The first law of thermodynamics states that, simply put, energy cannot be created or destroyed; energy can only be transferred or change form.

Over these past decades, and even so far as throughout the past century, our political energy has come in many forms; however, some of those forms have been suppressed and ultimately converted to other forms of energy.

I used to be cynical, but now I know that our illustrious establishment leaders are only doing what they can for those that need them the most.

First off, relax if you don't know what a Grotesque is. A Grotesque is a chess puzzle wherein White fights with a much smaller force against a much larger and well positioned force. Usually it's an "End-game" problem, after much of the battle has already been fought and the White player is fully expected to lose.

A very empty and sick man has been given power to enough to ensure the extinction of our species. An entire Nation allowed him to have this power. Many in that Nation are foolish enough to excuse themselves because they did not vote for him. It is this level of lack of understanding that made him president.

American workers may be earning less, but they've almost never been more confident.

The human mind is not as flexible as we might like to think. The most obvious place to see this is in the political sphere. Knee jerk responses to frames are the norm, not the exception. The most common place to see this is in the mass media. Political propagandists have known this for centuries.

How much more can we endure?

That should perhaps be the ultimate question that is cemented into America's conscious, and yet it is nothing but a fleeting thought.

As Trump continues with his evisceration of the government, attacking Meals on Wheels to dump 50 extra billion into our corpulent defense budget, we would hope that there would be more concern, more outrage. And yet, the current reality also fixates on the numbing agent of outrage itself.

Yahoo, Apple, Microsoft. More.

Criticism of Trump's anti-transgender maneuver has been swift and vocal.

It's destined to fall on deaf ears, however.

It's ultimately going to come down to the business community to stop it because it's so bad for business.

--Christopher Gergen, Forward Impact

We need to understand what the liberals already know but are unwilling to admit publicly; liberalism is in a deep crisis. The liberal wing of the ruling class has caught itself on the horns of a dilemma.

On the one hand, the Liberals serve the interests of capitalism, in that sense the shift from Keynesian Liberalism to Neoliberalism comes about due to the economic crisis following the demise of Keynesianism due to stagflation in the 1970s.

This election cycle has brought forth the destructive nature of Identity Politics. Instead of Democrats looking at how their morally-compromised, ethically-challenged, corrupt, hawkish, neoliberal candidate lost, they instead have turned towards it is the racist's faults, the misogynist's fault, the white, working class' fault.

As the Democrats dissect the carcass of their failed 2016 election against Donald Trump, many contenders are being brought forward for their horrendous campaign. Of course, many of these ideas are misplaced, misguided, or just outright wrong; however, throughout the campaign and even after, there was a category of lines used against progressives.

Stop being so pure

You purists just need to get behind Hillary

Purity

I have written much about the drastic changes we need to make if we are to survive our self- made crisis. There is no need to point these things out to the water protectors at Standing Rock. I only wonder if the rest of us really understand this.
Today there was a pause in construction announced. This is a victory for all people on the planet. It has significance in many ways. Surely the protection of the water is the obvious one.

I'm writing this after surgery yesterday so I may still be fogged a bit. If so, I like the fog for it helps see things more clearly.

The 2016 election saw Donald Trump win against Hillary Clinton with an unexpected victory, with Trump scoring 306 Electoral College votes compared to Clinton's 232. With that victory however, comes the dissenting cries as Clinton won the popular vote by roughly 2 million votes. This has sparked a wide number of debates, ranging from the issues of democracy, the need to scrap the Electoral College, overturning the Electoral College, illegitimate wins, and more.

Quick hit.

This is all over the internet and being discussed. I'll give it the Big Al angle.

This is just one person in one place, but it's interesting how it played out and how it's being played in the media. Most are calling it a racist rant and siding with the black employees while some are defending the white woman.

Thank you to LaFeminista for inspiring this blog post.