Calling All NY Wafers
Well, the excitement mounts. We are only a few weeks away from the 6th Annual NY Wafer Summit Meeting (6ANYWSM), which will occur on April 13 at 1pm. Wafers are threatening to fly in from LA and Indonesia, and I think a couple of penguins from Antarctica as well. I am now asking all active participants on this blog who plan to attend this Incredible Event to send your email address to me at mauricio@morrisberman.com. I will then send you the venue, and we can meet there on April 13. This is classified information; do not reveal the venue to anyone!
posted by Morris Berman at 12:57 PM
136 Comments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfXu1Dz4qPQ
Waferism is finished! No one will attend the convention because of this
miracle: The rich are UNtaxed and the Feds pay them for the money it must
borrow. MB could manage a fund from Wafers and lend it to the US gov't.
The sheer hypocrisy of this botoxed douchebaguette is enough to make one's head explode: Goose Meets Gander: Pelosi Refuses To Turn Over Tax Records.
Meanwhile, slackjawed, drooling Americans sat enraptured by the latest nothingburger CONgressional hearing today, while on the other side of the world nuclear war looms as a real possibility. Amazing that it only took 30 years after the ending of the Cold War for Americans to collectively forget the potential horror of nuclear war. I read that collectively India and Pakistan have about 320 nukes, which if they were all detonated at once would be a potential human extinction level even in the very unlikely event that things don't escalate beyond the subcontinent. But hey, Cohen's testimony means THIS time is surely IT for Trump, RIGHT?
Bad as all of that may be, sometimes it's the small stories that make me realize just how fucked we are as a nation: Potential Bill Would No Longer Require School Nurses in Iowa School Districts. Why? To save money on "administrative costs." Of course, no one seems to question the insane increase in administrative costs that results from having a half-dozen cops stationed at every school because we won't enact sane gun laws. Best of luck to the next Iowa school kid who begins choking on a shitty school lunch. You're on your own, kid.
The Wafer summit may get confused for some kind of Catholic convention in the wrong ears! :) The Chicago one was great, all should go.
@MB and other Wafers, are there any views out there on why exactly American mathematical education is so poor? Even with all the STEM idiocy, nobody seems to really know or appreciate the real meaning of math. I feel like the dryness of the American teaching style closed off the whole subject for me.
I've been trying to work my way through Euclid's "Elements". What an absolute joy.
In Our Time: Euclid's Elements
I especially appreciate the suggestion of the "Elements" as an alternative to the Bible. There is no royal road to geometry!
Dio-
Us Wafers have *already* transubstantiated!
mb
Good morning, WAFers--
I'd be remiss if I didn't pass along this gem:
https://www.wtnh.com/news/unusual-stories/2-arrested-in-buffet-brawl-over-crab-legs-1/1816967305
O&D--
Brian
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
How could Andre Vltchek cite the bloody and vicious history of the West and the present foreign policy of regime change by the United States and actually think that the people ANYWHERE IN THE WEST will rise up and demand change!? Yes, small numbers perhaps but nothing like the ground swell of unrest necessary. Sounds bit like Chris Hedges. I feel for the Venezuelans and if anyone knows of aid groups that are sending vital necessities to that country, please post it on the blog.
https://off-guardian.org/2019/02/27/regime-change-is-urgently-needed-in-washington/
Brian-
What's wrong with Chequita's hair?
mb
Article on how Hispanic voters could help Donald Trump win in 2020. So much for the theory that demographic change would inevitably deliver victories for the Democrats.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/02/24/2020-hispanic-voters-donald-trump-225192
Greetings MB and Wafers,
A couple of Wafer-like jokes about the Cohen hearings:
1. Best damn reality show ever, the series finale of the "End of America."
2. A racist, a conman, and a cheat walk into a bar. Bartender looks up, and says, "What can I get you this evening, Mr. Trump?"
Meanwhile,
Howard Webb, 31, arrested for dipping his testicles in a salsa container:
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2019/02/26/maryville-howard-matthew-webb-food-tampering-dinner-delivered/2993613002/
Miles
ps: Dan: Currently reading a book you might like: "Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year" by Steve Turner.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/24/no-waivers-allowed-for-us-businesses-in-latest-round-of-chinese-tariffs.html
an old number is 47,000 companies seeking exemption from dumb D's tariffs of Chinese exports. The joke is that the Feds anticipated just a few thousand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WKLskz1w9k
Now we are really talking of a solid basis for collapse of USA: the BIG money abandons
America. They clearly see that the average Joe Shopper is sinking into debt and is not
much of a customer compared to the Chinese hundreds of millions holding 1/3 the national
debt of the US. One can imagine white kids getting jobs in China just to pay off their
student loans. Certainly Mao learned from the Japanese that if an Asian country can
keep out white imperialists, it can have autonomous modernization and prosperity.
More on how worthless progs are. Senator Warren turns into a hawk over Israel and admits "demographic realities to the myriad of threats to the "liberal democracy" in a dangerous place that is Israel.
https://mondoweiss.net/2019/02/elizabeth-demographic-palestinian/
This is the same liberal democracy that was found trying to sterilize its Ethiopian Jewish population through forced birth control shots in 2013.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-gave-birth-control-to-ethiopian-jews-without-their-consent-8468800.html
@Dio, I was a HS math teacher once upon a time. I was hired Mid-fall for overcrowding in the math classes.
For Algebra 1, the textbook was "theory" which we ignored completely except for the problem sets. These were the students who were supposed to take the national standardized test! No problem for me, they learned, most passed, and admin begged me to stay, but grad school was calling.
As a first year teacher with 0 experience, I was given an inclusion class: half gen pop and half "emotionally disabled". Oh, and the other teachers got to pick which students I got, so you can imagine. It was, however, one of the most rewarding things I've done. A lot of the students made me cry in the sense of their situation, or just that no one had ever treated them with respect. Exhausting, however, because I didn't have my own room, either. I changed rooms every period (and sometimes buildings). With four preps (four different classes to teach). I had almost ZERO issues with behavior.
i sometimes wonder if I had stayed would I eventually have been fired for teaching my way?
Hola a los Waferes,
@Krakhed - your comment reminds me of this lyric produced by Bob Dylan in 1964:
"And if my thought dreams could be seen
they'd prob'ly put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright ma, it's life and life only."
O&D!
This appears very important to many americans and brits. Forget student loans, health care, long term care, jobs, food insecurity, mental health, arts, etc..etc...
What's the sex...(oh, PC sorry, "gender") of the royale baby?
https://www.thecut.com/2019/02/meghan-markle-prince-harry-baby-boy-or-girl.html
@Tom S--some key quotes from that article you posted: 1). "As a whole, Hispanic-Americans are becoming politically more and more like non-Hispanic white Americans." In other words, douchebags--likely because most of those who have immigrated here permanently were not fleeing oppression but were hoping to get their own hustle on. 2). "Hispanics, roughly half of whom are Catholic (and another quarter who are former Catholics), skew conservative on social issues, including abortion." This jives with a 2016 post-mortem I read not long after the election, proving that the Dems really are dumb enough to believe that minorities will ALWAYS vote for them no matter what, and shows how accustomed they are to seeing people as symbols rather than as real human beings. 3). "Hispanic approval of congressional Democrats, and of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer individually, is poor." It shows yet again just how awful the Dumbocratic "leadership" is that these two shitbirds weren't taken out with the trash a long time ago.
@Dio--I was never very good at math, but it might have been a different story had I, like you, not had such piss poor math teachers. On the other hand, I had some excellent history and social science teachers (this was back in the 1970s), which is probably what sowed the seeds of my Waferdom.
Wish I could join you in New York MB, Wafers and Waferettes, but since being questioned at the border and detained for 2 hours in a room full of tattooed latinos in JFK last time I went to New York (I was there for a 4-week bartending course and they couldn't "understand"), I don't think I am ever going to go back to the USA. Please organise something in Europe next time MB. An Italian Wafer summit for your book launch maybe?
Meanwhile, to-laugh-or-cry department:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/01/youth-climate-strikers-we-are-going-to-change-the-fate-of-humanity
Kanye
Vic-
Current US national debt is $22 trillion. Chinese holdings of that are abt $1.3 trillion, last time I checked.
Jeff-
Gd I'm not big on salsa.
