ICYMI (Philosophy) Daily Digest report

En 1981, la peur d'un coup d'état militaire fasciste en cas de victoire de la gauche était telle que mon père responsable syndical avec plus de 1000 adhérents, avait enregistré le nom de tous les adhérents du syndicat sur des K7 audio, dissimulé entre des chansons (il avait aussi des centaines d'authentiques K7) et était prêt à détruire tous les fichiers papiers.

I.
I have.
I have finished.
I have finished grading!

Op zaterdag 6 juli wordt straatorkest Kladderadatsch 50 jaar! En dat vieren we met een heus festival: Brass aan de Waal. Met optredens van veel straatorkesten en de Bossche polder-polka van Straf. Dus kom ook, op 6 juli vanaf 15:00 naar De Kaaij in Nijmegen!

Reading a thesis by a student who consistently uses the term 'heterosexual' to mean 'affirming a rigid gender binary'. Seems like a totally wrong use of the word to me, but I might not be in touch with the most current terminology, and I don't want to criticise them for it if they're just following some tradition in the literature. Thoughts?

Sticking to what I have been saying for a decade: we have to rebuild secular constitutional democracy at local and state levels. Can’t preserve it at the federal level without doing that.

When in a war - including a more-or-less cold civil war - you don’t give up when the going is tough. But you should strategize accordingly. We must flood swing stars with support for GOTV, especially by contributing to local activists. The most effective tool I knew of for doing this is Blueprint by Swing Left. See https://blueprint.swingleft.org/

We could have had two terms of Gore but … the Supreme Court.
Then two terms of Hillary Clinton but… misogyny.
And then two terms of Obama.

Would have been a different country.

The brood of 5 super-cute kittens at Almost Home Cat Rescue love to play. Here you see them taking one of their cat toys and playing with it in a way it wasn't intended to be. Kittinovation at its best!
https://youtube.com/shorts/4-cnV9GuNs8
#Video #Cats #Kittens #Play #Toys #Funny #Cute #Short

I’m terrified for the world.

I did not support Biden in the primary process for a variety of reasons. One of them was not his "capacity", though that now seems somewhat at issue. My primary concerns, if you'll pardon the pun, are (1) his centrism at a time when progressive policy is essential to both human rights and human survival, and (2) his age, but not (at the time) an issue of capacity but of succession.

The succession issue is not properly appreciated, even now, but matters ever more.

The GOP strategy accepts they are a minority candidate and is bulking up on lawyers to challenge elections at state or to make it hard or scary for racial minorities to vote. They want to win not on votes but on procedure, in other words. Failing that, they are nudging crowds to be ready to act out violently, again hoping this will throw elections procedurally into question.

Note that regardless of the capacity issue, which we had assumed was not in play, Biden IS old and old people CAN die. In regular jobs, we just assume this is something we'll deal with as it comes up, annd we don't obsess about it, as people can be quickly rearranged or new people hired if it turns out to matter. But in government we need more process, so we have a line of succession.

Right now if something happens to Biden, Harris takes over. So far do good, but until/unless she has a VP formally installed, we are operating without a backstop because if, even ignoring the unpleasant possibility of foul play, she is injured or sick in a way that makes her unavailable, the next in line to be acting president is Speaker of the House, as the line of succession doesn't respect party.

So Mike Johnson, as Speaker, can end up suddenly in power. And I don't trust that if a GOP party member takes power, they'll ever yield it. This would be a path to a coup for them.

So we need TWO vital people at the top of that succession list, and that is the age-related reason I think the Presidency is special, independent of capacity.

So if, due to the debate performance, there becomes a rapid last-minute scramble for another candidate, maybe Harris. Is Harris/Biden possible? I don't know if a just-Harris ticket can occur, or a Harris/TBD, but it's a bad idea. A Harris ticket with a specific named other could be OK. Harris/AOC or maybe Harris/Inslee or whatever would be fine with me, as long a it's someone specific she could work with.

I think Biden is already hurting on Gaza at this point. If debate performance opens a window to get him to step down and leave Kamala (without going to the chaos of a consensus-destroying open convention) and then have her pick a new running mate, that'd be OK with me.

She needs to have a ready VP pick.

Better this happen before convention because anything later and Trump will call ballots invalid, even if they're not.

This could be an opportunity.

#BidenTrumpDebate2024 #Biden #Harris #Debate2024 #debate #DemocraticConvention #BidenTrumpDebate #BidenTrumpDebate2024

The Guardian maybe making a suboptimal journalistic choice here:

'During one journey, Parker described Sunak as “fucking [P-word]”. He said: “I’ve always been a Tory voter, but what annoys me is that fucking [P-word] we’ve got in. What good is he? You tell me, you know. He’s just wet. Fucking useless.”'

I have absolutely no idea what they mean with the P-word. 🤨 It's also beeped out in the accompanying video.

Crooked Timber || Occasional paper: On the curious diet of the Speckled Mousebird

https://crookedtimber.org/2024/06/28/occasional-paper-on-the-curious-diet-of-the-speckled-mousebird/

As #AtheismExplained ends, let's review common findings:

Predictors of religious belief and/or practice:
- Having religious parents
- Bring in a religious #community
- Social #conservatism, right-leaning #politics
- Unreflective thinking

Predictors (and causes?) of #atheism, #apostasy:
- Reflective thinking
- Financial security
- Exposure to #diversity of people, ideas

Thx to Claire Berlyn and Allen [Surname?] for organizing!

The website: https://www.explainingatheism.org

#religion #psychology #xPhi

July 1st is the soft deadline for our Visiting Fellows Program for 2024-2025. Applications in by then will receive full consideration, but you may still be able to apply later; we will hold applications open until all spots are filled. https://deweycenter.siu.edu/visit/fellows.php

Here's the last of the core concept videos on St. Anselm's short work, the Proslogion, looking at his speculations at the end of the text working out what full human happiness would involve. At the center of happiness is friendship and concord with others

https://youtu.be/BqHHWDWAxoo
#Anselm #Happiness #Friendship #God #Relationships #Heaven #Ethics #Philosophy #Theology

How do older people think about #religion and #atheism?

Joanna Malone shared quotes from (British?) #seniors about (dis)belief in #God, their upbringing, and their life #philosophy.

Patterns:
- #socialization: disbelief was often described as learned (like religious *belief*)
- #humanism: elders often contrasted #religion with #science, #logic, and free thinking

Follow Joanna on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joanna-Malone

#ethnography #sociology #anthropology #edu #age #agnosticism #socialScience