The Wah-Tulsi
ReplyDeleteWith apologies to The Vibrations
There's a dance called the Wah-Tulsi it's out of sight,
First Gabbard to the left then to the right.
The Wah-Tulsi is out of sight,
You slide to the left, then to the right.
Take two steps down and keep it tight.
And do the Wah-Tulsi, it sure is a sight.
Come on by, mystify,
Lead with the Love and Wah-Tulsi, Wah-Tulsi with me.
Shimmy and shoulder and slop with your feet,
And wiggle positions in time to the beat,
You do the Shuck and Jive, come out on the Horse,
And Big War Hero, when you make your noise.
Come on by, putrefy,
There's a dance called the Wah-Tulsi it's out of sight,
First you slide to the left then to the right.
Two steps backward, keep it tight.
There's a dance called the Wah-Tulsi it's out of sight.
Don't stop now, I'm really not thru,
There's so much more decline you can do,
Well the Surf Board, Bhagavad Gita,
The Double Wah-Tulsi, zhlobs, in time with the beat,
Come on by, amplify,
It's easy to do, and Wah-Tulsi, Wah-Tulsi with me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fub8PsNxBqI
ReplyDeleteHave you thought of marketing WAFER Bullshit Repellent in a handy
spray can? Think of its many uses when shopping, watching TV, following
the next election, and when talking to bureaucrats.
Greetings MB & Wafers,
ReplyDeletePaul Craig Roberts provided a link to this new book:
https://www.claritypress.com/product/obamas-unending-wars-fronting-the-foreign-policy-of-the-permanent-warfare-state/
Quite a different view of Obama's presidency - different from the reverential, saintly version you see in most of the media.
As you say, the whole thing is theater.
As you say I'm be there is no end to the hustle in North America.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/2019/07/makers-of-patriot-canes-run-ads-endorsing-bludgeoning-antifascist-protestors/
From now on no self-respecting Fourth of July celebrant will be without one!
Anjin-
ReplyDeleteI am very excited by this development, and plan to buy several of these wonderful canes myself. However, why limit their use to progs? I wd suggest every American get one of these canes, go out into the street, and bludgeon the 1st person they see. Then the next one. Etc. Whee! (We already bludgeon each other emotionally; no reason not to take it up a notch.)
In the meantime, here's someone I'd like to cane:
https://nypost.com/2019/07/04/blue-bell-ice-cream-licker-could-face-20-years-in-prison/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_4267352
How did Americans get this dumb?
Italiana-
Wdn't it be great to cane Obama? On nationwide TV? And then move on to Hillary?
Art-
I'm working on a computer program that when unleashed near a cell fone user, causes the fone to leave their hand and aggressively burrow its way up their ass. I just need a financial backer and a patent lawyer. Tentative name: The Colonizer.
Jack-
Very inspiring. I'm also working on a computer program that, when unleashed in the vicinity of Tulsi Gabbard, causes her to grab the nearest cane and start beating herself with it, while yelling, I'M SUCH A DOUCHE BAG. Neat, eh?
mb
First a joke, then a comment:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2019/07/05/luxury-pickup-trucks-chevrolet-ford-gm-ram-tesla-rivian/1620574001/
A $100,000 Ford F150 (now within reach of whom?) The Longhorn, a real man's man pickup. Wtf who in their right mind wld use this as a work truck? Where I live they drive these death machines as though they were a BMW. A few idiots have installed special mufflers that let off a thick black smoke to stick it to the lefty climate hoaxers.
I don't have a link but CBSN aired a glimpse into the asylum process. It was amazing to me - does ANYONE try to walk a (blistering) mile in these suffering human's shoes? Literally zero empathy. Where are the churches? {Evangelicals all that remain} It's fucking disgraceful, all that remains is a sudden small pox outbreak in the prisons and cages. The natives prob remember such treatment. Check out CBSN online to watch.
Trump Again Shows The World He’s Too Stupid To Be President...
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/YnBC60Fp6AQ
jj-
ReplyDeleteUnless yr president of a dying country. Then stupidity is exactly what's called for. "History" knows this, and this is what History has delivered. A healthy society needs a mature, informed individual at the helm. A dying one needs a dunce.
mb
@Gunnar,
ReplyDeleteThe idiots with the smoking pick up trucks have actually had the emissions control system bypassed inside the engine compartment. It gives the trucks more power. If you were driving over the road in a semi truck, then you could go to federal prison for doing such thing. Only older non-EPA emissions semis smoke.
Trust me, I work on the newer ones, and they are a pain in the ass to keep on the road while running correctly. Those idiots that you see are also actually subject to the same laws, they just are not enforced. The fine is something like $30,000 and up to 15 years in prison.
But of course this would be the last thing that this administration would go after. Even when Volkswagen cheated their emissions control tests, they never smoked. They were set up to pass the test, but then give American drivers the power that they wanted. But when you talked to an owner of one of the diesel cars they were more interested in the 60 mpg fuel economy, not power.
My autoworker family is laughing in their graves over these overpriced shopping carts that people are buying.
Peace,
Vince I
@Miles--Let's both play "Taps" for the death of Mad Magazine. My dad collected every issue from about 1968 through the 80s (wish I still had them, damnit). He kept them in a box in the basement that my brother and I raided on an almost daily basis. Compared to the "barf and puke" (Madspeak) that constitutes most comic humor these days, Mad was literal genius--politically incorrect as hell before that was even a thing. Once William Gaines died and they made that insipid TV version, it was all over.
ReplyDelete@Anjin-san--those Antifa douchebags bring a lot of that abuse on themselves with their intolerant insistence that pretty much anyone who doesn't believe the exact same things they do deserves to be punched and beaten. Far as I'm concerned both they and all the Alt-right dickheads should be rounded up, given AK-47s and placed in a giant pen. Last one standing--his/her side "wins."
@Gunnar--in my area there are plenty of prog haven, non-evangelical churches with their virtue signaling Hate is Not Welcome here signs prominently displayed out front. When you pass by one on a Sunday morning, the parking lot is always full of BMWs, Lexuses, Mercades and so forth. These churches are usually in neighborhoods full of McMansions with enough extra bedrooms to collectively house every immigrant in those detention facilities. Yet I'll bet that were you to interrupt their self righteous denunciations of Trump's immigration policies by suggesting they each take in one person until they become educated enough to gain decent employment (not just work as a janitor for minimum wage with no benefits and live four to a room in some shithole apartment), they would look at you like you had two heads.
Anon-
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't post Anons. You need a real handle, like Julius V. Farthead.
mb
Two stories WAFers:
ReplyDelete1. Had a classic WAFernian moment with friends. Politics came up and I repeated something I read here, if Il Douche looses the election, do you really think he'll actually leave ... yeah right! The stunned, blank faces were priceless. The first to speak said "He can't do that!". As if we are all in third grade and fairness mattered anymore.
2. Alas, I had to buy a smart phone this weekend (so I can get calls at work which, because I'm in the basement, only has wi-fi). I thought, there I go, I'm screwed. No longer a WAFer and stuck looking into the black mirror just like the rest of the hoi polloi. But you know what, most of what makes a smart phone special is total BS. All these apps and games and social media are boring, or impossible to use, or maybe it's the latent WAFer in me that utterly fails to see the point. It is nice to check the weather I suppose, or I could walk outside.
Pastrami-
ReplyDeleteThey make excellent suppositories, I'm told, if you just add a dab of K-Y Jelly.
mb
ReplyDeleteHistory does it rhyme?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-migrant-detention-centers-concentration-camps-donald-wyatt-rhode-island-a8986651.html
Gordon-
ReplyDeleteIt's possible that these migrant detention centers, with their inhumane conditions, are a rehearsal or dry run for general political detention centers that will very likely be built to house dissidents as the country continues to fall apart. (Two exist already, in fact, in Illinois and Indiana, and are known as CMU's, or Communication Management Units.) Of course, the comparison with the Holocaust in this article is a bit off, in that detention centers are hardly the same thing as death camps; but the Jews who are demonstrating against these centers are certainly doing the righteous thing. But they are exceptional: most Americans don't really give a damn. "First they came for the Communists..." (Martin Niemoller).
