Economist Richard Wolff explaining needed systemic change of American-Style Capitalism...
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/E9jA-Rm5-uc
It’s deja vu all over again:
ReplyDeleteWells Fargo will pay penalties totalling $1 billion to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Controller of the Currency for two principal offenses: (1) customers who wished to extend the length of their “interest-rate locks” on mortgage applications incurred extra fees even though the processing delays were the bank’s own fault; (2) Wells forced customers with auto loans to buy extra insurance, and some 27,000 clients ultimately had their cars repossessed when they defaulted on the loans.
(Wells Fargo profits in 2018 were $22 billion.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/20/business/wells-fargo-cfpb-penalty-regulators.html
And the tax cut enacted in December 2017 (corporate rate cut from 35% to 21%) has been “bery bery good” to Wells Fargo, AT&T, and General Motors:
Wells saves $3.7 billion a year in taxes, 47 times the amount it is expending to raise its minimum wage to $15/hour; AT&T got a $21 billion windfall and will save $3 billion/yr, while it has cut 27,000 jobs; and GM paid no federal taxes in 2018.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jun/15/job-losses-trump-tax-cut-at-t-general-motors-wells-fargo?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/07/wildlife-crossings-bridges-tunnels-animals-roads-highways-roadkill/566210/
ReplyDeleteWill be visiting to inquire on employment so doing some general research on the country. Did you know Holland put up 600 bridges like this, to help the animals cross the routes. Applause for the Netherlands! Considering moving there next year if all goes well.
- Matt
https://wsvn.com/news/us-world/parents-say-police-pulled-guns-on-them-after-4-year-old-daughter-took-a-doll-from-a-store-in-phoenix/
ReplyDeleteEverything the cops did here—pulling guns on both parents, handcuffing and kicking the father, and injuring their four year old daughter trying to take her from her mother—is because the girl took a doll, presumably valued at $1, from a Family Dollar. This could happen to any of us. What the fuck is wrong w/ this country.
re: Pat Chouli's comment on cancer research: that“Prevention isn’t a product. It isn’t sellable. Or stealable.”
ReplyDeleteThe following on a Goldman Sach's paper on genome medicine encapsulates another area where capitalism shows its true sickness-
https://gritpost.com/goldman-sachs-illness-business/
"...Goldman Sachs published a report on April 10 called “The Genome Revolution,” which evaluated the question, “Is curing patients a sustainable business model?” Analyst Salveen Richter explained that new forms of long-term cures involving gene therapy may be good for humanity, but bad for capitalism.
“The potential to deliver “one shot cures” is one of the most attractive aspects of gene therapy, genetically engineered cell therapy, and gene editing. However, such treatments offer a very different outlook with regard to recurring revenue versus chronic therapies,” Richter wrote. “While this proposition carries tremendous value for patients and society, it could represent a challenge for genome medicine developers looking for sustained cash flow.”
...Goldman Sachs pointed to pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences, which makes Harvoni — a hepatitis C treatment. Harvoni has been proven to be especially effective in curing hepatitis C, particularly with patients who have cirrhosis, curing 92 to 100 percent of patients... Gilead’s sales peaked at around $12.5 billion in 2015, but due to patients being cured and no longer needing the treatment, sales are expected to be just under $4 billion in 2018.
“[Gilead] is a case in point, where the success of its hepatitis C franchise has gradually exhausted the available pool of treatable patients,” the report read. “In the case of infectious diseases such as hepatitis C, curing existing patients also decreases the number of carriers able to transmit the virus to new patients, thus the incident pool also declines … Where an incident pool remains stable (eg, in cancer) the potential for a cure poses less risk to the sustainability of a franchise.”
Russia didn't fall for the Zio-motivated oligarchs.
ReplyDeleteThat there was an orthodox Christian revival would
imply that they have any non-subverted (through linear warfare) power.
It's time I report in. I've been over 24 hours w/o alcohol. I've been taking 2 bowls of kava a day, and the strain I bought from them frankly tastes better than what you'll get across the bar at Melo Melo, but hey it's all kava and it's all good. A slight peppery aftertaste, which makes sense as it's a member of the pepper family. I'll soon go down to one bowl in the evening, and then probably less than that.
ReplyDeleteImagine only knowing gas station coffee then discovering the very top quality of carefully-brewed coffee. That's alcohol vs. kava. The powers-that-be would love to "farm" someone like me, going from expensive rehab to expensive rehab, with a 95% failure rate. And here I am saved by the preferred relaxation drink of naked-ass Polynesians, people I'd been raised to hold in a certain contempt.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-history-of-philosophy-by-ac-grayling-review-pillars-of-wisdom-kd8dh9h55
ReplyDeleteQuite the generous review of AC Grayling’s new History of Philosophy (a nearly 700-page book which includes a section on Derrida, but nothing on Kierkegaard*!*)
30 hrs with trump and Snuffleupagus on ABC is pretty damn surreal. He's like the fucknut asshole (gaslighting) dad you can't convince otherwise. Fuckin' weird.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.axios.com/highlights-from-abc-news-30-hours-with-trump-bdd02cad-0821-4f15-8bda-3ef799d39ec5.html
Just another day in the us empire.
