July 18, 2021

431

Well, our previous thread investigated topics such as Pearl Harbor, the vaccine (pro and con), and whether Kamala Harris was a buffoonette. There was also an interesting discussion of the possible idealism of Jefferson et al., and whether the vaunted ideals of the early Republic were merely a cover for a deeper underlying ideal, namely hustling. In all of these crucial debates, Wafers displayed, as usual, brilliance of insight and subtlety of argument. I'm telling you guys, there is no blog like this blog. When I hear of people going to other blogs, I am filled with a great sadness. "Why?" I sometimes cry out loud.

In any case, I think we can all agree that the American empire is drifting, with no coherent purpose. Oswald Spengler, who wrote The Decline of the West a century ago, argued that every civilization was held together spiritually by a central, guiding Idea, in a Platonic sense, and that once that Idea became tarnished or unconvincing, the civilization was on its way out. In our case, the brief debate we had over America as bastion of democracy/freedom vs. America as world epicenter of hustling may be moot, in that "pursuit of happiness" effectively identified--or perhaps we should say conflated--democracy with the opportunity/freedom to amass wealth. A similar ambiguity would seem to be present in the Idea of the American Dream, American Way of Life, etc. In Trumpi we had (have) not merely the apotheosis of hustling, but in fact a full-scale assault on democracy, so we see where things finally wound up. But as Richard Bushman showed many years ago, in From Puritan to Yankee, the seeds of this were planted long ago, in the late 17th century, when the classic definition of virtue--putting the welfare of the community ahead of personal aggrandizement--got turned on its head. (Joyce Appleby makes the same point in Capitalism and a New Social Order, but incorrectly dates the shift to the time of Jefferson). We see this everywhere: Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors, for example, a self-described Marxist, turns out to own millions in real estate. She is hardly an anomaly: this is the essence of the American Dream, or Way of Life. Or so it would seem.

The problem is that if the Dream is really about personal aggrandizement, then the nation is doomed; it is perhaps the core reason that we are drifting, because what it really amounts to is that we have no guiding moral purpose. We drift because we have no rudder to guide us, or no compass, if you will. On an individual level, the cost is by now obvious: millions dying by suicide, alcohol, opioids, television, cell phones, and rioting at Wal-Mart sales. At the national level, it takes the form of the government not being able to say what our foreign policy consists of. Indeed, some (few) astute observers have suggested that we have no foreign policy to speak of. Inner and outer, microcosm and macrocosm, reflect each other. Or as Jefferson's contemporary, William Blake, declared,"Earth and all you behold: though it appears without, it is within."

-mb

194 Comments:

Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman,
Great points as usual here by you in the newest blog that you make in the decline of the United States. But fear not! We still have our Karens to make sure everything is a okay.
As always we end the week by paying tribute to our lovely arrogant, feisty, pugnacious Karens. They are their very own ongoing comedy show. We enjoy them immensely; and we certainly get some good hearty laughs from them. We get to watch one-half of our pathetic population here in the United States make fools of themselves; contribute to this wasteland’s uncivilized decline; and help it fall into irrelevance on the world stage. Here are this week’s!

Our Karens are everywhere. They go to Victoria’s Secret.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr2HWo6HUQc


From there they go on cruises.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9BZICTJWhc


And they sure are fightin’ Karens! LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYBODvC7lBA

8:25 AM  
Anonymous Noura said...

A true American …

Officials: Hacker stole identities of multiple victims killed in Surfside condo collapse
https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/07/16/officials-hacker-stole-identities-of-multiple-victims-killed-in-surfside-condo-collapse/

I said this before but I think it’s worth repeating that America is not a country, it’s a business enterprise masquerading as a country. In the light if this understanding, news like this should come as no surprise to anyone. I suspect that most Americans today have been victims of fraud at least once in their lifetime. The article includes a video of Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett being so outraged by this that one might think that this is not a normal occurrence in America. He described the hacker as “heartless”. America is heartless. That’s definitely one of the reasons it’s dying.

10:23 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xa1L01ZNaY

mb

10:34 AM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

The Wellness Machine:

“Feeling stressed? Worried about the future? Losing faith in the American experiment? Ford motor company feels your pain! Since we know no one has medical coverage we humbly offer our sympathy. But for 50 grand we can make all of that go away, introducing the (real) Lincoln Nautilus.”

https://apple.news/AGsZoUCNbSCKgCiJqNogafg

“Oh, and when this doesn’t work try eating Fruity Pebbles while exploring your 1 year subscription to Calm and relax - everything always turns out right in the end.”

10:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If one is looking for signs of the coming Great American Pandemonium—where USans at last put down their chicken sandwiches, waddle across the room, and take up arms against one another in a continent-spanning realization of the "war of all against all" to match their sacred economic system—look no further than what's going on with road rage.

This is the way the world ends, not with with a bang (well yes, with many in fact), but with a horn and a middle finger:

https://www.police1.com/vehicle-incidents/articles/police-scramble-to-deal-with-deadly-road-rage-during-pandemic-IxON1B6pRtbC8yX3/

11:57 AM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

Wafers- If interested, article below re: US imperialism and FDR's massaging speeches to help generate support for war with Japan.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/15/the-us-hidden-empire-overseas-territories-united-states-guam-puerto-rico-american-samoa

"That was how the first draft of FDR’s speech went, too: it presented the event as a “bombing in Hawaii and the Philippines”. Yet Roosevelt toyed with that draft all day, adding things in pencil, crossing other bits out. At some point he deleted the prominent references to the Philippines...."

"Were Japan’s targets considered “the United States”? Legally, they were indisputably US territory. But would the public see them that way? What if Roosevelt’s audience didn’t care that Japan had attacked the Philippines or Guam? Polls taken slightly before the attack show that few in the continental US supported a military defense of those remote territories....although technically part of the US, seemed foreign to many. Hawaii, by contrast, was more plausibly “American”. Although it was a territory rather than a state, it was closer to North America and significantly whiter than the others..."

12:13 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070924163108.htm

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/may/15/britons-get-drunk-more-often-than-35-other-nations-survey-finds

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/alcohol-drinking-uk-survey-world-alcohol-consumption-a8915206.html

Binge drinking tends to be seen more in Anglo-Saxon countries. Not surprising. Could it be that "iron in the soul" that Satre described?

12:28 PM  
Blogger Theorist said...

Dr. B

Finally got WAF and am enjoying it (I read The DAC way back when). Its great to have all these annotations (like spengler)... for me archive.org provides lots to read and see on these references.

Decline is all around all the time now, even the major news stories alternating MAGA antivaxxers with Biden trying to "shame" republicans over voting rights. Forget funding rules, "election reform" and S. Ct, lets all believe happy stories about spending money without passing any legislation, and Joe will fight (like ....heck?) for us.

And the massive climate horrors? Out of our sight/ US mentality, while the photo sets and videos of western europe are horrific.

Theorist

PS Seen 2021 Adam Curtis series on power structures and the self? On point here.

PS Marty Jeezer's similarly titled "Dark Ages (US history from 1949 -1960)" book also many great references, cultural material in addition to the history.

12:57 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Noura-

Same thing happened w/victims of 9/11.

mb

1:21 PM  
Anonymous The Flabster said...

Daily I awake to the thought that I want to take my family and leave the United States. I don’t want to think about people like these:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/07/11/mercy-culture-church/

Or these: https://heisenbergreport.com/2021/07/17/why-nobody-will-tell-you-the-truth/


Can anyone else feel the madness in the air? Where I live is peaceful, a few blocks away the hustling begins, and I find it exhausting.

4:16 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

Mike White, of Brad's Status and Beatriz for Dinner film fame has a new HBO show called White Lotus. I believe it's mandatory viewing for all Wafers, as White depicts the many fault lines of class and privilege in the US.

Re: Henry Ford and Ford Motor Company

While we are in cancel culture mode in this nation, let's consider Henry Ford, whose name is still emblazoned on each of their vehicles. Ford was a man so fervently anti-Semitic, that Adolf Hitler placed his portrait on a wall behind his desk and called him, mein Held, "my hero." Jus' thinkin' out loud here!

Miles

4:32 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

Do you have a link to the White Lotus show? Or does one hafta subscribe to HBO?

Flab-

It may be time for you to refresh yr bathrm mirror post-it. I suggest the following:

I LIVE AMONG DEGRADED BUFFOONS

That might buoy yr spirits up.

mb

5:20 PM  
Anonymous Birney Zouave said...

Dr. B-

Here's an interesting essay from last week, where the author exhorts us to take another look at John Brown-

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/07/16/are-we-ready-for-john-browns-truth-at-last/

6:13 AM  
Anonymous Anthony said...

The Thoreau I didn’t knowhttps://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/07/magazine/thoreau-i-didnt-know/

9:27 AM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

https://www.startribune.com/ceo-pay-watch-unitedhealth-s-david-wichman-made-more-than-52-million-last-year/569920832/

Wafer Noura: "America is not a country, it’s a business enterprise masquerading as a country."

11:04 AM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

MB-

I don't have a link to view White Lotus. I believe you need a subscription to HBO, at least at this point. Here's a review:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jul/09/the-white-lotus-review-hbo

Miles

11:57 AM  
Blogger dermot said...

Wafer Noura: "America is not a country, it’s a business enterprise masquerading as a country."

I've said this myself many times to people. They don't like hearing it. I think it's why there's so much cognitive dissonance in the US, and flags. It's branding. No way to reconcile the corporate messaging with the corporate looting. Madness ensues. No real identity, only, as MB has said, a Hegelian negative identity (defining oneself by one's enemies). Or with idPol, by one's gender, sex prefs, hair color, illnesses, god help us.

MB: I've been reading Spengler (the condensed version of his books). Good stuff, the influence on JM Greer is obvious (JMG has mentioned him several times).

https://www.target.com/p/the-decline-of-the-west-abridged-by-oswald-spengler-paperback/-/A-76946622

"It is a quite indefensible method of presenting world-history to begin by giving rein to one's own religious, political or social conventions and endowing the sacrosanct three -phase system [ child, youth, and man] with tendencies that will bring it exactly to one's own standpoint."


2:31 PM  
Anonymous Rilo said...

https://www.amazon.com/Socialism-Soloists-William-Edmundson/dp/1509541837

This looks good^^

2:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Numbers say President Jenner is a shoe in. Only question is VP.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E6rKPz-XIAQmzzO?format=jpg&name=small

3:58 PM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

"America was a business enterprise masquerading as a country--Noura."

https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-maker-intuit-will-leave-free-tax-filing-partnership-with-irs

"Intuit and other firms have steered taxpayers who were eligible for free online tax prep toward paid options. Some of these tactics centered on heavily marketing options that were labeled “free” but were separate from the Free File program and often led users to paid commercial products. In 2019, Intuit went so far as to add code to its Free File website that kept the option from turning up in results on Google and other search engines. (That code was later removed.) The company used “dark patterns,” according to ProPublica’s reporting, which are “design tricks to get users of its website to do things they don’t necessarily mean to do.”

Even 'doing your taxes' (which is quite bizarre-bc in most countries it's done via the govt), was a US empire hustle. Another corporate gimmick.

5:48 PM  
Blogger Arthur V. said...

Good afternoon Dr. Berman and Wafers:

I know this story is from wingnut site Lifesite and it quotes a story from the Daily Wire, but it is interesting nonetheless.

www.lifesitenews.com/news/most-southern-republicans-nearly-half-of-west-coast-democrats-support-secession-poll

It seems to me that some sort of secession is really the only thing that will prevent widespread bloodshed. Of course what it will look like is anyone's guess. To be sure, many on both sides think secession is impossible. Rather like those 1st century Celts who thought the Romans would never leave Britain. Stay safe, all.

6:27 PM  
Anonymous turnover said...

