especially the Senate. Or you just hate it when your party is in control of Senate, especially when your party has the House and White House as well. And you’re nothing more than a hyper-partisan, hypocritical, lying asshole. You know, those people that Americans continually elect and reelect from both party’s to Congress every single freakin year.

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Classic Film & TV Cafe: The Notorious Landlady (1962) ‘Scene with Jack Lemmon and Kim Novak’

The Notorious Landlady (1962) - Scene with Jack Lemmon and Kim Novak

Source:Classic Film & TV Cafe– Hollywood Goddess Kim Novak, in The Notorious Landlady from 1962.

Source:The New Democrat 

“Diplomat Jack Lemmon has just returned to England and doesn’t know that everyone else suspects Kim Novak’s character of murdering her husband!”

From Classic Film & TV Cafe

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Source:Alamy Stock Photo– Kim Novak and Jack Lemmon, in The Notorious Landlady, from 1962.

Just on a personal note first: it was the early summer of 2009 June of that year when I was home on a Saturday and there was a an all day Alfred Hitchcock marathon and Vertigo was one of those movies. I heard the name Kim Novak before, but I didn’t know who she was.

Vertigo is a good movie, but it’s really Kim Novak who caught my attention to the point for the rest of that summer at least and into the fall my goal was to see as many Kim Novak movies that I possibly could. I saw Boys Night Out, Strangers When We Meet and perhaps 2-3 other Kim Novak movies that year. Whenever they were available on TV and I had the time to see them. I literally grew a crush on her.

There’s something about Kim’s voice, eyes, face that all come together at the same time that makes it impossible at least for me to concentrate on anything or anyone else when the camera is on her. She’s absolutely adorable and even childlike at times and yet is also drop-dead gorgeous, with incredible sweet, sexy voice.

She’s like the great talented athlete that has you begging for more every time you see him play, because he’s such a great player and then one tragic day it’s all over after he breaks his leg in a game and never plays again. And you keep think what if he didn’t get hurt, how many more great plays and games, how great would his career had been, had it not been for that one tragic play. Except that Kim Novak was never tragically injured: she left Hollywood voluntarily in the 1960s.

So I think I know how the Jack Lemmon character feels in The Notorious Landlady, with the Kim Novak character knowing how much he likes her and just leaves him begging for more.

The Notorious Landlady is not a great movie, which unfortunately can be said about most of Kim Novak’s movies, but she and Jack were great together in it. And if they were the only two main characters in it, perhaps it’s a great movie, because they had great chemistry in. And Jack Lemmon was always a master comedic actor and comedian.

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David Hoffman: ‘1960s Conservative Describes An America Many See Today’

1960s Conservative Describes An America Many See Today

Source:David Hoffman– Young American women in the 1960s 

Source:The New Democrat 

“Of course the speaker is the 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. I collected these speeches back then because I was developing ideas for my 6 part television series, Making Sense of the Sixties.

Barry Goldwater was defeated by Lyndon Johnson in that election. His conservative message did not resonate with the experiences most Americans were having back then. But when I re-examined this recently, much of what he is saying corresponds to what Republicans feel and what President Trump is expressing about America and what needs to change.

The issues Goldwater raised include the American drift to the left and moral decay, crime, the morals of the young, political corruption, 1960s values, religious freedom, the state of the Supreme Court, and so much more. that resonates with how many Republicans feel and with President Tump’s MAGA.”

From David Hoffman

I agree with David Hoffman that what Senator Goldwater was talking about during this speech when he was running for President in 1964, resonates with what Donald Trump was saying back in 2016 and today as President. But to compare Barry Goldwater with Donald Trump or any actual Conservative ( like the Never-Trumper’s ) with Donald Trump at least in an ideological sense, is not just an insult to Barry Goldwater, but to Conservatives in general. It would be like calling Pat Buchanan a Liberal, ( insult to all Liberals ) or Bernie Sanders a Libertarian, because he’s liberal on social issues. ( An insult to all Libertarians )

The closest candidate at least at the presidential level from either the Republican Party or Democratic Party to Senator Barry Goldwater, would be former Representative Ron Paul. Except Goldwater, was a lot more hawkish on foreign policy and national security. But they were both very similar on economic policy, who hated deficits and debt, a big Federal Government, both believed in freedom of choice and personal freedom in general, free speech, etc.

What Donald Trump represents from an ideological and cultural level at the presidential level, is George Wallace. Who ran as an Independent for the Independence Party in 1968, but he was as Independent as its hot in Greenland or cold in Saudi Arabia. He was Neo-Confederate as Governor of Alabama and a Neo-Confederate as a presidential candidate. He was a Nationalist before that term became popular with the right-wing in America.