ReplyDeleteOff-duty cop open fires on a mentally disabled man in a big box shit house store.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/16/us/corona-costco-officer-shooting/index.html
Of course, this is just 'negative' news, enough already, and can we talk abt happy things say the USians.
MB: Speaking of prescient, I think you predicted this thirteen years ago: European countries seeking to bypass the petrodollar:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/americas-closest-allies-are-working-hard-to-find-ways-to-undermine-the-us-dollar/2019/06/13/c5c2cf80-8e1c-11e9-b08e-cfd89bd36d4e_story.html?utm_term=.e987ecf3f40c
Dan-
ReplyDeleteThanks, but watch length. Pls keep to half pg max.
Paul-
I don't really understand what yr saying, but you shd know that declarations of pure opinion don't rate high on this blog. Pls clarify yr pt, and then provide evidence for it. Thanks.
mb
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/16/us/new-hampshire-animal-cruelty-trnd/index.html
ReplyDeleteGreat photo of "these people are our ne8ghbors."
While animal cruelty isn't quite as sexy as gunning down a fast food worker it's certainly part of The American Way.
Peter -- It gets even better with these "cops:"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/14/they-are-worthy-death-cop-preached-that-government-should-execute-lgbtq-people/
3 more weeks until I'm off to Madrid. I'll let you know how the tapas are.
A woman was arrested in Florida for allegedly stomping on sea turtle nests
ReplyDeleteWELCOME TO HELL
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/06/16/us/miami-beach-sea-turtles-arrest/index.html
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteJohn Morgan, 63, strips, dances, and attempts to fuck a railing:
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Florida-Man-Does-Strange-Dance-Strips-in-McDonalds-511145192.html
Miles
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/why-sex-work-is-real-work/
ReplyDeleteTeen Vogue: Why Sex Work Is Real Work
Haha! I'm no prude and also am happy to debate the subject from either side -- but in Teen Vogue?!?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg86Enr2WZ8
If my previous sales pitch for Gary, Indiana didn't please you, try Cleveland, also
needing much GAMA. Why doesn't he put up Trump Towers in both towns? Wherever you
may live, certainly you are glad you do not wake up in either of these towns.
MB - Perhaps you can provide some insight. Was just home for the Father's Day holiday - was in debate w my conservative father and socialist brother. Father of course was idealizing capitalism; brother socialism. Neither could understand my interjecting, unifying point -- that they were both ignoring the fact that there are high levels of state ownership in the Nordic region models.
ReplyDeleteMight I ask, are you as politically homeless as I am?
China does "Never Let Me Go" only without the cloning--
ReplyDeleteChina is harvesting organs from detainees, tribunal concludes
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/17/china-is-harvesting-organs-from-detainees-uk-tribunal-concludes
Tony-
ReplyDeleteNot at all! I live among Wafers! Suggest you do the same.
Jeff-
How long b4 McD customers attempt to fornicate with Big Macs?
mb
McDonald's as fucking war zone...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.chieftain.com/news/20190227/man-29-dies-after-shooting-at-mcdonalds-parking-lot-in-pueblo
https://www.chieftain.com/news/20190616/pueblo-police-sheriffs-office-arrest-hungry-suspects-after-chase
What I found funny (the whole thing really) in the second story is the police couldn't stop the car despite having no tires and running on it's freaking rims... They had to do a PIT manoeuvre (whatever the fuck that Orwellian term means) somehow they were able to remotely pop the car's airbags stunning the shit heads into submission. Wow can they do this on all cars now?
re Johnson and Teen Vogue/ sex workers
ReplyDeleteI know, bizarre, isn't it? Yet if you look into Teen Vogue in the recent past, it has been working hard to talk to their audience as if they are adults. Considering the so-called 'real' adults these kids have to look to these days, it actually makes sense.
And really, anyone who can get The Federalist to notice them and scream, "Get off of my lawn, you rotten kids!!" earns some respect from me:
https://thefederalist.com/2018/10/19/stick-to-fashion-teen-vogue-and-shut-up-about-politics/
Although hope is apostasy here, unless something come along to kill all of us in a few weeks, there will be some form of human 'culture' walking the earth in the foreseeable future. Most everyone will get what they deserve, but I have met many people in their teens and early twenties who know damn well how bad it is and yet are still willing to try to find a way forward. There may very well be actual monasteries, groups, not just NMIs, down the road. Teen Vogue and such may be delusional but some thought is better than none?
