September 17, 2019

372

Kavanaugh, Netanyahu, Bolti...the dreck mounts like a tidal wave. Wafers, the truly great among us, are called upon to monitor the mass suicide. In this thread, we shall see that they are up to the task.

-mb

48 Comments:

Anonymous Anjin-san said...

Living in Canada we still have a relatively well-functioning Library System. Using it and the Kanopy app I was able to stream a documentary on Nelson Algren, The End is Nothing, The Road is All

https://www.kanopy.com/product/nelson-algren

He saw the craziness and the destructiveness of American society.
It is worth watching as his writing is worth reading. A sample quote:

"we live today in a laboratory of human suffering as vast and terrible as that in which Dickens or Dostoyevsky wrote"

It led me to find an old article on his posthumous book Nonconformity.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-10-06-9610060151-story.html

10:27 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Anjin-

We talked abt Algren here a few posts ago...perhaps on the occasion of a new biography, I can't remember. You might wanna scroll back, see what we discussed.

mb

10:30 PM  
Anonymous Delusional Inc. said...

Thanks to Dr Berman and commenters for all the interesting insights, articles, etc. mentioned here.

@Sarasvati - asking about Wayne Madsen. I live in Dubai. I would say the approach of those in charge is to appear one way to the broad public and to be pragmatic “on the ground”. There may be some fanatical people who tie themselves back to the Sabbateans but these are probably a very small number and are just spun here as a media narrative. Far more important to the sheiks is their wealth and investments - money and power flows are the most significant driver of behaviour here. Madsen is probably like many commenters on the Middle East and is latching onto a narrative that - to him at least - “explains all”.

@trying to stay sane - regarding non-Amazon book sellers, you might try Powell’s Books: https://www.powells.com/. Also Alibris: https://t.alibris.com/

1:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Little douchebaguette meets big douchebag:
https://www.euronews.com/2019/09/18/when-greta-met-obama-you-and-me-we-re-a-team-says-former-us-president

I am not sure if you Wafers heard about Greta Thunberg on your side of the Atlantic, but she is a 16-year old teenager preaching climate apocalypse who turned into a climate "superstar" here in Europe since her speech at the COP24. Progs literally lose all their shit when she speaks at conferences. I highly recommend you check her COP24 speech (only 3 mins) to get a "taste" of the personnage. There's a good profile of her on Spiked too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFkQSGyeCWg
https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/04/22/the-cult-of-greta-thunberg/

When Macron and Obama "team-up" with a 16-year old kid thinking they'll save the planet, you know it's really over.

Kanye

7:09 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

A Long Island teenager becomes embroiled in a brawl outside a strip mall in Oceanside, NY and is stabbed by a participant. Some of the bystanders film the boy as he collapses but render no assistance. The youth dies later at the hospital.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/nyregion/ny-teen-murder-oceanside.html

And, turning to fashion, the “Dystopia-inspired fashion house” Bstroy unveiled its spring 2020 menswear line on Instagram. It’s offering four hoodies, each bearing the name of one of the sites of a school mass shooting (e.g., Sandy Hook). Lending the garment an air of versimilitude are perforations in the hoody suggesting bulletholes. No word yet on pricing.
https://apple.news/AOkn9GUeYS_-vlsPttWlgqg

7:55 AM  
Anonymous Italiana said...

Greetings MB & Wafers,

Here's this from the NY Times this morning - on Long Island, kids have a brawl, one is stabbed in the chest, and they all stand around filming his misery - he later dies. Talk about lack of empathy! What a country!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/nyregion/ny-teen-murder-oceanside.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=New%20York

8:30 AM  
Blogger librarian@play said...

Fascinating story about how and why the Internet, Amazon, and the military industrial complex all converge in northern Virginia: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/amazon-web-services-data-center/423147/.

10:20 AM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

Maybe Sweden’s Greta Thunberg can meet Obshitforbrains at his @15 million dollar holiday compound and discuss the corporate climate crises.

He can wax poetic about the us military and what it’s doing to help save the planet one drone at a time!

You go gurl, it’s all about (delusional) hope, dreams, and mythological fog-take note Mr. Hedges.

10:29 AM  
Blogger Michael Burgess said...

Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:

Robert Roy Britt reports on binge drinking of alcoholic beverages by Baby Boomers in the United States - over 10% of Boomers at minimum binge drink (there is a link to NIH that defines binge drinking for both sexes). Baby Boomer binge drinking is under reported and could be worse than 10% even now. This phenomenon may become worse over time according to the report. The article has a number of links to research papers and NIH sources.

https://elemental.medium.com/baby-boomers-on-a-drinking-binge-f99a36a51949

The collapse of America continues and who knows, may be accelerating.

