June 08, 2020
394
Well, Wafers, it's been quite a ride. The country seems to be careening toward destruction now, although how current events will play out is anyone's guess. We are marching, we are dying, and we are unemployed. Everything I predicted in the Twilight book (now 20 years old), and more, is coming to pass. Martial law hovers in the wings; the bubbas whisper about boogaloo. Churchill famously said that in the end, the United States always did the right thing. Not this time around, I fear.
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Opioid deaths in America could be more common than previously thought. According to the article, the number of opioid deaths is likely 28 percent higher than generally reported.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fatal-opioid-overdoses-may-be-more-common-than-thought/
Speaking of Churchill, his statue in Trafalgar Square was defaced yesterday and "was a racist" was scribbled under his name. Of course you could remind the terrorists that Churchill defeated fascism in World War II but then you'd have to explain when World War II was.
ReplyDeleteThe insanity in the US is truly breathtaking. A police chief in Mass. lay completely prostate at a demonstration and Minneapolis is about to disband its police force! Anyway, Covid cases will rise dramatically in weeks to come due to the protests although a doctor posted that Covid will not affect those protesting against racism. Game over.
Parenthetically, almost everyday since the protests began the stock market has gone up, even over 800 points last Friday as if to signal that the rich could care less about George Floyd as they merrily continue to look the treasury.
Dan-
ReplyDeleteYou'd probably also hafta explain *what* it was. I mentioned earlier the danger of the protests spilling over into other areas, such as MeToo destroying Woody Allen. It might turn out that everyone was a racist...But anyway, it's nice to know that if yr protesting racism, yr safe from the virus. Magic lives!
mb
I'm sorry but I have to disagree here. Churchill was a racist, factually. So, even if I don't like graffiti myself, what the protesters scribbled was literally correct.
ReplyDeleteThe Rest of Us Always Knew Churchill Was a Villain
His record in Britain’s former colonies more closely resembles that of a war criminal than a defender of democracy and freedom.
Churchill was not alone in having a Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde personality. I don't see why he fact that we should be grateful for Churchill's help in defeating the Nazis must blind us to the other side of his personality.
Apologies for double posting. I realized the previous link was pay-walled. This one is for the same article but it should be free:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2019/feb/16/shashi-tharoor-column-the-rest-of-us-always-knew-churchill-was-a-villain-1939662.html
Dan,
ReplyDeletein fairness, Churchill was a lot more than "just" a racist. For example, he was a war criminal who introduced an armed mercenary group into Ireland who committed atrocities against the civilian populace.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/views/analysis/new-biography-reveals-winston-churchills-problem-with-ireland-895937.html
Plus there are his actions in Gallipoli during WW1
Actually, I am quite impressed that people in the UK know enough about Churchill to brand him a racist. Usually he is lionised as the dogged defender who single handedly saw off the Germans in ww2. Very little else about him is openly taught or discussed.
And claims about Churchill defeating fascism is a bit of a stretch. He had a lot of help. Where are all those statues to Stalin in the UK?
On another note, I have just ordered Why America Failed and Neurotic Beauty. I've been dipping into De Tocqueville's Democracy in America, and it really is an impressive work on many levels. It seems like a good time to finally read WAF!
https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/full/10.1162/isec_a_00342
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.sg/Has-China-Won-Challenge-American/dp/1541768132
https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/chaos-and-governance-in-the-modern-world-system
https://www.amazon.com.au/Disunited-Nations-Scramble-Power-Ungoverned/dp/0062913689
https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-American-Century-Decline-Dispatch-ebook/dp/B06XPQWT6Q
Been looking at books/essays to read about what might happen in the world once the US is no longer a global superpower....
WAFers--
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/08/we-often-accuse-the-right-of-distorting-science-but-the-left-changed-the-coronavirus-narrative-overnight
Quotes of note:
"Two weeks ago we shamed people for being in the street; today we shame them for not being in the street."
"But poverty is also a public health crisis. George Floyd wasn't merely killed for being black--he was also killed for being poor. He died over a counterfeit banknote. Poverty destroys Americans every day by means of confrontations with the law, disease, pollution, violence, and despair."
O&D--
Eileschpiggel
"I've dismissed some past warnings about Trump's authoritarianism as overblown, but I do think we've now entered a new and dangerous phase. My piece in the latest NonzeroNews"
ReplyDelete- Robert Wright
https://nonzero.org/post/true-trump-nightmare
Cormorant,
ReplyDeleteThen you believe the terrorist, uh I'm sorry protesters were right to deface the statue? I never said Winston was without flaws (you can also add his behavior in Iraq) but it's still vandalism. Philadelphia just removed now deceased Frank Rizzo's statue and mural. He was far from a failed politician. He was re-elected and was once chairman of US mayors. Now there are calls to remove Thomas Jefferson's statues. Where does it end? Vidal was certainly correct describing this country as The United States of Amnesia. You're "In fairness" will get all killed.
Do the Tulsi!
ReplyDeleteTulsi Gabbard 🌺
Jun 6
"Black lives that have been snuffed out by police brutality matter; black lives snuffed out by COVID-19 also matter. We need to stop both. Protest responsibly. Wear a mask. Social distance. Live aloha"
Verklempt with this sage advice; so profound and provocative. Thank you USA-ian Tulsi for helping showcase what a bad joke America was. What ever happened to Carley Fiorina's "New Possibilities. Real Leadershit."
Mike-
ReplyDeleteAmerica has rejected Tulsism. Therein lies the core of its problems.
mb
"...And they are lucky that what black people are looking for is equality and not revenge."
ReplyDeleteA little dose of Locke:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb9_qGOa9Go&t=323
@Eileschpiggel
ReplyDeleteIncorrect. The COVID virus has mutated into its "woke" form. It's now smart enough to know the context in which you're in and will either attack or remain harmless depending on the "wokeness" of your particular situation.
Tim-
ReplyDeleteSorry, you violated half-pg-max rule. Suggest you re-send it, but in 2 installments, 24 hrs apart. Thanks.
mb
Dear Dr. Berman:
ReplyDeleteKarma department: China & Russia Bombard US With "You Reap What You Sow" Messages Amid Unrest & Instability
https://www.globalvillagespace.com/us-europe-getting-back-same-chaos-they-were-sowing-around-the-world-russias-fm-spokeswoman-on-riots-in-america/
“By sowing chaos [abroad], they’ve got chaos at home,” ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told Rossiya 1 TV channel.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1190837.shtml
At this rate, I wonder if US might start breaking up (serious secessionist movements) by 2025?
Himanshu
Greetings Wafers everywhere, here’s a report on paramilitary and vigilante week in Cascadia:
ReplyDeleteOn May 31, hundreds of armed individuals, mostly men, converged in the suburban town of Snohomish northeast of Seattle after hearing rumors the a group of Antifa protesters were coming to vandalize businesses in the downtown area, but nothing happened:
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/protesters-and-armed-self-declared-protectors-underscore-divides-in-snohomish/
A photograph circulated on Facebook on June 7 showed a City of Olympia police officer posing early that morning with a group of armed men dressed in camo and flashing a three-finger sign associated with the Three Percenters group. A gun store called Private Sector Arms in a strip mall allegedly had called upon a local branch of the group to make an armed presence in its parking lot allegedly after hearing that gun stores in the area might be vandalized. The Olympia Police Department promised an investigation:
https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article243326366.html
Finally, on the evening of June 8, a man who reached into an open window to try to stop a car careening into protesters in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood was shot and wounded by the driver, who momentarily escaped before being taken into custody by cops:
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/man-shot-after-gunman-drives-car-into-capitol-hill-protesters/
Jack-
ReplyDeleteSounds very intelligent! Like America! A pity Tulsi didn't fly over from Hawaii to help sort things out.
Himan-
2025 probably still too early, but ya never know. As for karma: if any nation in the history of the world was reaping what it sowed, it's the US. BTW, 'zakhar' is Hebrew for 'remember'.
mb
+1 for Churchill as a monster, his white identitarianism was commented upon by other Tories in cabinet in the early 20th IIRC, and as an Irish citizen whose grandmother was terrorised as a child by WC's black and tans, may he rot in hell.
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget his treatment of Welsh strikers, or his role in engineering Indian famines. A bona fide monster. A Londoner stood on a soapbox a few years ago and read a WC speech. The cops, ignorant of the source, arrested him for hate speech. They were right to do so.
https://thenorwichradical.com/2018/04/06/decolonise-wales-i/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/29/winston-churchill-policies-contributed-to-1943-bengal-famine-study
Regarding Jefferson and where does it all end? It all ends with the entire US mythos rightfully thrown in the trashcan - the so-called founding fathers to the last, and a start over, surely a legitimate WAF'er demand? Rotten from the getgo, get rid of it and better luck next time.
dermot-
ReplyDeleteRe: the statue debate: maybe the best thing is to tear down all statues across the board. This wd be gd from a declinist pt of view. A country that forgets its history doesn't have much of a future.
mb
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteI hope those terrorists don't vent their wrath on the statue of Sir John Franklin, whose contributions to Canadian identity are immeasurable. His heroics involved setting out on a futile mission and becoming lost for 150 years; a truly great Canadian legend.
And as for calling spray painting "terrorism," what else could it be called? Get out into the streets! Bronze Lives Matter!
Put up large statues of Gates, Rockefeller, Winfrey, Schmidt, Rothchild, Jobs, Musk, Karduchians, add in some porn stars in their too etc..that way the Americans can appreciate what's really important in life and help them focus on their only purpose for living. $.
ReplyDeleteWho cares about history or culture, that's for nerds.
"Thorough, meticulous reporting. What’s clear:
ReplyDelete1. Police used several chemical irritants, including tear gas.
2. The crackdown was not in response to protester escalation.
3. Protesters did not throw bricks or corrosive liquids. A few threw water bottles."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2020/06/08/timeline-trump-church-photo-op/
Amazingf reporting. Like, what if gassing, beating, and shooting and throwing explosives at people were some kind of crime in America, this would be proof beyond reasonable doubt!
