OT WE 18 DEC 24 ~ Uncertainty


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how to harness not-knowing in the service of wisdom, invention, mutual understanding, and resilience

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A local author develops the notion of the anxieties related to 'uncertainty' can be harnessed
into consecutive energy to solve the underlying trepidations of not knowing how to react to
an ever-changing world. An interesting approach to something many people are dealing with.
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Perhaps, when in a dilemma, it is easier to flip a coin. Deeper pondering entails excavating
layers of presupposed conceptions. Examining potential consequences of actions.

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Can you be comfortable with indecision or do you feel intimidated by obscurity?
Curious minds wonder.
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Open thread zone. Please share your interpretations of whatever is going on.

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QMS's picture

Enjoyed this assessment by Larry Johnson:

"Turning to the situation in Syria. With each passing day I’m more convinced that Putin had good intel on the Western plan to take out Assad and, based on intel provided in part from China, correctly assessed that in light of Assad’s refusal to listen to Russian and Iranian advice that Turkey and the West were going to create for themselves a shit sandwich. Neither was prepared to deal with the consequences of a rapid collapse of Syria. I believe that Putin correctly calculated that the West and Turkey were creating a level of chaos in Syria it could neither control nor contain. While Russia could have intervened militarily and defeated HTS and its Turkish/Western backers, Putin and his advisors believed this would ultimately turn out to be a nightmare for Turkey and the West, and Russia was happy to let them eat it."

(my bold)

https://sonar21.com/ukraine-and-syria-a-western-plan-goes-awry/

Uncertain of the outcome of this recent misadventure. Self harm is a trait of psychotic policy.

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question everything

soryang's picture

@QMS @QMS @QMS

Comes to mind in Syria.

In South Korea-

Yoon is refusing all summons to appear for questioning, all search warrants, etc. Essentially, it's the presidential guard which is refusing service and blocking entry to offices and residence. Therefore, it is Han Duck-soo, the acting president who is supporting Yoon.

The PPP floor leader in the National Assembly is doing his best to have the party stonewall all initiatives by the majority opposition, playing for time. The prime minister and opposition will likely to do all they can to block and stall appointment of three additional Constitutional Court justices. The Court which currently only has six justices which is supposed to have 9, does not have a quorum, seven, to decide the Yoon impeachment case. Two of those justices have terms that end 4.18. So three appointments seems appropriate. These are all Yoon trademark tactics, stall, block, evade, etc. Discussion of Han's impeachment has arisen.

I watched the DN piece on Nuttyahoo's corruption trial, and how he is using the wars he has underway to avoid loss of office and jail. I think the situation in South Korea is analogous in some ways. Yoon wanted to use the same tact, trigger a military crisis with the north, to avoid prosecution of his wife and himself, and justify martial law. Although, the five principal ringleaders of the coup, have been arrested already, it's apparent that Yoon has to be as well. The instability in South Korea is increasing despite the impeachment vote in the National Assembly. I still think there is a chance of war and martial law.

The US has always tried to influence, if not dominate, South Korea and its domestic politics. If they are opposed to the instability, and the threat to national security in South Korea, they should use their influence to persuade Han Duck-su and the legislative leadership of the PPP to stop their stonewalling. allow the appointment of justices, let all legal process be carried out, and all investigations to proceed, and remove Yoon from the scene, now, by jailing him.

It is not in the interest of the US or South Korea to let this unstable and dangerous situation continue. Let the constitutional process be carried out.

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語必忠信 行必正直

QMS's picture

@soryang
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certainly the MIC/CIA won't fix it
they just like to break stuff and
leave the pieces behind

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question everything

@QMS @QMS this site.https://aeon.co The content aways changes, It could be history, science, music, art and more.

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QMS's picture

@la58
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Looks fascinating in an off-hand way.
Will bookmark it.
Speaks to my lingo.

cheers

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question everything

enhydra lutris's picture

@la58
page thereat via some link or another. Thanks for recommending it, I think I'll put it in a tab and follow it for a while.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

I live in limbo until I have evidence to come to one conclusion or another. I'm fine with uncertainty.

I think Larry's conclusions above are reasonable.

I wonder what Russia's retaliation for it's General's assassination will be. A good example of living with uncertainty.