All the indications suggest that the final phase of the American empire will be very dark.
mb
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteDmitry Orlov has written an essay primarily on present-day US foreign policy which seems to me to be mostly true; Orlov seems to think that US foreign policy is action for appearances or simply to do something. Or theater.
https://russia-insider.com/en/you-are-being-trolled-imploding-empire/ri27411
A Lancet Public Health study finds a strong association between economic hardship, incarceration and drug-related deaths in the United States.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/tl-pss070119.php
Almost half of Americans have a close relative who has spent time in jail or prison.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/nearly-half-americans-have-close-family-member-who-has-been-incarcerated-180971645/
MB: Ha! The damned thing will probably be easier to use that way...
ReplyDeleteNice article on militarism with some good points on Obama (at least until the author strays into the "We Must" crap at the end):
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/05/u-s-militarism-and-the-one-sided-class-war/
MB: Theater indeed -- theater of the absurd, with actors from reality TV, pro wrestling, televangelism, and Fox news. I can't wait for the next act.
ReplyDeleteMichael-
ReplyDeleteSeems likely, because Trumpi doesn't really have a foreign policy--not even the usual ones of projecting power, or economic colonization around the globe. This is why he keeps doing 180-degree flips. One day Kim is "little rocket man," then next wk he's Trumpo's friend. Etc. We keep waiting for an external Suez Moment, but I'm beginning to think nothing dramatic will happen, just the slow drip of China replacing us as the world hegemon--expected by some intelligence sources to be the situation by 2030. Which means that in terms of collapse, it cd be a combo of external 'erosion' and internal financial crash. As far as internal erosion, see links by Tom Servo, above. This type of data will increase and get worse, beyond doubt.
mb
ps: Aiding the collapse is the fact that most American youth have garbage in their heads:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/07/06/father-son-all-teen-bid-for-esports-stardom/EhZCdGUDYouhT2DEkilhCL/story.html?s_campaign=bdc:globewell:trending&s_campaign=bdc:globewell:trending
Speaking to American darkness and cruelty, I shudder to imagine what the reaction will be to a 9-11 type of event at this time. As Trump and friends go full-bore dictatorship, I can't imagine any significant numbers doing anything to stop them. Most will be cheering them on, while those upset will be patting themselves on the back while flooding twitter, thinking that it actually is doing something significant.
ReplyDeleteThis cartoon sums up my attitude towards smart phones and most of today's tech. Subtle, and not intended to speak to the failure of technology per se but still does-
https://www.xkcd.com/937/
Pastrami, I've found it a good idea to try to get a glance at someone's smartphone screen. Can tell you a lot about them. If it is cluttered with app after app, well, consider yourself warned.
Mississippi makes it a jailable offense to call plant-based or cultured-meat patties
ReplyDelete"burgers"ttps://boingboing.net/2019/07/07/heme-ahem.html
Only in the USA.
It's not just theater, it's theater of the completely totally utterly f****** absurd.
I think they should drone anyone who does!
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMarquenta Glidwell, arrested for stun-gun attack on McDonald's manager. Reason? Food order delay.
https://wgntv.com/2019/07/01/mcdonalds-manager-says-woman-attacked-him-with-stun-gun-over-drive-thru-wait/
I've only one question regarding this incident: Where was Jordan Herzog while all this was transpiring?
Miles
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteAnother wonderful American, clearly; we can add her to the fast-food attack list. Still, I think Shaneka retains top spot here for using weapons. Why Marquenta wasn't armed is a bit of a mystery.
mb
ps: BTW, when is Shaneka scheduled for release? I think it wd be great if a contingent of Wafers flew over to Michigan, waited by the prison exit door w/flowers, candy, and an AK-47.
I agree with a point you made about overhearing an exchange between expats -- "Why do they vote against their own interests?" No one is permitted to point out that ObamaCare has financially drained the middle and blue-collar working classes. He is to be lauded for "saving" healthcare when in fact he put it in a deeper hole. What people don't remember (or maybe never knew) was it was phased in -- and the big hike in premiums took effect after he left office. We're living with those now and the lack of controls on all the corporations bilking us. They have no cause to worry things will ever change.
ReplyDeleteA funny article to share from another expat who lives in Mexico and has a sense of humor:
http://www.unz.com/freed/leisure-unsought-neural-networks-and-other-dramas/
"Today, FOE will explain economics, fraud, unemployment, and the end of the world. There will no longer be a need for economists, if there ever was. You will understand everything.
An unsettling backdrop to all of this was the realization that the public, whose buying of things it didn’t need kept the system going, didn’t really want to buy enough stuff. Left to themselves, they would barbecue pork chops in the backyard, drink Bud, and watch movies with lots of gratuitous violence. They didn’t know they wanted iWatches or funny-looking tennis shoes or designer jeans. Since you can’t base an economy entirely on frankfurters, somebody had to tell them to buy, buy, buy. In short, to keep the wheels of industry turning they had to be force-fed like paté geese , And so were."
Wafers, Umair has been reading Dark Ages America.. Here's a quote:
ReplyDelete"So: is this century going to be another dark age? It looks that way. It feels that way. But does it have to be? Is the future written in stone? Is our destiny immovable?"
My overall concern is that the US is just an expression of ancient mythology & of modernity & that its destruction may be the destruction of the species. And perhaps all life on Earth. Perhaps we should not be so gleeful of America self destructing... it may be the end of everything. Do you think Hitler would not have destroyed the world if he could have? He didn't surrender because he wanted Germany completed defeated... a la... if Germany could not have the world, then German's should be destroyed. If America can't be in control of the world because we are soooooo exceptional & the "last, best hope of mankind", then the world should be destroyed. We have the weapons to do it.
Rufus T. Schmeck
Susan-
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff. I really shd arrange a mtg w/ol' Fred, sometime. My kinda guy.
mb
Rufus-
ReplyDeleteIt's of course a possibility--anything is, really--but not very likely, I don't think. The real dilemma is whether capitalism, and the US, manage to collapse before they destroy the planet; and the outcome of that race isn't clear. But I honestly believe that any truly intelligent person understands that the US is not merely a rogue nation, but a cancer on humanity, and that the only hope for humanity at large is that it go under. (What really worries me is the possibility that its values will persist.) I shd also add that yr understanding of Hitler is way off base: the 'nihilism' interpretation of J.P. Stern is quite dated. You need to read some recent biographies, e.g. Ian Kershaw, maybe even the Third Reich chapter of CTOS.
mb
Susan W - thanks for the great link. How does Fred know so much about my own situation? He's nailed it. "Here was the new, and profitable, economic paradigm of semipseudosortakindabutnotreally employment: barely paid, no medical coverage, no benefits, no future, but you still got to pay taxes to make it even less."
ReplyDeleteBTW on that site, FOE stands for Fred On Everything; I believe the old site's name.
I myself am considering getting back to Hawaii, where I grew up and is Home for me, not in a decade or 5 years but instead, ASAP. I know I will have to go through a period of hardship and probable homelessness back there, so why not get it over with while I'm still relatively young and fit? I've finally realized that no matter how much or little I work from here on out, I'll get the min. SS payment if I live long enough to collect it.
Trump's gaffe during his July 4 speech that colonial Americans fighting for freedom from British rule "took over the airports" during the Revolutionary War unleashed 100s of witty twitter responses showing, as if we needed more proof, the unbelievable stupidity of the Orange Buffoon from the Land of the Free and Brave:
ReplyDeleteWe shall not payeth extra for our bageth
One if by land. Two if by sea. Three if by the Orlando International Airport.
