Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

applegrove

applegrove's Journal
applegrove's Journal
February 18, 2019

And the nitpicking doesn't have to be a real reason for criticism. Just so long as

it alienates democrats from their great candidates and turns into a meme - the GOP will be happy. We should call it astroturf nit-picketing.

February 18, 2019

Harris is being nitpicked. Nancy was too. I'm drawing parallels and

saying with Nancy it was GOP trolls. And so many fell for it. Expect it during the Democratic nomination race. Don't fall for it. Maybe it was GOP trolls with this hot sauce thing or maybe not. Be wary of those who would fight a candidate without referencing their character, their talents or their policy positions. I've seen psychopaths use nitpicking to re-create the perceptions of people they want to control. It is a common technique with abusers, misogynists or harrassers. Nitpicking to control the perceptions of a group (democrats). Watch for it.

February 18, 2019

I don't know if trolls started this but we need to be wary. Remember Nancy Pelosi

was the enemy of the left in the year before the 2018 elections?
She is amazing. She was amazing before. The right wing trolls nitpicking happened to democratic perceptions in the middle and we almost jettisoned her. So too will many of our Democratic nominees be so alienated. Don't fall for the ridiculous. If we let the GOP nitpick then they will have picked who our 2020 nominee is by the time it is over.

https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1097319633831378944

February 18, 2019

Maybe not helping Flint is a way to make an example of a union town?

GOP do that kind of ****.

February 16, 2019

On real time tonight David Frum went into the world is divided up by

regimes that are run by thieves and those whose government are truly democracies for the people. Corruption is one of the worst causes of poverty I think. And corruption grows radical islam i've read. Frum said that we should ignore what the left or right propaganda is of the corrupt plutocrats, such as Venezuela vs. Russia, and focus instead on their honesty and democratic values. Something makes me wonder if splitting up the world into two again is Putin's goal. The corrupt plutocrats would trade with each other and bribe each other while the corporations headquartered in truly democratic countries would be cut out of those deals as they follow a different set of rules. More wealth for Putin if he doesn't have to compete with half the world and can dominate his half. Just like in the cold war.

February 13, 2019

The Purpose of Brainpower: Are We "Misusing" Our Minds?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/after-service/201902/the-purpose-brainpower-are-we-misusing-our-minds

Rob Henderson After Service

"SNIP....

The Social Brain Hypothesis

One answer for this, according to von Hippel, comes from the social brain hypothesis. The idea is that we have big brains because our ancestors had to navigate complicated social dynamics.

For early humans, their most complex puzzles often involved figuring out the minds of their fellow humans. And their social status relied on their ability to solve social challenges. Our ability to reason about non-social problems is a fortunate side-effect of our social reasoning skills.

As von Hippel says, “it suggests that IQ is a by-product of social intelligence rather than the other way around.” We are social innovators more than technical ones.

He also says, “our intelligence didn’t evolve to solve abstract problems and complex ways of dealing with the environment. Our intelligence evolved to deal with each other more effectively and to leverage the skills and abilities we have when we work together.”


.....SNIP"
January 29, 2019

Schultz may just demistify gazillionaires and their self delusions to

the broader public with this campaign. You'd think Trump being elected would have done it to gazillionaires. But this is proving the insane vanity is widespread and across party lines. Actually I don't think they are self delusions. I think the right wing has worked long and hard to convince ceos they aren't lucky as hell. That they are precious instead. Masters. To Ayn Randize them. Why if they saw themselves as ''just lucky as hell' they would still be attached to humanity as a whole.

And then there is this from Maggie Haberman:

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1090076844970381314?s=20

January 29, 2019

This is what Burton said about other Independant candidates:

From the article:

"SNIP....

In an August 2016 op-ed in The Sacramento Bee, Burton urged voters to be wary of third-party candidates because "a Trump presidency would mean the dismantling of basically every important progressive achievement over the last century, and progressives need to keep that in mind."

"If Stein or Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson eat into Clinton's support even a little, that could matter in a close election," he wrote. "And in the same way I would bet that Ralph Nader -- or at least many of his supporters -- wishes that he didn't help to make George W. Bush our 43rd commander in chief, I suppose Stein supporters would not want to be in the position of explaining to their kids how they helped make Trump president."

....SNIP"

This campaign is a football block to public health care. And stopping climate change, or at least mitigating it.

January 23, 2019

The book 'Enchanted America' goes into how financial anxiety results

in people being way, way more intuitive than rational in their voting (isolated from other factors). Way more so than income level. So people vote way more through emotion and other cognitive shortcuts when suffering from financial anxiety. So they vote against their best interests and thus for republicans. You have to wonder if health care insecurity and college loan repayment insecurity are purposeful on the part of the GOP to make non rich Americans less rational. Maybe that is why Mitch is so happy to let this shutdown continue.

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo28752049.html

January 18, 2019

So, it's not avocados after all: Fed says student debt prevents young adults from buying homes

https://thinkprogress.org/federal-reserve-student-debt-home-ownership-81dc87219d9f/

ELHAM KHATAMI at Think Progress

"SNIP....

At the same time, average student loan debt among young people has also doubled from about $5,000 in 2005 to $10,000 in 2014. The Fed reported that in the first quarter of 2018, outstanding student debt reached a staggering $1.52 trillion, almost triple the amount from the previous decade.

The Fed said it is likely that more than 20 percent of the overall decrease in homeownership among young people is due to student loan debt. “This represents over 400,000 young individuals who would have owned a home in 2014 had it not been for the rise in debt,” the report stated.

“Our estimates suggest that student loan debt can be a meaningful barrier preventing young adults form owning a home,” the report added, explaining that high student loan debt can lead to a lower credit score, ultimately impacting a person’s ability to qualify for a mortgage. High student loan payments can also adversely affect a person’s ability to save for a down payment on a mortgage.

The Fed report comes as higher education costs continue to increase, with financial aid in the form of grants and tax benefits failing to keep up the pace.

....SNIP"

Applegrove:

People who have financial anxiety vs. just low income vote more intuitively rather than rationally. They vote using feelings and mental shortcuts. People like Trump get elected. Ontario's conservative government has just converted some university grants for the very poorest to loans. They are giving a $500 tax cut to everybody else for 3 years as cover. They seem to want the same voting as the Republicans do in the USA. IMHO

Read the book Enchanted America: How Intuition and Reason Divide Our Politics

Profile Information

Member since: Mon Feb 7, 2005, 03:14 AM
Number of posts: 118,577
Latest Discussions»applegrove's Journal