Dan-
I assume yr coming to NY. Pls send me an email.
mb
Waferatti: Alas, I shall not be able to join y'all at the summit, but hopefully some of you have time to go see one of my favorite paintings on view at the Met:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435904?exhibitionId=%7bf09f2f10-eee2-4ecb-8e2a-c6c9669ba1b2%7d&oid=435904&pkgids=512&pg=0&rpp=20&pos=10&ft=*&offset=20
while you're there you can shake your fist in the general direction of this show too:
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/native-american-group-denounces-met-s-exhibition-of-indigenous-objects
All the Rembrandts: The Rijksmuseum Puts All 400 Rembrandts It Owns on Display for the First Time | Open Culture
http://www.openculture.com/2019/02/all-the-rembrandts.html
Imagine the kind of mass transit system cld b built if Americans were willing to pay 550$ a month. Seems that's the average car payment these days with loan periods stretching to 84 months and beyond. Lots of risky loans too, it's the housing bubble shifted to suv. Check out how much people are willing to pay for the privilege of looking cool @ a stoplight or sitting in traffic on the "highway."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/3001818002
@Bill Hicks- Another reason why Hispanics in the US tend to have conservative views is because many of them are Evangelicals and we all know how Evanglelicals think. Unfortunately many Hispanics in the US believe in that bullshit called the American dream. Anybody, no matter their race, ethnicity, color, religion, etc. that believes in that American dream crap and follow and assimilate into American culture is a lost cause.
You also mentioned how your math teachers were no good. I had that same problem with math and science. I was never really into those subjects but also most of the math and science teachers that I had were inept and were of poor quality and I assume, just like most ppl in the US, that they were just in it for the money or whatever no good reason. Some of the history teachers I had were very good and I did like their classes. However, I will honestly say that alot of the things that I learned about history and the world were things that I learned on my own. I used to go to libraries and bookstores and read about things that I was interested in and things that were not taught in those schools.
My little theory about why math education is particularly bad- because most Americans assume math to be 'useful', math is never given any perspective wider than 'problem solving'. For this reason all of the math American students are told is so educationally important (STEM!) mostly consists of rote, easily computerized operations.
In my college prep HS physics class, I remember one teacher who would say, "Does anybody really want me to derive this" and then laugh and never do so. I of course really wanted him to; isn't learning the source of the equations way more interesting than plugging and chugging? Then at university surprise surprise, nobody knows how to do pure math after that kind of 'merican education.
Keep in mind I'm talking top ten percent institutions here- the system at its 'best'.
Dio-
Where is the American Cauchy? Gauss?
mb
Bernie Sanders Is Making Changes for 2020, but His Desire for Control Remains
NEWS: The Bernie consultants walked away after Bernie & Jane rejected their launch ad and own their own booked time at a Burlington studio to cut a 10 minute+ spot, that Bernie wrote himself, in front of a faux bookcase
Hah!
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/us/politics/bernie-sanders-president-2020-brooklyn.html
I came across an interesting headline in the Guardian - Democracy has failed in Nigeria when voters no longer care who wins.
I was immediately struck with the idea that this headline could be used endlessly... just leave a blank for the country's name and fill in as necessary.
I submit this modest progressive idea to whoever wants to use it as part of the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/01/democracy-failed-nigeria-turnout-presidential-election
Hola MB and Wafers,
This just in:
Laquisha Jones sentenced to 15 yrs in prison for attacking 92 yr old Rodolfo Rodriquez with a brick, and telling him to go back to his country:
https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2019/02/28/woman-sentenced-to-15-years-behind-bars-for-smashing-91-year-old-stranger-with-brick/
What the fuck is wrong w/people?
Miles
America: Police found a "deranged person standing outside in the cold hugging a pillow" was actually just a cardboard cutout of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell
http://www.fox9.com/news/police-called-to-check-on-cardboard-cutout-of-mypillow-ceo
Why does South Korea’s president support the peace talks with North Korea? Doesn’t he have any respect for the short-term goals of the Democratic Party and associated pundits? Can he be tried for treason?
https://nypost.com/2019/03/01/south-korea-leader-vows-to-work-with-north-despite-collapsed-talks-with-us/
I love it when the news reader intruduces a particularly gory news story by saying, "some of the images in this story may be upsetting to some people." I sld certainly hope so! Who are these 'disturbed' people who can't stand up and take it like a proud American? @least pbs limits the warning to "details" of the event ...
https://youtu.be/x-6kUk5-lo4
Check this out Wafers:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/religion-workism-making-americans-miserable/583441/
A great book that I enjoyed in the positive psychology movement was The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom Paperback by Jonathan Haidt
"This fresh and original book goes to the heart of what people have found out about happiness, across cultures and times. Enjoyable, important, and eminently readable."
―Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of FLOW
Haidt's most recent is The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
"This is a book for anyone who is confused by what is happening on college campuses today, or has children, or is concerned about the growing inability of Americans to live, work, and cooperate across party lines."
And, wow! Some great psychological documentation of a nation of grownup children
https://www.amazon.com/Coddling-American-Mind-Intentions-Generation/dp/0735224897/ref=pd_sbs_14_3/154-4676501-3317120?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0735224897&pd_rd_r=f9efb609-3d13-11e9-b620-a3e971ab8f02&pd_rd_w=GCnYN&pd_rd_wg=fgzBz&pf_rd_p=588939de-d3f8-42f1-a3d8-d556eae5797d&pf_rd_r=CDDPR6JY2BMYEG8SCBWD&psc=1&refRID=CDDPR6JY2BMYEG8SCBWD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0ms_dmY6V8
MB will have to completely revise his thesis about USA once he glances at the above
item. Do we see monetary mysticism and Trumpish Dialectics? YES!! Is this the
miracle to put America right back at the top where it belongs? Let your readers
know that franchises are still available.
The Oscars started as a hustle:
The Academy Awards began as an effort of appeasement. It was the late 1920s, and Louis B. Mayer—the studio head who was one of the founders of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer—was worried about the spread of unionization throughout the movie industry. Wanting to keep the studio workers in his employ from organizing, he came up with a canny solution: He founded a collective, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, that would, among other things, distribute prizes to Hollywood’s creators—and that would help, Mayer hoped, to keep producers and actors and other laborers of the film industry in his thrall. “I found that the best way to handle [moviemakers] was to hang medals all over them,” Mayer would later note. “If I got them cups and awards,” he reasoned, “they’d kill themselves to produce what I wanted. That’s why the Academy Award was created.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/03/the-power-structure-oscars/554837/
Good day Wafers
Cleaning up some old vinyl and came across my copy of "Black-Man's Burdon
by Eric Burdon and War. Yes the Animals guy. The source of the album title is a pun on
a 1920 book by E. D. Morel entitled 'The Black Man's Burden' and occupies a
juxtaposition to Rudyard Kipling poem entitled 'The White Man's Burden'.
Yes the same journalist, author who penned Gunga Din, Jungle Book , The Man
Who Would Be King, etc.
The poem is about the Philippine-American War and strongly encourages the
USA to assume colonial control of the Filipino people and their country. An
interesting poetic directive of American imperialism from outside American
culture even back then. Curiosity can be an interesting trip sometimes.
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5478/
This is has got to be one of the most dead on quotes I've ever read that shows just how internalized the Hustling Tradition is in the American psyche.
"I asked Gaudet and Thompson how, as self-employed entrepreneurs, they got their healthcare.
“Right now I don’t even have healthcare,” Thompson said.
“I go to the emergency room,” Gaudet said, laughing.
“I just go to the emergency room,” Thompson agreed.
I asked if they would support higher taxes for millionaires if it meant that people like them would get free healthcare. Gaudet didn’t hesitate. “No, because one day we might be the millionaires.”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/02/why-donald-trump-could-win-again-by-dave-eggers
Regarding Cauchy, it's surprising to see the difference in religious men in the past vs the way people perceive it today. I think most people get their information from TV or Facebook, so they've likely never heard of Cauchy or anyone else that isn't a current celebrity.
I also notice how today people are OBSESSED with their personal comforts over everything else. People who seem very smart (e.g. high paying job), are really dumb as a rock when they aren't talking about their job. It's hard to even have a conversation with people since many of them have no point of reference except what's on TV or their favorite sports teams. Nobody has books and nobody is discussing ideas of any kind.
