Republicans are a strange group - They love America, but they really hate Americans.

Republicans vote against every attempt to raise the minimum wage, ensuring they and many of their fellow Americans will live below the poverty line all or most of their lives, while turning a blind eye to fat cat CEOs CFOs and other exec's who's pay raises frequently exceed 10 - 20% per year.

Republicans hated the affordable care act (known as Obamacare) which gave badly needed healthcare coverage to 30 million Americans, now that Donald Trump has stripped most people of this coverage, he's replaced it with______?

Republicans bemoan the "tree hugging Liberals" in favor of legislation that allows companies and people to poison our air, water and soil we grow our food in.

Republicans bemoan the "educated elite" in favor of a less educated, industrial working class population, who are not educated enough to compete for jobs in today's digital age.

Republicans turn a blind eye to the hundreds of billions of dollars of their tax $$ given away to the Fortune 500 as subsidies, grants, other corporate welfare goodies, but let a working class person apply for food stamps because their pay is below the poverty line, and they need to feed their family, and they are scorned by Republicans as lazy Socialist scum.

Yes, Republicans seem to be against a "healthy, wealthy, and wise" population in favor of an unhealthy, poor and dumb one. I wonder if they think about this....

In a conversation with a friend, I explained why I am refraining from clicking on the “like” button on social media. He responded to one of my recent postings on FaceBook, stating that if people didn’t have the “like” button, they would post less. My response is , “yes!” which is exactly why the “like” option is placed on every post and on every comment.

The creators and execs at FaceBook (and other social media platforms) rely on people returning often to check out their notifications, thereby creating, enhancing and updating an algorithm that provides information about how to advertise to that individual. One might say, “Well, I will simply ignore the adverts and make up my own mind.” This capability to ignore adverts may be true, but it doesn’t address the very fact that the algorithm also controls who one sees, the frequency and sometimes the order in which one sees it..a very difficult thing to ignore or manage and requires the same time and effort as individually seeking out friends as one might do in face to face interactions.

After watching The Social Dilemma, I came to the awareness, in a sort of Marxist framework, that by buying into the “like” option, I become an instrument of social media production. In fact, become the product itself, which by it’s very nature makes me consumable and expendable to the consumer. I didn’t like that at all.

My purpose in refraining from clicking “likes” is my personal rebellion and revolution against the capitalistic methods which FaceBook and other social media platforms use to direct my behavior through their advertising schemes.


YouTube

@dendron said
OK. Rubber meets the road! Many comments have been made that Biden is but a puppet, he will never run anything. Guess who it will be. Kamala actually said 'the Harris Administration", on Tuesday. So be you liberal or conservative, ponder for a moment that your true president, with the entourage, will be , ta-da' Kamala. So all the conservatives here are, once again, corr ...[text shortened]... t on this post. Just a suggestion, that as she make her 'plan', we had all get about making our own.

"Since this is a fact in concrete, there is no need to comment on this post."

Your concrete is dust.

@dendron said
OK. Rubber meets the road! Many comments have been made that Biden is but a puppet, he will never run anything. Guess who it will be. Kamala actually said 'the Harris Administration", on Tuesday. So be you liberal or conservative, ponder for a moment that your true president, with the entourage, will be , ta-da' Kamala.

Though Kamala wasn't at the top of my list in the primaries, I still wouldn't have had a problem voting for her. If she takes the reigns and becomes the face of the next administration, I'm absolutely fine with it.

She's the only reason I'm voting at all.

@philokalia said
You are not offended by someone depicting Jesus Christ, your savior, with breasts, a beard, and make up?

Any chucklehead can depict Jesus Christ any way they like.

What a waste of energy it is to get offended by all the ones you do not agree with.

This is called "being easy to manipulate emotionally". It is a weakness.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/19/trump-1776-commission-proof-america-spiraling-toward-facism

"Trump's 1776 commission is proof America is spiraling toward fascism
Trump is setting up the commission to teach students
‘the miracle of American history’ – which sounds like a
core part of the fascist process of taking power"

"Can we use the F word yet? Can we finally admit that America
is dipping its feet in fascism? Armed militias are roaming the streets;
Donald Trump is laying the groundwork to discredit the
results of the 2020 election; the press has been labelled
the “enemy of the people”; there are credible allegations
that migrant women in detention camps are being coerced
into having their uteruses removed; “anti-fascists” have
been branded public enemy number one. And now Trump has
announced a “national commission to support patriotic
education” – in other words, a racist propaganda program.

“Leftwing rioting and mayhem are the direct result of decades
of left-wing indoctrination in our schools,” Trump declared
in a speech on Thursday. He went on to condemn critical
race theory and the 1619 Project, the New York Time’s
Pulitzer-prize winning initiative to reframe American history
by placing the consequences of slavery at the center.
“[T]he crusade against American history is toxic propaganda [that]
will destroy our country,” he announced. Per Trump, the
only way to save the United States is to revise its history
entirely; to gloss over violent colonialism and slavery and
pretend America doesn’t have a bigoted bone in its body.
Which is why, Trump said, he is setting up a 1776 Commission
to teach students “about the miracle of American history”.
Well, “miracle” is certainly one way to describe something
completely made-up.