This site has White Lotus. It's sometimes a little funky and you might have to fool with it, but it usually works

https://putlockers.li/tv-show/the-white-lotus-2021_RitZZGpBN0M1b3c9/

6:27 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Arthur-

Thanks for the link. I've been saying for a long time now that secession is the only sane way out of the disaster that the US has become. And probably the least destructive.

mb

6:35 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

turnover-

I tried to run Episode 1, but got a message that the site was unsafe. As for content, the description Miles provided earlier (above) reminds me of a brilliant play by Wally Shawn, "The Fever."

mb

6:59 PM  
Anonymous Lost in Space said...

Being a septuagenarian I go far enough back to remember "Man's Search for Meaning" by Victor Frankly. A great, great book. In it he refers to the existential vacuum: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9282828-the-existential-vacuum-is-a-widespread-phenomenon-of-the-twentieth

People in America generally speaking fail in finding genuine meaning either in their lives or those of others. Our culture is built around technology, sound bites, money, and a "what's in it for me" mentality. Sad to say I have seen not much change since the sixties or beyond. Just a steady decline of a country built totally around money values.

Need to buckle in for the rest of the ride.

Lost in Space

7:44 PM  
Anonymous Ziggy Zag said...

https://www.wimp.com/what-right-to-repair-means-in-under-a-minute/

Ziggy Zag just sent this in and his name may NOT be on it.
Sorry for my e-blunder!!

7:53 PM  
Anonymous Klaus said...

Americans Hate Each OtherIt’s time to embrace what that means for the country’s future

"the specific dates of Putnam’s historical curve of American cohesion align almost perfectly with the country’s legislation on immigration restriction—a fact that neither the political scientist nor his readers want to think about too thoroughly."
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/putnam-lind-duncan-moench

8:09 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Unknown-

Sorry, I don't post Unknowns. You need a real handle to participate in this discussion. Thank you.

Klaus-

Terrific essay. Makes lots of impt pts, but here are my 2 favorites: Americans are, for the most part, idiots; and second, the impulse toward secession is definitely on the rise. (See post from Arthur, above, for example.) And of course, Americans do hate each other, but the author missed a v. impt corollary: they hate themselves. In so doing, ironically enuf, they do seem to exhibit a fair amt of accurate insight (there is so much to hate).

But I'm gratified that there has been a steady increase in serious critics. Not the douchebags who suggest how the US can be saved at the last hr, but ones who recognize and state that the game is up, end of story. In addition, some of these sharp guys also call out the American people as serious culprits in this drama. What finally needs to happen, imo, is that these guys begin to not just follow what I've been arguing since the Twilight bk, but also begin to copy my vocabulary. They do, once in a blue moon, call Americans morons, which is a breakthru of sorts, but I'm also looking for douchebags, turkeys, buffoons, clowns, and people who need to have their shoes peed on, and also slapped. When that day finally arrives, I think we can say that declinism is, at long last, in full bloom.

Lost-

No argument here; yr preaching to the choir. I've been saying all that for decades. BTW, his name is Frankl.

mb

8:55 PM  
Blogger alex carter said...

MB - It appears your books are no longer yours. Per the latest Amazon TOS:

"All content included in or made available through any Amazon Service, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio clips, digital downloads, data compilations, and software is the property of Amazon or its content suppliers and protected by United States and international copyright laws. The compilation of all content included in or made available through any Amazon Service is the exclusive property of Amazon and protected by U.S. and international copyright laws."

So much for my writing anything and selling it through Amazon. Same deal as when I worked for a tech company - anything you came up with, even on your own time, was theirs. Yet it's Socialism that stifles creativity...

I imagine a TV show called "Viktor, Frankly!", a sort of Hogans Heroes take-off on Frankl's time in the camps. Hilarity ensues...

11:08 PM  
Anonymous down we go said...

In this article, Greg Palast puts the recent events in Haiti in historical context.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGkZQQhDbWfmBHhrgtcNMMpMzTk

For a longer version of American intervention, see the book "The Uses of Haiti" by Paul Farmer with introduction by Jonathan Kozol.

4:57 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

turnover-

Sorry, cdn't run it (24-hr rule).

mb

8:49 AM  
Anonymous Anjin-san said...

The American disease has spread and is infecting distant parts of the world.

https://youtu.be/-uXo7wtGW7M

I sent this to a friend and he commented that the "obscene" words would offend people... not the obscenity of the corruption, perversion, and destruction that are the result of their "shitfuckery".

Sigh!

9:57 AM  
Anonymous Deadthoreau said...

That was a banger of an essay Klaus, some people are starting to get it.

"As a proud prognosticator, I’d like to offer up a different thesis than the “I-we-I” curve Putnam found: that the precipitous rise and fall of American cohesion was a brief accident of history in an otherwise selfish, narcissistic, liberal-individualist “I” oriented nation, to borrow Putnam’s term. The decades of American cohesion experienced mainly between 1920 and 1960 were an anomaly; the success of Franklin Roosevelt, the New Deal, and the “liberal consensus” that followed briefly afterward were the result merely of Roosevelt’s unique political genius and the tail winds of winning two world wars while all most of Eurasia was reduced to rubble."

Once again MB you're ahead of the curve.

1:23 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

down-

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

mb

3:28 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

A gd essay, except for the conclusion:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/20/opinions/climate-change-corporate-lobbying-fossil-fuels-sachs/index.html

At the end, the author makes 2 classic errors:
1. The climate situation in the US--what he calls 'idiocracy'--can be turned around;
2. The agent of this dramatic change will be the average American.

I have told you guys again and again, that in the US, even the smart people are dumb. This cdn't be a better example. This supposed avg American hero is fully part of the idiocracy Sachs describes. How then can s/he do *anything* intelligent?

My 2nd pt of critique is that Sachs is suggesting a 'solution' so stupid, and so unlikely, that it is clear that he is *also* part of the idiocracy.

Why don't we just rename the country Bozoville, and be done w/it?

mb

3:44 PM  
Blogger Christian Schulzke said...

Klaus. Take a look at Putnum's research on diversity and its effects on social capital, and both intra and inter racial trust. Note his proposed solution to the problems of diversity is to try and socially engineer a greater identity to which the underlying racial and ethnic identities are secondary. Basically the South African model, and we are seeing in real time how well that worked out.

https://www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com/pdf/j.1467-9477.2007.00176%20Putnam%20Diversity.pdf

4:59 PM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...



"America is not a country, it’s a business enterprise masquerading as a country." "I've said this myself many times to people. They don't like hearing it. I think it's why there's so much cognitive dissonance in the US, and flags. It's branding...(Dermot)"

Wafer Dermot:

To most USans, truth and reality is the "third rail." They cannot nor will not live in reality because most of the population are dolts and ENJOY being dolts. It's an empire of copious mythology, illusions, delusions, and chicken sandwiches. These folks certainly have the capacity, discipline and focus to "lead" that (farcical) revolution, rising up, and help "save" the US empire.

On a serious note, Mr. Hedges et al., what would worth "saving" in that business enterprise masquerading as a country? Sans jazz.

5:55 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Glans-

Roughly 100 yrs after Freud was there, I gave a lecture at Clark University in wh/I suggested that, as Freud had written, the country was 'a gigantic mistake'. No dummy, he. Someone in the audience asked me what I thought was gd abt America, if anything. I said:
1. Jazz--contribution of blacks
2. Hollywood--contribution of Jews
3. The idea (not the reality) of democracy
4. Open doors to asylum-seekers fleeing religious and/or political persecution, at least until the Quota Laws of 1924.
If I were asked back to Clark, and asked the same question, I wd hafta add:
5. Chicken sandwiches
6. Kim Kardashian's buttocks.
For more on #5, check out the Popeye Archives. As for #6, this shd cover it:
http://morrisberman.blogspot.com/2020/11/crossing-rectal-divide-part-i.html

mb

6:19 PM  
Anonymous Baker said...

MIT Predicted in 1972 That Society Will Collapse This Century. New Research Shows We’re on Schedule.

https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/z3xw3x/new-research-vindicates-1972-mit-prediction-that-society-will-collapse-soon

6:42 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Baker-

The 30-yr update of the 1972 Limits to Growth report was published in 2004. Most of the predictions proved to be accurate; this 17 yrs ago.

mb

7:00 PM  
Anonymous Rollo Dice said...

See, millions are getting the virus because they have been vaccinated, but the media hides this truth from the public. Now you know how
to think like a true patriot.

Unvaccinated Americans say COVID vaccines are riskier than the virus, even as Delta surges among them

8:20 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Rollo-

Sorry, this won't do. You make a radical assertion, and provide no evidence whatsoever for it. This is not how this blog operates, and in the future I will hafta delete posts of this sort. I ask you to wait 24 hrs, and provide us w/reliable links and references. Thank you.

mb

8:26 PM  
Anonymous Noura said...

Wafers: I am not surprised by your many posts showing how fraudulent Americans can be, but I am impressed by the creative energy they’re willing to invest into it. Imagine what would happen if that creative energy was put to good use. What a tragic waste of human potential!

Dermot: My experience is similar to yours. It seems to me that most people are happy to criticize some aspects of the system (Republicans vs Democrats for example), but very few are willing to discuss the fact that the whole system is rotten to the core and has always been. Some people like to talk about the good old days and yet, there was never a time when this system was good. We were just lucky to get away with it as long as we did. Our luck is running out. Our way of life was never sustainable and will never be.

Glans: a fitting name for America would be “The Empire of Illusions”.

The more I educate myself, the more I discover that many people throughout the ages tried to warn us. They saw what was coming down the pipe, I didn’t but I see it now. Some people still don’t see it in spite of the growing evidence.

Carl Sagan Predicted The Mess 2021 Would Be 25 years Ago: https://bit.ly/36P65br
https://www.inverse.com/article/26779-carl-sagan-1995-america-prediction-manufacturing

8:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

With that enormous dickhead Bezos rocketing off into space aboard his giant dildo of a spaceship today, it might be worth checking in on how Paul Kingsnorth is coming along with his 'Abbey of Misrule' series of essays. Here he tries to sound the depths of stupidity and depravity that gave us the Machine (global industrial modernity), with Bezos himself promising us "a thousand Mozarts":

https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/p/a-thousand-mozarts

10:11 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Waldo-

Check out my discussion of the Frontier Thesis in QOV. Endless expansion (for the sake of expansion itself) is sewn into the American DNA. This is the philosophy not only of Bezos, but of bozos.

mb

10:35 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

Turns out 20% of Americans think the vaccines are implanting microchips in people. Apparently, Americans will believe absolutely anything, no matter how idiotic, contradictory or farfetched.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eqxDS4RuFE

Also, Kamal Harris is claiming America's not a racist country. This horseshit, combined with her telling Latin Americans not to come to America, makes me think she's much further to the right than Biden, perhaps almost as right-wing as Trump in many ways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzC6xahMdTs

11:12 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

Really? I thought part of her diversity pitch was that the US suffers from systemic racism, and has for centuries. This is quite a volte face. As for vaccines and microchips: only 20%? That seems kinda low.

mb

11:33 PM  
Anonymous Megan said...

I wanted to comment on some historic figures like Jefferson, FDR and Churchill. I realize that some people on this blog think poorly of some or all of these people, but I think there is a real danger of historical revisionism here. To simply chalk Jefferson up as "a hustler", is, I think, to do him a disservice. Jefferson certainly spent himself into great debt (In fact he died in debt), but it's important to remember that he spent most of his money building Monticello. And that preoccupation of his was aesthetic rather than anything "proto-consumerist". He was literally interested in everything under the sun, from the bible to the discoveries of the naturalist Comte de Buffon. Is there anything less "American" than that omnivorous thirst for knowledge?

