Airbrush

Today is "How the Universe Works" on The Science Channel for the next 8 hours. Anyone else follow the series? Today I am watching an episode called "Megaflares" and I believe I caught an error. They said that every day we see about one gamma ray burst, or about 350 per year. They said that every gamma ray burst is the birth of a black hole. Do some gamma ray bursts mean the birth of a neutron star? I heard someone say that about one black hole is born every day in the observable universe. But that must be wrong, there must be many more born each day because for every gamma ray burst WE CAN SEE means many more are happening that are NOT POINTED DIRECTLY AT US. So about how many black holes are born each day in the observable universe? In our galaxy?

What about all our pain and suffering because of his irresponsible, strange behavior? Isn't that worth anything? Trump is looking more and more like a loose cannon. What serious lapse from reality will it take to topple the Teflon Don? What is the magnitude of crisis?

If it is proven false, Trump's unsupported claim that somehow Obama tapped Trump's phone without a FISA warrant, would that bring him a little closer to impeachment? Otherwise, Obama would have to go to jail. Either outcome is astonishing, or spectacular! http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-does-not-accept-fbi-denial-over-phone-tap-claims-2017-3

I heard the claim on Fox News that the Russians tried to hack both parties, democratic and republican, but the republicans were smart and upgraded their servers to resist the hacking, but the democrats were dumb and didn't do anything, so they got hacked. Is any of that true?

"A great, great wall" seems like an absurd premise, and Trump never gets into specifics of what exactly he means by a "great, great wall". How can so many Republicans applaud like brain-dead when Trump repeats his "great, great wall" mantra? Something big and beautiful like the great wall of China? Or just enough of a barrier to discourage illegal border crossing? Just replace flimsy fencing with an upgrade and use smart sensors. Have the double fence with a roadway between for patrol. When sensors detect people approaching the fence, it alerts the local patrol to intercept before the barrier can be bypassed. https://doctorbulldog.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/border-fence.jpg

For me it is his attitude of superiority to everybody, and his never-ending, carnival barker, huckster, con-man sales pitch, always boasting, always trying to talk you into a sale, always exaggerating. He seems delusional intentionally. He sounds like a mixture of Jim Backus as Thirston Howell on Gilligan's Island and Robert De Nero from the movie "Goodfellas". He wants to sound like a mobster, because they talk so cool, and concise, and he repeats himself ad nauseam. He always talks in fragments, to make himself look smart, like his nimble mind is moving ahead so fast. Some have said that Trump can be charming one-on-one, but the only charm I have ever seen looks shallow, like a salesman leading you to closing a deal. And yet up to maybe about 25 to 30% (?) of Americans LIKE his personality? "So what if he is a liar, he's lying on our behalf." I became sick of Trump in 2006 when his feud with Rosie O'Donnell exploded across the news. What a billionaire idiot. What's with his peculiar accent? I thought he should have a New York accent, but do they pronounce the short "A" sound as almost a long "A"? For example, he always says "we will do it very FASTE" or "those are some BADE dudes", "I have a lot of CASHE". Where did that come from? The Wharton School of Finance?

When republicans repeat the Trump mantra "Obamacare is a total disaster" because the costs went up so much, they never explain WHY premiums went up. Because Obamacare allows for pre-existing conditions. That is a huge additional expense to the industry. Also Obamacare has no limits in spending on certain severe conditions. To those people with pre-existing conditions, Obamacare is not a "total disaster" but a life saver. So every time someone calls Obamacare a total disaster, they are suggesting that people with pre-existing conditions should NOT have coverage. In Trump's own Christian religion, it is unchristian to not help the poor. "What you do for the least of my brethren, you do it for me" in the words of Christ himself.

How about becoming disabled by senile dementia? He is 70 and shows lapses from reality routinely. When will it result in severe consequences? Maybe in a year or two, under the severe stress from being president in such a confrontational environment, his lapses from reality could get worse.

Yes, mental illness should not be discriminated against, but if it results in a disabled presidency, that's different. If the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, due to mental illness, the 25th amendment may apply. If someone has a mild mental illness that does NOT result in themselves, or others around them, to "suffer from the distress and impairment" required to diagnose mental disorder, then they should not be impeached, or discriminated against.

Just post your 3-minute speech here Maybe someone will give an idea of how you can improve what you wrote. Or is this considered "Homework" department?

