AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION: Central Division Meeting: The Teaching Hub.

Dear DAVID,   Have you registered for the 2020 Central Division meeting, February 26–29 in Chicago, IL? If not, take a moment to register online now! This year’s meeting will feature the popular Teaching Hub, a two-day series of workshops and sessions that address the teaching of philosophy at all levels. The Teaching Hub, sponsored by the APA and the American Association of Philosophy Teachers, will run from Thursday, February 27, through Friday, February 28, 2020. Central Division meeting registrants are invited to attend any or all of the sessions. The 2020 Central Meeting Teaching Hub will include the following sessions (visit the APA website for more details): Bringing Research and Pedagogy Together in the Classroom AAPT Workshop: Best Practices Graduate Voices in Teaching Philosophy Teaching Introductory Courses Without Canonical Texts Teaching Core Texts: Teaching the Social Contract and Its Critics through In-Class Simulations Using Pre-College Philosophy to Engage with Controversial Subjects and Difficult Conversations Navigating Working Conditions as Philosophy Teachers Students Teaching Teachers: What Do Teachers Need to Know? Workshop on Curricular Development: Adding Asian Philosophy to Your Existing Course Syllabus Closing Reception: Undergraduate Research and Faculty SoTL Poster Session Register online now for the 2020 Central Division meeting! Early bird registration rates ($125 for APA members, $240 for non-members, and $40 for student members) are available until February 12. Online registration will be unavailable February 13 through February 25, but will reopen on February 26, the first day of the meeting. You can also register at the registration desk on-site at the meeting. Please note: on-site registration rates will be $50 higher than early bird registration for all categories.   If you haven’t already done so, renew your membership for 2019–2020 now to be eligible for the APA member registration rates.   You’ll save an additional $5 on meeting registration if you opt not to receive a paper copy of the program. The meeting program is available online, and our free meeting app for smartphones and tablets also contains the full program. We look forward to seeing you in Chicago!   All the best,   Amy E. Ferrer Executive Director   P.S. Deadline extension: The Palmer House Hilton has extended the deadline for reservations at the APA group rate. The group rate of $169 per night (plus applicable taxes and fees) is now available until February 3. Make your hotel reservations today!

TWITTER NEWS (U.S.) John Bolton's book alleges Trump tied Ukraine aid freeze to the Democratic investigations.

Photo via @CNNPolitics

According to an unpublished manuscript from then-national security adviser John Bolton, President Trump said $391 million in aid to Ukraine should be frozen until Ukrainian officials announced investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, The New York Times first reported on Sunday. Trump responded to the allegations, saying: “If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.”

Republican Senator Mitt Romney told the press on Monday that Bolton's reported revelation would "very likely" sway some of his GOP Senate colleagues to call for Bolton's testimony in the president's ongoing impeachment trial.

REASON AND JUSTICE vs THE DEMAGOGUE AND FASCISM. PART 2.

Continued from part 1...

The following is taken from the STANDING RULES AND PROCEDURES OF THE U.S. SENATE. 
This deals specifically with IMPEACHMENT OF THE U.S. PRESIDENT.

"...And the Presiding Officer on the trial may rule on all questions of evidence including, but not limited to, questions of relevancy, materiality, and redundancy of evidence and incidental questions, which ruling shall stand as the judgment of the Senate, unless some member of the Senate shall ask that a formal vote be taken thereon, in which case it shall be submitted to the Senate for decision without debate; or he may at his option, in the first instance, submit any such question to a vote of the members of the Senate. Upon all such questions the vote shall be taken in accordance with the Standing Rules of the Senate." 

PRESIDING OFFICER ON THE TRIAL- In the case of the U.S. PRESIDENT, THE PRESIDING OFFICER IS THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT. In this case it is JOHN ROBERTS.

In the above,you can also read the following; "...And the Presiding Officer on the trial may rule on all questions of evidence including, but not limited to, questions of relevancy, materiality, and redundancy of evidence and incidental questions, which ruling shall stand as the judgment of the Senate..."

Now, if you were to stop here, CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS job, as the PRESIDING JUDGE, is pretty much the same as in any other COURTROOM.

AH, NO.

"...unless some member of the Senate shall ask that a formal vote be taken thereon, in which case it shall be submitted to the Senate for decision without debate; or he may at his option, in the first instance, submit any such question to a vote of the members of the Senate. Upon all such questions the vote shall be taken in accordance with the Standing Rules of the Senate." 

What does all this mean? That, in what could be the most important TRIAL THAT MOST AMERICANS WILL EVER SEE IN THEIR LIFETIME, EVIDENCE CAN, AND IN THIS CASE QUITE PROBABLY WILL BE, ADMITTED BY...

...MAJORITY RULE. YOU SEE, IF A SENATOR DISAGREES WITH JUSTICE ROBERTS DECISION, HE CAN 
CALL FOR A VOTE, WITH NO DEBATE, WITH THE MAJORITY DECIDING ON WHETHER OR NOT THE DECISION SHOULD BE ADOPTED.

Since the REPUBLICAN PARTY HOLDS A Majority in the Senate, and their sycophantic worship of DONALD TRUMP seems to bind them to protecting him, NO MATTER WHAT, the willingness to sell out the country they took an oath to serve, does not seem to bother many GOP MEMBERS. So, it will be interesting to see how many times his decisions will be overruled.

NOW, COULD THIS IDIOTIC RULE, (AND I DO MEAN THAT LITERALLY), BE CHALLENGED AS UNCONSTITUTIONAL? Yes, but that would require SENATE DEMOCRATS TO ACTUALLY STAND UP TO THE SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF KENTUCKY, (WHO NOW SETS POLICY FOR THE OTHER 49 STATES), BUT THAT WOULD REQUIRE A MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL BACKBONE. IF THEY WERE WILLING TO LET A FRAUDULENT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION GO BY WITHOUT SAYING A WORD, WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN NOW?

GOOD TIMES...GOOD TIMES.