MB: comment re: length noted. Merci.
Galapagos island 'to be used by US Military'
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-latin-america-48663283
The Sacred & The Profane Dept.
Hey everyone,
ReplyDeleteIf you're readers of science fiction, two novels by British writer John Brunner seem especially relevant--and prescient--today. The first is Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar", which imagines a future capitalistic world that is basically...well pretty fucked up. Overpopulation, the relentless demands of capitalism, endless hustling while the world goes to hell, genetic engineering, reality TV, and the utter lack of morals for those climbing atop the heap is all in here. The novel is somewhat dated, but what I find fascinating is how much Brunner got right. He may not have predicted the specifics of many developments, but he certainly got the tone--our utter devotion to technology as a way to build an earthly utopia while we destroy the earthly utopia we already have. A worthwhile read for any committed WAFer. The second novel is Brunner's "The Sheep Look Up". This is a true dystopian novel about the ills of capitalism and how it truly fucks everything and everyone. Dan Daniel--this book is for you! If you think Goldman Sachs is fucked up, wait til you read about the pharmaceutical company and their "wonder drug" in this book. I eagerly await your review. Enjoy!
Highly recommend this interview with Jean-Claude Michéa to Wafers. He's the best social critic in France at the moment. A "French MB" so to speak ;-)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/an-interview-with-jean-claude-michea
Kanye
Greetings all,
ReplyDeleteJust had to check in to share this with everyone. Seems that the new trend is computer generated "cultural influencers". Don't even need to follow a real person anymore, you can follow some computer generated "person" who is developed by various corporations. Some of these "influencers" have millions of followers!
So, how again does Chris Hedges think the populace will wake up and change the system? Unbelievable, and truly pitiful.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/17/business/media/miquela-virtual-influencer.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_190618?campaign_id=2&instance_id=10240&segment_id=14404&user_id=2d53447c9da2d300fc301c365320c873®i_id=513205290618
Dr. B-
ReplyDeleteHarvard in the news-
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/17/parkland-shooting-survivor-harvard-revokes-admission-kyle-kashuv
I think we were all born in the wrong era.....listen to this highly pleasurable talk of a bygone era, and compare it to what we have today below it.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/_W7gHiH11qI
https://youtu.be/UPD0srSiOFE
Wetest 12 months in US history.
ReplyDeletehttps://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/8336h188j/kp78gr86b/m326mb15n/prog2119.pdf
Re: Strange topics in Teen Vogue
ReplyDeleteLife is very different for young kids now than it was for us. Nearly all of them have phones and can access the adult world without supervision. Pre-teen exposure to pornography is becoming an issue. There are increasing reports of 10-12 year-old kids sexually assaulting even younger kids. See a recent NPR talk show on this and other porn-related topics:
Onpoint: The Birds And The Bees — And Porn — In The Internet Age
[quote]
Hardcore, violent porn is just a click away on even young children’s phones and tablets. Teens are reporting that porn is their primary source of information on sex. One group is trying to change that.
[unquote]
A Waferish essay:
ReplyDeleteThe Case Against Stuff https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/05/too-many-options/590185/
The World’s Most Insane Energy Project Moves Ahead
ReplyDeleteAustralia approves Adani coal mine, endangering the Great Barrier Reef and, well, civilization
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/adani-mine-australia-climate-change-848315/
Australia usually reminds me a lot of America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReN82pdVZ4c
ReplyDeleteI still can't understand why MB thinks 'mur'kans are inherently stupid.
Any one of them would instantly understand why Canadians, along with
Mexicans in the past, would be delighted to join. MB best rethink his
position on this topic.
Well folks, I'm down to just a bowl of kava at bedtime, and probably won't even need that. It's a big fuck you to the alcohol industrial complex here. They know a certain % will become dependent. Then they keep cheap, efficient, treatment away from them and want to steer them into extremely expensive rehabs that don't work. Fuck 'em.
ReplyDeleteNews on NPR was interesting yesterday: Dylan Roof, the Bowl Cut From Hell, went and sat in a church with black church ladies and pal'd it up with them, then shot all but one, the one "to tell the tale". He was taken into custody so genteel'ly, why, they'd have handed him a Scotch and a cigar if he'd been of age.
Meanwhile a (black) family was threatened with being shot, their 4-year-old daughter injured, all of them terrorized, because the 4-year-old had grabbed a $1 doll in a dollar store.
Re: Matthew Barronboim
ReplyDeleteHello! Is there a way I could reach you via email? I have a question about Holland and your efforts to move.