What George Wallace and Donald Trump represent, are people who woke up one day in the 1960s and suddenly realized it was no longer 1955.

Christian-Right 1960s complaints

“Why are all of these women working?”

“Why are African-Americans on our TV’s and in our movies?” And they didn’t say African-American back then.

“What do you mean homosexuality is no longer illegal? How come men and women who aren’t married, living together?”

“Why are these young people swearing in public and in the movies: did they forget to go to church?”

“Why do all these young people have long hair: did every barbershop around suddenly close? What do you mean my son doesn’t want to volunteer for the military and fight for his country?”

At some point in the 1960s, the Christian-Right woke up and realized that America was no longer their Leave it to Beaver or Ozzie and Harriet utopia and realized that young people didn’t want the same American Dream that they wanted and that not every American was originally from Britain or any other part of Europe and even from parts of Europe that Neo-Confederates don’t like, Southern Europe being a great example. And decided to step up and fight back. First they backed Barry Goldwater, who wasn’t with them on the social issues at least as far as having government outlaw a lot of activities that the Christian-Right disapproves of. And then backed George Wallace in 68, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and now Donald Trump.

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Dan Mitchell: ‘Bernie Sanders Humor’

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Source:MEME– Bernie Sanders: “who’s going to pay for all of their free stuff?

“I’m getting worried that Senator Bernie Sanders is fading in the polls.

That doesn’t make me happy. I want Crazy Bernie to stay relevant.

Why? Because he’s an endless source of clever satire.

Previous editions of Bernie humor can be found here and here.

For today’s edition, let’s start with the fact that Bernie has used political office to become a millionaire, yet he doesn’t put his money where his mouth is (the federal government actually has a website for people who are foolish enough to pay extra tax).”

Read more from Dan Mitchell

Watch Jimmy Fallon's Perfect Impression of Bernie Sanders

Source:Inside Edition: ‘Watch Jimmy Fallon’s Perfect Impression of Bernie Sanders’– Bernie Sanders, is definitely one of a kind. And if we didn’t have one, he would probably create a new government program to create one. LOL

“Comedy has gone into overdrive after outsiders Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump each had sweeping victories in the New Hampshire primary. Jimmy Fallon unveiled a spot-on impression of Sanders on The Tonight Show on Wednesday night. He had his audience hysterical as he spoofed the Vermont Senator’s speech, joking: “I’m speaking tonight to claim victory in the New Hampshire primary over she who must not be named.” The audience went wild as the real Bernie Sanders made a surprise appearance.”

I truly believe that Bernie Sanders is one of the most if not most honest politicians who has ever lived. Which I know that’s like saying Yao Ming is the tallest man in China, or Toronto is the hottest city in Canada, the salad is the healthiest meal on the McDonald’s menu, or someone is the sanest person at the mental institution, hopefully you get the drift by now. ( If not, seek help ) Obviously there are not a lot of honest politicians. The common stereotype of a politician is that they’ll say whatever they need to say to help themselves at the given time, even if they don’t mean a word of it. But Bernie Sanders, is not just an honest politician he’s an honest man, so for that I just don’t respect the man, but actually like him for his candor and very quick sense of humor.

But here comes a big but: ( No, not that butt ) Bernie, comes off as a traveling salesman, or conman even, like used car salesman who promises people everything and tells them that it will be free and says he has all of this stuff to give you or Elizabeth Warren who has plans for problems that haven’t even been invented yet ( the only psychic to ever run for President ) and doesn’t give you the catch until he’s asked about it. “Senator Sanders, with these record deficits and debt: how are you going to pay for all of these free programs?” With Senator Sanders answer always be something to the affect: “well of course taxes are going to go up. I never said these programs are going to be free.”

Well, actually Bernie did, because the way Socialists tend to think is that if someone doesn’t have to pay for a service in the private market, because they’re getting it from government, that those services are free, because they’re not paying some business for them. What they always leave out is that taxes are actually money and charges that government gives its people for the services that they receive.

If you went to a bar and the bartender said: “every drink is on the house: now, who’s buying?” You would think the bartender is either joking, or perhaps drunk on the stuff that they’re supposed to be selling. That the bartender either had a few too many before they showed up for work, or while they were at work. Imagine a drunk bartender at a bar and he or she asks one of their customers: “what will you have?” With the customer replying: “I’ll have whatever you’re drinking, if there is anything left.” Bernie and his Socialist allies, come off as snake oil or used car salesmen ( or women. For you PC freaks ) as people that are selling things that are too good to be true, because they are too good to be true.

