Day 790 Thursday March 7, 2019
606 Days to the 2020 election and 684 Days to Inauguration Day
A scientist, a politician, and a religious person walk into a bar …
Actually, it’s a bar in a casino that is a cat house …
Where they are joined by a lawyer, a judge, and a policeman …
What do they each want? ( Besides sexual gratification, becoming rich, and getting drunk. )
I got thinking about this due to a little video I saw on Facebook. It featured Neil deGrasse Tyson. In that video he said that a scientist is in search of the truth. This got me to thinking, “What is a politician interested in?” or a religious person?
I boiled it down to this: a politician is interested in power; a religious person is interested in influence. Power and influence might be thought of as sides of the same thing, whatever that thing is.
The other three (judge, lawyer, and policeman) are all interested in society and the individual: keeping society orderly while letting the individual be as free as possible without hurting society (this is the most optimistic view I can come up with.) I guess you could argue they want order, freedom, and fairness, but all are conditional on the needs of the society in which they operate.
But let’s return to the big three: the scientist, the politician, and the religious person (priest, rabbi, mullah, etc.) The scientist wants to know the truth. In the cathouse bar cum casino, the scientist wants to know the odds of winning at the gaming tables, what’s in the drink, how’s the place constructed, etc. The politician wants to tax the place so that money can be used for other purposes that will, in some small way, help others so he can get re-elected and retain power. The priest wants to influence people to follow the religion espoused so that he has influence over their lives. This the priest may do by exhorting those around him=, which may induce fear, guilt, derision. It depends on how convincing his sales pitch is I guess.
So when you break it all down it comes down to: Truth, Power, Influence.
Only the scientist comes out looking well in my estimation. The others are all tainted by a degrees of selfishness. We could argue how much, but not the fact that they are, and is power and influence ultimately the same thing?
The judge, lawyer, and policeman are all in the business of social order. Policemen want “to keep the peace.” Judges want to be fair, and lawyers want justice for their client (provided said justice gets them off, or if a prosecutor does this justice get the person accused thrown in jail.*) In other words, legal systems are there to regulate the society in which they function.
*Okay, okay, the prosecutor it can be argued wants justice, etc. But if they never put anyone away how long would they stay in their job?
DeGrasse Tyson’s point in the video was to say that everyday we delay facing the truth is another day wasted. Once we face the truth we can look to solutions, which are politically based decisions. When we don’t face the truth, we delay the political discussion and potential solution.
In other news – We seem to be mired in discussions of not whether the president committed crimes, but how many.
There is also a disturbing reality we are being forced to face – or not (see above), and that is the huge influence of shaper of opinion in this country based on fear, anger, and deceit.
Two interesting aspects of this were in the news. One was the decision by the Democratic Party to eliminate Fox News from consideration as a potential network to hold on of Democratic Party debates. The other was an article in the New Yorker that laid out the case that Fox has become a PR machine for Donald Trump and his White House.
The New Yorker article goes on to explain that Rupert Murdoch has courted high level politicians in various countries, but he always wanted a U.S. president and now he’s bagged one. With that Fox has become the PR arm of Donald Trump. Sean Hannity is treated like part of the White House staff, not as a news person.
That’s disturbing, as is the huge influence over a large part of the country by Sinclair Broadcasting. Since rules have been diminished over how many media stations a single company can own, Sinclair has gobbled up all the small market TV and radio stations it can get its hands on. The problem for much of rural America is that is the only news outlet they have. To call it a news outlet is unfair as Sinclair regularly forces their news teams to read HQ conservative talking points as if its news or the announcer’s own opinion, which it is not. This gives new meaning to the term “talking head.”
One of the things I’m reminded of is the bevy of articles I have seen from time to time that anecdotally confirm that if you listen to the right wing stuff long enough (like three months) you become an angry person.
As I have become more interested in ancient places I have studied their religious, social, and political structures. As you study religion certain similarities become evident. The main religions of today have certain traits in common: a holy book, a visionary leader, and something else – I forget. Maybe it’s a PR man, like Saint Paul. But at the heart of religion is this essential truth – for religion to work; You Gotta Believe!
The problem with this is that what you are asked to believe can’t be verified. That’s why it’s belief! Duh. Double duh. This is essentially being on the side of the emperor who has no clothes. I keep thinking of the story of the kid in the community I raised my kids in who woke up half way through a Sunday school class to say, “Rise from the dead? Uh huh, no. Once you dead you dead.” The priest and the parental units all laughed at the boy’s silly behavior. But who was being silly?
Sir Issac Newton by introducing the world to the scientific method did more for mankind than all the politicians, religious leaders, and judges the world over have done throughout time.
We have choices that we all make. A scientist chooses to search for the truth. What do you choose?
Watched the latest episode of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” wherein he played a video of Jared Kushner overlaid with the voice of Gilbert Gottfried. I don’t know if Gottfried was reading the words Kushner spoke or not, but I agree with Oliver – it’s still funny.
There are clips showing Ivanka saying her dad had nothing to do with her or Jared getting security clearances. I see the penchant for lying is a family trait.
There are also clips about the Democratic Muslim Congresswoman. Not actually clips of her, but reaction to her statements on Israel etc. and the whoop and cry that she’s being anti-semitic. It’s fun to see the Republicans getting all haughty about this. After all they are the most prejudiced bunch of MFers to all sorts of people and groups. The Dems are running out saying mealy mouthed stuff, but few are mentioning the fact that this woman has said similar things about Saudi Arabia. Where’s the outrage there? Maybe there’s something to what she has said?
She has raised the issue of Palestinian rights by what she has said. My god, someone might have to think? We’ve ignored the Palestinian question since 1948, why start now? Then after 1967. I mean it’s tough, neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis lend themselves to rational resolution of problems. They both fundamentally want to do the other side in. How can you ever resolve that?
Michael Cohen did some more closed door testimony. This time he brought documentary evidence. There are now eight checks he has produced that either Trump signed or Don Jr. or the CFO of the Trump org signed (I think I got that right) to pay back Michael for his paying off Stormy D. There is apparently other stuff too and we don’t know what that other stuff is, but it’s big or so we are led to believe by members of the Intelligence Committee.
606 Days to the 2020 election and 684 Days to Inauguration Day
PS Who’s driving?
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