20 million ghost workers are employed pretending to be AIs but aren't, says Hettie O'Brien in The NewStatesman. That's how wedded we are to the fantasy of machine consciousness. That's the scary bit.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.newstatesman.com/2019/06/ghosts-machines-invisible-human-labour-behind-ai
The foreword by Owen Barfield is lovely, and I am thoroughly enjoying my reading of this treatise on love by the friend & confidant to Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Vladimir Solovyov.
ReplyDelete"The meaning and worth of love as a feeling is that it really forces us, with all our being, to acknowledge for another the same absolute significance that, because of the power of egoism, we are conscious of only in our own selves. Love is important, not only as one of our feelings but as the transfer of all our interest in life from ourselves to another, as the shifting of the very center of our lives....
"The meaning of human love, speaking generally, is the justification and salvation of individuality through the sacrifice of egoism. On this general basis we can also ... explain the meaning of sexual love"
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Meaning_of_Love.html?id=lNfEG_O7IdkC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Tales from The Swamp:
ReplyDeleteSecretary of State Mike Pompeo has blocked the inclusion of Saudi Arabia on a U.S. list of countries that recruit child soldiers, dismissing his experts’ findings that a Saudi-led coalition has been using under-age fighters in Yemen’s civil war.
Nixon wanted to firebomb the Brookings Institute, now it's Brookings that calls for the firebombing...
What's the world coming to when the guy who routinely authorizes the wanton slaughter of countless women and children has to step down for getting into a physical altercation with his wife?
Don’t Forget That John Podesta Is An Idiot
The Venezuelan coup regime's fake US "ambassador" Carlos Vecchio spent years working for Exxon, leading its legal fight against Chavez. The US gov paid for his elite Ivy League education.
I follow about two dozen Twitter news feeds from leftist/independent journalists and could easily post links to a dozen similar articles every day. The pummelings at fast food restaurants and similar stories are both amusing and indicative, but it's the more "boring" stories of systematic official malfeasance and corruption that really show had bad things have become in America.
Suicide rates among young Americans continue to soar.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2019/06/18/health/suicide-rates-teens-young-adults-us-study/index.html
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/17/books/charles-reich-dead.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/17/obituaries/alan-brinkley-leading-historian-of-20th-century-america-dies-at-70.html
Miles
ps: Time for a tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An2a1_Do_fc
Another USian proleteriat rising up against his corporate masters. In this case, a defenseless animal.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.azfamily.com/news/pd-man-admitted-beheading-roommate-s-dog-in-buckeye/article_72d13628-913b-11e9-a561-6b9821b4adb8.html
Suspect, Jose Vega Meza told officers that he wrapped the dog in a string and then cut it open with a razor blade. He killed the dog because the victim owed his mother rent money.The suspect also admitted to killing and torturing other animals in the neighborhood in the past.
These are your neighbors (Berman).
@Bishop "China is harvesting organs from detainees, tribunal concludes"
ReplyDeleteIt's very likely propaganda and BS. I've read a lot about this, and the thing is that they couldn't come up with any piece of evidence at all.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/web/in-bhutan-teachers-medical-staff-will-now-be-highest-paid-civil-servants-5776604/
ReplyDeleteWhat a novel thought!
Tom-
ReplyDeleteGee, I can't imagine why. They have so much to live for!
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteWell, Trumpo's 'Mega-Rally' last night was an absurd, ridiculous and disgusting display of the nation in the throes of a demagogue; pure theater--featuring a call & response session between the Supreme Leader and his bitter squad of fanatical supporters. A reminder of what the feckless Democrats are up against, no?
Trumpo is by far the most messianic president in US history. His cult following is legion, and the rabid enthusiasm his followers manifest is akin to the frenzy of attack wolves when a piece of bloodied-meat is exposed. And Trumpo does not disappoint--hurling the bloody carcasses of violence, hate, and bigotry like the pied piper of politics--playing his greatest hits TV show w/absolutely no future cancellation date. Trumpo is most certainly an ignoramus, but he's pretty damned good at the spectacle of politics.
The Democrats have *No One* who can command such passion, loyalty, and fevered arousal. If the Dems are to be successful in canceling Trumpo's TV show, they MUST expose the demon lurking behind the Trumpo mask. They MUST articulate the degree and danger that Trumpo represents. Will they? Do they have that kind of spine? My guess is no... In effect, the Dems MUST persuade the public that the continued rule of Trumpo is an unparalleled threat to the Republic. There MUST be no more quotidian debates; no more handshakes; no more smiles; no more manners bestowed upon our Cheeto-Jesus beast. No! It's a fight to the finish, as Trumpicus must be treated as the aspiring fascist that he is.
Miles
ps: I need a pastrami sammy right about now. A side of potato salad couldn't hurt either.
SO American....
ReplyDeleteTeen allegedly solicited by man to kill her friend, send him videos for $9 million...
