• NEW! LOWEST RATES EVER -- SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE VERY BEST PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! Welcome to The Paracast+, eight years young! For a low subscription fee, you can download the ad-free version of The Paracast and the exclusive, member-only, After The Paracast bonus podcast, featuring color commentary, exclusive interviews, the continuation of interviews that began on the main episode of The Paracast. We also offer lifetime memberships! Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! You can sign up right here!

    Subscribe to The Paracast Newsletter!

The Official Paracast Political Thread! — Part Five

Forums New posts

Free episodes:

S.R.L. said:
Besides Hannity, here's something else to consider. Everyday there's something new, whether a Tweet, or, scandal. It's the Jerry Springer Show on steroids.
Analysis | Michael Cohen’s visiting Prague would be a huge development in the Russia investigation
Click to expand...

Michael Cohen's visit to Prague removes another obstacle on the road to fully validate Trump's golden shower episode in the Steele dossier.
'Be very careful:' Comey was the first person to tell Trump about the Steele dossier before the inauguration — he couldn't have been more nervous

I fully expect the Mueller investigation to expose Trump as a Putin puppet even though that conclusion is already obvious with his recent impotent reactions to Russian bullying, posturing and illicit behaviors. In true 'above top secret' protocol fashion, Trump should be offered the choice of quitting before any embarrassing information concerning the 'golden shower' event is disclosed.

Putin obviously has a tape and one recent casualty is Nikki Haley who just got thrown under the bus.

In a decent world, disclosure of that event would obviously mean epic embarrassment on the world stage and maybe the end of the Trump marriage. Which should already be over you would think?! But this is a different and weird planet we live on.

He's already survived the 'you can grab them by the pussy' test. Can he survive the 'I like it when prostitutes piss on me' test ? Can't wait to see how the Fox WH propaganda machine will spin this :eek:

You can't invent a better test to challenge the limits of a 240 year old democratic system. Yowsers....

hqdefault.jpg
 
Last edited:
May I be so bold to suggest we pool our money together and purchase a maxi tube of ChapStick to send to Donald for the next time he meets up with Vladimir. I understand Vladi uses a lot of paper towels to clean himself after voiding his bowels to better impress the Russian masses . Unfortunately it comes at a toll.
 
No one has dared to speculate about what follows an expected Trumpian 'crash and burn' ? If there is one... ;)

When will he crash ?
IMHO it's all about timing. Why would Mueller complete his investigation in the 6 months preceding the 2018 mid-term elections ? .... possibly expedited by pressure from Rudy Giuliani ? NOT lol.
The Trumpian 'flying by the seat of his pants' and random management style is slowly eroding his base, the longer he stays there the bigger the crash and Mueller is in no hurry. The Chinese tariffs (soybeans, etc) hits them right in the gut.
China’s trade tariff payback goes straight for Trump’s political jugular

Should the Democrats take over the house and senate in November you won't need a Mueller investigation. It's a quick two step impeachment process and a happy new year with president Pence :confused:
People are calling for Trump's impeachment — here's how that would play out

In Feb/March 2019... Mueller finally comes out with his conclusions where the Steele dossier is fully validated but Steele is only the tip of the grotesque iceberg. I personally think the investigation will be classified due to deep impacts on national security (and mostly scathing embarrassment potential)

Who wants to speculate as to what defines the Trump 'base' after the sifting ? (tea party, white supremacists, fundamentalists ?) The outcome of a Trumpian 'crash and burn' is defined by what stays in the mesh and what they decide to do (Civil war ?)

do_I_sift_the_flour_before.jpg
 
Last edited:
Ezechiel said:
Michael Cohen's visit to Prague removes another obstacle on the road to fully validate Trump's golden shower episode in the Steele dossier.
'Be very careful:' Comey was the first person to tell Trump about the Steele dossier before the inauguration — he couldn't have been more nervous

I fully expect the Mueller investigation to expose Trump as a Putin puppet even though that conclusion is already obvious with his recent impotent reactions to Russian bullying, posturing and illicit behaviors. In true 'above top secret' protocol fashion, Trump should be offered the choice of quitting before any embarrassing information concerning the 'golden shower' event is disclosed.

Putin obviously has a tape and one recent casualty is Nikki Haley who just got thrown under the bus.

In a decent world, disclosure of that event would obviously mean epic embarrassment on the world stage and maybe the end of the Trump marriage. Which should already be over you would think?! But this is a different and weird planet we live on.