As the Red Coats advanced through the terminal, we knew our time was running short. Morale was depleted, boarding began in mere minutes. “Hold them at the Hudson [News]!” Washington commanded. The battle of Logan Intl had begun.
Would the owner of wooden teeth please return to TSA to identify and claim.
What level of ignorance is needed for someone to make such statements? Even more frightening, what level is stupidity is needed for a people to elect him to an office that gives him control of nuclear weapons? Dr. Strangelove, we hardly knew thee.
alex-
ReplyDeleteIt's possible that the SSA will not live as long as you do. I suspect all social safety nets will be abolished within 10-20 yrs. We need $ for war, after all.
mb
MB -- "read some recent biographies, e.g. Ian Kershaw"
ReplyDeleteI've just finished his most recent and final book in his "To Hell & Back" series
https://www.amazon.com/Global-Age-1950-2017-Penguin-History/dp/073522398X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Ian+Kershaw&qid=1562535979&s=books&sr=1-1
"The Global Age: Europe 1950-2017"
Ross-
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. I'll hafta add this bk to the pile next to my bed, that has almost made it to the ceiling by now.
trying-
Check out this link, previously provided by jj:
https://youtu.be/YnBC60Fp6AQ
Part of Trumpi's fan base, if not all of it, is composed of people as dumb as he is. (Progs are of course dumb in a different way.) Remember Michele Bachmann's ref to the USSR, as tho it were still around? Sarah Palin saying she knew abt international relations because she cd see Russia from her house? Where do these people come from? Not from Mars! In the history of the world, I doubt there has ever been a society as dumb, and absurd, as ours.
mb
@Bill, yep we have same kind of prog shit here. I left Pueblo (considered the crotch of Colorado - burned out industrial steel town, the mill is owned by a Russian corporation not sure if past Lords of industry saw that coming) for Boulder, after one year I came back. Narcissism on steroids. I still get an email for support groups for mental illness. Outside of Aspen or Vail, Boulder prob has least need for these services (I guess rich people take psychotic neurosis very seriously). Even the homeless haveta fight for space on its hallowed ground. Here, where people drop like flies from opioids, heroin, and family generational gangs it’s crickets.
ReplyDeletehttps://mailchi.mp/ad3c7c88c8f8/inmi-newsletter-farmers-3632133?e=74ac010b40
The “Buddhist “ community is roiled in controversy. The Jack Kerouac school of disembodied poetics (mfa creative writing founded by Buddhist school Naropa) tuition is upwards of 30,000 dollars a year. I’m quite certain JK would be homeless and not a student @ the very school with his name on the building.
https://www.denverpost.com/2019/07/07/shambhala-sexual-abuse/
Came up with an acronym for the kind of hope these shitheads peddle: Hell.On.Planet.Earth.
As the dates for the next Democratic debates approach—30 and 31 July in Detroit, itself a monument to late-stage capitalism—we learn that the Democratic National Committee will consider holding either a forum or a “full debate” on climate change. Of the previous 4 hours’ debates, no more than 20 minutes were devoted to the topic.
ReplyDeleteIf any such discussion among those Democrats still standing takes place, whatever the format, the event will inevitably buoy the spirits of Trump’s Troops, whose thinking on the subject we might charitably characterize as fuzzy on a good day. Imagine the candidates trying to outline in five minutes or fewer their ideas for what to do about the disappearance of life on earth. Good times.
Suggestion for the news organizations’ banner headline touting the event: “Climate Change: Threat or Menace?”
https://fortune.com/2019/07/02/dnc-climate-change-debate/
Rufus: good link to Umair. I love that guy except he feels the impulse to post every weekday so his posts can get repetitive. However, he can be almost as perceptive as a WAFer, just beware of anyone falling back on the "we must" or "we can fix it" crap.
ReplyDeleteGunnar-
ReplyDeleteI always thought Trungpa was full of shit, even tho I kept hearing from folks like Francisco Varela how fabulous he was. Among other things, he was a drunk, and the poet WS Merwin wrote an article some yrs ago (Harpers? Can't remember) abt his authoritarian tendencies. People keep falling for this crap, whether it's Trungpa or Rajneesh or Swami Barfananda. ("The everlasting hope of humanity is to find someone to worship"--Dostoyevsky.) And yes, Boulder is quite precious, isn't it?
Jas-
More debates? What a farce. This is like fiddling while Rome burns.
mb
Morris,
ReplyDeleteAll your books have been fascinating, and I’m just curious if you have any thoughts or plans for another book about America’s decline, fall, failure, and utter destruction? You know, for us Wafer’s and the Chinese Historians.
Thanks,
JJ
Under Socialism no one will own anything, they said....
ReplyDeleteUnder Socialism you’ll live in grim identical barracks, they said....
This pod bunk bed in San Francisco rents for $1,200 a month
https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2019/06/28/podshare-san-francisco-rent-housing-bunk-bed-zw-orig.cnn-business
Molly-
ReplyDelete"They" were full of dog poop, but the people who believed them were the real turkeys. And these turkeys live, to this day. They are called Americans.
jj-
Well, I thought it was time for a happy book, so I wrote one on Italian culture. I think Wafers will love it, and I urge each of you guys to buy at least 100 copies so that I can put a down payment on a villa in Tuscany. :-)
It's currently in production. In fact, my publisher just sent me the proof copy, and it's so gorgeous that I lost control of all my bodily functions when I unwrapped the package. I'm hoping it will be available on Amazon in 2-3 weeks. Keep checking there, and also this blog, of course.
As for another bk abt American decline: what else is there to say, that I already haven't? Besides, America is a boring topic by now, and quite depressing. It's imploding on a daily basis--you guys continually post evidence of this--and all I can tell anyone living in the US is, Hit the road! Those 3 words are all any American needs to know at this pt.
I have no idea what I'll write abt next. Perhaps nothing; "Genio" (Italy bk) may be my final oeuvre. In less than a month I turn 75, and plan to die at 101. If you or anyone has any ideas abt what I might do during the next 26 yrs (trollfoons: kill yrself, you dirty Jew!), I'm all ears. Perhaps a bk on the sex life of raccoons, I dunno. (Working title: Piece of Tail)
Thanks for asking.
mb
@Gunnar--I visited Boulder back in 2015 to see if legalized pot would help the symptoms of my chemo-induced neuropathy (no-unfortunately). I had previously visited a decade earlier and had a great time, but was appalled on this occasion by how much more crowded, surburbanized and traffic choked it had become even in just 10 years. Typical Americans--take something truly beautiful and utterly trash it.
ReplyDelete@trying: "What level of ignorance is needed for someone to make such statements?" Are you talking about Trump, or the progs making those twits in lieu of any form of actual action? I'm sorry, but that is some late night "humor" level of sophomoric dreck. You'd think that after nearly 4 years, they would recognize that smirkingly making fun of Trump's stupidity plays right into his hands--but, nope. They're as dumb as these douchebag fans celebrating the Women's World Cup win (wank, wank) by yelling "Fuck Trump" at a Fox News "reporter."
@Susan, MB--heh, I had just finished reading Reed's most recent essay. A prime quote: "A pissed off gringa with her innards in an uproar over something tedious. I knew the kind. They are a plague in Mexico. Sure enough, an old woman of maybe seventy, ugly as the north end of a southbound dog, with hair dyed prom-queen blond and enough makeup to seal a driveway. She seemed to be in disguise. Maybe she was getting ready for Halloween."
And along those very lines, let's take a moment to acknowledge a Fourth of July distraction practically tailor made for our age:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/03/nike-shouldve-done-their-research-on-betsy-ross-flag-motus-one-ceo.html
I feel like I've become so numb to American stupidity that nothing can shock me. Then something like the Betsy Ross flag controversy vomits up from our putrid culture and I'm reminded of how intellectually infantilized this culture is.
What are the stakes in this debate?
Access to healthcare? No.