Take care and have a great day!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

usefewersyllables's picture

about my uncertainty. To my way of thinking, uncertainty represents the only reality I've ever known. If certainty were to somehow creep into it, I'm uncertain how I would react. I have come to strongly depend upon my uncertainty, and do not wish its supply to be threatened.

After all, once you remove the uncertainty from the equation, the only thing left is death and taxes. And where's the fun in that? (;-)

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

QMS's picture

@usefewersyllables
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So, they opened a new restaurant in town.
It is named 'Karma Eats'. Went in to check out
the menu. Proprietor says, no menu.
You only get what you deserve!
Wink

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snoopydawg's picture

@usefewersyllables

Any luck with the vision after the air treatments?

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

usefewersyllables's picture

@snoopydawg

and thanks for asking. The hyperbaric treatments have helped more than I would have dreamed. I'd say that my vision in that eye is back to 60-70% of what it was (!), and it continues to improve. I have two more rides scheduled, and then we'll review and decide what needs to happen next.

It is really funny to watch the process in real time. Before the first ride, the area of lost vision was just solid opaque black nothingness. After the first ride, it turned more gray. The second ride made it semi-translucent, with just two opaque gray blobs, but I could see some motion in it. The third ride brought some color back into the gray, and I can now see shapes and colors in what was the majority of the original blind spot. At this point, I can count fingers in the affected area (other than the two opaque blobs, which continue to shrink), so it is working far better than I dared hope.

I changed providers, and the new chamber I'm going to goes up to 2bar- somewhat higher pressure than the original chamber. That has helped speed the process up. When I'm getting up to pressure, I can see fireworks-like flashes in the area (the visual equivalent of pins-and-needles as the oxygen perfuses in, I think), and I can see the visual field change in real time.

My neurologist is utterly convinced I'm lying, of course. As far as he is concerned, the loss of vision was instantaneous, permanent, and irreversible, and I'm wasting my time: his laughing professional opinion is that there is simply no reason for me to go off and do something silly like this just on the thought that it might keep the retina alive. Needless to say, I'm in the process of firing him.

However, he did show me my brain scans, CT and MRI. It turns out that the inside of my skull is pretty ugly: it looks like somebody winged me with birdshot, and there are all these little spherical voids all over the friggin' place. Apparently, I've had a couple dozen silent strokes over the years. That certainly explains why my memory has been crapping out for the last decade or so, and why I've been sundowning (just like my parents did): maybe it isn't Alzheimers after all. So his assumption that I'm basically full of shit and hallucinating the progress with my eye is based on those scans, and I suppose that I can't really blame him.

Gotta go back Friday 7AM for a trans-esophageal echocardiogram, to try to see where the clot storm that is causing all those little ischemic regions might be coming from. So that'll be fun- a valium or two, a little milk of amnesia, swallow the ultrasound head, and it'll suddenly be noon. And then off to work. Just another day...

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

snoopydawg's picture

@usefewersyllables

I’m so happy for you that it’s helping! Was it a branch artery or vein?

I hope they can find where the clots are coming from. This isn’t medical advice, but have you heard of Nikki-something? Maybe someone here can provide what I’m thinking of. It’s supposed to help with clots or keep the blood from clotting. Just something I’ve been seeing people recommending for about 4 years. Nikkitanotase? Hell if I can remember. If I do I’ll shoot you a message.

Welcome to the fuzzy brain club. I’ve had memory problems since 1977. Didn’t understand why for decades until my doctor explained it was caused by my head injury…I used to be self conscious about it, but since understanding it I just shrug it off. Beats being dead.

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

usefewersyllables's picture

@snoopydawg

Yes, it was indeed an embolism in a branch artery. I'm on a whole bunch of different anticoagulants now. I've had to change my Indian name from "Breaks Glasses" to "Hæmophiliac". It makes it really sporty to have hemorrhoids, lemme tellya.

Cardiologist and neurologist are currently at war over the anticoagulants. Cardio wants more of them to try to break up the branch artery occlusion, Neuro wants none of them: they are afraid that I'll pop another vessel in my pint of blue mud and bleed out into my skull. Cardio has even given me some that I have to shoot up into my belly fat once a week, which is a trip in its own right. I forget the name of that one- something like "NotSmack", I think.

At this point, I regard talking to doctors in much the same light as I regard walking a male dog. They all have to lift their legs and put their mark over the top of all the marks from the dogs (and doctors) who have peed there before them...