He's already survived the 'you can grab them by the pussy' test. Can he survive the 'I like it when prostitutes piss on me' test ? Can't wait to see how the Fox WH propaganda machine will spin this :eek:

You can't invent a better test to challenge the limits of a 240 year old democratic system. Yowsers....

hqdefault.jpg
Click to expand...

To pee, or, not to pee…, that is the question

The clip below may partially answer the burning question

Flight Records Unfold Mystery of Trump’s Moscow Nights
 
S.R.L. said:
Thanks Vladimir, the GOP, along with middle aged, underemployed, under educated disgruntled white guys, not in forgetting evangelists, for providing one of the hallmark train wrecks of modern U.S. history. ;)

Michael Cohen once reportedly bragged that he was part of the Russian mob

Former Mob Prosecutor to Get First Look at Michael Cohen’s Seized Files

Trump says Cohen represented him in Daniels case
Click to expand...

I call it a badly managed transition to a post-industrial society (service) that required massive investment in the education sector (and a willing population). A big segment of the US population, which used to profit from 60$/hr salaries with very little education, is suffering from that bad planning.

What Trump really wants is a return to the industrial era which is irrational but makes sense to hungry rust belt workers. Worst case scenario, if education is not a priority, is a revolt against automation (robotics) and a return to the dark ages. A Trump / Betsy Devos combo is catastrophic for the USA and the ultimate train wreck.
 
Ezechiel said:
I call it a badly managed transition to a post-industrial society (service) that required massive investment in the education sector (and a willing population). A big segment of the US population, which used to profit from 60$/hr salaries with very little education, is suffering from that bad planning.

What Trump really wants is a return to the industrial era which is irrational but makes sense to hungry rust belt workers. Worst case scenario, if education is not a priority, is a revolt against automation (robotics) and a return to the dark ages. A Trump / Betsy Devos combo is catastrophic for the USA and the ultimate train wreck.
Click to expand...

I think you're correct in diagnosing the impasse into which dominant earth 'civilizations' have arrived in the era of Late Capitalism that Marx forecasted. But I can't agree that continued automation, robotics, and AI are the solutions and could provide satisfaction of the essential needs of humans and of life in general on this planet. And we well know the nature of those needs to the extent that we are conscious and critical of the destructive conditions of the 'world' we have wrought on and out of nature's provisions on our planet.

I'm starting to read the works of Simone Weil, from one of which, a kind of testament near the end of her life, I quote this extract:

". . .
Anyone whose attention and love are really directed towards the reality outside the world recognizes at the same time that he is bound, both in public and private life, by the single and permanent obligation to remedy, according to his responsibilities and to the extent of his power, all the privations of soul and body which are liable to destroy or damage the earthly life of any human being whatsoever.

This obligation cannot legitimately be held to be limited by the insufficiency of power or the nature of the responsibilities until everything possible has been done to explain the necessity of the limitation to those who will suffer by it; the explanation must be completely truthful and must be such as to make it possible for them to acknowledge the necessity.

No combination of circumstances ever cancels this obligation. If there are circumstances which seem to cancel it as regards a certain man or category of men, they impose it in fact all the more imperatively.

The thought of this obligation is present to all men, but in very different forms and in very varying degrees of clarity. Some men are more and some are less inclined to accept — or to refuse — it as their rule of conduct.

Its acceptance is usually mixed with self-deception, and even when it is quite sincere it is not consistently acted upon. To refuse it is to become criminal.

The proportions of good and evil in any society depend partly upon the proportion of consent to that of refusal and partly upon the distribution of power between those who consent and those who refuse.

If any power of any kind is in the hands of a man who has not given total, sincere, and enlightened consent to this obligation such power is misplaced.

If a man has willfully refused to consent, then it is in itself a criminal activity for him to exercise any function, major or minor, public or private, which gives him control over people's lives. All those who, with knowledge of his mind, have acquiesced in his exercise of the function are accessories to the crime.

Any State whose whole official doctrine constitutes an incitement to this crime is itself wholly criminal. It can retain no trace of legitimacy. . . ."

I recommend reading the whole of the short text I've quoted from to obtain a comprehensive understanding of what Weil had understood and realized through the range of her work, both practical and philosophical, and presented in summary form here.

The Question of God . Other Voices . Simone Weil | PBS
 
eta: Heidegger articulated the same recognition as Weil's when he defined our situational obligations to all others in terms of our appropriation by Being to be "the shepherds of being" in the local and extended world in which we find ourselves existing.
 