Access to education? No.
Addressing global warming? No.
No.
The ability of a shoe company to print a flag on a sneaker.
Go Trumpi, indeed!
Louis-
ReplyDeleteWe ask u2 become a true declinist and *celebrate* American stupidity. One of our heroes, Gore Vidal, once said: "Stupidity excites me." I feel the same way. When I see American stupidity accelerating, and making our collapse increasingly inevitable, it affirms what I've been saying about the US for yrs now: game over. "Dumb and Dumber"--that's what shd be printed on US legal tender. So don't be numb; celebrate dumb!
mb
Just got back from Portugal - what a gracious place! Love the sound of the Italian book. I'm obsessed with improvising Italian-style arias at the moment (ps. few Portuguese use cellphones in public) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9IMAhx7JHA
ReplyDeleteNeil-
ReplyDeleteAin't it great, to be in a place not filled w/degraded buffoons? To realize that most of the world is *not* American? The American goal since 1630 has been to turn the whole world into America. What cd be more awful, really?
mb
Dr. B:
ReplyDeleteI was walking down the street in New York City on Saturday and saw some guy wearing one of these tee shirts-
https://www.amazon.com/This-Americans-Take-Shirt-Marines/dp/B07PCWDJGH
Birn-
ReplyDeleteNot sure if it's an expression of pride or a severe critique of a nation gone mad.
mb
@ Molly Crabapple:
ReplyDeleteThat clip on Pods reminds me of something that I've believed for a while now: The US (and possibly the UK) are at the stage similar to late Soviet-era Russia and Eastern Europe, but with one major difference. Everyone in eastern bloc by the late 1980s knew the system was finished: the ruling class knew it, the media knew it, the police and military knew it and the populace knew it. They just couldn't say so publicly. Likewise, late era capitalism is finished, but the difference is that the majority of USians still think their "system" is the best in the world. Has there EVER been a people more brainwashed? Just watch the morons on that clip you shared: they've managed to take all the bad parts of soviet socialism (lack of privacy, oppressive socialisation, etc) and none of the good parts (a sense of collective identity, solidarity with one's fellows, a healthy disrespect towards a "career" and social status etc)
so we can celebrate o&d!
ReplyDeleteHola MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteCollection of morons duking it out at Disneyland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezpqexUv5IE&t=12s
Miles
ps: We should show this clip to Hedges.
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteThese folks are soaking in socialist theory, and ready to make the revolution!
Meanwhile, I decided to post this latest trollfoon attack; just a reminder of how out to lunch these clowns are. (At least this jackass isn't anti-Semitic.) WTF is a dume? Can you imagine, having 0 better to do than post these attacks on an obscure intellectual whom virtually no Americans have ever heard of?
mb
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32685541404.html?utm_source=2leep.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=exchange2leep&aff_platform=api&cpt=1562612371299&sk=XMeb53a&aff_trace_key=44b8a6dad8dd4d978b7b5d573cd799b5-1562612371299-02528-XMeb53a&terminal_id=101fa9aa18a84572b10c35d4ad334048
ReplyDeleteThis is a bit early for pushing Christmas crap, but before they run out, these would be gorgeous stocking stuffers. Instead of going for a dump, we have going for a Trump.
couple interesting TV broadcasts. half hour discussions that could never air on mainstream TV today. Both on You Tube
ReplyDeleteAldious Huxley interviewed by Mike Wallace (1958) watch?v=alasBxZsb40
"advances in Tech will create advances in control"
Ayn Rand First Appearance on Tonight Show (1967) watch?v=FBmViYDlrjU
"my views might be the norms of the future, but not now"
Trumpi, I love you. I'm not kidding, Trumpi: I love you:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/08/if-latest-polls-are-right-trump-is-favored-win-reelection/?utm_term=.90399eae7012
Appoint me to yr admin, Trumpi, I'm begging you. Shoulder to shoulder, we will conquer America.
If Hedges recruited all the fine “soldiers” that attack family members and fast food workers, he would would have an army to take out the corporate masters and conquer the Russians too.
ReplyDeleteFran-
ReplyDeleteThese videos that show people beating the crap outta each other at Disneyland, McDonald's, and you name it: do you think these folks are political? Do you think they have specific targets in mind, like corporate masters or the Russians? What exactly wd be Hedges' recruitment pitch?
I mean, suppose he (or anyone) were to say to them, "The reason yr always on a hair-trigger, and are attacking restaurants or waiters or folks who are not really doing anything wrong, is that yr caught in an economic system that is cruel. It has you in a box, and every day the walls close in just a little bit more. Yr being squeezed out of existence, so you lash out at the nearest target. But the guy at McDonald's is not yr enemy. Yr misdirecting yr anger. You need to channel that anger constructively. You need to get together, organize, and then attack Wall St., the banks, the Pentagon, and the White House. Of course you'll just get killed, but at least you'll have identified the folks who are crushing you into the dirt. Whaddya say? Shall we begin planning the Revolution today?"
Fran, I ask you, seriously: What do you think wd be their response? Wd they be grateful for your clarification of their situation, your political analysis, and start directing their rage at the proper targets? And here's the most impt question of all: Why not? Now we're getting down to it. I'll put this question another way:
Shaneka Torres discovers that the cheeseburger she ordered is lacking bacon, which she apparently was supposed to get. So she goes home, gets an assault weapon, and shells down the McDonald's restaurant. Somewhere in the back of her mind--perhaps buried very deeply, but nevertheless there (she's not a total moron)--she understands, before she starts firing, that this ain't such a great idea; that she will undoubtedly wind up in jail. And yet, she pays no attn. to this voice. No, she blasts away at the restaurant. And now sits in prison in Michigan, and will be there for several yrs, possibly saying to herself, every night b4 she goes to sleep: "What the fuck?"
Both scenarios are (structurally) the same, in that they involve a certain neurological enigma. So in each case I'm asking you: why don't these folks choose the nondestructive path? Laquisha Jones beats a 92-yr-old geezer w/a brick, because he accidentally brushed by her daughter, and is now serving 15 yrs in the pen. WHY? Her goal was to protect her daughter (who wasn't remotely threatened), and the result was that the little girl was taken away from her, probably put in foster care, and Laquisha won't see the kid until the kid is a young adult. How was this protecting her child? The child basically lost her mother forever.
As for Hedges, he writes a bk called The Farewell Tour and yet he doesn't say farewell; not at all. Instead, he remains in the US to fight the (supposedly) gd fight, when he knows it's for nought. He knows the country is doomed, but every other article contains a call for, or prediction of, revolution. He claims outcomes don't matter, but this is just a form of mental illness, a delusion he apparently has to tell himself. No sane person can believe that outcomes don't matter, and that the struggle vindicates itself; that in effect all fights are functionally equivalent. The same neurological crossed wires is operative here--what I have called ontological stupidity. In all these cases, true freedom requires true insight. Why do none of these people, Hedges included, have it (except in a very oblique, peripheral way--if that)?
Take time w/yr answer, amigo. You have tripped onto one of the most impt questions ever raised on this blog.
mb
On a somewhat related topic: One of the reasons I admire the Mexican president:
ReplyDeletehttps://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/amlo-reaches-out-to-zapatistas/?utm_source=Mexico+News+Today&utm_campaign=461f669b90-MNT+july-08-2019&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1536a3787-461f669b90-349608125
It's very tentative, and 25 yrs late, but--it's a start. On the wall above my computer I have a foto I took a few yrs ago of a graffito in Chiapas. It says, "Nuestros suenos no caben en sus urnas"--Our dreams don't fit into your ballot boxes. Now this is a fight that *is* worth fighting!
mb
@MB--might as well add, what goes through the minds of these people who shoot up a school, or a workplace or anywhere else? What fuels the kind of rage the Las Vegas shooter had to try and kill as many as people as possible? It isn't at all "normal" for people to "snap" at the rate or with the ferocity Americans do--and it sure as heck didn't happen on a near daily basis back in the 1970s and 80s. Charles Whitman was a huge flashing warning signal when he ascended that tower back in 1966--yet we totally ignored the message.
