New Learning, Neurons, and Dendrites

Body Cameras Bring No Accountability For Police Brutality in Albuquerque

Man arrested for pointing a banana at cops

The way cops are today I would never try this even as a white guy. If he had been black and tried this, he would probably be dead with 50 bullets in him.

What your poop says about you!

Crappy video!

Milky Way Versus Andromeda Collision As Seen from Earth

So I am thinking if we get a Democrat elected as president in 16 we do an all out campaign

suggesting it occurred (even if it didn't) because of Citizens United. We suggest to the Tea Party and Republicans that Warren Buffett, George Soros and all these wealthy Hollywood Dems allowed Hillary or whomever to get elected.

It's worth a try?

Challenge the Ethos

This is well worth a watch:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=842068032520853

Would the conservative brain respond to populist messages about Wall Street villains?

How Conservative Brains Are Wired Differently and What This Means for Our Politics

December 4, 2014 AlterNet / By David Atkins



Snip> But by far the biggest and most often-studied difference between the conservative and liberal brain is their response to stimuli invoking fear and disgust. Conservatives tend to react much more viscerally to negative stimuli than do liberals, and they are likelier to interpret new information as having a negative or dangerous effect on their lives.

Snip> An economic populist approach has the advantage of being right on policy and on politics. The aspirational liberalism championed by President Obama is destined to disappoint in an era of rampant political obstruction designed to deflate hope and blockade real change. The rhetoric of the Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic Party, by contrast, is unafraid to make sharp contrasts and define villains. The instinct of the neoliberal wing of the Democratic Party is to pretend that there are no villains in the economy, only temporary obstacles to inclusive growth; the instinct of the more economic populist elements is to clearly define the perpetrators of the decline of the middle class. Their very "divisiveness" is what allows voters motivated more by anger and fight-or-flight instincts to identify with political warriors who will solve problems by taking down the real bad guys.

Snip>FDR provides a working historical precedent for this approach. While his administration did admonish directly against fear itself, it also pulled no punches in channeling the anger of dispossessed Americans toward the plutocrats who opposed him in ways that are strikingly sharp in tone to a modern ear, but find echoes in the language of combative moral authority we typically only see from conservatives today. Consider FDR's 1936 Madison Square Garden speech, and how little in common it has with the neoliberal rhetoric of modern Democrats:


Snip> That was a speech designed not for the more rational parts of the brain, but straight for the amygdala, the so-called "lizard brain." FDR used rhetoric like this in combination with aspirational speeches to build a large and broad coalition that appealed to Americans across the aisle.

Snip> In short, it will be easier to convince conservative-leaning brains that Wall Street plutocrats are more to be feared than minorities or empowered women, than to convince them that there are no enemies to be feared at all.

Full article: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/how-conservative-brains-are-wired-differently-and-what-means-our-politics?page=0%2C1

Creationist Mom Fail!

I was wondering if this was Sarah Palin's blonde haired sister.

In cases against cops should prosecutors from different cities be brought in?

Jon Stewart made an interesting point about the intimate relationship between police and city attorney's / prosecutors. They have to interact with the police every day and so I imagine it's tough to come down on people who are in a sense your co-workers who you will have to face many times in the future.

So, perhaps there could be a bill to make it mandatory that someone who has no connection with local police be brought in to prosecute any case against cops?

Thoughts?