In general, I think we would do well to remember Heidegger's notion of "thrownness". That is, people "wake up" (i.e., are thrown) into a given time, culture and milieu. To expect them to stand objectively outside of this world, is historically revisionist. Robert E. Lee was born into a world where slavery was just a "given". So was Jefferson and most of the Founding Fathers. FDR saved capitalism, but was anything else possible, given the time and circumstances? Churchill was a "racist" but he was also a great man who saved the troops at Dunkirk and kept Britain in the war, etc. etc. To place the burden on these figures of our modern sensibilities, is just plain wrong and shortsighted.

1:57 AM  
Anonymous down we go said...

Newspaper headlines I'd like to see (but won't) for yesterday's rocket launch

"Billionaires in Spaceeeeeeeeeeeeee"
"Greatest Boorstinian Psuedo-Event in a Generation Leaves World Aghast."
(https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/12/the-image-in-the-age-of-pseudo-reality/509135/)

In a shameless act of self-promotion and -glorification covered by every MSM TV outlet, including MSNBC, Fox, CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS, billionaire and worker abuser Jeff Bezos becomes an "astronaut" by sitting passively in a chair while being thrust into space by a rocket that looked suspiciously like a giant circumcised penis (Calling Dr. Freud. Dr. Freud, Line 1)
https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/jeff-bezos-space-flight-07-20-21/index.html


6:40 AM  
Anonymous Shoal said...

Billionaire space race: the ultimate symbol of capitalism’s flawed obsession with growth

"As Aristotle pointed out...the good life is not a relentless search for more, but a continual process of finding a 'virtuous' balance between too little and too much"

https://theconversation.com/billionaire-space-race-the-ultimate-symbol-of-capitalisms-flawed-obsession-with-growth-164511

"Extremely rich people, as a rule, have come to believe that everything is for sale. The one thing they cannot accept is being told that they cannot buy something"
https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/20/jeff-bezos-space-flight-billionaires-earth-sinking-ship

6:46 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Megan-

You make a gd pt, of course, but not an entirely sound one, since modern sensibilities aren't always wrong. I don't have the ref at hand, but I remember rdg that Jefferson died owning 150 slaves; and while hustling was becoming the norm by the late 18C, it was certainly his historical role to deepen and promote it--as he did during his election campaign of 1800 (I believe I discuss this in WAF). Also, I don't think anyone here is saying "Bad FDR!" W/o judgment, historians are agreed that it was his historical role to save capitalism, which he did. To my knowledge, none of them have suggested that he shd have suddenly become a raving socialist (wh/is what the political rt in the US believes he was). In the case of Churchill, yr case is harder to make, because in terms of racism, colonialism, and hatred of Russia, he was pretty much off the charts in the political context of his time. E.g.:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/4/1/churchills-policies-to-blame-for-1943-bengal-famine-study

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAj_2b_-aQI

As for his hatred of Russia during WW2, when the USSR was Britain's ally against Hitler, Churchill did not want info gathered by Bletchley Park (wh/cracked the Enigma code) passed on to the Russians even tho such info wd help them in their struggle. Apparently it fell to John Cairncross, a double agent working w/in Bletchley, to do this. According to the biopic of Alan Turing, "The Imitation Game," there were anti-Churchill forces w/in MI6 who actually planted Cairncross w/in the Enigma group, to help the USSR to defeat Germany, as in the crucial battle of Kursk. (However, I need to do a bit more research on this, to make sure it's true.) Finally, his "Iron Curtain" speech of 1946 is credited with ushering in the Cold War and framing the geo-political landscape for the next 50 years. War was the only political position Churchill understood, and with the Allied victory in 1945 he lost all sense of purpose, unless he could find a new target. The British public disagreed, and voted him out of office that year.

mb

9:35 AM  
Blogger Jack Lattemann said...

Greetings Waferinos everywhere, today’s news from Cascadia has a definite “doubling down” theme:

A guy was arrested for throwing rocks on cars from a freeway overpass. The Washington State Patrol surmised a connection with nearby homeless encampments (though the term “homeless” does not appear in the news report) and announced that encampments would soon be cleared and aircraft surveillance increased (uh, no mention of more housing, this is a crime report):

www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/man-arrested-after-seven-vehicles-hit-with-rocks-on-seattles-i-90-freeway/

But speaking of “housing”: The same newspaper called on Washington state to improve “humane climate resiliency” (a new euphemism!) at state prisons after the recent heat wave:

www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/washingtons-prisons-require-humane-climate-resiliency/

10:22 AM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

Wafer down we go,

"Jeff Bezos becomes an "astronaut" by sitting passively in a chair while being thrust into space by a rocket that looked suspiciously like a giant circumcised penis (Calling Dr. Freud. Dr. Freud, Line 1)"

Bozos' bald head looking like a penis, in a penis rocket too! LOL. Him owning the Washington Compost likely helps the other "news" outlets with parroting the same corporate propaganda.

With all the climate change, global warming causing catastrophes in Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, US empire, w/ lotsa fear porn pics, sad faces, sad musak, bottom lip biting "news" "reporters," yet....not one MSM "news" "reporting" abt the underlying WHY? The economic pathology behind these disasters?

Could it be endless-limitless 'growth' and expansionism as a toxic by-product from the American disease: capitalism? Naaah, let's just recycle plastic and drive Mollusks' 'green' cars (another rocket man). Another US hustler.

1:57 PM  
Anonymous El Alamein said...

Megan - as for Robert E Lee, he was not born into a slaveholding family and spent most of his childhood technically in the District of Columbia where slavery was not permitted. [The territory was later remanded to Virginia]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Lee#Early_life_and_education] Lee acquired his slaves via marriage, and became the only one of 8 ranking colonels in the US army to fight for the confederacy. Not coincidentally, he was the wealthiest and owned the most slaves. Millions of other people born in a similar time and circumstance opposed slavery, so I don't think this defense fully holds water.

As for Jefferson, he himself called slavery a "moral depravity" [https://www.monticello.org/thomas-jefferson/jefferson-slavery/jefferson-s-attitudes-toward-slavery/] so it's hard to apply Heidegger's framework and say he was unable to see past the attitudes of his day.

As for Churchill, many of his contemporaries, even those like George Orwell who would be considered racist by today's standards, were appalled by Churchill's actions in India [http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/08/13/070813crbo_books_mishra?currentPage=all].

3:28 PM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

A good critique of white anti-racism 'training:'
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/07/whats-so-bad-about-robin-diangelo

"...Nice, good progressives can indeed be reactionary obstacles to progress. But white indifference is a bigger problem than white fragility. For instance: here is a story [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/16/farmworkers-labor-deadly-heat-few-protections] about how unbearable climate change is making the lives of agricultural workers, who have to suffer in unprecedented heat in order to do the low-paid work that feeds the country. The farmworkers in the story are, of course, not white or wealthy, and I do not see much public protest from this country’s white majority on behalf of the farmworkers.

"This is why Robin DiAngelo’s work makes me positively angry. It encourages white people to spend time thinking about themselves instead of fixing the central problem, which is that they do not care enough about other people’s lives to try to fix the system that destroys those lives. As the New Yorker says, DiAngelo encourages white progressives to “look inward.” But inward is precisely where they already look too much. Instead, they need to look outward. Study the literature, history, and politics of groups different from themselves. Start caring about the ways that the healthcare system, immigration system, and education system disadvantage people who are not white, and instead of just committing yourself to learning and growing in your interpersonal life (by not making awkward racial jokes like DiAngelo did), commit yourself to lending your support to those who are trying to change the situation..."

4:31 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dan D-

In addition, the progs are the folks who own a cell fone, ride around in an SUV--sporting a Hillary bumper sticker--and think Bezos in space is a great accomplishment. It never occurs to them that they, not just the bubbas, are a major part of the problem. Still, from a declinist pt of view, one can only applaud them, and hope they keep doing what they're doing--including looking inward.

mb

4:57 PM  
Anonymous Cosmo Como said...

How often do we hear that socialism simply does not work. The examples
given are Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea. Is China too
small of a country to also mention?
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/worlds-first-600-km-h-090000360.html

7:38 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Cosmo-

Well, China is abt as socialist as a week-old tuna fish sandwich. I mean, it's really state (authoritarian) capitalism. For more on the situation, check out my Preface to the Chinese edition of WAF, which is floating somewhere on the Net (or in my blog archives).

mb

7:44 PM  
Anonymous Rollo Dice said...

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/unvaccinated-americans-say-covid-vaccines-are-riskier-than-virus-even-as-delta-surges-among-them-090056685.html

Rather than believing what medical science tells them, these
Trumpites find it easier to believe that such advice is fake
news and that the mainstream media is concealing the fact that
it is the vaccine that is killing millions instead of the virus.
If the vaccines were in fact killing millions, why do other
countries continue to vaccinate its citizens? Fake news is what
they do not believe is true, and this belief is not based on any
evidence but on fear and ignorance.

11:20 PM  
Blogger flanagle said...

I found this to be a sobering, unblinking essay on "...the almost forgotten phenomenon of dysergy*" https://www.counterpunch.org>2021/07/21>why-mother-nature-doesnt-love-you

*(Along with Grammarly, which I'm happy to see was befuddled by this word, I too had never heard of it).

8:40 AM  
Anonymous Noura said...

Idiocracy is definitely upon us …

Trump and Greene invite a horrific history to repeat itself: https://cnn.it/2UwUFXh

“In excerpts from the upcoming book, “Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost,” Michael C. Bender alleges that Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, recounted a grotesque episode he said took place during a 2018 presidential visit to Europe. According to Kelly, Trump interrupted a discussion of Nazi atrocities to say, “Well, Hitler did a lot of good things.” Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general–whose son, also a US Marine, died in combat, argued with his boss. Bender describes Kelly giving the former president a rapid history lesson and, per The Guardian’s reporting, an “undeterred” Trump noting Germany’s economic gains under Hitler. Kelly is said to have responded, “The German people would have been better off poor than subjected to the Nazi genocide,” adding, “You cannot ever say anything supportive of Adolf Hitler. You just can’t.” In predictable fashion, Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington told CNN this never happened, “This is totally false. President Trump never said this. It is made up fake news, probably by a general who was incompetent and was fired.” Who do you believe here: the ex-president who regularly cozied up to White supremacists and dictators or the retired Marine Corps general? And next question: Why does this matter now?”

10:05 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Noura-

I wd support Marjorie as a presidential candidate, but only if she takes Lorenzo Riggins as her VP, and adopts Herman Cain's 999 plan. Cabinet members wd have to include Shaneka Torres, Laquisha Jones, and Chrystal Walraven.

mb

10:36 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

I had never heard of Randolph Bourne before I saw this article. He seems like someone whose works I should get to know. The first paragraph of this Quillette book review mentions two persons who apparently thought highly of Bourne, Lewis Mumford and Christopher Lasch; on the strength of that fact I expect I’ll be ordering the book. WAFERs may find him worth looking into.

https://quillette.com/2021/07/19/a-toast-to-randolph-bourne/

10:48 AM  
Anonymous Mitch Dunsworth said...

Trump advisor Tom Barrack worked for the UAE, got $1.5 billion put into his companies from them and the Saudis, and worked to turn the US against Qatar.

Just imagine: What if progressives had focused on the corruption of Gulf Arab states instead of *RUSSIA*!?

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/us/thomas-barrack-trump-indicted.html

11:46 AM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

Dr. Berman, in the (sad) absence of anti-semitic trolls, please see an example of another exceptional american... USian school "teacher" fired after 'tongue and cheek' names for plays, including, Auschwitz, dreidel, Rabbi. Granted he appeared to take ownership of these terms, what the fuck was he thinking? Oh, he's USian....

https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/06/11/duxburys-fired-football-coach-explains-origins-of-anti-semitic-slurs/

How can ANYONE with a working brainstem say, USA with a straight face?

