March 09, 2018

326

Wafers-

Now that we have survived the vaccine debates, and have moved on to the dangers of bagged greens, I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Although I'm still on the edge of my seat, waiting for Sarah Palin and Ging Newtrich to emerge from the wings. I tell ya, I really miss those two. At least Rom Mittney is running for Senate, and I can return to my 5-volume study of his basic philosophy. A few of the pages are actually going to have text on them. But then, to my horror, I discovered that Julius La Rosa died 2 years ago. Life is just one big series of deep disappointments.

In any case, I trust this new thread will continue our central project, of documenting The Great Collapse. Watch Trumpi flub an opportunity to establish detente with Kim Jong Haircut. Watch Americans blow each other out of the water. Watch...well, you guys can certainly fill in the blanks.

O&D, amigos-

-mb

197 Comments:

Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21304
"I'd rather have the extreme right wingers than the hypocrites [Obama]. I think that with the right wingers, at least you know where you stand. I mean, what you see is what you get. Donald Trump put an end to the masquerade. And by this I am very grateful to Donald Trump. He at least called the bluff." -Gideon Levy, Haaretz.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21272
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u52Oz-54VYw
"Who are liberal Israelis? There are some liberal Israelis, but the real liberals are much less than those who claim that they are liberals because those who claim that they are central left, by the end of the day, they are the biggest supporters of the occupation."

The I-mafia will one day blacklist this blog? Maybe they have already done.
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21276:Will-Russiagate-Help-the-Israel-Lobby-Censor-Al-Jazeera%3F

5:44 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

MB-

Sad news about Julius La Rosa. Didn't he appear on "The Honeymooners" a couple of times? I can't remember. Anyway, I hope Kim Jong Un gives Trumpo a grand reception w/a military parade, tells him he's a genius, and gives him the greenlight to construct a Pyongyang Trump Tower. Should be a real circus, but much better than thermonuclear war.

Miles

7:00 PM  
Blogger Zarathustra said...

Sorry but I can't take it. Unlike Hedges, who I may criticize as deluded but I can't help liking somehow, I do find Pinker completely revolting.

He's not a turkey. He's a turd with a wig. He's a snake oil salesman from a long line of American snake oil salesman. Several links posted by Wafers here do a very good job at exposing his academic fraudulence. But neither he nor his readers could care less. He's selling Enlightenment-Cola for the liberal, progressive self-righteous imbeciles. At the end of the day, even "cultured" and "educated" people in America that have gone to college know about enlightenment and rationalism as much as the average person in the rest of the world knows of ancient Egyptian religion or philosophy. It sounds exotic and related to the founding fathers of America, so it must be good.

And he loves graphs. What a cheap PowerPoint harlot. There is much more wisdom in brothels than in American universities these days.

7:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@Polecat,

You nailed it with your comment in the last post.

Kanye

8:24 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

@Student--it takes a pretty big person to admit they are wrong, so a big thumbs up for your last reply. I have noticed a bit of "men's rights" sounding rhetoric in some of your posts. Always remember, the biggest problem with American feminists and their male opposition is that they are all AMERICANS. They will never recognize that they have much more in common with each other than any of them do with the assholes who set them at each other's throats and then sit back and laugh as they are then free to rob the nation blind.

Relatedly, one of our nation's leading war criminals complained to CONgress that less than 30% of young adults are now qualified to catch bullets for the cause. Surely we can work hard to get the remainder hooked on opiods and eating Big Macs at every meal so that eventually there won't be anyone left to fight our useless fucking wars.

Also, Americans have become so pathetic that they need a "life coach" to tell them that precious snowflakes who spend their entire childhoods smothered by the helicopter parents and twaddling their stupidfones are less self-reliant upon entering college. “It’s not their fault. They have phones, they use their phones all day long, and so what we’re finding is that instead of solving problems on their own, they quickly reach back out to their parents.” Mommy--the big bad professor TRIGGERED meeeeee!!! I has a sad. :{

10:30 PM  
Blogger Michael Burgess said...

Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:

Apparently Japan's multiple generational family life style has apparently fallen apart and elderly men, living alone, are dying alone and clean up businesses have sprung up to deal with mortal remains and clean-up of their dwellings. I wouldn't be surprised if the United States has a similar situation considering that multi-generational family living has been in decline much longer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/world/wp/2018/01/24/feature/so-many-japanese-people-die-alone-theres-a-whole-industry-devoted-to-cleaning-up-after-them/?utm_term=.86b82a4bea26

10:32 PM  
Anonymous WuduFugel said...

I can't help but share this even though its so dorky: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/127

Its a comic about playing dungeons and dragons with a bunch of famous philosophers. The schopenhauer lines really got me.

11:03 PM  
Blogger Grandma said...

Excellent article posted on the previous thread about Pharma Bro Skrelli. I hope no one mistakes this as a win. It's made clear in the article (and my understanding of justice in this country http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/11/24/why-you-wont-get-your-day-in-court/) that he was convicted of crimes against the investor class, NOT crimes against humanity wherein he deliberately inflated prices of a rare drug.

More evidence of decline, imho. It's perfectly okay to mislead the public, but mislead the investor class? A big no-no. You lose your coveted collectible album! The judge's statement makes this very clear.

Jaywalkers, of course, will be beaten up.

8:13 AM  
Anonymous Aaron Thomas said...

Somehow the media and government can't figure out the real causes of gun violence. They blamed music decades ago, they've blamed depression, and now it's back to video games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Manson%E2%80%93Columbine_High_School_massacre_controversy

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/80-percent-of-mass-shooters-showed-no-interest-in-video-games-researcher-says/

8:19 AM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

Another day in America another shooting. The shooting took place at a home for veterans in California. Four people are dead including the gunman.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43355274

An article on the decline of reading among American adults.

https://www.williamsnews.com/news/2018/feb/20/reading-declining-among-adults-americans/

Paul Craig Roberts argues that unemployment in America is much worse than the official numbers would suggest.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/make-believe-america-the-us-is-said-to-have-full-employment-misleading-statistics/5631440

9:05 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Anon-

Sorry, I don't post Anons. You need a real handle.

Michael-

Pls only 1 post every 24 hrs, thanks.

Zar-

Once again: in America, even the smart people are dumb.

Meanwhile: can you imagine this happening in the US?:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/03/09/nearly-800-quebec-doctors-demand-their-pay-raises-go-nurses-improving-healthcare?utm_term=Nearly%20800%20Quebec%20Doctors%20Demand%20Their%20Pay%20Raises%20Go%20To%20Nurses%2C%20Improving%20Healthcare%20Overall&utm_campaign=News%20%2526%20Views%20%7C%20%20Time%20to%20End%20%27Worst%20Humanitarian%20Crisis%20on%20the%20Planet%27&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email&cm_mmc=Act-On%20Software-_-email-_-News%20%2526%20Views%20%7C%20%20Time%20to%20End%20%27Worst%20Humanitarian%20Crisis%20on%20the%20Planet%27-_-Nearly%20800%20Quebec%20Doctors%20Demand%20Their%20Pay%20Raises%20Go%20To%20Nurses%2C%20Improving%20Healthcare%20Overall

mb

10:56 AM  
Blogger Sarasvati said...

Cel-Ray, Morris: What I should’ve focused on in my comment to Zar was that he, perhaps unwittingly, was supporting the implementation of a police state by advocating for mandatory vaccinations. Ergo, I used the vaccine safety issue as an example of what could be wrong with that approach. My bad…apologies.

The government obviously thinks of us as cannon fodder. It absolutely amazes me that anyone can still believe, in spite of the evidence right before their eyes, that our government, and its propaganda arm, the MSM, are to be trusted or have our best interests at heart. When it comes to a choice between the safety and well being of Americans or corporate profits, profit will win every time and they’ll all lie to cover up their malfeasance….anyone with two brain cells to rub together realizes this. Of course, most Americans won’t qualify under these guidelines.

Never believe that the current paradigm is correct. Do your research folks, and make your own decisions.

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” Confucius



12:33 PM  
Anonymous Hooper said...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/theres-no-surefire-solution-to-ending-mass-shootings

Progs will never get it

1:11 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

A new piece in SALON on just what a poorly educated Moron Pinker is...

https://www.salon.com/2018/03/10/enlightenment-now-steven-pinkers-grand-apology-for-capitalism-tk/

2:32 PM  
Anonymous Dill Pickle said...

MB, Miles, polecat,

Many thanks, guys, for your responses. I've already read some of John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg.

MB, you are right - hardly any evidence Jesus even existed. Earliest historical mention of Jesus related to James, his brother, in Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews (Book 20, Chapter 9, 1) and he could have been referring to a certain Jacob that just happened the brother of the Yesuah (= Jesus) whose ossuary was found in the Talipot tomb I mentioned in the last post.

Well I'll have to keep a lookout for David Strauss...

3:48 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

The West : The Sacred and the Profane are essentially separate entities. -Mircea Eliade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v8Kf6vYYeY
https://twitter.com/lkrauss1/status/937946586931331072?lang=en

The East : Forced separation of the Buddha from the Zorba creates psychosis. -OSHO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsyVpN-fOUA
http://www.mahavidya.ca/2017/12/27/lila-in-hinduism/

Either way, the game is rigged and at its basic is your survival instincts at play while you're being played by life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kY1p4vQJlc

5:40 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Bill Hicks - I'm not sure what you mean by "right men's activist rhetoric"? You're saying that I support men's right's movement? Because I don't, it's actually the complete opposite. But the men in America are clearly fucked up, I'm just trying to do my best at figuring out what exactly is the source of their neuroticism, but like you said though, it's just America.

Zarathustra - I agree with you, Pinker is a big man, he should be able to take criticism and he has tons of people supporting him, doesn't need our sympathy. But I think Jordan Peterson is even worst. "Be a hero(AKA hustler), America is the greatest country on earth, capitalism is the greatest thing ever, smth about Christianity and civilization, anyone who disagrees with me is a cultural marxist." At least Pinker claims to be a centrist, Peterson is just an ideologue. And the worst part is that the American people can't see this, I wrote a negative removed on his book "Maps of Meaning" and it was removed because it was reported so much. This country is just soooo right wing, hating on leftists is almost a waste of time, they will never have a voice anyway.

Esca - I disagree with the quote about Trump being better than Obama. I think some people think this to be the case because they think it will make rightwing Americans see that they were wrong and elect someone better next time. But that's not gonna be Trump's effect, all he did is move the country more to the right. The American people knew exactly who Trump was when he was elected and there is a good chance he will be reelected again. Like George Carlin said, this is a full of shit country. Don't expect Americans to suddenly realize how wrong and change.

8:28 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

@Esca--the "liberal Israelis" are actually quite similar to the "liberal Americans" who only care about injustice when it happens to people like them. Hence their outrage at the recent Florida school shooting and their (by and large) collective yawn at the shooting down of unarmed black teenagers when Obarfa was president. Same dynamic--different douchebags.

@Michael Burgess--that's been happening in America for a long time, the difference here is that whatever ghouls take over the property have to clean up the mess. Would have happened here recently in my own neighborhood except that the older woman in question was mentally ill and had been harassing the neighbors for years. When she finally became so paranoid that he locked herself inside and stopped paying her bills, they did a welfare check and found her near death in her home surrounded by mountains of fly encrusted garbage. Took the cleaners two weeks to clean up what must have been a godawful mess before the homeowners association fixed the place up and sold it.

@Grandma--Skrelli is this decade's Bernie Madoff in that both not only ripped off the investor class, but gave TPTB a hated fall guy they could take out to make it look like they are serious about policing the financial system. Skrelli was such a colossal douchebag that he was too stupid to see how he was setting himself up.

11:23 PM  
Anonymous Schmucko said...

I thought you might be interested in this interactive explicator of Jewish food, including, of course, a special page on pastrami. As my handle may indicate I am also a M.o.T. (and either a Schmuck or self-deprecating.)

Having run afoul of the 24 hour rule my last post, let me again apologize for my lack of capitalization of Wafer; I'd earlier thought to spell it WAFer given it is an abbreviation for Why America Failed, but that didn't look right.

One could say I'm a "recovering" progressive, who sees sees every day in Trumpi that something's not right, maybe never has been, in America. I think there's got to be something more to feminism and other identity movements in the academic left than is usually credited. NY Times piles on editorials whining about college kids these days, but it's hysterical (even decrying a fake "antifa" tweet) and out of proportion. These "marginalized" identities are the prey in a predatory system.

The real danger I think is that these movements get co-opted. Some multinational hires a few highly placed under-represented minorities and women to burnish their image and hopes that everyone forgets what costs they pass on to the commons and lobby the government to overlook.

4:18 AM  
Anonymous P Sloan said...

Black Panther is the best superhero movie I've seen since Dark Knight, and very beautiful. But, avoiding spoilers, I left the theater feeling like Chekhov's gun remained somewhat loaded. I think the film asked questions in the second act the third wasn't prepared to answer.

"Killmonger wants to use Wakanda’s weapons to stop the suffering of Black people globally, and we, the audience, are manipulated into rooting against this because we live in an ideology in which nonviolence is always expected of Black people no matter what."

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a18241993/black-panther-review-politics-killmonger/

9:14 AM  
Anonymous Ptolemy said...

Reading an interesting study on extended emotions, found it interesting that in the West we have the diagnosis of depression. Where in most other countries the closest equivalent diagnosisis something like love sickness.

Immediately thought of MB's diagnosis of the entire country, really, a Land of the Love Sick

There is no love here. Only depression

10:52 AM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

NPR is beyond self-parody at this point.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/639/in-dog-we-trust

A little contrast- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09smh59

If theres one good thing about the internet, at least it will expose self-righteous American cultural products.

4:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Trumpi/Kim Jong Haircut summit transcript:

Trump: Nice to see you. You need to totally end your nuclear program right now, dismantle it completely, and let us verify that you have.
KJH: You need to hold no more military exercises and remove your troops from the South.
Trump: You first.
KJH: No, you first.
Trump: No, you first!
KJH: NO YOU FIRST!
Trump: I can't work with this guy!
KJH: I will drown America in a sea of fire and ash!
Trump: Our weapons are bigger and better!
KJH: I brought my suitcase!
Trump: I brought mine too! Let's see whose works!

THUS CONCLUDES IDIOT SPECIES HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS

5:08 PM  
Blogger Rosegarden said...