Glans-
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting idea. I suggest, 1st, tearing down ALL statues of everybody, across the country. Then, replacing these w/statues of Oprah Winfrey. Whee! (Altho Tulsi Gabbard might do in a pinch.) After that, every citizen and resident will be required to read the Collected Works of Oprah Winfrey, or Philosophical Foundations of Tulsism (written by me). Finally, a quiz will be administered to every citizen and resident on these subjects, and anyone failing the exam will be deported to the Seychelles, where they will be required to break rocks in the Seychelles Prison for the rest of their lives. They will also be beaten on a daily basis. This is a declinist future of which we can all be proud.
mb
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteThis goes along w/the youtube video Dan D posted (above):
https://www.therecordherald.com/opinion/20200607/kareem-abdul-jabbar-dont-understand-protests-what-youre-seeing-is-people-pushed-to-edge
I'm wondering how different is the treatment of black people in the US from the treatment of Palestinians in Israel. Humiliation, fear, random killings...Talk abt failure of empathy (in both cases). I doubt that race relations in the US will change, in the wake of all these protests and hand-wringing. As noted earlier, this is just the rinse/repeat cycle. And if there is one population that is empathy-challenged, it is white Americans. But I think for Wafers and perhaps a few others, it is worth our while to get into the skin (so to speak) of black people, and really understand what they hafta deal w/on a daily basis. I sure as hell wdn't wanna be black in America. The protesters cry, "Enuf is enuf!", and then the next day, a white cop kills another unarmed black person for picking his nose. Apparently, it's never enuf, and it simply isn't going to change.
If elected pres, what can Schmiden possibly do? Appoint another blue-ribbon commission? I remember when LBJ did that in the 60s. Julius Lester wrote: "If he wants to understand the cause of black anger, instead of a commission let him walk over to Lafayette Park and talk for a few minutes to some black bum [sic] sleeping on a park bench."
mb
Nothing cures "The Mondays" like a little Polandball!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhMAt3BluAU
Seriously, this docu is really really good and ditto entertaining.
If you ask me, we're taking the ostensible pretext for these outpourings too seriously. Can a Wafer really believe that this many Americans would voluntary turn out to "demonstrate", "protest", or do anything else unless they find it entertaining? Millions have been confined to their homes for months and are in need of comic relief. Live coverage of a demonstration in Washington D.C. yesterday was like a street party. They were having fun.
ReplyDeleteWhat should get more attention is the evidence that throngs of Americans-- who have ordinarily become, if anything, too risk-averse-- are so pathetically bereft of inner resources that they will gladly endanger their own lives out of sheer boredom.
RE: The statue debate:
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to erect statures that celebrate racists, colonialists, slave traders etc, and not draw attention to any of that aspect, it's not really surprising when people start defacing them, tearing them down etc. @ MB, I think you've got the wrong end of the stick regarding wiping out a nation's history. Irish people for example are very aware of Cromwell, Churchill etc. and they don't need statues of them as a reminder. History as currently taught in the UK regarding the British empire is abysmal. Generations go through the education system and graduate with an extremely selective understanding of the what the empire was and its effect on the world. Churchill is regularly hailed voted as the greatest British leader for his role in ww2 but his other actions are basically ignored/downplayed. This has real effects. For example, the UK recently elected a Prime Minister who consciously models himself on Churchill and has referred to brown people as picanninies etc. Actually, defacing these statues has begun a much needed national debate on what these figures really got up to as opposed to the state sponsored hagiographic versions.
Anyway, this is my final post on this matter.
cor-
ReplyDeleteI was being ironic, amigo.
alogon-
I doubt it's just abt fun, or mainly abt fun. But perhaps some degree of fun is the devolution of the protests. I figure they will, or have, eventually run out of steam. Usually, the next step is legal battles in the courts, e.g. trials of the 4 Mpls cops. And then the energy finally drifts away, until the next murder of a black man. But it may play out differently this time around; hard to say.
mb
Please find an interesting perspective on how Trumpen-Fuhrer or the Golden-Haired Antichrist will over see or orchestrate the decline of Amerika and civilization altogether in the new book by the all-American psychopath David Horowitz titled Blitz Trump Will Destroy the Left & Win
ReplyDeleteProtesters across US attacked by cars driven into crowds and men with guns
ReplyDeleteWhile the reactions on most of the world to the BLM protests seem to have ranged from "I'm not racist myself" to "I sympathise with non-violent protesters," the response in the US includes a uniquely (as far as I know) American feature, the "f*ck you n*ggers" reaction. Words like degradation, moral squalor and so on and so forth are too weak to describe the situation. Is this the beginning if Civil War II yet?
Anon-
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't post Anons. You need a real handle to participate.
Fred-
Yr title is incorrect. In future, pls provide a link. Thank you.
mb
Another white cop doing his thing, plus a douche baguette doing hers:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nj.com/burlington/2020/06/videos-new-details-revealed-in-killing-of-unarmed-man-by-nj-trooper-after-traffic-stop-grand-jury-to-review-case.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8400191/Shocking-moment-64-year-old-white-woman-SPITS-black-teen-Black-Lives-Matter-protest.html
Like you have always said Dr. Berman, the Civil War never really ended. I think we're going to see round 2 in my lifetime.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w7kwtLJtVc
Shawn-
ReplyDeleteIt's one of the fault lines that render the 'republic' unstable. You conquer the opposition, you force them into 'union' with you, and you make no attempt to deal with the underlying resentment, or to heal the wound. What you get, as a result, is the Disunited States, and an earthquake waiting to happen. Native Americans, we were able (eventually) to sweep under the rug, so to speak. Southerners: no way. I tried, in WAF, to show that this was a cultural conflict, not just abt race. Since Americans are not very bright, and can think only in B&W terms, I got labeled 'racist' and 'pro-slavery'. Jesus, what can ya do.
mb
ReplyDeleteWafers-
It really shouldn’t come to much surprise that US police look and act they landed in from a hostile foreign power. All that surplus military gear and weaponry the gov pays so much money on has to go somewhere...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/08/yes-american-police-act-like-occupying-armies-they-literally-studied-their-tactics
MB said: "Since Americans are not very bright, and can think only in B&W terms, I got labeled 'racist' and 'pro-slavery'. Jesus, what can ya do."
ReplyDeleteWhat I do is let my twisted mind out to play. The US a "target rich environment", to put it in military terms.
I titled this one "...from my cold, dead hands"
https://i.imgur.com/FlTW8xd.jpg
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteCaitlin Johnstone has written an essay on the American Narrative versus American reality (which resonates with me) but she plainly doesn't realize that Americans really can't, as you state, Dr. Berman, 'connect the dots' to understand what America has been all along. Ironically, most Americans have been forced to hustle just to stay alive, not to get rich although most still fantasize about wealth and fame!
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/06/03/we-are-watching-the-story-of-america-crash-headlong-into-the-reality-of-america/
Michael-
ReplyDeleteGood essay, thanks.
mb
Note to Jack L.-
ReplyDeleteWafers seek your help w/a little bit of investigative journalism, particularly in regard to Tulsi.
1. The people have been marching for nearly 2 weeks now, and Tulsi has not marched along w/them. Instead, she has holed up in a bunker in Hawaii. What is her excuse?
2. Today is the mem. service for George Floyd, and Tulsi has chosen to be absent. Again, why? It wd have been an excellent opportunity for her to present her workout tape, after all.
3. Her only public statement thus far has been to say that racism is bad. While this is clearly a cutting-edge intellectual insight, we really do need something more, along the lines of the Tulsic Philosophy.
4. Jay Leno recently went out into the sts. of LA and asked people what they thought of the Tulsic Philosophy. Not one person was able to say what the TP was! He was (understandably) horrified. Is there some reluctance on Tulsi's part to distribute the info, and not publicly list the 24 Basic Principles of Tulsism?
5. What is her position on the boogaloo?
Upshot: Where is she in all this? Is she deliberately refusing to save America, when clearly she is the only person who can? One of her opponents has called her a douche bag. Is this true?
mb
Even when Americans protest, they do it in ways unfathomable to the rest of the world: "Protestors ask police acknowledge their pain" ran a headline in the Post last week. Can you imagine the Yellow Vests in France, the ANC under apartheid or Zapatistas asking police "feel their pain?"
ReplyDeleteI was reading this article from the atlantic:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/why-people-loot/612577/
and it reminded me of an argument by Anthony Wilden in System and structure, that "While fundamental socioeconomic change in Canada and in the world will no doubt be accompanied by a violence running counter to the many forms of violence making up the established system, any possible change will be no change at all unless the pitfall of the Imaginary IDENTITY OF OPPOSITES can be overcome." (p.ivi)
What the looting seems to indicate to me is that the Imaginary identity of opposites is not overcome, in other words it is an affirmation of the system that created the conditions of oppression. Stealin GUCCI or NIKE is another way of saying " we want a bigger piece of the pie" while the better alternative would be to ask whether this pie is good or not.
Oppression and Violent riots (in this form) are the two poles of a system that is oscillating but remaining in homeostasis.
taylor-
ReplyDeleteAmericans are not very bright, progs especially. They actually think that Trumpi is the problem; that if we get him outta the W.H., and replace him w/Schmiden, all will be well. Do they really think that Schmiden can solve the following age-old problems or tendencies?:
-400+ years of hustling, extreme individualism, narcissism, and ingrained racism; money as the purpose of life; spiritual bankruptcy
-police brutality, esp. toward black people
-simplistic, Manichaean thinking; incredible ignorance, cluelessness abt literally everything
-violence as a way of 'solving' problems
-a national debt that has become surreal
-inevitable Chinese hegemony
-an economy headed for the skids
-the bubbas and the boogaloo
Good luck, Schmiden! Yr a turkey.
mb
The virtual meeting of the Evergreen College Board of Trustees yesterday had a “serious discussion” about whether to change the name of the school to “Evergreen State University” and revamp curriculum in response to flagging enrollment. Among the college programs under consideration is a degree in farming. Evergreen is also proceeding with its virtual commencement on Friday, when Black Lives Matter has called for a statewide general strike. The media release did not mention whether a degree in Tulsism will be offered, or whether a Professor Belman will be invited to assume the Chair of Tulsiantic Reflection:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article243388066.html
Jack-
ReplyDeleteA larger collection of clowns has never existed. I wonder what Bret Weinstein is doing these days.
mb
“Culture, when it loses its sacred sense, loses all sense.”--Leszek Kolakowski
ReplyDeleteNothing to worry about. We live in the 24 hour news cycle-another day or two and half the country will have forgotten George Floyd and onto the next event (Come on, Kate, produce another baby!). As for the protests, I don't care. Until all that was loot is returned and the burnt buildings are restored I'm not interested in BLM or their message which given all the destruction has no moral ground to stand on.
