Or you misunderstood the context of expressing my limited understanding of our experience.

I was not questioning why you claimed what you did. Claiming what minds are is another matter. Literally.

I am not claiming what returns or not in the frame of some future {maybe} possible world. My life dissolves before my eyes.

On the other hand, your last statement is a declaration of fact that is beyond yours or my experience.

That's not what this AP article indicates. It's a voluntary buy-out that's been offered, although $25,000 is chump change for a buy-out. But if someone was going to change jobs anyway, it might be tempting. — frank

And if someone was planning to work in this field of research for their entire career, hearing:

landing in their inboxes days before agency heads are due to offer plans for shrinking their workforces. — AP

is tantamount to saying:

"Take this chump change or leave with nothing."

You can't read the same book twice if it has been erased before the second reading. — Nils Loc

That is the kind of oblivion that I fear.

It applies to memory of information and events but most keenly to my life as homo faber. I have learned a number of trades and there is always a period of disconnection when I have been away too long.

When the art returns, it is like coming back to a forgotten life. The ability frees me from numb ineffectual gestures made in dreams against imagined opponents.

But Boris, what about Moose and Squirrel?

Can't wait to read the review. There is mounting skepticism, however, emerging from such claims being made:

The Trump administration has given almost no details on which aid and development efforts abroad it spared as it mass-emailed contract terminations to aid groups and other USAID partners by the thousands within days earlier this month. The rapid pace, and the steps skipped in ending contracts, left USAID supporters challenging whether any actual program-by-program reviews had taken place. — AP

Rubio's statement about 'consulting with Congress' is odd:

“In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18% of programs we are keeping ... to be administered more effectively under the State Department,” he said. Democratic lawmakers and others call the shutdown of congressionally-funded programs illegal, saying such a move requires Congress’ approval. — ibid.

The way such consultation worked previously is that the Inspector General reported to Congressional committees. Here is last year's report on: Fraud and Abuse in USAID.

Rubio's statement sounds like a reversal of who is advising who.

Donald Trump doesn't want to control any markets, in fact he just gutted regulations that were put in place after 2009. — frank

The trade wars Trump is kicking off are an attempt at controlling markets. They are a sharp departure from the "Neo-liberalism" that touted the benefits of unfettered capitalism.

The need for regulation is not only to protect the public from financial and environmental harm. The rules place the competing companies on a level playing field where some do not gain advantage by doing bad things. A lawless future combined with massive tax cuts will make the crony capitalism of the 19nth century look quaint.

Okay. I will try to stay with it.

how swifty the conversation moves on to something easier to circumscribe.

I prefer the original topic about impending death.

I'm not sure if you're being serious. — Wayfarer

The precursor to the 'materialistic' age was people saying they knew what your deal would be after you died.

Luther said no human could be involved with deciding that outcome. That question regarding human authority led to others.

So, pretty serious about the afterlife question.

In Western culture there is no such belief, instead it is thought that living beings are aggregates of material elements which are born as a consequence of physical processes which cease when those comprising physical elements disperse at death. It is a view seems intuitively obvious when viewed ‘from the outside’ or from a third-person or scientific perspective. However from the ‘eastern’ viewpoint it is a nihilistic attitude. — Wayfarer

What about those centuries when you could change your prospects in the afterlife by getting with the winning team?

There is a large distance to travel from visiting Hades to get playbacks from souls by pouring blood into their cups and the descent and ascent of a particular soul as described by Plotinus. The arguments of authority from the latter have had much to do with the secular as such.

The outcomes of the effort to dismantle civil service are now changing the lives of my friends and family. From the dissolution of pensions to suddenly having careers arbitrarily negated, some of the hardest working people I know are being kicked to the curb.

The delight taken in their trouble will be remembered.

Looking at the table of contents, It does not seem to challenge Heidegger's claim that Nietzsche produced the last metaphysic.

A bit of text toward clarification upon that topic would be appreciated.

Edit to Add: Pardon my question. It is too off-topic.

Thinking about the gaps in my life

I will look for it.

John Sallis refers to that text in his Verge of Philosophy, saying:

My discussions with Jacques Derrida about the khora go back to 1982-83. At that time he gave me a copy of the typescript of his text Khora, which appeared in print only in 1987. This generous gift was not entirely unsolicited, as our mutual interest in the Timaeus had, more than once, come up in conversations that year in Paris.