ReplyDelete@Art--yep, I envision millions of progs sitting in their bathrooms with those Trump rolls next to them, twitting with one hand how much they hate him while wanking their limp dicks or bent dildos with the other. Warms my heart.
@Wafers--here's a question, what's the difference between an explosion that levels an American shopping mall caused by terrorism and one caused by our rapidly decaying infrastructure? Yet we spend $1 trillion a year trying to prevent the former while apparently hoping the latter (and much larger) threat will magically disappear. On a related note: we got a month's worth of rain in just two hours here in the DC area today (lots of great pics and videos on this twit feed). There were over a hundred stranded drivers rescued and even the White House basement sprung a leak. Yet when a local weatherman sensibly pleaded with drivers to avoid flooded roads, a number people said they had to take the risk or they might get disciplined or fired from their jobs. Ain't global warming + late stage predatory American capitalism grand?
Bill-
ReplyDeleteI don't see it as the same thing. The shooting up of a school, or the Las Vegas shooter--in these cases, it seems to me, there is a great deal of awareness involved (cf. Lionel Shriver's novel, "We Need to Talk about Kevin"). The individual has effectively made the decision not to live; they know what they're doing. They are operating with insight, not without it, in other words. Dylann Roof didn't snap; he knew what he was doing. We are not talking abt a neurological enigma, or neurological crossed wires, or ontological stupidity. The examples I gave are very different: the individuals cited are moving in a kind of semi-conscious fog. Hedges hasn't snapped; rather, he's delusional. In short, yr mixing apples and oranges. Snapping is easily explained; ontological stupidity ain't so straightforward.
mb
ps: Altho I may have made a mistake in citing Laquisha Jones, inasmuch as that seems to have been spontaneous (knee-jerk), rather than planned. The case of Marquenta Glidwell, cited by Miles above--
ReplyDeletehttps://wgntv.com/2019/07/01/mcdonalds-manager-says-woman-attacked-him-with-stun-gun-over-drive-thru-wait/
is more in line w/what I'm talking abt, in that she was riding around with a weapon (taser) in her car--in effect, looking for trouble. This is not the same thing as snapping, suddenly starting to punch a McDonald's worker, for example. There's a quality of self-sabotage in these planned events.
In an attempt at an answer MB's question, I have long asked myself what is it about Americans I meet that seems "off"? The best answer that I can come up with is that USians basically are brought up in what Baudrillard called a simulacrum. I think (along with Aristotle) that humans are basically mimetic creatures: what we hear, feel and see around us shapes how we behave and think about the world. For Americans, this means that they have been conditioned from childhood to accept a "non-world" of TV, movies, sitcoms, comics (and now) smartphones, facebook etc. as real. What's more, the simulacra that Americans exist in constantly exalts acts of violence as the ultimate answer. So when USians run into any barrier that impinges on their fantasy life (aka "reality") their reflex is to destroy it. But sooner or later, reality, the environment, intolerable social conditions, ill health etc, will impinge into this fantasy world, which will lead to more extreme acts of violence. Which is why those horrific scenes in Disneyland linked above are so striking. What can Mickey Mouse do when society starts to break down?
ReplyDelete"Economic Update" is a half hour broadcast airing on Sundays by an economist named Richard D Wolff. (I may have first found the program here... can't remember, heh heh) The second half of this week's show has a guy talking about how american capitalism has fucked the country.
ReplyDeleteWatery, and entertaining. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/cfAtjJb2-ss
oh joy MB, I saw my first Tulsi Gabbard for Pres lawn sign on the way to work this morning.
ReplyDeleteUmair's latest speaks to some of this violence=Amerikkka in his latest:
ReplyDeletehttps://eand.co/the-price-of-being-the-worlds-most-violent-society-7b6153c48a31
"But Americans think they can have it both ways. They can be the world’s violent society, history’s most violent society, ever, the happy and peaceful owners of most perfect killing machine ever made. That they can be the society that does the most violence in the world, by a very long way, not just to itself, but to others — and never pay a price. They’ve been told there is no price to be paid. So half of them cheer it on, roughly, this project of bombing the world, of dominating the world’s poor, of perfecting the perfect killing machine — and the other half happily turns a blind eye to it."
Cel-
ReplyDeleteI'm very excited abt this. She's a dark horse, I tell ya; she's gonna sweep the field.
mb
Regarding Chris Hedges and revolution, anyone talking about left-wing revolution in the United States is frankly a crackpot. First, any revolution would be crushed by the police/military and right-wing militia groups. Remember who has the most guns in this country and who knows how to use them. It is not lefties that is for sure. Second, there is no reason to think that left-wing radicals, if they succeeded, would be any less brutal than right-wing radicals or our current neoliberal regime. Communist regimes did not have very good human rights records. Finally, as we have discussed on this blog, most Americans actually like the current system of hustling and greed, they are just angry that they are not at the top of the pyramid. Not exactly the makings of a revolutionary proletariat.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that most of this overheated rhetoric is just talk but writers should be careful since there are some disturbed people out there who might act on this nonsense. I normally like Ian Welsh’s work but I was surprised by his last blog post which sounded like a justification for violence.
https://www.ianwelsh.net/basic-ethics-and-when-violence-is-justified/
I hope some impressionable lefties don’t act on what people like Hedges and Welsh write and throw their lives and the lives of others away in the name of some ideology that has almost zero chance of succeeding.
Regarding Dr. Berman's qsn and Wafer Cormorant. Will respectively take a stab.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, USians do not tolerate their version of "reality" fucked with. I believe a Wafer stated this a while back on this blog.
When their version of "exceptionalism" is compromised, e.g., lack of bacon on a cheeseburger, going bat shit at an amusement park bc they feel slighted, etc...these all fuck with their 10foot sense of deluded self-worth (quasi~ Dunning-Kruger effect) and you go girl-isms. That's why most USians appear "off."
They realize on some level that they're empty/soulless and have nothing really impt in their lives except illusions/delusions/propaganda, so they lash out, and self destruct. The absence of bacon is not just a "slight," it's seen as an attack against who they are.
Sitting in prison was perhaps worth it to them because they feel their "essence" was fucked with.
Alternative Math – Funny, but all too true:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh3Yz3PiXZw
Last night I watched a documentary “Steve Jobs The Man in the Machine” - if Huxley were alive he’d have to replace Henry Ford with Jobs as the all knowing deity. The Dostoevsky quote MB shared a few posts back certainly applies here, he is worshipped the world over. He was brilliant no doubt, he told his spiritual advisor he considered himself to b Enlightened. The monk asks for proof and Jobs brings him a motherboard from his Lisa pc. The monk isn’t convinced and tells Jobs he’s “missing the point.” I didn’t know SJ had such a deep affinity/connection to Japan and wld be very interested in your criticism MB. He is the pinnacle of USA! successful entrepreneur, aided and abetted by Al Gore all along the way. I found it to b a fascinating look into a man of many contradictions, like him or not.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs:_The_Man_in_the_Machine
More terrific news outta Boulder:
https://www.denverpost.com/2019/07/08/man-bites-dog-boulder-whole-foods/
Gunnar-
ReplyDeleteIn the wake of his death, I recall reading the evaluations of various technologists who said that his contribution was on the order of design, or window-dressing; that in terms of real tech advance, he contributed 0. In short, that it was all show and no substance, which can probably said of the man himself. I'm not equipped to judge this myself, but I did read reports of this nature.
Jobs died with $8.5 billion in the bank; he was a supreme hustler. His workers in China (Shenzhen) might be summarized as 14-yr-old girls working 14 hrs a day for 14 cents an hr. Many committed suicide, until finally Apple had to construct nets outside the windows, so that they cdn't jump to their deaths. The memoir by his daughter is a portrait of someone who was cold, alienated, and fundamentally cruel.