To fill their spiritual niche, people will turn to memes, witty sayings, and whatever feels good to them at the moment. Nobody has any kind of coherent belief system and it's constantly changing to suit their mood.
Hi Wafers!
I'm very sorry to hear so many had bad math teachers, but I'm not at all surprised. I had great teachers in HS. I was shocked to learn, however, that they stopped teaching proofs in geometry. That is the class I enjoyed most. Dr. B, there's no (immediate) economic benefit to theoretical math. Math is a pretty snooty discipline anyway, IMHO.
Just got back from a campus interview. It's been awhile since I drove anywhere long distance, but what a dystopia ... horrible roads, weathered traffic signs, horrible traffic, horrible accidents, traffic cops pulling people over. Driving west on the D.C. Beltway: huge arching roads above with no traffic, my own section slow but moving, the section to my right was a parking lot ... as Gunnar said, all those fancy cars just sitting there. And don't get me started on Richmond VA. And the hotel ...
beautiful campus/college town; full of clueless people, although the protesting students know what's what (except about the imperial economic machine that just suckered them).
Boy, they really cater to students now with all that student loan money.
@Miles--wait, I don't get it. It was black woman who was wearing the symbolic MAGA hat? That makes no sense. Everyone knows that despite being shit on and politically taken for granted by the progs for decades, blacks are dutiful Trump haters who would never oppress someone from a different minority group.
John Boehner: "There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump party." He said through crocodile tears. How come no one ever criticized this douchebag for always bawling like a baby in public when it destroyed Edmund Muskie's political career?
Meanwhile, in the wake of a climate change emergency, liberal government inaction: liberal government inaction: "Because of this money and the power that Big Oil wields in California, the Jerry Brown administration, in stark contrast with its “green” facade, issued over 21,000 new oil and gas drilling permits in California. That include more than 200 permits for offshore wells in state waters — wells within 3 miles of the California coast."
Kelly Townsend is now my new fave for 2020: Arizona Rep. Kelly Townsend: Vaccines Are ‘Communist.’ Noting that she'd read about the possibility of mandatory vaccinations to stop a measles outbreak, Townsend equated the move to giving up “our liberty.” “The idea that we force someone to give up their liberty for the sake of the collective is not based on American values but rather, Communist (sic)...”
It's a sad state of affairs when the Laquishas in this country are too poverty stricken to afford a good ol' made in america AR15 and have to use bricks to express their dissatisfaction with others.
"U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would soon sign an executive order requiring American universities and colleges to maintain “free speech” on campuses and threatened that schools not complying could lose federal research funds."
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-colleges/trump-vows-executive-order-requiring-free-speech-at-colleges-idUSKCN1QJ0JD
At least twice a month all faculty and students oughta chant Are We Douchebags? for a couple of minutes. Introspection is never a total waste of time.
https://politics.theonion.com/trump-solemnly-lays-wreath-at-site-where-he-would-have-1832907992
NEWS IN BRIEF
Trump Solemnly Lays Wreath At Site Where He Would Have Died During Vietnam War If He Weren’t Rich
UGHHHH what an asshole.
Hello Dr. B and Wafers,
I borrowed a book, The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis, from my local library.
Here at the DAA blog we're always repeating how Trump-a-Dump's job is to dismantle America. The Fifth Risk goes into great detail about exactly what happened in the Trump transition to begin the dismantling. Below are some notable quotes:
"There is no bright spot analysis. How can an organization survive that stresses and responds only to the worst stuff that happens inside it?"
"It wasn't the things you think of when you try to think of bad things happening that got you killed. It is the less detectable systemic risks."
"Resistance to understanding a threat grows with proximity."
"If your ambition is to maximize short term gain without regard to the long term cost, you are better off not knowing the cost."
Last, but not least:
"Trump's budget, like the social forces behind it, is powered by a perverse desire - to remain ignorant. Donald Trump didn't invent this desire. He was just its ultimate expression."
The Fifth Risk was published in 2018. DAA was published in 2006.
Puss-
Snooty as in P. Snoots? I love it!
Aaron-
Yr rt, but give us some evidence.
Wafers-
Himanshu sent me the following in an email:
Dear Dr. Berman:
I have been lurking on your blog lately. With family and work commitments taking much of my time I have not posted anything in a while. But I have been meaning to share the below article by Orlov written about a month and a half ago. I cannot post it on your blog because it is a subscriber only article. I will paste the whole article for your review below. The website Orlov refers to has forecasts by country for the year 2025. The numbers for the US are nothing short of horrifying: Eg: US population reduced to about 100 million. While the model based on which the forecast is made has its gaps, I think that such a dramatic reduction in US population is not completely outside the realm of possibility given the depravity of the dominant culture coupled with high degree of gun ownership. The global picture that this model paints seems to largely agree with the "Global Trends 2025" report that you have often referred to in your writings and talks.
(continued below)
Taking a Model of Doom at Face Value
A certain web site was recently brought to my attention. It is a military intelligence site that contains information on the armaments of various countries. It also aggregates military news information. It certainly doesn’t look like an amateur effort even though its authors claim that their web site “is non-profit, built on spare time.” Such a volume of timely and detailed information on a sensitive subject could only come from a government or from a nongovernmental intelligence source. One guess was that the source behind the data was Stratfor. Their denial is a non-denial. Notice the date on the note below the data: Sunday, October 26th, 2014. We are being trolled.
The model’s authors claim that they used data collected from sources such as the CIA, IMF, UN, US government, etc., and after correcting them for various detectable statistical sleights of hand uses them to predict where key indicators for 183 countries will stand in 2025. And it is nothing short of shocking. Here is the link to the web site. Below this text is a table of numbers I pulled out for examination. I added rows for percent change, to make the numbers easier to appreciate. (There is a bug in SubscribeStar that is preventing me from pasting this image in the middle of the text.)
Now, please focus on the numbers for the United States. They are nothing short of absolutely horrible. Numbers for other Western countries, such as Canada and Germany, are still horrible, although not as bad. In their notes, the authors say that “The American downfall is set to be far worse than the Soviet Union's one. A confluence of crisis with a devastating result.” They also indicate what mechanism will lead to a massive die-off of the population: “When pensioners see their retirement disappear in front of their eyes… you can imagine what is going to happen next.” But even a complete die-off among American retirees does not account for the 70% drop in US population by 2025; after all, they make up only some 18% of the population. The remaining 52% of the US population, or 170 million, that this model predicts to be dead (or have migrated) by 2025, will be younger than 65. How many migrants will there be? The current assessment is that there are 244 million migrants in the entire world, or 3.3% of the global population. It seems highly unlikely that other countries will be able to absorb an influx of even 50 million American migrants. In fact, the 2025 population numbers for surrounding countries (Canada and Mexico are the most accessible to destitute, fleeing Americans) do not show any such dramatic increase. Thus, this model leads us to consider that there would be quite close to 227 million dead Americans before 2025.
(continued below)
It would be foolish to dismiss this model as a “conspiracy theory” because what would the conspiracy be? To dilute the value of incredibly detailed military intelligence presented at this web site? Doesn’t it seem a bit more likely that this model has a certain clientele, and that it consists of people who plan military procurement and operations? And what it says about the US military is that by 2025 it will be 5% of its current size. Its empire of bases will be gone and it will probably be reliant on foreign aid and UN peacekeepers just to keep the nuclear weapons under control. Russia’s currently unplanned 136% increase in military expenditure (which would certainly come as a big surprise to Russia’s military planners!) is perhaps intended to compensate for this severe deterioration in international security. After all, quite a massive international effort was required to keep the Soviet nukes from falling into the wrong hands after the Soviet collapse.
This horrifying model puts dates and numbers to what I have been essentially been saying for over a decade now: that the US will collapse and that its collapse will be much worse than the collapse of the USSR. Financial collapse is guaranteed because the US is bankrupt; the wheels of commerce will stop turning as soon as it loses the ability to go faster and faster into debt; and the US is already politically so divided and dysfunctional that even if something could be done to ameliorate this situation, it simply won’t happen. Millions of helpless people will wait around to be rescued, but the rescue will never come. And as far as social and cultural collapse—no use waiting for them; they have already pretty much run their course.