Ezechiel said:
I call it a badly managed transition to a post-industrial society (service) that required massive investment in the education sector (and a willing population). A big segment of the US population, which used to profit from 60$/hr salaries with very little education, is suffering from that bad planning.

What Trump really wants is a return to the industrial era which is irrational but makes sense to hungry rust belt workers. Worst case scenario, if education is not a priority, is a revolt against automation (robotics) and a return to the dark ages. A Trump / Betsy Devos combo is catastrophic for the USA and the ultimate train wreck.
Click to expand...
Oh, yes, once artisan trades are now considered as service occupations in paying far less. Additionally, countries such as India are now in direct competition with U.S. educated professionals i.e., engineers, IT, and far more in the outsourcing of American jobs leaving U.S. educated college grads holding a large bag of student debt, many times working multiple jobs just to make ends meet. Adding the obscene cost of healthcare and housing then you may occasionally find these jaded & ghostly Americans lining up @ their nearest plasma center.

Although, on the other hand, to demonstrate some Americans tendency toward gluttony, just drive through any American suburban community where ranch style homes have double car garages. If the garage door is up, look in & most times you’ll notice one bay filled with mostly worthless crap i.e. , Home Depot inflatable lawn ornaments manufactured in “Gina”, useless treadmills, broken toys, blenders, microwaves, and the freezer filled with Costco pork products.
 
Constance said:
Simone Weil and Continental Philosophy
Click to expand...

I think robotics and AI will force humans out of the mindless high paying jobs of the past and into a world where higher education and the benefits of critical thinking will steer them away from easily avoidable abominations like Trump.

.... not to mention the ability to appreciate deep philosophical concepts proposed by Simone Weil and others like her. I’ve never seen Jeb Clampett read Plato.

Robotics and globalization force humans on to a higher plane of existence... those that don’t adapt curl back into a protective fetal position crying about yesterday. (When America was apparently great)

What we need now are more engineers inventing robots to clean the planet... especially that humongous blob of plastic in the pacific.
The_Beverly_Hillbillies.jpg

Black gold that is... Texas tea.
 
Last edited:
When the top 1 percent now own 50.1 % of the world’s wealth, that vision seemingly fades, as corporations ultimately need consumers (humans) to consume more & more disposable products in boosting their bottom line. Coupled with the fact that educators are woefully underpaid and lacking resources for basic educational supplies doesn’t help much either.

The correct course is crippled from global power struggles through the desire of religious superiority and greed that one day may torpedo humanity.
 
S.R.L. said:
Oh, yes, once artisan trades are now considered as service occupations in paying far less. Additionally, countries such as India are now in direct competition with U.S. educated professionals i.e., engineers, IT, and far more in the outsourcing of American jobs leaving U.S. educated college grads holding a large bag of student debt, many times working multiple jobs just to make ends meet. Adding the obscene cost of healthcare and housing then you may occasionally find these jaded & ghostly Americans lining up @ their nearest plasma center.

Although, on the other hand, to demonstrate some Americans tendency toward gluttony, just drive through any American suburban community where ranch style homes have double car garages. If the garage door is up, look in & most times you’ll notice one bay filled with mostly worthless crap i.e. , Home Depot inflatable lawn ornaments manufactured in “Gina”, useless treadmills, broken toys, blenders, microwaves, and the freezer filled with Costco pork products.
Click to expand...

Why the U.S. ended up outsourcing ?

INDIA:
Annual living costs for an undergraduate student (350,000 Rupies = 5,000 USD) per year... all inclusive costs.) leaving US college grads with humongous debt?

The first factor that you need to consider is that the annual cost of education combined with living is on an average ₹ 350,000. This is far lesser than the cost of education in developed countries like the US or UK.
Education Cost of Studying in India - The Chopras


CHINA:
Approximately 25 million students in China pay an average of $400 to $2,200 a year in tuition (Includes instruction, room/board, and meals) to attend public and private institutions. The rates at China's private institutions vary greatly and many times surpass the average of $2,200. For example, to attend the University of Nottingham in Ningbo students pay $9,000 a year; this may be contributed to the earned degree being from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, a highly respected educational institution.

The Cost of College in China

.... In short, you have a flood of qualified candidates outside the US.

USA:

How Much Does it Cost to Study in the US?
Anyone familiar with the basic rules of averages will have realized that College Board’s estimate is likely to include significant variation in either direction – and this is true. At the very top-tier US universities (the majority of which are private non-profits), fees and living costs are likely to add up to around US$60,000 per year, but it’s also possible to study in the US at a much lower outlay.
 
Back
Top