11:07 AM  
Anonymous Tom Servo said...

@Dr. Berman and Jason Tower,

On the subject of the decline of empathy in America, there was one study done by the University of Michigan in 2010 that found that college students were less empathetic than in the past and the rise of social media and other forms of screen-based entertainment were listed as possible factors. The increasing competitiveness of American culture was listed as another possible factor.

https://news.umich.edu/empathy-college-students-don-t-have-as-much-as-they-used-to/

11:26 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Cd the shit be any deeper? And yet, 329 million Americans live in la la land.

mb

12:20 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

If you're saying "it's too expensive" or "how do we pay for it" isn't the battle already lost? Wld the reaction be the same if it were an asteroid in our orbit? My dad refused chemo (wldve killed him anyway) said his goodbyes to friends and family with an ice cream social and died 30 days after diagnosis (got the news in a hospital bed on his 75th b-day). Climate may force all of us to act similarly, I'm thankful for the role model.
,,
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/wheres-george-carlin-when-we-need-him/

Nothing more romantic than the backseat of a cop car while getting arrested:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/17/florida-man-woman-caught-having-sex-police-car-after-dui-arrests/2348846001/

12:47 PM  
Anonymous Pete Christen said...

MB and Wafers:
RE the mass suicide we are witnessing:
The nation-state is not important. It is an ephemeral thing. It is fundamentally only a concept, a subjective entity. The nation-state is subjective reality imposed widely, on both the willing and the unwilling. Count me among the latter.
The American nation-state is actually an empire, a vast empire, and clearly a sick empire. One need only look around: unhealthy people are in the majority. Unhealthy behaviors dominate. Anger is ascendant. The empire is a sick patient, etherized upon a table. The sickness is unto death. The patient is terminal. Those who deny the reality are only delaying their pain. (Maybe they hope they will die before the day of reckoning?) It is better not to deny reality. Instead, prepare yourself for death so that you might die with dignity. The death of empire is upon us. Only two steps remain:
(1) sign the death certificate. That will happen with the 2020 election.
(2) write the obituary. This blog will be an invaluable resource for that.


1:10 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

Another day, another liberal scumbag we're supposed to feel sorry for: Democratic Donor And 'Dangerous Sexual Predator' Ed Buck Arrested After Third Man Overdoses In LA Apartment. Apparently Buck was an even bigger predator that Epstein, who at least didn't murder any of his victims. The most astonishing aspect of this case is that the the first victim died in Buck's Hollywood pad two years ago, and the second was found dead earlier this year--yet not until this third victim managed to escape and call 911 did the prosecutor's office finally charge him. No doubt the fact that Buck was a leading gay rights activist who donated large amounts of money to Obarfa, the Clintons, Jerry Brown and others, and the fact that his victims were poor and black, had NOTHING to do with their reluctance to prosecute. Now the prosecutors are calling Buck a sexual predator, when that should have been obvious the first go-round and the 2nd victim would still be alive had they done their jobs.

@Kanye--there is no chance that either Obarfa or Macron think Thunberg will accomplish anything but placating lib and prog douchebags on climate change while making themselves out to be the "good guys." If they thought she could make a real difference they wouldn't be seen within 100 miles of her. I also love how prog idiots were hailing the fact that Thunberg came to New York in a wind powered friggin' racing yacht. And exactly how many people around the world do they think have access to that particular elite form of transportation? Want to know what the game is with Thunberg--follow the money and find out what this asshole's story is: The boat on which Thunberg will travel is called Malizia II and is owned by German property developer Gerhard Senft.

1:36 PM  
Anonymous Susan W. said...

Why, I'd like to know, is Beto not on this list?! He's done a wonderful job of making a fool of himself every time a camera is pointed at him. Oh, and he's coming for your guns! Take that, Trump!!! hahahaha As a congressman in East Texas said the next day -- "We're ready for ya, Beto."

But while Beto pours gasoline over himself in a never ending quest to self-immolate, our insanity continues nonstop. A good article on the mess in Saudi Arabia:

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/09/david-stockman/locked-and-loaded-on-behalf-of-empire-first/

1:57 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Pete-

We're not a big fan of bloviation on this blog. Opinions are like assholes: everyone's got one. Preferred post: state yr (specific) argument and then provide evidence for it. Thank you.

mb

2:25 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Thunberg

Wafer Bill Hicks--re: Ms. Thunberg, given her family background and access to wealth/privilege, curious if she ever had a 'real' job during /after school; e.g.service sector with regular folks? AKA: Linh Dinh style?