I don't mean to panic anyone. This is just a model, and all I am doing is trying to interpret it. Maybe it's wrong, maybe not. Only you can tell. Pull together the numbers, do your own arithmetic, and if you end up with the same result—then, by all means, panic. But if you don't have the time or the inclination to do this work, then that's understandable, and you are in good company. If this model is to be trusted, it numbers 227 million or so.
mb
Human Poop Reveals That Climate Change Caused The Fall Of Cahokia, A Medieval Native American City
https://bigthink.com/cahokia-ancient-native-american-city-2629736499.amp.html
Cahokia!
Douchebaggery stripped naked!
"The documents include details of how Facebook:
- [...]
- Used chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg’s feminist memoir Lean In to “bond” with female European commissioners it viewed as hostile.
- Threatened to withhold investment from countries unless they supported or passed Facebook-friendly laws."
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/02/facebook-global-lobbying-campaign-against-data-privacy-laws-investment
Kanye
Nearly 1 in 7 American child or teen has a mental health condition.
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2019/02/11/kids-teens-mental-health-treatment/
Sapolsky on the primate origins of in-group bonding, out-group antagonism, and how the entire dualism gets short-circuited by human cultural affinity is like a mini-course on how the American national identity was manufactured.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2019-02-12/your-brain-nationalism
https://m.thecoast.ca/halifax/portrait-of-the-sakyong-as-a-fallen-man/Content?oid=16329913
Heartbroken for my friends in Shambhala Buddhism, facing a very uncertain future in the wake of multiple reports of abuse by their teacher.
"Portrait of the sakyong as a fallen manShambhala Buddhism reckons with its #MeToo moment and contemplates a path forward."
Greetings MB & Wafers,
We're back in the good ole US of A (oh boy), but only til 17 Apr. Hoping to get everything tied up, condo sold, car sold, excess stuff thrown out, as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Fascinating Orlov article. I wish we had the data they're using, but honestly, it's one of the reasons we're fleeing. The uncivil discourse and bad faith in just about every facet of life in the US doesn't bode well. Our worry - our pensions are govvie pensions, with our money in IRA/Thrift fund. All those must stay here in the US. But - we're going to be taking the money from our house sale and plunking it into a Swiss bank, out of the US. If the SHTF, we're hoping that cushion will allow us to live.
Meanwhile, check out this John Whitehead article in Information Clearinghouse on "The Age of Surveillance" - chilling, when you realize that everything we post on this blog is mostly likely being tallied up, the results to go on our "Permanent Record".
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51191.htm
Subtitle this "Worms and Consumerism."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_7ByiYbCYM
Once again, from animals we learn much about things work for hapless humans.
Does this not remind you of how the worms of consumerism pull down shoppers
the way telemarketers, advertisers, and all other corporate methods act to
empty the pockets of the population or place them into debt for the sake of
buying what they don't need and can't afford?
You know sometimes you just know it's going to snow? Atmospheric pressure or whatever, it's not (didn't used to b anyway) unusual in Colorado to have Temps in high 60's and yet know the snow is coming tomorrow. 2025 only 6 short years away seems like sci-fi, but something tells me it's on target, 2030 no doubt. This is just me own *feeling/belief* people smarter than me etc... Here's a link that supports this view that a 'confluence of catastrophes' lie ahead, and it comes from someone once in Bush WH.
https://youtu.be/zBuAaZ_AQno
The country is in FULL-FLEGED CRISIS”!!!
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hillary-clinton-says-country-is-in-full-fledged-crisis-during-speech-in-selma-to-mark-bloody-sunday
jj-
Jesus, look at that face. There *is* a full-fledged crisis, and I think it has a lot more to do with the use of Botox than the collapse of democracy.
Italiana-
You hafta realize that the guys at the FBI don' have a lot to do that's really meaningful, so they wind up collecting data on things like this blog. Oy vey. If I'm a threat, then this country is in bigger trouble than I ever imagined. I'm guessing the FBI Wafer file is several feet thick. I also wdn't be that surprised if, in our Orwellian world, Trumpo will declare that there is such a thing as 'intellectual treason', and I wind up rotting to death in a cell at Guantanamo. (I don't hafta tell any of you that stranger things have happened.)
Bulldog-
Many yrs ago, it was revealed that Richard Baker, abbot of the SF Zen Center, had been fucking his female disciples. Power corrupts, as Acton said. I'm guessing a very large % of gurus are full of shit. This wd, of course, include Sheryl Sandberg. (Lean in, my tuchus)
mb
Greetings, fellow Wafers. I've been lurking anonymously for a year now, so I might as well contribute.
The Orlov piece is grim, for sure. However, from a long-term, planetary perspective, the collapse of the US might not be a bad thing. It could end the 400 year reign of a hustling, profit-over-people culture and allow the natural flora and fauna to reclaim the millions of acres destroyed by car-centric, high entropy suburban sprawl.
As for me, I might be one of those who perish...who knows. I can't leave the US right now - I have aging parents that I can't in good conscience abandon. IF the SHTF, and assuming I am not murdered by some crazed right-wing (or Maoist?) lunatic, I don't imagine it will be that difficult to garden and raise chickens in order to survive.
black-
It's simply in the cards for the US to collapse; it's our time. There will be a lot of suffering--I've said repeatedly that it won't be pretty--but the US is wreaking so much damage on the world, on a daily basis, that its 'departure' will ultimately benefit the planet and most of the people on it. The nature of the American Way of Life is essentially that of a cancer. A more soulless nation I'd be hard put to find.
Anyway, don't lurk; live!
mb
Regarding the model of 2025 doom, Debunked here:
https://www.metabunk.org/website-deagel-com-projects-massive-depopulation-by-2025.t4933/
Data here:
http://www.deagel.com/country/forecast.aspx
I do believe that the tech companies are collecting and selling as much of our data as they can. My experience is that the gov can't find its own ass with two hands and a flashlight ... evidence (many missed opportunities to catch people BEFORE they do something) supports that.
Hello! A long time lurker. The model you cite professor seems to confirm what many intuit. To some extend the current opiod crisis is likely a cultural suicide of sorts. In addition, most socio/cultural institutions have seemed to been privatized or diminished in some fashion or another. Am an older Mexican who has now been in USA for quite some time--and the difference I see is that for all its flaws Mexico is a positive place--lots of cheer and optimism. Whereas life in the U.S. has gotten palpably more difficult in the last 10 years (or maybe am just old and this is no country for old men:)). I am a college professor in Baltimore and the university has a food pantry for students and adjuncts (things are that bad). Some strivers but many students plain depressed and just going through the motions, others phone zombies. For life of me, it seems they are not having much joi de vivre...I mostly regret coming to the U.S. and wish I had remained in Mexico. I miss the people and more than anything having more than a few people who give a damn about you. Hope to be able to make it to the summit in NY. Roberto, a.k.a el Regio.
El Regio-
I too was a college professor in Baltimore, once upon a time. The horror, the horror. And this was with grad students! Yes, you shd have stayed down south, amigo. I have so many wonderful friends here, ones who say to me: Te quiero. However, you come too late to the party. The NY Wafer Summit is only for active participants on the blog; lurking doesn't count. But all is not lost. Start posting now, and maybe in 2 yrs (maybe), if I return to NY and we have the 7th Wafer Summit, you can join us. Don't lurk; live!
Puss-
Data or not, I think there's an intuitive feeling in our bones, and in the air, that we are in the endgame, and that there's fuck all we can do abt it. This country will be unrecognizable in 10 yrs, I'm fairly certain. aka Karma.
mb
Great stuff WAFers, great stuff. I ran across this one just now, where are all the women 1%-ers?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/02/13/glass-ceiling-is-even-higher-penthouse-women-percenters-are-rare/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.abaa5d2ee8f7
huh? Is this a story? Why aren't there more women as$hole douchbags taking the country down by greed? I can't believe this is a thing, everyone wants a piece of the pie without realizing the pie is rotten. Or something like that...
Finland’s education system is failing. Should we look to Asia? - https://bigthink.com/finland-education-system-criticisms-2630204524.amp.html
Japan, perhaps?