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Big Think: Penn Jillette- ‘On Libertarianism, Taxes, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Weed’

Penn Jillette on Libertarianism, Taxes, Trump, Clinton and Weed

Source:Big Think– Comedian Penn Jillette, explaining his own libertarianism.

Source:The New Democrat 

“Take a deep breath, you’re in for a ride. Here is Penn Jillette on Libertarianism, taxes, Trump, Clinton, Sanders, Gary Johnson, sex, drugs and Kurt Cobain. Jillette’s latest book is “Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales”

Watch the video at Big Think

Penn Jillette, is a Libertarian, because he doesn’t believe he’s smart enough to make decisions ( I’m guessing not including his own children ) and that no one else is qualified to make decisions for other people. And that other people aren’t qualified to make other decisions for other people. I’m paraphrasing, but that’s pretty close.

He also said that the way he looks at his own libertarianism, is that he’s Right on taxes and Left on sex. Basically saying that he’s right-wing ( let’s say ) on economic policy and very liberal on personal freedom.

I as a Liberal ( or Classical Liberal, if you prefer ) I’m also in complete agreement with Penn Jillette and the people that I at least would call mainstream Libertarians ( if there are such people ) when it comes to personal freedom and most economic policy issues.

I don’t want government telling people who they can hire and fire. Who they can promote and demote. Give raises or salary cuts. I don’t want taxes and regulations on private businesses and organizations should be so high, that it makes it almost impossible for them to stay in business, just because you as some collectivist ( Socialist or otherwise ) believes that you and big government are smart enough to know what’s best for everyone else and that people are essentially too stupid to manage their own lives.

And of course if you’re very familiar with this blog you know don’t just claim to be pro choice, because we support private choice on abortion and that gays should have the same freedom as straights, and perhaps marijuana, but we’re 100% pro choice on everything. Short of someone hurting an innocent person with what they’re doing.

If someone wants to smoke marijuana to the point that they’re so high that they’re see flying elephants flying over skyscrapers in Wichita, Kansas, ( you would have to be higher than a skyscraper to see that ) that’s their business. Just don’t expect to bail them out when they find themselves in jail, for getting into a bar fight because they thought the bartender grabbed their ass. And don’t expect me to except: “the marijuana made me to it excuse” either.

If people want to gamble their life savings away at the casino, that’s their business. Just don’t expect taxpayers to bail them out when they’re not not just broke, but out of a job, because they lost all of their money at the damn casino, when they were supposed to be working. If guys want to screw each other, wear dresses, makeup, speak with higher voices than their mothers and marry men, that’s their business. Just don’t force me to approve of what they’re doing. If women want to bang each other, play professional football, be dykes on bikes, and speak with deeper voices than their fathers, wear crewcuts, that’s their business. Just don’t expect me to approve of it.

And I could go on to paying for sex, buying, making, and viewing adult films, going to strip joints, owning strip joints, running strip joints, and being paying customer at a strip joint, just as long as I and no other taxpayer is forced to subsidize these personal choices, or bail people out when they make bad decisions. I don’t drink alcohol, smoke anything, or use any other narcotic, but like Penn Jillette I don’t believe I’m qualified to make those decisions for others. And I sure as hell know that government isn’t qualified to make those decision for others as well.

To paraphrase Michael Douglas from The American President, well to paraphrase President Andrew Shepard: ( Michael Douglas’s character in TAP ) America is a tough place and you have to want it bad, because it’s going to put up a fight. And he was talking about free speech someone I”m also bit of a radical on, but you could apply that speech to personal freedom in general, because even though all of us are free to make our own decisions, so is everyone else that is around us. So you might personally approve of the way you’re living, people around you might and vice-versa. But again, who is more qualified to make these decisions for us: the individual who knows themself the best, or government? How you answer that question is where you fall when it comes to your beliefs in individual freedom.

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Biographics: Hunter S. Thompson: ‘Gonzo Extraordinaire’

Hunter S_ Thompson - Gonzo Extraordinaire

Source:Biographics– Hunter S. Thompson: The Extraordinaire 

Source:The New Democrat 

I guess I look at Hunter Thompson not as a political satirist or a comedian, or perhaps even a journalist, but as a satirist on American life who was so interested in America that he wanted to find out as much as he could and then make fun of it. I believe Hunter loved life, perhaps especially American life, but wanted to have a good time and has as much fun in life as possible and used humor in his writing and other outlets to express that.

You can watch the video here Biographics

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, is the perfect example of what I’m talking about. Where he goes through Las Vegas looking for the American dream. I believe he’s someone who was consumed with information and finding out as much as possible about people and things that he was interested in.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail is where you see the political satiric side of Hunter Thompson. I mean how you not cover the George McGovern 1972 presidential campaign without a sense of humor, especially if you were a McGovernite who actually managed to stay sober during that entire campaign.