ReplyDeleteStill, the NYC looters were frauds. Were they serious they would have attacked Wall Street who engineered the offshoring of good jobs. Instead they robbed Channel. That's okay. There's nothing I detest more than an ill-smelling vandal.
Doctor, the entire Jewish section of Fairfax in LA was destroyed as well as many Jewish owned stores in Manhattan yet I did not see one Jewish organization say anything in response. Rather, for example, there's a picture of members of the Bay area Jewish community holding up Black Lives Matter as well as a number of Jewish celebrities paying the looters bail. Any thoughts? I'm thoroughly disgusted by this.
Cormordant,
I did not say Churchill was or was not a racist. I said,"was a racist" was written under his name on the statue. You might was to look up the proper use of quotation marks before you ascribe to a person words he or she did not say.
Dan-
ReplyDeleteI still think yr missing the larger picture, of the long-bottled up rage of black people just too fed up w/white cops killing them for nothing. In that sense, what erupted, looting included, was quite 'rational'--in the sense of What the fuck did you expect, that we wd put up w/this shit forever? Really, it's white society that lacks a moral foundation. (Wh/wd apply to its treatment of Native Americans as well.) In any case, history is rarely linear or polite, and I for one am glad black people chose to stand up for themselves. The problem, as you pt out, is that it's all temporary. I've said it repeatedly: How many Americans can identify Dylan Roof, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, or Amy Cooper (one of the great douche baguettes of our time)? In a few mos., George Floyd will have gone the way of American amnesia as well.
But there is even a larger picture than this, wh/I've also talked abt repeatedly: identity politics doesn't get to the root of it all. MLK realized this when he began to talk abt Vietnam, the garbage strike in NY, the connection between domestic issues and US foreign policy. (It's that that might have gotten him killed.) Identity politics means that you see to it that excluded/subaltern groups get an equal share of the pie. But what if the pie is rotten? That wd seem to be the crucial pt.
Of course, the uprisings of the 60s were impt for black people--an end to white and colored bathrms, and that sorta shit. And current protests today are also legit, in that it's way overdue to overhaul police depts. that kill black people for walking down the street. Of course, that hasta stop. But even that is a (legitimate) bid for equality, for being acknowledged as being part of the system/nation/pie and insisting that they get the same fair shake, and piece of pie, as everyone else. Personally, I doubt that the police depts. can be reformed, but that is beside the pt. The pt is that even if that shd happen, MLK's pt remains: the pie is rotten, and the rot is the relations of power, the reign of capitalism and imperialism, and the con game of globalization--a world where Jeff Bezos can own $1 trillion, and 70% of the country are eating crumbs that fall off his table, so to speak. (He's just one example, obviously.) In that sense, yr (partially) correct: smashing Jewish delis in LA, and leaving Wall St. intact, doesn't make much sense.
There is no call on the part of hardly anybody--BLM, MeToo, OWS, pussy hats, whatever--for a fundamentally different type of society. And that, as MLK finally figured out, was ultimately the only change that mattered.
mb
Dr. B:
ReplyDeleteHere's a recent photo of the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond; click the image to enlarge it and read the graffiti-
https://newzandar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/virginia-governor-to-announce-removal-of-robert-e-lee-statue-1.jpg
A judge has issued a temporary injunction preventing the statue's removal.
Birn-
ReplyDeleteReally sad. I dunno what 'Fuck 12' means.
mb
Of Course...This is what Americans DO
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/nj-trump-supporter-mocks-george-floyds-death-as-protesters-passed/2425224/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/nyregion/george-floyd-protest-franklinville-nj.html
Dr. Berman suggests:
ReplyDelete>I suggest, 1st, tearing down ALL statues of everybody, across the country. Then, replacing these w/statues of Oprah Winfrey.
Not yet. Mightn't she be waiting in the wings to be announced as Biden's running mate?
jj-
ReplyDeleteSo one of the counter-protesters yelled, "Black lives matter to no one." That seems abt rt, unfortunately.
mb
@ MB:
ReplyDeleteI thought my irony detector was reasonably well calibrated but it can be difficult to tell sometimes!
Anyway, apropos of statues, history, Race and the US and good mid twentieth century poetry, Robert Lowell's "For the Union Dead" is well worth a read:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57035/for-the-union-dead
According to a CDC survey, some Americans are misusing bleach and other household disinfectants to try to kill the coronavirus. Examples of misuse include using bleach to clean food, clean skin and drinking or gargling with bleach, diluted bleach solutions, soapy water, or other disinfectants.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.statnews.com/2020/06/05/cdc-misusing-bleach-try-kill-coronavirus/
Just heard a fabulous interview w/ a fellow named Chris Eisenstein. He puts the current situation into perspective & explains how it might be an opportunity 2 examine how folks might do things differently than b4 (which won't happen in Amerikkka, for sure.) I think it kinda ties into what MB said about dual process. Really gives some food for thought
ReplyDeletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lB7kFlW5BeU&feature=emb_title
Fuck 12 means fuck the police,specifically the police drug unit.
ReplyDeleteAll I've got right now is this:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/us-passport-emergencies/index.html?menu
US not issuing passports unless you can show it's a dire emergency. Somewhere else I read they're still renewing passports. Does that mean I'd be able to renew mine, about 20 years out of date now? I guess I'd still be in the system. Still, I'm surprised this isn't a bigger story.
Gone With the Wind dropped from HBO Max over depiction of slavery
ReplyDeleteTalk about healing the wounds of the Civil War. Don't know where to begin... Not being able to hold more than one very simple idea in the brain at the same time, as Dr Berman has pointed out repeatedly? Or just severe mental retardation? What about levels of virtue signaling right from the Salem's witch hunts?
To begin with, unlike a statue, you don't have to watch it if you don't want to, and you may want to for a variety of reasons, even if you're a committed anti-racist (as myself), like studying cultural history. But no, let's try to make everybody a bit more ignorant and self-righteous yet. And let's destroy all copies of The Merchant of Venice, for example, while we're at it.
What day of the infection or final days in apocalyptic movies like "28 Days Later" is it that everyone starts arguing over statues? Day 9? Day 10?
ReplyDeleteNext it'll be Roman statues like Emperor Nerva (slave owner) and William Shakespeare (anti-semite)
There'll be no statues left anywhere by 2050.
WAFers--
ReplyDeleteProgress . . .
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/business/media/gone-with-the-wind-hbo-max.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
O&D--
Eileschpiggel
Along with Fuck 12, for those who don't know ACAB is All Cops Are Bastards. No idea where someone could such an idea. Just look at this group of fat white old guy cops whining like Trump about how unfair everyone is to them:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/AugustTakala/status/1270399690912272384
Maybe they should take some lessons from BLM on how to not have an undertone of sniveling and whining when asking for respect.
There was a travel guide called 'The Negro Motorist Green Book' published from 1936 to 1966. This gave specific guidance on towns to avoid, etc. due to segregation and violence against Blacks around the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book
A couple of years ago someone updated it because, well, it is needed again. Different in it is more sociological and political, not specific hotels and restaurants-
https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/04/a-revival-of-the-green-book-for-black-travelers/557081/
As the Right gets its bearings again after the Floyd protests, I think the US will Balkanize more and more. Specific towns, sections of the country, will develop their own atmosphere and behaviors on social issues. Places where Confederate flags will be welcome or where BLM signs will be welcome. I am trying to decide how to deal with a neighbor's White Power symbol on their car; do I let people who I know will confront him, possibly damage the car, know where it is parked?
Alex: Looks like some are back up and running:
ReplyDelete"June 10, 2020
To prevent the spread of COVID-19 and protect our workforce and customers, we significantly reduced passport operations in March 2020. We temporarily suspended expedited passport processing and restricted service to cases involving life-or-death emergencies. As global conditions evolve and U.S. states begin to reopen, we are resuming operations in phases. We ask for your patience as we safely get back to work on your application.
As of Thursday, June 11, a total of 11 passport agencies and centers are entering phase one of our three-phase reopening plan."
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/get-fast/passport-agencies.html
Charles-
ReplyDeleteExcept for ones of Oprah...by 2030.
mb
Meanwhile, here in Mexico, some protests are happening because a federal literally beat a man to death for not wearing a facemask. Good times.
ReplyDeleteHello Wafers:
ReplyDelete"Gone With the Wind?"
Last fall, as both a response to "woke" culture and just to show what was once considered commercially acceptable, I put together this CD for our station's annual fundraiser:
1. A Coon Band Contest – Arthur Pryor’s Band April 20, 1906
2. Oh, Is She Dumb – Eddie Cantor July, 1922
3. She Wouldn’t Do What I Asked Her To – The Original Memphis Five December 4, 1923
4. You’ve Got to Beat Me to Keep Me – Trixie Smith and her Down Home Syncopators February 9, 1925
5. How Could Red Riding Hood (Have Been So Very Good And Still Keep The Wolf From The Door) - The Yacht Club Boys September 16, 1926
6. Mississippi Mud – Frank Trumbauer Orch./v. Bing Crosby; Frank Trumbauer January 9, 1928
7. Let’s Do It – Rudy Vallée and his Connecticut Yankees December 12, 1928
8. The Sun Has Got Its Hat On – Ambrose Orch./v. Sam Browne July 13, 1932
9. Sissy Man – Josh White March 18, 1935
10. You’re the Top – Jack Hylton Orch./v. Pat O’Malley & Eve Becke June, 6, 1935
11. Was I Drunk, Was He Handsome? – Georgia White September 4, 1936
12. Swinging on the Reservation – Chick Webb 1936
13. I’ve Got a Bimbo Down on Bamboo Isle – Hoosier Hotshots – January 21, 1937
14. If The Man In The Moon Were A Coon – Tommy Dorsey and his Clambake Seven/v. Jack Leonard September 11, 1937.
15. Chinatown, My Chinatown - Slim Gaillard July 7, 1938
16. Hong Kong Blues – Hoagy Carmichael May 11, 1942
17. The Low-Down Lazy Turk – George Formby August 20, 1939
18. The Sheik of Araby – Spike Jones and his City Slickers July 31, 1942
19. And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine – Anita O’Day/Stan Kenton Orch. May, 1944
20. Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief - Les Brown Orch./v. Butch Stone January 16, 1946
21. Get a Pinup Girl – Johnny Bothwell Orchestra/ v. Claire Hogan & Pete Carlisle 1946
22. Song of Indians – Minnie Haw Haw (Karen Tedder) & Chief Red Ugh Ingle July 15, 1947
23. Ma̱ana РPeggy Lee/ Steve Barbour & the Brazilians November 25, 1947
24. Slap ‘Er Down Again, Pa – Arthur Godfrey & the Too Fat Trio December 3, 1947
25. Baby It’s Cold Outside – Britt-Inger Dreilick & Stig Gabrielsson med Thore Ehrlings orkester November 12, 1949
A few months afterwards, I received a sternly-worded email from the program head, saying how "there's no place on the station for this sort of thing," &c., &c.