Cel-Ray-
Here's what I have to say to that:
https://www.cbs17.com/news/south/florida-firefighter-caught-having-sex-on-top-of-car-police-say/1696315460
mb
https://twitter.com/JSCCounterPunch/status/1102382435977768960
https://twitter.com/JSCCounterPunch/status/1102273709681721344
Yet:
"If you tell liberals that Obama oversaw the greatest destruction of Black wealth in American history, they will give you the same vacuous stare as a Flat Earther having orbital physics explained to them."
@Wafers -- regarding Global Trends, note that the date on the report is 10/26/14 (follow the link Puss provided to the actual report). I think this is the same outfit that has been publishing such dire pronouncements for years. I first remember reading one of their "analyses" a decade ago during the financial crash and found that few of their predictions would ever come to pass. Thus I stopped placing stock in them just as I stopped reading such sky-is-falling writers as Orlov and Guy McPherson. America is definitely headed for a crackup--my own "Spidey sense" is telling me that the real economy is already in recession, and we're on the cusp of the worst financial crash in the country's history since the middle class is finally tapped out. We're already seeing life expectancy begin to decline and I would expect that trend to quickly accelerate. But for most people, the end will come quietly--alone in their cold, empty houses; surrounded by piles of consumer goods that were no substitute for having an actual community.
https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2019/3/1/global-inequality-from-1980-to-2016
"It’s not an elephant graph anymore. It’s a boomerang. This seems a fitting image, given how income has an uncanny way of circling back to those who already have it."
"For people earning $2.40 per day in 1980, their incomes grew to no more than $4.36 per day… over a period of 36 years. So, about 5 cents per year.
That’s not much to celebrate, particularly when these gains don’t come anywhere close to lifting people out of poverty."
"As for the top incomes… well, they have grown by what can only be described as an obscene amount, with millionaires doubling or tripling their annual incomes, gaining some 14,000 times more than the average person in the poorest 60% of the world’s population."
"All of this makes it clear who the real beneficiaries of globalization have been. Suddenly it seems a bit absurd to be touting as “progress” the pennies that have trickled down to the poorest when the overwhelming majority of new income since 1980 has been captured at the top."
Bernie Sanders voted for the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, signed by HR Clinton. It directly enabled the regime change as US policy. It was influenced by the Project for a New American Century, the neocon politburo. He also supported brutal sanctions
Stefan-
No surprise; a true liberal! But do you have any evidence for this?
Paging-
Thank you. Many reviewers of his bk have essentially pointed out that he's a jackass.
mb
Re: Iraq Lib Act, see: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1998/roll482.xml
Sanders votes yea.
This article seems like a hypothetical scenario of the collapse of the US. It´s interesting that the scenario happens in the year 2024.
https://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/22-22/10174-post-dissolution-america
Edward Mendelson on WH Auden and de-platforming Ezra Pound: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/02/27/auden-on-no-platforming-pound/
((Especially like Auden's reflections and poem at the end of the piece.))
Stefan and Morris Berman -
I remember. He was informed at the time as to how devastating the impact the sanctions were having on the people and country of Iraq, but I’m told he stuck to his position. The sanctions against Iraq were the ‘soft’ war before the military war.
They gutted civil society, so by the time of the 2003 invasion, the collapse of the state was all but inevitable. And. . .then ISIS. Unfortunately, Sanders and prog dems are possibly setting Nicaragua for similar devestation: https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/12/14/congress-sanctions-nicaragua-nica-act/
Every Single Member of US Congress Approved Crushing Sanctions on Nicaragua
Emmaline et al-
Gore Vidal once said that in America, there was one political party with 2 rt wings. Bernie is a gd example of this, apparently. Even the 'rebels' toe the line.
mb
Totally agree, Dr. B. I do think many people do feel it in their bones, but don't know what to do with said feeling, being as disconnected not only from reality but the messages of their own body.
And well said, @Bill! The latest economic reports are that the toolbox to fix the next bursted bubble don't exist. I was disappointed that the twitter links didn't work for me, though! Must have been taken down.
Dr. B, I'm finally reading SSIG, wow! Just what I needed. We could discuss individual topics for months just in that book. I have several "magical" stories to share, but "going with the flow" is what I needed to hear, right now.
Not sure if the following is of interest to Wafers, but posting it anyway:
http://www.newgeography.com/content/006237-why-social-justice-is-killing-synagogues-and-churches
Speaking of sanctions it's difficult to think of them being somewhat humane. JC's voice remains a voice in the wilderness.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jimmy-carter-cuba-north-korea-and-getting-sanctions-right/2014/12/26/c39a55a2-8aed-11e4-9e8d-0c687bc18da4_story.html?Post%20generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost&utm_term
Michael Jackson documentary on HBO - twisted all 'round - the very definition of a deeply perverse celebrity culture.
Gunnar-
Jimmy may be the only decent postwar president we had, i.e. a mensch, rather than a buffoon.
I just finished screening Season 6 of "The Americans," in which Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) slowly finds a conscience, and begins to have 2nd thoughts abt having killed so many innocent people in the service of an abstract Soviet ideal. It was a gd show, The Americans, but I can't help wondering why we don't have a program showing how members of the CIA and other US-sponsored death squads have a similar change of heart. After all, they too killed thousands of innocent people in defense of an abstract ideal--The American Dream--a spiritually empty vision of hustling, getting more $. Well, I'm guessing one reason is that it's more comfortable for Americans to watch a show that points fingers at evil Soviet agents. Indicting our own? Americans wd squirm. We are the innocents, after all. But another reason might be that American torturers and killers don't experience any remorse; in which case such a TV program wd be a total fantasy. Or maybe it's a combination of these 2 factors, I dunno.
mb
The heartbreak of psoriasis; or Botox, at least:
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/04/politics/hillary-clinton-2020/index.html
Do not forsake us, my heroine!
mb
re: botox face
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/05/clintons-accused-of-nepotism-in-book-on-us-ireland-relations
Greeting MB & Wafers
'Murikans have been so totally brainwashed that we are the "good guys" that they cannot even comprehend that what we're doing is so evil and nasty. Even when presented with actual facts and proof, they'll just stick their fingers in their ears and go, "Lalalala". The brainwashing mechanisms are working very well, unfortunately.
Check this out from Strategic Culture: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/03/02/gallup-finds-americans-have-been-very-deceived-regarding-united-states-image-around-world.html
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
Interesting Cornell-led study finds that 45% of all people have had a family member at some point in time either in jail or prison. A link to the study is present right at the beginning of the article. Low socio-economic status is important but incarceration affects all socio-economic levels and is (surprise!) especially linked with racial background.
http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/03/study-nearly-half-americans-have-had-family-member-jailed-imprisoned
Italiana-
Very deceived, true, but *willingly* deceived. America is abt hustling, which means Americans have no real spiritual center. They are empty people. How to fill the void? Easy: make a religion out of America itself. Check out QOV, also work of Will Herberg and esp. Robt Bellah.
Then the American Dream fails, so opioids, alcohol, TV, cell fones, and suicide move in to fill the gap. It's a rare American who says, "I've been sold a bill of goods, and I bought into it eagerly. I.e., I'm a fool."
mb
@Puss--my bad on the Twitter links. I screwed up when I tried to embed them. It's frustrating how Blogger's embed technology is stuck back in 2008. Anyway, they were both commentary from CPAC, including this hilarious picture of Trump humping the American flag (hope I got it right that time).
In fact that picture is about as perfect summation of modern day America as one could possibly find. There he is, the most powerful man on the planet, who could at the touch of a button incinerate us all, desperately clinging to a fake icon which symbolizes an utter fantasy. It's probably no accident that as American decline has accelerated, the size and number of the flags just keep getting bigger and bigger. One flag is no longer enough for the president to stand next to when he gives a speech--now he needs a whole role of them. Flags hauled out at sporting events such as the Super Bowl are so big they cover the entire field and require a whole platoon of soldiers to unfurl them.
Only a nation experiencing a deep existential crisis acts this way.
A nice story about those hustling Americans making all that money and living the dream:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/i-spent-2-years-cleaning-houses-what-i-saw-makes-me-never-want-to-be-rich
As a guy who has done plenty of repair and maintenance work over the years, I can affirm many of her findings. It's amazing how some people live. Higher income often indicates an even more whacked lifestyle. It always makes me happy to come home. Contrary to what the wealthier people I have worked for in the past might think, I have never envied their lives.
