Goodby Eric Greitens!

     After a few months of negotiated compromise constraining his criminal exposure, the Missouri Governor resigned, of course claiming the high ground even as he retreated.  His was a short stay after winning a decisive election victory in gun fanatic Missouri by a campaign centered around showing him firing various high powered military armaments. 

     In finality, it is somewhat sad.  He was young, handsome, a Rhodes Scholar, a Navy Seal, a Veterans Advocate, a family man and a Christian.  But alas, these attributes would not prevail...you see he was foremost a REPUBLICAN!  #Eric Greitens

Dispositional Mindfulness

     Recently I read the abstract of a Neuro-Journal paper that I noticed because of the title which was "Dynamic functional connectivity markers of objective trait mindfulness".  The paper, lJulianLimJamesTengAmiyaPatanaikJesiscaTandiStijn A.A.Massarhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.04.056Get rights and content
provides an insight from the authors fmri research that offers a WHY CLUE pointing to my "Nike Factor" obsession.

     I had never heard of High Trait Mindfulness (HTM),  DFC (Dynamic Functional Connectivity or how these states relate to the human DMN (Dynamic Mode Network), a Neuro Research consensus pattern that,  "represents brain areas that are more active during times of rest compared to times of cognitive activity (e.g., the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, inferior parietal lobules, and medial temporal regions)".  Using this baseline, the researchers subdivided a test population according to their natural inclination to maintain activate cognitive focus, and to correlate the spectrum with the participants static/permanent DMN marker. 

     The claimed results showed a strong correlation between mindfulness and how resistant individuals were to shifting from a "task-ready state HTM to the baseline DMN state.  The result, as offered was: "In sum, DFC features robustly distinguish HTM and LTM individuals, and may be useful biological markers for the measurement of dispositional mindfulness."  One more hard science finding pointing to nature and away from nurture as the explanation for the Nike Factor.  Please do not mention this evidence to the "alt-left" as they live on a precipice, both revering science yet advocate "equality of outcome".  If they fall off, we'll be screwed.  Trump will be President forever!

The Nike Factor

     In my life I have seen the Nike Symbol millions of times.  At some level of consciousness, I always think about the correlated motto, "just do it".  At my present, more reflective age, my attention is far too often drawn to wonder about why some people do "just do it" and other people seem to most often  "not just do it".

     In the current polarized culture, the query does not get a lot of attention.  The liberal tribe, (the thinkers) who control the mainstream media, are "identity obsessed" and dare not vere from their "unconstrained equality" platform.  The conservative tribe (the feelers) are so busy abusing everyone not in their tribe that they never stop to reflect on why this strong and increasing divergence exists.

     But it does.  We all see it every day.  We name it a thousand names and pretend it away and/or scheme it to our self advantage.  It will not subside.  It frustrates despots and gnaws at democracies. It is the "Nike Factor"!

Zeno's "Constitutional Crisis"

     According to the enlightened "alfa-humans" nightly contextualizing @MSNBC, we are weekly, and even sometimes daily, getting ever closer to the fear-gripping world crisis that Trump is inevitable going to deliver.  Closer, and closer, but never quite there, it is obvious that we will have only gotten "THERE", when they report that we are "THERE".  Likely, this day will not come.  Half of the population is A-Political, which in today's "on the brink culture" means A-Conscious", and the remaining half are divided at the deepest epistemological level about meaning and values.... but, as it turns out, "everyone" just dearly loves their present lifestyle.  No boat rockers on board.  The A-Conscious people have no idea that they are on a boat, the Trumpers have rationalized that this boat offers the ride of their lives, and the liberals are so timid that they are only able to mildly scare themselves by obsessing about the boat's durability.

     There is of course some chance that Rachel is Right and that the "Great Crisis" will come to past.  A few of the more daring liberal pundits, David Frum, Paul Krugman, etc., seem convinced that "the sooner the better" is better, and are openly fanning the crisis fire.  Most, however, are content to await their next Salvation Event. Currently they are really hoping for the Special Council to deliver a late inning home run.  If they don't get it, well,  they will tearfully shift their hopes to the mid-term elections.  If that fails or it proves hollow, as almost surely it will,  (Trump + DOJ trumps Congress) then they will find some new Lancelot...maybe they will make Michael Avenatti the President in Exile.

     Regardless, no one is going to the mat over bribery, extortion, treason, gun control, racism, misogynic ism, torture, or any other moral aberration.  Nuclear Winter, Weaponized Ebola, Extreme Ecology...those are another matter. #MSNBC

Widespread "rumpelstiltskin syndrome"

     If there was available from Amazon a kit from which a purchaser could assemble a machine that would turn McDonald French Fries into genuine "gold bars"..... but on the box was printed a warning that the assembly time was approximately 14 hours and that further, upon successful assembly, the average practice time to reach standard performance was an additional 16 hours..........then, almost everyone I know would toss the unopened box into their car trunk and forget about the episode before they reached the next drive-thru window.