Jobs fits in well with WAF ch. 3, on the American worship of technology, and the destructiveness that that entails. Candlelight vigils after his death, by people who were essentially fools, reflects what has been called the "technological sublime." Jobs made great claims for his alleged spirituality, but it was a twisted spirituality. Yes, Dostoyevsky is quite relevant; Americans are desperate to fill the Void, and as our hidden religion, technology has been doing the job for some time. Jobs is merely the most recent manifestation.
mb
Reading Clare Carlisle's excellent book on Kierkegaard I'm struck by how he thought himself as following the same philosophical path of Socrates, and how (similar to Socrates) he came from a background of new wealth, thought himself a patriot, had mental problems etc.
ReplyDeleteLet me also rec D'Angour's new study on a Socrates "Socrates In Love"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Perot
ReplyDeleteWill there be a day of morning followed by a national holiday? BIG money
deserves to be worshiped, for without seeing the total health and happiness
that ONLY BIG money can offer, the masses would not know how to correctly
and obediently live their wretched lives by chasing the futile, moronic dream.
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteDisturbing shit dept.:
1. https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-hit-run-holocaust-survivor-arrest-20190703-story.html
2. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/spanish-river-william-latson-holocaust.html
Miles
Don't bother calling the police:
ReplyDelete"When Your Emergency Is a “Nuisance”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/nuisance-ordinances-study-disabilities-domestic-violence-eviction.amp
^^Do you need any more evidence for a sick society? What I don't understand is that the police didn't shoot the emergency callers.
MB and Bill: Mass killers, it seems to me, like the guys (all males and usually white) in Vegas, Charleston and other cities are also either suicidal or know they will be arrested. They seem to almost welcome death or incarceration. There is, as MB writes, a quality of self-sabotage to their actions. These types are what Daniel Kahneman, in his book Thinking Fast and Slow, refers to as “slow thinkers”.
ReplyDeleteFast Thinking, on the other hand, is with the gut - impulsive, emotional and without aforethought; reactions to the immediate situation at hand – the bacon-loving Ms Torres is an example.
Slow thinking is more deliberate and analytical. Vegas and Charleston are examples, actions planned over a long period of time.
Both end in violence, but it takes slow, meticulous, thoughtful decisions and plans to kill more than 1 or 2 other human beings.
Surveillance Video Shows Group Of About 60 Teens Vandalizing and Looting a Walgreens...
ReplyDeleteTheir parents must be so proud...
https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2019/07/09/watch-surveillance-video-shows-as-group-of-about-60-teens-vandalize-loot-walgreens-on-south-street/
Mil-
ReplyDeleteExcept that the police receive a # of 911 calls from folks who are upset with McDonald's. My personal hero is Lorenzo Riggins:
https://newcountry991.com/moron-of-the-month-goes-to-albany-georgias-lorenzo-riggins/
For a moronette, check out Latreasa Goodman. However, in general, I agree w/u, that the best thing wd be for the cops to simply gun down whoever annoys them--for whatever reason. Since 2001, they have murdered thousands of unarmed civilians, so were almost there anyway.
mb
jj-
ReplyDeleteAs a declinist, I can only hope that their example is emulated by young Americans across the country. We live in marvelous times!
mb
How did I miss this??? Gender Reveal Parties!!! With BBQ to follow, it seems, as a gun is fired at an explosive devise to release a cloud of blue smoke, which then lights the brush on fire, burning 47,000 acres and costing $8 million to control.
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/27/us/arizona-gender-reveal-party-sawmill-wildfire-trnd/index.html
I know, 2 years old, but then Australia had its own recent mess as someone roasted their car attempting to explode another cloud of blue smoke-
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/09/australia/australia-gender-reveal-party-scli-intl/index.html
Seems Australia is determined to be the US's dumber kid brother.
Gender reveal parties? Who cares? What other idiocies am I missing by not watching the news?
Dan D-
ReplyDeleteBiden's face, and Tulsi Gabbard.
mb
I remember Perot's campaign. I also remember things like how he'd ducked out of the Navy when he found out sailors cuss (I guess he didn't think of bone spurs) and his giving an interview to a newspaper and then the next day wanting to buy the entire run of the paper because he didn't want it published after all.
ReplyDeleteThinking now, I see him as the Pre-Trump. Unsophisticated, hyuck-hyuck yokel done good, baptized in a fount of money and thus a laudable idol.
But could he match Trump's magnificent mane with his Supercuts chop job? Did he jam any fingers up any pussies? Would he be caught dead with a gold-plated toilet or having his name on restaurants serving food far worse than Navy shipboard food? Perot was crass, but not nearly crass enough. He was fundamentally good-hearted when what Amerikkka always wants is a mean bastard.
I'm supposed to care abt these turkeys?:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/style/article/wimbledon-celebrity-fashion-meghan-anna-wintour-janelle-monae/index.html
It's so hope giving to witness the deep humanity, utter civility and profound kindness shown by the female youth of Philadelphia.
ReplyDeleteGang of teenage girls film themselves randomly attacking female strangers on street in center of Philadelphia
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7228115/Gang-teenage-girls-film-randomly-attacking-female-strangers-Philadelphia-street.html
A14-
ReplyDeleteOnce again, the youth of America are the cutting edge of our future. You go, girl!
mb
ps: Imagine how widespread, and brutal, this sorta thing will be when the economy collapses. Does anyone seriously doubt that barbarism is our future?
ps: As yr new to this blog, I shd clue you in on a couple of our blog rules.
ReplyDelete1. Post only once every 24 hrs, max.
2. General observations abt the state of the world...not so helpful. We prefer it if you wd make a specific pt, and then back up yr argument with some evidence. Not every post hasta have evidence, depending on the subject matter involved; but most do.
Thanks,
mb
@jj--holy Gods, FUCK Walgreens. Those places are friggin' horrible, and they, like CVS have sprouted up everywhere, utterly blighting the landscape from coast to coast. The only problem I see with those kids is they were just mindlessly venting their rage. Were they actually making a political statement, I'd only criticize them for not burning the fucking place down on the way out.
ReplyDelete@alex--I actually have huge respect for anyone who ducked out of the service back in the Korea and Vietnam years, just so long as they didn't go on to become a "chickenhawk" like Sen. Phil Gramm, Bill Kristol or Dick Cheney. I didn't vote for Perot, but since we've now found out that serial rapist and child sex abuser Bill Clinton was a regular on billionaire scumbag Jeffrey Epstein's "Lolita Express," I wish I could go back and change my 1992 & 1996 votes. Speaking of which, I would say that since Clinton's definition of "is" denial about his relationship with Epstein pretty much seals his guilt even if he never faces trial as he should, American feminists' staunch defense of him and his hideous wife, who absolutely HAD to have known what he was up to, pretty much discredits them for all eternity. But hey, who cares about a bunch of poor young teeneagers being used as sexual chattel by some powerful men? Penn State didn't care. Michigan State didn't care. Ohio State didn't care. The American Catholic Church didn't care. The Boy Scouts didn't care. Apparently fucking underage kids is as American as apple pie--just so long as they don't come from "good" families.
Hello MB, Wafers,
ReplyDeleteOn this side of the channel, the collapse is slowly following its course too. This is the latest: 18,000 people get fired at Deutsche Bank, and senior management gets fitted for £1,200 suits in the meantime.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jul/09/deutsche-bank-bosses-fitted-1200-suits-thousands-lost-jobs-london
Beyond Deutsche Bank, there doesn't seem to be a day in Europe these days without a massive job-cut announcement (i.e. BASF, Ford). Meanwhile, Progs keep focusing on electric cars, identity politics and continue making children as if the future is brighter than ever.
At least there's Wimbledon. I think Nadal will clinch it this year!