5:36 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dr. Shit-

Well, I don't have any problem with dreidel or rabbi, but I wd like to see them add putz and schlemiel to the list. As for the disappearing trolls: practically nothing! Once in a while one of these dunces will do a kind of hit-and-run message (which again, I delete w/o rdg), but other than that, bupkis. I think I scared them off by going to the root of their problem: they have no testes. This served to embarrass them, since this is a true assessment; so they ran away. In their heart of hearts, they know that they are an impotent bunch of turkeys, that their dicks are limp, and that the Jews will surely replace them. By now, they are pretty depressed. If you or any other Wafer can recommend a Nazi psychiatrist for them, pls feel free to cite his contact info.

mb

5:48 PM  
Anonymous down we go said...

Caitlin Johnston's take on Bezo's ride. Must see video.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx59n7B6Upk

Biden refuses to abolish filibuster, even though he and rest of Dems know that nothing can be done as long as it is in effect. "Don't worry", he says. "Someday our friends the Reps will compromise and do the right thing. "Dysfunction junction, what's your function? Gridlock.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/21/biden-nothing-done-filibuster-abolished-500502

5:54 PM  
Blogger dermot said...

Megan & MB re: presentism (Churchill / Jefferson etc) - C was known in his time to be a racial obsessive. Members of one cabinet he was in (early 20th c) said "All Winnie talks about is the white race." Even Tories in the teens/20s thought he was off. Dunkirk? Please read about the Indian Famines and the millions who died because of him.

Re: Jefferson. There were people at the time who saw through the humbug. Irish poet Tom Moore writing in the 1830s/40s (apologies for pushing 1/2 page limit but the poem lines are short). This is incandescent stuff...calling out America on its BS.

Thomas Moore
from 'Poems Relating to America' (~1840)

Oh! Freedom, Freedom, how I hate thy cant!
Not Eastern bombast, not the savage rant
Of purpled madmen, were they numbered all
From Roman Nero down to Russian Paul,
Could grate upon my ear so mean, so base,
As the rank jargon of that fractious race,
Who, poor of heart and prodigal of words,
Formed to be slaves, yet struggling to be lords,
Strut forth, as patriots, from their negro-marts,
And shout for rights, with rapine in their hearts.

Who can, with patience, for a moment see
The medley mass of pride and misery,
Of whips and charters, manacles and rights,
Of slaving blacks and democratic whites,
And all the piebald polity that reigns
In free confusion o'er Columbia's plains?
To think that man, thou just and gentle God!
Should stand before thee with a tyrant's rod
O'er creatures like himself, with souls from thee,
Yet dare to boast of perfect liberty;
Away, away - I'd rather hold my neck
By doubtful tenure from a sultan's beck,
In climes, where liberty has scarce been named,
Nor any right but that of ruling claimed,
Than thus to live, where bastard Freedom waves
Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves;
Where - motley laws admitting no degree
Betwixt the vilely slaved and madly free -
Alike the bondage and the license suit
The brute made ruler and the man made brute.

8:17 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

down-

Either Biden is a complete fool, or he has a secret agenda: that 0 substantive get done, while he talks a great game.

mb

8:31 PM  
Blogger Theorist said...

Yes, in fact Biden does have a grand plan, which he unveiled in his voting rights TV special. Its a great plan because no filibuster reform is needed, and all so-called legislators can still grab sunglasses and head to the beaches while engaged in "filibustering" a bill. Its call the shaming TV show strategy and Biden layed it all out there with a bang! "Shame on you republicans! Shame! Shame!"

Speaking of shaming the republicans, NY Times has yet to "discover" the religious right wing. A wiki search for "AAPS" tells you more about anti-vaxx than years of NY Times. Isn't it a weird thing these folks in the "base" don't care about facts? As Frank Schaeffer says, "certainty kills" and no abortion clinic bomber ever said "but I might be wrong" about his beliefs.

8:59 PM  
Anonymous El Alamein said...

James - Bourne is one of the great and scathing critics of the prevailing American ideology, sadly underappreciated today. I suppose his reputation would have been bolstered by a longer life and more extensive publishing record. I was lucky enough to read him in a US Intellectual History course I took in college. Of course "War is the Health of the State" is deservedly his most famous essay, but had good other work as well. Can't remember the source, but he had a poignant description of how American ideology was basically meaningless to non-Anglo immigrants, and they became empty and adrift as they lost touch with their home cultures.

Mitch - re:progressives and the gulf states, they are at least smart enough to understand that Joe Q American wouldn't know Qatar from Zimbabwe. Russia is one of the few countries that most Americans are actually aware of, even if it's through leftover fearmongering from the Cold War.

9:08 PM  
Blogger Nesim Watani said...

Hey Wafers! Been gone for a while. Met a wonderful woman, traveled to California, and am enjoying the meltdown of the US.

I came across this article I think everyone should be interested in reading.

https://lucaswebber.substack.com/p/al-qaeda-urges-attacks-against-the

This is an interesting article I thought everyone could enjoy. Basically, AQ's insight of the US situation is rather spot on.

9:46 PM  
Anonymous Truly said...

China Goes Green: Coercive Environmentalism for a Troubled Planet

https://www.amazon.com/China-Goes-Green-Coercive-Environmentalism/dp/1509543120

This looks very interesting

10:14 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Truly-

It sounds rather oppressive, but one thing we can be sure of: green capitalism ain't gonna work!

Nesim-

Welcome back, and congrats on yr romantic adventures. As for al-Qaeda, I'm not particularly thrilled by their solution, but the diagnosis is hard to refute. However--I've said this before--the full indictment of America awaits the inclusion of descriptions of the American people. I have read an essay or two identifying them as 'morons'; but we need much more of this, whether from al-Qaeda or "Le Monde". A rich and accurate vocabulary is available: turkeys, buffoons, douchebags, clowns, and poopy-heads. Connecting this situation to the coming collapse of the country is something that is long overdue.

Of course, it is also frustrating that these extremely accurate portrayals of a dying nation are pretty much limited to marginal online publications, of wh/99% of the American public is unaware. So also long overdue are headlines in the NYT, WashPost, et al. along the following lines:

WE ARE FINISHED
THIS NEWSPAPER IS COMPLETELY FULL OF SHIT
GET OUT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE
332 MILLION DEGRADED BUFFOONS AND COUNTING

etc.

-mb

11:02 PM  
Anonymous Cosmo Como said...

US fascist radio talk shows still refer to China as Communist
China or Red China. It is easier for the Pentagon to get all
the money it wants if they can find an enemy against which we
must defend ourselves. There is no mention of a capitalist threat
coming from a communist country. Under traditional capitalism,
the state is an agent of wealth; in China, the wealth is an agent
of the Communist Party whose goal is further prosperity, order,
and independence from the threats of other countries. An excellent
perspective to inform "the leader of the FREE world" and its
"allies" (continuing Cold War jargon) can be found in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JovtmKFxi3c

11:15 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Ponzi scheme in real time (usa debt clock)

https://www.usdebtclock.org/

Are we living in Brave New World or 1984? I enjoyed this debate. My own opinion is Brave New World collapsing into 1984. Everyone wants to return to “normal” but what if that normal is Huxley?

https://youtu.be/31CcclqEiZw

11:25 PM  
Blogger moresoma said...

MB & Baker re: limits to growth/reality.

'Limits to Growth was right. New research shows we're nearing collapse (2014)'

'Four decades after the book was published, Limit to Growth’s forecasts have been vindicated by new Australian research. Expect the early stages of global collapse to start appearing soon'

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/02/limits-to-growth-was-right-new-research-shows-were-nearing-collapse

In the big picture, are we really any different than the yeast in a beaker of glucose?

'Human domination of the biosphere: Rapid discharge of the earth-space battery foretells the future of humankind'

https://damnthematrix.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/human-domination-of-the-biosphere-rapid-discharge-of-the-earth-space-battery-foretells-the-future-of-humankind/

2:14 AM  
Blogger Kelvin said...

No surprise here. Get off our lawn. Die somewhere else:
https://apple.news/AVolSt6HURr6xYwpaqtd1Nw

10:21 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Kelvin-

A few gd apples in a barrel of rotten ones. For every Tony, a million callous shits.

mb

11:07 AM  
Blogger Jamie said...

El Alamein, I believe this is the Bourne article on immigration you referenced.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1916/07/trans-national-america/304838/

12:33 PM  
Anonymous hours said...

Have you read Hoffman's new book Twilight Language? This is the sequel to his "Secret Societies & Psychological Warfare" book written months before 9/11. This book is more of an update of the process we're undergoing. Those who can see what's happening are told to take action for themselves, but that the vast bulk of people are already long gone. Topics include mass shootings, 9/11, JFK, moon landing, nuclear war, Pearl Harbor, celebrity culture, Iraq War, Bush Sr. & Jr., and lots of other topics covered on this blog.

https://www.revisionisthistory.org/page7/page7.html

1:29 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

hours-

This blog isn't big on conspiracy theorists and Holocaust deniers, I'm afraid.

mb

1:51 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t hear about a mass shooting happening in America.” -Dr. Morris Berman, 2015


Oh GSWH, pat yourself on the back. What you’ve been saying all along finally is getting noticed and spoken about in the media. It took up a segment of The View today. And on Sunday ABC is airing a special called “One Nation Under Fire” about the spate of mass shootings.

https://apnews.com/article/gun-violence-victims-56aadf8dc1824243b8b18974fc3fd689

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/abc-news-gun-violence-one-nation-under-fire-1235026169/

But Doctor, will it do any good?

3:22 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

I'm glad they are beginning to agree w/me, but it's time for them to take the next step: support my letters to the Pentagon urging the mass distribution of weapons, and initiating a "Kill Free Day," in which Americans are encouraged to just go out into the street and blow anyone they see outta the water, while chanting "USA!" Other than the Wafer Mass Lobotomy Program (WMLP), I don't see any other solution to our national dilemma.

mb

4:25 PM  
Anonymous Sida said...

https://www.newsweek.com/china-officials-share-viral-video-calling-atomic-bombing-japan-exception-theory-1609586

Say huh?

China Officials Share Viral Video Calling for Atomic Bombing of Japan

5:39 PM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

Curious what the altercation was about? Obviously, something very important to americans. Maybe chicken sandwiches, dance moves, Kim's psoriasis, flavors of ice-cream, sports, USA greatness, bad China, bad Russia, bad fill in blank....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuvdhrjQMv0

https://www.blackenterprise.com/video-dewitt-police-officer-rory-spain-placed-on-leave-after-he-violently-arrested-tyreana-edmonds/

This was the US empire. A violent, gigantic mistake filled with clowns dressed up as humans. 98.7% Shtik drek in the business enterprise masquerading as a country (Noura).

7:43 PM  
Anonymous Rockwell N. Role said...

Does this suggest decadence: Children out of control and left
ignorant and unteachable? The better teachers are leaving and a
great number of unemployable young adults will result. What kind
of a future will result unless the US depends on foreign students
to stay in the US once they have acquired vital technological skills?
https://www.wimp.com/fed-up-teacher-speaks-out-about-disrespectful-students/

8:13 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Rockwell-

The problem is that American students, like their parents, are trashy people. There is very little that I can see that can remedy this situation. Obnoxious behavior and disrespect are sewn into the American DNA. All gd, of course, from a declinist pt of view. Go, students!

Glans-

I don't care what anyone says. Americans are a charming, gracious people.

mb

9:49 PM  
Anonymous Art Baker said...

I bet you wonder what will become of those who cannot afford to
grab the next rocket to outer space to escape total thermonuclear
obliteration. Why, a lovely condo just north of Wichita! Note
the general store that takes credit cards, a gun range, various
amusement to prevent boredom, and a medical center for "health
issue," like going completely insane after a few weeks in this
deep burial plot.
https://cavemancircus.com/2021/07/12/inside-a-3m-luxury-doomsday-survival-condo/

10:28 PM  
Anonymous Ziggy Zag said...