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-allegedly-solicited-alaska-teen-kill-her-friend-send-him-n1019146
Parents brawl on field during youth baseball game
https://abcn.ws/2x2aPIP
If you take away their guns they can always find cars.
ReplyDelete"A Tennessee driver killed a pregnant woman and her 2-year-old son and injured two other people when he intentionally mowed them down Monday, according to police."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pregnant-woman-2-year-old-son-dead-tennessee-after-driver-n1019226
This is great guys, "Eight Eurocentric Historians"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Eight-Eurocentric-Historians-J-M-Blaut/dp/1572305916
https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/parents-brawl-at-youth-baseball-game-over-13-yearold-umpires-call-144120382.html
ReplyDeleteWhat example does this give to the children? MAGA!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP9e1V57woY
Hard to make an honest dollar. MAGA!!
NPR reports that top national security staff fear telling Trump certain classified info
for fear that he'll blab it all over town. MAGA!
A prison in upstate New York held a mentally ill 17-year-old in solitary confinement for months on end. Now, a federal judge says the prison cannot continue the torturous practice and that the teenage prisoner suffered "irreparable harm." https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-solitary-confinement-injunction-20190619-wotutt2msvbsfegpbdyj232zsu-story.html
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely fascinating research from the Neolithic Iberian Peninsula ... yet I wonder if there still really is serious debate about biologically (rather than cultural) determination of gender inequality?
ReplyDeletehttps://cosmosmagazine.com/society/gender-inequality-arose-8000-years-ago
While this is not actually on topic, I had to post it.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/students-slam-school-dress-code-205050915.html
"The official district dress code states that “clothing such as, or substantially similar to halter tops, tube tops, backless tops/dresses, cut-offs, and clothing which exposes inappropriate areas, including midriffs” is disruptive to the learning environment.
“I had a male teacher come up to me and say ‘Kate you don’t need to show your thighs to the world,’” Kate recounted.
Aimee added that she believes the dress “induces rape culture because it tells guys ‘If she’s wearing short shorts, then she’s asking for it,’ which is totally not right.”
Addison described how upsetting it can be when an outfit is publicly shamed because of the effect it has on boys."
I attended Catholic school when I was in middle school & I can only imagine the nun's reaction if I had complained I wanted to wear short shorts to school.
@ Bill -- Venezuela is sitting on a bunch of oil and it belongs to us. Monroe said so in that doctrine of his and that's that.
Pascal b. otd 1623 . Se moquer de la philosophie, c'est vraiment philosopher ... To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher ...
ReplyDeleteA WAFer worldview!
“Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.”
- B.C.
https://hungarytoday.hu/orban-meets-jordan-peterson-in-budapest/
ReplyDeleteJP in Budapest. What a joke. I was there last year as a guest of the philosophy department of Central European University, only to be exiled from Hungary by this great defender of free speech, Viktor Orbán.
Fast food story of the day. No one was beaten.... except this man's meat.
ReplyDelete"Police: Man arrested masturbating while walking toward Arby's"
https://www.ketv.com/article/police-man-arrested-masturbating-while-walking-toward-arbys/28069684
^^Isn't Arby's slogan, "We have the meats?" The man's last name is Hefner.
Remembering My Father, Jacques Lacan ... https://lithub.com/remembering-my-father-jacques-lacan/
ReplyDeleteWastebook is even worse than you think: At Facebook’s worst-performing content moderation site in North America, one contractor has died, and others say they fear for their lives.
ReplyDeleteSome prime quotes: "A Facebook content moderator...had a heart attack at his desk and died last year. Senior management initially discouraged employees from discussing the incident, for fear it would hurt productivity."
"Facilities...are often filthy, with workers reporting that the office’s only bathroom has repeatedly been found smeared with feces and menstrual blood."
"Workers (who have to share desks) have also found pubic hair and fingernails at their desks, along with other bodily waste."
"...in return for policing the boundaries of free expression on one of the internet’s largest platforms, individual contractors in North America make as little as $28,800 a year. They receive two 15-minute breaks and a 30-minute lunch each day, along with nine minutes per day of “wellness” time that they can use when they feel overwhelmed by the emotional toll of the job. After regular exposure to graphic violence and child exploitation, many workers are subsequently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and related conditions."
Various people on Youtube have put together "nasty neighbor compilations." I just thought I'd post a couple quick examples, of course it's very easy to search for more.
ReplyDeleteBut I thought, trashy as they are, these videos really embody America in a nutshell. Everyone has a cellphone. Everyone is recording everyone else. Everyone is miserable and hates their lives. Everyone is quickly calling the cops on everyone else. And everyone is so concerned about their illusory little scrap of "property" the government allows them to temporarily possess. It's really pathetic.