Kanye
Are Empires Always Bad?
ReplyDeleteFour historians weigh in:
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/head-head/are-empires-always-bad
Of the four I like historian Tom Holland's more nuanced take
Kanye-
ReplyDeleteYou're Djoking!
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteCheck this out:
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-usc-gynecologist-tyndall-20190709-story.html
You'd think that this guy, with a fat university salary, wd have enuf. Why in the world wd he be motivated to do these sleazy and disgusting things?
In general, this blog has chronicled, over the yrs, case after case of such disgusting behavior, along with massacres, drive-by shootings, brawls at malls, shootings at fast-food outlets, attacks on restaurant personnel, and endless corruption, graft, and violence. This is so unlike the America of my childhood that it boggles the mind. An objective outsider, peering in, wd most likely conclude that the people were degraded and that the nation, as a whole, was shabby. IMO, that's a fair description of what the country has become.
These are not anomalies. Stats for 2018: more than one massacre (defined as the killing or maiming of 4 or more people) per day--! Go online, any day, to any of the major newspapers, and you'll see one or more stories about corruption, or sexual assault, or whatever. Do we need any further evidence of decadence, distintegration, and decay? What future cd such a nation, such a people, possibly have?
It's impt to ask how we got here. One possibility: as the US has continued to fall apart, the hustling mentality at the core of the American Dream has expanded. More and more Americans think: Well, why the hell not? (do shitty stuff, that is) Everybody's doing it, and what do I hafta lose, really? In other words, the last 20 yrs esp. have seen a moral breakdown sweep over the nation. All that matters to most Americans is me, me, me, and what I want.
New Wafer T-shirt: AMERICANS ARE SHABBY AND DEGRADED
If yr gonna wear it, watch yr back. Shabby and degraded people generally don't like to be reminded of their condition.
mb
Increased deportations of undocumented immigrants did NOT decrease crime rates in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteSurprise, surprise. The violence comes from within.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3408311
https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=99QPZ_1562678537
ReplyDeleteCall this "liberation shopping without a credit cards."
What else can you expect when they are told to have but
are not told how to earn the money to buy it? If the
rich can steal millions, why not let the poor have a
little power shopping?
MB & Bill: To continue to riff on violence and its origins, from a different angle --
ReplyDeleteA well-done examination of this study - its meaning and implications. The implications of this research are astounding. Yet, we know certain types of abuse delay or cause dysfunction in brain development. I would like to know how many of those “violent” criminals were from that type of home.
https://newatlas.com/brain-scan-murderers-homicide-neuroscience/60510/
Anyway, I wonder how many Americans have this type of anatomy.
Is reason the slave of the passions? Two contributors debate David Hume's bold challenge to the primacy of pure logical thinking
ReplyDeletehttps://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/is-reason-the-slave-of-the-passions-philosophy-hume
I think Will Shakespeare knew this long before the study.
DeleteOne of my favorite quotes is from The Merchant of Venice:
"The brain may devise rules for the blood, but a hot desire leaps over a cold decree."
Certainly has been true in much of my life and in the lives of others I've known.
@Bill -- I've despised the Clintons for a long time and lost friends this last election b/c I wouldn't vote for Hillary (I voted for Jill Stein as a feeble protest). From the time Epstein was arrested to his plea deal who was governor of Florida? Jeb. Who was the President? George. Yet their names haven't come up at all. My guess is that a whole lot of money changed hands under the table to get this deal and it's not traceable. The Bush family has always struck me as more greedy than lustful.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of cash:
https://nypost.com/2019/07/10/schumer-got-thousands-in-donations-from-jeffrey-epstein/
The hypocrisy of the champagne Democrats:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-moved-freely-hollywood-circles-2008-conviction-1223336
This may blow up in their faces:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-07-07/trump-was-only-one-help-prosecutor-2009-epstein-case
Dr. B-
ReplyDeleteHere's an interesting op-ed piece on the mess in the ME-
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/10/piddling-in-the-think-tank/
I keep wondering if the slow, steady decline for the US will continue, or if things will suddenly collapse like a house of cards. I guess time will tell.
The decline continues apace:
ReplyDelete"U.S. Life Expectancy Drops for Third Year in a Row, Reflecting Rising Drug Overdoses, Suicides"
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/us-life-expectancy-drops-third-year-row-reflecting-rising-drug-overdose-suicide-rates-180970942/
"Woman at DMV in Kansas City started shooting because line was too slow, police say"
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article232449527.html
Michelle-
ReplyDeleteProblem w/this study is that it doesn't distinguish between impulse acts of violence and planned acts, as far as I can see. Impulse acts, like Laquisha and her brick, are not that hard to understand: something triggered the individual, and they snapped. Dylann Roof, or Shaneka Torres (go home, get machine gun, return to McDonald's), or the charming young lady riding around with a taser in her car--these are not cases of snapping. In these cases, there are two voices operating: the dominant one, which says Attack!, and the (much) lesser one, which says You'll ruin your life, fuckhead. The question then is, Why do these people typically follow the dominant voice, which does indeed ruin their lives? This brain scan study lumps everyone together, which means it did not, and cannot, answer this question.
Art-
They are told how to earn the money to buy things; it's just that the doors to that pathway are barred to them. Consider the fact that the folks in that video are all black, and presumably poor. They live in a country that tells them, every hour, that personal worth/identity is about what you own. But for a whole variety of reasons, access to the gates of power are largely blocked. (See "The Code of the Streets" and "Losing the Race," for starters.) The # of blacks who make it into college, get there and stay there, graduate, go on to law schl or med schl or MBA's, and become medium to hi-income professionals, is comparatively small. (For the over-15 age group, 12.3% of the population is black. In the professional category of medical assistants, for example, 90.3% of them are white, and 2.9% of them are black.) How to change this situation is unclear; affirmative action has produced very mixed results, and not too many people are happy with it. (For a wider historical analysis of the looting phenomenon, see Mark Ames, "Going Postal.")
I'm reminded of the situation of the Jews in Europe, for centuries. Most countries had quotas limiting the # of Jews in universities and in the professions. A handful made it thru; the majority were street-sellers of shmates, or money lenders, because that's all that was available to them. The Rothschilds were hardly typical; most Jews, like my family, were desperately poor. So you create a situation where all the Jews cd do was deal in money or selling chotchkes, and then create a Shylock stereotype of Jews as greedy, and in which the Rothschilds are seen as typical, exploitative, a 'secret government' (Protocol of Elders of Zion). In countries where the quota system was abolished, Jews forgot abt $ and went for professional respect, typically rising to the almost-top-of-the-heap. (Never to the absolute top. On SNL yrs ago, Tina Fey said that Joe Lieberman's presidential campaign had been declared a Jewish holiday, given how long and depressing it was.)
The corresponding outlets for blacks are music and sports, in which they excel brilliantly.
mb
Hans-
ReplyDeleteI'm very happy that this woman was carrying a gun, but wish it had been a semi-automatic weapon. In general, my goals for Americans are that they all become monetized, moronized, and weaponized. We have accomplished the 1st 2; the 3rd is as yet incomplete. This woman needs (a) a medal; (b) the gift of an AK-47.