Bret Weinstein, the Evergreen College professor who left the college in 2017 after an altercation with campus protestors, seems to have landed on two feet. He and his spouse Heather Heying are working on a book, “A Hunter-Gather’s Guide to the 21st Century, to be published by Penguin Press in Spring 2021. They also have posted a video talk, “Culture versus Consciousness: A Core Human Tension,” about a model for how humans address this dilemma:
ReplyDeletehttps://jmp.princeton.edu/heyingweinstein
Weinstein, who describes himself as a “professor in exile” , was interviewed in May 2020 on “Blindspots of the Left and Right (The System versus Individual Agency)”:
https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2020/05/26/bret-weinstein-blindspots-left-right-comes-system-individual-agency/
On Twitter Weinstein has a number of posts opposing moves for “defunding” polices potentially increasing police brutality and amplifying the existing racial animus. He went on, “I don’t think people understand the significance of the President declaring “Antifa” a “terrorist organization”. The Patriot Act and provisions of the NDAA of 2012 make this frightening. Because Antifa is informal it puts all protesters in danger – like declaring them un-citizens.”
https://twitter.com/BretWeinstein
Replace all current public display statues with a statue of Alfred E. Neuman. "What, me worry?" blazened on the pedestal. That sums up most Americans.
ReplyDeleteJeff J Brown has an insightful article echoing many of the points made on this blog arguing that the protest won't really change anything because there is no unifying vision or ideology guiding the protests.
ReplyDeleteHe contrasts this with the Black Panthers Ten Point Program and suggests this might be a good place for the protesters to start. The article also has some history that I wasn't aware of, i.e. that Panther leadership toured China in 1971 and met with Mao.
https://chinarising.puntopress.com/2020/06/08/protests-in-usa-land-of-marlboro-man-will-come-to-nothing-because-there-is-no-solidarity-no-vision-nor-guiding-ideology-to-unite-the-people-in-common-struggle-against-the-1-just-ask-the-black-pan/
Warning... You have to scroll down quite a bit to find the article and the links that support it.
Chuck - or Ghandi held some pretty racist views. But I think they already defaced a statue of his last week, didn't they?
ReplyDeleteMB - OH God, a statue of oprah on every street corner IS the nedt step!
Americans are not very intelligent.
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
-George Orwell, 1984
I believe coronavirus and the Black Lives Matter protests could be a coordinated effort at a worldwide totalitarian government under the guise of political correctness, social justice, health, and safety.
ReplyDeleteWhat is your view on the global Black Lives Matter riots and protests coming on the heels of the conoravirus lockdowns? All of this is globally coordinated, whether intentionally or unintentionally. People and websites that are part of Black Lives Matter have been saying they're not leading this current movement (see: BLM Seattle June 3 press release). The worldwide slogan has become: "Defund The Police." I fear the intent isn't to eliminate police, but to replace the current police with armed members of those leading the global riots. In other news, Virginia announced yesterday that school will start with virtual-only classes next year, despite any evidence that there is a health reason for doing so.
Good essay on the crisis of education in the UK which I assume will resonate with you, Professor: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/education/2019/08/great-university-con-how-british-degree-lost-its-value
ReplyDeleteSome excerpts: "What happened at Sheffield is one part of a national story: the great university con. Over the past 30 years, successive governments, from Thatcher to Blair, to Cameron and May, have imposed a set of perverse incentives on universities. Their effect has been to degrade and devalue the quality of British degrees. Academic standards have collapsed."
"Never before has Britain had so many qualified graduates. And never before have their qualifications amounted to so little. Each year, far from creating graduates of an unparalleled calibre, Britain is producing waves of sub-prime students – students who are nevertheless almost all being highly rated."
Article goes on to explain how the British Academy has been turned into a swindle operating under market principles in complete contradiction with what had been over the past 8 centuries (!). It produces ever more mediocrity and an entire generation of indebtet and unprepared, unemployable individuals who don't possess any valuable skills. It serves politicians to keep pushing the narrative of an influential nation, academics to keep paying themselves handsomely without attaining tangible results and financial institutions to burden the state with debt.
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteHmm if I may ask, can you explain the central ideas of the other civilizations? If US is hustling, what of others?
Also how does the US compare to the Conquistador worldview(in particular Lope De Aguirre)? Some would consider it just a new version of the general European will to Universal Conquest(stretching from the 1400s to the 1990s).
V/R
Mr York
York-
ReplyDeleteOf course, there are continuities...the one w/England being the most obvious, as I elaborate on in WAF. There are a lot of differences, however, one of them being that the US never had a feudal period, and was born bourgeois, as it were. In short, whereas these other societies were complex, America was incredibly monochromatic--a guitar w/one string. So while England did create an entrepreneurial class, motivated by the ideology of property fathered by John Locke (see C.B. Macpherson), it also produced Shakespeare and Dowland. Settlers in America, on the other hand, not only produced a lust for property, but also for murdering Native Americans. There is no American Shakespeare, or Dowland, or for that matter Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky. Hustling is finally all we know; it's not part of a larger culture, unless one is using 'culture' in an anthropological sense.
avoid-
The conspiracy theory of covid was discussed on this blog at length, so yr coming a bit late to the party. I can't rehash that discussion 4u; I'll just say that I don't see that there is any solid evidence to support it.
Del-
"Shit For Brains" wd be a bit more accurate.
al-
Next time, send in 2 posts, 24 hrs apart. Thanks.
mb
Dr Berman,
DeleteThank you very much for reply. I am not sure if this is proper reply to a previous statement(I am a bit new here but have lurked a little bit so know there is a +24 hour response time).
Hmm I have encountered C.B. Macpherson indirectly in another book. Westerncentrism and Contemporary Korean Political thought by Kang Jung In. His assessment of Macpherson is he misses an important aspect of Locke's goal which in Kang's opinion was to justify English conquest of the America's(Locke himself had a personal fortune relying on this) and focuses too heavily on class relation instead of cultural basis of the time and makes case that in Locke's system only valid form of land ownership is defined be enclosure and cultivation(universalizing this idea enables them to delegitimize all other claims on the Americas save the English one). Doctrine of Manifest Destiny is well embedded in Locke from his conclusions. Still probably should read Macpherson myself and see how he operates.
On the thought of these fragment societies/colonies(where a subculture makes an entirely new state-as Merchants did with US arguably a corporation state), I must wonder how others compare? How for example do Australia and New Zealand compare? Are they as monotonic?
Something that must be also accounted for is the colonists that did populated US were not actually English(largest ethnic minority in US are mainly German-Americans and is mainly them who run the country). South was populated by a Celtic Diaspora. I wonder if Hustling is a development of Machtpolitik?
V/R
Mr York
Anjin-
ReplyDeleteJeff is rt: no guiding ideology, beyond We are tired of getting killed. I understand these protests, as I said above, and I sympathize w/them. But lack of ideology, and of any concrete political planning beyond defunding cops (wh/probably won't happen), means that it's all going nowhere. In the fullness of time, we will recognize it all as beating off. Banning "Gone w/the Wind," tearing down statues, marching/shouting/looting--all beating off. Of course, every institution in America is beating off. Name a single institution, whether Supreme Court or DOJ or Zara handbags or Harvard, that isn't beating off. The chances that America will address core issues beyond racism, esp. the devastation wrought by American capitalism, are in the range of negative infinity. So instead, we beat off. Momentary joy, but nothing gets impregnated. In a few mos., few Americans will be able to identify George Lloyd; and then some white cop will brutally murder an unarmed black man, and the beat-off cycle (BOC) will begin again.
In the Twilight bk (2000), I identified a # of problems that were taking us over the cliff, and I was quite sure none of them wd be addressed. 20 yrs later, we're in the shitter.
mb
Breaking (wind) us "news!"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/story/_/id/29293767/nascar-bans-confederate-flags-racetracks
Now the imbecilic populace can watch cars go around in circles (metaphor of us "life") sans those bad, bad confederate flags.
Shithouse-
ReplyDeleteA perfect example of beating off, imo. When I think abt it, between now and the time that the US collapses in a shower of shit, there will be no upper limit to the amt of beating off it will engage in.
mb
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteI hope that you are well.
Peter Joseph posted this story from Buzzfeednews on his Twitter account.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tomgara/economy-recession-coronavirus
It looks likes we are going to be in for bumpy ride before the fall.
Peace,
Vince
Aren’t “boogaloo” type outfits composed of quite a few retired/former LEOs and military?
ReplyDeleteAn armed militia indeed, but who will they be shooting at?
Churchill-
ReplyDeleteI appreciated your input, but wasn't able to post yr message because you insulted a Wafer, talked down to him. This you must never, ever do. Wafers are the most evolved beings in the history of the universe, and hafta be treated w/a respect bordering on reverence. So if you can manage to leave out the offending last line, I'll be glad to post yr message. But pls keep in mind that when u.r. on this blog, u.r. in the presence of Greatness. Humility is abs. essential. Thank you.
mb
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/06/10/christopher-columbus-statue-beheaded-boston-massachusetts/
ReplyDelete+
BREAKING: “Quentin Tarantino Films Removed From Streaming Services and Studio Libraries Due To Offensive Themes, Language & Imagery.”
Oy!
