On having the healthcare votes Trump is either lying or exaggerating, getting bad information, or has a secret deal with the senators opposing it. If the latter was true then two of Murkowski, McCain and Collins would not be telling the truth in public.
FACT CHECK: Is Unemployment In Black America The Lowest Since ‘The Turn Of The Millennium’?
Kush Desai | Author
President Donald Trump claimed that “African American unemployment is at its lowest point since almost the turn of the millennium” during a Wednesday speech in North Dakota.
People in the ancient world did not always believe in the gods, a new study suggests – casting doubt on the idea that religious belief is a “default setting” for humans.
"Early societies were far more capable than many since of containing atheism within the spectrum of what they considered normal"
-- Tim Whitmarsh
Despite being written out of large parts of history, atheists thrived in the polytheistic societies of the ancient world – raising considerable doubts about whether humans really are “wired” for religion – a new study suggests.
The claim is the central proposition of a new book by Tim Whitmarsh, Professor of Greek Culture and a Fellow of St John’s College, University of Cambridge. In it, he suggests that atheism – which is typically seen as a modern phenomenon – was not just common in ancient Greece and pre-Christian Rome, but probably flourished more in those societies than in most civilisations since.
As a result, the study challenges two assumptions that prop up current debates between atheists and believers: Firstly, the idea that atheism is a modern point of view, and second, the idea of “religious universalism” – that humans are naturally predisposed, or “wired”, to believe in gods.
“We tend to see atheism as an idea that has only recently emerged in secular Western societies,” Whitmarsh said. “The rhetoric used to describe it is hyper-modern. In fact, early societies were far more capable than many since of containing atheism within the spectrum of what they considered normal.”
“Rather than making judgements based on scientific reason, these early atheists were making what seem to be universal objections about the paradoxical nature of religion – the fact that it asks you to accept things that aren’t intuitively there in your world. The fact that this was happening thousands of years ago suggests that forms of disbelief can exist in all cultures, and probably always have.”
The book argues that disbelief is actually “as old as the hills”. Early examples, such as the atheistic writings of Xenophanes of Colophon (c.570-475 BCE) are contemporary with Second Temple-era Judaism, and significantly predate Christianity and Islam. Even Plato, writing in the 4th Century BCE, said that contemporary non-believers were “not the first to have had this view about the gods.”
Because atheism’s ancient history has largely gone unwritten, however, Whitmarsh suggests that it is also absent from both sides of the current monotheist/atheist debate. While atheists depict religion as something from an earlier, more primitive stage of human development, the idea of religious universalism is also built partly on the notion that early societies were religious by nature because to believe in god is an inherent, “default setting” for humans.
Neither perspective is true, Whitmarsh suggests: “Believers talk about atheism as if it’s a pathology of a particularly odd phase of modern Western culture that will pass, but if you ask someone to think hard, clearly people also thought this way in antiquity.”
His book surveys one thousand years of ancient history to prove the point, teasing out the various forms of disbelief expressed by philosophical movements, writers and public figures.
These were made possible in particular by the fundamental diversity of polytheistic Greek societies. Between 650 and 323 BCE, Greece had an estimated 1,200 separate city states, each with its own customs, traditions and governance. Religion expressed this variety, as a matter of private cults, village rituals and city festivals dedicated to numerous divine entities.
This meant that there was no such thing as religious orthodoxy. The closest the Greeks got to a unifying sacred text were Homer’s epics, which offered no coherent moral vision of the gods, and indeed often portrayed them as immoral. Similarly, there was no specialised clergy telling people how to live: “The idea of a priest telling you what to do was alien to the Greek world,” Whitmarsh said.
As a result, while some people viewed atheism as mistaken, it was rarely seen as morally wrong. In fact, it was usually tolerated as one of a number of viewpoints that people could adopt on the subject of the gods. Only occasionally was it actively legislated against, such as in Athens during the 5th Century BCE, when Socrates was executed for “not recognising the gods of the city.”