Many years later, referring to our dialogue, he wrote that the Timaeus is "a text which we both feel possesses an implosive power which it keeps in reserve." It is not of course a matter only of the single word. Derrida insists on contextualization; he stresses that the development of a concept, indeed its very delimitation, requires, not mere designation, but inscription within an extended discourse, within a text.

Nonetheless, there can be little question but that, within the text of the Timaeus, preeminently within the second of Timaeus' three discourses, the word Khora bears the weight of what is there thought, of what is thought in a thinking so exorbitant that what is there thought can no longer even be called-except very improperly-a concept. This word, if it be a word in this context, is the fuse that would have set off-and that now again could be made to set off-the implosion of the dyadic structure of intelligible and sensible that otherwise Platonism would be taken to have bequeathed to the entire history of metaphysics. This no doubt is the implosive power Derrida had in mind. — John Sallis, The Verge of Philosophy, Chapter 3

jorndoe is correct in that the 'window' is described in this way:

The Overton Window is a model of policy change, and Joe was the first one to articulate it to me. In his view, ideas become policy only after they move from being unthinkable notions that cannot become law to becoming popular ideas that elected officials are eager to ratify into law. This can take days, or decades. The purpose of a think tank, and other “secondhand dealers in ideas” to use F. A. Hayek’s term, is to make the case for ideas that are politically impossible until they become politically inevitable. A window of public opinion shifts to surround some ideas and to leave others behind. Think tank research, analysis, testing and debate can shift this window. — J. Lehman

But your coworkers dismissal of your dismay is also a normalization of rhetoric that was previously considered unacceptable.

Southern states are the natural home of states rights, but a liberal northern state might start thinking about states rights if a liberal northern ox is gored by the feds. — BC

Maybe so.

Understood about the importance of early education. My thinking is if the Federal dough is no longer going to be supporting that then what? All the "states rights" stuff is what?

Look up the Overton Window and see how what is repulsive at one time becomes "normal" in another.

Your coworker is pushing you out of the conversation because they are confident about their location within.

Does anyone have any idea whether this tidal wave of shit is malice done incompetently or incompetence done maliciously? — fdrake

No need to choose. It is a race against time. Rob the store with electric wheelbarrows before the local cops arrive.

Who or what are you quoting from? It is not in the graph page you posted.

I get the idea that supporting particular programs in very poor areas is not going to turn them into throbbing centers of opportunity, but they do help some people. The Project 2025 idea of States deciding who will be helped inclines me to cut out the money altogether. In for a penny, in for a pound of futility.

Edit to add: You were not quoting but speaking for yourself?

I complained before about the necessity of bringing a point of view to reading Plato. Even in the original, one can't tell whether a speech or argument is actually Plato's belief or just that of the dramatic speaker in the dialogue. Is the receptacle part of Plato's overall scheme or is it a tall tale from the Pythagorean sophist Timaeus? When it is emphasized as likely, is likely to be taken positively or negatively? — magritte

Those are good questions. I think there is a relationship between Timaeus and the Sophist in this regard. The Stranger brings into question the absolute separation of Being and Becoming put forward in the Timaeus. But the contrast does not resolve as one ground closer to the truth than another. That is what made Cornford's head explode.

Yes, a certain number of us quote freely from it at work.

In European versus Global news, the U.S. decision to cut off Intelligence support for Ukraine is answered by Macron announcing he will pick up the slack. Those are some large boots to fill.

At the same time the Trump Movement seems hell bent on shrinking the size of those boots:

Inside U.S. spy agencies, workers fear a cataclysmic Trump cull

The Pentagon this week is expected to begin firing up to 5,400 probationary employees, as it culls its ranks. The CIA also has started to dismiss some probationary workers, a spokeswoman said. About 80 people have been let go, said one former officer, who like other current and former officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals for speaking out or because they work in sensitive jobs.

“Work is next to impossible right now,” said the analyst, who is still waiting to learn his fate. “Morale is through the floor.” — WPost

It looks like the plan to shut down the Department of Education is going forward. It was funny to hear the T complain about U.S. school rankings during the State of the Union address when he has already killed the means of knowing what those numbers are (as I reported earlier.),

There has been talk of moving some of the functions of DOE to other agencies. Project Management has not been a hallmark of the Administration so far. The thought so far seems to fire everybody who used to do X and dump it into the inboxes of people with no experience of the programs.

There is the plan to take Federal dough but change its vector:

During his campaign, Trump called for shifting those functions to the states. He has not offered details on how the agency’s core functions of sending federal money to local districts and schools would be handled.