They argue over their lawns, their property lines, dog shit, parking, loud cars, trees. The American obsession with lawns is something I'll never understand, and I'll never live in a neighborhood with a HOA. Also, if one of the people in the video has a daughter, I've noticed a couple times they are quick to yell loudly that they suspect their male neighbor is a "peeping tom."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBp-7nZQ4rA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JSOWrkqhz4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41LPziz5zrU
There's a type of person I realized long ago that seems to deserve punishment because of how they strike out at everyone, and yet doesn't require it because they're so miserable already. They just need to be avoided if at all possible.
Good morning everyone,
ReplyDeleteExcellent "Brain pickings" article today - "The Shortness of Life: Seneca on Busyness and the Art of Living Wide Rather Than Living Long"
https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/01/seneca-on-the-shortness-of-life/?mc_cid=19af039bb6&mc_eid=affaf06daa
Sounds like ancient Rome had some of the same problems we do today - everyone is "busy", with no time to think, or even live for themselves. As a result, life passes us all by, the average person squanders that time in anticipation that "someday" he/she will have the time to really live for themselves - but then life is gone. Meanwhile, most people spend their day working and responding to other people's time schedules, requirements, etc.
I haven't read the original, but will now.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/20/horns-are-growing-young-peoples-skulls-phone-use-is-blame-research-suggests/
ReplyDeleteTiny bone spurs are appearing on young people’s skulls. Phone use - or "text neck" is to blame, research suggests.
Bill, Onward, Italiana, Splash, Art-
ReplyDeleteSounds like America!
Mil-
I guess "Where's the beef?" wd also be relevant.
Sam-
Thanks for writing in. Tell us more.
Nate-
Check this out:
https://www.amazon.com/World-Revolution-Westernization-Twentieth-Perspective/dp/0195049063/ref=sr_1_4?crid=27OXCVNS5JP0E&keywords=theodore+von+laue&qid=1561038565&s=gateway&sprefix=theodore+von+%2Caps%2C182&sr=8-4
Anjin-
This too is America. Check out the guy's face.
Jeff-
Speaking as a declinist, this is all gd news; the worse, the better. It's imperative that Trumpalumpa get reelected in 2020, and that he cancel all future elections as of 2024. Look at all these Wafer posts, abt how violent and stupid the country is: what's to save? The kids now have bone spurs on their skulls (cell fone usage), but more important, there is nothing *inside* their skulls.
Buffoons rule!
mb
ps: Wafers: Can anyone give me a serious reason why Warren, Sanders, and Biden shdn't be vigorously slapped?
ReplyDelete[I see that a couple of fellow posters have reported on the brawl on the ball field in Colorado. I submit my article, second entry below, as it contains video of the excitement. Enjoy.]
ReplyDeleteSeveral recent posts have cited the rising tide of suicide in the United States, tying the statistics to the underlying sickness of the society at large. This Truthdig article gives a detailed review of some of those statistics. Example: The higher suicide rate among whites as well as among people with only a high school diploma highlights suicide’s disproportionate effect on working-class whites. (Read: Trump’s troops)
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/a-deadly-epidemic-is-hitting-trump-supporters-the-hardest/
And, in an item combining Americans’ love of baseball, their concern for the health and socialization of their children, and their affection for the “sweet science”:
A 13-year-old kid acting as umpire in a youth baseball league in Lakewood, Colorado rules a 7-year-old to have batted out of order and parents and coaches recognize the ump’s ruling as their cue to open a can of whip-ass on one another:
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/06/18/video-brawl-little-league-game-lakewood-colorado/
Bret Easton Ellis isn't mentioned frequently on this blog, but the guy is definitely a Wafer. I read an interview of him in a french magazine recently. The journalist asks him "who do you think rules the united states today?". He replies "Kim Kardashian" and goes on to say he's not joking!
ReplyDeleteKanye
Been reading some Charles Burkowsi poems- here's one for WAFERS.
ReplyDeletenow we must select with extreme caution our lovers,/water, food stuffs and even our invisible/air.
it is a very careful time,
our politicians consider ways to dismantle/the worldwide stockpile of bombs/all too late, of course, since it only takes one fool to/push one button/somewhere.
we draw close together, frightened, searching for a return/to a safe/womb.
but we must have been wrong for too long, the asylums overflow and/spill their/detritus into our streets/and where our leaders once spoke wisely/they now speak gibberish-/they stop, then continue, look about, addled,/substituting insane slogans for real/speech.
this is the price we now pay:we can't go/back, we can't go forward and we hang helpless, nailed to a/world/of our own/making.