So perhaps just yourself, Hunter Thompson, and Senate McGovern himself who actually believed everything that he said during that campaign as the only sober people who had anything to do with that campaign. With the rest of the campaign being made up of people who were flown in from Hippie communes in California who really did believe that every single problem known to man and perhaps problems that hadn’t even been invented yet, could be solved if you just put government in charge of it.

I love America and love practically everything about America ( except for the ignorant fringes in America and the crazy people ) but when you have the political system that we do with voters who complain about corruption in politics and corrupt politicians, while at the same time you they vote for and reelect those same politicians, like people who claim to hate fast food, even though that’s all they eat it, you have to be able live life in America with a sense of humor and be able to laugh about it. Otherwise you might as well just become an alcoholic or check yourself into a mental institution, because you’ll go crazy. America was the perfect country for Hunter Thompson and it’s a great thing that we had him.

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The Film Archives: Daniel Oppenheimer: ‘Exit Right: The People Who Left the Left and Reshaped the American Century’

Exit Rightmp41

Source:Google– Author Daniel Oppenheimer, at Politics and Prose in Washington: talking about his book “Exit Right” in 2016.

Source:The New Democrat 

“A provocative, intimate look at the evolution of America’s political soul through the lives of six political figures from Whittaker Chambers to Christopher Hitchens who abandoned the left and joined the right. In Exit Right Daniel Oppenheimer tells the stories of six major political figures whose journeys away from the left reshaped the contours of American politics in the twentieth century. By going deep into the minds of six apostates, Whittaker Chambers, James Burnham, Ronald Reagan, Norman Podhoretz, David Horowitz, and Christopher Hitchens, Oppenheimer offers an unusually intimate history of the American left, and the right’s reaction.

Daniel Oppenheimer is a writer and filmmaker whose articles and videos have been featured in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Tablet Magazine, and salon.com. He has an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University and is a director of strategic communications at the University of Texas at Austin.”

From Odyssey Books

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Source:University of Texas– Daniel Oppenheimer: author of Exit Right

Author Daniel Oppenheimer, at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington in 2016, talking about book ‘Exit Right: “The People Who Left the Left and Reshaped the American Century.

From The Film Archives

What these political figures that Daniel Oppenheimer talks about in his book Exit Right, including people like Ronald Reagan, would argue is that they didn’t leave the Left or the Democratic Party, but the Democratic Party left them.

Pre-late 1960s or so even the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party including people like Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, ( if you want to call JFK a Progressive, instead of a Liberal ) were anti-Communists and even anti-Socialists. Wanted nothing to do with socialism and communism as ideologies and movements. But believed in things like the right to organize, right to assemble, right to privacy, free speech, a public safety net for people who really needed it, President Lyndon Johnson with the civil rights laws that President John F. Kennedy fully backed before he was assassinated in November of 1963.

Back up until the late 1960s or so being everyone was against Communists and Socialists . Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party were completely against communism and at least most aspects of socialism. Including the Progressives and Progressive Democrats who did believe in those key progressive social and economic values that I mentioned before, but didn’t want government in charge of everything and didn’t want property rights to disappear and put government completely in charge. Including Ronald Reagan who in the 1940s was still an actor and ran the Actors Guild in Hollywood. Including Progressives and even Progressive Democrats.

If you want to know why Progressives and Liberals get stereotyped as Socialists and even Communists, Hippies who seem to hate America and what America is supposed to stand for, and even hate American capitalism, and look at everyone who is supposed to be part of the establishment as a pig and bigot, look at the late 1960s with the rise of the Baby Boomers in America and the New-Left ( of Socialists and Communists ) that they got behind. That’s also where you’ll see a lot of Progressive Democrats back then leave the Democratic Party and either become Right-Progressive Republicans and be part of the Nelson Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party, or become Conservative Republicans like Ronald Reagan.

The 1960s, especially with the Vietnam War and the rise of the New-Left in the Democratic Party with all of these hippie-radicals becoming so politically active in American politics, is where tyou see the Dixiecrats ( Neo-Confederate Democrats ) becoming Republicans. As well as Center-Right Progressive Democrats like Ronald Reagan and others also leaving the Democratic Party and becoming Republicans. In Reagan’s case, a Center-Right Conservative Republican. Which is how America goes from being an almost one-party democratic country with the Democrats almost completely in charge, to a strong two-party system where the Republican Party becomes very competitive nationally again.