"Sin, grace, and salvation, as words, may be old stuff; as facts they are not, since they lie at the very heart of our destiny."--Gabriel Marcel, "Being and Having"
ReplyDeleteLewis-
ReplyDeleteThis is the problem w/"righteous" movements, wh/I've referred to b4. They start out w/a crucial sense of meaning, and then spill over into everything: Columbus, Tarantino, Woody Allen, etc. It's the curse of this type of energy, that it very quickly loses all perspective. It's an old story, repeated over and over again; and what can you say to the zealous? "Don't do this"? I doubt that's gonna work. (It was after the Terror that Talleyrand said, "Above all, no zeal." Folks like Camus and Orwell also struggled w/the issue of a middle ground.)
Ricardo-
Well, progs, BLM, Democrats, white liberals...I guess.
Vince-
Gd article, thanks.
mb
Radical Chic Dept.: This kind of thing cd spell the end of the movement (same thing happened to French protests of May 68):
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jun/11/lubaina-himid-you-say-the-magic-words-black-lives-matter-buy-an-exclusive-print
T-shirts and coffee mugs to follow.
mb
ps: also this (Cooptation Dept.):
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/11/problem-corporations-signaling-support-black-people
Dr. B-
ReplyDeleteCheck this out-
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/06/10/united-states-obituary
Mb, why do you reckon Seinfeld was so popular if it was "a show about nothing"? Could it be because Amerikkkans were also about nothing?
ReplyDelete"T-shirts and coffee mugs to follow"
ReplyDeleteEight days without café au lait will suffice to break the Parisian bourgeoisie. ~Bismark
Birn-
ReplyDeleteBest analysis of our situation I've read in a long time. (2nd only to my own, of course). :-)
I was esp. impressed that he talks abt secessionist possibilities. It really is long overdue for the majority of Americans, not just a few cranks like myself who have been talking abt this for 20 fucking yrs, to realize that the game is over.
Sarah-
Check out my essay on Seinfeld in QOV.
mb
I was esp. impressed that he talks abt secessionist possibilities.
ReplyDeleteI think this idea is gaining more interest, across the political spectrum. I'm about as far to the right as it gets and I can so no reason to force people who hate each other to live together. It always amuses me when I hear people say "we need to do xyz." Who is "we?" All 327 million of us? That's a lot of we.... I
Christian-
ReplyDeleteWe, Schme. Meanwhile, the T-shirts have arrived:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/11/football/eintracht-frankfurt-black-lives-matter-shirt-spt-intl/index.html
I await the coffee mugs.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteBirn, MB, Wafers-
A fantastic piece by Heinberg. My only quibble is that the author seems too optimistic about street protests in the US as the best way (hope?) to reverse our very real slide toward authoritarianism and fascist dictatorship. A cursory look at history, however, shows that fascist dictatorships are very powerful once established, and usually overthrown by military action from another nation, or a group of nations allied on that particular front. In America's case, who will overthrow it? China? Russia? Denmark? Seems to me that this is also part of the equation. Personally, I hope America is overthrown by Tanya Cordero:
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-florida-woman-attack-boyfriend-hamburger-trailer-20200604-5zr6g64tpjf6dcnbeivpreiqjm-story.html
Nothing like being battered w/hamburger meat.
Miles
Dear Morris, Wafers,
ReplyDeleteThe Germans have an expression for a really stupid person: "Er ist zu dumm zu kacken. - He is too dumb to shit". Is this how so many Americans ended up with Scheisse im Kopf?
Waesfjord-
ReplyDeleteKann sein!
Jeff-
Tanya wd be gd, altho I personally wd put my $ on Shaneka Torres. Scrappy gal!
On a more serious note, fascist dictatorship is certainly a possibility, but what if China were to strangle the US economically? Then America wd basically be rendered irrelevant on the world stage--to the relief of the rest of the world.
mb
It has been suggested that the ultimate reality is dialogical (Plato, Hegel). We address the world in a certain way, it in turn presents a second, contradictory aspect, which in turn changes our own posture of address, etc.
ReplyDeleteThat seems to be to be precisely which is lacking in the beating off cycle. It is all designed to forever prevent an actual meaningful encounter. I don't just mean the trite "we learn to see the other's point of view"; dialogical encounters are not just a polite give and take. I mean that both sides leave a dialogical encounter truly *affected*, even if in the most visceral, unpleasant way.
This doesn't happen in the BOC. Both sides leave unaffected, more impassive. As if firing someone or banning a symbol has touched the psyche of the person or the meaning of the symbol in any way — and as if the ones doing the firing and banning have improved themselves in any way. It's victory by shutting away evil and not looking it in the eye of the other, which is, in turn, a mirror.
You can claim moral righteousness just by banning from the comfort of your phone. So many cowardly social media devices we indeed have for this BOC...
Dio-
ReplyDeleteBLM coffee mugs are gonna chg all o' that. Either that, or Tulsi.
mb
I've gone in and out of a variety of leftist political organizing and activists groups over the last 4 decades plus. My most recent time in the last few years makes it clear that Dr. B is right- the left has no goals, no plans, no vision. It RE-ACTS to what others do. It is great at that- marches, signs, chants, impassioned polemics. Take away actions by others to react to and the left is empty, sitting staring at its feet waiting to hear of another horror to protest.
ReplyDeletePoint out that Seattle and Iraq War and Trump Inauguration, etc. street marches lead nowhere, that the powers that be know they can shrug and get on with business as usual, I get blank stares. That a 'Climate Strike' made people feel good but so does Oprah and both merely allow the status quo to live another day with an added layer of smug certitude. Unions will save us! All 6% of the private work force; do people know how long an NLRB cetification drive takes?? The fetishes of the left are well-known.
The McDonalds workers who went on strike for a combination of Fight for $15 and #MeToo, what I consider one of the most exciting moments in the last five years, sank like a stone as the dominantly white liberal arts educated leftist activists crowd couldn't bring themselves to support Black and hispanic women who wouldn't know a Combahee River Collective from a Rosa Luxemburg essay.
Has this book been mentioned here? Anyone familiar with it? Eugene McCarraher’s “The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity,” a fascinating study of the ways in which capitalism, despite its purported scientific rationality, is really a perverse kind of religion.(lots of Ruskin and Morris, Dr. B)
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/06/capitalism-as-religion
In response to the many inquiries by Wafers about “Where’s Tulsi?’ in these tumultuous times, the NW Center for the Center of Tulsism has left the broken mirror of Merica for the moment in search of Tulsiantic reflection. We did not have to look far. Only yesterday, June 10, she appeared on a podcast, vowing to “continue my mission of service in a new way and on a new platform – stay tuned!”
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=tulsi+gabbard+news+today&docid=13846394086994&mid=F7F5BC9380444ABF0DC1F7F5BC9380444ABF0DC1&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
Perhaps a hint of where to find TP comes in this virtual address she gave the very same day to the First Hindu Commencement Ceremony by the national Hindu Students Council, in which she urged the embracing of karma yoga:
https://www.hindustudentscouncil.org/2020/06/10/tulsi-gabbard-hindu-commencement/
As many Mericans search in the wrong places for TP, we suspect the shortage will continue to demand a daily regimen of workouts, surfing, and social media podcasts. Researchers, however, may have to overcome privacy concerns to determine the effect on movement of the individual bowel. The final chapter of the single volume of Tulsiantic Philosophy remains to be written.
Dan - very good movie made about The Green Book, same title.Won some Oscars.
ReplyDeleteCould it be that the controversy about statues is nothing more than a new way to express opinions about white supremacy? And that Confederate Monuments were never meant to be historical structures, to preserve history, but white domination propaganda to remind blacks that whites are still in charge? (Most monuments were erected in 2 historical periods - early 1900s as KKK was regenerating and 1950s and 60s) Neither should they be preserved as symbols of great playwrights or artists. Confederate generals didn't write great plays or paint great works of art.
https://www.wellesley.edu/albright/about/blog/3536-what-confederate-monuments-do
I do, however, love the idea of erecting Alfred E Newman statutes throughout the country. Both to preserve American history and to remind us just how ignorant we are.
Ritchie-
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/muyaCg2dGAk
" By the way, Woody Allen is innocent "
Thorough documentary research
Alec Baldwin recently took heat for interviewing Allen on podcast
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/alec-baldwin-critics-promoted-podcast-woody-allen
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteMuch of what you have said about the American way of life, specifically money, is in this Atlantic article. You didn’t ghost write it, did you? :)
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-money-became-the-measure-of-everything?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Great article from The Prison Policy Initiative: "Not just “a few bad apples”: U.S. police kill civilians at much higher rates than other countries". Graphs are very telling.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/06/05/policekillings/
And, in other news today..."The United States Is Officially Ranked Last at Coronavirus Response as Cases Spike"
https://observer.com/2020/06/us-state-coronavirus-case-surge-june-ranked-last/
An acquaintance of mine, an infectious disease specialist and a public health specialist, predicted a month ago that the eventual U.S. Covid death toll would be 2-3 million people. At the time, I thought he was a little over the top. Now.....
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteSomething weirdly statue-related happened to me yesterday. As I was out for my evening constitutional through a local park, out of nowhere a barefoot aboriginal woman approached me and asked me to take a photo of her sitting on the statue of Gabriel Dumont and his horse. This is about the most politically-correct statue in the British Commonwealth.
Anyway, the dame was under the influence of one or a few substances, but I said I'd help out, although I kept warning her not to fall off. Surprisingly, she quickly clambered up onto the horse, struck a few poses, which I photographed on her phone; she climbed down safely, took back the phone, and we both went on our way. Here's the statue:
http://www.metismuseum.ca/resource.php/13306
Funny memes that reveal the faux-intellectual nature of America.
ReplyDeletehttps://imgflip.com/i/44thv4
https://imgflip.com/i/44thi4
https://imgflip.com/i/44ti54
fried-
ReplyDeleteWhoever is publishing this stuff certainly has a weird sense of humor. But hey: I'm finally getting the attention I deserve! I just wish I knew all these great females he's referring to.
mb
Note to avoid-
ReplyDeleteAs I said, this was discussed at length here some time ago. You might wanna scroll thru previous posts' comments. I'm not inclined to revive the arguments regarding conspiracy virus theories. We are all onto more interesting topics. You'll probably find greater satisfaction on other blogs, I'm guessing.
mb
Hi Dr. B 'n WAFERS:
ReplyDelete-Dan Daniel: I am in the process of selectively reading Eugene McCarraher’s “The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity." I would read it word-for-word, but I just don't have the time.