While atheism came in various shapes and sizes, Whitmarsh also argues that there were strong continuities across the generations. Ancient atheists struggled with fundamentals that many people still question today – such as how to deal with the problem of evil, and how to explain aspects of religion which seem implausible.
These themes extend from the work of early thinkers – like Anaximander and Anaximenes, who tried to explain why phenomena such as thunder and earthquakes actually had nothing to do with the gods – through to famous writers like Euripides, whose plays openly criticised divine causality. Perhaps the most famous group of atheists in the ancient world, the Epicureans, argued that there was no such thing as predestination and rejected the idea that the gods had any control over human life.
The age of ancient atheism ended, Whitmarsh suggests, because the polytheistic societies that generally tolerated it were replaced by monotheistic imperial forces that demanded an acceptance of one, “true” God. Rome’s adoption of Christianity in the 4th Century CE was, he says, “seismic”, because it used religious absolutism to hold the Empire together.
Most of the later Roman Empire’s ideological energy was expended fighting supposedly heretical beliefs – often other forms of Christianity. In a decree of 380, Emperor Theodosius I even drew a distinction between Catholics, and everyone else – whom he classed as dementes vesanosque (“demented lunatics”). Such rulings left no room for disbelief.
Whitmarsh stresses that his study is not designed to prove, or disprove, the truth of atheism itself. On the book’s first page, however, he adds: “I do, however, have a strong conviction – that has hardened in the course of researching and writing this book – that cultural and religious pluralism, and free debate, are indispensable to the good life.”
Battling The Gods is published by Faber and Faber. Tim Whitmarsh is A G Leventis Professor of Greek Culture and a Fellow of St John’s College, University of Cambridge.
The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.
Posted specifically to the first two videos in yours .. The Theft of Our Values
and
"Does God Exist?" David Wood vs. Michael Shermer (Christian vs. Atheist Debate)
and guess to others on the topic there i haven't watched yet.
Edit: This gentleman and his "paradigm shift" is mentioned at 10:40 in the first video above.
Thomas Kuhn: the man who changed the way the world looked at science
Fifty years ago, a book by Thomas Kuhn altered the way we look at the philosophy behind science, as well as introducing the much abused phrase 'paradigm shift'
Illustration by Scott Garrett. Click for the full image
On Thursday, Rep. Steve Scalise returned to the House of Representatives to standing applause. Scalise was shot back in June during a practice for the Congressional softball game.
Thursday, September 28th 2017[, with Roger Stone hosting the fourth hour]: Trump Delivers on Tax Cuts - President Trump unveils his new tax plan cutting taxes for the middle class and proposing a "surcharge" for the wealthy. And the NFL's downward spiral continues as anti-American protests propel it into irrelevancy. The former US Navy sailor who used the "Hillary defense" in attempts to avert charges for taking unauthorized photos, Kristian Saucier, joins the show to discuss his case and selective enforcement of federal laws.