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Skeptic Magazine: Michael Shermer- Interviewing Dr. Donald Hoffman: ‘The Case Against Reality’

Michael Shermer with Dr_ Donald Hoffman — The Case Against Reality (SCIENCE SALON # 78)

Source:Skeptic Magazine– Talking about Donald Hoffman’s “Case Against Reality.” Reality and reason.

Source:The New Democrat 

“In his new book, The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth From Our Eyes, the U.C. Irvine cognitive scientist Dr. Donald Hoffman challenges the leading scientific theories that claim that our senses report back objective reality. How can it be possible that the world we see is not objective reality? And how can our senses be useful if they are not communicating the truth? Hoffman argues that while we should take our perceptions seriously, we should not take them literally. His evolutionary model contends that natural selection has favored perception that hides the truth and guides us toward useful action, shaping our senses to keep us alive and reproducing. We observe a speeding car and do not walk in front of it; we see mold growing on bread and do not eat it. These impressions, though, are not objective reality. Just like a file icon on a desktop screen is a useful symbol rather than a genuine representation of what a computer file looks like, the objects we see every day are merely icons, allowing us to navigate the world safely and with ease. The real-world implications for this discovery are huge, even dismantling the very notion that spacetime is objective reality. The Case Against Reality dares us to question everything we thought we knew about the world we see.

In this conversation, Hoffman and Shermer get deep into the weeds of:

• the nature of reality (ontology)
• how we know anything about reality (epistemology)
• the possibility that we’re living in a simulation
• the possibility that we’re just a brain in a vat
• the problem of other minds (that I’m the only sentient conscious being while everyone else is a zombie)
• the hard problem of consciousness
• what it means to ask “what’s it like to be a bat?”
• does the moon exist if there are no conscious sentient beings anywhere in the universe?
• is spacetime doomed?
• quantum physics and consciousness
• the microtubule theory of consciousness
• the global workspace theory of consciousness, and
• how Hoffman’s Interface Theory of Perception differs from Jordan Peterson’s Archetypal Theory of Truth (Shermer’s label for Peterson’s evolutionary theory of truth).

This dialogue was recorded on April 8, 2019 as part of the Science Salon Podcast series hosted by Michael Shermer and presented by The Skeptics Society, in California.”

From Skeptic Magazine

I’m not a scientist ( obviously. What was your first clue? ) so I’m not qualified to get into one’s brain as far as why they do certain things, especially when they’re obviously wrong and go against their own personal interest, as well as the interests of the people around them. But I’m an observer of people and as a man myself I am qualified to speak for myself as far as why people do certain things, including things that go against their own personal interests and why people even feel the need to try to escape reality and reason when making certain decisions.

I’m not an Atheist and I’m not a Randian ( term named after author Ayn Rand ) but as an Agnostic and I believe even as a Liberal I believe in reason and reality and don’t believe in the faith for the most part. Perhaps the least romantic person you’ve ever met ( assuming you’ve never met Ayn Rand ) and I believe that you always should go with reason and reality, over how you want things and people to be. I also don’t drink alcohol and or use any other narcotics, so I’m always forced to live in reality and see things they way they are, at least to my best ability, because I’m don’t have that escape to take me away from the way things really are, for good and bad. I’m not going to have a bad day and then hit a bar to get wasted to try to get that day or whatever happened that day out of my mind.

I’m not saying I’m an expert on anything and I’m the best at anything including personal decision-making. I’m just saying reality and reason are my approach to how I choose to look at the world and then try to make the best decisions that I can based on what I’m personally seeing and hearing in life. Based not on how I want people, things, or places to be, but how they are based on the best available facts and evidence.

But for too many Americans reality is not good enough for them to the point that they just don’t try to change it for them, but start seeing and hearing things that simply aren’t there to make themselves feel better. The example I gave about not going to the bar when I’m having a bad time to get wasted and escape from my negative reality, that’s not what a lot of Americans do and perhaps is a reason for alcoholism that people need to get wasted and feel better when they’re going through tough times and see alcohol as their personal escape, regardless of the negative consequences that come from abusing alcohol.

For intelligent, sober, responsible, sane people, reality is all we need to do well in life: “these are the facts on the ground ( for good and bad ) and this is what can be done about it. And this is how we can make the best of it.” Is how these people look at the world to make the world the best that they can make it for themselves.

The alcoholic, the celebrity culture crazed person who might not even be popular or even well-known in their own neighborhood, let alone the rest of the country, for them reality is not good enough. So they see things that simply aren’t there, think more of themselves than they deserve too, and perhaps especially the alcoholic make a lot of bad decisions that come with really bad consequences for them and people around them. Because the real-world is not good enough for them and have mentally escaped reality.

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