Do I detect a slight bit of criticism of America? See this six minutes
to decide for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDmLVr6AUHs

4:03 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Zig-

Great clip! The bit abt the dentist wanting to be in the same class as a billionaire is something I wish Bill had elaborated on. Because it's not just the elite douchebags, whom he mocks, who enjoy being rich. Rather, that's what *every* American (=douchebag) aspires to! It's fundamentally what this country is all abt, as Thos Jefferson told us, and as was realized the yr after this clip, when Trumpalumpi won the election.

mb

8:08 AM  
Anonymous Bullock said...

"The apocalypse, in the end, had turned out to be… boring."

Paul Kingsnorth rewrites the Book of Revelation in his customary inimitable style.

https://unherd.com/2021/07/eco-fascism-is-our-future/

11:09 AM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

Puncture trump with a knitting needle and let all his bilious gas escape and I almost feel sorry for him, bullies after all are thoroughly pathetic in the end (not that he’s finished).

I always have wondered how Kevin McCarthy ever got elected in blue CA, here’s a hint:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/anti-mask-protester-slugs-breast-cancer-patient-outside-los-angeles-hospital/ar-AAMws3D?ocid=mmx

10:56 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Gunnar-

I keep hoping the Pentagon will arm everyone and tell them to just go at it. But since they dismiss me as a crank, what I suggest as Plan B is that everyone punch everybody else. This incident wd seem to be a gd start. As for Trumpi, here are the bare facts: If you want the US to collapse rapidly, you vote for Trumpi. If you prefer a slow collapse, you vote for Schmiden. "No collapse" is not on the ballot.

mb

11:23 PM  
Anonymous Bingo said...

This blog is indeed unique among jewels! Thank you for maintaining it all these years, MB. Although I don’t post as often anymore, I find this blog to be a pleasant sanity check.

Regretfully, I must report that the American Empire Project has gone awfully wrong, and the tail-spin collapse is accelerating. With dementia Joe and cackling Kamala at the buffoon helm, the degenerate American oligarchy is guarantee to run this rusted old Titanic aground in less than 3 years.

As such, I highly recommend that those of you who have the means, try to jump ship as soon as these idiotic covid restrictions are eased. Trust me, there is no hope here anymore. I moved abroad 15 years ago, but about 6 years ago I returned to Florida so my daughter can do some schooling here. We will have to leave America again in 3 years, because this country is completely gone. It’s a goner, baby!

There really is nothing worth saving in this society anymore. It is rotten to the core. Like I said, a goner. But no biggie. Many long gone empires arrived at this point in their history, then vanished, and better people inherited their land. I say we vacate so better people can rebuild here. This land is just too valuable to be inhabited by pot-bellied Netflix-addicted morons. Besides, this nation was built on stolen land from day one, so it’s basically just Karma coming home to roost if you think about it.

RIP, America. You shall not be missed!

Bingo

6:29 AM  
Anonymous Megan said...

Dermot, El Alamein, Dr. Berman,

Thanks for your thoughts on my "great men" post. I certainly agree that Churchill had some pretty unfortunate views on race. However, I don't think the view that he "caused" the Bengal famine is really fair or accurate. Here is an article that lays the issue out pretty thoroughly, much in Churchill's own words and official correspondence:

https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/did-churchill-cause-the-bengal-famine/

I find uncritical Churchill worshippers annoying, so I have no notion of making him out to be anything but what he was. (No one mentioned Gallipoli or the Dresden firebombing. These are other colossal failings on his part.) But I don't want to get too sidetracked arguing about this or that historical figure. I was simply making the more general point that 1) A "great man" (or great woman), can and often does have grave moral failings, yet still remain great in some very real sense. And 2) That the current statue-toppling mania that we are witnessing in America is a definite symptom of nihilistic decadence, and of a dying culture actively cannibalizing itself.

The problem is that there really is no shutoff valve for any of this. We can all agree that getting rid of the odious Nathan Bedford Forrest statue in the Louisiana State House was an excellent idea. (Kind of chilling that it was still there in 2021!) But now that the mob has the taste of blood, I suspect that it won't stop even at Martin Luther King. In any case, is there a better example of the idea that one can have extensive moral failings (in MLK's case, serial adultery and forgery to name just a few.) yet still be unquestionably great?I mean, even Abraham Lincoln was fine with sending the slaves to Liberia, or to not freeing them at all, if that's what it took to preserve the Union. Yet I would still maintain that MLK and Lincoln are two of the greatest human beings to have ever lived.

6:49 AM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

Exhibit 1)

New mural aims to bring representation for black youth in Burlington

"Hopefully this mural sheds light on the fact that black youth are here, are visible, are seen and are appreciated."

https://www.mynbc5.com/article/new-mural-aims-to-bring-representation-for-black-youth-in-burlington/37117774

Exhibit 2)

New data shows Burlington police used force against Black individuals at record rate in 2020

https://vtdigger.org/2020/12/18/new-data-shows-burlington-police-used-force-against-black-individuals-at-record-rate-in-2020/


7:00 AM  
Anonymous down we go said...

MSM continues to gush over Bezos's act of self-glorification and the claim that privately funded space travel will somehow magically benefit all of humanity. A more accurate term for American media is "Capitalist Propaganda Machine" (CPM).

https://fair.org/home/gushing-coverage-of-the-billionaires-space-race/

With tongue firmly in cheek: "Now that billionaires can go on joy rides into space, we’re apparently one step closer to solving the climate crisis, wealth disparities, worker exploitation, human slavery, mass starvation, access to clean water, state violence and all of the other structural inequities that plague society."

8:58 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

down and Dan D-

Just more evidence that the American people don't know shit from Shinola. It all takes me back to 1962, and Daniel Boorstin's concept of the "pseudo-event." And since (as Gore Vidal once said) Americans never learn anything, we just keep doing the same ol' Shinola, and think it's real.

Megan-

Well, other Wafers may agree or disagree w/u. It's just that yr original examples were kinda shaky or ambiguous, imo opinion, and many wd dispute yr defense of Churchill re: Bengal. (Yr on safer ground w/MLK and Lincoln.) Re: yr pt #1, I wd hafta say that it depends on how great these moral failings were. I don't think yr pt can be made into some kind of general rule. I do agree w/yr pt #2, however. The American people have no sense of limits, and once they get on a self-righteous jag, there's no stopping them. It's just more confusion of substance w/shadow. "Nihilistic decadence" is w/o doubt our current reality.

Bingo-

Gd to have you back. 2 obvious facts: one, other blogs are a total waste of time; and two, the US is certainly getting its karma. As for 3 yrs: my bet has always been on the year 2030, as the process of our disintegration relentlessly continues. But of course, things will definitely accelerate if Trumpaloni is reelected in 2024. I think it's safe to say that he is clinically insane, as are the bubbas and the Karens. As for the progs: the worst case of shit-for-brains in the history of the world.

mb

10:11 AM  
Anonymous MikeStanley said...

Megan I think Lincoln was the original American crony capitalist and an extreme traitor not unlike the people tearing down statues and destroying the country so that they can rebuild in their image. And where is there evidence diversity works? As Berman has mentioned the South has had some good qualities in their culture unlike the North and at that time of the war slavery and share-cropping was largely de-commissioned due to the cotton gin. Anyway, aspects of the War of Northern Aggression show that America and the South never recovered from Lincoln's take-over. Erasing the memory of that struggle invalidates the sacrifice of brave people and their suffering, the scorched earth policy, the carpet beggars, other state sponsored looting, etc.

The South was grossly under-financed which N. Bedford a millionaire privately financed to protect their states. Bedford was a millionaire from merchant activities such as the resale of slaves already made slaves by other merchants. Anyway, he financed his troops, killed about 30 men in hand to hand combat, and had more than 20 horses shot out from under him. Once he put a man on a horse with one arm as a shield after being shot in the arm but all you hear about is Fort Pillow. Of course Hollywood in a conquered country will never tell his story of courage and also valor. So who are you to say that his memory or Lee's should be erased? Churchill like Lincoln was also a traitor to the European tradition - in debt to bankers so owned and controlled by them which is why he declined a peace deal from Hitler who some see as a maligned and honorable man trying to protect German tradition and interests now a country completely destroyed and in the process of being "rebuilt" in the conquerors image.


10:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wafers:

Help me please with the mental gymnastics if you'd be so kind:

The Empire™ is a cesspool of unimaginable depths EXCEPT the injectable Empire Juice developed
by said Empire™ last year. That's legit. And we should trust Empire™ completely in this instance?

I'm dizzy trying to make the connection. I will sit down now. Thank you for any help.

10:59 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

RCTD-

A link? A reference?

Mike-

We're not big on the broadcasting of opinions here. Anyone can have an opinion, after all. You need evidence for yr views, i.e. more refs than 'Berman' (Mr. Berman, in future, por favor). Lincoln was certainly a capitalist, in the mold of the American Dream; but 'crony' and 'traitor' are way off-base. As for Hitler being 'honorable': including the Holocaust? It's OK to 'invalidate' 6 million Jews? If that's truly yr view, you really need to find another blog. I don't entertain that sort of antisemitic crap on this one.

Who exactly 'conquered' Hollywood?
Did Hitler's supposed protection of German tradition include Heinrich Heine and other great Jewish poets and writers?
And note that in WAF ch. 4 I come down on the side that believes the Civil War was necessary to root out slavery.

mb

11:34 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

And as we wind down another week here in our Dysfunctional States of America, let’s enjoy some more funny Karens. Let’s also get some good hearty laughs at a few racist Darrens. And let’s enjoy a school board meeting, the audience of which was comprised of “patriots”. LOL.
What a laughable circus the United States is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdff3xHVCgo

p.s. Regarding critical race theory, I am reminded of my history book in Roman Catholic grammar school back in the 1960’s. On the chapter describing Thanksgiving, I vividly can recall seeing a picture of Puritans and Indians seated together at a picnic table conversing and enjoying a good meal. Yep. The old history books certainly shouldn’t be changed. LOL.

1:58 PM  
Blogger moresoma said...

Yes, they really are this dumb.

I Tried to Make Claims About Election Fraud So Preposterous Trump Fans Wouldn’t Believe Me. It Was Impossible.

I was acting as Trump and his minions do: free to say anything, no matter how ridiculous, with no basis in observable fact.

https://theintercept.com/2021/07/21/election-fraud-trump-preposterous/

2:05 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

My history bk was from Hebrew schl, and it showed the Puritans and Indians eating pastrami sandwiches, side of cole slaw w/Russian dressing, dill pickles, and Cel-Ray tonic.

moresoma-

That's nothing. Research done by the staff of the Peoria Trumpet unearthed the fact that Trumpi is a hologram composed of chopped liver, and created by Jewish Space Lasers. Also, that he himself is Jewish, that his bathtub is lined with potato latkes, and that he has a shofar rammed up his ass.

mb

3:18 PM  
Anonymous Ram Gana said...

My own take on COVID vaccination (only as regards my personal choice) is this: the culture is incorrigibly hustling, its fundamental desire to forestall the stalling of the god Economy. More generally, any society in existential despair has an even greater risk of indulging self-destructive mistakes by way of self-deception. This is in large part a function of Hume's incisive observation about the subjugation of reason, but on a grand scale. If you want an excellent primer for understanding how science deceives itself, read the radical thesis that is Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park (and forget the silly movie). All in all, for now I'll take my chances with my own immune system.

But I'm going to continue masking and distancing and isolating while I'm chucking those dice. I'm not an idiot.

4:34 PM  
Anonymous Cosmo Como said...