Exclusive: Health care insider reveals Trump planned to sabotage Obamacare
The Beat With Ari Melber 9/28/17
The Beat obtained new evidence on efforts to undermine Obamacare from within Trump's HHS department. Ari Melber discusses with the insider, Roy Mitchell. Duration: 6:33
CT Sen. Murphy reacts to Roy Moore's Newtown comments
All In with Chris Hayes 9/28/17
Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut says it is 'abhorrent' that the Republican Party is embracing Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who blamed Sandy Hook on people not following God's law. Duration: 4:48
Tom Price’s private flights cost taxpayers over $1 million
All In with Chris Hayes 9/28/17
Despite finally expressing regret for hundreds of thousands of dollars in charter plane flights, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price's troubles escalate. Duration: 6:14
Thing 1/Thing 2: Donald Trump says he's calling for the repeal of the estate tax not because it would help him, but because it would massively help America's farmers and small businesses. That's not true. Duration: 2:35
The White House has reportedly launched an internal probe of private email use, in the wake of reports that senior members of Trump's team - including his daughter and son-in-law - used private email accounts to conduct official business. Duration: 6:00
Tom Price private plane scandal snowballs with new revelations
The Rachel Maddow Show 9/28/17
Rachel Maddow reports on Donald Trump's HHS Secretary Tom Price, already in a corruption scandal when he was confirmed, now on resignation watch as the public learns more outrageous details about his abuse of public funds for private planes and more. Duration: 14:26
Trump pitches tax cuts for rich as Puerto Rico languishes
The Rachel Maddow Show 9/28/17
Rachel Maddow points out the awkward juxtaposition of the Trump administration presenting a plan to cut taxes for the rich while suffering continues in Puerto Rico with leadership impotent to distribute ready aid. Duration: 7:19
Hospitals struggle to help ailing Americans in Puerto Rico
The Rachel Maddow Show 9/28/17
Pablo Venes, a San Juan-based journalist, talks with Rachel Maddow about how the lack of internet and means of communication is hindering the ability for hospitals to treat patients in Puerto Rico as bad ideas and impotent leadership continue to hinder relief efforts. Duration: 5:46
Republicans to put Russian bank lawyer in coveted DoJ position
The Rachel Maddow Show 9/28/17
Rachel Maddow reports on Brian Benczkowski being voted through the Senate Judiciary Committee to lead the Justice Department’s criminal division despite little relevant experience and having worked for a Russian bank tied to the Trump Russia investigation. Duration: 6:13
Extra Trump inauguration money shrouded in mystery
The Rachel Maddow Show 9/28/17
Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, talks with Rachel Maddow about the opacity of Donald Trump's inauguration fund and the mystery of the extra millions of dollars believed to be held by the fund. Duration: 9:30
Lawrence O'Donnell looks at why Donald Trump is not convinced he can sell his tax plan to the American people. And two Republican senators are publicly casting doubt on the "Trump tax cut crusade." Duration: 8:11
Trump could [sic - counting his estate, would] reap [well over] $1 billion under his tax plan
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell 9/28/17
Trump's economic adviser urged reporters not to look at individual aspects of the GOP tax plan. Now, we may know why: The New York Times reports Trump stands to save as much as [again, sic - well over] a billion dollars from his own plan. Jared Bernstein & Joy Reid join Lawrence O'Donnell. Duration: 8:11
Tom Price to pay over $51K but his travel reportedly cost $1M
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 9/28/17
Questions continue to swirl around the Trump White House with a new report finding Trump's Health & Human Services Secretary spent even more on pricey travel than originally reported. Duration: 8:57
Trump defends hurricane response while Puerto Ricans wait for aid
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 9/28/17
The distribution of food and water in Puerto Rico is painfully slow eight days after Hurricane Maria, Pres. Trump and his government are defending the response. Our panel reacts. Duration: 4:52
Ken Starr: Trump will be under oath before Russia probe ends
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 9/28/17
Independent counsel in the Clinton-era Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky investigations Ken Starr discusses the Russia probe and what it could potentially mean for Pres. Trump. Duration: 5:50
Michael Steele: Tom Price's pricey jet bill is hypocritical
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 9/28/17
Former RNC chairman Michael Steele says that the expensive travel tab from Trump's HHS Secy. Tom Price 'doesn't look good' especially when Republicans were budget hawks during Obama's presidency. Duration: 1:37
Belcher: Price’s jet tab breaks Trump's ‘Drain the Swamp’ pledge
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 9/28/17
Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher discusses reports about HHS Secretary Price's expensive travel tab arguing that this kind of 'fat cat' behavior breaks Trump's promise to 'drain the swamp.' Duration: 2:33
As the federal government struggles to provide relief aid for hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, Trevor reminds viewers everything the island has done for the rest of the U.S.
The mainstream media reported that the GOP's most recent efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare have failed, but Jordan knows that the battle isn't over.