It appears she has speaking engagements, photo-ops (Meat=Heat), and of course, "Ted talks," etc.. whereby audience members pay hundreds/thousands to listen to morons. How many regular folks have hundreds/thousands to attend her talks? Crickets.

After her "tour" of Chile, how will she travel back to Sweden? First Class or Business Class?

3:18 PM  
Blogger alex carter said...

On ordering books while avoiding the Amazon monster, you might consider Ebay. Amazon actually has a lot of mom-and-pops selling, and if you want to deal with 'em you generally opt for a bit slower shipping, but other than Amazon taking their slice, it's Mom or Pop out in East Podunk shipping the book they bought at a local library sale to you.

But the same goes on Ebay and I should know; more than 20 years selling on there and among other junque we sell books. Other than Ebay taking its respective slice, it's only slightly less personal than buying from Recycle Books downtown here. Personally I think it's saved a lot of books from the landfill or someone's fireplace.

3:47 PM  
Anonymous Yoogoogulator said...

Have Wafers ever discused Adam Curtis -
The Trap?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H52_9afqb-c

Seems to run parallel to what is discussed here

3:52 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Mike-

Generally, anything or anyone that gets lionized is fraudulent. "Those who speak of the Tao, are not the Tao." Etc.

mb

4:13 PM  
Anonymous Art Baker said...

You asked, "Cd the shit be any deeper?" Dr Carlin answers yes: it is called
bullshit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o25I2fzFGoY

Remember "collateral damage" = dead civilians?

4:28 PM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

For those of you who find it so wonderful that a 16 year old girl is being used by the US media and celebrity culture (she should never have set foot in this third world shit hole masquerading as civilization, but let's just save this as yet one for argument for moving the UN headquarters- Hong Kong, anyone?), there's always this to think about-

https://newrepublic.com/article/154879/misogyny-climate-deniers

"...In 2014, Jonas Anshelm and Martin Hultman of Chalmers published a paper analyzing the language of a focus group of climate skeptics. The common themes in the group, they said, were striking: “for climate skeptics … it was not the environment that was threatened, it was a certain kind of modern industrial society built and dominated by their form of masculinity.”

The connection has to do with a sense of group identity under threat, Hultman told me—an identity they perceive to be under threat from all sides. Besieged, as they see it, both by developing gender equality—Hultman pointed specifically to the shock some men felt at the #MeToo movement—and now climate activism’s challenge to their way of life, male reactionaries motivated by right-wing nationalism, anti-feminism, and climate denialism increasingly overlap, the three reactions feeding off of one another..."

4:31 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Check it out:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/opinion/obama-2008-financial-crisis.html

This echoes some of the things I said in Essay #15 of AWTY. As for Obama, I have this enormous desire to take his head, and Hillary's, and bang them together like a couple of coconuts for 20 uninterrupted minutes on nationwide TV. What a con artist that man was; what a piece of dreck.

Art-

O, we are way beyond the stuff Carlin was referring to.

mb

4:47 PM  
Anonymous Mike Kelly said...

I ran across this song by John Prine on youtube today and knew some Wafers would like it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsu2oASd6x8&list=RDHsu2oASd6x8&index=1

Sample lyrics:

The bells ring out on Sunday morning
Like echoes from another time
All our innocence and yearning
and sense of wonder left behind
Oh gentle hearts remember
What was that story? Is it lost?
For when religion loses vision
That's how every empire falls.

5:01 PM  
Anonymous trying to stay sane said...

Thanks for all the suggestions about where to find good books at reasonable prices. One reason I like this blog so much - one person can never know everything.

Assuming she is sincere, I feel sorry for little Greta. The system will use her, abuse her and then, when its finished with her, spit her out. She alone could have the power to prevent another ounce of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere, and it wouldn't matter. As with national and global decline, we are already fucked. Too late to prevent some very nasty consequences. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-climate-change-crisis-global-warming-part-1-story.html

SO - strike up the band. Time a Requiem for the Planet. I suggest Mozart compose it. He has experience.

Great to hear about the Boomer Binge. God knows we need something to mollify the insanity of living in the Fatherland. Hope there's room at the bar for me. "Move over boys and pass me a beer"



6:06 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Let me re-recommend "My Days of Mercy" (Ellen Page, Kate Mara). Very moving film.

mb

7:54 PM  
Anonymous Cel-Ray Tonic said...