Thanks to Zen Citizen for recommending “The Hacking of the American Mind.” Zen, you were correct that Mr. Lustig has a few suggestions to protect yourself. (I understand that some of these are hard to do considering some of the crazy Americans are your relatives.) The first is Connect with religion, social support, and conversation. By religion he means charitable works, not incense. The second is Contribute by volunteering. The third is to Cope by getting sleep and exercising. The last is my favorite – Cook - for yourself, family and friends. He means from scratch. If you can only microwave and get take out, then you have no control over your body. He recommends more fish, vegetables, and legumes. Cut way back on the sugar and salt. I want to cook up a batch of keema mutter with ground meat from the farm down the road. Then a big bowl of Basmati rice with bay leaves and cumin seeds. Any dal with garam masala. I love the smell in the kitchen when the spices hit the hot oil! A side of creamy yogurt with shredded cucumber and hot red pepper. And for dessert a mixed fruit cup with mango and a hint of mint from my herb garden.

7:32 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

pole...

Too long, cdn't run it. Pls, get with the program already.

mb

9:49 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

Now they’re riding farm animals into establishments!

Miami Beach club's stunt involving horse, bikini-clad woman sparks outcry, probe...


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/miami-beach-mokai-club-closed-horse-stunt/


https://www.rt.com/usa/420978-miami-horse-nightclub-video/

10:04 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

P Sloan - I stopped watching super hero movies a long time ago. Check out this article by Zizek on Black Panther. The argument is that super heroes are really the villains preventing any change to the establishment and the villains are the real heroes who actually are willing to put their life on the line for a change. On the dark night rises, he says,

"Bane is the official villain, there are indications that he, much more than Batman himself, is the film’s authentic hero distorted as its villain: he is ready to sacrifice his life for his love, ready to risk everything for what he perceives as injustice, and this basic fact is occluded by superficial and rather ridiculous signs of destructive evil."

I just abhor super hero movies, not only are they lazy writing, but also propaganda, whether on purpose or accidental. Americans now literally believe in super heroes. For instance, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, etc. They're not just capitalists to Americans, oh no, they are super genius visionaries, "making the world a better place."

10:27 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

@Schmucko--"liberal" institutions like the NYT will always bash the real left even before they condemn conservatives for same reason that it was mostly Democratic mayors who sicced their thug cops on the Occupy protesters while they barely raised a peep of protest. The real left--that being those few leftists who understand that class warfare is the real issue and not identity politics--is viewed by liberals to be a much bigger threat to their perquisites. They'd rather sail in the first class section of the Titanic than side with the steerage passengers to try overthrow the captain and try to prevent it from hitting the iceberg. The NYT whining about the college kids is pure crocodile tears. As long as the idiot Antifa douchebags are running around looking for Nazis to punch, their energies are being safely channeled away from taking on Wall Street and corporate America and their six and seven figure salaries are safe.

Meanwhile, another douchebauguette NYT columnist actually admitted to carrying around her version of Linus Van Pelt's security blanket: "It’s easy to look at what’s happening in Washington DC and despair. That’s why I carry a little plastic Obama doll in my purse. I pull him out every now and then to remind myself that the United States had a progressive, African American president until very recently. Some people find this strange, but you have to take comfort where you can find it in Donald Trump’s America." Strange is not the right word--fucking batshit insane is more like it.

11:48 PM  
Anonymous SETI said...

War is based on deception, control all competition e.g. de-industrialization. America has ceased in being a nation particularly when all you get is gov/media/educational noise. A bloodline database could plot who works for who. I can't find out what happened to Muckety.com the best political connection bloodline mapping machine.

NPR, Ted Talks, fluff, you can't swing a dead Pinker without hitting a progressive douchebag. It's all yoga for Ebola - mind tormenting BS. Pinker is Kenny G.

Russia-Korea-gate seems like more subversion from IsReally controlling the state dept, press, entertainment, W. Street even all domestic security cams. The criminal Balfour genetic expansion may lose to Muslims and Chinese outbreeding everyone. Extortionary mass migrations coupled with fake lawless multi-culturalism is state sponsored subversion. Isreally, Russia, China, are not multi-cultural. US global Shock Doctrines may have been part of a larger longer term plan.

3:43 AM  
Anonymous Dan said...

Greetings to all.
Just back from a lovely month to the Philippines and my favorite country, Thailand. So great to be in such life affirming countries rather than back in this death spiral or what I like to characterize as "the biggest joke that ever hit the big time." Doctor, I had a similar experience as you in Thailand. I fell off a bicycle trying to dodge a motorcycle. I felt nearly the entire city of Bangkok assisted me in getting up and gathering some fruit and vegetables I had just purchased.
In the Philippines I attended my friend's mother's 90th birthday party. She comes from a family of 10 siblings. During the party all ten sang "Side be Side" to their mother (I'll send you the video to your E-mail if you like, doctor). I was so moved almost to the point of tears. I could only think of the near impossibility of say a Jewish family in the US with 10 siblings singing since there would be more than likely 2 or 3 siblings not speaking to each other or to their parents, there would be strong undercurrents of greed, resentments, jealousy,simering hatreds, and strong political differences. One or two might be fabulously wealthy but refuse to help a brother or sister who is struggling. And, of course, everyone would be bragging about something whereas this Philippine family displayed not a hint of one upmanship. In addition, one brother had suffered a terrible fall leaving him paralyzed but through religious faith had made a miraculous recovery. He told his story at the party and not one of the grandchildren did tech-crap throughout his speech. The chances of this happening in the US would be, as you say, negative infinity. When I showed my 93 year old mother the video of the siblings singing all she could say is why anyone from the Philippines would want to come here. Is there an age limit to being a Wafer?

7:06 AM  
Anonymous Liv said...

Only little more than 2 weeks left in this pathetic country before our move to Nicaragua. I cannot wait any longer. Always when we tell anyone we are moving to Nicaragua, they look terrified and call us irresponsible and selfish parents to take our daughter to the third world country where is or was war( they do not even know when the revolution was), claiming that only the US is still the best for our daughter's future meaning the best university etc. How they can be so limited and absolutely stupid? People do not see what is going on in this country? But then I realized, in the States are 2 groups of people. The first one is the above described group still believing US is the "Numero Uno". In the second group are those who believe that if Trump will be gone, everything is going to be "peachy and perfect" again. They don't understand that Trump is not at fault here. He is just the result or another symptom of this crooked society. The opioids epidemics, gun shootings, depression, and consumerism was here far more than a year. Someone mentioned here in earlier post that kids should socialize with other kids. It is true but not realistic in US. Why? Because parents overschedule kids with futile activities...Our neighbor's kid comes to us to play for one hour, only. That is the limit and her watch will alarm to let her know when the time is up. Pathetic.

8:54 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Liv...

Hard yellow rain gonna fall (on Bethesda).

Dan...

Welcome home, or maybe I shd say 'home'. No age limit for Wafers. Pls send video. BTW, Jews don't have a monopoly on being nasty (Americans do, however).

seti...

In future, maybe stick to one topic and provide evidence for it. That's what Wafers do (ideally). Anyone can have an opinion, after all.

Bill...

New acronym: FBI, Fucking Batshit Insane. What a turkette.

mb

9:37 AM  
Anonymous Nigel said...

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/mar/11/star-gazing-why-millennials-are-turning-to-astrology

This generation is looking to the stars.

Kind of silly, I know, but back in your Reenchantment and CTOS research days, in a time when maybe it was more thrilling than now to get into readings in the alchemical literature etc, did you ever find any interesting writing on the history or workings of astrology? Kind of like Spinoza had a keenness for alchemy.

~Nigel

1:21 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

Mutually satisfying blojob. Drooling with adulations. Man with 9 doctorates, mi amigos!!
https://video.salon.com/m/ABcumSaS/the-downside-of-apocalyptic-thinking
Any wonder why spineless liberals are loathed more than retard conservatives?
http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-nws-lehigh-trump-no-action-20180302-story.html

Wanna see a 'hair on fire' interview? Finally, finally the US apologized for invading Iraq!! 'Americans will always do the right thing'.
https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/upfront/2018/03/time-apologised-invading-iraq-180309093248027.html
Don Berman, Isn't Mark Kimmitt in the above Aljazeera flub a quintessential rep of American psyche? Is saying sorry disgraceful?
https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/10/28/241295755/a-churchill-quote-that-u-s-politicians-will-never-surrender

1:52 PM  
Anonymous Francois said...

The New York Time’s Jill Abramson needs to shove that plastic doll right up her ass.

3:56 PM  
Anonymous Erroneous Bosch said...

I've been a devoted Newt-watcher since 2012, so I'll bite. It boggles the mind that Newt isn't sipping espresso on Roman piazzas as a day job, seeing as his wife was appointed ambassador to the Holy See. That would make too much sense, of course, so he's still out there contributing to Fox News.

However, he also hosts an alternate history show on the facebook, called 'What If? History That Could Have Been?', which is both unwatchable and impossible to stop watching at the same time. It's a smorgasbord of puerile alt-history speculation; Gingrich is a true nerd, albeit a college freshman. The latest episode? What if the Soviet Union had beaten the US to the moon?

https://www.facebook.com/whatifhistorywithnewt/

Now I am not above a little alt-history speculation myself, and I would like to ask the Sage and Wafers: what if America had failed first? And, on a more serious note: have you written on the subject of the Soviet Union? If so, where?

4:04 PM  
Blogger Michael Burgess said...

Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:

Sorry about submitting a second comment within 24 hours - I work on weekends and posted a second comment without thinking about the 24 hour pause. Anyway Richard Heinberg goes into some detail dealing with the economics and limited viability of fracked oil and shale oil. He also discusses the US political and economic decline.

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-03-07/getting-past-trump-this-is-how-democracies-die-part-1/?utm_source=EHN&utm_campaign=48d84b00e7-Science_saturday&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8573f35474-48d84b00e7-99046677

James Howard Kunstler comments on a "60 Minutes" interview with Betsy DeVos and basically concludes the present educational system cannot be saved and much has seriously gone wrong with it.

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/school-daze/#more-9026'

4:07 PM  
Anonymous chunkyD said...

Dr. Berman,

I came across one of your talks from 2006 on Youtube, and found it interesting how pissed off a few members of your audience got because you refused to provide a prescriptive to your critique. Do you get this sort of hostility a lot?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBU9Soiwg8E

5:50 PM  
Anonymous JUS said...

Hi MB and Wafers,

This is a really good article on the opioid addiction growing in our country. It's utterly tragic what is going on. I think it is more proof of not only our rapid decline which is speeding up, but more proof that our deepest crisis is a spiritual one. Not necessarily religious but the crisis of the individual that needs rescuing and reintegrated into the community, family and the planet. But also reintegration with the self. And I'm not just talking about the addicts. We are so lost on so many levels.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/02/americas-opioid-epidemic.html

Julie

6:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Check this out Wafers. The first bit at least. Not sure how the two other parts fit in the article!
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/sullivan-things-are-better-than-ever-why-are-we-miserable.html

"Which is to say that both Pinker and Deneen are right, but Deneen is deeper. Deneen sees paradox in human life, tragedy even; he respects the wisdom of the aeons that Pinker is simply relieved we have left behind; and he has a perspective that Pinker — despite his vast erudition and intelligence — doesn’t seem to grasp."

Kanye

6:53 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

Student of WAFERISM--there are only 2 options.

1. Internal immigration
2. Emigration

The rest is mental masturbation.

7:22 PM  
Blogger Zarathustra said...

Student, I agree. Superhero movies are just wrong. It may sound a bit cliched, but they are fascist propaganda. There are no superheroes in real life. However, making people admire them makes them ready to believe that somebody can make America great again, for example. Watch the Marx Brothers instead (or as detox), it'll also have you in stitches.

7:32 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

SETI - Check out this article on how the families in Europe 700 years ago continue to be rich today. Are all of the families mentioned in the article in on the conspiracy or could it be that there simply is no social mobility? Also, Russia IS a multicultural country, look up how many muslims they have. Second, China is not outbreeding the west, their population will go from 1.4B to 1B by 2100. Third, muslims are not outbreeding Europeans. The fertility rate of Turkey is 2.05 and of Iran it's 1.68 even lower than Russia's. Syria and Iraq do have a high fertility rate but that's probably because of all the wars, which brings me to my next point. If anyone is a victim between Europeans and Arabs, it is Arabs, the destruction western countries have brought upon the ME is self-explanatory. Finally, western countries take immigrants because they want to keep the economy growing, so they do have a long term plan, continued world hegemony, whether or not it will work out is another question.

Zara - Thanks for the suggestion but I'm passing. The fact that a movie, like Black Panther, that talks about nationalism, racism and other issues that should be discussed openly during elections, is considered creative, should tell you smth about what identity politics has done to the country. Lately I've been following Jorge Castaneda's youtube channel. He's a Mexican politician but goes on talk shows sometimes. And man, the quality of the talk shows is soooo much higher than America's. They talk about everything openly, for instance, race. The south of Mexico is composed of Mayans and they have no problem criticizing them openly. For instance, they'll mention the poor quality of Mayan teachers. Can you imagine Stephen Colbert talking about the low quality of black students and teachers? It would be career suicide. Just to be clear though, they're not being racists, they just want accountability from the shitty teachers.

Also, a must read analysis by Michael Hudson on the Trump tariffs

11:09 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

Nice to see that Americans will never grow tired of finding new and creative ways of slaughtering one another: 2 killed, 1 injured in Texas mail bombings, police warn public not to open suspicious packages.

@Michael Burgess--here is where Heinberg is all wet about fracking: "But companies specializing in producing these fuels were — and are — doing so at an overall financial loss..." The tax write-offs energy companies can take make these "losses" irrelevant, in the same way that Hollywood often makes movies KNOWING they will lose money. With near-zero interest rates (and even federal energy subsidies in some cases), it costs these firms practically nothing to borrow the money to drill the wells to start with, meaning all the oil & gas they drill is pure profit before the get to write off the "losses" on their taxes and start the process all over again. If they had to pay to clean up the massive amounts of pollution left behind by the fracking it might be different, but they don't even have to do that. Heinberg, Kunstler and other die hard peak oilers have been calling fracking a "bubble" for nearly a decade, and they continue to be proven wrong again and again and again. At some point, their "thinking" on the issue has to be called out for being every bit as dogmatic as resistant to new facts as they have always claimed their opponents to be.

12:16 AM  
Anonymous SETI said...

Understanding occupied territory and subversion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyTU88U0Foo

12:26 AM  
Blogger jjarden said...

Many older Americans are living a desperate, nomadic life...


http://www.nextavenue.org/older-americans-nomadland/

12:28 AM  
Anonymous Sorrowful said...