Published on Sep 29, 2017 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Due to the success of of his most recent documentary on Netflix, "The Vietnam War", Ken Burns has been brought onto a new documentary project to highlight the struggles in a war that nearly ended human existence.
On "Day 252" of the Donald Trump White House Regime, the Trump Circus is taunting the Rich NFL Owners. He says that the NFL Owners are afraid of the Players, That makes sense because at this point in the Game the rich Elite are afraid of their own Shadow. They have to have an Army of Combat Cops protecting them at every Event they Go to, How Sad !!!
News Section for Caravan to Midnight full long-form interview Episode 814 – Daniel Horowitz In this edition we welcome Daniel Horowitz, Senior Editor at Conservative Review, discussing the launch of his new book “Stolen Sovereignty” and how to go about regaining our freedom. He believes that real achievable solutions are often overlooked and that the solutions he proposes will deal with the real issues as well as address America’s most systemic problems, join us this evening to hear Daniel’s insightful solutions proposal that he says will ultimately result in restoring our Republic. But first, an update from WND Reporter Michael Thompson. Full interview - https://caravantomidnight.com/episode-814-daniel-horowitz/
Former Host of Coast To Coast AM John B Wells is now in control on Caravan To Midnight & Ark Midnight.
Trump's massive tax cut -- for the rich Edward McCaffery: Trump boasts his tax plan would double the standard deduction, but it would hurt many Americans Among those hit the hardest would be single parents, large families and those working in blue states, he writes http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/27/opinions/trump-tax-plan-opinion-mccaffery/index.html
Ron Insana: Does Trump benefit from proposed tax cuts? 'Let me count the ways' •A proposal to cut taxes on limited liability companies and other so-called pass-through entities would appear to benefit Trump, who has reported owning or controlling 500 LLCs. •Eliminating the alternative minimum tax and the estate tax would also benefit the super-rich. •Salaried employees could actually see their taxes increase, not fall, and the same holds for many middle-class families, based on what we know from the current proposals. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/28/ron-insana-does-trump-benefit-from-proposed-tax-cuts-let-me-count-the-ways.html
Exclusive: Russian-bought Black Lives Matter ad on Facebook targeted Baltimore and Ferguson At least one of the Facebook ads bought by Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign referenced Black Lives Matter and was specifically targeted to reach audiences in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, sources with knowledge of the ads told CNN. http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/27/media/facebook-black-lives-matter-targeting/index.html
Supreme Court poised to deal a sharp blow to unions for teachers and public employees The Supreme Court is poised to deal a sharp blow to the unions that represent millions of teachers and other public employees, announcing Thursday it will consider striking down the mandatory fees that support collective bargaining. The justices will hear the case of Mark Janus, an Illinois state employee who objects to paying fees to the union, which represents 35,000 state workers. The decision, due by next June, could prove a costly setback for public-sector unions in 22 states, including California, where such fees are authorized by law. Labor experts have predicted a significant percentage of employees would stop supporting their union if given a choice. The other 28 states have “right to work” laws that forbid requiring workers to join or support a union. With smaller numbers, public employee unions would lose some of the political power that has made them major forces in some states, such as California, Illinois and New York. [...] http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-court-unions-20170928-story.html
Trump administration abruptly drops out of Obamacare events in Mississippi “It’s clearly sabotage.” For the past three years, the US Health and Human Services Department has partnered with a health advocacy group in Mississippi on an education tour before Obamacare enrollment started. They would meet around the states with groups that sign people up for coverage — state officials, health centers, insurance brokers, and the like — to prepare for open enrollment. Up until Monday, Roy Mitchell, executive director of the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, thought these events were going forward in the coming weeks as planned. He had even asked HHS just last week for biographies of the officials they’d be sending. But then two days ago, he received a short message from an agency official, which Mitchell shared with Vox: HHS wouldn’t be doing any Obamacare marketplace events in the South this year. No further explanation was provided. “HHS bailing out was the last straw for us,” Mitchell