Rare burst of intelligence by US fascists! They have realized that
advising Americans to NOT get vaccinated is a way of killing them.
This is not very helpful to their image.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/recent-cpac-attendees-celebrated-failure-155302579.html

7:34 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Ram, Cosmo-

At this pt I think we have beaten the subject of vaccines into the ground. Maybe we shd discuss the collapse of the American empire instead. :-)

mb

7:52 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i0-4JAeh0g

https://time.com/5955248/qanon-local-elections/

In the second link, there's a picture that shows some Qnon signs. One sign says "Goddamn Satanic Saturnist wayfair pedophile adrenochrome vampiric draconian reptilian lizards". We used to put people like the person holding that sign in mental wards. Nowadays, in many places, we elect them to public office. Many Qanon candidates are winning local elections, and dozens will run for Congress during the next election cycle, some of which will surely win their respective races just as Marjorie Taylor Greene did. As the Qanon cult grows exponentially like a very aggressive cancer despite big tech's efforts to quash it via censorship, it seems likely the Republican Party will officially endorse the Q-anon madness within a decade. If this happens, I think the results would be a declinist's dream.

Could Qanon be what finally destroys America? I hope many on this blog chime in and offer their thoughts. However, I do think one thing is certain: if Qanon destroys America, it will be the strangest denouement of any civilization in all of human history. Dr. Berman's phrase "frivolous clowns" comes to mind.

8:21 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

Arnold Toynbee studied numerous civilizations, their rise and fall. Not a single one of them died of buffoonery. Son of a bitch, we *are* exceptional!

mb

9:19 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

My exchange w/MikeStanley pulled a few antisemitic trollfoons (Nazi sympathizers) out of the woodwork. Of course, it doesn't bother them that I delete their posts w/o rdg them, but then we're not talking abt the creme de la creme of American intelligence. I got a kick outta his ref to Hollywood being 'conquered'. I assume he means by Jews. Wh/is funny, because I never realized that Martin Scorsese, John Huston, Tom Hanks, and Robt DeNiro were Jewish! Live and learn, I guess. Anyway, I suspect more neo-Nazis will be checking in.

mb

10:54 PM  
Anonymous Rollo Dice said...

This is just one large city and it has seventy thousand lost souls
of no economic value to society. Total homeless in all of the US
has uncertain figures--maybe 500,000, but finding the total is not
easy because many are invisible. Contrast their plight to all the
fun and comforts offered in the world of consumption.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRVYI_fAHHs

11:24 PM  
Blogger alex carter said...

Joe - Karens are funny, but wait'll you discover "Sovereign Citizens" AKA "SovCits" they're great fun, a sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwE5rz76f_g

MB - Nazis are ... dumb. Humans are really genetically homogeneous. Any differences are at the cultural level. The US's failures are proof of this: The Calvinist hustling culture, the emphasis placed on material goods, the central idea of expand-or-die etc., all unquestioned beliefs. Making the US all-white and all-Puritan would make it far worse and that's really saying something.

I've been out playing my trumpet and doing pretty well, and there are some literal "expand or die" types out there. How do their ankles take it? Where in the world do they get clothes that fit? As they waddle by, they never tip - that's precious donut money right there.

12:27 AM  
Blogger Penny Lane said...

Greets Dr. B! Speaking of decline, some Aussies want to know what’s wrong with our POTUS.

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


12:33 AM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

@ Nadine not only in mental wards but every word of that wld have been written in shit on the day room wall.

I say we give uncle Joe a break, it wasnt so long ago they used his head as a battering ram to smash down the white house gate.

12:49 AM  
Blogger Jack Lattemann said...

A friend and former co-worker sent me an email with the following two links to essays speculating on the trajectory of the breakup of U-S-A! U-S-A! I’m always surprised when someone I know with whom I have not discussed Wafer topics very much in depth brings up topics like secession. I have difficulty personally imagining the states of OR and WA joining the messy political cauldron that is CA, even if new political divisions were created within existing states as the author suggests; my observation is that a stronger history of interaction exists between OR and WA. Interestingly, the author mentions 2030 in the title of his speculation on the formation of “Pacific America”, which he sees taking off after the Trumphreich inauguration of 2025. And how might a breakup affect our Cascadian neighbors in British Columbia, Canada? Whatever one thinks of the imagined timelines and institutional arrangements, clearly something different is in the air besides the “We are in this all together” of Biden Our Time (TM).

https://andrewmtanner.medium.com/fourth-america-is-almost-over-americans-want-a-divorce-9367a5d50df7

https://andrewmtanner.medium.com/pacific-america-rising-the-view-from-2030-80c15624a8c5

10:47 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jack-

My experience of Cal is a bit dated, but I do remember, in the 70s, a movement to break the state in 2, w/the Northern half to be called Alta California. Also check out Callenbach's "Ecotopia," if u haven't already.

mb

12:39 PM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

I'm currently reading Coming to Our Senses. I wish I'd have come across it back in the '90s, while I was writing my MA thesis on the validity of using literature to construct social history. The idea of the history of the body that's discussed in the third chapter would have added another dimension to what I was doing, which was essentially trying to show that fiction contributes to the history of "exoskeletons."

I was pleased to see a mention of Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie right after the somatic history section. A few years ago I managed to visit Montaillou (I read the book for a Medieval history class). There isn't much to see there, other than a couple of walls of Béatrice de Planisoles castle. I picked a flower from beside one wall and when I got back home I stuck it inside the pages of my copy of Montaillou, where it's been for about 15 years.

1:17 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

al-

One of my best bks, imo. It still holds up after all these yrs (I think).

mb

2:29 PM  
Blogger Cj said...

Hi Professor, hope all is well. You may find the following of interest. An analyst with KPMG did an update to the MIT Limits to Growth published by the Club of Rome and it's not a pretty picture.

Her research indicates terminal decline of economic growth within the coming decade—and at worst,societal collapse by around 2040.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/25/gaya-herrington-mit-study-the-limits-to-growth

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xw3x/new-research-vindicates-1972-mit-prediction-that-society-will-collapse-soon

https://advisory.kpmg.us/content/dam/advisory/en/pdfs/2021/yale-publication.pdf

Everything is fine here in Cascade Locks, Or. No big fires in this area-yet.

Regards,
Chuck

2:56 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Chuck-

Gd hearing from ya. As for the Limits update, yes, I read it a few yrs ago. Interesting how US economists were so enraged by it in 1972, they called it "a piece of impudent nonsense," etc. For more on this, check out my chapter on Gramsci in "Genio," and also the stuff on the Frontier Thesis in QOV. Americans are so fucked up; even mention the word 'limits' and they go into a rage. This is karma in spades.

mb

3:41 PM  
Anonymous El Alamein said...

Megan - I agree that certain historical figures had such a significant positive impact on history that some of their failings can be brushed aside. I don't agree that Robert E Lee is one of them, as I don't see him being much of a positive figure at all. While I found your specific defense of Jefferson rather weak, the debate around him is one more worth having. I would acknowledge, as Dr. Berman has, that America spreading the idea of democracy has been positive [despite her myriad failures to live up to the principle], and Jefferson certainly had a central role ideologically in the concept of universal self-government as a necessity.

Speaking of evidence to back up claims, I saw somebody here assert that slavery was "being decommissioned" in the years leading up to the Civil War when in fact the slave population in 1860 was at its height and had never stopped increasing. This, according to the US Census Bureau [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1010169/black-and-slave-population-us-1790-1880/].

It is really too bad that Dr. Berman's arguments about antebellum Southern culture having some merits attracts unregenerate neoconfederate Holocaust deniers. There are much more interesting debates to be had on the topic. To that end, I submit a 1980 essay from Virginia Quarterly Review on John Crowe Ransom and the Agrarianism movement https://www.vqronline.org/essay/i%E2%80%99ll-take-my-stand-relevance-agrarian-vision

5:40 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Might this have something to do w/the fact that they are serving a genocidal war machine run by a plutocracy and cheered on by morons?:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/26/defense-secretary-concerned-rise-suicides-us-troops

7:50 PM  
Blogger taylor1956 said...

Having recently taken an American History course on the Revolutionary War era, I naively thought there might be some substrate of freedom, justice and liberty that some on the left say was a theme in that era. But behind all the stirring slogans was merely the endless ching-ching of the cash register. There is no Golden Age when things were different in this country. What's happening now is that the rotted flesh is showing through the thickly dabbed grease paint that can no longer stay in place.

10:38 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

taylor-

I'm curious as to where you took this course, and what the textbks for it were.

mb

11:02 PM  
Blogger Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWl7njLlXLU

There's a new movement among young Chinese people called "tangping", which means "lying flat" or "doing nothing". People in this movement work only as hard as they have to, eat basic foods, live frugally, care about their physical and mental health, and refuse to join the rat race. It's clearly a rebellion against hustling, but also a rational response to the skyrocketing prices and ever-intensifying rat race plaguing China these days. Pretty unexpected in a hyper-competitive, hyper-capitalist, hyper-authoritarian places like China, although it could be argued that burnout followed by rebellion is inevitable when you hustle that mercilessly.

Of course, the CCP quickly scrubbed the internet of all tangping posts, and officially condemned the movement on national television. I worry the CCP will put these Wafer-ish people in labor camps for the terrible crime of wanting a healthy work/life balance. If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that the CCP will do absolutely anything it can to increase China's competitiveness and capacity for world domination. Just ask the Uyghurs.

3:21 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

Also ask the Falun Gong, who were tortured for practicing yoga. And see my Preface to the Chinese edition of WAF (floating on the Web somewhere), wh/claims that China is basically the US in Mandarin. In Japan, 'tangping' takes the form of the hikikomori, involving more than a million Japanese youths (discussed in NB).

mb

4:59 AM  
Anonymous Birney Zouave said...

Dr. B-

Today (July 27) is the 68th anniversary of the signing of the Korean War armistice-

https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/south-korea-north-korea-resume-communication-amid-diplomatic-stalemate-with-us/ar-AAMBKOO

6:20 AM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

"Short of a sudden and widespread popular revolt, which does not seem likely, the death spiral appears unstoppable, meaning the United States as we know it will no longer exist within a decade, or at most, two."

Some guy named Hedges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXYsGuBdzM4

11:41 AM  
Blogger Penny Lane said...

Hi All,

A piece of Wafer-style analysis from a "scholar of political thought and American character studies" called "Americans Hate Each Other: It's time to embrace what that means for the country's future."

Spoiler - it means "welcome to Peron's Argentina" for those of us who are trying to plan.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/putnam-lind-duncan-moench

12:41 PM  
Anonymous Anjin-san said...

Umair Haque following in your footsteps:

"America’s a pathologically unhealthy place to be, to live, to exist."

https://eand.co/how-bad-is-american-life-americans-dont-even-have-friends-anymore-827fe75f121c

12:44 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

al-

What, no revolution? Did Hedges finally wake up? Are miracles still possible in this day and age? Maybe he's been following me around w/a notepad for the last 20 yrs (scary thought). I guess now he can tell everyone: "See? Just as I predicted all along!" What a con artist. The only positive thing abt the gd reverend is that for the most part, he doesn't have a public platform anymore, and is out of the public eye.

Penny, Anjin-

I read an article online today about how casual exchanges, i.e. w/people you don't know or know very slightly, is impt for mental health. This partly explains why Americans are nuts. In Mexico, this kind of thing goes on constantly. You leave a restaurant, you say to other diners, "buen provecho." You leave an elevator, you say to those around you, "con permiso". Etc. The message constantly being flashed is: We are all in this together. In America, we ignore everyone else; the message is: Every man for himself. This is why public life in Mexico is so gracious, and in the US, so sick.

mb



1:08 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers!

Haven Shank, a 26-year-old corrections officer, is charged w/engaging in intercourse w/a prisoner. Haven ultimately became pregnant. Gee, what a shock!:

https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/courts/corrections-officer-charged-for-sexual-contact-with-offender/article_ba753ade-eee4-11eb-8766-a31acec85932.html

Two questions for MB and Wafers:

1. When did all this foolishness begin?
2. Who names their kid Haven?

Toodles,

Miles

1:40 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

El Al-

You didn't wait 24 hrs, and yr post far exceeded the half-pg-max limit. Just so you know: folks who keep violating the rules eventually wind up being excluded from the blog.