"Since Trump declared his intention to run for president, there has been speculation on his mental state. Terms like “narcissistic personality disorder” and “borderline personality” began to appear more and more frequently in references to him, both in the press, and in the words of his opponents and their proxies." "...Frances explained that he “wrote the criteria that define narcissistic personality disorder,” the condition some mental health professionals, and journalists, have said they believe Trump suffers from. But, Frances asserts, Trump does not meet those criteria “because he does not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder.” He goes on to argue that: "Mr. Trump causes severe distress rather than experiencing it and has been richly rewarded, rather than punished, for his grandiosity, self-absorption and lack of empathy. It is a stigmatizing insult to the mentally ill (who are mostly well behaved and well meaning) to be lumped with Mr. Trump (who is neither)." "But leaving the question of Trump’s mental condition to a group of professionals is an avoidance strategy that is becoming more transparently irresponsible by the day." http://www.cjr.org/analysis/trump-mental-health.php It is time to review the Goldwater Rule of 1973. They assume nothing of scientific value can be obtained merely by observing a person's words and actions. Interviewing the patient results in lies and subjectivity, while much can be known by analyzing their candid words and actions because those are more authentic than any interviews. Trump is going through the most stressful period of his life. All his life he could always get his way, now as president he is NOT getting his way. How long until his fragile mental state is shattered by the final straw that breaks the camel's back, and he has a nervous breakdown? Trump may not be impeached for any one criminal act, but by the accumulation of evidence that he has a mental illness.

Meteors are an excellent subject. To get the judges attention you should draw a giant picture of an asteroid and have it as your background while you give your 3-minute speech. You could tell them what would happen to your city if a 5-mile wide asteroid landed on it. Hint: what happened to the dinosaurs 65 million years ago?

All Trump needs to do is, after this "smooth honeymoon spell" is over, is piss off Pence and most of the department heads he just hired, by getting carelessly abusive to them. Then mutiny! America loves to see an arrogant a$$hole fall flat on their face, and slink out in shame like Nixon.

Meteors are a very interesting topic. Look it up in Wikipedia and read all about it then come back here with some specific questions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoroid

The 25th Amendment to the Constitution​ makes it a little easier to get rid of a dysfunctional president than impeachment. "Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution All Pence needs to do is continue to act presidential until a majority around him realize Trump is not getting any better at his job.

From the Huffington Post: "We’re just one week into the administration of the 45th President of the United States and already we’ve seen signs the end might be near. These are truly unprecedented times in the history of this country. "Never before has a president taken the oath of office with such high disapproval numbers. Before this year, the highest disapproval rating for an incoming president was George W. Bush’s mark of 25 percent. President Trumps disapproval rating the moment he put his hand on the Bible was nearly double that at 45 percent. Anyone wondering how this vitriol and animosity by nearly half the country would manifest itself needed to wait only 24 hours. The day after the inauguration, the largest protest ever to hit the nation’s capitol took to the streets to voice their displeasure over our new president." To Russia With Treason "There is far too much smoke to believe there isn’t a fire in the area of dubious dealings between Vladimir Putin and Trump’s inner circle. It seems more than conspicuous that most of Trump’s key people all have a close connection with Russia. Most notably, Secretary of State and Rex Tillerson raised eyebrows at his confirmation hearing when he refused to frame Putin’s international aggression as war crimes." Business Conflict of Interest "President Trump thinks he won by not putting his business interests in a blind trust but, in doing so, may have sowed the seeds of his downfall. The reason why every modern president who preceded him has done so is two-fold. It is to ensure the president doesn’t manipulate his business interests so as to profit from actions he takes while in office. But it is also to protect him against such allegations. The blind trust is a way to close off that speculation before it actually begins." His Ill-Advised War With The Media "President Trump has spent his whole life experiencing media coverage from the vantage point of being a celebrity. If People Magazine or Vanity Fair was going to print something he didn’t like he could easily bully or cajole them into backing down. He never had to worry about the harsh and brutal truth seeing the light of day. So when the press caught wind of the allegations of sexual misconduct and then the Access Hollywood tape surfaced, Trump became furious that the press was digging for the truth." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-trump-wont-serve-his-full-1st-term_us_588ced75e4b06364bb1e2652?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_1448757& Now his most recent series of rants in an impromptu press conference, Trump spent most of his time attacking the "lying media," except for Fox News, in Trump's opinion. I heard that yesterday while watching Fox News. I'm there sometimes to spy on the enemy.

No we can not see stars in all directions. We can only see stars in our own galaxy with the naked eye. Can we see individual stars in nearby galaxies using powerful telescopes? If so, how far away does a galaxy need to be so that it is impossible to see its' individual stars? I cannot belief we have the ability to see individual stars at a distance of 13 billion light years, right?

"Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body formally levels charges against a high official of Government. Impeachment does not necessarily mean removal from office; it is only a formal statement of charges, akin to an indictment in criminal law, and is thus only the first step towards removal. Once an individual is impeached, he or she must then face the possibility of conviction via legislative vote, which then entails the removal of the individual from office. "Because impeachment and conviction of officials involves an overturning of the normal Constitutional procedures by which individuals achieve high office (election, ratification, or appointment) and because it generally requires a supermajority, it is usually only reserved for those deemed to have committed serious abuses of their office. In the United States, for example, impeachment at the Federal level is reserved for those who may have committed "high crimes and misdemeanors". Several Federal officials, including two Presidents (Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, who were both acquitted) and several judges, have been impeached over the course of US history. US President Richard Nixon resigned before Watergate scandal impeachment proceedings could begin. "The federal procedure in the United States involves a vote for impeachment in the House of Representatives on a document known as the Article of Impeachment. Each separate grounds will be a separate Article. House members who support the impeachment then appoint managers who will act like prosecutors in the preparation for the Senate hearing. The hearing for removal is conducted in the Senate and in the case of the impeachment of a President, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States presides over the proceedings (otherwise the Vice-president presides) which are conducted as a trial with witnesses being heard under oath or affirmation. The defendant has the right to legal counsel, the right to cross-examine all witnesses and to testify in his or her defense. The senators must also take an oath or affirmation that they will perform their duties honestly and with due diligence. The hearing cannot be conducted without a 50% plus one quorum. After the hearing the deliberations are held in private. Removal requires a two-thirds majority of the Senate." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment Darn it, it takes the house of representatives to vote for impeachment. It will be much harder to get a supermajority in the house than in the senate. Trump can only be impeached if his own party gets too pissed off by him. How far can he go before that happens?

Now Flynn is forced to resign over the scandal talking with Russia and lying to Pence about it. Trump must have known about it, so this should be sufficient grounds for the impeachment of Trump. This scandal probably won't take down the Teflon-Trump, but in 2 years the GOP may lose control of the senate, then anything is possible. Trump seems likely to be impeached, just because he is that kind of guy, a test the limits of what is accepted kind of guy. Get ready for a president Pence!

This story is about Trump's "sheer joy of lying" just for the sake of lying, even about trivial matters. Trump's Lies vs. Your Brain http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/donald-trump-lies-liar-effect-brain-214658 "Donald Trump is in a different category. The sheer frequency, spontaneity and seeming irrelevance of his lies have no precedent... A whopping 70 percent of Trump’s statements that PolitiFact checked during the campaign were false, while only 4 percent were completely true, and 11 percent mostly true." "Those who have followed Trump’s career say his lying isn’t just a tactic, but an ingrained habit." "In his own autobiography, Trump used the phrase “truthful hyperbole,” a term coined by his ghostwriter referring to the flagrant truth-stretching that Trump employed, over and over, to help close sales. Trump apparently loved the wording, and went on to adopt it as his own." "He has the megaphone of the White House press office, his popular Twitter account and a loyal new right-wing media army that will not just parrot his version of the truth but actively argue against attempts to knock it down with verifiable facts. Unless Trump dramatically transforms himself, Americans are going to start living in a new reality, one in which their leader is a manifestly unreliable source." "Lies are exhausting to fight, pernicious in their effects and, perhaps worst of all, almost impossible to correct if their content resonates strongly enough with people’s sense of themselves, which Trump’s clearly do." "Our brains are particularly ill-equipped to deal with lies when they come not singly but in a constant stream, and Trump, we know, lies constantly... When we are overwhelmed with false, or potentially false, statements, our brains pretty quickly become so overworked that we stop trying to sift through everything. It’s called cognitive load—our limited cognitive resources are overburdened. It doesn’t matter how implausible the statements are; throw out enough of them, and people will inevitably absorb some. Eventually, without quite realizing it, our brains just give up trying to figure out what is true. But Trump goes a step further. If he has a particular untruth he wants to propagate—not just an undifferentiated barrage—he simply states it, over and over. As it turns out, sheer repetition of the same lie can eventually mark it as true in our heads..." "Here’s the really bad news for all of those fact-checkers and publications hoping to counter Trump’s false claims: Repetition of any kind—even to refute the statement in question—only serves to solidify it. " "This means that when the New York Times, or any other publication, runs a headline like “Trump Claims, With No Evidence, That ‘Millions of People Voted Illegally,’” it perversely reinforces the very claim it means to debunk." "If false information comports with preexisting beliefs—something that is often true in partisan arguments—attempts to refute it can actually backfire, planting it even more firmly in a person’s mind... And when a politician can create a sense of moral outrage, truth ceases to matter. People will go along with the emotion, support the cause and retrench into their own core group identities. The actual substance stops being of any relevance." "Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth University who studies false beliefs, has found that when false information is specifically political in nature, part of our political identity, it becomes almost impossible to correct lies." So what can we do in the face of a flagrant liar-in-chief? Here, alas, the news is not particularly promising... It’s easy enough to correct minor false facts, the color of a label, say, if they aren’t crucial to your sense of self. Alas, nothing political fits into that bucket." "Scarier still for those who have never supported Trump is that he just might colonize their brains, too. When we are in an environment headed by someone who lies, so often, something frightening happens: We stop reacting to the liar as a liar. His lying becomes normalized." "The distressing reality is that our sense of truth is far more fragile than we would like to think it is—especially in the political arena, and especially when that sense of truth is twisted by a figure in power. As the 19th-century Scottish philosopher Alexander Bain put it, “The great master fallacy of the human mind is believing too much.” False beliefs, once established, are incredibly tricky to correct. A leader who lies constantly creates a new landscape, and a citizenry whose sense of reality may end up swaying far more than they think possible. "

