up the phone and call Vlad whenever he wants. Otherwise it may occur to Trump he is not really admired by the Russians. Happy New Year Putin. You reap what you sow. Trump will want the immediacy of that kind of contact with famous or powerful people. He is dyslexic so will crave interconnectedness or become depressed if he can't connect and come up with ideas. Delegating contact will not do. Unimportant people will not do. Trump will want the the big dopamine hit himself. And come up with all sorts of whack-a doodle unimportant schemes he will share to make America and Russia great again. Trump can't comprehend great abstract systems so it will be ideas on a concrete and basic level that Trump will focus on. Ideas he can get his head around in short order. He will reinvent the wheel. Let us hope he does not share the F35 plans as part of a deal.........oh my god! We are all going to die!

organizing as people having a good time. Then they describe selfishness or sadism on their side as having a good time too. As if they equate. Which they do if you follow dataism. It states that emotions are just algorithms. They put no value on lives being made better. Chilling.

The Decline of Empathy and the Appeal of Right-Wing Politics

by Michael Baeder at Psychology Today

https://m.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-is-he-thinking/201612/the-decline-empathy-and-the-appeal-right-wing-politics

"SNIP.............


The failure of our institutions to empathize with the plight of the middle and working classes, to recognize their sacrifice and reward their hard work is traumatic. It is the same type of trauma that children experience when their caretakers are preoccupied or rejecting. The trauma erodes trust. It overwhelms systems that people have developed to deal with stress and creates psychological suffering and illness.

Adults, like children, try to cope with the stress of failures of recognition in the best ways they can. They certainly get anxious and depressed and may turn to drugs and alcohol to manage these painful feelings. In addition, when social trust is weakened and people are isolated, they try to find ways to belong, to be part of a community. The Tea Party is one such community. Others turn to their church communities. Their social brains seek an experience of “we” and often do so by creating a fantasy of a “them” that they can devalue and fight. Tribalism draws from our need for relatedness but, tragically, can also pervert it. Rejected by employers and government, they reject and demean others. All the while, they are trying to deal with the pain, powerlessness, and lack of empathy that they experience in their social lives.

Donald Trump clearly spoke to this pain. He empathized with the traumatic losses and helplessness of the white middle and working classes. He helped them feel part of something bigger than themselves, a “movement,” which combatted their isolation. And he helped them restore a feeling of belonging by positioning them against demeaned others, primarily immigrants and countries on the other end of “horrible trade deals.”

The research on the development of empathy and the trauma resulting from its absence, on the links between economic inequality and physical and psychological suffering, and on the corrosive effects of social isolation has to lead progressives to renew their campaign for radical reforms of our economy and politics. Tronick’s and others’ research on the development of empathy and the trauma resulting from its absence has to lead us to support families in every way possible such that parents have the time and resources to empathetically connect with their children. Wilkinson and Pickett’s research on the harmful effects of economic inequality should force us to make redistribution the centerpiece of our political program, just as it was for Bernie Sanders. Their research clearly shows us that greater equality itself can ameliorate a wide range of suffering. And the fact that our society disconnects us from each other means that we have to seek common ground with the people on the other side of what Hochschild calls the “empathy wall” and communicate to them that we not only feel their pain, but share it, and that, in the end, we are all in this together.


...............SNIP"

vs. capitalism, also dictatorships vs. democracy in dataism. Harari "Homo Deus". So how does oligarchy and the GOP, creating narratives the GOP base get mashed into believing, fit into 'distributed data processing' theory? They claim to be all about the individual yet they tribalize and control. They just could not let their base enjoy a very smart, affable and cool president in Obama because that would ebb some racism in their base and they could not have that. Hypocrites! If the GOP base has to March to ethnic bias and wear some of the same clothes and think the same and feel the same, how is that going to help people adapt to a rapidly changing world?

"Rather, capitalism won the cold war because distributed data processing works better than centralized data processing, at least in periods of accelerating technological changes."

"Not only individual organisms are seen today as data processing systems, but also entire societies such as beehives, bacteria colonies, forests and human cities." Harari.

Human emotion is seen as just an algorithm, what a perfect philosophy for the GOP.

Ronald Reagan's thinking. But he had a real cabinet didn't he? Trump gets elected and they actually place thick people or one tune wonders in the actual cabinet. No think zone. Wow! And we thought Reagan was out of touch.

are no longer cooperating with the rest of America. And Trump is cooperating with Putin. This is a new civil war. Do they know this? And a very uncivil one at that. They obviously don't want the USA to thrive as it was. I swear the GOP is reading behaviour and evolutionary psychologists to figure out how to undo the middle classes' power. They are the ones who started undoing the norms of democracy and the west under Reagan. They own Trump! McCain is wrong to blame Obama or the democrats.

dyslexics only get the concrete. Obviously what truth Trump holds to be self evident are different than those of career constitutional lawyers or diplomats or political operatives. It is going to be a long and bumpy ride. I just hope that Trump tries to be the type of dyslexic leader that thinks for himself with advisors who have the country's best interests at heart (Woodrow Wilson, Churchill, Kennedy) rather that a patsy dyslexic (George W. Bush, Reagan) who gets spoon fed by 'reality' by the right to help only the rich or those with stock in military corporations.

Intellectually he is a dyslexic. Emotionally a narcissistic celebrity. Politically a liar.

stop aging. Thus people could live 200 years. Thus the usa would have to double, triple, quadruple, quintuble the population. There would literally be no room. Unless not everyone gets the drug or scientific breakthrough. Which means only rich people. Which means medicare has to go. And Obama care. And there needs to be lots and lots of pollution. To kill more people....antidotes would be available for people who could afford it. Making sure only a small portion of the population survives to 200. But cancer research, funded by government, that doesn't get rolled back. So the science is not rolled back, just the ability of all to afford science. Makes a lot of sense if you think about it like that. I have not talked to Paul Ryan or read anything where he talks about why he does what he does. So I'm guessing. Would also explain why every GOPer thinks they absolutely need tens of millions of dollars. If you and your family live that long you do need that much money. I know that if they figure out how to stop ageing not everyone could get it - there is not enough room on the planet. I just think the right to live till 200 should go to people like the late Maya Angelou if it is scarse. You know, people who really have something important to say.

to $60 a barrel. Russia agrees to cut too. Putin must be thrilled.