Jeff-

Gd questions. Chrystal Walraven had 5 kids; I don't know their names. But if she named one of them Haven, then s/he would be Haven Walraven.

mb



3:12 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

fyi:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Hale_(intelligence_analyst)

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/27/us/atlanta-spa-shooting-plea/index.html

3:23 PM  
Blogger Quercus said...

Regarding the Korean War, what are some good books on the subject? It seems to remain in the shadows, unlike the Vietnam War which has had much public discussion.

One hears about the potential use of nuclear weapons, terrible winter fighting, huge civilian casualties, and eventual stalemate. It was a real part of the early Cold War, but what really happened? And why has it been "forgotten"?

Book recommendations & references appreciated.

Quercus

5:54 PM  
Blogger alex carter said...

Jack Lattemann - The West Coast breaking off sounds great to me until I ponder that California gave the US not only Nixon and Reagan but "Terrible Tommy" Metzger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Metzger and many others, and once you're outside the cities in California you might as well be in rural Mississippi.

MB - The Moench article is brilliant. The Haque article is behind an "establish an account" wall.

The Falun Gong are not just a bunch of peaceful yoga practitioners. They put a tremendous amount of money into the Trump campaign, publish that horrible rag "The Epoch Times", are anti-vax, and can be seen as good only through a doctrinaire declinist lens.

7:07 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

alex-

Where is yr proof re: Falun Gong? Also, I'm talking abt the F.G. of yrs past, not recent developments (if they are indeed true). No evidence = no-no, on this blog.

Quercus-

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/08/world/us-papers-tell-of-53-policy-to-use-a-bomb-in-korea.html

mb

7:32 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

Dear Dr. Berman, please use this copy. Thank you.

This WAS the US empire. "People" with no souls do this:

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/07/27/3-arrested-in-attack-of-kitten-with-pellet-gun/

Could the 1000+ overseas US military bases and $700,000,000,000+ p.a. spent on war mongering w/ a heaping helping of a profoundly stupid populace likely contribute to animal torture/cruelty? Likely, perhaps. The US was vicious, vile, and enjoyed being stupid--they wore it as a badge of honor); their only "value" system was money and torture.

How can ANYONE in this day and age immigrate to the US empire unless they're brain damaged or brain dead.

.

8:31 PM  
Anonymous The Flabster said...

Alex Carter is correct about the leaders of Falun Gong being involved with the newspaper the epoch times:

John Tang, an Atlanta based follower of Falun Gong, founded the paper. It is an odd mix of regular news and bonkers paranoia conspiracy theories.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/617645/

8:59 PM  
Anonymous Terry Date said...

What is "Justice?"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/daniel-hale-drone-leak-sentence/2021/07/27/7bb46dd6-ee14-11eb-bf80-e3877d9c5f06_story.html

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/26/lawyer-steven-donziger-guilty-chevron

9:42 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Terry-

On Hale, see my wiki post, above.

Flab-

Thank you. Problem is, all of this (as far as I can make out) is fairly recent. I don't think it applies to F.G. in the early days, when the Chinese govt was torturing them (this included vivasection, including removal of eyes).

Dr. Shit-

Check out faces of these 3 people. Brr. As for immigration: Mexicans, for example, cross the border, find work, and send the money back home. Their brains are fine.

mb

10:05 PM  
Anonymous Ram Gana said...

MB

Apologies. As usual, I get to the party just a little too late. It's just that, as I couldn't find anyone else invoking the nexus of Hume and complexity theory, I was honestly hoping to get a little feedback. Please do take note that I am no longer invoking the "v" word. ;)

10:23 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Ram-

Herewith, some feedback:

Hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare. Hare krishna...

My hair like Jesus wore it
Hallelujah I adore it...

mb

11:05 PM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

Wafer Dr. Shithole, "How can ANYONE in this day and age immigrate to the US empire unless they're brain damaged or brain dead."

Agree, we ask ourselves that question quite often as we prepare our escape. Mexicans are predominately migrant workers (not immigrants per se) in that regard--the ones coming to the US for work and sending money back to family. Good people-vous culture.

In our experience, the Chicanos, (Americanized-Mexicans, Cally Mexicans) are a completely different 'breed' of individuals. Many are greedy, selfish, love money, status, obnoxiously loud 'ricer-cars,' little-no manners, US-ian attitudes, etc...They are just as hustlers and hucksters as USian WASPS and others. They see the US=money and that's it. Animal torture stories don't resonate with them or others, as outta sight, outta mind, nor can they connect the dots as to the bigger picture.

10:43 AM  
Anonymous Arnie_Toynbee said...

Hello MB and Wafers,

A great article here by Tom Engelhardt on the collapsing America Empire, examined in the context of the massive failure that was the "Global War On Terror."

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/america-isnt-back/

- Arnie

12:58 PM  
Anonymous El Alamein said...

Dr. B - Please accept my apology. My sense of time is screwed up from virtual meetings with European/Asian time zones [part of my "exit strategy" to get transferred overseas]. I will do better.

Anyway, Glans' comments reminds me of the earlier discussion on Randolph Bourne. He had hoped that German/Polish/Bohemian etc. immigrants would leave a cultural imprint on the US and thereby temper the worst instincts of Anglo hustling culture. Needless to say, didn't happen. And the assimilation to these values seems to be happening even faster nowadays.

There was an excellent book several years back about how the same immigrants Bourne described, after facing widespread discrimination both economically and socially, "became white" http://www.davidroediger.org/books/working-toward-whiteness.html . Like our blog's proprietor has always said, the American mass has by and large aspired to nothing else but joining the elite.

1:29 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

Well, it certainly appears that the civil war redux in America is now raging on the Covid front. 450 days in, and we now have the Delta variant flaring throughout the nation driving a stark increase in daily case counts. Tempers are also flaring between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated as well. According to the CDC, the possibility of even more variants that could *evade* the vaccine altogether are right around the corner. What's gonna happen when that occurs? Of course, affixing blame toward the unvaccinated will surely *not* fix the surge of the Delta variant, nor will it mitigate the divisions that are essentially ripping the country apart. I believe this new Delta variant and others in the future will ultimately cultivate more division between Americans. In addition, the idea that political identity and division would become less relevant as the crisis wore on is proving to be totally untrue. Jesus, we're the dumbest civilization in history. And, yes, you may quote me on that!

Miles

2:54 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

I'll be sure to quote you. This business of virus mutations is one reason why I've held off on getting vaccinated. Almost daily, there are articles on how Pfizer lasts only 6 mos., how yr going to need multiple shots, people getting blood clots, actual deaths from the vaccines, and on and on. What I think is likely is that we have entered a permanent condition of pandemics. After Delta, there will be Epsilon, then Zeta, and so on. Vaccines will become bi-monthly events, with new mutations outflanking them. After a while, many will come to the obvious conclusion: why bother? Of course, the bubbas think it's a communist conspiracy; wh/foolishness will contribute to the national collapse.

El Al-

I appreciate yr keeping it down to half a pg, as well.

Arnie-

Gd essay. While the turkeys gobble, America goes down the toilet. Note that yr namesake observed that in the dying yrs of any civilization, that civilization will do exactly the wrong things: i.e., it will accelerate its decline by continuing to do precisely what fucked things up in the first place. It will definitely not do the intelligent, opposite thing.

mb

3:32 PM  
Anonymous Alicia said...

Are We All Getting More Depressed?: A New Study Analyzing 14 Million Books, Written Over 160 Years, Finds the Language of Depression Steadily Rising https://www.openculture.com/2021/07/are-we-all-getting-more-depressed.html

4:05 PM  
Anonymous Golf Pro said...

Swedish intellectual Malcolm Kyuyure has an intruiguing essay here on how Wokeism and Critical Race Theory is essentially a ruling class hustle:

https://tinkzorg.wordpress.com/2021/07/09/send-them-back-your-fierce-defiance-stamp-upon-the-cursed-alliance/

4:34 PM  
Blogger Michael Burgess said...

Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:

A nice, cheery article on how climate change is affecting the world - with source references embedded in the text) from Counterpunch. Do I see any possibility of sweeping action to deal with this predicament except perhaps in a piecemeal way? NO!

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/07/28/apocalypse/

6:04 PM  
Anonymous FerQ said...

To Glans Butterowrth-

About what you posted about Americanized Mexicans, that is true, I have been living in Tijuana for 2 yrs and there are many deportees that have arrived from the US. Although they are ethnically and legally Mexican, many of them were taken to the US at a very early age and they lived almost their entire lives there, they went to schools there and as a result their mentality, values and behavior are completely American and they are completely different from the Mexicans in Mexico. The description you gave describes them perfectly and unfortunately the environment in Tijuana seems more like that of a US city than a Mexican city. The deportees might not be the only cause for this and it is likely there are other reasons as well. Geography is another reason being that Tijuana is right on the border with California. I came here looking for employment and educational opportunities but I am relocating, this time I am going back to southern Mexico or maybe even Mexico City. I wish you luck on your escape from the hell-hole that is the US.

8:01 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Fer-

Check out the essay "McFarland, USA," in AWTY.

mb

8:05 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

One of the great douchebags of our time:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/28/jared-kushner-donald-trump-investment-firm-politics

8:14 PM  
Anonymous Tybee said...

John Gray on The West, Russia and China for The NewStatesman: https://www.newstatesman.com/world/asia/2021/07/west-isn-t-dying-its-ideas-live-china

6:29 AM  
Anonymous down we go said...

Rod Serling was more than a great storyteller. He was also a deft critic of American culture.

In the 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone entitled "I Dream of Genie", a lowly office clerk unknowingly buys an oil lamp that contains a genie. The clerk is granted 1 wish instead of the usual 3. To help him decide, he imagines 3 scenarios. In one he sees himself as a wealthy tycoon. In a conversation with his accountant the clerk is advised to buy a new yacht to decrease the amount of cash he holds. In reply, clerk says: "I think I'll quit buying things". To which the accountant replies: "That's subversive sir." I beg your pardon". "That's unamerican, sir. Salesmanship is our way of life. You can't stop buying. Buying is your destiny. Do your duty."

America in a nutshell.

7:10 AM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." - Isaac Asimov

This is a brilliant, accurate, Wafer-ish statement if ever there was one. It sounds like Asimov had no hope for America due to the willful ignorance of its people. Was Asimov one of America's great thinkers? I don't know if he wrote any books on America's decadence and stupidity, but I do know he wrote more than 500 books, most of which were nonfiction:

https://asimov.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Books_by_Isaac_Asimov

8:31 AM  
Anonymous Stoller said...

Ancient Gilgamesh tablet seized from Hobby Lobby by US authorities

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/28/ancient-gilgamesh-tablet-seized-from-hobby-lobby-by-us-authorities?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1

How dumb can this country get?

9:17 AM  
Anonymous Shane's Handle said...

New Zealand rated best place to survive global societal collapse

Study citing ‘perilous state’ of industrial civilisation ranks temperate islands top for resilience

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/28/new-zealand-rated-best-place-to-survive-global-societal-collapse

9:34 AM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

A discussion about this might be going off on a tangent, but...

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/07/28/jackie-mason-comedian-and-the-evil-that-men-sic-do/

I think Mason's comedy is hilarious, but I found his views on Israel-Palestine abhorrent. Louis-Ferdinand Celine is one of the most brilliant writers I've encountered, but he was a Nazi supporter and an antisemite. By all accounts, Ted Nugent is a loathsome human being, but his "Double Live Gonzo" is one of my favourite records. (Adolf Hitler was horrible, and Mein Kampf is boring and unreadable. Sometimes it works out OK.)

I once had a discussion on a prog site where I pointed out that I like Rush even though they are Ayn Rand disciples. The progs went into all sorts of contortions to deny Rush's Randiness, rather than accept that they like the art of someone with whom they have political differences.

Can one separate the art from the artist?