I'm with you Trying. I too feel bad that Greta got stuck with this B.S. prog hero worship stuff. "Oh, well Greta is doing all this work, then I don't have to do anything."

Anyway, the whole boat thing is a joke ... airline travel accounts for what, 2% of global carbon emissions? (someone can look that up for me if you want). It isn't great, but how about that every single pilot in the Air Force, Navy, etc. has to get 20 hours of flyin' in a month? All you progs are up in arms about the burning of the Amazon? Take a look at your jar of "natural" peanut butter, know what makes it natural? That palm oil in there straight from the tropics. The hypocrisy takes my breath away. Not surprising to WAFers.

Whatever, it's all re-arranging chairs on the Titanic ... I've been watching Ken Burns' "Country Music" on PBS. Boring as hell, but good music. Alas that every other section begins and ends with the almighty dollar. What was that Chet Atkins said when asked "What is the Nashville sound"? He responded by jingling the change in his pocket...

8:04 PM  
Blogger Jason Tower said...

@tom servo - thanks for the link to the article on empathy. I think growing up with screens and digital tech has a lot to do with the decline of empathy. It's Americans' lack of caring that makes life in the US so stressful and harsh. An act of kindness is seen as either a sign of weakness or a ploy to get something else.

@italiana- those stories where a person needs help and Americans just stand around are tragic and all too common. Dr. Berman discussed the phenomenon in Twilight of American Culture.

Something about the recent attacks on Saudia Arabia's oil facilities doesn't make sense. Earlier this year Trump sold over eight billion dollars' worth of military hardware, including missile defense systems, to the Kingdom. Yet all that hardware wasn't able to stop some drones and a few missiles? Maybe he forgot to include the instruction manuals in the deal.

href=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/saudi-arabia-arms-deal-trump-what-to-know

8:55 PM  
Blogger comrade simba said...

MB,Wafers, I'd like to offer up what I thought was an excellent series on Netflix. If authenticity of character is Waferesque, this oughta rate highly.
"Unbelievable ". Based on a true story, and follows it very well.

9:28 PM  
Blogger dermot said...

For those interested in a very clinical and very depressing takedown of Greta Thunberg, wrongkindofgreen has written (and continues to write) a series of posts demonstrating how she is a created PR stunt from start to finish. TLDR: she's here (whether she knows it or not) to save capitalism, NOT the planet. To wit: liberating 100 trillion of pension fund cash into the so called 'Green' New Deal.

I thought I was inured to depressing content, but this is pretty bad. Seeing the machine chew up the basic human decency of people and channeling it into garbage like the Thunberg cult, Extinction 'Rebellion', etc., is truly disgusting.

http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/02/03/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-house-is-on-fire-the-90-trillion-dollar-rescue/

1:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@MB, add Trudeau to the Hillary-Obama mix.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/19/justin-trudeau-brownface-canada-pm-apologises-after-image-emerges

Kanye

2:02 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

dermot-

Thanks for the info. Herbert Marcuse once said that capitalism is so flexible, it can absorb literally anything, including massive critiques of itself, and turn it into more capitalism.

mb

3:01 AM  
Anonymous BAHA said...

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/462085-2017-marked-first-year-firearms-killed-more-people-than-car

Violent nation

8:25 AM  
Anonymous Arjuna said...

https://www.politico.com/amp/story/2019/09/16/oil-industry-electric-car-1729429

Politico has a great new investigation showing how API & AFPM, two major lobby groups in the US, have worked to block electric vehicle infrastructure. What's not mentioned: both groups are funded by Saudi Aramco's subsidiaries

10:43 AM  
Anonymous Pastrami and Coleslaw said...

Gotta love Predatory Capitalism at its finest:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/19/purdue-pharma-facing-thousands-lawsuits-bankruptcy-wants-pay-certain-employees-million-bonuses/

and a long one:

https://newrepublic.com/article/154944/boeing-737-max-investigation-indonesia-lion-air-ethiopian-airlines-managerial-revolution

11:08 AM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

MB-

I screened "My Days of Mercy" last night. What a unique film. The quiet power of the film comes off in its anti-death penalty subtext w/o being too preachy about the issue; a delicate balance achieved by the actors and the director. I'm still processing the juxtaposition of the many emotional themes found w/in it. In any case, Ellen Page continues to surprise w/her distinctive film choices. Many thanks for the recommendation.

Miles

11:22 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

Who woulda thunk that a film combining capital punishment with lesbian love wd be so fabulous? Ellen Page is also terrific in "The East," another one of my favorites.

mb

12:19 PM  
Anonymous Yoogoogulatot said...

@MB and thoughtful Wafers

I wanted to link to another Adam Curtis documentary: The century of self circa2002

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DnPmg0R1M04

The century of self explores the psychology at work in individuals and in the groups. Also delves into the who and why these ideas are used and for what purposes.

Adam Curtis - The Trap circa2007(previously linked) explores the origional intensions of goverments and revolutions following their conclusions.

Both docs have great archival film from historical figures and previous time periods. Both highlight how efforts in the name of freedom become the antithesis of their stated purpose. The docs, longer format detail how little choice we have when the majority follows. I think Erich Fromm would enjoy Adam's perspective.

2:12 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Yoo-

Thanks for the refs. Pls note that "thoughtful Wafers" is a redundancy.

mb

2:17 PM  
Blogger Bill Hicks said...

@Kanye--I said this when Governor "Coonman" here in Virginia was found to have worn blackface--the problem with these assholes is that they attended elite private schools where the student body was overwhelmingly white and the few minorities were hardly in a position to object. I attended a public high school in the early 80s that was about 15% black. Had any of the rich white kids shown up to a school event in black face, they would have gotten the shit kicked out of them. Best line I've heard regarding Trudeau came from Jeffry St. Clair of Counterpunch today who asked (given Trudeau's pipeline mania) if they were sure it was black face and not that he was merely coated in crude oil.

@dermot--Thanks for the link--the names listed in the articles read like a who's who of the world's most full-of-shit liberals, from Al Gore to Bono. I'll admit to not previously having paid that close attention to Thunberg since I'm automatically suspicious whenever a nobody is suddenly elevated to international fame by the corporate media and hailed as someone to whom I'm supposed to pay attention. Here's an article that actually questions whether Thunberg's activism isn't actually a form of child abuse: Self-Harm Versus the Greater Good: Greta Thunberg and Child Activism. Quote: "Given the child’s history of precisely that—fear and panic—the adult response should perhaps not be “You go, girl” (the words of Madeleine Albright when she was asked what she thinks of Greta’s school strike)" That of course would be the same evil old monster who once said that a half-million dead Iraqi children from Clinton's economic sanctions was "worth it."

3:27 PM  
Blogger Krakhed said...

I don't know how other Wafers feel, but I spend too much time thinking about the impending climate change and ecological collapse. I guess maybe I'm just sad that our planet is losing biodiversity at a quickening pace.

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/19/762090471/north-america-has-lost-3-billion-birds-scientists-say

5:05 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Krak-

Take time to smell the roses. Yr gonna be dead a very long time. Also see if you can't locate a yellow-bellied sapsucker. Woodpeckers are also neat.

dermot-

Post only once every 24 hrs, thanks.

Bill-

And Madeleine lost family in the Holocaust. What is WRONG with Americans??!

mb

5:36 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: That segment of "60 Minutes" was subsequently pulled. I guess Madeleine decided it wasn't that great for her image. Lack of empathy is what we're about. 3 teens in Bklyn steal an old woman's cane, beat her with it, then laugh at her. A student at NYU is stabbed to death; people gather around with their cell fones not to call 911, but to video his death agony, then walk away. I so regret not living in the US.

5:40 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

I'm sorry, I can't help it: I want Bolti back. MLK once said that anger + stupidity was the worst possible combination. Well, Bolti had it; he was a declinist's dream.

COME BACK BOLTI, ALL IS FORGIVEN! WE LOVE YOU BOLTI!

mb

5:53 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

This one's for you MB, take heart we still have MEghan.

. https://a.msn.com/r/2/AAHxxHN?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare

8:45 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Gunnar-

What a buffoonette.

mb

9:06 PM  
Anonymous cormorant said...

Well I think it's great that so many kids are stepping up in an attempt to mitigate climate change and pollution, regardless of whether cynical pols jump on the bandwagon or not. That's what pols do:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2019/sep/20/climate-strike-global-change-protest-sydney-melbourne-london-new-york-nyc-school-student-protest-greta-thunberg-rally-live-news-latest-updates

TBH, a lot of comments on about this movement and GT come across as fairly juvenile, if not downright nasty. At least these kids are taking a stand as opposed to bitching about everyone and everything from behind a keyboard.

2:13 PM  
Blogger delete said...

Good morning Dr MB and Wafers

Another American icon (Mr Windows) just does not seem to get it.
What chance do you think current North American cultural
would even entertain the idea? As they say 'When pigs fly'.

https://www.monbiot.com/2019/09/20/embarrassment-of-riches/

Cormorant..Thanks my sentiments exactly.

2:07 PM  

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