I have no doubts about Americans being clueless about how they are perceived by other countries. During the 2016 election one Trumpfoon I encountered proudly claimed he was voting for Trump because he's never, ever said anything bad about this country. I think this goes back to Dr. Berman's comment about the religion of America being America itself.
Hola los Waferes y los Waferinos,
Let's vote and MAGA! What do ya say to that? In flyover country the support could not be stronger, dumbed down into the depths of denial:
https://www.npr.org/.../westmoreland-coal-can-end-benefits-for-retired-miners-judge-rules
And check out the same reporter, Cooper McKim's related npr story from October 19, 2018: "Westmoreland's Bankruptcy And The Fall of Coal Fired Power Plants".
My mother and I stopped for lunch in Kemmerer in October 2017, returning from southeast Alaska. We were somewhat aghast at the forest of "for sale " signs in this desolate little burg in the desert, close to the Utah state line.
No wonder amerikans are committing suicide daily with drugs and guns. Just a month or two before this "portrait of rural amerika", one of my few friends here related that his cousin, on the way to a job interview in Salt Lake City, never made it there. Instead he pulled off the road and took his own life with a handgun. Somewhere out near Kemmerer...
O&D
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Saikat Chakrabarti, the progressive firebrand's multimillionaire chief of staff, apparently violated campaign finance law by funneling nearly $1 million in contributions from political action committees Chakrabarti established to private companies that he also controlled, according to an explosive complaint filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and obtained by Fox News.
Amid the allegations, a former FEC commissioner late Monday suggested in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation that Ocasio-Cortez and her team could separately be facing major fines and potentially even jail time if they were knowingly and willfully violating the law by hiding their control of the Justice Democrats political action committee (PAC). Such an arrangement could have allowed Ocasio-Cortez's campaign to receive donations in excess of the normal limit, by pooling contributions to both the PAC and the campaign itself.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ocasio-cortezs-millionaire-chief-of-staff-violated-fec-rules-to-hide-885g-fec-complaint-alleges
Today I learned that my old copy of "All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror" by Stephen Kinzer is excellent for it's topic but out of date, actually. I'm here to say the recent book by Ervand Abrahamian is a very good update!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUQzyx27klM&feature=youtu.be
Ever see D's true base? I think it is his brain trust, as well.
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/immigrant-children-detained-12-babies-released-from-ice-custody-detention-center-dilley-texas-2019-03-04/
12 detained babies have been released from ICE custody in Dilley, Texas
Today In American Crimes Against Humanity
Surely Wafers will appreciate the absurdity of this actual NPR report I heard on the radio this morning
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/05/700175470/elderly-trump-critics-await-muellers-report-sometimes-until-their-last-breath
Horse Hockey! as Colonel Potter says on M*A*S*H. Is this really a story from the once venerable National Public Radio, or more like satire from The Onion? Are we really to believe that there are considerable numbers of Americans all over this great land who, though desperately sick and nearing death, are holding on to dear life just so they can find out the results of the Mueller Investigation ? Cow Cookies!, says Col. Potter! Yes indeed! Though gravely ill, these poor souls cannot go gently into that good night until they hear that justice has finally been served, and that Trump had his comeuppance? In the other hand, if NPR had reported that their dying wishes had been to seek special counsel from P. Snoots on schtupping their next-door neighbor in broad daylight before they die, now that’s something I could wrap my head around! (ha ha)
AS-
Put this post-it on yr bathrm mirror:
PROGS ARE FULL OF SHIT
Will make you feel better.
Aretemus-
Check out a series called "Big Little Lies," which gives a gd portrayal of the upper-middle class in Northern Cal. A few gd souls, but most are awful, and the lifestyle makes you wanna hurl.
mb
Pat-
I have felt for many yrs now that the entire staff of NPR needs to be vigorously slapped, then thrown on a dung hill. As for P. Snoots, let's not forget her oral talents as well. ;-)
mb
Deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide in the United States hit an all-time high in 2017 at more than 150,000. This is more than double the figure for 1999.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2019-03-05/us-deaths-from-suicide-substance-abuse-reach-record-high
Tom-
Quite awful, but keep in mind that these are individual problems. These data have 0 to do with the American Way of Life.
mb
Note to Dan-
Check out review of David Shulman's latest bk in the NYRB for March 7. It also refers to a novel by the Israeli writer S. Yizhar, "Khirbet Khizeh," which is abt the violent expulsion of Palestinians in 1948:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khirbet_Khizeh
I also checked Amazon: it's been translated into English.
mb
This is the Soul of America:
https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/03/01/a-perpetual-war-of-identities/
Inured as I have become to the madness and cruelty of the modern world this article still made me want to weep.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176535/tomgram%3A_greg_grandin%2C_donald_trump%2C_pornographer-in-chief/#more
Kanye-
Very gd essay. The rising power of identity politics is a contributing factor to our national collapse. I doubt it can be stopped; self-righteousness is a heady wine. O&D!
mb
Yeah, good essay Kanye. But to be honest, if these identitarians want to be in congress, be CEOs, shit, they can have it. To a small extent this is happening at my workplace. Middle aged white guys need not apply for most positions... the women and that dumbest of phrases "people of color" want to be the bosses? Fine, just sit back and watch the corruption take hold and watch them get taken out by the same identitarian politics that got them hired (like the bit in the story about Tulsi Gabbard).
Cel-
The day is not far off, when Tulsi will walk into the White House, flanked by Lorenzo Riggins and P. Snoots. You mark my words. Meanwhile, Ocasio is corrupt. Gee, what a shock.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
We live in a joke nation:
https://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez-Organizer-Unapologetic/dp/1933167009
Oh, Lord, take me now...to the deli.
Miles
Jeff-
Apparently, you can now order an AOC T-shirt.
mb
Thanks to the person who recently suggested that Wafers read Chalmers Johnson, Hofstadter ("Anti-Intellectualism in America") & White Noise. I've been on a reading orgie, devouring all of them.
One of the amazing things for me is that Hofstadter's book, written in 1964, is completely relevant to America today. NOTHING HAS CHANGED...not the people, not the arguments, not the reasoning. It really is rather mind-boggling. It's like the USA has been on a treadmill that just keep going 'round and 'round, with people thinking things are different because the treadmill is moving. A profound book.
I'm reading "The Sorrows of Empire" by Johnson (2004). Too bad he passed in 2010, I'd love to read his thoughts today. I always knew there was sketchy stuff the U.S. did/was involved in, but both DAA & this book have really opened my eyes. The world would have been far better off w/o the U.S. post-1960 (ish) and no, they won't miss us at all in the future, all our claims about "protecting freedom across the world" notwithstanding.
Trump TV!
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house
Oh what a shitstorm we are in for.
Progs in Action: 'We Didn't Receive This Kind of Betrayal From Republicans': Loft Tenants Protest Salazar's Amendment To Loft Law 'Clean-Up' Bill.'
Another good essay by Peter Van Buren: Poor Folks. "People like you and I fell through the cracks; we weren’t supposed to end up here but the .1% hadn’t worked out the details so they got as much as they do now and we basically ended up with bigger crumbs than we should have, especially me lucking into a 'career' with no real skills." In other words: Bullshit Jobs, which will be going away when the real economic crisis comes to a head.
Meanwhile, the bad economic news continues to rapidly pile up. It looks like the Wall Street and corporate fraudsters who run our economy used the first couple of years of the Teflon Don's fuhrership to go on one last massive orgy of wealth extraction (note the stat in Van Buren's article showing that the top 0.1% now have as much wealth as the bottom 99.9%.), and that the vampires have sucked their willing victims dry to the point where not enough healthy ones remain to prop up the consumer economy. Relatedly, a local CSA market near me run by a nice young couple was one of the first casualties--shutting down abruptly a couple of weeks ago. The wife actually apologized to me (they sold several good products that are otherwise hard to obtain around here). When I replied by saying it wasn't her fault, she actually said she blames herself for the store's failure, even though my guess is that the sharp economic hit this area took from Trump's idiotic shutdown was likely what caused the failure.