@Michael Burgess and others who have posted articles on peak oil:

Thanks so much for this additional information. I, too, had been wondering if Kunstler's predictions in The Long Emergency and Too Much Magic had been proved wrong, especially since the annual prediction essays on his blog are sometimes laughable when read in retrospect. Being a prognosticator isn't easy, but I have to say that our favorite Sage's record is more clear, perhaps because he takes a broader historical view and doesn't focus so closely on one aspect of the situation. Nevertheless, since I read Kunstler's books, I find myself relentlessly noticing how everything that supports my life is based on cheap oil. When it goes, not if, life will be so different. The when, however, is up for grabs. If the Fed raises interest rates 4 times this year, as promised, all bets are off.

I've been living in Australia for the past 5 months with 7 more to go. Americans are blind and ignorant; Aussies are living the fat life, happy, and oblivious. I could say a lot more on the subject but will defer to another time. I come here to catch up on the comments when I can't stand it anymore. Thanks, Dr. B and Wafers for being here.

O&D Downunder.

1:04 AM  
Anonymous Transatlantic said...

The New York Time’s Jill Abramson needs to shove that plastic doll right up her ass.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One great pleasures I've had these past two years is watching these propaganda outlets (particularly the smug, "serious" outlets like NYT) crash and burn.

Cheerleading Bush II in his wars, and now just openly embracing him; avoiding any effort to call out Obama on his record-setting prosecution of whistle blowers and his efforts to spread freedom via drone; openly peddling outlandish conspiracy theories about Russian hacking and collusion; working hand-in-glove with the Clinton political machine to disseminate propaganda (thank you Wikileaks!); and supporting just about any pro-business Haifisch-Kapitalismus narrative you can think of -- but, ofc, still held in high regard by leagues of drooling buffoons.

Has any society been more-effectively propagandized than ours over such a long period?

8:20 AM  
Anonymous Lobotomized Imperial Subject said...

Wafers and Dr B., I came across this quotation about the deleterious effects of technology and “modern economics” from Rosa Mayreder:

“Modern technology, which makes human life so much easier in so many ways, and modern economics, which so infinitely increases man's material wealth, having now become the tools of modern imperialism, turns against the essential being of the individual. Massed together in a soulless multitude, human beings are ground up by the machinery of party interests that drives today's civilization. The individual becomes a spare part, a cog; he can hold his own only to the extent to which he has the strength. But the values of soul quality established by past cultures perish in the process... At present such cultural values survive only in countries which lie outside the realm of imperialistic competitiveness, or in rural areas and small towns where there is still a degree of leisure and repose, where the demands made on the individual do not exceed his capacity to fulfill them.”

(Quoted by Rudolf Steiner in a lecture given in 1916)

Lobo

8:26 AM  
Anonymous P Sloan said...

Quasi Duo Fantasias: A Straussian Reading of “Black Panther”

lol ooooo Zizek
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/quasi-duo-fantasias-straussian-reading-black-panther/

8:57 AM  
Anonymous Rachel said...

Around the world, tiny towns have made bookstores their speciality.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-a-book-town
A PLACE A WAFER CAN CALL HOME :-)

9:07 AM  
Anonymous Anjin-San said...

Over the last week I have found two interrelated articles on American war and the role of faith in America. Collectively they sent a chill down my spine. As a Canadian I shudder to think what will happen when the USA turns its eyes north as it inevitably will given our abundant supply of water and other resources that they will need as climate change takes center stage in the future.

The first is by James Carroll(whose book The House of War I recommend to any Wafer) on what he calls the American Crusade:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176395/tomgram%3A_james_carroll%2C_an_american_reckoning/


Forbes had a great article on Why White Evangelicalism is So Cruel. They removed it but the author has posted it online:

https://www.politicalorphans.com/the-article-removed-from-forbes-why-white-evangelicalism-is-so-cruel/

As well Rolling Stone had a great article on the recently departed (and unlamented by many) Billy Graham... a true American hustler.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-soul-crushing-legacy-of-billy-graham-w517067









9:33 AM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

Hillary Clinton: I won the places that are 'dynamic, moving forward,' while Trump's campaign 'was looking backwards.'

http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-says-trump-won-backwards-states-in-2016-2018-3

Yeah I wonder why people would be nostalgic. Maybe it has something to do with the five million manufacturing jobs lost after your husband Bill helped to pass NAFTA. I guess people might be nostalgic when their families collapse from the stress of unemployment, their communities turn into ghost towns, their kids have no future and people are committing suicide or slowly killing themselves with drugs and alcohol.

11:05 AM  
Anonymous Bologna said...

Ahhh...I feel safe knowing that Trump exchanged a former CEO of Exxon Mobile ( if that sh*t wasn't bad enough) to a CIA director Pompeyo. So how does that help the date with Kim Jong Un? I'm counting my last days here folks till that day.

11:13 AM  
Blogger k_pgh said...

File under Wetikos –
Professor Has a Theory on Why 2017 Was Filled With Jerks:

“Nasty behavior spreads much faster than nice behavior, unfortunately,” Sutton says... “Literally like a common cold,” he adds... “The more assholes you’re around, the more asshole-y you get.” But there are other factors that have led to this explosion of assholes, Sutton points out, everything from heat and crowding to imbalances in power and the wealth gap. “The research says that when we’re in those situations, there’s envy going up, and sort of disdain goes down.” Research also shows that technology has increased the “asshole problem,” as Sutton puts it, because people are much more likely to be mean if they don’t have to make eye contact. And because technology has created the expectation for things to happen faster, and at all hours of the day, hurriedness and sleep deprivation have become major factors.

11:41 AM  
Anonymous Ted said...

http://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-newly-formed-company-launch-novel-approach-fusion-power-0309

This is fascinating fusion fuss

3:49 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Thanks to everyone for yr contributions. I haven't said much because I am deep in the Yucatan, where finding working computers is a bit of a challenge. Will be back in Mex City, however, in a couple of days. Tillerson is a total asshole; Gina encouraged torture and then was involved in trying to cover it up. Trump has weakened his stance on gun control. Kim (haircut) needs not to meet with him, but with Kim (buttocks).

Later, amigos-

mb

4:30 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Hola MB and Wafers,

Well, Trumpo is in LA, and it looks like we're in the middle of a low-grade Civil War. The pea-brained Trumpites are out en masse, while the anti-Trumpites are struggling to present a decent argument against Trumpo. In other words, it's douche bag versus douche bag until the Chinese take over. When will this nightmare end? In any case, I'm thinking about heading out to the protest, climbing to the top of a tall building, pulling out my pecker and letting my pee come pouring out. It never fails to satisfy, that moment when the gush begins, and watching the bubbling liquid cascade down onto the heads of the douche bags gathered below...

Miles

5:40 PM  
Anonymous Birney Zouave said...

Dr. B: Some of my ancestors were Lutheran, the religion of Johann Sebastian Bach, "the 5th Evangelist," as he is sometimes called. One of the stained glass windows in our church is dedicated to him. He was expected to write a church cantata every week by his employers, and about 200 of them survive. I have a 76-CD boxed set of them and listen to them almost nightly, as I drift off to sleep. Every once in a while, a movement comes on that jerks me awake, thinking, how could anyone write music like that?

This is a bit early, as it was written for Jubilate (the 3rd Sunday in Easter) but it caught my ear last week with its unusual soprano recorder obbligato. Bach only used this instrument in three of his cantatas. The text is from the Gospel of John, 16:20-

Ihr werdet weinen und heulen, aber die Welt wird sich freuen. Ihr aber werdet traurig sein. Doch eure Traurigkeit soll in Freude verkehret werden. (You shall weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. But you will be sorrowful. Yet your sorrow shall be changed into joy.) It's about 5-1/2 minutes- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcPWhpGfjRM

Music like this helps when your only option is to be an NMI!

7:38 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Ted - Physicists always announcing shit for government funding. 15 years from now they'll make up an excuse and ask for another 15. Regardless of that though, all our infrastructure is made to work with oil, coal plants and other conventional energy sources. If they did discover a cheaper more efficient way of getting energy, they would have to transform the energy grid and energy companies are not about to let their investments just go to zero so they'll lobby against it. I remember bill gates mentioning that he's investing in a 4th generation energy plant or smth like that and he said that he will know if it will work around 2025 and if so he will have it working by 2035 but he mentioned that regardless of whether or not his investment succeeds, we will continue using oil, coal, etc at least until 2050 because our infrastructure is in a 30 year cycle or smth like that and energy companies need a return on investment. Personally, I do think there will be some type of energy development but I'm not holding my breath for it to replace conventional energy sources. It's a real shame because that means at least 30 more years of fracking and carbon emissions. I'm not sure what would be worst, running out of oil or continuing fracking but at this point there is only 2 choices, either technology saves us or we go extinct.

9:44 PM  
Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

Many thanks to my fellow Wafers for posting such interesting articles and links. The essays by Umair Haque are indeed powerful. His essays on how the USA lost also lost the cold war and how all media now is essentially trolling really hit home.

Many thanks also for the 2006 youtube clip of the Good Professor. My favorite part was when the audience member said to you that: "I want to hear something else". He wanted happy talk, everything will be OK bullshit. Hilariously, you told him to find another author. Too bad Pinker's book was't out back then; that's exactly the line of bullshit he wanted someone to feed him.

Anjin- you hit the nail on the head. My issue with Canada is that it is too close to the USA. When we go down, we'll probably take the whole neighborhood with us. Canada might want to consider building a wall, or make French the country's one official language. That would scare the Americans off. For some reason, French (and France) repels most Americans esp the Faux news watchers like garlic to vampires.

Sorrowful- when you say Aussies are fat and happy and oblivious, I assume you mean this is a good way (versus uptight Americans)?

BrotherMaynard

9:50 PM  
Anonymous Sorrowful said...


Dr. B and Wafers:

Good article in Politico today by Parag Khanna about waning American international influence:

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/13/rex-tillerson-out-new-secretary-of-state-pompeo

A sample: "We must guard against the naive view that the American president—whomever he or she may be—will restore America’s global prestige and leadership. That is not how geopolitics works. Connections are being made, relationships advanced and deals locked in that circumvent America, with no reason for their participants to change course."

The destruction wrought by Trump's gang is long-lasting and terminal.

11:20 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

Martin Shkreli is just a symptom of a very American problem.

By Robert Reich

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/syndicated-columnists/article204794939.html

2:54 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

Student’s comments on energy reminded me of a couple of articles I read that others might find interesting:
The Swiss, who get 34 percent of their energy from five nuclear plants, are about to restart the reactor at Beznau in Canton Aargau. It had been taken offline two years earlier “when anomalies were found in its steam generator.” Beznau is the world’s oldest commercial nuclear power plant.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/oldest-swiss-nuclear-reactor-to-restart/43949156

And a little farther north, the Belgian government has started to make iodine pills available free to its 11 million inhabitants as protection against any emergency involving the country’s ageing nuclear plants. The government was quick to state that there is no “specific risk” identified at this time. Over the past few years, neighbors the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany have all raised concerns about Belgium’s reactors.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/07/belgian-hands-out-millions-of-iodine-pills-in-case-of-nuclear-accident?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

In sharing these stories with friends, I learned this on American sites: There are 61 commercially operating nuclear power plants with 99 reactors total spread across 30 states. Palos Verde in Arizona is the largest US nuclear plant, with 3 reactors. There are two new plants under construction as of August 2017, Vogtle 3 and Vogtle 4 in Georgia. (US Energy Information Administration, August 2017)

Setting aside the lengthy construction approval and permitting process, it typically takes 1 year for site preparation, between 40 and 60 months for construction and reactor loading, and an additional 6 months after completion of these steps for testing and compliance assurance before energy production can proceed as plans call for. A nuclear power plant capable of 1,100 MW (megawatts) production costs between 6 and 9 billion dollars.]

10:56 AM  
Anonymous L Mah said...

Although the U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world, the nation ranks lowest in terms of “efficiency, equity and outcomes,” according to the report.

http://time.com/2888403/u-s-health-care-ranked-worst-in-the-developed-world/

12:15 PM  
Anonymous lenoir said...

bonjour brother maynard and fellows
re Canada.
Is the USA not perfectly poised to simply take over Canada?
Is that not why the old divide and conquer game has been deployed with great success, creating then pitting the two tribes ( the so-called French and English) against each other?
Think of the kzillions in loot under the glaciers they have melted.
Most of all, ultimate possession of most valuable 3rd W.W. worthy piece of real estate guaranteeing eternal power/gold etc, in the NW passage?
A couple of rednecks in red pickups could take over Canada in a day.




12:16 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

@Student, Jorge Castañeda is the "Charlie Rose" of Mexico. They are articulate in conversation but feckless in making effect. Mexican ruling class is full of them elites, especially in D.F. Indeed all throughout Latin America the political cadre with wealth, hence power, are 'feel-your-pain' cool talking "Jorges." They don't represent the people they rule; they represent Washington Consensus. These well heeled suite-n-tie white men look like they just arrived on a plane from Zurich last night. Compare the faces of the 43 disappeared students of Ayotzinapa with Castañeda and his guests on TV. You'll never see 'chaparrito-morenito' mestizo or indigenas caras, which is the majority of Mexico, represented in media or their concerns addressed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UonmY45w0HA

The Castañeda/Rose class follow the same US election rhetorics of "draining the swamp" and "cleanup" which is the nothingburger of Clintons/Obama. These elites live in Pinker's gated fantasyland whose ideas are molded and reinforced by mutual gratification. They harp "progress" but consistently oppose Lopez Obrador, María Martínez and Ralph Nader.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-06-20/indigenous-candidate-offers-voice-unity-mexicos-long-silenced-native-people
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/03/09/the-threats-real-and-imagined-of-mexicos-election/

Lemme know if you ever hear Castañeda or any Güero there mention the “800-pound gorilla.”
https://www.democracynow.org/2006/7/12/florida_con_salsa_investigative_reporter_greg
https://www.democracynow.org/2003/5/7/u_s_is_buying_data_on
México vota pero Washington elige!!

1:03 PM  
Anonymous Pastrami and Coleslaw said...

Strange but interesting:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/style/the-man-who-knew-too-little.html

5:09 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

WAFER Brother Maynard — that was hilarious re: the 2006 bookstore video with Dr. Berman and some american asshat demanding him talk about something else!

I thk this was the same schmuck that wrote in the dingle berry tymes that « negativity » sells! Just the opposite dipshit.

Good luck chippy; think positively, put on that genitalia hat and « resist. »

6:50 PM  
Blogger Zarathustra said...