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a sweeping proposal outlining a far-right vision for the country, offered a blueprint. It suggested sending oversight of programs for kids with disabilities and low-income children first to the Department of Health and Human Services, before eventually phasing out the funding and converting it to no-strings-attached grants to states. — AP

Where did you read that?

Pam Bondi ends FBI effort to combat foreign influence in U.S. politics — jorndoe

That, combined with other terminations of intelligence gathering along with the attempts to delete data in each department points to a willingness for invisibility and silence.

is faith an emotion or a thought? What if it is neither — Gregory

What if it is both?

are the purpose of koans to bring out faith? — Gregory

By this measure, it sounds like you understand what faith is.

when Muslim scholars of old had the two-truth position, is this a dialectical form of faith? — Gregory

I think I know what you are saying but please provide your favorite example of such a thing.

is creativity faith? — Gregory

Or is it doubt?

) is courage faith? — Gregory

It can be described that way. But most of us experience it as a willingness to fight in bad circumstances. Perhaps you are referring to the willingness to suffer harm rather than fight. That decision is pretty darn courageous. I will give you that.

Finally, why do Christians argue whether faith must have hope and love in order to cause salvation? Are not those three things always intertwined together? — Gregory

Some views of love are based upon actually doing stuff rather than having an opinion about doing stuff.

The Founders did not figure on a Legislative Branch no longer jealous of their power.
— Paine

They hadn't come across the tactic of institutional capture. It scrambles all that natural responses to a coup. I believe that Musk and Thiel are from South Africa. Perhaps they learnt it there. — Ludwig V

The specific mechanism of U.S. politics that causes so many Republicans to act so sheepishly is the Primary Process whereby eligible candidates for offices are selected. MAGA voters have been dominating that group for years. There are those who got through despite that dominance, but it is not like they have their own caucus to assemble and criticize the others in their tribe.

I recognize that changes in voting procedures can give a great advantage to a particular group. But it is interesting to me how people with so little connection with those they empower are the principal cause of the existing regime.

The Ukrainians will decide what the fighting is worth. They are the ones who do it.

What others may think of their fortunes will not replace that decision.

It is the U.S. Marshalls who enforce court orders as well as 'contempt of congress' actions.

When a federal court imposes contempt sanctions, the U.S. Marshals Service enforces the order, including arresting persons ordered imprisoned for contempt. The U.S. Marshals Service is an executive branch agency within the Department of Justice. Some commentators have expressed concerns that, if the executive branch chose to defy a court order, it might also seek to prevent the U.S. Marshals from enforcing contempt sanctions. The U.S. Marshals are required by statute to “execute all lawful writs, process, and orders issued under the authority of the United States,” and the President’s pardon power does not apply to civil contempt sanctions. The 2018 review of contempt against the federal government notes that, historically, Presidents have complied with federal court orders and have not directed the U.S. Marshals not to enforce contempt orders. — CRS Reports

In the case of impeachment, Congress has more power than Courts because they can strip away the authority of the President altogether. Any officials who obeyed such a person after that would be committing straight up sedition.

The Founders did not figure on a Legislative Branch no longer jealous of their power.

These GSA cuts undercut the support for the digital platform of Social Security accounts.

That sucks after pretty much having to sign up to maintain contact with what the agency says is the balance of payment.

The National Guard is integrated into the Federal command structure. States have some authority toward mobilization but not an override of Executive decisions.

I take your point regarding the ineffective suction. Further attempts will occur.

The way that Trump described himself and Putin suffering from the same hoax indicates how much more important what happens to him is compared to anyone else. Trump does not understand Putin as an agent independent from himself.

I support your call for more integration in Europe. While you are at it, start diverging from the multinationals who are owning the crap out of the U.S.A.

I will leave the discussion of proxy wars for another day.

I don't want to broadly condemn any approach to reading texts.

I have found much value with starting with the original before reading other reactions. It makes it more of a matter of my perplexity approaching what is said.

My style of notetaking involves noticing connections and divergences that sometimes get picked up by others and sometimes not. Those notes connect me to texts I read decades ago. I still do not know the answer to a lot of those questions.

Alternatively, one could read the actual text.

Every day.

Pretty much what Breitbart News reports.

The part where Trump saw Putin and him as victims of the same plot does tell other nations that flattering Trump won't be enough to get the results in the world they live in.