The federal government doesn’t have jurisdiction over
school curriculum – but don’t let that reassure you into
thinking that Trump’s 1776 Commission is pure puff.
Whenever Trump comes out with an outrageous plan there
are always people rushing to point out that he won’t actually
be able to follow through with it; that checks and balances
will stop him. But Trump has already stormed through many
of these checks and balances; he’s already normalized
behaviour that would have brought down any other president.
If he gets another term there are no limits to what he might do;
hello re-education camps, goodbye reproductive rights!
And that, ultimately, is what his speech on Thursday was about;
it wasn’t so much about American history as it was about
America’s future. It was a promise to his base that he will
Make America White Again.

Hannah Arendt famously talked about the banality of
evil – unspeakable horrors are often perpetuated by unthinking
people simply “doing their job”. What we’re living through
right now might be characterized as the inanity of evil.
Trump is still treated as a figure of fun a lot of the time.
A buffoon incapable of becoming a “proper” fascist.
Objective White Men™ have lined up to lecture us all on
how Trump isn’t all that bad and belittle fear of what he
is capable of as “elite hysterics.” (Easy to talk dismissively
about “hysterics” when you don’t have a uterus that
Trump wants to control.) But as Madeleine Albright explained
in a discussion of her 2018 book, Fascism: A Warning,
“Fascism is not an ideology; it’s a process for taking and
holding power.” Propaganda like the 1776 commission,
narratives that make a dominant cultural group feel like
victims, is a core part of that process. The most patriotic
thing a person can do is tell the truth, and the truth is that
America is spiraling towards fascism horrifyingly fast."

American 'herd mentality' (to quote Donald Trump) is invincible.

My favourite season is upon us here in the Southern Hemisphere.

For those of you who don't know, the Cape Peninsula (on which Cape Town is built) is a very special place. It is home to one of the world's six floral kingdoms, Capensis, which is more biodiverse than the Amazon, and the fynbos ("fine bush" in Dutch/Afrikaans) plants are unlike any in the world. When I am able to study what I desire (chemistry with medicinal chemistry in the UK), I shall certainly focus on the vast, untapped medicinal potential of these endemic plants. Indeed, I believe I have already made discoveries.

Anyway, I wanted to share some photos at several different locations:

Klaasenbosch Greenbelt Trail, Constantia
This is a trail in the middle of a wealthy suburb known for Cape Dutch architecture, prestigious vineyards, and beautiful greenery. I often walk my adopted MinPin here.

https://imgur.com/a/HEbV3R0

Newlands Forest
This forest is on the south face of Table Mountain. My university campus is on the slope of Devil's Peak about 5 minutes away, and I often come here for a walk if I have a break at lunch. In sharp contrast to the Mediterranean-scrub-like climate of the fynbos biome that is present almost everywhere else in Cape Town, this place is cool, wet and lush. The loamy soil on the mountainside is also rich in psilocybin mushrooms. I was once given some, and a statistically lucid experience followed.

https://imgur.com/a/UJwyQ6F

Miscellaneous
Just a hodge-podge of photos taken around town in the past few weeks.

https://imgur.com/a/uWJ8ZjP

@rajk999 said
I could never understand how people can claim that they are trapped in a cult. Are they physically tied down or locked in a room? Are their feet cut off? If not then its all their own fault for being stupid.

mental prisons are real prisons
i am happy you are unaffected
not all are so fortunate

@rajk999 said
Your brother has more balls than you do.

I would say he is one of the bravest people I know. Your assessment is spot on.

@dendron said
OK. Rubber meets the road! Many comments have been made that Biden is but a puppet, he will never run anything. Guess who it will be. Kamala actually said 'the Harris Administration", on Tuesday. So be you liberal or conservative, ponder for a moment that your true president, with the entourage, will be , ta-da' Kamala. So all the conservatives here are, once again, corr ...[text shortened]... nt on this post. Just a suggestion, that as she make her 'plan', we had all get abut making our own.

She misspoke.

Get over it.

@Dendron
It wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen.

If Trump became incapacitated, he would be replaced by ventriloquist dummy Pence.
As bad as that sounds, it wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen either.

Who did that?Someone gave me 3 months membership.
Thankyou.

@suzianne said
Almost half the country voted directly against their best interests in 2016. I see no reason to believe they've learned anything from it.

I, too, think Trump will lose, but it's going to be real, real close.

Trump will declare himself the winner, regardless how the public and the EC votes go, and his supporters will agree with his narrative. I think how America deals with the aftermath of the election is going to be more telling than the actual tally.

Take two halves of cold lager mix carefully in a pint glass, best drunk after a pint of lager.

@rajk999 said
Any depiction of Christ is blasphemous. Christian churches do it all the time, photos, statues, images, Mary statues etc. These are prohibited by God.

Photos of Christ? I hope they got his god side.