Very interesting the article about Black Panther by Zizek. Not because he ever comes to the point (I think that's a personal trait of his) but because it will save me from having to go and watch the movie. So, the message is that Africans should let American multinationals exploit their natural resources, and the CIA just nudges countries in the middle of a revolution into keeping on the straight and narrow path of virtue. Am I far wrong?

7:51 PM  
Anonymous Sorrowful said...

@Brother Maynard

Australians fat, happy and oblivious:

Maybe it's the circles I've been living in, which are solidly upper middle class. I find these Aussies to be so helpful to me personally, but unfailingly prejudiced against immigrants and aboriginals (this from people many of whom immigrated to AU in the 70s for FREE) and blind to the environmental exploitation of their country. I've been hanging out in the country towns, so please take this bias into account. The regional people are conservative just like their rural counterparts in the U.S. There are less than 10 large metro areas in AU, so these attitudes explain to me why AU continues to vote the Liberals (conservatives) into power in spite of their rape and pillage policies. It's all too huge for me to go into in detail, but any impulse I may have had to immigrate here has evaporated. This country is way too much like the U.S. to be a comfortable place for a Wafer to inhabit. Peter Dutton, the minister for immigration, refuses to quit holding immigrants offshore in conditions the UN has called inhumane, yet wants to give fast track visas to the poor suffering South African farmers. Nuff said. The Turkey population is international.

10:13 PM  
Anonymous Transatlantic said...

The opening line of that Politico article should replace "pragmatists" with "globalists." Fat chance of that, ofc. One thing Trump has managed to get right so far is to openly, publicly identify a proper threat to humanity at large, which is globalism; and he appears to be slowly removing a number of its acolytes from his admin now that he's got other options.

Many of our economic problems, and our disastrous foreign policy over the past two decades are a direct result of neocons and neolibs running the show, pushing centralization of power at a global level in the West, expanding the spy state, offshoring jobs, and ticking boxes on the PNAC to-do list (7 countries, anyone?).

And, now that Trumpi is showing signs of doing his own thing, firing globalists and sitting down with Kim Haircut in a breakthrough move, according to CNN's Don Lemonhead and other corporate-backed media hacks, as of a few days ago calling someone a globalist is, apparently, now "racist" and "antisemitic."

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/03/10/don_lemon_the_term_globalist_is_racist_anti-semitic.html

Right on schedule.


9:19 AM  
Blogger Michael Burgess said...

Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:

Umair Haque has written yet another telling essay "Why Don't Americans Care About Each Other?" in which rivalry that tears opponents down seems the easiest strategy for 'getting ahead' rather than mutual support. Witnessing the ubiquity of competition in American society, I am tempted to think that Umair doesn't really think this approach to 'society' will change unless the social order falls apart and those who are left have to start again.

https://eand.co/why-dont-americans-care-about-each-other-60a8859f8820

I worked for a professor who almost 4 decades ago analyzed the energy return from energy invested for biofuels and realized at best one could break even. After a Navy ensign studied biodiesel production and came to the same conclusion - the Navy committed to biodiesel - after all, they could get all the money they needed from us or debt and they needed liquid fuel!

10:02 AM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

Transatlantic:

I avoid using globalism as a term because it has been so corrupted that it is almost meaningless. Alex Jones and friends have basically used it to describe anyone they don't like.

Do I think NATO is, broadly, a good idea? Definitely. I also think the EU is worthwhile. Both have done very bad things, but to simply support their existence is, in the new dialogue, to be a 'globalist'. I would focus criticism more on the aggressive hawks and centralizers within these institutions rather than the institutions themselves.

This came up a few years ago with the Greek debt drama. The Greeks had a good position- Goldman Sachs saddled us with these ridiculous debts under false pretenses, we want to write them off and stay within the Euro zone. This kind of normal market discipline would marginalize bad actors in an otherwise healthy system.

Instead, the fake media presented the options as 'stay with globalism' vs 'blow it all up', likely in a poorly considered alliance with Russia.

The West is dying because nobody has any faith in transforming instituions. It's either continue banging your head on a brick wall, or take a big plunge off the cliff.

11:57 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Sorrowful - All anglo countries are the same. If Italy had colonized the world instead of the UK, the world would be a better place. It's not surprising to see Australians want to help "poor" South African farmers since they're white. White nationalists make a lot of propaganda about white South Africans being killed by blacks.

Esca - You're completely right. I think Jorge Castaneda is a turkey and support the Mayan people, I was just pointing out that the political commentating is better than America's. Their economic analysis are clearly wrong but they do debate, they're just stupid and/or brainwashed, IMO. Still they say what they mean, they're not constrained to speaking in keywords like in America.

Transatlantic - Are you a Marxists? Or what exactly do you think we're gaining from globalization ending? How is Trump doing anything beneficial to the USA? I don't think you understand economics. The TPP passed without the USA, China's passing their own trade deal and 15 years from now their economy will be bigger than America's in real terms, America won't be able to get the same beneficial trade deals it's getting offered today. I mean, do you at least understand that America is not being taken advantage of with the trade deals? Personally, I don't like globalization but I do understand what globalization ending means. End of consumerism, the end of capitalism, a completely different life style and economic life will be required and yes, in a consumerism sense, our standard of living going down. I'm fine with it because otherwise we're gonna turn the earth into Mars but I have the feeling you think that what Trump is doing will somehow "improve" our standard of living.

12:55 PM  
Anonymous SETI said...


Understanding Subversion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A3vm4MazNs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4qihvOPP5Y

8:30 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

Americans are basically good people.
https://youtu.be/tS4OQc0mQNU?t=630
https://youtu.be/MQA1V9uPFjU?t=218
Just too good!
https://youtu.be/T3JypQB1wcM?t=362
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWS2tHGmVmw

10:02 PM  
Anonymous Millennial Realist said...

As many of you know, Amazon is looking to build a second HQ and a bunch of cities are salivating hoping to be the chosen one. As usual, many are willing to give it all away in order to lure Amazon to their city. Truly disgusting considering the fact that Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world and many of our cities are plagued with a major homeless problem. But there may be a glimmer of hope in terms of backlash:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/15/not-welcome-here-amazon-faces-growing-resistance-to-its-second-home

Let's be honest here -- this backlash won't last long (just like Occupy Wall Street) and Amazon will be offered millions in incentives. It's the American way.

12:36 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Just a report from the front lines. Last nite I launched the Spanish trans of my Japan bk in Mex City. The place was mobbed. Many people in the audience got so excited they began beating their heads against the walls to calm down. Some started barking, or biting the necks of the people next to them. It was quite a scene.

Two people introduced me, emphasizing the fact that I was the GSWH. The applause was deafening.

After, a small crowd went out to an Italian restaurant, dinner paid for by my publisher. We fell on our pasta like wolves. Then, outside the restaurant, we said our goodbyes, congratulating ourselves on how wonderful we were (true enuf).

I cdn't help thinking that if I did a similar launching of the bk (or any bk) in the US, people would throw rotten fruit, and at most the publisher might pay for little bags of airplane peanuts.

Arriba!

mb

11:15 AM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

American values in action dept:

After students walked out of a South Carolina high school to protest gun violence on Wednesday, custodian Aisha Evans stayed inside and helped herself to their belongings. Aisha netted about $180.00 in cash.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/16/us/custodian-steals-money-trnd/index.html

O&D, kids-

Miles

12:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No end in sight for douchebaggery:

"Such hype might seem detached from reality, but it is much in vogue among the technology sector’s new generation of millionaires and billionaires, who seem keen to distance themselves from the selfish excess of their predecessors from 1980s Wall Street. They show less interest in super-yachts or sports cars; instead they speak about spiritual enrichment, connections to nature and purpose. It is against this backdrop that countless Summit-like festivals, retreats and communities have emerged in and around California, promising to help wealthy clients find a better version of themselves"

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/16/powder-mountain-ski-resort-summit-elite-club-rich-millennials?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Kanye

1:42 PM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

This American Turkey

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/15/peter-thiel-silicon-valley-europe-regulation

So glad that we have exposed our personal, social, professional, and civic loves to unaccountable companies regularly attacked by trolls (and worse).

A society centered around the internet isn't much of a society at all. Anything can be faked, manipulated, socially engineered.

If people can properly limit and contextualize the internet, it can be positive, but Silicon Valley exists precisely not to do that.

1:54 PM  
Anonymous Transatlantic said...

Dio,

I don't see the term as corrupted, it refers to the shared foreign and econ policy aims of neocons and neolibs. All of them hate Trumpi, because he's not in the club, nor does he seem interested in joining. I don't know what the future holds for the US economically if we go back to protectionism, but I have personally seen and experienced the carnage globalist interventionism and economic "liberalization" have left in their wake thus far, and, ofc, would be quite happy never to have to read another pearl of wisdom from The Mustache of Understanding.

Being about 80% Wafer, I realize the US is done, culturally at least, and I knew this instinctively years ago, which is why I left. ATMO, I'm more concerned about what remains of the globalist cabal and what catastrophe their cronies may or may not end up setting off with the Russkies -- and they are trying. I don't particularly want to see war with a nuclear superpower in my lifetime, and nor do I wish to see Europe consolidated into a superstate in the long term. Frau Merkel can't get the boot soon enough, IMO.

4:28 PM  
Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

Sorrowful- Thanks. I've crossed Australia off my immigration list. From what I've read it's a mini-version of America complete with a virulent right wing media. I'll pass. Maybe New Zealand? I'm looking for Canada with better weather ;)

Student - I wouldn't say all Anglo countries are the same. The US is really an extreme example. All other Anglo countries have some form of universal health care. The US is the sole exception. Canada is pulled well to the left by Francophone QC, New Zealand by the native Marori. Just as what pulls the US to the right is the former slave states (a toxic combo of white supremacy fused with Christianity).

Lenior - in the early 19th century the US invaded Canada many times and was repulsed. Up until WW2, the US had war plans to invade Canada (see War Plan Red and Canada's Defense Scheme No. 1). Canada will be safe, i think. Like the late Roman Empire, the cause of American decline is internal, not external. Americans are more likely to declare war on each other (think Trump versus California, Coasts versus the South) then yet another country. Although if the US starts devolving (states breaking off voluntarily or involuntarily), things could get pretty mixed up. BC aligning itself with the US west coast, Vermont and Maine with the Canadian Maritimes, etc.

BrotherMaynard

4:51 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

A great quote from Philosophy Professor William Barrett’s book, “The Illusion of Technique.”


“If we try to flee from our human condition into the computer, we only meet ourselves there.”

6:29 PM  
Blogger Zarathustra said...

Transatlantic, Trump is definitely not sitting down with Kim in a "breakthrough move" or "firing globalists." Why, somebody might think you are a Trump voter. Don't get me wrong, I think Trump's doing a good job. He's been chosen by God to destroy the US and, as Spinoza said, the laws of man can be broken, but the laws of God, by definition, can't be.

About the North Korean thing, I often wonder if the "Suez moment" that we've been waiting for might have already happened. The US is utterly powerless against North Korea. Believe you me, if the US could have blown up North Korea to kingdom come, it would have already happened.

As for the "globalist" thing, Don Lemon may be a complete turkey, but in practice, the InfoWars crowd shouting about it are indeed antisemitic, I think, as it's a bit too obvious they are selective with their outrage. In any case, Trump is not, I repeat, not going to stop mega-corporations from shafting what remains of the middle class in the US. For Pete's sake, let's not be naive.

8:32 PM  
Anonymous Sorrowful said...

Oh, god. If this doesn't make you pop your jeans snap laughing, I don't know what will. And read the comments. Priceless turkeys!

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/16/powder-mountain-ski-resort-summit-elite-club-rich-millennials#comment-113659212

1:01 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

DioGenes - I agree with you, I think the European Union is one of the few positive to have come around in the last 50 years. I think Europeans already expressed interest in making it more united, like a country which would also be a positive. But the USA will get in the way, no doubt about it. Globalization in of itself, to me, is not a bad thing. The problem is mostly America, the one sided trade deals it forces on the world and the institutions it created like Goldman Sachs, the World Bank and the IMF. I have a feeling that transatlantic believes that America is somehow the victim of globalization and that our standard of living will go up if we go back to an isolationists/protectionists economy. But that is just not how it works, America would not be able to produce all the junk it consumes all on itself. Marx believed that salaries would go down and down until the general population revolted but he turned out to be wrong and, long story short, in the 70s the salaries went up and up to the point that corporations weren't able to find workers, hence, why the USA started outsourcing.

Right now America produces high end products, designs chips, airplanes, cars, etc and they're assembled in the third world, but China and Europe are now moving up the value chain and if America decides to isolate itself, they will be outcompeted, there is just no way America will be able to compete Asia if it doesn't have access to the third world labor. And the immigrants, I suspect this is a big reason why people don't like globalization but silicon valley would die if it could not import immigrants. So again, America's decline is not because of "globalists," it's not like the elites decided to betray America for the third world's sake, it's more like they don't have a choice, Kissinger himself is scared of China. America has an insane amount of advantages, arable land, the reserve currency, the biggest military, the best immigrants, control of oil, near energy independence, access to the Atlantic AND the pacific, etc, but even with all that, it's barely able to stay ahead, if it isolated itself, it would decline even faster.

3:30 AM  
Anonymous Tuba Thief said...

http://www.newsweek.com/20-percent-america-thinks-interracial-marriage-morally-wrong-poll-finds-845608

--moral progress, NO?!

10:48 AM  
Blogger Grandma said...

Hi Wafers!

And Congrats, Dr. B, on all the neck biting, hysteria, and pasta! Sounds like a good time was had by all, and book sales will be suitably brisk.

This link is a possible reading list for Wafers? What do you think of this?

http://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/10-challenging-books-from-the-intellectual-dark-web

1:24 PM  
Blogger Sarasvati said...

Sorrowful: re Powder Mountain Ski Resort. Thank you…I haven't had a good laugh like that in a long, long time. I especially loved the following: “Earth is the only place that we have right now, so if we want to guarantee the existence of the human race beyond the next 100 or 200 years, it is really important for us to become a multiplanetary species,” Dontchev says….”

Ya really gotts love it…we’ve totally fucked up Planet Earth so now we want to do the same favor for the rest of the universe. This article perfectly proves the point that you can be intelligent, educated, successful, wealthy, and well respected, and still be a complete douche bag.

Student: globalization is a step toward one world government. If you think the leaders are unresponsive to us now, just wait until that happens and we’re transhumanized vanilla beans. It’s over.

4:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In case Wafers missed it, 2 days ago was the 50th Anniversary of the My Lai massacre:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/03/17/have-we-learned-anything-my-lai

Kanye

8:43 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Re: Powder Mountain: a bigger pile of human garbage I have yet to see. What dreck.

mb

11:50 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Sorrowful - Thanks for the article, this are my favorite quotes
“All that stands between you and being elite is your own investment in yourself.” “The internet is the great equaliser”.

There you have it folks, if you aren't a billionaires, it's because you're not investing in yourself. Start by wasting your time in the clusterfuck that is the internet or should I say waste other people's time? Otherwise how are you gonna be rich? You need to get American turkeys to click your links somehow, "progress."

Sara - I think it's more complicated than that. There will always be trade between nations. I was just trying to say, America is the abuser, not the victim of globalization, if it isolates, it will no longer be able to keep it's companies dominating every market in the goddam world and keep having turkeys like in the article sorrowful posted, becoming millionaires from fucking apps. It will also cause the dollar to stop being the reserve currency and America won't be able to export it's inflation. And I think the European Union is preferable to having individual European nation states going to war every couple of years. Getting rid of all power structures would be ideal, but I don't see that happening anywhere so I'm not holding my breath.

12:58 AM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

m.jpost.com/In-Jerusalem/Jerusalem-syndrome-543868

“It’s not a disease but a cultural phenomenon,” says Witztum. “The Judeo-Christian faiths have a lot of messianic prophecies that call on the tourists to have visions, hear voices and go to the Holy Land and do this type of holy work explained in the Bible; but when they get off the plane, it’s another story.”

I think that sufferers should be able to take their priest, rabbi, or imam to court.

I love this because it shows just how shallow and cowardly modern psychological science has been. According to the sadly still dominent monotheistic religions, you *should* be schizophrenic. Good luck pointing out that obvious truth without ruining your career.

Btw, if you study pre-modern cultures, you realize that they had a whole system for processing such religions inspiration. They were comfortable leaving it in a varied, metaphorical, essentially personal state rather than jumping to the conclusion that a shaman has found The One truth.

2:28 AM  
Blogger Nesim Watani said...

@Grandma

Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Sam Harris are both hustling morons. Ayaan is like most of the "ex-Muslim" crowd which are largely people from affluent families that come to the West with horror stories they have never lived. They cash in on stories that they are oppressed by the "horrors" of Islam, yet all of them are from the Upper class, who in most Islamic nations have more in common with their Western Affluent counterparts. In other words, they are free from what they claim. Ayaan herself claimed she abused by her parents and was under threats of death. All of this fell apart because she kept in contact with them regaling them in her new job and wealth.


Sam Harris is the same schmuck that argues to this day that American crimes aren't crimes and that we and Western Society are better because our crimes lack intent. Big Think has some interesting stuff but in the end its a hodgepodge of Liberal pro-capitalist crap.

2:43 AM  
Anonymous Transatlantic said...



Powder Mountain = the new Obersalzburg for our virtue-signaling technocratic masters. I know one thing, should these ghouls actually succeed in leaving behind what they've destroyed, the slave class ain't gonna be going with them!

4:06 AM  
Anonymous Dan said...

Went to see the Pennsylvania Ballet do Swan Lake last evening. Before the performance it was announced not only to put your tech-crap on silent but to turn them off completely. Think anyone heard? All through the performance people were taking pictures and, of course, a few phones rang. In addition, you were expected to applaud after each mini-performance. I noticed many of the younger audience members did not applaud as if to say, "YOu need to perform better if you wish me to react"-so arrogant.
Kanye, My Lai was certainly no abbaration. In fact, I'd call it capitalism at its finest along with other scintillating examples as the dropping of the atomic bomb, Fallujah, Abu Graid, the highway of death during the first gulf, Reagan's Murder Inc throughout Central America; I mean the list is near infinite. By the way, I found out what happened to Jacobo Arbenz who tried to install a modest land reform program in Guatemala before the CIA and United Fruit combined to overthrow him in 1954. He was thrown into a tub of boiling water-so much for leaders who try to help their own people. Another example, by the way, of capitalism at its finest.

8:22 AM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

I just stopped in after having done an image search on "Haeberle my lai pictures," and I was wondering if you had information on any parades or other celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of that great event in the history of the US Empire, the My Lai massacre.

In related news, Common Dreams recently had a story on how it's been 15 years since the US invaded Iraq. https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/03/11/15th-anniversary-original-sin

Some of those who commented on the story, which pointed out that 78% of people in the USA supported the invasion, actually claimed that they were victims for having been lied to by the US government. This is another thread in the fabric of prog thinking: that they are victims, no matter the circumstances.

12:38 PM  
Anonymous Jascusa said...


Putin wins; America got no guts or skills with which to repay Putin by meddling in election in Russia. Is that not a sign of bumbling, incompetent America?

Putin Wins Russia’s Presidential Election In Landslide Victory: Exit Poll
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/putin-wins-russias-presidential-election_us_5aaeac25e4b0337adf84f5af

4:00 PM  
Anonymous Nostra said...

2 recent Tweets by Edward Snowden (@Snowden):

*“Businesses that make money by collecting and selling detailed records of private lives were once plainly described as "surveillance companies." Their rebranding as "social media" is the most successful deception since the Department of War became the Department of Defense.”

*“The ballot stuffing seen today in Moscow and elsewhere in the Russian election is an effort to steal the influence of 140+ million people. Demand justice; demand laws and courts that matter. Take your future back.”

That one abt Russia is gutsy? don’t u think? since he lives there in Russia (?). Or is this more fake-justice warrior crap similar to Chris Hedges’ “die-with-your-boots-on-strapped-to-the-barricades” pied-piper mentality?

6:25 PM  
Blogger Sarasvati said...

Student: I agree that the U.S. is the abuser, not the victim, of globalization. But as far as the European Union goes, my preference would be to see it dissolved and have each country’s leaders duke out their differences amongst themselves. Seriously, though, we’re on the cusp of “1984” and “Brave New World” all rolled into one, and the EU is a step in that direction. The more that power is centralized, the less influence citizens have.

Dio: Well, Jung did say that religion was a defense against the experience of god.

Dan: Gen. Smedley Butler wote in his book “War is a Racket,” that he “helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903.”

8:27 PM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

Regarding Powder Mountain, this looks like a continuation of what Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron called the Californian Ideology. The Californian Ideology is a mixture of the New Right and the New Left, mixing libertarian or neoliberal economics with the cultural rebellion of the New Left. Now I guess you would call them "woke" techno-magnates.

Here is a link to Barbrook and Cameron's original essay from 1995:

http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/17/the-californian-ideology-2/

I noticed that some of the commenters to the article on Powder Mountain stated that compared to these techno-douchebags the garish rich of the 1980s don't look so bad. I have to say that I agree with those sentiments. As bad as the Wolf of Wall Street types from the 1980s were they at least seemed human. There is something unsettling about how the masters of Silicon Valley want to reshape human life in their image whether people want it or not. That is much more sinister than trying to make a fortune in finance so you can buy sports cars and party with hookers.

12:35 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Great article comparing Trump to Hitler. I'm sure there is still people who believe the comparison to be ridiculous but read the article. Trumps' approval rating is up to 43% and this is despite all the shit that's happening right now, like, being sued by a pornstar, by 2020 no one will remember a thing and he'll win in a landslide. And he's just beginning, he's purging everyone that disagrees with him and no doubt there will be mass deportations and war in the near future, he might even become a full on dictator. But Americans, like Transantlatic, like what he's doing, purging everyone who disagrees with him, labeling them as "globalists" and possibly starting a war with China, North Korea and Iran. But I guess war with those countries is ok since they're not white right? China has enough nukes to blow up the world, just like Russia but Americans seem to be completely ok with the demonization of the Chinese.

"What happens when good citizens passively watch as hoodlums masquerading as politicians, and shouting “Deutschland Uber Alles” – Germany First – blow up international institutions, like the League of Nations, and treaties designed to secure the peace after the catastrophe of a world war?"
"What happens when decent people do nothing as deportation forces are unleashed to rip apart families, and as religious and ethnic minorities are demonized and brutalized, their residency and employment rights challenged, their values publicly denigrated, by a leadership intent on providing lebensraum for a master race?"
"What happens when a paranoid leader such as Hitler accuses the rest of the world, in numerous speeches, of having “laughed at us” in its trade and military dealings with Germany, and then promises them they shall laugh no more?"

4:30 AM  
Anonymous Jiles said...

NYRB, John Gray on Ferguson's latest bust

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/03/22/niall-ferguson-circling-square/

8:51 AM  
Anonymous Sorrowful said...

@Grandma
Interesting list. Thanks for the tip. I'm particularly intrigued by the Atwood trilogy.

@Nesim
IMHO the key to this list lies in the intro:

"Each invokes uncomfortable truths about what we are as animals and cultures; each peeks behind the curtain of our inner workings regardless of how we advertise ourselves. They’re not always easy to read, but these ideas deserve to be entertained, even if not always agreed with. Disagreement is part of the process of growth if progress is going to be made."

I'm not a fan of all of these authors either, but there are some Waferish people on this list. Have we not discussed Ernest Becker here before?

9:01 AM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

With PBsuccess, PBhistory, MKUltra, etc etc...--it would be wonderful for a parade, or other american celebration of it's long 'storied' history of propaganda, psych ops, clandestine experiments, and false flags.

All the MSM could have repeated photo ops and scripted stories of fabulosity, people cheering/clapping, and that usa usa thing...getting verklempt just thkg about all that pomp and circumcision.

They could sell t shirts, coffee mugs--with big bold lettering: The Wool WAS Their Eyes.

11:03 AM  
Anonymous Lobotomized Imperial Subject said...

@Dan, sad to say, I think ballet is out of reach of many these days. I speak as someone who’s done ballet for 35ish years and who is trying to become a ballet teacher. Ballet is one of those rare things that is passed down teacher to student in a kind of apprenticeship. Also, one has to be open, emotionally and even perhaps spiritually, to be affected by it (dancer and watcher).

@Wafers and Dr B., on another note, I was reading a couple news stories (the firing of McCabe one day before retirement and the firing of Tillerson reported to be informed of this while on the toilet)... I thought: how vindictive these people are.... they behave with such petty cruelty. We sure are living in the Age of Hypocrisy and Cruelty.

A happy find: I came across the work of a Danish philosopher-theologian, Knut Løgstrup: The Ethical Demand.
“Løgstrup says that the power we have over other people from these kind of interactions generates a demand – the eponymous ethical demand – to act in that person’s best interests.”
“So easily, though, these defence mechanisms can become so all empowering that we lose track of what’s inside, we become callous and uncaring, or else crippled by self-conscious anxiety.”
More here: https://jdcloughblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/14/knud-logstrup-the-ethical-demand/

Lobo

1:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And the douchebag prize of the day goes to:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43459156

2:07 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

More backlash against Pinker’s Douchebaggery...


https://newrepublic.com/article/147391/hype-best

3:01 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

I was away in southern Florida this past week, and having not been down there in well over a decade I was shocked at how much more crowded, overbuilt and choked with traffic it is today than it was the last time I was there back in 2006. Every other billboard advertised an ER room or other medical facility and every other vehicle was a gigantic land yacht. Sure it was nice and warm, but I cannot for the life of me imagine why anyone would want to subject themselves to living in that place. It's like the very worst of America on steroids.

Speaking of treating medical services like a commodity, right before I left I got the news every cancer survivor dreads--my annual scan showed that the disease is back. The only good news is that they caught it early enough that I'm not even feeling any symptoms yet. Once again I have to place my life in the hands of our Kafka-esque sickcare system. I do at least have a good oncologist and unlike so many Americans enjoy decent health insurance, without which I would never have survived this long. Of course, with the way things are going, I'm not sure how long I even want to stick around since any lingering notion I might have had of leaving this mess has been extinguished.

3:54 PM  
Anonymous Dial said...

http://somatosphere.net/2018/03/enlightenment-now-and-empathy-later.html

"Dramatic lack of understanding of evolutionary processes and the human evolutionary record": Fuentes on Pinker's new book is your Monday must-read re: anthropology, psychology, and Steven Pinker

4:44 PM  
Anonymous Guy said...

https://www.religionnews.com/2018/03/17/streets-deserted-airport-closes-for-balis-day-of-silence/
^^^^^^^^
Fascinating. Bali has an annual day of Day of Silence. No Internet, no social media, no TV, no radio, no shopping, no talking. Instead, Hindus use the day to reflect on their thoughts, deeds and spiritual lives.

6:16 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Bill-

Can't tell you how awful I feel abt this news. I'm hoping you can lick it once again, this time around. Pls keep us all posted--every one of us is rooting for you.

Sorrow-

We have discussed Becker.

Student-

Don't attack Transatlantic; dialogue with him. This is the Wafer Way. BTW, I love what Trumpi is doing, myself. If yr a declinist, Bad Is Good. Go, Trumpi!

Nostra-

Hedges is personally completely safe. In his call for 'revolution', he runs no risks at all. Snowden could well wind up deported to the US and find himself in prison for life.

Jascusa-

I recall rdg somewhere that the US meddled in the Russian election of 1996, so as to get Yeltsin elected.

mb

7:13 PM  
Blogger Nesim Watani said...

@ Sorrowful

If that is the case should we read the Protocols of Zion and the Turner Diaries for insight on minorities and Jews? Ayaan is a con-woman who provides no real incite of Islam. She is in the same company as Pamela Geller and Richard Spencer. That said, Infidel, which is an autobiography of her life is FAKE. It is a work of fiction. That is why she no longer lives in the Netherlands, she was a rich girl, who concocted a story to get asylum because she couldn't get Citizenship in Holland otherwise. Once she was in the Netherlands she decided to stay and divorced her husband. Once her story was debunked the Dutch revoked her citizenship and the only people who cry for her is Geert Wilders and his party. Curiously, New Atheists ignore the fact she is a Charlatan and keep her around because she says what they like.

Also, how is either Sam Harris or Ayaan Hirsi Ali waferish? What is remotely wafterish about Sam Harris arguing Science can determine human values? Are we to now promote Stephen Pinker's Enlightment Now and Better ANgels of our Nature as Waferish?

7:46 PM  
Blogger Zarathustra said...

Sarasvati, you have suggested that I "was supporting the implementation of a police state" (let's not restart the vaccine debate, please, but I am just quoting you) and now you say about the European Union that you'd like to "see it dissolved and have each country’s leaders duke out their differences amongst themselves" (like in WW I a WW II?)