J Nortroff -
ReplyDeleteI was reading another press release for that study this morning! Here's the original study by M. Cintas-Pena and L. Garcia Sanjuán (Gender Inequalities in Neolithic Iberia: A Multi-Proxy Approach") published in European Journal of Archaeology 20 March 2019:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology/article/gender-inequalities-in-neolithic-iberia-a-multiproxy-approach/7CA3A7DB7D56AFF67784371206E1D86C
MB - This data seems sympathetic w/ some of your arguments in "Wandering God" no? What a fantastic book that is!
72yo big box store "greeter" punched and knocked out after asked a customer to see his receipt. Mr. Mohinder Randhawa, "greeter," states he was "doing his duty" and what he was "supposed to do."
ReplyDeletehttps://www.oxygen.com/crime-time/72-year-old-walmart-greeter-mohinder-randhawa-allegedly-knocked-out-by-craig-valentine
Curious if Mr. Randhawa is well remunerated with comprehensive health insurance, pension, stock options, etc...like his big box shit house C-suite folks for such unwavering loyalty and devotion to a corporation?!
Reminds me of the homeless folks waving huge american flags.
GBS on America
ReplyDeletehttps://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/12/07/barbarism-decadence/
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/657065-the-100-american-is-99-idiot
A way to pursued North Koreans to visit 'mur'ka?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPCzxjiJ2NM
Bill Hicks - that sounds like a whiff of Stanislaw Lem's excellent novel, The Futurological Congress
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Futurological_Congress
Which I'd consider a must read for Wafers. Just the Wiki description gives an idea of what a mind-bending story it is, and hopefully it's online or you can find a cheap used copy.
I consider Lem one of the great SF authors if not "the" one, and he's almost unknown in the US because he was in the Soviet bloc.
MB - they would think you were doing them a favor? They would thank you and then ask for your vote? It would be a total waste of time? Better not to waken them?
ReplyDeleteFrom the Trump is a fucking idiot file
Commending on the alleged Iranian attack on a US drone: ""Fortunately, that drone was unarmed. It was not -- there was no man in it ..." Get the orange peels out of your ears, you idiot. By definition a drone is an UNPILOTED AIRCRAFT. As a "unmanned aerial vehicle" there is NEVER a man or woman on a drone. If there were, it would not be a drone!!!!!!!!!!! But the really sad thing is that most of his supporters probably didn't think twice about what he said. That's the nation we're living in. Trying to stay sane in the insanity of America.
In America you're never too young to become an "influencer" and start hustling:
ReplyDeletehttps://thebaffler.com/salvos/in-the-era-of-teenploitation-pelly
A great study of impersonal honesty using the lost wallet paradigm in 355 cities spanning 40 countries (17,000 lost wallets). Big variation across cities, but (almost) everywhere people were MORE likely to return the wallet when it had MORE money in it. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/06/19/science.aau8712
ReplyDeleteSurprised the observed effect didn't taper off in the States! Although I do wonder how many Americans expected a reward!
@Art--so typical of National Propaganda Radio to regurgitate without question what they're told by unelected, unaccountable Deep State assholes. What NPR won't tell you is that as president, Trump has the absolute RIGHT to determine what classified information is and is not made public. Being retired from the State Department and still knowing people who work in the "intelligence" community, I hear this nonsense frequently and it always pisses me off. Nobody voted for any of these shit-for-brains or their pet media poodles, yet they think it is they and not the president who has the right to run the country. Personally, I hope Trump starts holding weekly televised addresses in which he digs out of the vaults those secrets most damaging to the empire and reads them aloud from the Oval Office.
ReplyDelete@Miles--as a declinist, I must say I'm a bit disappointed in Trump. I mean, here we are going on three years into his regime and very little has actually changed, however much wailing and crying the Dems and progs have been doing. Even his abuses on the southern border are merely an extension of policies put in place by Obama. Trump's problem is the he simply to ADD to get the job done right. Let's hope the idiot Democrats follow through on impeachment and let's get Pence into the White House pronto. That guy strikes me as having just the right combination of zealous self-confidence and monumental stupidity to properly grease the skids to bring on the demise of the empire.
Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! needs to be updated. Instead of that famous quote that begins, "Tell me about the South..." lets revise it;
ReplyDelete“Tell about America. What's it like there. What do they do there. Why do they live there. Why do they live at all.”
Yes. Why DO they live at all? Everyone screaming, "I'll sue you!" "You're going to jail!" "I'm calling my lawyer!" "Get off my property!" "Do you know WHO I AM?"
Packed into these artificial neighborhoods, forced to take care of these lawns (this WASPy lawn obsession is one of the worst inventions of mankind.) But then, as Tom's article shows a lot of them are choosing not to live "at all." Especially young people, perhaps they don't have a lot invested in the world yet -- they take a look around at this mess and just say, "No thanks."