An incredible book. Immensely informative and comprehensive. Authoritative. Profoundly eloquent. Tells the reader pretty everything she/he needs to know about the evolution of Western Civilization since the Middle Ages.
He's very much from the school of thought that says that ideas, beliefs, values, practices - culture, in others words - is what shapes and drives society. About the only thing that is missing is the kind of analyses established by Marx and his successors, in other words a more materialist analysis, but one could easily pair McCarraher's book with a work that covers that material.
Once I finish working with, I'd be glad to share some further thoughts.
-Northern Johnny
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to get a bead on what the current American m.o. is with regard to the virus. As of today, there are more than 116K dead. Something like 2 million are infected. Yet the plan seems to be to end lockdown and open things up; wh/some experts are saying will lead to a resurgence of the virus. Trumpaloni has declared that the danger is past; a lg % of the population is behaving like that's true--in wh/case, the m.o. from the pres down is an ostrich maneuver. Do we know what we are doing? I honestly can't figure it out. The same confusion seems to prevail in Mexico as well.
mb
Anytime Fitness apologizes after Wisconsin location offers 'I Can't Breathe' workout
ReplyDeletehttps://www.10news.com/news/national/anytime-fitness-apologizes-after-wisconsin-location-offers-i-cant-breathe-workout
Choco-
ReplyDeleteDo we all understand how stupid Americans are? Talk abt shit for brains.
mb
Dan D, Northern J -
ReplyDeleteThat book was fascinating, a friend gifted it for Xmas and I couldn't put it down.
mb - "the plan" for Americans will be essentially the same as "the plan" for the 1918 flu. I also forecast approx. 2 mil. deaths because that's in proportion to the deaths from the 1918 flu, given the larger present population. Why? Because the culture hasn't changed perceptibly since then.
ReplyDeleteWell, I've made a couple of "blessing boxes" (used to be called little free libraries but nowadays people put food and other things in) regular stops on my route when I go downtown, about 3X a week, and drop off things of course, but today I got a hardcover book from the 1970s, with 65 short stories by Somerset Maugham. I didn't even know the guy wrote short stories. I'm in for some great reading when the internet winks out.
This is kinda nice:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53017919
Of Course He Did...because this is what Americans DO!
ReplyDeleteCalifornia man poisoned 8 homeless people, filmed reactions: prosecutors
https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-man-accused-allegedly-poisoning-eight-homeless-people-filming-reactions-da
'BREAKING: Steven Mnuchin is now flat-out REFUSING to disclose the businesses receiving $500,000,000,000 in bailout funds, claiming the info is "confidential"
ReplyDelete4.5 MILLION businesses received government funds. Zero transparency.
Unconscionable, jaw-dropping corruption.'
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-money/2020/06/11/mnuchin-ready-to-deal-on-new-economic-package-788431
Looting in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone....
(R)'s steal elections, Supreme Court seats, taxpayer $$$, soldiers' lives -- and the (D)'s just complain, hand-waive, implicate, to then do nothing. It's alllll a scam. Theater.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2020/06/10/politics/nancy-pelosi-georgia-election-issues-cnntv/index.html
York-
ReplyDeleteSorry, we have a half pg max rule on this blog. Pls edit down and re-send. Thank you.
mb
Dr. B-
ReplyDeleteKrystal Ball exposes the delusion of the American dream-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chq_VxzDsSc
New York City policeman apologizes.... for kneeling with protesters.
ReplyDeletehttps://nypost.com/2020/06/11/nypd-lieutenant-apologizes-for-kneeling-alongside-protesters/
This is going to grow as the Right gets its bearings and starts lashing back.
Thank you Northern and V. lane for the comments on the McCarraher book. Trying to track a copy down now. Interested to see how he handles the 'religious' or whatever it should be called. The destruction of spirit/soul/magic (again, language is slippery matter here) under capitalism and its replacement with corrupted or ersatz spirituality fascinates me.
Among all the mess of a collapsing culture, caving economy, craven populous, etc. I find little things like this just amazingly awesome (a la Kant, not MTV Spring Break)... the only memory of the bee is a painting by a dying flower...
https://xkcd.com/1259/
Pretty amazing world we are in.
Hi Mb & wafers,
ReplyDeleteHave u ever noticed how bland Amerikkkam architecture was compared to Europe & other places? US cities are just plain boring. Everything revolves around work. That's all folks do, work. I understand why there's so many druggies all over the streets
An astonishing piece of writing by an ex-policeman. Straight from the horse's mouth about the structures in place that make all policeman bastards.
ReplyDeletehttps://medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759
As a Canadian I'm afraid, unfortunately, that this too is drifting north of the border.
Careful where you let your dog crap - getting to the point you'll need a bullet proof vest to go outside
ReplyDeletehttps://nypost.com/2020/06/12/colorado-woman-shot-dead-after-argument-about-dog-poop/
Interesting article on the politicization of science during the coronavirus crisis, with a special emphasis on the reactions to Stanford professor John Ioannidis.
ReplyDeletehttps://undark.org/2020/06/11/john-ioannidis-politicization/
I must admit, the events of the last week has been an amazing display of institutional power. The media turned an ex con into a sainted hero. All of the rage and energy generated is getting channeled right back into the system in a way that just serves to reinforce the system. Nike, Starbucks, and Coke will be able to cleverly market BLM products. The politicians will be able to use this to pass legislation furthering their agendas. The protestors and rioters and anarchist types get to LARP as agents of chaos/change. Never mind that if they ever really pissed off the wrong people they would be crushed like bugs.
ReplyDeleteChristian-
ReplyDeleteOf course, we can expect T-shirts and coffee mugs and the hustling exploitation of Floyd's death; this is America, after all. But if you can only see, in his murder, an ex-con and subsequent deification, and not grasp what that murder signifies to black people all over the world, then you have really missed the boat.
mb
On America's reaction to virus - here in NC, we are in what the Gov calls "Phase 2". Barber shops allowed to reopen, restaurants with limited numbers but not bars. Where are his priorities? With less restrictions, almost all Carolinians have discarded their face masks - 1 in 50 maybe continue to wear them and extremely few maintain 6' distance. As any idiot could surmise, numbers are on the rise. Gee, you mean if we gather side by side and don't wear masks we could get sick. Who could have imagined?
ReplyDeleteEither they don't understand basic science or they just don't give a shit - or both. At the least, shows a lack of respect for the life of others and one's own and a surrender to something they don't understand and can't fight with drones.
But is it human beings in general - universal human nature - or just Americans? Maybe we are just more adept at being idiots.
Watch "8:46 - Dave Chappelle" on YouTube
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/3tR6mKcBbT4
Great perspective
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteA shout-out to the Wafer (possibly MB) who recommended "Escape From Evil" by Ernest Becker. Absolutely brilliant. I think it's one of the most important books I've ever read. Next up: MB's "The Heart of the Matter."
MB-
Speaking of Shaneka, I think she should be coming up for parole soon. She was convicted and sentenced to 5-7 yrs in 2015. It will be a glorious day when she's free. Meanwhile, more mayhem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Doth_MOEbNM&t=24s
Miles
ps: Will this nation ever be held to account for the mistreatment of Bobby Seale at the Chicago Eight Trial? Seale had been bound and gagged and chained to a chair in the courtroom. It didn't matter to me whether he was guilty or not. In my book, you don't get to call that a fair trial...
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteWafers shd fly to Michigan, meet Shaneka at the door of the jail. But then there's also Laquisha Jones. Plus Chrystal Walraven. As for the famous image of Bobby in chains, that circled the globe instantly, in 1968, and said it all to the rest of the world: exactly who we were, and what our system of 'justice' was all abt.
mb
Dr B,
ReplyDeleteI thought this may make your day a bit. If you haven't seen "Planet of the Humans" (available free in youtube under Michael Moore's channel), around the 49:10 timestamp, the film briefly shows Jeff Gibbs (director) and Sheldon Solomon hold the prophetic "Dark Ages America" book. They obviously had some discussions about it.
Vaq-
ReplyDeleteThanks. I was the keynote speaker at a conference in Canada a few yrs back; Sheldon was one of the folks who attended a seminar I gave there. I guess he liked the bk.
mb
So it seems that Trump, instead of the "leader of the free world," is the "leader of the infected world." Well, he's not alone, as an article in Der Spiegel refers to Trump, Putin, Johnson and Bolsonaro as the "four leaders of the infected world" after the Covid-19 statistics (who said the Germans don't have a sense of humour). Personally, I also see certain similarities with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and, as a pastime, perhaps it could be fun to match Pestilence, War, Famine and Death with each of them.
ReplyDeleteVaquero- Probably the only interesting thing to come out of Moore's doc! What a biased and poorly researched film. I really appreciate Solomon's "The Worm at the Core"
ReplyDeleteHi Wafers, A lot has been said reg Churchill. Just wanted to add something from my personal experience. I am from the state of Bengal that Shashi Tharoor mentions in the article shared by Malleus. For my parent’s generation the famine of 1943, that killed abt 3m ppl was a lived experience. I grew up hearing horror stories abt how the rural poor flooded the city of Calcutta, how the desperately hungry ppl asked only for the starch of the rice (we drain the starch water) to drink in order to survive. A recent research by Indian and US researchers have established that Churchill’s policies were responsible for the famine:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/29/winston-churchill-policies-contributed-to-1943-bengal-famine-study
The sentence that stands out for me in Tharoor’s article is this one: ‘ Nor can his views be excused as being reflective of their times; his own Secretary of State for War, Leo Amery, confessed that he could see very little difference between Churchill’s attitude and Hitler’s.‘
Guatemalan Film 'Ixcanul' Might Be the Most Feminist Movie of the Year
ReplyDeletehttps://www.glamour.com/story/guatemalan-film-ixcanul-might-be-the-most-feminist-movie-of-the-year
Watched this for Friday nite flick. Beautiful movie!
"If you have selfish ignorant citizens,you're gonna get selfish ignorant leaders."- George Carlin
ReplyDeleteYork-
ReplyDeleteI confess I lost the thread of what our discussion was. It may not amt to much, but I have spent a bit of time in both NZ and Oz, and found them to be rather different. Oz is a cowboy culture, like America; hustling reigns supreme. Very aggressive. NZ seems to follow a different track, as can be seen in its current prime minister.