But why should there be "country's leaders" in the first place if you think governments are prone to become police states? The smaller the better then. You're inconsistent. Let's each town, even better, each neighbourhood, "duke out their differences" without any central organization and see what happens.

I don't know if humanity will survive, but if it does, you bet there will be a "global" organization or government, not to take all decisions, but those that can't be taken more locally.

And now, on a personal note, I do get pissed off by libertarians that don't really know shit and will never have to live with the consequences of their philosophy. Why, the prohibition of murder or theft is a bloody regulation. I say let's the fastest shooter in Hadleyville take the booty and the girl!

8:44 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Reviews cited here critiquing Pinker and Ferguson are 1st-rate. Thanks to those who posted them. I enjoy it when celebrity intellectuals, who are full of shit, get completely deconstructed by sophisticated analysts who know what they are talking abt. Meanwhile, Hi-IQ Americans, like Bill Gates, who are fundamentally stupid, love these authors.

mb

9:04 PM  
Anonymous Deadthoreau said...

Andrew Sullivan has been on quite a Wafer bend lately, his latest is a deconstruction of Steven Pinker's newest using Robert Deneen's new book Why Liberalism Failed as the foil.

"Pinker’s sole response to this argument — insofar as he even acknowledges it — is to cite data showing statistical evidence of rising levels of a sense of well-being in one’s life across the world. And this is a valid point. But Pinker seems immune to the idea of paradox, irony, or unintended consequences. He doesn’t have a way of explaining why, for example, there is so much profound discontent, depression, drug abuse, despair, addiction, and loneliness in the most advanced liberal societies. His response to the sixth great mass extinction of the Earth’s species at the hands of humans is to propose that better environmental technology will somehow solve it — just as pharmaceuticals will solve unhappiness. His general view is that life is simply a series of “problems” that reason can “solve” — and has solved. What he doesn’t fully grapple with is that this solution of problems definitionally never ends; that humans adjust to new standards of material well-being and need ever more and more to remain content; that none of this solves the existential reality of our mortality; and that none of it provides spiritual sustenance or meaning. In fact, it might make meaning much harder to attain, hence the trouble in modern souls."

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/sullivan-things-are-better-than-ever-why-are-we-miserable.html

11:04 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Sorrow-

Cdn't run it (24-hr rule).

Dead-

Thank u4 the quote. Isaiah Berlin taught at Harvard in the late 40s, and he was amazed at the naivete of American students, who believed that all 'problems' cd be solved. What wd he think now, were he alive, and teaching at Harvard, and having Pinker as a colleague, believing the same nonsense? Bottom line: Americans of whatever IQ are basically simpletons. They haven't the slightest notion of the tragic dimension of life. Across the board, they swallow the American Dream whole, and then either can't understand why their lives are a shit pile, or else write bks saying that things are actually quite good. What an absolute cretin Pinker is.

mb

11:43 PM  
Anonymous Francois said...

I have found someone to lead Chris Hedge’s revolution. His name is Trayon White, he is a D.C. council member and he believes the Rothschilds have a weather machine that allows them to control the weather. Vive la revolution. Pinker does not bother me because his hair reminds me of my late french poodle. Hedges like a true revolutionary lives in New York City and teaches at Princeton. I’m beginning to see Hedges more as a guerilla, much like the Spanish who fought Napoleon, or the Viet Minh who fought the French. Ho Chi Minh and General Giap fighting fighting for years in the jungles of Indochina don’t have shit on Chris Hedges. Hedges should urinate on his own shoes at the start of his show On Contact and admit he is a buffoon who is fighting the good fight from the comfort of one of the wealthiest cities on the face of the fucking planet. Pardon my French. And teaching at an Ivy League school is like laying siege to Dien Bien Phu.

1:36 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Transatlantic - I hope I didn't offend you, I just think that if you like Trump because you are a declinist who sees the damage he's doing, fine, but if you like him because he's getting rid of the (((globalists))) and "Making America Great Again," I can't help but correct you. The (((globalists))) might be pieces of shit but they are, believe or not, better at working towards America's interests. If Obama, Hillary, establishment politicians or (((globalists))) get their way, they'll pass some one-sided trade deals like the TPP and TTIP and the decline will be slow. With Trump, god knows what's ahead but he is no pacifist, according to Bannon, there will be war with China within 5 years, I guess 3 or 4 by now, and according to Netanyahu, Trump will be exiting the Iran nuclear deal in may, not a good sign, IMO. Btw, (((globalists))) = Jews, click for more on that.

Nostra - Snowden is the definition of a Wafer. He could easily be a millionaire like the assholes in Powder Mountain. Instead, he's facing life in prison because he stood up for what's right, the sad part is that it didn't change a thing. People like him are rare nowadays and at the very least, deserve our respect. So don't compare him to Hedges, Hedges is a coward who calls for a revolution but won't take part on it.

Bill - You have my condolences, I really hope you make it.

2:26 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Francois-

As for the DC Council, does it get more absurd than this?:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/still-bigger-than-life-dc-unveils-bronze-statue-of-former-mayor-marion-barry/2018/03/03/d77dfd60-1eee-11e8-9de1-147dd2df3829_story.html?utm_term=.27c5d21c123d

In any case, I'm quite sure the Jews control the weather and everything else.

mb

4:55 AM  
Anonymous Transatlantic said...

"Regarding Powder Mountain, this looks like a continuation of what Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron called the Californian Ideology. The Californian Ideology is a mixture of the New Right and the New Left, mixing libertarian or neoliberal economics with the cultural rebellion of the New Left.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sounds about right.

"I was reading a couple news stories (the firing of McCabe one day before retirement and the firing of Tillerson reported to be informed of this while on the toilet)... I thought: how vindictive these people are.... they behave with such petty cruelty. We sure are living in the Age of Hypocrisy and Cruelty."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aside from there being a mountain of evidence that he was involved in a coup to take out Trumpi, McCabe has multiple infractions against him,including falsifying evidence in the Flynn case (altered 302s) and violating the Logan Act. The acquisition of his personal fortune of 11 million is also being scrutinized in context with the Logan Act violation. Hustle, hustle. I think some folks are going to be shocked at what happens in the next few months. The OIG report is going to be big.

6:41 AM  
Anonymous Dan said...

Lobo Imperial Subject,
Yes, it was a depressing evening. Again, the audience refused to turn off their tech-crap and took pictures and video during the performance, a lot of parents were more interested in displaying their daughters wearing Swan Lake clothing than actually enjoying the performance, and why am I always sitting behind someone who won't take off his or her hat?
In addition, one dancer performed both the black and white swan with the same emotionless expression which the reviewer in the Philadelphia Inquirer rightly pointed out. Also, apparently Siegfried fell during opening night making the rest of his performance tentative. Still, I wanted to see him after the show so I waited for performers to exit. Nearly all the dancers came out doing something with their phones with little interest in signing programs. I could only imagine how frustrated the artistic director must be working with a cadre of such emotionless, soulless dancers. No apprenticeship here. I suppose an artistic director now has to be careful how to speak to a dancer less he or she be accused of harassment.

6:53 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Bubbas-

Pls send messages to most recent post. No one reads the older stuff. Thanks.

mb

9:22 AM  
Anonymous Pastrami and Coleslaw said...

Bill, also sorry to hear about your health problems. Good luck!

Not much to report up here, rather depressed after waking up to (yet) another school shooting, (yet) another Austin bomb, (yet) more Zuckershmuck conniving, (yet) more Russia B.S. ... shall I go on?

And just 2 days ago I was in a good mood, no computer, no smartphone and saw my first Sandhill Cranes of the year. Two steps forward, three steps back I guess.

10:03 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Pastrami-

Well, at least you didn't see a turkey...unless it was Zuckershmuck. Can someone tell me why the folks Americans regard as heroes (Steve Jobs et al.) are assholes?

mb

10:08 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: Also why our great revolutionary movements--BLM, OWS, Pussy Hat Brigade--fade out overnight? America is actually a satire of itself, it wd seem.

10:10 AM  
Anonymous Insightful said...

Dr. Berman, I see your comments about Steven Pinker. I just want to say that Pinker is actually a Canadian (born AND raised). Also, about Reince Priebus' first name (i know you've kidded about it), it is actually a nickname for his full name, Reinhold, which has been passed down in his family for years. His father is of German descent.

11:35 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

Today’s Tomdispatch offers an essay by Andrew Bacevich, a professor emeritus of international relations and history at Boston University. Bacevich is a former Army officer who has been a constant critic of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Bacevich’s son, Andrew Jr., was an Army infantry officer who died in Iraq in May 2007.

In the article, Bacevich suggests that NYT publisher A.G. Sulzberger might consider having his editors and reporters focus on something besides the “stupefying tomfoolery” of the Trump White House. His suggestion for a new line of enquiry: the seeming normalization of armed conflict, which he sees the writers, editors, and editorial board of the Times as having accepted as our permanent condition.

A couple of Bacevich’s questions that he would wish the Times to pursue: (1). What is our overall objective in this enterprise (of global war); (2). What is our strategy for bringing this war to a successful conclusion.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176400/tomgram%3A_andrew_bacevich%2C_a_memo_to_the_publisher_of_the_new_york_times/#more

Separate issue: if the Jews control the weather, shouldn’t we take steps to open a dialogue with them? This shit is really getting out of hand. Just saw a video of cars and vans in Mississippi that had experienced the hell of baseball-sized hailstones yesterday. Surely the Jewish weather board would listen to reason?

12:01 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

Wild Melee Dept.:

https://www.inquisitr.com/4832996/wwe-style-ihop-brawl-in-memphis-caught-on-video/

Shades of Rayon McIntosh, as IHOP manager body-slams a customer approximately 30 seconds in.

Bill-

I'm so sorry that this is happening to you. We are all pullin' for u.


Sincerely,

Miles

12:21 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

Shades of Mark Ames' bk, maybe, on misdirected anger by people who have no other way of addressing their situation.

Jas-

The tipoff is that those hailstones were in the shape of the star of David.

Insightful-

Didn't take much for Pinker to swallow the American Kool-Aid, I'm thinking. As for Reince: I'm sorry, but only a total moron runs around w/a name like Reince. Reince and Repeat.

mb

1:06 PM  
Anonymous Aaron Thomas said...

Here's some more news on the ever growing pile of evidence about why facebook is pure evil:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/20/facebook-data-cambridge-analytica-sandy-parakilas?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The best thing you can do is stay off the internet as much as possible, avoid facebook, and just unplug when you can. In the end it's meaningless and will be overwhelmed by behaviors of other people around the world, but I think it's still worth unplugging from all this trash.

I know this is nothing new on this blog, but I think it's just another point to add to the list of reasons why you should throw your cell phone in the trash.

1:22 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Aaron-

Meanwhile, America seems to be throwing itself in the trash. The products of an evil society generally tend to be evil. (Duh!) Yrs ago some journalist wrote that "the death instinct hovers over America." At this pt, all the country can generate is death, in one form or another. Trumpi, opioids, poisoned water, progs, pussy hats, Botox, meaningless education, genocide in the Middle East, you name it: it's all death.

mb

1:35 PM  
Blogger Sarasvati said...

Bill, I’m so sorry that you have to face it all again. Holding you in my heart….


1:59 PM  
Blogger comrade simba said...

al-Qa'bong -
Funny how even a sensible rag like Common Dreams seems to have forgotten the US invaded Iraq way back in '91. More of the intelligent are stupid phenomenon I suppose.

2:40 PM  
Anonymous A Leirfall said...

A Leirfall says,

This is a lovely little concept, really.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-a-book-town

3:57 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Leir-

Terrific article, thank you.

comrade-

Henry Giroux wrote me that CD has been censoring his essays; he's apparently too radical for them. Outside of this blog, I'm not entirely sure where one can go to get the real poop.

mb

5:20 PM  
Anonymous Dokaebi said...

Seer Belman & Most Esteemed Wafers,
Inspired by the many lurkers of late emerging from the long shadow of Empire to bask more fully in the radiance that is this blog, so too have I decided to cast aside the veil of ignominious anonymity. I first encountered Dr. Berman's work whilst on a motorcycle tour of New England with my wife back in 2010. We had stopped for lunch at a cafe in one of those tiny, picturesque towns one often passes on the old byways of Connecticutt when I noticed, across the street, that the town library was having a sale of sorts (apparently, to make room on the shelves for newer tomes). Browsing among the offerings, I was drawn to a thin paperback with a row of unlit candles adorning its cover & with the compelling title "The Twilight of American Culture" - and this only for a single Yankee dollar! Of course, resistance was futile, the book was devoured in a weekend, and the ascendancy of a new Wafer was assured.

As an ex-American resident of Shanghai, I'd like to offer an especial greeting to fellow ex-pats and those thinking of joining our ranks. Here's a fine essay on China for those tired of the recycled & propagandized hackery "gracing" the pages of rags like the NYT: https://thesaker.is/history-and-i-china-china-then-and-now-here-and-there/

5:21 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Doka-

Thank you for your worshipful approach to this blog, which (let's face it) is totally appropriate. I esp. enjoyed your use of 'whilst'. As I say to all ex-lurkers: Don't lurk; live! Great that you began yr career as a Wafer with Berm and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, in any case. We look forward to more, and even greater, adulation.

mb

5:59 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

Why ‘Deaths of Despair’ May Be a Warning Sign for America...


https://youtu.be/yXf-xcR8bdA

7:16 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

jj-

If you trash what's impt in human life, you finally kill off human life. Thinkers who point this out, as I note in WAF, always get ignored. Cold comfort, that they can say "I told you so" when 99% of the country has nothing left to live for.

mb

8:16 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

Hey, thanks for the support everybody. It just so happened that I had just crossed the 5yr mark as a pancreatic cancer survivor, a feat I was given just a 3% chance of attaining. It's truly amazing given how much money has been thrown into cancer research in recent decades how little the doctors really seem to know about it. All those great advances are, of course, increasingly for the rich since they are they only ones who can pay for, say, a single Neulasta shot at $10K per dose (I've had a dozen of them).

@MB--Indeed, the CIA (under Bill Clinton) intervened to get Yeltsin reelected--Yeltsin then appointed Putin as his successor. Even if Putin had magic powers and somehow DID change the results of the 2016 election, what goes around...

@Sounds--I used to be an OIG investigator before I retired. We used to joke that we knew when had done a good job when BOTH sides were mad at our results. If DOJ/OIG did its job right, that report will indeed be epic.