told me by phone Wednesday. “It’s clearly sabotage.” The department responded to Vox’s inquiry about the change in part by criticizing the law it is responsible for overseeing. “Marketplace enrollment events are organized and implemented by outside groups with their own agendas, not HHS. These events may continue regardless of HHS participation,” HHS spokesperson Caitlin Oakley said in a statement. “As Obamacare continues to collapse, HHS is carefully evaluating how we can best serve the American people who continue to be harmed by Obamacare’s failures.” HHS’s abrupt withdrawal from the events is part of a bigger story. The Trump administration has already cut this year’s open enrollment period in half. It slashed spending on advertising by 90 percent. Funding for the navigators program, which went to groups that helped people sign up for insurance, was reduced by 40 percent and then allowed to lapse entirely. [...] https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/27/16374158/obamacare-mississippi-hhs-events
Trump administration health reps told not to participate in Obamacare outreach nationwide, as advocates claim 'sabotage' Top health officials in the Trump administration have been told to not participate in state-based Obamacare enrollment promotion, reports said. The decision is the latest move by the administration to undercut Obamacare. Andy Slavitt, who oversaw Obamacare in the Obama administration, called the move "partisan sabotage." https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/27/federal-health-reps-told-not-to-participate-in-obamacare-outreach.html
Price took military jets to Europe, Asia for over $500K Accompanied by his wife, the HHS secretary journeyed to Geneva, Berlin, Beijing, Tokyo and other cities for events. The White House approved the use of military aircraft for multi-national trips by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to Africa and Europe this spring, and to Asia in the summer, at a cost of more than $500,000 to taxpayers. The overseas trips bring the total cost to taxpayers of Price’s travels to more than $1 million since May, according to a POLITICO review. [...] http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/28/tom-price-military-jets-europe-asia-hhs-243276
Fired U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara Said to Have Been Investigating HHS Secretary Tom Price Trump’s head of the Department of Health and Human Services traded stocks of health-related companies while working on legislation affecting the firms. A source says Bharara was overseeing an investigation. The White House didn't immediately comment. March 17, 2017 https://www.propublica.org/article/preet-bharara-fired-investigating-tom-price-hhs-stock-trading
Happy 350,000th Birthday: Study Pushes Back Homo Sapiens Origins [...] Homo sapiens emerged on the African landscape following millions of years of human evolution, including a split 600,000 to 700,000 years ago from the lineage that led to the now-extinct Neanderthals. The period from that split until the advent of our species was a critical one. “In this time period, some genetic changes may have happened that make us humans who we are today, and distinct from, for example, Neanderthals,” said population geneticist Mattias Jakobsson of Uppsala University in Sweden, co-leader of the research published in the journal Science. “The reconstruction of deep human history in Africa is becoming increasingly robust when the dating of fossils, such as those from Morocco, the Stone Age archaeological record and human DNA come together to highlight interesting periods in our evolutionary past,” added study co-leader Marlize Lombard, a University of Johannesburg professor of Stone Age archaeology. The Morocco findings reported in June by other researchers involved fossil skulls, limb bones and teeth roughly 300,000 years old that they concluded were from Homo sapiens. “The age of those fossils at 300,000 years also falls within our new estimate for the emergence of Homo sapiens. They show a combination of modern and archaic features, which could indicate a transitional phase in our evolution,” Lombard said of the Moroccan remains. Scientists also have concluded that a 260,000-year-old partial cranium from Florisbad, South Africa, also represented Homo sapiens. There is broad agreement among scientists that Homo sapiens originated in Africa. But the recent discoveries have suggested our species arose not in one locale like east Africa but in multiple places, a more complex so-called pan-African origin that the new genetic research seems to support. https://www.usnews.com/news/news/articles/2017-09-28/happy-350-000th-birthday-study-pushes-back-homo-sapiens-origins - Reuters original http://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-humans/happy-350000th-birthday-study-pushes-back-homo-sapiens-origins-idUSKCN1C32XU study http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/09/27/science.aao6266
Over years Weinstein used his bully pulpit, and a public's craving for gossip, to preserve his 'Godly' predatory place in the Hollywood scene.