I doubt that the colonists of the late 16C and early 17C, when our 'fragment society' was born, were German rather than English. You wd need to provide evidence for that claim. I think the Germans came much later; the case I make in WAF for hustling as the Lockean outlook of an English entrepreneurial class strikes me as pretty solid. But it's a long time since I read "The Liberal Tradition in America," by Louis Hartz, or even Macpherson ("Political Theory of Possessive Individualism"); this is just what I remember, when I was doing the WAF research more than 10 yrs ago.
Anyway, I'm not sure what we are arguing abt, exactly, or if it matters, but I hafta say you haven't changed my mind. You haven't provided much in the way of evidence, for yr views, wh/come across as personal speculation, not much more.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteYou'd think, in the wake of the Floyd murder, that white cops wd be extra careful abt shooting black men. But no...let's just keep doing the worst thing possible:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/14/rayshard-brooks-shooting-protesters-set-fire-to-restaurant-where-black-man-shot-dead
mb
Good piece on the media’s rehabilitation of George W. Bush. Bush is now seen as a “Good Republican” compared to Donald Trump. I guess Americans have a short memory or they don’t care about all of the terrible things that happened during Bush’s administration like lying us into war in Iraq and the use of torture.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/08/media-buries-george-w-bushs-lies-and-atrocities/
Hello Mr Berman
ReplyDeleteA probable cause of the difference in levels of hustling between OZ and NZ is that OZ had a large number of indentured criminals in its founding population NZ did not, this fact may have had a profound impact on those countries cultures. The same history of differences in indentured criminals forming a significant part of the founding population occurs between the USA and Canada, though that has not saved the Canadians from the hustlers down south spreading their culture northwards.
Regards Philip
Tom, there is this saying, if you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump right out. But if you put it in a pot of normal water and then slowly heat it, it will try to get adjusted. It will feel uncomfortable at any given moment, but will feel that things were better a while ago. Bush in his times seemed stupid and duplicitous. Now Trump is the bad guy, and Bush seems so much better. Tells us where things are headed.
ReplyDeleteAnother night, another police shooting, more riots. It is very difficult to make structural changes, it is even more difficult to change beliefs and attitudes of entire communities. Are we even biologically capable of doing it?
Philip-
ReplyDeleteNext time, check in as Philip, not Anonymous. I don't post Anons. Thanks.
mb
@Steph, Thank you for the link.
ReplyDelete@Dr. Berman, Glad you liked the article.
A quote posted on Guy McPherson's website.
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
~ Isaac Asimov
Peace,
Vince
Ordinary Indian, I have the sense that structural changes are going to happen as a result of a whole mess of decisions and actions being made by people and groups. And that this is really out of the control of any effort to 'make' the changes happen. When systems get this unstable, every new input's effect is basically unpredictable.
ReplyDeleteRight wing militia-types guarding a statue of Columbus in Philadelphia:
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/men-some-armed-with-guns-or-bats-surround-south-philly-columbus-statue/2433099/
The world is a smaller place today with one less Wendys:
https://heavy.com/news/2020/06/rayshard-brooks-atlanta-shooting-wendys-video/
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/502631-wendys-where-rayshard-brooks-was-killed-appears-on-fire
When mobs are acting with deliberation and focus to bring about destruction, shit is about to get real. The right wingers will recognize this. The backlash is coming.
York-
ReplyDeleteCdn't post it. One rule here is, only one post per 24 hrs, max. Also be careful abt length. Thanks.
ps: Philip: I don't think there is much evidence that indentured criminals formed a signif. part of the American settlers. As I wrote to York, it was mostly the English entrepreneurial class. Which was aggressive enuf (see WAF).
Vince-
Richard Hofstadter, "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life," ca. 1959.
mb
ReplyDeleteAlthough acts of violence are steady indicators of the ongoing decline, sometimes the clues are less subtle. I offer for your consideration news that in the coming incarnation of the Warner Brothers/Looney Toons characters on HBO Max, neither Elmer Fudd nor Yosemite Sam will be carrying weapons. The producer of the series was quick to assure followers that there will still be plenty of violence, typically involving TNT and other products of destruction from the vaunted Acme Company. America’s parents and their children will owe the studio a debt of gratitude. Mel Blanc, on the other hand, will wonder what has happened here.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/elmer-fudd-yosemite-sam-guns/
How Trump Could Lose the Election and Remain President
ReplyDeleteI used to think until very recently that this was way too far fetched: Trump losing and refusing to concede. But I now think something like this will happen in November. What's all that noise Trump is making about postal ballots? It could even be the other way around: the dems losing and a significant portion of the nation refusing to accept Trump's victory. In the end, everybody knows the elections are rigged: electronic voting machines without paper trail? What the fucking fuck? The shit is going to hit the fan very soon indeed. Get ready and repent from your sins! For the cries for justice have been heard by the Lord and he'll smite the canaanites with His holy wrath! Or something along these lines anyway...
Dr. Berman, I am a long time reader of your blog, and I have posted on a few occasions. While I don't always agree, I find the conversation stimulating. Now, my comment: What I find interesting right now is how the various groups (right or left) are already fighting among themselves. Various liberal (for lack of a better word) groups and individuals are infighting. Spike Lee had to apologize for saying Woody Allen is a fine director and maybe cancel culture is going too far. Interesting considering that Spike has attacked many folks over the years. And all one has to do is read any right-wing site (for example, Lifesite, a far right Catholic site) to see the righties arguing about who is the craziest. Seems to me with so much infighting nothing is ever really going to get accomplished. Not that I ever thought it would. Just my two cents for the discussion.
ReplyDeleteAs you've said b4 MB how do you reform dog shit? Until all police are "defunded" I can't see much progress nevertheless Colorado quickly jumped on the bandwagon, these seem to b substantive (especially ending qualified immunity) but why for gods sake was there ever such a thing as a carotid choke hold? wtf seems hard not to kill using that method.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.denverpost.com/2020/06/13/colorado-police-accountability-reform-bill/
Arthur-
ReplyDeleteI suspect one thing might get accomplished: the collapse of the American empire.
mb
A few less square hamburgers and bowls of finger chili leave the world just a little better place.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile here in "progressive" California (depressing that compared to flyover country we are), those damn blacks keep hanging themselves! https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-investigate-hanging-death-california-black-man-71238829
One was a guy who tracked and documented Nazis, I'm sure that had absolutely nothing to do with it...
Case Studies in US assholery.
ReplyDeleteWent to a neighborhood party. Everyone there thought the US simply has a "leadership" issue (code word for Trumpi). They simply do not understand nor WANT to understand the demise of the us was ontologic and in its' DNA. Tried (I know, i know...) to explain the realities of the US empire--nation of hustlers, hucksters, 400yrs+ of hyper isolationism/capitalism, hence why no real health care, no education without huge loans, etc..etc..etc...all abt $.
Well, it was like someone told them there is no such thing as Santa Klaus /Easter Bunny. Might as well took a shit in their living rm. The USians looked sad, disgruntled, and left.
Side note: NZ (lived there) and OZ are so different it's not even funny. NZ has a community. OZ is the US...down unda mate.
Glans-
ReplyDeletePerhaps next time, don't present any ideas or arguments. Just evacuate your bowels on the living room floor, and depart. It sends a message.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteCheck out the bubbas. O dem bubbas!
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/black-pastor-who-called-911-after-alleged-attack-was-arrested-n1231005
mb
Fun with Richard Hofstadter: “Do The Paranoid Style”
ReplyDeletek-
ReplyDeleteI loved it. Note that the boogaloo was also a dance.
mb
Dear Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of the break up of US (secessionist movements): I have wondered along what lines such a break up might happen?The following book (which I have and have read in bits and pieces) seems to provide some clues:
“American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.”
https://www.amazon.com/American-Nations-History-Regional-Cultures-ebook/dp/B0052RDIZA
Below is a review of the book:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/11/08/which-of-the-11-american-nations-do-you-live-in/
Himanshu
This is disturbing, a woman giving up her 4y.o adopted autistic chinese Son (after she made money out of it) because it is difficult for HER, Egocentrism at its finest.
ReplyDeleteAnother face of the decline.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1C0dvKc6AI
@Dan Daniel, I agree. It is systemic instabilities that bring in structural changes. Hard to effect them at other times. But as Wallerstein wrote on many occasions, these are very unstable times. The world system is at a point of 'bifurcation' on its trajectory in analogy with dynamical systems. Also, thanks for sharing the Current Affairs article on capitalism as religion.
ReplyDeleteKeith Woods offers an interesting analysis that what we are seeing unfold is an outpouring of anger by frustrated "aspirational elites." We turn out more college educated elite wanabes than we have elite spots for them to occupy.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg_EeUjOHWI
Were going to get through this and be a better country and a better people for it:
ReplyDeletehttps://nypost.com/2020/06/05/mending-jpm-chief-drops-into-mt-kisco-chase-branch/
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteWhere is Hillary in all this? Why isn't she giving us her views on the virus, and the race riots? We need her sage input.
mb
The centenary of the death of Max Weber by pandemic
ReplyDeletehttps://medium.com/iipp-blog/good-bureaucracy-max-weber-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-death-c3dc6846d6be
Neuroscience has much to learn from Hume’s philosophy of emotions
https://psyche.co/ideas/neuroscience-has-much-to-learn-from-humes-philosophy-of-emotions
Dr. Berman and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteIn addition to missing Billary's wisdom re: Tom Hanks Disease and the riots, we def need to hear from Fiorina, Weld, Steyer, Kludouchechar, Buchanan, Warren,.etc..who needs
Derrida, de Beauvoir, Foucault, Camus, Bergsen, when you have such sage advice from Cain, Palin, and Dukakas--BTW: loved the tank pic too! You showed em Duke, you were one "tough," militaristic American!
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteMcCarraher’s book sounds interesting, although there isn't anything new in the idea that capitalism has replaced religion or that it has devotees for whom mercantilism has taken on a reverence usually associated with the religious. In 1843, Thomas Carlyle wrote about the "gospel of Mammonism," and John Ralston Saul has more recently referred to the Big Mac as the "communion wafer of consumerism."
Wafers will be happy to note that the CBC website is running a headline on Meghan Markle telling us that silence about racism isn't an option. I didn't read the article.
I'm curious as to why Tulsi gets so much attention here. Isn't she pretty well a non-entity?