Forgive me if someone already linked to this--I've barely paid any attention to Jordan Peterson, but this takedown of him and the fact that anyone takes him seriously makes for great reading: THE INTELLECTUAL WE DESERVE

10:14 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Bill-

It really is an impt question, wh/the author of the critique of Peterson is asking, as to how we got to a state in which a vapid turkey is hailed as a great mind:

"What have we done to end up with this man? His success is our failure, and while it’s easy to scoff at him, it’s more important to inquire into how we got to this point. He is a symptom. He shows a culture bereft of ideas, a politics without inspiration or principle. Jordan Peterson may not be the intellectual we want. But he is probably the intellectual we deserve."

I think the same can be said of so many of our 'celebrity' intellectuals, including Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Pinker, Thos Friedman, David Brooks, and so on. And an obvious answer is that as the culture gets progressively dumber, it becomes increasingly difficult for nearly everyone--including columnists at the Guardian, the NYT, the New Yorker, and elsewhere--to distinguish between shit and Shinola. As early as 1940, Pitirim Sorokin (see essay #21 in AWTY) pointed out that when a civilization collapses, novelty is confused with creativity, and kitsch with art; that what is superficial is viewed as profound. To quote from the critique cited above: "a culture bereft of ideas, a politics without inspiration or principle." This is a perfect description of contemporary America, no? Pinker writes a piece of hollow garbage, and university depts. go hog-wild over it, because much of what the Academy is peddling these days is hollow garbage. As Sorokin tried to tell us, non-thinkers are celebrated as cutting-edge thinkers, because most of the population, 'intellectuals' included, don't really know how to think any more. Critique after critique of Pinker by truly sophisticated analysts (John Gray et al.) have demolished his fatuous books, and this has no impact on his sales, which are thru the roof. We can say the same of Friedman, of Peterson, of Gladwell, and so on. You all can imagine what sort of sales Sorokin had, back in the 40s. When a civilization effectively becomes a joke, what future cd it possibly have?

mb

11:07 PM  
Blogger Nesim Watani said...

@ Bill

Sorry to hear you are having a reoccurrence. My dad got diagnosed with colon cancer and his treatments are coming to an end this April. He knows he will have to have check-ups for the rest of his life. I hope the best for you. :)

@ Wafers I was watching an Al Jazeera special called Iraq after America and all I could think while I watched it was how much Americans do not give a shit about these people and their suffering. What America did to Iraq and its people makes you look at people who wish to save the US with disgust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxhilUOdFZI&t=1s

I am sorry, I know China will be a shitheel too, but I am giddy at the prospect that oneday it will be Americans and Westerns working in the sweatshops to make Chinese goods for China's markets. These people deserve this fate.

11:33 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nesim-

Regarding China: yes, yr rt, that day will come to pass. But I need to say something abt real vs. fake news. Americans' ideas of news, even of history, is that it consists of what CNN and other outlets broadcast on a daily basis. We are supposed to get exercised over alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election, or what Robt Mueller did today, or Trumpi's problems with hookers, or the latest battle with ISIS. None of this crap is real news; it makes no difference whatsoever, vis-à-vis the slow, organic changes going on around us. Consider the following article:

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-xi-speech-20180320-story.html

and the following quote from it:

"There's a whole lot of politicking happening in Beijing," said Yanmei Xie, a senior China policy analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics, a Beijing research firm. "But the whole picture, it's one of long-term strategic vision, of a team with continuity and stability, and with competent management. Basically every single aspect is the opposite of Washington, D.C., right now."

Americans have no sense of history, or of slow, organic changes; and the US gov't has no long-term strategic vision at all. While we invest our energy in short-term trivia, the Chinese are busy expanding their empire, economically speaking. They are, for example, everywhere in Africa, investing, building, and acquiring vast properties and influence. They don't think in terms of days, wh/is the best America and Americans can do (apparently); rather, they think in terms of decades--because this is what wins. They are smart, in short; Americans are (extremely) stupid. The result of this difference will, indeed, show up decades down the road, by which time we will have lost our economic strength, and will be abt as powerful as England on the world stage. Trumpi has the attention span of a gnat, but then Obama's foreign policy was completely ad hoc as well. While we drift directionless, in an ocean of uncertainty, the Chinese have a clear sense of the vector of history, and are laying the groundwork for global dominance, step by step. Americans are a frivolous people; the Chinese, a determined one. Geopolitically speaking, you don't need a crystal ball to realize what the world situation will look like, in broad outlines, by 2040, if not sooner.

A nation of turkeys confronts a nation of eagles, is one way of putting it.

mb

12:44 AM  
Blogger Grandma said...

Dr. B and The Wafers,

Nesim, I so appreciate your comments on the book list from Big Think. I just started reading from that site, and am beginning to agree with your assessment of its intellectual worth or lack thereof.

Sorrowful, I was also drawn to the Atwood Trilogy, I enjoyed the handmaids tale and cats eye, but it's been years since I read them.

Bill, I wish for you the best of all possible outcomes, and have missed your daily links!

Some of you may remember I work for a fed agency (not dod or intel). There is little planning beyond the next big product to produce. Reactivity is most likely. In some fairness, as I've posted before, it can be very difficult to plan for the future without a budget ...

Many posts ago, someone posted an article about one Native American tribe (Northwest North America?) who made decisions only by considering its consequences relative to the next seven generations. What a different world this would be if everyone did the same.

6:21 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Student-

Sorry, a bit too long. Pls limit yrself to half a page (better to be under the limit than over it). Thank you.

mb

7:11 AM  
Anonymous BH said...

I was reading through the Book of Isaiah last week and came across an peculiar phrase that stuck in my mind. Isaiah said the people were "drunk, but not with wine". Before I met Dr. Berman online I always felt this country was going down like the ancient Judhaite and Israelites of old. Those people were extremely wicked---were cruel to the poor, a bunch of cheats, believed everything was going well when really things were crap.

I see in this country mass cruelty, it is even illegal to feed the poor in some places. It seems people who are dishonest are the only ones trusted in business, and we have our prophets of prosperity tell us everything is fine nothing to see here.

We are a drunk nation, but not with wine. I fear things will not end well. And like Dr. Berman I say let it go. You do not have to be a believer to understand why everything is falling apart like they were in Isaiah's day or our day to day. Anytime simple moral standards are not adhered to or are ignored by the greater population you should not be surprised at what you end up with.

At Bill---you kiced cancer in the rear once so do it again.

7:28 AM  
Anonymous Dan said...

Doctor,
With regard to China, I came across articles while in SE Asia recently. Both the Philippines and Cambodia militaries will be doing joint military exercises with China in the near future. Any mention of this in our mainstream (corporate) press? Of course not. One can almost foresee more major countries like Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and South Korea doing likewise. Why really would any country especially in Asia align themselves with the US who, as you say, has now long term strategy except intimidate so they continue to accept our worthless paper currency.
Watched a superb documentary about Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunny. Tunny never became as popular as Dempsey though he did beat him a few times and actually knocked him out of the ring once. Why? Because Tunny committed an unforgivable act. Ready? It was discovered that he read books! An non washable stain.

7:34 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dan-

But what abt Firpo? (George Bellows)

mb

8:13 AM  
Anonymous Mike Kelly said...

Bill Hicks: Take care of your self and please get better asap. Your posts and links are an important part of this blog, imho. I don't what it's like in your neck of the woods, but I hope you don't live too close to a major highway:

http://www.lung.org/our-initiatives/healthy-air/outdoor/air-pollution/highways.html

Move to the sticks if your circumstances permit.

8:23 AM  
Anonymous Transatlantic said...

Henry Giroux too radical for CD? Indy bastions of "free thought" caving to prog censorship ... hey, it's all the rage.

For anyone interested, one of the few (non-academic) voices on the left who has remained relatively sane is Jimmy Dore. His show is quite good, and a bit cathartic for those of us who get it.

9:37 AM  
Anonymous DioGenes said...

On Daoism

https://youtu.be/Ucbp9CHWPwA

At 5 min on... "The best action is inaction... An emperor or ruler who brings in laws has failed."

9:58 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That Peterson critique that you shared Bill is on point, thank you. I admit, I was one of those that thought Peterson was "cool" but am now finally seeing through his bullshit. He is a douchebag. Moral of the story: always think twice before taking any YouTube star seriously.

10:01 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Trans-

He didn't cave at all; he just got rejected.

mb

10:02 AM  
Anonymous Dokaebi said...

Belman-nim,
Indeed. To post, is to live! -nim, btw, is the Korean post-personal address for "esteemed" or "revered" - honorifics for which you are long overdue, Sir. Thank you for all you have done for us all. Words elude me, to be sure. Good God, but for you, I might yet be striving for tenure in some morally-untenable-God-forsaken-propaganda-factory-State-U! Think of the waste! The final escape, the repudiation of it all, is... bliss! Onward & downward! ~Dok

10:24 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Doka-

Many thanks. I bask in your admiration. But in future pls observe 24-hr rule (only 1 post per day).

mb

10:28 AM  
Anonymous troutbum said...

Dr. MB and fellow Wafers:

Of all places there was a wafers sighting today at the Wash. Post. An opinion column cited an upcoming book and quoted the author.
The article's title is " No, billionaires won’t save us. That’s a myth that links Zuckerberg and Trump".
It cites Anand Giridharadas and his soon to be published book is "Winners Take All : The Elite Charade of Changing the World". Anand says the seductive notion of changing the world is “a powerful tool for keeping things exactly the way they are.” At most, the rich and powerful might concoct some small-scale charitable effort that makes little difference — he calls this “the side hustle of virtue.” "The basics stay the same, by design: Progress continues to benefit the privileged far more than those who truly need the help. The status quo “siphons the gains from progress to the top.” Growing wealth inequality is just one measure of that".

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/no-billionaires-wont-save-us-thats-a-myth-that-links-zuckerberg-and-trump/2018/03/20/88c2fec0-2c5c-11e8-8688-e053ba58f1e4_story.html?utm_term=.f58bbb88720f

11:28 AM  
Anonymous Quiet Desperation said...

From John Steppling, covers the whole enchilada:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/21/it-is-us/

Bill, hang in brother...my sister in MA. was just diagnosed on Tues.

Dr.B, is AWTY available anyplace other than the Bezo's zoo? I purchased Neurotic Beauty @ Seattle Books but there's no there there (Bermanworks) anymore. Just read Nomadland (J.Bruder) and I think I'm done with Amazon. Onward and downward friends...

12:39 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

@Bill 'Been a subject of Sickcare realm most all my life, very rich&very poor have good ins coverage. Life expectancy for people with major mental illness is something like 57, I'm 53 so will prob soon be where you are now - I have massive nerve damage both feet numb almost up to knee, hands burning as the nerves slowly die (not related to diabetes) - psychotropic meds?/cost for being alive/out of hospital? Medicaid is best ins in US - I've never been denied even very sophisticated tests/meds. My consolation is I prob won't have to endure the next very nasty 30 yrs. Chins up mate! Your posts are some of the most insightful.

New American Jazz - tried to watch NCAA tourn basketball. The players are obviously having the time of their life - incredible athletic ability like watching Jazz. It's also great to see black folk assert more influence on the game unlike anything seen in NFL. But I can't fucking watch it. I can look past the corruption etc but the commercials are a complete assault on the senses, my brain just can't tolerate that much radioactive exposure. If they could shake off the parasitic barnacles of $$ it really is a beautiful sport.

People watching is way more fun if you imagine x-ray vision. What a stupid looking species - curvature of the spine from when we walked on all fours, a bowling ball size skull, huge eye sockets, and a wicked shit eating grin with an appetite for destruction.

12:53 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

MB-

Many thanks for your perspective about the need to look past the headlines, so to speak. Indeed, the signs are increasingly clear that America's world dominion is crumbling. This, while Trumpo, Congress, and the American people are engaged in a farcical circle jerk w/each other. Let's Make America Great Again! Don't make me laugh...

I also think yr right to put yr money on China as the next global hegemon. China and its trillion-dollar infrastructure program will integrate Eurasia into an economic powerhouse the likes of which the world has never seen. A simple observation that I've made -- that my or may not mean bupkis in the larger analysis -- is that like any other academic, I've had Chinese students in my classes. W/o fail, these students are serious, smart and hardworking. They kinda remind me of my dad's generation, the generation who built the American empire, of course.

Miles

12:58 PM  
Blogger Jack Lattemann said...

Greetings to Wafers everywhere from Cascadia.

Bill – Our thoughts and best wishes are with you. We greatly appreciate your regular insights and observations.

Next week apparently, Olympia and vicinity will sound like a combat zone as the military plans late night special ops combat drills with low-flying helicopters over residential areas. I can hardly wait. Getting ready for the domestic insurgencies?

http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/military/article205518379.html

Meanwhile, up in Seattle, things apparently have changed since I rented there. Looking for a place to live anywhere in the city has become a free-for-all frenzy. The Seattle City Council is considering a moratorium on “rent bidding websites” in an environment of record increases in rents and housing prices:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-may-ban-rent-bidding-websites/

2:14 PM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

@Bill Hicks, I am very sorry to hear about your health problem. I hope you get better soon. Best wishes to you.

Regarding China, I agree that China will likely overtake the United States as the global hegemon in the near future. However I am not at all looking forward to it. China shares many of the bad aspects of American society (tech worship, hustling, crass materialism) plus an added layer of authoritarianism that is worse than what even we have in post-9/11 America. For example, China’s social credit system is something straight out of a dystopian novel.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/16/17130366/china-social-credit-travel-plane-train-tickets

It is a shame that a country like France is not the global hegemon. I sometimes seriously wonder if we would have been better off if Napoleon had won and the French Empire was the world’s premier power.

2:27 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Dr Berman - Sorry for the previous long post but I wanted to ask, does the Pentagon really not have a long term plan? What the hell are they using over a trillion dollars a year for then? Obama wanted to join the TPP and TTIP, wasn't that was part of a long term plan to move manufacturing out of China and into those countries? And what the hell are all the wars for? I used to think to control oil which meant controlling Japan and Europe cuz everyone needs oil.

Anyways, here is another good article on, Peterson. He is clearly angry and bitter but he alone, isn't a problem, the bitter, angry men that follow him are. I think he can be seen as a case study of what the average American feels and thinks. Millions of angry bitter men who want to be alpha isn't a very positive sign, lot's of them are open neo-nazis. With the right leadership, the evil America is capable of has no limits, thank god Trump is a moron.

2:31 PM  
Anonymous 3rd Party Poster said...