Network is the latest media outlet to rebut claims that it failed to pursue stories of the Hollywood mogul’s sexual harassment of women.
By MICHAEL CALDERONE
10/11/2017 04:07 PM EDT
Updated 10/11/2017 04:44 PM EDT
NBC News President Noah Oppenheim told staffers at a town hall meeting Wednesday that “the notion that we would try to cover for a powerful person is deeply offensive to all of us.”
[...]
“His ability to punish the bottom line of any publication that stepped out of line was significant,” said Hirschorn. And Weinstein also had the ability to place derogatory stories, Hirschorn said, and "seemed to have a direct line to a number of gossip columns, including ‘Page Six.’”
He also launched a magazine, Talk, with Tina Brown. She recalled Tuesday that "many hacks writing gossip columns or entertainment coverage were on the Miramax payroll" through development deals with the company. But if a gossip reporter didn’t write something Weinstein liked, he could blow up. “I’m the scariest motherf--ker you’ll ever have as an enemy in this town!” Lloyd Grove, who was a gossip columnist for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006, recalled Wednesday.
“The ability, through a combination of complicity, fear — illegitimate and legitimate — and money, made it very likely you were not going to be able to get these things in print,” Hirschorn said of the long-whispered allegations. “And once that happened, there was a sense of hopelessness. Why even pursue it? It’s not going to happen.”
Some journalists kept taking stabs at the still-untold story below the surface of all the glitz and glamour.
“Over many years, many news organizations have circled this story and faced a great deal of pressure in doing so,” Ronan Farrow, the author of a blockbuster New Yorker report, said Tuesday night on MSNBC. But it’s what Farrow didn’t say that raised eyebrows inside and outside 30 Rock. Host Rachel Maddow asked Farrow why NBC — the network that identified him just a day earlier on-air as an investigative correspondent — didn’t publish the story. He said to ask NBC News executives.
Farrow, a former daytime MSNBC host who shifted to a reporting role after his show’s 2015 cancellation, said he spent 10 months on the story, beginning at NBC. Accounts have varied over how deep Farrow got in the project at 30 Rock before heading to The New Yorker.
[...]
An NBC source told POLITICO on Tuesday that what Farrow had early on at NBC “was nowhere close” to what appeared in the magazine or The Times. Grove reported that scripts were being “prepared and vetted” at NBC and that Farrow’s reporting was undergoing fact-checking and legal vetting. And Farrow told Maddow on Tuesday night that he had “an explosively reportable piece” while still at NBC and that The New Yorker realized that immediately.
[...]
Oppenheim didn’t address specifically what Farrow had early on at NBC, though it’s been reported he had already obtained a 2015 NYPD recording of Weinstein admitting to groping model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, a claim the mogul denied at the time.
The groping incident made tabloid headlines in April 2015, and the New York Daily News even reported at the time that Weinstein’s denial might be contradicted by an NYPD sting tape, which hadn’t surfaced until Farrow’s piece. The same day, entertainment gossip site Defamer — once part of the Gawker Media empire — asked readers for information about Weinstein’s “open secret" and optimistically predicted that “accusations that once existed only as loud whispers were finally being dragged into the light.”
But Battilana Gutierrez was smeared in the gossip pages as a gold digger, and the extent of Weinstein's misdeeds would remain in the dark for years.
Man has Porsche impounded 10 minutes after buying it
"The Theft of Our Values"
Yahoo7 / 11:18am AEDT
A Victorian man’s love affair with his brand new Porsche has proven to be short lived after he was pulled over for allegedly speeding just 10 minutes after buying the luxury car.
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