Collapse of Rome redux:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/mar/06/america-schools-water-lead-crisis
Yawn: she actually didn't say anything new, but let's crucify her anyway:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/06/ilhan-omar-weaponisation-of-anti-semitism
Personally, I won't be happy until everything in the US is weaponized and monetized. And buffoonized, of course. We'll get there b4 2 long.
mb
What do you think is going to happen to satellite states like Israel and Saudi Arabia and japan? Are they going to collapse with America
Mo-
Check out my bk on Japan. Meanwhile, Israel will turn into one big falafel stand, and S. Arabia will bump off journalists they don't like.
mb
Talking about Japan, do any of you think China will invade it when the US can no longer support them? I don't know what will happen to Israel but I don't think there are any external threats to them due to the situation in the Arab World. I really wish that one day both Israelis and Palestinians could have their states. Seperate but in peace. As for Saudi Arabia, I think that country will collapse without any power backing it. In the worse case it may be invaded given the resources it has and also because of what many say about their military being inept and incapable.
Mohammid Ali: Almost all countries are quasi-satellite states of the us empire. For example, look at FATCA.
ALmost every country signed the unilateral FATCA agreement selling out their own citizens (not only dual citizens) privacy to be unpaid IRS agents and violating many rights of sovereign countries.
Then CBT (us citizen-based double taxation), in lock-step with the African dictatorship, Eritrea; the usa "citizen" is nothing more than a tax and debt slave to the us empire. Paying for gold and getting shit.
america has business interests, never friends. Hu$tlers and hucksters to the core.
With the death of their adoptive father, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus become joint Augusti On This Day in 161
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLU5yY-cJOw
Just a short item to get the Wafers thinking positive about America's destiny.
Another short gem could be a way of thinking about this destiny. One wonders if
all those falling domino videos are inspired by the anticipated collapse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL2WlXdbjH0
@Kanye Cyrus,
That was a good essay on identity politics, thank you for posting it. One of the most interesting developments of the post-Cold War period has been the decline of universalism. The Cold War was fought between two different universalist ideologies that touched on issues that were common to all of humanity. Liberal capitalism and Marxism-Leninism claimed to be applicable to all people on Earth.
I don’t want to get too nostalgic about the Cold War because it really did cause a lot of death and destruction. Killing and torturing people in the name of abstract ideologies is certainly not something that I support. But I sometimes wonder if we are going too far in the other direction where supporting your particular tribe is the only thing that matters. Broad ideas about freedom, power and human rights seem to have been pushed to the margins.
Even the discussion of equality has become strongly identitarian. Equality is associated with upward mobility for a handful of one’s identity group. For example you have a version of feminism that sees more female CEOs as somehow a victory for ordinary working women.
In case anyone was worried that the American electorate isn't sufficiently ignorant, a Massachusetts representative has introduced an amendment lowering the voting age in federal elections to 16. Her argument is that since Americans begin hustling at such a young age, they should be granted "a seat at the table of democracy":
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/432882-dem-lawmaker-introduces-amendment-to-lower-voting-age-to-16-in-federal
Hola a los Waferes,
@MB - thanks for the refresh on Snoots and the Fireman. I had forgotten what an ugly pair they are. Stellar amerikans.
@Janet D - I made the Chalmers Johnson/Don Delillo suggestion. "Blowback" is good, I want to read "Sorrows of Empire" when it comes my way. Chapter 33 in "White Noise" had me laughing out loud all the way through. It was straight out of my own life experience:
"I have a friend who says that's why people take vacations. Not to relax or find excitement or see new places. To escape the death that exists in routine things."
"What is he, a Jew?"
"What's that got to do with it?"
"Your roof gutter's sagging," he told me. "You know how to fix that, don't you?"
So many great books, so few amerikans reading them - Sr. Belman informed us on that point in "Twilight of American Culture." It has only worsened since the year 2000. NMI is my only option yet, though that may change... Spinning Straw Into Gold" is a great introspective read. Thanks for an honest testimony, Morris. I need to buy "Neurotic Beauty" - will it be available at the 6thANYWS by any chance? Just wondering.
O&D!
mean-
I'm actually not much of a traveling salesman, so won't be carrying a suitcase full of my bks. But there's currently a new copy of the Japan bk online at Amazon, from an indep. bkstore, for $20, if that helps. ps: 6ANYWSM.
Speaking of which, all you folks planning to attend, who have not yet written in, need to write me to learn the venue. Dan, Sarasvati...who else?
If anyone wants to bring an 8x10 foto of P. Snoots, that wd be great.
mb
Here's a story that should be distributed to all those thinking of trying to emigrate to the "Land of Opportunity" (Twitter link to the Boston Globe): "A man fell off a ladder at a construction site and broke his femur. Instead of paying him worker's comp, his company called the Boston Police to report that he was undocumented. BPD notified ICE, and he was arrested in front of his 2 year old son."
This is what America is all about: using you up until your health is broken and then discarding you...one way or another.
And here is proof that the jackals and vampires who make up the 0.1% don't even understand basic arithmetic: "Student loan companies convince Florida to suspend the licenses of nearly 1,000 doctors and nurses, and then garnish 100% of the wages." Someone should inform these greedy morons that 100% of nothing is actually NOTHING, which is what these medical professionals will be now be earning without their professional licenses. Can't wait until all those douchebag Florida retirees start getting up in arms when they have to wait months to get a doctor's appointment. Of course prog hero Joe Biden, who fixed it so student loans are not dis-chargeable in bankruptcy, would say he has "no empathy" for those doctors and nurses.
Hair trigger cops in hippy Boulder, Colo. Where's the identity resistance when you need them, esp in Boulder you'd expect a quicker response. Dude could easily been international headline news (of course they'll be an 'investigation' (gotta b the word of the year 2019))
circa.com: Boulder, Colorado, police launch investigation after officers confront black man picking up trash.
https://www.circa.com/story/2019/03/07/nation/boulder-colorado-police-launch-investigation-after-officers-confront-black-man-picking-up-trash
Gunnar-
Why in the world didn't they just shoot him? He was black, and picking up trash. QED
On the other hand, here's a surprise:
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/433006-florida-police-officer-found-guilty-faces-life-in-prison-for-fatal
mb
This!
https://www.haaretz.com/amp/us-news/.premium-aipac-conference-was-going-to-be-all-about-the-benjamin-then-ilhan-omar-came-along-1.7001462
Ilhan Omar did a great service to Netanyahu over the past week, by shifting the conversation within the American Jewish community from his embrace of racist thugs to her fixation on Jewish donors
Simone-
Well, Bibi is a thug himself, but Ilhan is a courageous gal. And a # of prominent American Jews--many, in fact--have come to her defense. This blog can't be the only one that is anti-Zionist and pro-Jewish.
But on to more pressing matters.
Every organization has its heroes, and here in Waferland we have many. Two of our big stars are:
https://www.google.com/search?q=penny+snoots+arrest+fotos&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=zSxY76cGLfsePM%253A%252CujHOgywHDvdXQM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQYDPmubGbpKjEzNNstUVf3DrMHsQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwinrKLv1PHgAhVOZawKHbx-BnkQ9QEwA3oECAUQCg#imgrc=zSxY76cGLfsePM:
and
https://www.google.com/search?q=laquisha+jones+picture&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=TzS8VETD24xtLM%253A%252Cs4gZO7sfd85nYM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kTCQFWvzg926ScluOyg5C2GA7dO-A&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwio7Nbk0_HgAhVLKawKHVx7AakQ9QEwAXoECAQQBg#imgrc=TzS8VETD24xtLM:
The fireman whom Penny was servicing, BTW, looks like a complete douche bag, and perhaps shd also be inducted into the Wafer Hall of Fame (WHF). But I’m wondering if these folks will be part of the mass proletarian uprising against our corporate masters, predicted by some astute analysts to be unavoidable. I for one am cheering them on.
mb
Happy International Women's Day to Wafers and especially Waferettes. I suggest we rename the celebration to Worldwide Pussyhat Day (WPD) and elect Botox Face, Laquisha Jones, Sheryl Sandberg, Penny Snoots and AOC to represent women's rights worldwide.