This is the most dishonest book review I have ever read. Does he seriously believe that human progress "is [*only*!?] a matter of faith"? How can you really think ending poverty is an unworthy goal because of the one percenters? Pinker might be mistaken but these are not dishonorable human goals.


The Wizard and the Prophet: On Steven Pinker and Yuval Noah Harari
written by John Faithful Hamer
http://quillette.com/2018/03/18/wizard-prophet-steven-pinker-yuval-noah-harari/

^^^This one, however, is very astute! Harari's books are great fodder for an argument against Pinker's. Especially his book "Sapiens"

2:38 PM  
Anonymous BrotherMaynard said...

Much thanks for the link to the Peterson article. The article helped me see right through him. Loved the 'pancake-dragon' story: pseudo-intellectual nonsense. In the same vein, Niall Ferguson is also a pseudo-intellectual hack / celebrity professor. He goes around speaking to the 1% and telling them how brilliant they are. Flattery will get you everywhere.

Douthat has a good article on how Trump won because he hacked traditional (not social) media:
https://nyti.ms/2FZU6J5
NBC spent a decade promoting Trump as a genius billionaire businessman. It's no great surprise that Americans (who don't read) believed it. He neglects to mention that Trump also won because the Democrats rigged the process to nominate a corrupt candidate with the charm and charisma of a dead fish.

Someone had a good comment where he quoted Amusing Ourselves To Death: “When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.” This was written in 1985! We are dead people, walking corpses. The only path to life is Waferism.

BrotherMaynard

2:40 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Bro-

I think I used that quote as the epigraph of one of my bks. Twilight, perhaps.

Student-

Pentagon wd seem to have short-term plans, but not long ones. It's mostly reactive, as far as I can see.

Tom-

Check out my Preface to the Chinese edn of WAF. It's archived on this blog, a few yrs back.

Quiet-

Only alternative I can think of is to have a local bkstore buy 10 copies or so from Amazon under "Expanded Distribution." Then you buy a copy from them.

trout-

Thanks for the ref. Be sure to always, always capitalize Wafer.

mb

4:29 PM  
Blogger Michael Burgess said...

Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:

Here is an extended rant by John Steppling - a rant which I pretty much agree with and wish more people could appreciate. I occasionally subject my friends to smaller rants of similar contents, but I always try to include some comedic bits. Ah! But questioning reality and authority is SOOO UnAmerican! Very few people would want to read such an essay - too long I suppose and that time might cut into reality TV time or texting!

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/21/it-is-us/

4:36 PM  
Anonymous Esca Dreg said...

Barbara Ehrenreich: Bright Sided, "Visualize good things and good things will happen to you."
https://youtu.be/KvwyhSeLZT8?t=928

The first 6 pages will change your life. Don't whine -go buy the book!
https://www.inc.com/carmine-gallo/the-first-6-pages-of-bill-gates-favorite-book-will-change-your-life-and-next-500-pages-arent-bad-either.html
"If you're pessimistic about the state of world today, Gates and Pinker have a message for you: "This bleak assessment of the state of the world is wrong. And not just a little wrong--wrong wrong, flat-earth wrong, couldn't-be-more-wrong." The quote appears on the first page of Pinker's new book, Enlightenment Now. Bill Gates calls it his new "favorite book of all time." Pinker and Gates are optimists. They see the world differently than most people, and they have the data to prove it. In the first few pages of Pinker's book, he makes the point that civilization has made "spectacular progress" in nearly every possible way. Here's the kicker--almost nobody knows about it because most people focus on the negative. Change your thinking; change your life."

Bill Gates, the crème de la crème hi-intellect of America, quotes North Korea to support his argument of equality in America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5dC_er8ZPA
Pinker's Paradise of Progress: Maybe we should send him there? Gates too, to stroke each other's, optimistically.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTJWdtX90C0

4:42 PM  
Anonymous WuduFugel said...

Lecture by historian Alfred McCoy on the decline of US Global Power: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GygmGSwvcI

Dunno if he is really a Wafer, he views Eisenhower America with too much reverence

On Trump and globalism, I feel skeptical when people tell me that the guy has some master plan for fighting against the global economic system. Where is the evidence for this? Look at the legislative record over the last year, or listen to any speech of his where he goes off-script. Yeah he has some core principals, like some crude form of economic nationalism, but he cannot string together two coherent sentences on any policy matter. He knows nothing. The only thing he is planning is where to get his next Filet-o-Fish or his next tweet. I have not seen this many people project positive qualities onto a politician who doesn't deserve them since 2008 with Obama. But this is an order of a different magnitude.

I worked in the hotel biz for many years, and among hoteliers Trumpi was mostly viewed as a joke. He didn't really like running hotels, he liked to license his name out to properties so they would pay him a fee.

4:58 PM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

I read that Powder Mountain article for as long as I could endure before the nausea overwhelmed me. The French had a great expression for dealing with people like that: "...à la lanterne!"

Hang in there, "Bill Hicks"(it seems weird to send good wishes to such a pseudonym, but the guy behind the name is among the best here). Maybe change your handle to "George Burns," instead of the name of a comic who died young.

Coincidentally, I went to the ballet last weekend as well, although throughout the showing of "Anastasia" by Ballet Jörgen, I kept wishing to see something more like the pas de quatre from "Swan Lake." There was a good scene depicting the toil of pre-Revolutionary Russian peasants and workers, though. While they made their cell-phone etiquette announcement I was wondering why they should even have to ask. Then again, someone in front of me filmed the whole ballet on her phone.

As for progs complaining about Russian meddling in US elections, cry me a Volga! I'd list the examples of US meddling in other countries' affairs over the last century or so, but to do so would easily violate the Belman half-page policy.

7:22 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

al-

Indeed, entire bks have been written on the subject. As for the Powder Mtn gang: I have been trying to find a reason why these clowns shdn't be beaten w/in an inch of their lives and then thrown on a dung heap, but I failed.

mb

7:37 PM  
Blogger jjarden said...

Austin bomber's family: 'We had no idea of the darkness that Mark must have been in'

To the Condit Family.....You can convey all the shock and surprise you like, but it doesn’t negate the fact that you raised and unleashed a Sociopath into society.


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/21/austin-bombers-family-had-no-idea-darkness-that-mark-must-have-been-in.html

7:44 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dio-

In addn to a time problem, you have a length problem. Pls make sure yr posts do not exceed half a page. Thanks.

mb

12:06 AM  
Anonymous Nigel said...

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/554054/
An interesting angle from alison gopnik on Steven Pinker’s new book, one influenced by Isaiah Berlin’s value pluralism

6:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wafers will very much enjoy this!
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/cambridge-analytica-scandal-elitist/21236#.WrORxchG0Wo

Kanye

7:27 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nigel-

It's gd, but it still credits much of Pinker's argument, including those aspects that have been debunked by very astute critics (and which constitute the heart of the bk). Gopnik drank a gd part of the Kool-Aid, imo.

mb

7:42 AM  
Anonymous Grizzly said...

interesting fact: since sandy hook more US kids killed by guns than US soldiers killed in wars since 9/11

7k kids....

how sweet....

8:03 AM  
Anonymous Goldstein said...

https://theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/mar/22/langlands-bell-zuckerberg-facebook-tech-ceos-are-like-cult-leaders-internet-giants-big-data

'Tech CEOs are like cult leaders' – the artists taking on Facebook and big data

12:27 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

@al-Q--what's really weird is that I started using "Bill Hicks" (who died of pancreatic cancer) as a pseudonym about 4 years before I got the same disease myself. Indeed, I should have used "George Burns" instead.

The latest in declinist headlines:

Your Temporary Secretary of State: Ivanka Trump. Yep--we've reached the point where this vacuous Kardashian-wannabee is going to start the negotiations over war or peace with North Korea. Sleep well.

Parkland Shooter's Brother Wants to Set Up a Fan Club for His Brother. How much you want to bet there will soon be more of these douchebags than there are registered Wafers?

Wisconsin authorities hunting for serial toilet clogger costing city thousands of dollars. Note that the "serial clogger" is apparently a woman and that the toilet in question is inside a police department headquarters building--and it's been 18 months and the cops haven't been able to catch her.

1:01 PM  
Anonymous Pastrami and Coleslaw said...

The Population Bomb revisited:

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/22/collapse-civilisation-near-certain-decades-population-bomb-paul-ehrlich

1:07 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Too many people, too much consumption:

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/22/collapse-civilisation-near-certain-decades-population-bomb-paul-ehrlich

Incidentally, I'm currently reading an engrossing biography about radical political/environmental activist Murray Bookchin, "Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin" by Janet Biehl. Parts of this narrative have literally moved me to tears.

Miles

2:24 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

I actually knew Murray, back in the day, and invited him to the U of Victoria in BC when I was teaching there. He was a real character.

Pastrami-

Check out the foto that shows (supposedly) "High consumption by the rich." What you actually see are the lower classes fighting over TV's at Wal-Mart's (or so it wd seem). O, their values are so much different from those of the rich, eh?

mb

2:36 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Anjin-

Cdn't run it (half-page rule). Pls compress and re-send. Thank you.

mb

3:13 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

Why read a bk, why learn a different language, why learn a musical instrument? Just give your 1yo child marijuana.

A North Carolina mother helped her 1yo daughter smoke marijuana in videos of the child puffing on a cigarillo.

Authorities were alerted by concerned social media users after videos of the 1 yo girl smoking sparked outrage. One of the videos showed the hand of an adult off-screen holding the cigarillo to the girl's lips. The child makes a cooing and happy sound, appears to inhale and lets out a puff of smoke before turning toward the adult with an expressionless look.

"expressionless," dumb as shit, propagandised, and ontologically and intellectually empty, etc.... Onward and downward!



5:02 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Mike-

Yr last line is a gd description of most Americans, obviously.

We have no future.

mb

5:35 PM  
Anonymous Dokaebi said...

Belman-nim & Estimable Wafers,
No argument here that there are disturbing aspects of China's Rise. In Shanghai, the techno-buffoons are legion and dumb-phones have become, for many, the Nexus of All Things (including banking - few young people carry any physical currency anymore). Still, as to the lurking authoritarianism & heavy-handedness ascribed to the gov't, I have never witnessed or felt anything at all oppressive (and which I used to, almost constantly, whilst living in the US). For instance, the police presence here is nearly non-existent, as are the presence of CCTV cameras, which are ubiquitous in America. It is also true that the internet is censored here, but the proliferation of cheap & reliable VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) ensures that most Chinese have consistent access to an unfilterable internet. I suppose this may not be true of impoverished provinces like Anhui, but in the more developed regions the cries of the West lamenting the censorious nature of China's regime are greatly overstated. I have more to write, but the length limit is looming, so let me say simply that anything you are "informed" about re: China from a mainstream, Western source should be read with a significant degree of skepticism.

6:29 PM  
Anonymous Millennial Realist said...

We certainly have no future with John Bolton as the new national security advisor:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/22/politics/trump-replace-national-security-adviser-mcmaster-bolton/index.html

John Bolton is a declinist's dream. Unfortunately, it could mean the end of mankind.

7:18 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Doka-

Thanks for info. I may have mentioned my Preface to the Mandarin edn of WAF, which is archived on this blog (several yrs ago). Also check this out:

https://www.amazon.com/Foreign-Babes-Beijing-Behind-Scenes/dp/0393059022/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1521760580&sr=1-1&keywords=babes+in+beijing

The author used to periodically check the NYT online when she was lvg in Beijing, and was amazed that the reportage on China had no relation to what was actually happening on the street. NYT=New York Turkeys, apparently. What a deluded country America is, really.

mb

7:20 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Mil-

Many yrs ago, I knew someone who worked in a govt office in Maryland headed by Bolton. Literally everyone in that office hated him, as he was imperious and treated his employees like dirt. They also regarded him as a consummate dunce; a warmonger and a jackass. (His face does resemble the rear end of a horse.) So yr rt: from a declinist pt of view, he's perfect. Unless he gets hold of the nuclear codes. In which case my persistent letters to the Pentagon abt nuking Toronto and Paris may finally have an effect. Go, Bolti!

Speaking of letters, and brain-damaged individuals, I recently discovered from the Census Bureau that the US pop. is 327 million. So I wrote them and said, "Could you break this down in terms of dolts, dunces, morons, turkeys, buffoons, and douche bags?" So far no reply, but this info will be of great value to all Wafers. (Of course, some of these categories overlap.) Wafers are encouraged to draft imaginary replies to my query.

mb

7:58 PM  
Blogger Mark Deagle said...

Dr Berman With Bolton being pick by Crack pot Trump or con man Trump what ever you like the most. We will be in a war very soon. So the end is coming to the U.S.A faster than even you thought. I hope the fools that voted for this clown are happy now. Keep up the good work even though the people of this country will never get it until its too late, If even than. LOL

8:11 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I don't know if you guys have been following the facebook/cambridge analytica story. While the media sees the story as some breach of privacy, I think us Wafers can see it through a different angle. If Trump, Bannon, etc, had access to such information then it means that they were saying exactly what the American people wanted to hear. In other words, Trump might or might not be as much of a piece of shit as he seems but the people who voted for him are. The true soul of America is Trump, we know this because their most personal details, their most private conversations gave created Trump, he after all is just an opportunists.

8:48 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Mark-

I too am delighted by the Bolton apptment. What a string of morons: Rex, Reince (what a name!), Steve Bannon, Betsy, etc. The sheer violence and destructiveness being unleashed by Trumpi is an inspiration to declinists everywhere. May he continue on this wonderful path!

As for Americans getting it: fat chance. I'm still waiting for a Census Bureau report on the Dunce Factor (DF), but what all of us here know for sure is that at least 99% of those 327 million have shit for brains.

mb

8:59 PM  
Blogger k_pgh said...

Regarding Murray Bookchin, I recall that he was worried about the rise of anarcho-primitivists and lifestyle anarchists.

While not a large sample size, an acquaintance became a self-styled and self-described anarcho-primitivist with all the trappings – no soap, no detergent, no washing machine, etc.

He would go on to design drones for the U.S. military and to think quite highly of the Obama administration.

Just can’t imagine what Mr. Bookchin might have been worried about...

9:05 PM  
Blogger Balázs said...

The appointment of Bolton is truly amazing. This guy is a clown even by US standards. An entity who cannot be taken seriously. An actual idiot put into power. This is REALLY the end in sight.

7:05 AM  
Blogger Paolo said...

Dr.Berman,

Apoologies if I missed your response to Jordan Peterson's arguments. But what exactly do you have against the guy? He speaks a lot about cultural Marxists on college campuses, which from what I can tell is a real problem.

11:37 AM  

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