The presidency should not be a voluntary position. The most qualified people should be "drafted-encouraged" into studying for the presidency. A dictator is someone who wants power for the sake of power, such as Trump. It should be like jury duty, but the best person qualified is assigned the task. It would not be compulsory, but the most intelligent people, who are the best qualified to be president, who initially don't want to be a politician, are encouraged to join the team. It would take a lot of figuring who would qualify for president school. Then those who are well qualified, and well educated in all relevant subjects, would run for the presidency.

Also 15 states (more later?) and D.C. filed against Trump's immigration ban. I think "extreme vetting" means mainly that besides the usual vetting they also question and investigate the applicant's sympathy with American ideals. Is that true? What's wrong with that? What kind of extra procedures does Trump's extreme vetting propose?

Since I'm not one to say "Let's give Trump a chance", he already had many chances to pivot but never did. I will do my best to keep the idea of impeachment of Trump floating around. Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon could be impeached, so can Trump. His recent recent interview will Bill O'Reilly, aired before the Superbowl, is telling. Trump to Bill O'Reilly about Putin's character. You need to listen to the audio because much is missed in the transcription by the author. http://www.torontosun.com/2017/02/05/weve-got-a-lot-of-killers-trump-says-in-defence-of-his-respect-for-putin “I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to get along with [Putin]. He’s a leader of his country. I say it’s better to get along with Russia than not. ... “Will I get along with him? I have no idea.” O’Reilly then said about Putin: “But he’s a killer, though. Putin’s a killer.” Trump responded: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?” When O’Reilly says he doesn’t know any US government leaders who are killers, Trump says “take a look at what we’ve done, too. We’ve made a lot of mistakes” and references the Iraq war. Let's examine Trump's argument. Our relationship to Russia, in Trump's mind, hinges on how well he and Putin "get along". That is the mind of a dictator, only thinking about his own pleasure and not the fate of the country he is leading. He puts himself before his country, which is blatantly self-centered, consistent with his narcissistic personality disorder. Then he successfully equates "murder" with "mistakes" and gets away with it! When Bill questioned about Putin's murderous methods of government, Trump excuses it by equating Putin killing his opposition with the mistake of the US to go into Iraq. Then Bill pointed out that the "mistake" of going into Iraq is not equivalent to Putin murdering his opposition. Bill said "I don't know of any government leaders that are killers", but Trump just brushed the false equivalence aside like that was nothing, as he often evades a critical issue, and repeats "We've made a lot of mistakes. I've been against the War in Iraq from the beginning." Bill: "But mistakes are different than..." And Trump cuts him off to say, "A lot of mistakes. A lot of people were killed. There's a lot of killers around, believe me." Then Bill O'Reilly says "Ok" and gives Trump a pass, and changes the subject to Mexico. That is how Trump consistently gets away with murder, by evading every inconvenient issue. Someone in the house and senate must be keeping a list of these instances of Trump's indulgence in fantasy for the big day of his impeachment.

It will take some kind of disaster that Trump creates all by himself. He knows how to be bad all by himself. Then the senate will rise against the "ambitious" Julius Caesar.

All Trump needs to do is lie to congress about something the GOP are sensitive about. Is Trump prone to blatant lying? Would he lie to congress about a military operation that ended in total disaster because he was reckless? Is he one to test the boundaries of what is permissible by his office? Is he a loose cannon? Is he the perfect tool to use to blow everything up and then Pence and company can pick up the pieces and be heroes in the process? He was a bad boy as a child, as he himself called "rambunctious", so that he was the only one of his siblings that was send to military academy for discipline. He did well in military high school and reached the rank of captain. "[Donald] was an energetic child; his parents hoped that the discipline at the military school would allow him to channel his energy in a positive manner. In 1983, Fred Trump told an interviewer that Donald "was a pretty rough fellow when he was small". ​Is Trump still a "rough fellow"? He is a textbook example of personality disorder, or NPD (narcissistic personality disorder). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump#Early_life