Kanye
"It works in practice, but will it work in theory? In The Capitalism Paradox: How Cooperation Enables Free Market Competition, Paul Rubin shows why capitalist countries (eg Norway Canada, & NZ, yes) are richer and nicer places than true socialist countries."
https://www.amazon.com/dp/164293139X/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_9sEGCbVYVK55C
Aren't these 'binary' examples though? The mentioned countries are hybrids with [somewhat] controlled capitalism coexisting with key socialist measures such as social healthcare, social security nets. And Acemoglu & Robinson made the point that the inclusivity of civic institutions plays a pretty important role. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Nations_Fail
MB and Wafers: All this angst about "identity" puzzles me. When people ask how I identify myself, my answer is simple: I am one member of a species that numbers 7.6 billion and inhabits a tiny planet orbiting an average-sized star situated at the edge of a rather typical spiral galaxy that contains about 100 billion stars. That galaxy and 2 trillion others make up the known universe. The cosmos is huge. We are tiny. Maybe that scares us. Maybe "identity" is how we deal with that fear.
Hello Wafers:
Sorry, Pete Christen, but I self-identify as a Klingon.
K'Plah!
Attention immigrants looking for a "land of opportunity," of hopes, dreams, and bullshit.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-ne-shooting-va-hospital-chaos-20190228-story.html
Double-amputeee, homeless vet Mr. Larry Bon opened fire at a VA hospital wounding a doctor who jumped in the front of the gun man as he sprayed bullets from his scooter. Calls for the doctor as a hero! How awesome.
Surely, this is just another isolated event, that appears exacerbated by the "information-tech age," and has nothing to do with the american 'culture.' Move along, nothing to see.
Next.
https://gizmodo.com/u-s-army-assures-public-that-robot-tank-system-adheres-1833061674
U.S. Army Assures Public That Robot Tank System Adheres to AI Murder Policy
.... Well, it certainly doesn't look like it was built to .... murder civilians in an urban terrain ... Not at all ....
Ilhan Omar on Barack Obama. Wow:
"As she saw it, the party ostensibly committed to progressive values had become complicit in perpetuating the status quo. Omar says the “hope and change” offered by Barack Obama was a mirage. Recalling the “caging of kids” at the U.S.-Mexico border and the “droning of countries around the world” on Obama’s watch, she argues that the Democratic president operated within the same fundamentally broken framework as his Republican successor.
“We can’t be only upset with Trump. … His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies. They just were more polished than he was,” Omar says. “And that’s not what we should be looking for anymore. We don’t want anybody to get away with murder because they are polished. We want to recognize the actual policies that are behind the pretty face and the smile.”"
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/03/08/ilhan-omar-dean-phillips-minnesota-democratic-party-225696
All the doves have a lot of good reasons to be disappointed in Obama, but the ones that convinced themselves Trumpi would be better are huge dumbasses. Trumpi has increased drone strikes by 500% and inexplicably told them to not use the targeting technology that minimizes civilian casualties. He'd killed more people in his first year in office than Obama did in all 8.
Theo, Madison-
Terrorizing civilian populations as a war tactic goes back at least to Dresden and the saturation bombing of Tokyo.
mb
China continues to be our enemy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCNSqEwh7GQ&feature=youtu.be (check 00:02:37)
China following the materialist delusion of stuff=happiness.
Yet another low blow to our leader!!
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/us/politics/us-trade-deficit.html
You will agree that it is time for his base to grab their guns and pay China
a visit to tell them what's what.
A man fell off a ladder at a construction site and broke his femur. Instead of paying him worker's comp, his company called the Boston Police to report that he was undocumented. BPD notified ICE, and he was arrested in front of his 2 year old son.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/03/06/boston-truly-looking-out-for-immigrants-not-this-case/YgAvgeue6fYZxC7h3wJJ9J/story.html
SPECTACULARLY EVIL
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/ilhan-omar-anti-semitism-dual-loyalty-trump.html
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/ilhan-omar-anti-semitism-dual-loyalty-trump.html
Simone and Madison and MB - I agree Ilhan Omar is courageous, and am with you about Israel, but she has also been antisemitic, and those defending her on that note are either committing quite the file drawer fallacy or haven't seen all of her statements.
Mohan-
So enlighten us: let's see all of her statements.
mb
By airing out two huge "unmentionable truths," Omar has already done more good in CONgress than all of her esteemed colleagues have collectively since 9/11. Of course, as an incoming House freshperson she wouldn't have had such a large public platform had the Dumbocrats in their Trump Derangement Syndrome not tried to used her as an identity politics club with which to beat the Teflon Don. Ya suppose Botox Queen Pelosi now regrets posing with Omar on the cover of Rolling Stone? If she would just blast Hillary for enabling her sexual predator husband for decades, Omar will have hit the trifecta.
Meanwhile, some Yeshiva students are having a bad week: Unvaccinated student infects at least 21 people with measles in NYC.
One of our valiant "heroes in blue": Former Bradenton officer accused of using police database to find women to date. Using your badge to try and coerce someone into having sex with you isn't a "date," it's rape.
Another perfectly American story: Bankrupt PG&E wants to give out $235 million in bonuses to its employees after burning a California city to the ground. Take a bow, Jerry Brown--this is your proud prog legacy. Not quite as horrid as Obama's, but then again you were never able to con us into electing you president.
Mohan,Morris Berman,Madisom,Theo-
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/ilhan-omars-dual-loyalty-charge-was-anti-semitic/584314/
I’ve Faced the Charge of Dual Loyalty
It was anti-Semitic then, and it’s anti-Semitic now.
----------
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/the-anti-semitism-monster-democrats-can-no-longer-control/
----------
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/opinion/articles/2019-03-05/ilhan-omar-s-anti-israel-nativism-will-haunt-democrats
---------
"Make no mistake: Omar and her progressive allies won this battle. Engel, who called on Omar to apologize, will now be dealing with an emboldened member on his committee who escaped any consequences for her behavior."
https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/677195?unlock=UPVUMQH83F9LZXHP
Sami-
I think that single-line quotes don't really cut it; we need more extended texts from Ilhan. Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism, and it's not clear to me that she has crossed the line. Jews are very eager to confuse the two, in my experience--typically, for them, anything and everything crosses the line. There is a hair-trigger reaction rooted in the Holocaust experience that makes honest dialogue w/them impossible. Nor wd I put a lot of stock in folks like Rahm Emanuel or the crowd at Commentary magazine. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt were vilified in the same way, yrs ago, for pointing out the huge influence the Israel lobby had on American foreign policy. Is Ilhan saying anything very different? Happily, a lot of prominent Jews, including folks like historian Natalie Z. Davis, have come to her defense.
mb
ps: Here's how to stoke the fire and generate more violence:
"Anti-Zionism is one of the modern forms of anti-Semitism"--Emmanuel Macron
It doesn't get more stupid, or more incendiary, than that. Meanwhile, I'm reading a terrific book by Robt Harris on the Dreyfus affair: "An Officer and a Spy."
Make no mistake - Ilhan Omar is an American chiseler through & through. Nothing "courageous" about her. For example, she's already rushed to apologize for her mild criticism of Obama:
"Exhibit A of how reporters distort words. I’m an Obama fan! I was saying how Trump is different from Obama, and why we should focus on policy not politics."
Omar & Co. recently signed a letter legitimizing the Trump administration's lies about Venezuela (while pretending to oppose the campaign):
We strongly condemn the Maduro government's actions, including repression of Venezuelan civil society, failed economic policy, the killing of unarmed protestors, disregard for the rule of law, the holding of unfair elections, and blocking humanitarian aid from entering the country.
Almost sounds like it was written by Bolton himself. It seems the only real issue The Resistance™ has with Trump is that he's failed to articulate "a clear plan" for regime-changing Venezuela. Perhaps if Trump could find a way to ease the Maduro administration out of power without carpet bombing the country, he'd win their unequivocal endorsement.
AS-
Pls send messages to the latest post; no one reads the old stuff. Thank you.
As for Ilhan: chiseler = con artist, and I doubt that's what's going on. That retraction regarding Obama was terribly unfortunate, but it suggests that she is confused and immature, lacking the courage of her convictions. The same probably applies to ambiguity regarding her stance on Israeli influence. It takes great courage to stake out an unpopular position, as this means yr hanging out there all by yrself, and I guess she doesn't have the courage to follow thru. Which is to say, maybe it wd have been better if she had said 0 at all.
mb
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