10:52 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

al-

Other antisemites: T.S. Eliot, Shakespeare...

mb

10:58 AM  
Blogger Theorist said...

Notice that Sir Jared is taking his cue from countless Ivy League grads and their social network, to simply embark on managing money for rich people as an occupation.

Notice the job reqs here - you must be an Ivy grad to apply:

https://www.indeed.com/q-Grad-Hedge-Fund-l-New-York,-NY-jobs.html?vjk=d56c80287550c8bb

The real billionaires like Gates (and many others without the big charities) bring the entire operation in house and directly employ expansive staff to run investment management operations. Here's a typical job at a so-called "family office"...

https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=family%20office&l=New%20York%2C%20NY&vjk=d55f031e489674eb

Deregulation caused enormous growth of hedge funds and other private pooled vehicles, and less money invested in traditional, legitimate businesses.

(Eg) https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/area/workshop/leo/leo19-ewens.pdf

11:24 AM  
Blogger Jack Lattemann said...

Identity politics is well-funded, with female oligarch billionaires French Gates and Scott showing the way. Yes, let’s have female CEOs at private equity firms! Let’s change the “patterns of history” to hatch a feudal dystopia in which both patriarchs and matriarchs will rule over the less worthy of the realm!

https://seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/mackenzie-scott-french-gates-join-to-fund-gender-equality-with-40m-in-awards/

11:41 AM  
Blogger David said...

I would argue America does have a compass but it has always pointed in the direction of $$$. Since money is typically moving in all directions at once the nation has in effect been directionless since birth.

12:34 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

David-

Rt. I shd have said, the US has no *moral* compass.

Theorist-

I hafta repeat myself: in human terms, the elite are trash. For a brilliant elaboration of this: "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie," film by Luis Bunuel.

mb

12:57 PM  
Anonymous Retro said...

Beautiful article on Xunzi by Curie Virág: Rituals create community by translating our love into action – Psyche Magazine

https://psyche.co/ideas/rituals-create-community-by-translating-our-love-into-action

2:30 PM  
Anonymous Smithers said...

China expanding its nuclear capabilities, scientists say

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57995185.amp

Oh that's nice

- Smithers

6:04 PM  
Anonymous Rockwell N. Role said...

Here's a guy who has been hip to the shit for decades. It is time
that he becomes an honorary Wafer. Lots on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM20eUDP6GE

11:30 PM  
Blogger farbror Frej said...

As much as I dislike this so called Karen-behaviour, I also think it's wrong to just laugh at this in a mocking, belittling kind of way. At a certain breaking-point in the near future the guns gonna come out - and Americas killing-spree problem is going to jump up to a new more gender-equal level. Gone are the times of "pet on the head" mocking and belittling. I'm sure of it.

2:51 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

farbror-

Gender equality for the Boogaloo: who cd quarrel w/it? The thought of buffoonettes on the front lines, guns blazing, excites me no end. BTW, the correct phrase is "*pat* on the head." Go, Karens!

mb

4:04 AM  
Anonymous Bingo said...

Hello Wafers,

I send you greetings from the hell of covid, delta variant. This virus is a complete nightmare, and it has been torturing me and my wife immensely for over a week. Please make sure that you do not catch it -- it is a total nightmare.

I just read a new Escobar article that described the death of the American Empire. Well worth reading.

"Escobar: Requiem For An Empire, A Prequel"

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-requiem-empire-prequel

7:36 AM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

@Smithers- I can't understand why China is building more nuclear weapons. Obama was adamant that we needed to work to a world free of nuclear weapons!!

https://sputniknews.com/us/201604021037376822-obama-nuclear-arsenal/

https://fas.org/blogs/security/2017/01/obama-cuts/

(best as I can tell, they mean that the US dismantled more nuclear weapons than the total of weapons still held by all nuclear powers except Russia) "This means that the Obama administration during its two terms has reduced the US nuclear weapons stockpile by 1,255 weapons compared with the size at the end of the George W. Bush administration – a number greater than the estimated number of warheads in the arsenals of Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, and Pakistan combined."

Oh wait, you think this might be part of China's motivation? A unilateral superpower needs to wake up and smell the new world order growing under its feet.

https://billmoyers.com/story/the-trillion-dollar-question-the-media-have-neglected-to-ask-presidential-candidates/

8:44 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Bingo-

Sorry to hear you are ill. Can you tell us how you managed to contract the virus (insofar as you know), and what you are doing to combat it?

mb

10:16 AM  
Blogger Jack Lattemann said...

Bingo - A Cascadian Wafer greeting and prayer that you and you wife will be better soon.

12:13 PM  
Blogger Christian Schulzke said...

Can one separate the art from the artist?

Yes, and people on my side of the aisle (far Right) do it all the time. Even a Leftwing film maker, for example, can inadvertently make points the Right agrees with. All it takes is dedication to authentically portraying the human condition. Luc Besson and Rainer Werner Fassbinder are two examples.

1:44 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman,
You often have said that the United States always has to be fighting some war, either literally or figuratively. Well, once again, people are starting to heed what you have said on so many things. This is one of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFgiWmzcLZ8

p.s. If I may, what is your opinion on Ralph Nader?

1:45 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

Ralph isn't much in the news anymore, but last time I checked, he wanted to save America. This cannot be done, and it shdn't be done.

mb

2:46 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23KillAllMen2021&lang=en

It looks like radical, man-hating feminism, which began in America, has gone global. Notice how the links shows that women from all over the world are part of the #killallmen movement. Dr. Berman mentioned how America brought wrong values to the world. Well, this movement is a perfect example of those values.

I'm not surprised America created a movement bent on killing off an entire gender. What does surprise me is how many women from other countries have bought into this madness. Apparently, American culture in all its cruelty and depravity is irresistible for many people.

I'm thinking we should put the #killallmen zealots in female-only mental wards. Or is there a better way to deal with this problem? I'd like to know everyone's thoughts.

4:45 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

I think this problem will solve itself. Once all men are dead, the women will proceed to eat each other alive. This is what usually happens, because the impulse to kill will still be alive and well. Once external targets are eliminated, internal enemies are invented so as to serve as an outlet for the kill-desire. Finally, no one will be left. Refs: Mary Douglas, "Purity and Danger"; Norman Cohn, "The Pursuit of the Millennium."

mb

4:54 PM  
Anonymous FerQ said...

To Nadine-

I live in Tijuana and one thing that is very disappointing, sad and alarming is that the females here seem to have adopted that sick and degenerate American ideology of feminism.
Many of them have attitudes of contempt for men and see dating and marriage as something
negative. I noticed in workplaces and in social settings that the males and females don´t actively pursue each other. Of course this might not be too surprising since Tijuana is right on the border with California but I can´t understand why would any women, especially non-American women, would adopt such a sick way of thinking especially something that goes against their own biology.
I don´t care if American women hate their American men, they are all scum anyway, and the world would be better without them but to see that type of sickness and garbage in other cultures is a cause of concern.

8:49 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Fer-

There are things w/in the feminist 'canon' that are worthwhile. For example, the demand for equal pay for equal work; the demand not to be sexually harassed, let alone assaulted or raped; paid maternity leave, day care centers for their kids; having the same opportunities as men to enter the professions, and succeed in them--etc. The problem arises when it spills over into fanaticism. "Surtout, pas trop de zele," said Talleyrand after the Terror (1793-94); Above all, not too much zeal. Note that he didn't say no zeal; he said not too much of it. It's OK for feminists to be dedicated to the above goals; the problem arises when this dedication tips over into rigidity and fundamentalism--a pattern hardly limited to feminism. *Why* this slippage into insanity is something that plagues almost every ism is a crucial question, but that is a discussion for another time. But in my own experience, trying to talk to feminists, Zionists, communists, Trumpites, American patriots, BLM folks, etc. etc. is, for the most part, a bloody waste of time: they are hardly into dialogue. (See my story "The Wire Cage Experiment," in my book "The Heart of the Matter".) Which is a shame, because all of these ideologies have positive aspects (to varying degrees). So while it is true that a lot of feminism is sick and degenerate, we shouldn't tar the entire movement w/the same brush. Some of it, imo, is healthy and necessary. Here's the crucial distinction, wh/I presented in CTOS: An idea is something you have; an ideology is something that has you.

mb

9:46 PM  
Anonymous Cel-Ray Tonic said...

MB wrote, "the women will proceed to eat each other alive".

Interesting because this exactly is happening in my workplace. During the shutdowns and George Floyd (remember him?) the young women and POCI women (people-of-color-indigenous) here pushed very, very hard for reform, change in strategy/language, etc. etc. etc.

Now that more people are back in the office, the older white women that run the place have brought down the hammer: reassignments, demotions, HR directives (our HR director is a black women so they have perfect cover against discrimination lawsuits) ... on and on. It's like lord of the flies, but with all women. For once, being a white guy is good because being already deemed irrelevant except for technical expertise I can escape all this madness. I hate it because the young women, esp the POCI crew have a giant point to make! Damnit. F this country.

11:28 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Cel-Ray-

Impt to keep in mind that all Americans, of all races/religions/colors/genders, are degraded buffoons and will act accordingly. In a word, they'll re-do the Donner Party.

mb

11:49 PM  
Anonymous Nichols said...

Chatwin adored him; they were quite similar in temperament, perhaps....

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/30/roberto-calasso-obituary

I've started re-reading "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony" in remembrance.

My best to the blog,

T. Nichols

2:15 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman,
Check out this informative article. Americans are piling up on ammunition. They’re piling up so much that supplies are low.

https://apnews.com/article/sports-business-health-coronavirus-pandemic-gun-politics-86e61939eb4ae1230e110ed6d7576b70


And as per this snippet in it, shooting is actually considered a sport!


“The U.S. shooting team, which won four medals at the Tokyo Olympics, also had the ammo needed to train thanks to a commitment from sponsors, but membership and junior programs have struggled, said Matt Suggs, chief executive officer for USA Shooting.
The U.S. Biathlon team, training for the 2022 Winter Olympics in February, also has been supplied with ammo from its sponsor, Lapua, made in Finland. But local clubs face shortages, said Max Cobb, president of U.S. Biathlon Association. “

One can only laugh.

2:57 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

I'm still waiting for the Pentagon to issue arms and ammo, and declare a "Kill Free Day." That they haven't yet done this is nothing less than a scandal. I mean, what else is America about, fer chrissakes?

mb

7:19 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

alex-

Cdn't run it. You went on and on w/all sorts of 'facts' and figures, and failed to provide a shred of evidence. That's a big no-no on this blog. Why shd we believe you?

mb

8:36 PM  
Anonymous Wellesz Opus said...

"Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez paid thousands for personal security to a former Blackwater contractor, a review of Federal Election Commission records shows."

https://nypost.com/2021/07/31/aoc-has-spent-thousands-on-personal-security-including-ex-blackwater-contractor/amp/

8:50 PM  
Anonymous Art Baker said...

Crime pays...the wrong people!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNhlXUBNJPE

12:05 AM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

The pictures below encapsulates the US empire pretty well. We see Anglosaxon gluttony, (inc a "Japanese American' who sure loves hot dogs), extraneous/excessive competition, hyper-individualism, greed, and consistent focusing on the wrong things.

"Competitive eating"-how american; next up, competitive flatulence.

https://www.poncacitynews.com/sports/hot-dog-champion-consistent-winner

12:41 AM  
Blogger Sanguillen39 said...

More stupidity and depravity -



https://news.yahoo.com/gang-members-established-autonomous-zone-150229154.html

5:35 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Sang-

Pls send messages to most recent post. No one reads the old stuff. Thank you.

mb

8:13 PM  
Blogger farbror Frej said...

Sometime ago a video was posted comparing Young Trump with the old one. Not that much have changed. Joe Biden 32 years old vs Joe Biden today:

https://youtu.be/yofZtxyjAi8

4:27 PM  

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