Astronomy versus Astrology

 

star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud.[ESA/Hubble]

Let us consider the stars. There is two ways of understanding their actions: one is astronomy, another is astrology. Some people believe in the one and some in the other. Astronomy enjoys the scientific method, facts are observed, and ideas are tested. People who believe in astrology are not convinced about this. They defend their beliefs (and although it is possible for them to finally follow the light, and see that astrology is superstitious nonsense, and a fraud; it will be a drawn out process). So, when some people say there are two ways to see something, well yeah, but one is true, and one is bullshit. I am a d/Democrat, and i believe in astronomy.

Twitter is Samizdat

In living memory, half of Europe was under totalitarian communist regimes. Russia was the largest. Writers had to be very careful. Underground information networks were established, 'samizdat' means self-published; well it was distributed by typed copies, carbon copies. Technology has changed. To-day in America, a special 'advisor' to the current president, Steve Bannon has attacked and threatened the press. Orders have been given to certain government agencies not to speak. Another 'advisor' to the current president, Kellyanne Conway, has insisted that 'alternative facts' are necessary for the regime to get its message out. Bannon, Conway, and Trump are all vindictive. So we have government employees creating twitter accounts, that act as shadow government agencies to speak the truth. Trump does not believe in news conferences, he tweets his messages to the public, and the press relays them. So, twitter has become the new samizdat, Trump tweets ukazes (edicts), but it may be the case:  that, you live by the tweet, you die by the tweet.

Saturday in January, not this Saturday

Lakewood Park 21 January 2017 63°F

Last Saturday was a record breaking day for high temperature.  To-day is an average January Saturday. The last one was better.

What Is Truth?

 

Nikolaj Nikolajevič Ge. Что есть Истина, Христос и Пилат. 1890. Moscow.

  What Is Truth, Christ and Pilate

"Quid est veritas (What is truth)?", Pilate dismissively mocks Jesus. Pilate is the Procurator of Judea, a political governor. Pilate has no concern, nor respect for the concept of truth. It is only words. Some speculate Pilate expressed a philosophical curiosity in this query. No, i have found when one brings up an ethical point to someone whom has no moral qualms (goal oriented) they dismiss (either derisively or nonchalantly) the silly thought, and treat the person a fool, or a joker.

John xviii.—37 Pilate therefore said to him: Art thou a king then? Jesus answered: Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice. 38 Pilate saith to him: What is truth? And when he said this, he went out again to the Jews, and saith to them: I find no cause in him.

Alternate attendances

I have seen a few real news pieces to-day concerning the chief mouthpiece for the Donald, She-Goebbels Conway, a hatchet faced crone that will always attempt to manipulate reality to make the Donald look good. Well, Trumpy's Whiter House press secretary, Propaganda Spice lied about attendance at the inauguration. The lies were so egregious, so obvious, and so vehement that Chuck Todd [NBC] challenged Kellyanne Conway's defense of Sean Spicer. Conway said he offered 'alternative facts'. There is no such thing. There is only alternative realities in fiction. It is already fully evident that this presidency is thoroughly founded on lies. As Solzhenitsyn taught us in his Nobel speech, lies are violent: "Let us not forget that violence does not and cannot flourish by itself; it is inevitably intertwined with LYING. ...Whoever has once announced violence as his METHOD must inexorably choose lying as his PRINCIPLE. ...usually it demands of its victims only allegiance to the lie, only complicity in the lie."

The Republicans have long followed the principle enunciated by Göbbels: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” — Dr. Joseph Göbbels

But many people know this, one Star Trek episode filmed a version of an episode in Orwell's 1984 [see and click]