Temporary Blog Shutdown April 9-16
As some of you may know, I shall be in NY during that week, participating in the 6th Annual NY Wafer Summit Meeting (6ANYWSM), as well as getting together with old friends. Plus, the mayor will be giving me the key to the city, in addition to assigning the National Guard to protect me from adoring fans. No time for blogging, I fear, so I ask all Wafers and anyone else to please not post during that time. Then as of April 17, we can resume our profound analyses and witty repartee.
posted by Morris Berman at 10:29 PM
186 Comments:
The Wafer Summit sounds like a great time. I just wish my health situation didn't make travel to crowded cities like NYC so taxing. I'll just have to keep on monitoring America's collapse from DC area during that week. Speaking of which:
Celebrity Jeweler Who Gifted Elon Musk $40,000 Ring Winds Up 'Locked Inside His F*cking Tesla.' Sounds like this douchebag got quite a scare--just too bad his Tesla didn't catch like so many of them do.
Man Arrested For ‘Fighting With Himself,’ Pulling Down His Pants At South Jersey Wawa. "Several witnesses told police that Cramer had pulled down his pants, exposed and grabbed his genitals and began yelling obscenities at customers." Place should be called WankWank, amirite?
And my personal favorite: check out this video of a road rage incident in which two douchebaguettes get out of their cars in the middle of a busy Massachusetts highway and start wailing on each other. “They literally stopped right in the middle of 128, a heavily traveled roadway...That could’ve led to a crash or them getting struck.” The police spokesperson says that last part as if it would have been a BAD thing!
Bill-
Modesty aside, the 6ANYWSM bids fair to be the greatest meeting in the history of the world. I find myself repeatedly peeing in my pants, just thinking abt it. It's getting kinda expensive.
As for the guy at Wawa: cd be he was just expressing his feelings abt the US. And for every guy who yanks his organ and yells obscenities, there are probably a thousand who are thinking the same thing. "This country is the wanker, not me," is probably what he was trying to say. Cramer, you da man.
mb
Movie recmdation - big thumbs up to Jeremy Renner and the 2017 movie Wind River, not many stories abt plight/blight on Native "reservations" Netflix:
https://www.google.com/search?q=wind+river&oq=wind&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i60j69i65l2j69i57j35i39.3273j0j4&client=ms-android-huawei-rev1&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Also I discovered a new podcast that, like The Mandibles envisions a second American Civil War that the presenter believes has already begun (God I love this apocalyptic shit) :
https://podtail.com/en/podcast/it-could-happen-here/
The only thing that wld drag me to the 'Whore of Babylon' aka NYC is the 6ANYWSM alas my income is insufficient - will plan on doubling up b4 on antipsychotics and check in on the 17th (gives me 5 days to figure things out) , have a gr8t time y'all.
Speaking of dangerous road incidents, pedestrian deaths in the United States are at a 30-year high. Experts say that the increase is due to distracted driving caused by cell phone use and more Americans buying larger vehicles like SUVs.
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/28/706481382/why-pedestrian-deaths-are-at-a-30-year-high
MB and Wafers: Tom Engelhardt has written a nice piece on the orange bankruptcy king and his ability to beat the odds, and the opposition, again and again. He's well on his way to victory in 2020.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176544/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_donald_trump_naked_as_a_jaybird/
Pete-
Fingers crossed! At this pt the Dems are more of a shit pile than a party. Full steam ahead for Trumpi, and O&D for America.
mb
Re: Tom
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/28/706481382/why-pedestrian-deaths-are-at-a-30-year-high
The insanity of car culture and car-centric urban planning in the US can't be stated enough. It's the most soul sucking and dehumanizing manmade design in the history of mankind. As they said in the article, we design cities for "cars, not people." You can actually stretch that to conclude that the U.S. isn't designed for human beings.
I always knew something was off with our built environment and couldn't figure out why it's loved by so many Americans. Thanks to MB and others, I can now connect the dots. Best of luck to the New Green Deal folks. The turkeys will cling to their cars as much as their guns. Expect more deaths.
Mil-
See DAA, ch. 7, for elaboration.
mb
"Regarding yr take on Rome: any evidence for this?"
Dear Morris, first of all, I kindly refer you to the great historian Geoffrey de ste. Croix and his "Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World". Of course you don't have to limit yourself to this single work of his :)
Regarding "overstretch", I reckon this is something real, but it's more like a symptom, not a cause. This is a kind of expensive investment that is not producing profit now. It was very "profitable" in the past. The world is fed up with the US (and puppets). Just check Rome. Marius quite easily defeated the Cimbri and Teutons. Actually the early empire quite easily defeated a formidable and great enemy, Carthage. It could prevail in the Servile Wars, and in the Social War.
In contrast, the later Empire just couldn't cope, sometimes it had to literally bribe the "barbarians". There were no great technical differences in warfare, and the enemies had the same kind of tactics and equipment. What was the difference? The early empire wasn't smaller, actually it had reached its greatest extent during the Principate, which was still a dynamic era full of developments.
Bal-
Gd to know abt Geoffrey, thank you. I'm wondering what other contemporary historians have written abt this. (I consulted a few for the Twilight bk, but that was in the late 90s.) As for overstretch, it cd easily be both, i.e. symptom and cause.
mb
https://theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/01/saudi-aramco-oil-world-most-profitable-business-apple-exxon
Saudi Oil Company Named World's Most Profitable Business
Happy days.
@Pete Christen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07w9K2XR3f0
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/world/europe/slovakia-election-president.html
This is great and interesting
"Zuzana Caputova Is Elected Slovakia’s First Female President"
this is what Progs focus their energy on:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/apr/02/environmentalists-are-horny-right-now-how-to-make-your-sex-life-more-eco-friendly
Millennial Realist:
The philospher Hubert Dreyfuss gave an interesting talk about the role of religious architecture (temples, churches etc) in 'disclosing' the world's potentiality ("Earth" in Heideggarian terms) to cultures in specific ways. Applying this to The US empire, he remarked that we'd have to conclude that great temple of the US was the interstate highway system. Basically, deities of the USians are disclosed in the form of the automobile.
https://youtu.be/xy07yHAgM4E
Not possessed by it, but Biden *is* a weirdo tho
Hi MB and WAFERS:
I don't read the national news or peruse the Internet for stories, but once in a while a gem is literally laid on my doorstep. This comes from our local newspaper, and I do believe that Cory Favreau belongs in the WAFER Hall of Fame, just like Shaneka, Penny, Lorenzo, Freddy and the rest:
https://www.pressrepublican.com/news/local_news/call-to-police-leads-to-caller-s-arrest/article_5e042c1b-9fca-5823-af57-f588a516dd46.html
The money quote:
"In 2006, he pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and violating a stay-away order from his mother after he struck her on the head with a bottle opener during an argument over an "American Idol" winner."
I have to go into the hospital for a minor surgery on April 5. Barring any complications, I will be at 6ANYWS on the 13th. I can't let a few stitches keep me from the greatest meeting of minds this year to date!
Mike-
Gd luck w/surgery. I have reserved a table at the restaurant for us; I don't know if it will be round, but this will be the most exalted gathering since King Arthur and his knights.
mb
Cormorant -
Great point! And our 'spiritual' High places are the financial buildings and skyscrapers [Here in ATL our tallest is the Bank of America skyscraper. Yuck.] and our only sites of pilgrimage are sports stadiums!
"[Topic: Rome's fate and Geoffrey] I'm wondering what other contemporary historians have written abt this."
When I read your Twilight book (a bit of boot licking :) ) what you wrote about Rome resonated very well with Geoffrey's book I had read years earlier, so I think your sources were up to it. You explicitly mentioned 2000 great landholders who owned much of the arable land from the Atlantic to Mesopotamia, the fact that people often preferred the rule of barbarians, and quite a few similar phenomena. These are sure signals of extremely sick society.
So I checked your sources, particularly Michael Grant and Joseph Tainter. I couldn't find Grant's referenced work ("The Fall of the Roman Empire") but other works of his I could reach were disappointing to me, I found them superficial.
Joseph Tainter's thoughts look extremely similar to mainstream Marxist thoughts, but unfortunately I haven't read his book (yet). I'm pretty sure he's not aware of this similarity, and I don't think increasing investment in complexity is a problem in itself. This is inevitable, the modern world is complex. But (in Marxist terms) the diminishing _return_ on investment in complexity _by_ and _for_ the ruling class is the problem. But anyway, I have yet to read his book.
Bal-
I think Tainter is not really a Marxist; more of a systems analyst, altho he sees the system in exclusively economic terms. There are a # of explanations for the collapse of Rome, including imperial overstretch, spiritual death (Spengler), extremes of rich vs. poor, Tainter's argument, lead in the water supply, etc. I don't find them mutually exclusive, myself; in fact, a convergence of factors seems very likely. Which I think is also going on in the US today. (E.g., Michigan water contamination, "democracy" as an empty slogan, 800 overseas military bases, 4 or 5 Americans own as much as the bottom 50%, and on and on.)
mb
Ouch, this one hits close to home
"Perhaps those who stupidly claim to be “progressive democrats” could explain what the word “progressive” really means to them. It seems that when slave owners sent human beings “down river” to be sold in their beloved capitalist markets in New Orleans they had the same definition of progressive-ness. The power to take advantage of debaucherous situations and make it privately profitable by using words to make it sound like you really do not support what you are repeatedly enabling and reinforcing every four years."
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/02/the-more-effective-evil/
I wish I could make it to the 6ANYWSM. Sounds like a blast, safe travels to all! I am stocked up and Prozac in the meantime as blog shutdowns have caused severe bouts of depression and anxiety for me in the past.
Bradley Bower has caught my attention with his heroic actions and I think he deserves encouragement and praise for his efforts in ridding the world of inconsiderate cashiers. I know Wafers will defend his actions. It was the only reasonable response to such a situation.
"Man chokes cashier for putting chips and canned goods in same grocery bag"
https://globalnews.ca/news/5121210/cashier-choke-chips-canned-goods-same-bag/
Krak-
I myself am horrified that chips and canned gds got put in the same bag. Meanwhile, check out Bower's face, and tell me this isn't America.