Finally, thanks to whoever posted the link to the Krystal Ball piece. Since seeing that, I've been watching her show on YouTube. She's refreshingly intelligent, and actually uses the term "working class" in her broadcasts.
Greetings Mb,
ReplyDeleteGeorge Carlin played a big part in waking me up (before I discovered your work). Here's what he had to say about folks recording & documenting every mundane action
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RNSXfigQA5k
In Beijing, officials have come around to support four more years of Trump// "the benefit of the erosion of America’s postwar alliance network would outweigh any damage to China from continued trade disputes and geopolitical instability." https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-06-15/china-warms-to-idea-of-four-more-years-of-trump-presidency
ReplyDeleteGuess people just periodically have to check to make sure Hobbes is still right.
ReplyDeleteMeet the Gun Club Patrolling Seattle’s Leftist Utopia
https://www.thedailybeast.com/seattles-capitol-hill-autonomous-zone-chaz-has-armed-guards
....I never considered the roving militias in our future would be both right and leftist
al-
ReplyDeleteShe is, but we are trying to resurrect her. I'm abs. convinced that if the country were to embrace the principles of Tulsism, all wd be well. That she is being repressed and denied is quite obvious. Just check the NYT every day: no mention of her at all. You see?
Shithouse-
But Cain, Palin et al. are w/holding their wisdom from us. Just when we badly need the 999 Plan. We hardly need Derrida deconstructing black rage for us. As for the silence of Ging Newtrich...don't get me started!
mb
Films will have to meet an inclusion standard to be eligible for the Oscars, the academy announces. The details are still being worked out. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/movies/oscars-diversity-rule.html
ReplyDeleteBollocks!
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteIt may be time for us to begin contemplating post-Nov. 2020 election scenarios for the US. Here's one possibility:
In Oct. 2024, Trumpi cancels the Nov. 2024 election, and declares himself president for life. He sends the entire US military down to Argentina, to take over that country. His own private army consists of thugs and bubbas, who patrol the sts. of America w/semi-automatic weapons. If you look cross-eyed at a bubba, or violate the 4:30 pm curfew, you are shot down like a dog. They are also empowered, and encouraged, to use choke holds on anyone they don't like. All Jews and Muslims are required to wear yellow stars, and live, w/all other non-white non-Christians, in detention camps in Idaho. A major insurrection occurs in Hawaii, after Trumpi sends bubbas down there to crucify Tulsi. Everyone is required to wear their underwear on top of their normal clothing, and to salute bubbas in the street by crying out, "Bubba Flubba!" This expression replaces "In God We Trust" on all US legal tender. Protesters, for whatever cause, are nuked with a force that is 10x the payload dropped on Hiroshima. Anyone who survives this will be forced to undergo an enema made of melted Hershey's chocolate. All TV programs will be cancelled, in favor of a 24-hour sex tape of Kim Kardashian. The entire country will be plastered with huge billboards proclaiming BLACK LIVES DON'T MATTER IN THE SLIGHTEST. Sarah Palin will organize anti-pussy hat rallies. A guillotine will be set up in Times Square; Rom Mittney will have his head chopped off, along w/Hillary and Obama. The heads will be used in future soccer matches.
All of this will constitute Phase 1 of the Trumpi Revolution. Wafers are encouraged to submit scenarios for Phases 2 and 3.
mb
ps: almost forgot: children will especially be the targets of mace, clubs, tasers, and if necessary, guns:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/15/outrage-video-police-mace-child-seattle-protest
https://www.thedailybeast.com/americas-social-unrest-is-about-to-get-much-worse-congress-fears
ReplyDeleteIn eager anticipation for Trumpo's potential victory over senile, corporatist Schmiden, maybe get some bumper stickers that truly embody what the US empire stood for:
ReplyDeleteWhat's in for me?
Why read?
My taxes support >1000 overseas military bases-HELL YAH!
It's all about money.
We love war.
Dumb and proud.
History is lame.
We're #37.
This pickem up truck brakes for yard sales
Honk if you love porn.
Glad I'm not black
What's the number to 911?
Nuke Luxembourg!
My child is dumb as shit.
If it ain't nailed down, it's mine.
Where the fuck is my bacon?
Not my problem.
Money is my co-pilot
Regarding the macing of kids: it is by now clear that there is no line of decency which American cops will refuse to cross. I wdn't be surprised if they eventually unleash vicious dogs on children, because they live in a world in wh/anything goes. All of the hullabaloo going on rt now, abt abolishing or defunding police depts: when the dust settles, what will it really amt to? I predict that all of these chgs will be cosmetic, and that the cops will continue killing black people and macing children. The only way to chg that is to chg the mental framework of the NYPD and others, and that simply isn't going to happen, short of mass lobotomies. What seems to be happening is that we are crossing over into fascism.
ReplyDeleteSo the police will get 'sensitivity' training; statues will get torn down; affirmative action will get resurrected; and political correctness will go hog wild, become even more demented than it is today--and for what? When the dust settles, the police will be the police, race relations will be the same, and above all, relations of power will remain unchanged. America cannot suddenly become a different country, which means that it has no future at all.
Mike-
ReplyDeleteThose are pretty gd. Someday, I may hafta close down the blog (who can predict?). These will be my parting words:
Jumbo-lie, crawfish pie, mi-o my-o
Well tonite I'm gonna see my cher ami-o
Drink fruit jar, play guitar, and be gay-o
Son of a gun we'll have great fun down by the bayou.
Yahoo!
mb
Last year, my mom and I finally cut ties with my uncle. One of the last times we saw him he told us we needed to change the laws to make home invasion for the purposes of beating all the children legal. A four year old and a six year old were visiting for the holidays. After they left, he said, “We need to change the laws so that I can go into people’s homes and beat the children. Then, I would go from house to house beating them all, and if the parents don’t like it, that’s too bad. They should be forced to watch as I beat their children.” The children had done nothing wrong. He wants to hurt people.
ReplyDeletePreviously, on the subject of the homeless, he told us that if he ever saw someone asleep on a sidewalk he would break their arms and legs.
He is the same uncle who wants to exterminate all Muslims.
Christian Schultzke - That's exactly what happened in Germany post - WWI. There were tons of educated, middle-class white collar people out of work. Along with tons of blue-collar types of course, but usually when times are bad it's the working class that takes it in the ass while the white collar type tut-tut and tell them to pull on their bootstraps harder. Just like in 1930s Germany, there are a lot of smart, capable people out of work and not seeing any way out. Ours will be a shitty low-budget Nazism though.
ReplyDeleteIn Soviet Russia, one could be purged for being an 'objective fascist' (ie. someone whose actions promote fascism even if they profess to believe communism). I have occasionally wondered whether there can be such a thing as an 'objective Wafer'. If so, I think Ging Newtrich might be it. Consider: he helped put Donald Trump in the White House and subsequently moved to Rome. He dutifully continues to advance American decline by appearing on Fox News. Finally, he's taken the Wafer dictum to inquire and create to heart by producing a series of, admittedly journeyman-level, novels:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Collusion-Novel-Newt-Gingrich-ebook/dp/B07BDKN9NL
Said one reviewer:
" This political thriller is astounding in its realistic descriptions of the corruption and greed resulting from the love of power and money that drives many of the characters in this novel. General Gromyko, the Russian Presidential Advisor is particularly evil. Not to be outdone, the CIA Director, Harold Harris, is despicable with little regard for the men and women who work for him."
An interesting perspective on BLM by a black academic
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rt.com/op-ed/491889-anonymous-uc-berkeley-professor-blm/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email
Yossi-
ReplyDeleteHeavy stuff! Good to have the counter-argument.
Bosch-
WTF is he doing in Rome??! And: are all bubbas objective Wafers (as is Trumpalino)?
Trumpalino, Trumpalino,
Enormous large thing.
Trumpalino dance
Trumpalino sing...
mb
Newt Gingrich—AKA Ging Newtrich, AKA Hubba Hubba Bubba—is married to the current US Ambassador to the Holy See, Callista. (The Greek word kallista (κάλλιστα) means “fairest, most beautiful.” The last picture I saw of her does not justify that appellation; maybe she was a beautiful baby.)
ReplyDeleteJas-
ReplyDeleteShe looks a lot like Hillary; i.e., Botox-wise. Perhaps getting water boarded might loosen her up a tad. But I'm jealous; *I* wanna live in Rome!
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Wafers-
ReplyDeleteSo much for hard-hitting police reform:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/16/politics/police-reform-order-donald-trump/index.html
2nd, here's what most Americans are interested in:
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/kanye-west-yeezy-beauty/index.html
Why worry abt cops outta control, when you can buy an aromatherapy pillow from Kanye?
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This occurred in august 2019. Cops responding to a Walmart call on a sleeping homeless person, the police had earlier reports of a man with a gun. The guy is clearly passed out drunk when the police approach. Maybe tiptoe up and apprehend him? Nah. Warning - contains a bit more than your run of the mill UltraViolence.
ReplyDeleteThis is no way to treat a white man, amirite?
https://mobile.twitter.com/AnarchistFed/status/1272380573613527040
comrade-
ReplyDeleteWere the cops ever charged w/murder?
mb
ReplyDeleteOf Course they did...
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/06/15/ebay-employees-arrested-u-s-attorney-andrew-lelling-cyberstalking/
'scuze the 24 violation (don't shoot!)
ReplyDeleteI googled 4 pages deep with several search terms and couldn't find a single mention of suspension, charges filed or prosecution. "reaching for his waistband" constitutes a justified shooting. The guy was actually just grabbing his balls while saying "fuck you pigs".
Time for a Go Fund Me statue to be erected at the Seattle Autonomous Zone.
GSWH,
ReplyDeletehoustonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Texas-sees-weekend-surge-in-covid-19-15356042.php
Masks may not be enough; some models 'looking apocalyptic' Houston expert says. Also, If trends persist Houston 'would become the most affected city in the US' expert Peter Hotez says.
A telling smorgasbord of stories from a good journal. Good photo of the Medical Center mainline. A place I know well. About six days from leaving my seasonal solitary escape here for a cooler, higher region, all I can say is correct Morris, Mexico is just as plagued. There is little refuge left anywhere for any refugee in spirit or in the flesh. My doctor acquaintance prdicted this three months ago.
On a related note, trumpalini is fucked. He will be soundly defeated in less than 130 days. Even Texas may go "blue".