I was recently skimming through a book about how hormones regulate insect behavior and it made a point that during times of scarcity this insect will go dormant, like a seed, and not breed, or breed less. Statistics show Americans are choosing to do the same thing (birth rate is at a 32 year low). We're told these are good times, but birth rates don't lie!
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/americas-baby-bust-birth-rate-slides-to-32-year-low-despite-economic-gains/
On another note, this build up to war with Iran, with a shot down American drone today (Ha! Ha!) is really amateur hour stuff. This is so sloppy, clumsy and transparent it makes the Bush Admin look like Edward Bernays. Another symptom of American decline, we can't even propagandize the public for a genocide anymore. What IS the world coming to? Not that Americans would do anything about it anyway!
@Sam Goff
ReplyDeleteHi Sam, the Central European University wasn't exiled. Please note that I'm not an Orban fan at all. So the CEU left voluntarily. That's true that the Orban crowd didn't like the CEU, and they wanted it out. But the CEU was actually not in compliance with an (anyway very reasonable) law requiring grade accreditation, and they acted with the same arrogance as Orban, dismissing any need for compliance. The CEU for a sizeable number of people was a neocolonial and neoliberal agitation center, regardless of what they thought about Orban. Actually the CEU could (and, as far as I know, does) offer education in Hungary, it is not "forbidden". The thing is that their degree is not (automatically) recognized as a college/university degree.
Eight hours of work per week is sufficient for humans, research has revealed:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.idler.co.uk/article/news-coming-of-the-one-day-week/
Mafia Expert Ways In: The City of London is the centre of global corruption.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/roberto-saviano-britain-corrupt-mafia-hay-festival-a7054851.html?amp
Onward-
ReplyDeletePls watch length. Half pg max. Thanks.
Bill-
I confess that I too am a bit disappointed...how is it that Trumpi has not rounded up all the Jews and Muslims, pasted yellow stars on them, and stuck them in detention camps in Idaho? These people are still free to roam the streets...what kinda fascism is that?
mb
The Land Where the Internet Ends
ReplyDeleteTo find real solitude, you have to go out of range. But every year that’s harder to do, as America’s off-the-grid places disappear.
By Pagan Kennedy
Photographs by Damon Winter
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/opinion/sunday/wifi-wilderness-privacy-reserves.html
Great piece. Wonderful sense of place, quiet, wilderness, astronomy.
MB, Bill-
ReplyDeleteAre you guys just kidding around? It seems to me that there are fascistic overtones in Trump's presidency everywhere here. Not least of which is the fact that actual American Nazis recognize Trump as an ally and a source of great inspiration for their movement. Here's an example of the activities of the far-right, pro-Trump group, Proud Boys:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/proud-boys-orlando-police-stop-far-right-group-from-reaching-anti-trump-protest?ref=author
In any case, Trump's rhetoric and conduct has lined up w/the noxious politics of fascism. And that's not to say that the Democrats are innocent when it comes to how we got ourselves into this dreadful neo-fascist mess.
Respectfully,
Miles
Local TV news in US, at least where I live, has gotten so sloppy that it's difficult to watch. "Reporters" don't seem to care whether words are pronounced correctly, facts can be substantiated, or sentence structure is coherent. Last night, a woman who could not have been over 22 was reading a report about a Barry Manilow Dream Foundation award to a local group.
ReplyDeleteShe must have had no idea who Manilow was because she pronounced his name Ma - ni - low, with the accent on the "Ma"and sounding like "vanila" with an o rather than an a at the end. One would hope that her boss corrected her but I doubt he/she cared enough to do so. Because she made the same mistake a 1/2 hour later.
This is one of millions of examples of the lack of accountability in America - from the highest office - President who gives a shit if I tell the truth or not - to this lowly TV "reporter". Accountability matters because not having it means no one can be held responsible. And the lack of accountability is a sure sign of decline. When no one is responsible for his words or actions, no one can be trusted to do what he says he will do. A society without mutual responsibility is on its way out and will descend into chaos and violence.
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of ways a civ can collapse; one is a descent into fascism. In a declinist context, this process can be exactly what the times call for, i.e. self-destruction and cultural suicide. I certainly hope Trumpi closes down the NYT, and (in 2024) declares himself president for life.
mb
Hi Mr Berman,
ReplyDeleteI apologise if this is deposited in the wrong area.
I just want to give thanks for the great work you did with Coming To Our Senses and Wandering God. It has given my life an additive of perspective that I will carry with me the rest of my life.
I also have a thought within the fields posited in these books that perhaps I could get your opinion on ?
While trying to be as short and succinct as possible; when looking at human society/structure today, there is a great range of mental and physical capacity from person to person. Could this range in pre-history have been more equal ? Thus lending to the ease by which egalitarianism could be held more liberally. If so this leads into many obvious questions.
Thanks in advance if this finds your attention,
Best and thanks again for your work.
Mark