The 6ANYWSM is shaping up to be the greatest gathering in the history of the world. Leading lights of the blog will be present; toasts will go out to Bradley Bower, P. Snoots, Lorenzo Riggins, Freddie Wadsworth, Tulsi Gabbard, Brittany Carulli, Chrystal Walraven, Shaneka Torres, et al. De Blasio has arranged for a police cordon to protect the restaurant, and the Army will be out in full force when I touch down at LGA. As that event is only 8 days away, a frenzy has seized millions of New Yorkers, who are now popping Zoloft like candy.
As for those of u who will suffer thru the blog shutdown, I suggest following Krak's lead regarding drugs. Last time there was a shutdown, we had dozens of psychotic episodes. While I realize that suicide is tempting, I suspect that heavy sedation is the better option.
mb
The consensus is building--here's a story from Foreign Policy magazine which confirms it: The American Empire Is the Sick Man of the 21st Century.
This paragraph was of particular interest to me: "The United States is less a great power exerting its will and more an open-air market for global corruption, in which outside powers can purchase influence, shape political outcomes, and play factions against each other in the service of their own competing agendas." Who can doubt this is true in a country whose "leaders" allowed a huge proportion of its manufacturing base to be stripped down and sold off to the power which 25 years ago was recognized as its biggest potential geopolitical rival in the 21st century, while simultaneously destroying working class prosperity and planting the seeds for the rise of authoritarian demagogues?
Also: "To be sure, it isn’t only, or even primarily, foreign money that rules Washington. Powerful corporate interests in general have almost completely crowded out democratic accountability in the capital...America is the sick man of the 21st century, and anyone who has watched its president bumble through a gathering of bemused, pitying world leaders knows it." And the best part is, there are no "We MUST..." recommendations at the end to water this down, as if the author has accepted that such recommendations are futile.
Bill-
Here's the closing para of this article (the MSM is finally catching up with me, 2 decades later):
"So what if the American empire is coming apart at the seams? Good riddance, many would say. U.S. hegemony has been a disaster, spreading war and exploitation around the globe and poisoning the climate beyond repair. And that’s true: As Asimov observed, empires tend to fall because they overextend themselves, spoil their elites, and produce the preconditions for their own demise. But what we’re seeing is neither a considered, responsible withdrawal from empire in order to invest in urgent needs at home nor a revolt against empire by the world’s wretched. Rather, it’s a drawn-out, decadent collapse recognizable to any student of Rome or Constantinople. America is the sick man of the 21st century, and anyone who has watched its president bumble through a gathering of bemused, pitying world leaders knows it."
Good riddance indeed...
mb
ps: Bill:
Thanks for this article. It doesn't get more establishment than "Foreign Policy." Nice to read what I've been saying for the past 20 fucking yrs. He also, as you pt out, offers no solution; and comes pretty close to saying that the US is getting exactly what it deserves (aka karma). A turkey country filled with turkeys rushing toward Thanksgiving. Chop!
mb
ps2: But instead of all that, here is what Americans are concerned about:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/fashion/leggings-notre-dame-controversy.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage
The correct daily headline for the NYT shd be:
AMERICA IS A NATION OF VAPID SHITHEADS
ps3: Dept. of Perfect Symbolism:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/us/bald-eagles-trash-seattle.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage
GO EAGLES!
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Bill-
Dynamite article. It truly is over. Praise the Lord and pass the pastrami.
MB, Wafers-
https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Police-Couple-arrested-for-having-sex-on-Cincinnati-ferris-wheel-507833721.html
Wafer Symposium Ideas:
* Bourgeoise false consciousness and yoga pants
* The dynamic between settler colonialism and ferris wheel sex
* Why progressive reforms to capitalism will be palliative and short lived
* How Russia-Did-It dead-enders mirror end-of-the-world cultists
* Toward an intellectual history of 320 million vapid shitheads
And finally,
* The meaning behind John Lennon's lyric "Always, no, sometimes think it's me"
Miles
Jeff-
Getting very excited over upcoming Summit. Three other possible topics:
-Tulsi Gabbard: The Agony and the Ecstasy
-P. Snoots: The Woman Behind the Myth
-Freddie Wadsworth: Don't Let Him Get Your Goat!
Regarding the article Bill posted: I keep saying that in the US, even the smart are dumb. How is it that only a tiny handful of people realize that we are on the edge of oblivion? But no: the MSM keeps pumping out articles abt "Democratic lineup for 2020," and other useless dogshit.
mb
Hehe.
Bernie Sanders emerges as Donald Trump of the Left
https://www.memeorandum.com/190402/p125
It's all theater, as MB says
Jackson-
Don't forget to include the 327 million morons who think it's real, in the theater.
mb
Goddamn amazing this can happen 'oh(shrug)' I guess if anything travels through their shit for brains it'd be 'they found another one' @ best. Fuckin' guy hadn't been there but 'a couple days' says the man. wtf? 2 days? No special mtg of city council, no public outcry in spite of the fact the city has zero homeless shelter, not even a half-hearted candle light vigil (this happened in the city's showcase Riverwalk). After autopsy I guess he goes on the shelf as another unclaimed cremation urn. Where on the wind went empathy?
https://www.kktv.com/content/news/Body-recovered-from-Pueblo-Riverwalk-508002581.html
Hello all. Long time since I popped by. Great article Bill. Recently finished reading the memoirs of Herbert Hoover based on recommendation of a friend in of all places Guadalajara. I took it from him as in duty bound and dove in. It is surprisingly good and quite interesting. I recommend it. I took away the idea that the germ of American Douchbaggery is a key part of the DNA, also the venerated FDR was it seems a total douche--and hardly surprising the progs like him so much. Moved on to the memoirs of Ulyses S Grant. Say what you will--Grant could write!
Have been doing a bit of my work (psychiatry) in Mexico. Its refreshing that people tend here to want to just get better and enjoy life. In the U.S. I had pill seekers and hustlers of various types and many who wanted a medical basis to sue somebody.
Wish I could join you all in New York.
Wafers-
Check this out:
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/apr/03/now-we-know-where-influencers-spring-from-parents-who-bribe-colleges
This is the para I liked most:
"The twist that interested me is that Loughlin’s daughter, Olivia Jade, is an Instagram influencer. Occasionally, I look at Instagram influencers, flogging hairspray and coffee shakes to their followers, and I think: 'Good Lord, from whence did these shameless shills with no moral compasses spring?' And now we know the answer: from the kind of parents she apparently has."
Problem: "shameless shills with no moral compasses" describes most of the US population. Shouldn't they go to prison as well?
mb
Stand aside, Shaneka, Tationna Thompson has got you beat: Shopper's comment about groceries in Schnucks checkout line leads to shooting outside. Wow, that is one crazy-looking douchebaguette. BTW--store should be called "Schmucks," amirite?
American cruelty writ large: Supreme Court: No Constitutional Guarantee Of “Painless Death” In Executions.
The judicial system inaction: Nobody Will Be Held Responsible For The Massive Texas Biker Shootout That Killed Nine People. Rearm the fucks and get 'em back on their bikes, I say.
American douchebags abroad: American attempted to steal Auschwitz artifact, Polish police say. "...he'll likely face two years probation. Polish authorities allowed the Texas man to return home and said he would not have to return to Poland for court proceedings." Even the Poles don't want our trash.
Bill-
In Yiddish, a schnook is a gullible person, someone easily victimized; a patsy. How a grocery store cd name itself Schnucks is beyond me. But yes, check out Tationna's face, and tell me that this isn't the face of America. Brr. As for the Supreme Court, this decision reflects how deep the poison in the American soul really is. There probably isn't a single institution in the US not marked by fraud, cruelty, and hatred of life.
-Universities: grade inflation and the admissions scandal
-Police: continuing murder of unarmed civilians
-Health care: yikes!
-Military: weekly genocide of women and children in the Middle East
-The EPA: don' make me laugh
-The MSM: censoring any truly serious criticism of the country
-etc.
Wafers are encouraged to add to this list.
mb
Apparently we are on the brink of the year of the lesbian mayor
In 20 years the lesbian mayors will be the old guard... What identity records could be broken next?
Wafers need to campaign for a national movement to demand every politician be under 5'9. Five-nine is the oppression line! This is a joke now but it may be an extremely valuable ideology to develop as the progs are running out of non represented identities.
“Saudi Arabia is within months of completing its first nuclear reactor, new satellite images show, but it has yet to show any readiness to abide by safeguards that would prevent it making a bomb”
https://theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/04/saudi-arabias-first-nuclear-reactor-nearly-finished-sparking-fears-over-safeguards
“80 percent of respondents approve of social credit systems in China, with just 1 percent reporting either strong or moderate disapproval.” What else could they say?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/21/what-do-people-china-think-about-social-credit-monitoring/
I foresee a rough rode in the future
More USian fast "food" pummelings. This one, 'hero' customer confronts another customer/client (independent CONtractor for a food delivery service) from harassing an employee. He then gets the shit beaten out of him.
A happy, american-style ending though. A dentist (with lotsa PR/marketing/publicity) offers to help the 'hero' get a new smile since he has no health coverage.
https://abc7news.com/fremont-man-says-he-was-attacked-by-doordash-worker-at-dennys/5228256/
Exceptionalism...you can taste.
@ Miles Deli RE: Bourgeoise false conciousness and yoga pants:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/10/victorian-values-fitness-organic-wealth-parenthood/
But where is the contemporary William Morris or John Ruskin?
"The sick, greedy, opportunistic culture that games Amazon’s absurdly weak [self-publishing] system." Once again, a tech giant creates a public forum, damaging an old one, then watches as its new service is overwhelmed by garbage:
https://theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/28/plagiarism-book-stuffing-clickfarms-the-rotten-side-of-self-publishing
cor-
It is quite barfy, and I find the yoga pants crowd revolting. Unfortunately, pursuit of status goes back to the late Paleolithic--jewelry, grave goods, location of burial, etc. See my discussion of this in WG. Proust's magnum opus is devoted to showing the vapidity of social climbing and public display. Anyway, with sedentary civ, it got tied to ownership as well.
mb
Speaking of public display:
https://www.instagram.com/ohpolly/p/BvuRoQDpKFx/
#METOO 'dont even think about it motherfucker.'
Here's a song for the summit - shld b blasted from the top of the freedom tower.
https://youtu.be/yjcn_eOAQRg
Anon-
I don't post Anons, sorry. Try again w/a real handle. Thanks.
mb
From the annals of jurisprudence and American criminal behavior, this:
Actresses Lori Laughlin and Felicity Huffman, along with other individuals caught up in the pay to play college admissions scandal, appeared on Wednesday before a federal judge in Boston. A brief summary is contained in the cbsnews website article linked below. Huffman’s husband, actor William Macy, did not accompany her to court; some reporting suggests that they are experiencing marital discord over the whole affair.
Other reporting on the actresses’ court appearance showed that Laughlin was greeted on her departure from court by fans seeking autographs and selfies, while others held signs soliciting Laughlin’s assistance in their college application process.
An interesting wrinkle reveals that one parent in the case has hired former stockbroker Justin Paperny: Paperny served time in prison for fraud and now works with wealthy clients as a “prison consultant.” (No bending over in the shower, that sort of thing, one imagines). Paperny is also in talks with several other defendants.
Paperny told CBS News: "They're scared and it's 'Can I survive in prison? Am I cut out for prison?’ What's most surprising to me about the first conversation is how many of them didn't view their actions as criminal."
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/lori-loughlin-felicity-huffman-court-appearance-admissions-scandal-today-live-updates-parents-head/
Jas-
I think it's Loughlin. Wd love 2c her put in a special prison where the guards pee on her shoes every day for 20 yrs, and where she's never allowed to change her shoes.
Jesus, what trash these millionaires are. Of course most Americans, given the chance, wd do the same thing.
mb
Gotta luv it dept.:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-plans-to-nominate-herman-cain-to-fed-board-aiming-to-add-loyalist-to-independent-central-bank/2019/04/04/8a9bb7a8-56f6-11e9-8ef3-fbd41a2ce4d5_story.html?utm_term=.1ae7af2ba4f1
Didn't Herman Cain quote line from the Pokemon movie or theme song during a speech? I can't remember...
American circus dept.:
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/apr/04/queer-eye-aoc-equality-act-capitol-hill
I actually think I'm in luv w/AOC ;-).
O&D,
Miles
Jeff-
Herman Cain is a moron. Remember the 9-9-9 plan? He's completely brain dead, and therefore an excellent choice for an important govt position. I wd have preferred Laquisha Jones myself, but Herm will do for now. As for AOC, it's kind of a downer that she didn't meet with Laquisha Jones, imo.
mb
Along with the name-brand purses, shoes, cars, etc. one simply MUST have a name-brand university!!! No wardrobe is complete without it. I often wonder -- exactly what are we preparing these kids for anyhow? How many investment bankers do we need? But that said, it's primarily been about your last name for a long time so no big surprise. Just look at the insipid faces of Chelsea, George W., the younger Bushes AND Kennedys and say with a straight face their "merits" landed them a spot. The Obama children will be able to pick their campus too.
And I feel somewhat sorry for these kids too. They're under tremendous pressure to get into the "right" university. Their parents, peers, and school counselors have made it a matter of their personal worth if they're not accepted into Yale, Harvard, Columbia and other ivy leagues.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/45345/watch-chris-rock-was-told-not-joke-about-jussie-amanda-prestigiacomo
WATCH: Chris Rock Was Told NOT To Joke About Jussie Smollett At NAACP Awards. He Did Anyway.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chris-rock-rips-jussie-smollett-naacp-image-awards/
MAN, Chris Rock has always been as sharp as a sociologist in his comedy, imo. Funny, controversial, and TRUE.
Uncomfortable-
I delete hate mail as soon as I realize it's hate mail, so you can keep sending it in if you want, but yr largely wasting yr time; it won't get read. But then, folks like you don't have much going on in yr lives (if you did, you wdn't be sending hate mail), so go ahead, knock yrself out. Will there be a moment for you, when you suddenly realize yr sad and stupid, and living a meaningless life? On yr deathbed, maybe? I'm guessing no. Assholes don't blossom into intelligent human beings.
Susan-
And to top it off, not much real education is going on at those places. The combo of commodification, corporatization, grade inflation, political correctness, and postmodern denial of truth has rendered higher ed a joke. Even Bush Jr. graduated Yale, fer chrissakes, and he's a full-blown dolt.
mb
Marco-
Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8
mb
@Charles--on the other hand, since it is romance novelists who are complaining about lost revenue from Amazon's system, I find it hard to pick a side. The sad fact is 99.9% of what little is published these days that's WORTH reading would never be worth plagiarizing because idiots won't read it.
@James--I'm relieved that Macy seems to have come to his senses. Unlike his wife, that guy actually has talent. I'm going to go watch the original Fargo again in his honor.
@Miles--regarding Cain, my wife knows one of the women who accused him of sexual harassment. She's a pretty hardcore Republican, so I tend to believe her story. Anyway, I saw a great twit today: "If nothing else, I hope it brings a protest from Italy, for the horrible cultural appropriation Cain inflicted on Americans when he launched his pizza business."
Identity Politics for Idiots: black female douchebaguette Stacy Abrams, whom Uncle Joe is thinking about picking early to be his running mate in order to stave off the drubbing he's going to get for how he treated Anita Hill back when, thinks we ought to give him a break for being a creepy old man who should just fuck off and die already. Jeffrey St. Clair says here: "This party is rotten from the penthouse to the sub-basement...." So's America, Jeff, so is America.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/01/the-balkans-are-the-world-capital-of-islamophobia/
The Balkans and Islamophobia
Arnie-
Cdn't run it; a bit too long. We have a half-page-max rule here. Pls compress a bit and re-send. Thank you.
mb
I tried it again. I asked my fellow Facebook interlocutors why the occupation of Germany and Japan after WW too (joke) lasted 8 years and the occupation of the West Bank, which probably doesn't have an escalator, is now in its 51st year. Here's the answer I got: Self-hating Jew, Arab Lover, in need of psychological help, anti-semite, and terrorist. I'm so grateful for their insight.
Dan-
You probably need to find another hobby.
mb
Wafers suffer from an ailment that is rare in America. It has almost been eradicated in the general population, but it lingers in Wafers. Either Wafers have a natural resistance to the immunization program that has been administered in the schools for the past several decades, or they carry a rare gene that manifests itself in a unique form of the ailment, which persists in spite the vast national effort to eradicate it. Wafers suffer from curiosity.
Everyday Objects.
https://www.tiffany.com/accessories/desk/everyday-objects-sterling-silver-tin-can-60559139/?fromGrid=1&origin=browse&trackpdp=bg&tracktile=new|highlight&fromcid=3779727&trackgridpos=16
Pete-
Also dignity, decency, and common courtesy. These have also been eliminated from the general pop.
mb
Wafer Dan: We tried to ask 'provocative' questions to USians. Tried to tease-out knowledge, or a whiff of critical thinking. Cue: hysterical laughter. Like trying to teach a dog to talk. USians are 'jokes dressed up as humans (Berman).'
Other comments directed our way: asshole, arrogant, why don't you love america?, your (their spelling) a know it all, grass is greener, what are you a commie, if you hate america so much why don't you leave?...the last statement was very helpful and pertinent, as we're leaving, permanently. Thanks for the advice USians!
Here's a funny article on the Mueller Report as we all need a laugh:
"So the Mueller report is finally in, and it appears that hundreds of millions of Americans have, once again, been woefully bamboozled. Weird, how this just keeps on happening. At this point, Americans have to be the most frequently woefully bamboozled people in the entire history of woeful bamboozlement. If you didn’t know better, you’d think we were all a bunch of hopelessly credulous imbeciles that you could con into believing almost anything, or that our brains had been bombarded with so much propaganda from the time we were born that we couldn’t really even think anymore."
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/04/no_author/a-russiagate-requiem/
Susan-
Gee, do ya think?
Mike-
That's what they screamed at me when I was demonstrating against the VN war. A few decades later I thought: "They're right!" and I left. Buffoons are apparently useful for something.
mb
Hola MB and Wafers,
A must read for Wafers: "The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Minds of Americans" by Greg Grandin. Seriously, this is Pulitzer finalist material. Like MB points out, Grandin asserts that Trumpism preceded Trump in many ways. In other words, you get an actual Trump when you reach your limit as a nation/empire and hit a wall going 300 miles an hour. In honor of this book, I'm composing a new piano piece: Concerto in A-major disaster.
Miles
Article on how American capitalism is perverting mindfulness and turning it into another corporate technique and self-absorbed hustle. Is there anything that Americans won't turn into a hustle?
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/3/29/18264703/mindfulness-meditation-buddhism-david-forbes
Tom-
Buddhism is susceptible to this kind of thing because of its potential moral neutrality. I discuss this in my Japan bk at some length, esp. in one of the appendices (I forget which). The Japanese used it to promote the war effort; the Americans use it to promote corporate 'spirit'. There is a part of Buddhism that talks abt the interconnection of all living beings, our responsibility to them, and so on; but that can easily get ignored in the rush to war and profit.
mb
Bernie Sanders declines to say when he will release tax returns
https://cnn.com/cnn/2019/04/04/politics/bernie-sanders-tax-returns/index.html
I see the issue bc he only released one year of returns last election. (For 2014). It is weird for someone fighting @ the vanguard for the 99%.
Goethe-
I actually visited yr house in Weimar some yrs ago.
Sanders is a turkey who will crash and burn. As for Biden, am I correct in saying that he's dead meat? Am I also correct in saying that no intelligent person (.00001% of the American public) cd give a shit?
Meanwhile, Tulsi Gabbard edges closer to the White House. Who will be her VP? Chrystal Walraven?
mb
@Tom Servo
Much like the medieval Catholic Church, Buddhist monks and monestaries were shameless in fleecing the peasant and forcing him to join the Buddhist compound as a subordinate initiate. It got to the point that the monks often became the targets of popular uprising. David Graeber makes this point. Buddhism was, in some ways, a paradigm of Scientology-style exploitation of the vulnerable.
Taoism is the really un-American philosophy. Buddhism and Americanism share a goal of nothingness. (Nietzsche implicates Buddhism as well as Christianity in his story of the development of nihilism.) Taoism is like Waferism- funny, non-hierarchical, based on the lived experience and sensibility of the body and not on some 7 step program (8 steps for Buddhism).
Dr. B-
Interesting opinion piece comparing Wagner's "Ring" to the present day.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/arts/music/wagner-ring-cycle-metropolitan-opera.html
Dio-
American nothingness and Buddhist nothingness don' have a whole lot in common; there is Void and there is Void, and confusing the 2 is a major existential error. This is discussed at length in my Japan bk. I also don't think that Buddhism can be tarred w/the same brush as Scientology. It can be used as a con game, for sure, but it isn't inherently a con game, or a nutso philosophy.
mb
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/the-underexamined-factor-in-too-many-police-shootings/
The issues raised in this piece are exactly why the 9th Circuit once had a "provocation rule." Too bad the Supreme Court eradicated it in 2017.
We have so many capital crimes in America now. And so many summary executions.
To serve and protect. (?)
Fleish-
There's going to be a lot more of this as the empire collapses. Finally, w/martial law and curfews, cops will be randomly gunning down anyone they see on the street.
mb
LOL it's news to me Chris hedges has been hosting different interview TV shows for RT and various Internet TV channels. So very, very silly.
ps: This kind of cruelty is increasing on a daily basis:
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-juvenile-hall-officer-pepper-spray-abuse-charges-20190406-story.html
Thoreu Books: ‘Solid Seasons’ explores bond between literary icons Thoreau and Emerson
https://www.providencejournal.com/entertainmentlife/20190404/books-solid-seasons-explores-bond-between-literary-icons-thoreau-and-emerson
Guide to Walden Pond" Connects Thoreau's Writing to the Place He Made Famous
https://www.capeandislands.org/post/guide-walden-pond-connects-thoreaus-writing-place-he-made-famous#stream/0
From the America is so kind department:
Yesterday a black female high school student entered a grocery store, took an ice-cream cone from the freezer, unwrapped it, and ate it. The manager said she had to pay for it first. The girl said her mom was parking the car and would be in shortly to pay for it. The manager said, "Pay for it now or I'm calling 911." I asked how much is it. I was told it's $1.25 so I paid it so the girl wouldn't have to spend the night in jail and have a record following her her entire life. For $1.25 the manager was prepared to call the police-amazing.
Anyone see the campaign ad by Gantz, the general who wants to be the next Israeli PM? It says if elected he'll kill more Palestinians than Netan-Yahoo! So much for "A light unto all nations."
Dan-
American generosity is only 2nd in greatness to Zionist flexibility. But it's not entirely clear why the store manager didn't take out a .357 Magnum and blow the girl away. After all, she was stealing $1.25 in goods.
mb
Cdn't have said it better myself. Oops! I *did!*:
https://eand.co/the-age-of-the-imbecile-c52ee205d94c?gi=39b180e13d1a
Pssst. Hey Mac, wanna buy some malware?
Facebook’s gotcha covered.
“Over the past few months, researchers with Cisco’s Talos security group compiled a list of 74 Facebook groups whose members promised to carry out a variety of unethical, if not outright illegal, activities. Some groups acted as bazaars for the buying, selling, or trading of stolen payment-card data and hacked account credentials. Others served as forums for selling spamming and phishing tools. In all, about 385,000 users were members”
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/04/facebook-is-a-popular-venue-for-selling-all-manner-of-cybercrime-services/
The author of the Ars Technica article noted that the 74 groups in question have since been taken down by Facebook, but a quick search using similar search terms uncovered other groups offering the same “services.”
Hustlers gotta hustle.
Good Morning MB and Wafers
A interesting read on the morally bankrupt and soulless
enterprises operating in the 1% capitalistic crowd of
America. The disclosed reason for their classification of workers
before SEC and regulators is another greed infected hustle and
is currently one of the many ways to achieve the American
Dream at the expense of the other 99%.
https://theintercept.com/2019/04/01/lyft-ipo-gig-economy-labor-law/
Big recommendation:
The documentary film "Iraq: a State of Mind "
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/30/opinion/sunday/jerusalem-city-of-david-israel-dig.html
Phenomenal article on from an archaeology lense about when both sides believe that God/history granted them a deed to the same real estate. Can archaeology settle it?
Everything is a-okay:
Speed Kills: Speed limit increases are killing thousands of Americans, IIHS study finds. Why does the USA Today hate America? Everyone knows that ISIS is the real threat to the homeland.
Fisher-Price warns about Rock ‘n Play after reports of deaths. Ten infants have been killed since 2015, yet the product isn't even being recalled. But remember folks, vaccinations are the REAL danger to children.
Unregulated electric scooters involved in three serious-injury crashes in one San Diego neighborhood in one week. Not only is there no call to ban these scooters, which have become a hazard anywhere Silicone Valley has placed them because the riders obviously receive no safety training, the story blames one of the victims for his own injuries.
And finally, a long read about the environmental devastation in Butte, Montana left by mining interests. Seems there is even a huge and growing sulfuric acid lake strong enough to dissolve metal that kills any animal that comes in contact with it that will eventually spill over into the local aquifer, and then--game's over.
The yoga hustle, the peace on earth hustle, the inner peace hustle, the hustling of the philosophy of non-hustling, etc.:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/style/corepower-yoga-teacher-training.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage
An empty buffoon w/no principles at all lectures Europeans on the imptc of having principles:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/06/barack-obama-progressives-circular-firing-squad-democrats
On the crucial imptc of identity politics, which will clearly change everything:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2019/apr/06/lori-lightfoot-chicago-mayor-criticism-progressive-record
Morris, from the Crooked Timbers. I agreed with you on that (incidentally, the title for Australian economist, John Quiggin's website. On the other hand, I'm starting to think the way Idries Shah described the Sufis. Not everyone gets it, you do as much as you need to do to live without interruption and help people from where they stand.
Neil-
Have you ever tried helping an American?
mb
Groucho Marx on the UK's response to Brexit
https://youtu.be/WmXHLHVTjRc
Related: Brexit Mess Reflects Democracy’s New Era of Tear-It-All-Down
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/world/europe/brexit-theresa-may-democracy-chaos.html
Lou-
That's all well and gd, but at the risk of repeating myself, all you hafta know about it is the following:
Brexit, Schmexit.
Seriously, if all you knew abt Brexit during the past 2 yrs was this phrase, if this was all you cd say abt it, you'd be up on the situation as well as anyone else, including British MP's and Theresa herself. This is NOT an exaggeration. It's all theater, just like the Mueller report. (Mueller, Schmueller)
mb
ps: That NYT article is rt abt the unraveling of democracy, but it's actually a larger unraveling: of the entire postwar econo-political arrangement that was put in place at that time, and that finally issued out in neoliberalism and globalization and a 'unipolar world' that left everyone out in the cold except a tiny superrich elite. How long was *that* going to last? The 99% were not going to eat slogans forever, and Occupy Wall St. was rt in sensing this. Their only problem was that they foolishly thought the revolution against it was going to come from the left, when the reality was that it was coming from the rt. Populism embraces Trump as an answer to the old order; it may eventually embrace Marine Le Pen as an answer to Macron. Merkel has been eclipsed, and May will be. Populism has now seized Italy. And so on. If you want a pretty fair description of what is going on, check out Yeats' poem, "The Second Coming." ("Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold...")
This seems to hit on all the themes discussed here. The article is too short, however. I wish he had expanded on the pieces, but they all relate:
https://drscapegoat.com/death-without-rebirth-and-political-correctness/
https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/07/sex-revolution-my-youth-wasnt-great-maybe-celibacy-sign-progress
"The sex revolution of my youth wasn’t so great. Maybe today’s celibacy is a sign of progress"
Contemporary attitudes to sex did give me pause.
But it turns out St Paul is having the last laugh...
FWIW Kyle Harper's "From Shame to Sin" explains much - that Paul defined the freedom he found in Christ against Roman freedom, which in a slave economy had much to do with who could have whom. He made sexual freedom pagan freedom, not God's - the sense that still haunts Xtianity
@BillHicks I am going to call BS on the speed limit increase kills argument. A friend of mine used to work for VDOT and was one of the people who helped in designing 295. From all the research they had the real issue of driver deaths came from a variety of sources but speed limit qas the scape goat because how important ticketting was for insurance companies, local government, and attorneys.
In fact, 295 was designed around traffic going 90mph and the reality is traffic going slower on those roads makes the roads more dangerous. It also ensures the speed limit is going to be broken which the local counties are aware of and take advantage of by lowering the limit further despite knowing that long straight aways with gentle turns makes people drive faster.
The summation is evem the speeding laws and the advice for speeding safety has nothing to do about safety. Its all about money.
Harkening back to a previous event where poachers were killed and eaten by lions, the wildlife resistance continues:
New York Times: Rhino Poacher Killed by Elephant and Eaten by Lions, Officials Say
Wafers-
I've been re-reading (after 20 or 30 yrs) John le Carre's most famous novel, "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold." Quite a bk. Its major thesis is that the 2 sides in the Cold War are morally equivalent, and that both believe the end justifies the means and act on it. In the end, London is as dark and evil as Moscow, although the bk pointedly skewers the Communist dogma that the state is everything and the individual nothing. A strong subtheme is that spies do what they do because it fills the emptiness in their lives; because they have nothing better to do.“Some people keep canaries, some people join the Party,” says the bk's hero, Alec Leamas. People believe in various things, he says, because they need to believe; the content has no particular value of its own. As for spies, he says that they are nothing more than “a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors too, yes; pansies, sadists and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives.”
mb
This might be of interest. This is an interview about those smug stories we often see on local news. They're sold as "feel good" stories, but expose the harshness of everyday life in America.
"Seven year old boy digs through trash to salvage cans to start saving for college." "Inspiring teen goes back to fast food job wearing neck brace, and arm in sling one day after car accident." "Man walks 12 miles to work each day." "Quadriplegic claims her faith in Jesus helps her get through a 90 hour work week at three jobs and no time for sleep." Ok, I made the last one up, but the rest are listed in the article below.
The author Alan McLeod coins them "perseverance porn." It's great for people who are safe from the bottom of society and view the poor essentially as adorable pets, and these stories justify their fairy tales that anyone can make it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3idFkVHcAw
https://fair.org/home/medias-grim-addiction-to-perseverance-porn/
Onward-
The modern version of Horatio Alger stories, I guess. Altho in a certain way, everything in the US is porn (loosely interpreted). "Despite daily beatings and starvation, blind deaf black woman in wheelchair gets Ph.D. in astrophysics while working 14 hrs/day and raising 8 children by herself."
mb
@Nesim--all due respect to your friend, as someone who was nearly run down while crossing in a crosswalk next to a playground a couple of months ago by a driver in a hurry (he missed me by literally inches, and wasn't even going to slow down until I yelled "asshole!" at him. He stopped briefly, I guess just long enough to see that he hadn't actually injured me, and then kept going), I'm with the study on this one. What really kills is distracted driving and speed variance between vehicles. Increasing the traffic speed increases the latter while giving the idiots less time to react when they pull their eyes away from their screens at the very last second. Best designed roads in the world won't change that, and ours are slowly falling apart. Moreover, it's also notable that the number of highway deaths increased by roughly 20% (over 8,000 deaths per year) in just 2 years in 2015 & 2016 alone.
The bottom line is, Americans in their insane mania to hustle as much as possible are aggressive driving assholes who will let nothing slow them down--not even the carnage on the roadways, and raise hell about "their" tax money being used for public transportation. If lowering speed limits increases the number of tickets, good--fuck 'em. Personally, I'd permanently ban someone from ever driving again for just one speeding ticket. Let 'em take the fucking bus. Maybe then they'll find out how the working poor live and be a tad more empathetic.
Bill-
They wdn't become more empathetic; not even slightly. We're talking abt Americans.
mb
ps: What is America about?
1. Hustling:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/opinion/sunday/tax-day-side-hustle.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
2. Cruelty:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/opinion/kirstjen-nielsen-border-security-trump.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
@Vernon,
I think the author of the article is right about reevaluating the sexual revolution, but from what I have read about the increase in celibacy the trend seems to be another sign of social deterioration. For example, I think the best explanation for the large rise in male celibacy is increased hardship among working-class men. Labor force participation has fallen for young men since the 2008 recession, the year that the big increase in male celibacy started, and there is a connection between labor force participation and stable relationships.
https://pilotonline.com/news/local/health/article_9258b60c-5233-11e9-a392-eb96842d90a8.html
This reminds me of the drop in the divorce rate. It was originally seen as a sign of progress but a closer look revealed that the drop in the divorce rate was limited to relatively affluent Americans and reflected increasing social inequality.
http://time.com/5434949/divorce-rate-children-marriage-benefits/
NBC statement:
Sen. Sanders tells NBCNews he will release tax returns "very, very shortly," but didn't specify exactly when.
In Feb., the senator promised to release them "sooner than later."
Asked why he won't release what he has so far: "We are; not right this minute."
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
Andrew Bacevich may not have wanted Trump as president but he has an appreciation of the rot that has been exposed by Trump's administration - too bad most people couldn't care less.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176548/tomgram%3A_andrew_bacevich%2C_behind_fronds_of_fakery%2C_here%27s_some_real_news/#more
And just when you thought that political, cultural and military collapse is all that is happening, Candida auris (4 super strains that have probably been selected by anti-fungal drugs) might become the first of many plagues that will infect the dying West.
https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/72030/a-drug-resistant-super-fungus-kills-nearly-half-the-people-it-infects--and-it-is-spreading-across.html
May the Wafer gettogether in NYC shake the rotting foundations of America!
Michael-
The fungus cd be a metaphor, as in Camus. Meanwhile, 6ANYWSM is a mere 5 days away. I'm so excited I cd faint. We shall toast (a) P. Snoots (b) the end of empire. It's also appropriate that we are meeting at McDonald's. I hope for their sake that they remember to put bacon on our burgers.
mb
Sexy Beasts : Love it or hate it, Freud’s five-decade-long exploration into the nature and power of human sexuality is something that any philosopher of sex needs to contend with ...
"Philosophy Talks: Sexy Beasts"
https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/sexy-beasts
I know it is popularly thought now that he was a pseudo scientist & fraud [there's even a recent book w such a title] but to me while his particular theories might be unfalsifiable he had great intuition on the human condition and what a great writer!
Extraordinary prospect: a new movie on Seneca's relationship with Nero, with John Malkovich as Seneca!
Looking forward to this project !
https://www.screendaily.com/news/john-malkovich-to-star-as-roman-philosopher-seneca-exclusive-/
Re: 6ANYWSM @ MCDONALDS
Feasting rituals and the cooperation they require are a crucial step toward human civilization
https://phys.org/news/2018-07-feasting-rituals-cooperation-require-crucial.html
I SMELL THE BEGINNINGS OF THE DUAL PROCESS EMPIRE COOKIN
- Bart Jansen
Wafer Onward: Thank you for the 'perseverance porn' us propaganda "news" blasts abt USians workin' hard and harder for that dream, and to reinforce Horatio Alger bullshit.
In most corporations that we worked at, there were marketing depts that had huge font mission statements and aims plastered on all the walls of the offices abt 'hard' work, effort, results, doing alot with little, complete with smiley faces about which person stayed at work the longest to meet the 'metrics,' etc....
Reminds us of the Nazi saying above Auschwitz: Arbeit Macht Frei (work sets you free).
usa, usa.
Sorry, Dr. Berman, cannot attend the Summit, am travelling. Good vibes for a great mtg!
Mike-
We will miss you. It will be the greatest conference in the entire history of the world.
Bart-
I'm only sorry Shaneka Torres cannot attend, and bring her AK-47 with her. Unfortunately, instead of receiving a Presidential Medal, which she richly deserves, she is cruelly incarcerated in Michigan. There is no justice in the world, obviously. Laquisha Jones was hoping to attend, brick in hand, but again...
TJ-
I'm w/u, amigo. I may not be a genius, but I know one when I see one.
mb
Random thought b4 shutdown.
Found myself pondering the bizarre ways christians divide themselves into sects and then sect within sects down to the level of the atom apparently. Take yer pick you want your Jesus Rare (catholics), medium rare (episcopalians), medium (lutheran), or well done (baptist and others)? And that 's just communion. Just to get the table gotta go through some blood letting of y our own.
Will be on the floor in the corner against the walls psychotically sucking my big toe in the dark til blog reopens. ;)
Gunnar-
I'm hoping everyone is stocking up on Zoloft etc. One wk w/o the Greatest Blog on Earth is not an easy ride.
mb
Since no one else has (dared) say it...
Give my regards to Broadway
Remember me to Herald Square.
And stay away from sidewalk frankfurters. Best wishes for a successful summit. Suggest you arrange your seating at the venue so you all have a clear view of—and ready access to—the exit(s) and of the counter (where exciting shit can happen in a nonce.)
It’s a jungle out there.
Jas-
God, that takes me back: the Cornell fight song:
"Give my regards to Davy, Remember me to Tee Fee Crane. Tell all the pikers on the Hill That I'll be back again. Tell them just how I busted Lapping up the high highball. We'll all have drinks at Theodore Zinck's When I get back next fall!"
As for danger at the Summit: De Blasio has assigned the National Guard to cordon off the restaurant. But it's more to protect us from frenzied fans than anything else. And when I touch down at LGA...don't get me started!
mb
Scum of the earth dept.:
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/08/us/felicity-huffman-guilty-admissions/index.html
I suspect these low-lifes, like Huffman and Loughlin, will be able to 'celeb' their way out of jail time and receive very light sentences. And so the courts will reinforce the very privileged behavior these turkeys are guilty of in the 1st place.
mb
I’m reading a popular work about the middle ages called “A World Lit Only by Fire” by William Manchester, and although times are shitty now, they seem to have been 1,000 times worse in the middle ages, and it’s making me glad I’m living through this collapse vs that collapse.
http://1.droppdf.com/files/ztotc/a-world-lit-only-by-fire-the-medieval-min-william-manchester.pdf
jj-
Modernity always gives the M.A. bad press, but Manchester's view is only partially correct. There are lots of takes on the M.A. that are far more nuanced, and there is a rather large biblio on the subject. Check out my Reenchantment bk, for starters. Marc Bloch once said that the test of any civilization was whether it delivered the goods--i.e. happiness--to its citizens, and that there was simply no way, subjectively speaking, to say that a 20thC Paris businessman was happier than a 12thC Provencal peasant. Every civ is a package deal, w/dark and light sides...we have consumer gds, for example, but live in a world w/o meaning. Meaning pervaded the M.A. with a capital M.
mb
Those of you who are continuing to post: DON'T! Blog is closed until April 17. Thank you.
mb
Wafers-
Blog now open for business. Regarding the Wafer Summit, I was expecting just a handful of people, but several hundred showed up. The mayor moved the meeting to Central Park, under a huge tent, and catered the event at the city's expense. He also gave a talk, "Waferdom: Vanguard of the Great Collapse," which was very moving. He then presented me with the key to the city, and said he was looking forward to the next Summit.
Arriba!
mb
Thank goodness we are back up an running, I've been chewing my pencils down to nubs in anticipation.
This article may interest WAFers, but I can't seem to get past the paywall. Maybe one of our UK members will have better luck:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/white-liberals-are-simply-supremacists-by-another-name-m9nhzh58d
Greetings all! And a big 'mi dispiace' (sorry) for not getting to the Summit of the Decade!
I had every intention of going, had the trains planned, but my husband's sister had other plans for us -a surprise party, at exactly the same time as the Summit, and she only told us on Friday. And of course I didn't check my calendar and thought the summit was on Sunday! Sigh. I was bummed. Absolutely would have preferred to be with my fellow Wafers.
But today is the day - one way ticket to Rome. By tomorrow morning, Italy/ Switzerland will be our new home. Hooray!
Glad the blog is back!
Went to three different psyche wards threatening suicide to get enough 96 hour holds to see me through the blog shut down. Clever, eh?
Got three belts, five baskets and a bunch of watercolors for my next garage sale.
Glad to be back!
Welcome back all! We have talked about the downside to green energy on here before, especially the mining, "Take cobalt, which many lithium ion battery manufacturers add to improve energy density. Today, nearly 60 percent of it is sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo, contributing to some of the worst pollution on the planet as mining and smelting cause heavy metals to seep into the air, water and soil. Cobalt mining has also fueled notorious human rights abuses, including relying extensively on child labor and forcing miners to work in incredibly dangerous conditions."
https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-dirty-truth-about-green-batteries-1833922990
I was thinking about this since I heard Bill McKibben on the radio last night talking about his new (sort-of) WAFerian sounding book "Falter". Alas he seemed to think solar power will save the world. Well think again.
Glad to have the greatest blog on earth back!
It seems like the oncoming collapse of the USA is going to be different from the Soviet one from where I'm sitting. But Umair Haque's piece on its similarities does ring true to me.
https://eand.co/how-american-collapse-resembles-soviet-collapse-94773b44fe17
Welcome back to the blog Wafers. Nothing has changed in the land of the craven and the home of the cowards. Monday night, I was watching NBC Nightly News coverage of the Notre Dame fire when they had two brief telephone interviews of eyewitnesses. Do you think they talked to any French people for whom this was a particularly dark day? Of course not, instead it was two different Americans on vacation. The first was some gay guy who made sure to mention it was him and his PARTNER who witnessed the fire--like I give a fuck about his douchebag identity politics. The second was some rich college student who was on a river cruise with her family. Really? Fuck these people. Imagine if on 9/11, Agence France Presse had only interviewed visiting French tourists in New York. Always with this fucking country it's about ME! ME! ME!
Meanwhile, back in USA! USA! a shooting broke out at a baby shower for the second time in a week...while one of our valiant "heroes" in uniform brandished a shotgun at a pregnant woman.
Way I look at it, Assange, Manning and Snowden's biggest mistake was in assuming that if they got the word out about America's many crimes, an outraged public would rise up and they'd be considered heroes. How's that working out?
Good news on the college admissions scandal front:
Felicity Huffman agreed earlier this month that she will plead guilty on 24 May to one count of conspiracy and fraud for paying a consultant $15,000 disguised as a charitable donation to boost her daughter’s SAT score. Prosecutors are expected to request that Huffman serve up to 10 months behind bars.
But Lori Loughlin and her husband have rejected the plea deal they were offered. The deal would have subjected them to sentences of between 18 and 24 months. Now, they roll the dice. On Monday (15 April), the couple plead not guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Each charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. They worked with fake charity hustler Rick Singer to get their daughters admitted to USC as crew recruits, though neither had ever participated in rowing sport.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/17/entertainment/lori-loughlin-not-guilty-no-choice/index.html
Good times.
Greetings MB and Wafers,
It was wonderful attending the 6ANYWSM. Great to see MB and Dan again, as well as meet other Wafer attendees. It really was an absolutely perfect day: great weather, location, food, wine, dessert, and conversation. A special Thank You to MB who arranged this delightful get together. What else is there to say, really? NY Wafer events are simply the greatest events ever to take place on the Marble.
America, as usual, needs:
More morons
More drugs
More guns
More god
More Trumpo
I hafta say, tho, I'll always keep a special place in my heart for NYC and our sublime Wafer gatherings. Everything else in the US could wither and decay (American Wafers excluded), but the Big Apple should be spared such a vile and hideous fate. Yes, even when I blink out for the final time, I will be thinking about our lovely spring day in the Village...
Love to all,
Miles
Glad to have the blog back. I hope the Wafer summit went well. Wafers might be interested in this blog post by Ian Welsh on the subject of the downsides of the telecom revolution and why in many ways analog technology was superior.
https://www.ianwelsh.net/the-forbidden-truth-about-analog-technology/
The day they arrested Julian Assange is one of the darkest days of these Dark Ages.
Scores of great pieces have been written about the travesty of law and the dangerous precedent set by his arrest.
I think this grotesquely funny two minute "honest government ad" tells you every thing you need to know about really is going on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1efOs0BsE0g&t=6s
Dear Dr. Berman,
Good to have you and blog back. I have been itching to post the following column:
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2019/04/when-you-get-to-the-end-of-the-road-it-is-time-to-think-outside-the-box/
Excerpts:
On green-washing: The best the progressive left can come up with to counter the wacky right and the clueless centre is one or another Green new deal, hoping to include the excluded by reactivating the economy. But the economy is the problem! Green growth is in practice a contradiction in terms (even though it is a mathematical possibility because growth is measured in money value, not physical output).
On the current economic system: Face it: yesterday’s world based on the assumption that most people will earn a living by working is over. Over! Taxing the rich to subsidize the poor–proposed with the best of intentions by some on the left– is impossible because if you try to tax them, they move. Besides, nobody really knows how much money is hidden in trust funds in tax havens under fictitious names, or how much is spinning around the world in speculative split-second mega-buck transactions that dwarf the real economy. It can’t be taxed if it can’t be found.
Best Wishes,
Himanshu
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
Glad to hear your meeting in NYC was such a success! Saker interviews Dmitry Orlov about Ukraine history (of course I assume he could be wrong about part of this), the Soviet Union, Russia and Europe but saved his hardest shots about the fate of the US for last. I am kinda glad that my life expectancy at maximum won't be much more than 12 or 15 years. Orlov is probably dead right about the US, not like we don't have it coming!
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51449.htm
Welcome back MB and los Waferers,
I used this blog shutdown as a period of fasting, abstinence and contemplation. Meanwhile, here's what you missed:
a. Kim Kardashian West is studying Law
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/13/kim-kardashian-west-lawyer-knowledge-expertise
b. Three naked Florida women lead police on 21-mile chase
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/13/naked-florida-women-police-21-mile-chase
c. and saving the best for last, Hilary op ed on Nancy Pelosi
"There’s a saying that goes: “If you want something done, ask a busy woman to do it.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi is living proof that when it comes to getting the job done, more often than not, it takes a woman."
http://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2019/5567750/nancy-pelosi/
Sorry for length!
Kanye
Now seriously, how did it look like? I mean the summit.
Dr. B,
I'm nearly speechless. The sixth annual New York Wafer Summit was beyond compare. I'm glad Metro North expanded their schedule to handle the influx from the hinterlands. The tributes to Freddy, Shaneka, Lorenzo, Penny and all of our superheroes left me crying tears of joy.
On a serious note, thank you so much for getting us together. It was one of the few times this decade that I have been able to have an honest conversation with real live humans and not have them become enraged or have their eyes glaze over. Rare indeed.
Note to Penny-
Fear not: you were not mentioned at the Summit Meeting. I respect your wishes. But there was a lot of excitement over Shaneka and Lorenzo.
Balazs-
Wild. A mob scene.
Kanye-
Kim cd become the official Waferdom attorney!
Bill-
It's a fair bet that 98% of the American public has never heard of Manning, Assange, or Snowden.
Cel-
Robin Wright has been leading a movement to stop use of smartfones. Children mine the rare metals in the Congo, and die early. Working conditions are basically slavery. Every time an American uses his or her fone, s/he contributes to the death of these kids. But what's more impt, their lives, or our convenience?
mb
WB MB y Wafers of the many stripes!
By coincidence on the day Assange was arrested I watched the Wachowski's V is for Vendetta. Favorite line came when Alex Jones like character calls us The Ulcered Sphincter of AssMerica - no doubt.
On the one hand god help us and on the other - O&D right on time:
http://time.com/5573280/hillary-clinton-time-100-summit/
Jefferson said slavery was like 'holding a wolf by the ears' you might want to let go but the wolf will eat you - when oh when will the wolf rise and shred its tormentor?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1849160/Video-GRAPHIC-Ohio-inmate-brutally-knife-attacks-four-handcuff-men.html
On mining cobalt. But you have to admit, it is a pretty color. I would almost be willing to work in the mines just to be around all that beauty. But I get your point. I guess kids dying of exposure trumps my ability to surround myself with gorgeous blue. Too bad. And all those dear batteries I depend on to keep me going. How am I going to replace those? I mean, I can't really SEE the devastation so what's the big deal?
The military has been trying to get Assuage in American court for decades so he can properly pay for embarrassing them. Talk about a crime against humanity. Put the fucker in a steel cage and throw away the key. He deserves worse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL5Hjg30b_M&feature=youtu.be
Go to 03:20 to see USA in second (!!!) place. MAGA??
Are there Why China Failed in China? Progress and prosperity
unfortunately point to certain doom.
@Himanshu--I'm going to have to disagree with you on the tax thing. America's childish mania in imposing economic sanctions on everyone we hate these days have shown that governments can be very adept at tracking wealth all over the world and and seizing it if they want to. About the only way to "hide" it is to buy a bunch of gold bars with cash and bury them somewhere--and then what good does it do you?
@MB--actually, libs and progs know Assange and want him strung up by his balls for supposedly helping get Trump elected (while completely forgetting that Wikileaks initially exposed many of the Bush administration's war crimes, which they celebrated). It's hilarious watching prog journalists join the braying for his head, since if Assange goes down it will be open season on anyone who embarrasses the government. I look forward circa 2022 to seeing the FBI frog marching CNN and NYT "reporters" off to Guantanamo for publishing stories embarrassing to the Teflon Don. "First they came for Wikileaks, and I did not speak up..." and all that.
This quote pretty much sums up the evil of the whole DC establishment as well as the people they represent: “He is our property.” Those celebratory words of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., came on CNN soon after the news of the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
I'm at Ground Zero, Silicon Valley. Some observations;
Tons of homeless. probably a homeless rate of 10%. Tons of people making maybe $20 a day, living 4 to a room etc.
Huge underclass. Teslas glide by, but a lot of cars sound like the cars in old movies.
And the smartphones... everyone mesmerized by the damn things. I'm keeping my flip phone as long as I can.
Internet getting slower - except for consumption like watching a movie on youtube at 640x480 of course, most internet is as slow as dial up was in the old days.
Re analog technology vs the new digital, especially the 5G rollout check out the video 5G Apocalypse the Extinction Event - scary stuff if it is true which it probably is.
Just after the 60 minute mark Larry Kudlow and some of his fellow traveling dingbats (zombies) from the Whitehouse forum on the 5G topic call for the dismantling of ALL red tape re this very important topic so as "free" enterprise can get on with the job of making Amerika the "greatest" again.
Welcome back, Dr. B:
Another example of our greatness; here's a quote from the article-
"Only the United States and the Philippines allow a commercial bail industry to exist."
https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/armed-bounty-hunters-raided-our-clients-home-prevent-private-companies
The Myths of Enlightenment
While philosophers have long dismissed parables, myths, and aphorisms as mere illustrations, Hans Blumenberg claimed that they are pivotal to philosophical thinking:
https://bostonreview.net/philosophy-religion/marta-figlerowicz-myths-enlightenment
....By the same guy who wrote "An Anthropological Approach to the Contemporary Significance of Rhetoric." I rarely hear about him. Nice to see this.
Cleaning up the American Songbook, one racist at a time:
The New York Yankees Organization have decided that the iconic Kate Smith version of “God Bless America” will no longer be played during the seventh inning stretch because Smith’s catalog of songs includes racist tunes.
In particular, the songs “Pickaninny Heaven” and “That’s Why Darkies Were Born,” have come under scrutiny. There are conflicting views over the latter song, as it was regarded as satire at the time. Smith recorded this song with noted tenor Paul Robeson, reputedly a black man.
The Philadelphia Flyers hockey organization erected a statue of Smith outside their arena; her rendition of God Bless America has traditionally been played before games. No word on what might become of this statue. Finally, it has been the Smith version of the song that has become the standard post-9/11.
https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/ny-kate-smith-god-bless-america-20190418-wfkyednrvrherh57sfmb4h7s5y-story.html
finger would you rather have hovering over the nuclear button, a cunning criminal or a narcissistic imbecile? GAME. THEORY. {I need a stiff drink}
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/mueller-report-reaction-summary-trump-russia-investigation-congress-a8877216.html
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
Here is reportage on Jimmy Carter's remarks on the warlike US - only 5 years (during the last year of Gerry Ford and all of Carter's own term as president) without an attack, war or some military move against another country. "The US is the most warlike country in the history of the world." - Jimmy Carter.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/04/18/jimmy-carter-us-most-warlike-nation-history-world
I completely agree with other Wafers on Assange, American liberals have completely bent over and spread 'em for the security state/Deep State, whatever we want to call it. They don't seem to understand that they don't even have to LIKE the guy personally...and of course they cheered him on in the Bush years! Christ I hate these Hillary-worshipping drones. And Bill Hicks is EXACTLY right -- the darkest secret could be revealed about the American government and nothing would happen, we just want to eat our goddamn cheeseburgers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT7n0WY_6Ww
On another topic, I'm really tired of hearing what I can only term "liberal nostalgia." I hear this on Thom Hartmann's radio program (and from other liberals too) every time I listen, which I rarely do anymore. It's the usual, "We once had unions and better wages and a social safety net and this and that and the other thing...if we could only resurrect FDR and go back to that!"
It's really sad to listen to. It's obvious to me that we're not going back to that. Things get worse and people try to adjust to the "new normal." Of course, there's a lot of roadkill forgotten by the wayside too who didn't adjust. Perhaps it's also obvious to the Americans who have checked out and are slowly killing themselves with drugs and alcohol, or with much quicker methods. Anyway, this could be called a "nostalgia hustle" or "nostalgia porn," because as you say Dr. Berman, everything is porn in America!
Ah,it seems you all had a great time in NYC! Next time I hope the honor of joining you.
Meanwhile in Florida (which in my view is the distillation and leader in American idiocy) we have this fine testament to American intellectual leadership.
https://thevalleyreport.com/2016/02/13/florida-man-dies-in-meth-lab-explosion-after-lighting-farts-on-fire/
This article is an interesting commentary on the demonization of Assange:
"The demonization of the empire’s enemies is not a deception … it is a loyalty test. It is a ritual in which the masses (who, let’s face it, are de facto slaves) are ordered to display their fealty to their masters, and their hatred of their masters’ enemies. Cooperative slaves have plenty of pent-up hatred to unleash upon their masters’ enemies. They have all the pent-up hatred of their masters (which they do not dare direct at their masters, except within the limits their masters allow), and they have all the hatred of themselves for being cooperative, and … well, basically, cowards."
http://www.unz.com/chopkins/uncle-toms-empire/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/michelle-obama-is-hopelessly-out-of-touch-with-the-reality-of-divorced-families
Michelle Obama is hopelessly out of touch with the reality of divorced familiesDepraved fathers and saintly mothers? Not so fast...
Welcome back, MB! I wished I could've been there for the Summit, but I had too much to do (aka planning my escape). Now back to our regular programming:
"GOP Sen. Mitt Romney: 'I am sickened' over Trump's conduct revealed in Mueller report" https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/19/mueller-report-republican-mitt-romney-trumps-conduct/3523884002/
^^Mitt is such a stand up a guy, a true American patriot (barf). I believe you've described him in previous interviews as nothing more than a "walking haircut."
Dems "nervous" over Sanders: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/04/18/cenk-uygur-on-why-democrats-are-afraid-of-bernie-sanders.html
^^This is exciting news! It ensures a Trump win in 2020. Between that and Mueller's Nothingburger, America's decline will continue on schedule.
I assume this report concerns real journalists and not the partisan stenographers in DC and NYC: "Reporters Without Borders dropped the U.S. to No. 48 out of 180 on its annual World Press Freedom Index, three notches lower than its place last year. The move downgrades the country from a 'satisfactory' place to work freely to a 'problematic' one for journalists." We're number 48! USA! USA!
This story caught my eye because just the other day I was driving the speed limit in a residential neighborhood when some asshole used the bike lane to roar past me on the right: Painted bike lanes are car magnets. Of course they are, because Americans are fucking assholes. I've lived in NOVA for 27 years, and cannot believe how much worse aggressive driving has become. Of course, God help you if you try to go walking on a multipurpose trail around here, as you're liable to get run over by some bicycle riding douchebag who thinks he's Lance Armstrong.
State of America Department: "Working as a librarian gave me post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. "To work in a library today, one has to be a social worker, a first responder, an advocate for the underserved, and a human with very thick skin."
Dear Dr. Berman:
US cultural collapse dept:
30 Extremely Bizarre “Florida Man” Stories That Prove That America Is In Far More Trouble Than We Thought. The author defines Florida man as follows: "Florida Man gets arrested a lot. He is always in trouble with the police, and he often leads them on really wild chases.Florida Man has also usually either been drinking or consuming mind-altering drugs.This often leads to extremely risky behavior, and there are often very funny unintended consequences.In addition, Florida Man doesn’t really like clothes. In many cases he is either partially or completely naked.Finally, Florida Man stories get a bonus if they involve animals, injuries, weapons or bodily functions."
The author lists 30 "Florida Man" incidents. Below are the first three:
#1 Florida man steals $33,000 in rare coins, uses them in change machines
#2 Florida Man Arrested for Allegedly Throwing Live Alligator Into Wendy’s Drive-Thru Window
#3 Florida man, drunk and naked, allegedly set house on fire in failed cookie baking attempt
Please be sure to check out the rest of them.
Best Wishes,
Himanshu
'In his last two years as president, Carter ramped up military spending, declared the United States has vital national interests in the Persian Gulf and will use military force to defend them, deliberately provoked the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and restarted the Cold War. But he's right about this.'
Jimmy Carter - The US is the 'Most Warlike Nation in History of the World'
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/04/18/jimmy-carter-us-most-warlike-nation-history-world
lol just imagine that phone call b/t Trumpi & Carter.
Welcome back all.
I know that MB has mentioned mispelling on public signage as a symptom of a declining culture before:
https://cbsaustin.com/news/offbeat/florida-crew-misspells-school-in-school-crosswalk?fbclid=IwAR2l5ZWfhKlYBrHjNi-QPB4RQfx61ex8-e8lNq1E6Aeph-JgfBlbODoUV-c
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/20/what-lies-beneath-robert-macfarlane
What lies beneath: Robert Macfarlane travels 'Underland' via Guardian Review
Fascinating. Rob Macfarlane‘s archeaology of yesterday - and tomorrow:
"From prehistoric cave paintings to buried nuclear waste, underground spaces record how humans have lived. To explore Underland means voyaging into the past – and raises questions about our future."
A Waferian recommendation
Salzer-
Jimmy got seduced by Brezinski, a Pole who hated Russia. Terrible mistake. Read abt it in DAA.
Stella-
She's basically a douche baguette, married to an empty person who became a war criminal. He needs to hang in The Hague, and she needs to be vigorously slapped.
Susan-
Orwell has arrived!
Regio-
Check out the guy's face. This is the face of America, beyond a doubt.
Wafers-
We are drowning in turkeys!
mb
Dr. Berman,
I forgot to copy the link in my previous post. Here it is:
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/30-extremely-bizarre-florida-man-stories-that-prove-that-america-is-in-far-more-trouble-than-we-thought
Himanshu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC_tnVfAe-w FORTY-TWO million!!
A variant on family values?
The ‘debate of the century’: what happened when Jordan Peterson debated Slavoj Žižek
Stephen Marche
The controversial thinkers debated happiness, capitalism and Marxism in Toronto. It was billed as a meeting of titans – and that it was not. But it did reveal one telling commonality
https://theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/20/jordan-peterson-slavoj-zizek-happiness-capitalism-marxism
the debate: https://youtu.be/78BFFq_8XvM
I really wish this dingbat could have my experience of being laid up in the hospital for 35 days. Then it might penetrate her thick fucking skull that if it wasn't for the nurses, our sick care system would fall apart completely. But probably not: Washington state senator slammed for saying nurses 'play cards' for 'considerable amount of the day'. "The Washington State Senate considered a bill Tuesday...that would provide nurses with uninterrupted meal and rest periods." Those nurses, what a bunch of layabouts.
More "wisdom" from one of our great stenographers to power who is a "reporter" for Vox: "every Russian diplomat should be expelled immediately from the US and every Russian company with even remote ties to the Russian government should be sanctioned up the ass. there is no need to improve relations with a government intent on destroying ours. fuck that"
Meet me at the Firefighters' Brawl: Pa. carnival permanently closed after large brawl erupts. The fire department issued a statement saying the carnival — a major fundraiser that was due to run through Saturday — would instead be immediately shuttered. They also said no further carnivals would be held because the event has “turned into a landing spot for out-of-town troublemakers.”
Buona Pasqua to all Wafers!
We're finally getting into the Italian timezone, so can re-engage with everyone for a bit before we have to deal with setting up a house in Switzerland.
Read the Jimmy Carter article - so true about him getting seduced by Brezinski - seems to happen a lot to the empty suits who get elected to the Presidency. Just look at Bush Jr and Cheney, and now Trumpi and John Bolton. With Trumpi, you've got a guy who decides based on the last person he talks to. What a way to run an Empire.
Meanwhile - some British friends here, who have lived in Brussels for 40 years, have just gotten Belgian citizenship. They absolutely didn't want to go back to a country which seems to be imploding - witness the scooter purse snatchings and random knife attacks in London. Adding this to some of the stellar items noted above by my fellow Wafers, and it looks like the English speaking West is imploding at a faster and faster pace.
We got out in the nick of time, I think.
Further evidence of educational decline/mangling of English language - listen to any local small city TV news broadcasts and hear the interns abuse the language as if they had not taken one day of English classes in school. The average age of "reporters"/teleprompter readers is 19 with an average IQ of 4. And these are the people millions depend on to tell them what's happening in their local communities.
Hey El Regio, wanna see something really cool, huh huh? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccVDIssL384
Doctor,
I hope you had a good flight and are safely ensconced back home. Needless to say, great to see you again and the other social reprobates if that's the right word. Well, the big story here is hat the statue of Kate Smith, who was the lucky mascot of the Philadelphia Flyers Hockey team has been removed because the PC crowd discovered she sang a racially tinged song in the 1930s. Of course, even Flyer fans have protested little for fear of being labeled racist. Her rendition of God Bless America will no longer be played as well. This comes on the heels of removing Stephen Foster's statue in Pittsburgh because of some racist lyrics. I genuinely feel someday the heads of Jefferson and Washington on Mt. Rushmore will be destroyed for being slaveholders. God forbid these statues remain as a teachable moment, but no let's make way for saccharine malls and high rises.
I saw two Broadway musicals that weekend-Pretty Woman and Mean Girls. I later read the Ben Brantley NYT reviews who is about to blow his brains out for reviewing shows based on movies. Perhaps Herman Goering was right when he said, "Whenever I hear the word culture, I take out my gun."
A very happy 2,772nd birthday to the city of Rome!
I definitely recommend the 5G Apocalypse Video referenced above by Frederick Froth for those curious. Despite its clickbaity title which seems to raise conspiracy theory flags, the most compelling information comes via congressional testimony from doctors and university researchers, it is overall pretty straightforward and matter of fact. So it is pretty clear that this roll out is going to be REALLY bad, and just the letter of the law facts that it references are further evidence how the powers that be aren't even trying to conceal the fact that they just don't care at all about the citizenry. Coincidentally, my house is essentially a Faraday cage, so building it this way (not on purpose, just for cheaper materials sake) might turn out to be the most serendipitous choice I make this century, who knew! The tin foil hat folks may just have the last laugh before long.
For further study on "Florida Man," check out the TV show Atlanta, a really well made surreal dark comedy/tragedy series, Season Two --Alligator Man
Greetings Wafers everywhere and welcome home MB, here in Cascadia the beat goes on…
The owner of a mobile home park is challenging Olympia’s ban on living in recreational vehicles as permanent housing, as city inspectors found issues with the site’s septic system being overwhelmed with sewage:
https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article229384284.html?
Meanwhile, the city of Olympia is holding public workshops on homelessness:
https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article229470529.html
And finally, in competition of this week’s “America Cares” award, Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan has requested a state investigation as to why three prison inmates serving time in the Yakima County Jail for parole violations were released by jail staff in a Seattle parking lot under Interstate 5, each given only a small plastic bag holding a few personal items like a belt. A Seattle resident caught the episode on their cell phone:
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/mayor-asks-state-to-investigate-why-people-released-from-yakima-county-jail-into-downtown-seattle-parking-lot/
https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-ukraine-elections-20190421-story.html
Ukrainian comedian wins presidential election in a landslide vote
My theory is every election from this point on will be won by a celebrity identity
Police looking for woman caught on video dumping bag of puppies in trash bin in Coachella
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/04/21/woman-suspected-dumping-puppies-coachella-sought/3534445002/
https://ca.style.yahoo.com/bbq-business-selling-pro-lgbtq-shirts-standing-for-liberty-guns-bible-trump-and-bbq-sell-out-despite-backlash-212629985.html
How about a similar T-shirt from MB proving how correct he is about the mental
health of America?
Listening to this weekends "On The Media" they had a fantastic piece on how the rich play the philanthropic system:
https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/on-the-media-harm-to-ongoing-matter
see the second part listed.
Awesome rich people, your gonna donate $100 million to rebuild Notre Dame ... yet get a 90% tax break on that ... which the state pays for. F you hustler bastards. This is coming from someone who cried when I saw the photos ... and no, American false equivalency media douchbags, I did NOT cry when Al-Aqsa had a minor fire the same day.
Hola a los Waferes,
6ANYWSM: An engaging meeting with great conversation in Manhattan. Thanks to all in attendance. Civil, measured and plainly fun. Low key. Delicious food. Dan - don't despair.
As was suggested, these hidden Wafer summit meetings happen in quiet meeting spots, unnoticed by the masses. Even here in the great North Woods of New Hampshire with Gail, Alan and the wandering troubadour for the past four days. They are surely Wafers. Civil, gentle and Taoist conversation, with a small dog and a small dog's memory to boot. These confirmations matter; they drift gently together up against the walls of indifference.
Perhaps next in D.C. or Chicago?
mean gene
mean-
I'd be up for DC or Chicago, but it depends on how many active participants are in the local area, and wd want to attend.
Art-
My T-shirt says the same thing as my epitaph will:
I KEPT TELLING THEM, BUT DID THEY LISTEN? NO!
Dan-
I think it was Goebbels, actually.
Wafers-
Words from a great Wafer, Ursula Le Guin:
"My guess is that the kind of thinking we are, at last, beginning to do abt how to chg the goals of human domination and unlimited growth to those of human adaptability and long-term survival is a shift from yang to yin, and so involves acceptance of impermanence and imperfection, a patience with uncertainty and the makeshift, a friendship with water, darkness, and the earth."
Rt now in America we have 168 Wafers and 327 million buffoons. Ursula wants a world in which those ratios are reversed.
mb
ps: Film rec: "The Tango Lesson" (Sally Potter)
Bk rec: "Milkman" (Ann Burns)
Do Americans Know How Much Trouble They’re In?
Why America is at a Crossroads in History — and There Might Not be Any Way Back to Normal, Sane, or Civilized
https://eand.co/do-americans-know-how-much-trouble-theyre-in-78e8ef00d53c
Frankie-
Short anwswer: no.
Longer answer: they have dog poop in their heads.
mb
Only in America:
https://miami.cbslocal.com/2019/04/22/video-florida-easter-bunny-brawl-viral-video/
Re: Kate Smith
I saw the photos of her draped in her ignominious cloth... Seems kind of like the act of a schitzophrenic hearing voices telling them that this statue of a chubby lady from the 1930s is really the demon that needs to be exorcised from our society.
Meanwhile, daytime TV is an absolute cesspool and makes money exploiting every racist trope of the broken black family... And not a peep of outrage against Maury and Springer. I fully expect them to run for office!
It seems like Americans are so stupid and literalist you can be as racist as you want as long as you avoid certain trigger words.
Hello Wafers:
I can just imagine the outrage over Kate Smith singing "That's Why Darkies Were Born." Just think of the torrent of self-righteous indignation being tweeted over cellfones whose rare-metal content is mined by Africans working under conditions that are essentially slavery.
The lyrics for the song were written by Lew Brown (yeah, his name is anglicized), one of the top lyricists of the 1920s. I played this song on my radio show a couple of years ago on Brown's birthday. Some of his other hits were "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries", and "That Old Feeling." I don't suppose anyone is calling for the Andrews Sisters or Frank Sinatra being boycotted for the heinous crime of singing Brown's lyrics.
If you're into nostalgia porn, I'se gwine to go to town on songs containing the word "darky" on next Sunday's show.
@MB--I'm up for a DC get together. If you haven't been here in awhile, you'll be astonished at how much of the old city has been demolished and regentrified. The douchebags who've moved to to the District in the past 20 years seem to only be comfortable if they have access to same conveniences and soulless chain stores and restaurants as you'd see in any suburban hellhole.
@Dan--frankly, I wish they'd stop forcing everyone at sporting events to stand for "God Bless America" altogether. Doing so was part of the post-9/11 patriotism mania, and frankly I hate that fucking song as it glorifies two things I have no faith in: God and America. The new Mt. Rushmore should feature Bush Jr., Obama, Hillary and Trump--America's versions of the late period idiot Roman emperors.
@Get Out--it's just too bad there isn't a way for those millions of Americans who rely on local TV news to register their displeasure and force the stations to make a change--oh wait, there is. It's called an "off" button.
The Enchantments of Mammon
How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity
Eugene McCarraher
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674984615
Anon-
Sorry, I don't post Anons.
Kev-
I'm always up for a gd bunny brawl!
mb
I want to nominate the Epicurean poet Lucretius for a Wafer card. A man who fully embraced the pleasure of sitting back and watching the turkeys float by!
"But there is nothing sweeter than to dwell in towers that rise
On high, serene and fortified with teachings of the wise,
From which you may peer down upon the others as they stray
This way and that, seeking the path of life, losing their way:
The skirmishing of wits, the scramble for renown, the fight,
Each striving harder than the next, and struggling day and night,
To climb atop a heap of riches and lay claim to might."
Post a Comment
<< Home