Birn-
Just a guess, but I think the slow erosion process will be in our position in the world. Slowly, we will lose influence; slowly, the Chinese will gain it. Domestically, however, I suspect we will eventually implode; altho the erosive process will lead up to that.
mb
Going off topic here but calling all Wafers, can anyone make sense of this competition b/c I certainly cannot. People drowning in hopeless despair, quiet desperation, jailed, murdered, forgotten. And a toilet paper challenge is the best the local churches can do? Wtf, don't get it, next time I see shit in the alley I'll b so happy to see a shit rag nearby.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cooperativecare.org/about-us/tp-challenge
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteLast night I had the most wonderful dream. MB was at a lectern addressing a large gathering of people, inside of what I believe was the Martha and Robert Rubin Pavilion of the Brooklyn Museum. It seemed to have the feel of a future Wafer Summit, but I'm not so sure. In any case, MB presented the 2020 Wafer Phillip Lightfoot Award (WPLA) to Joon Soon Wypcha:
https://foxillinois.com/news/offbeat/police-florida-woman-picks-nose-sticks-fingers-in-ice-cream-urinates-in-bucket
For newer Wafers--and for reference purposes--this is Phillip Lightfoot:
https://www.wkrn.com/news/man-arrested-for-urinating-on-shoes-at-hendersonville-walmart/
It was a very pleasant commemoration, as all Wafers were in attendance, and dignitaries from the five boroughs of New York were present. The festivities included an address by Bill de Blasio about the urgent need to release Shaneka Torres from prison and present her with an AK-47 and map of McDonald's locations throughout the US. A standing ovation followed. MB was given a much coveted key to the city by de Blasio...at which point Lorenzo Riggins and Tulsi Gabbard sang a duet of the old Peter and Gordon song "A World Without Love." I found myself dancing with Brittany Carulli as Rachel Butterbaugh looked on. MB was in deep conversation w/Tina Fey, and Dan was discussing the finer points of Chinese food w/Tracey McCloud. A grand time was had by all, and then I woke up.
Miles
MB - apologies for breaking 24 hr rule but I think I may have answered my own question about the toilet paper challenge. The message from the Christian community is 'here have something that gives a shit about you'. '
ReplyDeleteJeff-
ReplyDeleteThese are beautiful stories (links), and that was a fabulous dream. I found myself wondering if it had actually happened.
Anjin-
"Leaps" is the crucial word here. In modern formulation, the limbic system, which governs instinct, is much older than the frontal lobes, which governs reason, evaluation, and self-control. Push come to shove, limbics will win out most of the time. See my essay in QOV on "Tribal Consciousness and Enlightenment Tradition." As I've mentioned here b4, and many Wafers have experienced, if you bring up resource limits (limits to growth) w/an American, or suggest to them (e.g.) that the purpose of our military is hardly to protect us, but rather to project power around the world, this person will fly into a rage. His/her face will turn beet-red; they will come out with incoherent cries, spraying saliva; they will wave their arms angrily; and finally shout American slogans at you. As one therapist remarked, many yrs ago, it's as if the Enlightenment never happened. Shaneka doesn't get her bacon: what a personal insult, what a slap in the face. Excuse me while I get my machine gun, come back and open fire on your establishment. The little voice inside that's telling her, "Don' do this, chica" is easily ignored. Now that she's in jail, that voice has gotten much louder; at night Shaneka hears it saying, "What did I tell you, pea brain?" (This is similar to what's going to be my epitaph: "I kept telling them, but did they listen? No!")
mb
@MB--I do detect one little flaw in your thesis that these fast food fuckers-up have don't listen to the voice that says they'll "ruined their lives," simply because their lives are most likely ALREADY ruined. Being working class in America (doesn't matter what race) means living paycheck to paycheck, in constant fear that if your dozen year old car craps out you'll end up evicted and homeless. In poorer black America, it's often the case that being sent to prison by "the man" at some point is a point of pride. Even the parents among the pummelers probably look forward to getting away from their own unruly brats.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, things have gotten so bad for that cadaverous old crone Pelosi that she pleaded with Dumb CONgrescritters not to twit about their useless "leadership."
And coming soon to a theater near you: Katrina 2.0, New Oreleans Boogaloo. Just when wealthy neoliberal douchebags thought that since global warming is a myth and they can go ahead a regentrify the place while destroying everything special about it before the next big one comes rushing in.
But hey, let's move on to a really "important" issue: equal pay for a sports team nobody watches except once every four years and would likely get destroyed about 100-0 by the 100th best men's team out there. My question is, equal pay for what? Protesting the flag and disrespecting the president when you're supposed to be the NATIONAL team? Maybe if there were some real underlying message like, "end the wars, close the overseas bases, and end police and ICE abuse" I might even kick in a few bucks despite my detestation of soccer. But no, they're just bunch of typical, me-first, virtue-signalling American douchebaguettes.
Bill-
ReplyDeleteTrue, but then I suppose the voice is saying, "You'll ruin it even more," or "You'll make it a whole lot worse"--which is exactly what happens. A delay in the action suggests to me that something like that is going on. As far as pride in jail, I have no idea; perhaps that's yet another voice, in some cases ("street cred").
And yes, there is a certain dementia abt this whole soccer thing. Talk abt misguided irrelevance. But then, "misguided irrelevance" cd be part of the American obituary.
mb
OF COURSE!!! What a BRILLIANT idea!!
ReplyDeleteWhy wouldn’t she? This is AMERICA!! Anything goes and nothing matters!!
At a Dunkin’ doughnut shop in Florida, a manager was collecting the paychecks of TWO people – herself and a fake employee she created.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/dunkin-manager-created-fake-employee-collected-extra-paycheck-cops-say
jj-
ReplyDeleteHopefully her example will be emulated across the country! I salute her!
mb
Article on the growing problem of rural homelessness in the United States.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/07/04/736240349/in-rural-areas-homeless-people-are-harder-to-find-and-to-help
The recent videos of a WalMart looting riot here had me thinking. As Bill Hicks said re: the soccer rebels not even placing their protest in the context of an anti-military protest or such, these rioters weren't reacting to a police injustice, a leader's assassination, or such. The question of the source is pretty obvious: the basic culture of the US is one of selfishness, greed, fear, and violence. The reaction to 9/11 was a horrific combination of these four. We would still be heading down, but 9/11 certainly served as a powerful seed crystal. When the leaders are lying, stealing, playing off of people's fears for their own gain, and basing this all on violence to all aspects of ethics, politics, and military action, there is no way this won't affect everyone. Sure, videos of mobs and fighting idiots are entertaining, but the real rot is elsewhere...
ReplyDelete"I was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein; here's what I know" "Jeffrey Epstein didn’t abuse underage girls in a vacuum. He had enablers. And friends...."
https://www.salon.com/2019/07/09/i-was-a-friend-of-jeffrey-epstein-heres-what-i-know/
Anyone who has spent time with well-off 'leaders' of this country knows what they are made of- selfishness, greed, fear, and violence. Most will not engage in rape of children... literally, that is... but the same mindset find many expressions. And they have safety among their own kind. While most of us can only riot in the streets and yell at tghe server at Starbucks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmautelNq5Q&feature=share
ReplyDeleteCan't see Trumpster's wall stopping this way for wealthy illegals to enter USA.
Also wonder about what Spain did to the Jews waaaay back in the 14th century:
(a)leave Spain or (b)convert or (c)we will kill you. What policy could USA
adopt to deal with its NONwhite underclass?
And what does one do with a population with underdeveloped frontal lobes/reasoning capacity and an overloaded stressed out limbic system? Why, you give them access to firearms, of course:
ReplyDelete"One million Americans will be shot in the next decade."
https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/593707/trauma-doctors/?utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_term=2019-07-11T13%3A00%3A58&utm_content=edit-promo&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR2q9UGBP8jEnB4U99XPXgdvfUfcn7KR2FSghnc811qiueQP8FaSHNjc3M8
More USians ready, willing, and able to "rise up" and fight that good fight to "save" the us empire...... Mr. Hedges take another look.
ReplyDeletehttps://wwmt.com/news/videos/customers-tell-puerto-rican-burger-king-manager-go-back-to-mexico
"Have a great /nice day!"
Art-
ReplyDelete15th.
mb
Is there a human stupidity turns to disaster tracker? I'd wager that with the current dumbing down of American society, events like these will become increasingly common. It seems to be inching closer and closer to Idiocracy.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2019/07/03/us/jim-beam-warehouse-fire-kentucky-trnd/index.html
Joe Biden has the polish of a junkyard dog.
ReplyDelete