Okay, after writing that last bit, I'm changing my Indian name again. It is now "Hæmophiliac Fire Hydrant". This "getting old" thing really is getting old- but it does beat the alternative. (;-)

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables That time I told the dr. what to test me for, in addition to what she insisted on testing me for, showed I was right, she was dead wrong.
She fired me. She practically threw my tests results at me.
Heh...

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

usefewersyllables's picture

@on the cusp

a thesis adviser who did exactly that with me, back during my misspent academic career. Induced a lot of uncertainty in me, that did- so I went off and did my own thing anyway. Fuggem!

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

QMS's picture

@usefewersyllables
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outsmarting the doctors
you know best what the body needs
t'hell with their myopic tests
good luck

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question everything

enhydra lutris's picture

There is a sense in which certainty is the product of magikal thinking. Religions derive from that wellspring. There is some innate drive for apodictic knowledge, but such knowledge must come from tautologies or devine revelations, it cannot have an empirical component. (PS: don't go there)

We all know the uncertainty of an unknowable future, the uncertainty of the truth of the utterances of government officials, gossips and others, and the like, but, if we aren't focused on the epistemological issue, we tend to think of such things as somehow aberrant. They are not. There is global uncertainty at the quantum level and probabilistic uncertainty at the macro level. If I set irrefutability at the definition of certainty and set myself that goal I wind up trapped in solipcism. I can only speak with certainty about the immediately perceived reality and the admitted personal projections based thereon. (Live with it, there isn't really any other option)

Descartes, FWIW, cheated, his "cogito" was based on a sneaky little bit of Deus ex machina, a presumed god who was, furthermore not a trickster but some benign supernatural overlord who would not permit Descartes to err or fool himself. Lacking this magikal being he can only arrive at some endless regress of thinking that he thinks and thinking that he thinks that he is. A certain group of existentialists get past this by a "leap of faith" or "leap to faith" as the case may be, but it is both more honest and more rigorous to simply step up to the plate and knowingly assert "I AM!" and get on with it.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

QMS's picture

@enhydra lutris
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of the issues, leaping faiths and all
will have to re-read this a few times to
get the mind wrapped around the concepts

bwango

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enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

QMS's picture

.
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Russian Missile Jets Carry Out Flight Near Alaskan Coast
also
Two Russian Tu-95 Strategic Missile Carriers Fly Over Sea of Japan

Wonder if Palin can see the show from her back porch?

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question everything

although I am uncertain if my well-wish for you can be accomplished. I certainly tried.
I thrive in a profession that is based upon uncertainty. You never know the outcome of any hearing, ruling, or trial. The biggest challenge is to get that reality clearly understood by the client/litigant.
The only certainty in history is that war profiteers are gonna make profits perpetually.
Very cool OT, friend!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

QMS's picture

@on the cusp
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arguing a point of law ad nauseam
rhymes with customer agreements
written in microprint leaving the door of
uncertainty wide open .. or is that an
interpretation of the definition of 'is'?

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mimi's picture

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QMS's picture

@mimi
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trying to transform uncertainty
into a potentially positive force
for change

cheers

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QMS's picture

with Mr. Tractor, picking up tons of leaves and sticks
making piles at the base of the trees for now
snow is coming this weekend

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snoopydawg's picture

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Shitlibs have finally figured out that democrats don’t give a rat’s ass about their base.

Turns out it’s really the Democrats who are the party of “Fuck you, I got mine.”

Pelosi, Schumer et al, are contemptible beyond words.

They're too busy "keeping their powder dry", focusing on the really important stuff like how to get people to keep donating.

Dem leadership is just as culpable for being beholden to the same forces of money for power. How else can one explain being in congress as a “career”? It wasn’t supposed to be that way. Yet the American public continues to vote for people that don’t represent them, pursue power and fortune, and succumb to the siren song of both when in Washington.

Well except the one who always blames the voters for democrats losses or not representing them.

Worry about the one in the mirror first.

Connelly who Pelosi powered into the cabinet position over AoC is a slimy piece of work. I’ll try to find the tweet on his sliminess.

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

IMG_6581.png

I heard a few years ago that the people who head committees are picked by the companies that the committee is supposed to be overseeing. Looks like this confirms it.

Infuriates me that people just post a screenshot and don’t post a link.

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt