June 09, 2021

428

The Obama presidency was characterized by 8 years of going nowhere. Obama was little more than a photo-op with pretty speeches. Indeed, he had no moral compass, and no vision for what America could or should be. His 'goal', if one can call it that, was simply to be president. Once that was achieved, he was content to just float on the status quo. In a lot of ways, it was similar to the Clinton presidency, minus the semen-stained dress.

Then came Trumpaloni. A declinist's dream, one might argue, because his notion of saving America was in fact to mount an assault on it. He did a ton of damage, and we are still living in the fallout from that. He could well get reelected in 2024, and get us back on the straightforward collapse track.

What, then, can we say about poor Joe Schmiden? The guy certainly means well, but the drawbacks are obvious. First, he wants the US to recover its world hegemonic role, to be the global leader once again. I don't have to convince readers of this blog that such a goal is a fairy tale par excellence.

Beyond that, however, he has no coherent foreign policy; a fact that many political analysts have already commented on. Internationally speaking, the US is basically adrift.

On the domestic front, let me point to 3 things. First, Biden wants to fight Covid, and has done a fairly decent job (dramatically better than Trumpalumpi, quite obviously). Second, he seeks to promote diversity across the board. Which he has done to a large extent, but there is the question of whether this is window dressing, or real social change. Again, I think readers of this blog know the difference between shit and Shinola, even if Joe and the rest of America do not. Finally, Joe has FDR-type ambitions, which include massive spending on infrastructure and aid for families in need, taxing corporations, and perhaps a few other noble goals. All of this, however, is starting to look like it will be stuck in the mud. Which is not Joe's fault, but the Republicans are having none (or very little) of it, and they seem to be in a position to defeat these plans in the Senate. My prediction is that on the domestic front, deep structural changes are not in our future. As for various protest movements, I think we can already see that they have been about as effective as pussy hats. Across the nation, to take but one example, police departments have larger budgets than they did a year ago. So much for "defunding" the police. America will remain what it is, in other words, as it moves slowly but steadily along the path of social, political, cultural, and economic disintegration.

The difference between the Clinton/Obama/Biden mode of being, and that of Trumponi, is thus the velocity of our disintegration, nothing more. That we could switch to an entirely different trajectory is not an option; way too late for that. The choices are slow disintegration or rapid disintegration. The elections of 2022 and 2024 should clarify how things are going to play out.

Finally, it is not clear how the condition of the American people is going to figure in this drama. Nearly all of them have security as their first priority, and no admin, Dem or GOP, can guarantee that for them. A large percentage of the population, in consequence, doesn't care if we have a democracy or not; for them, that's neither here nor there. Most are angry, scared, desperate, disoriented, and above all--dumb as a bag of hammers. Fundamentally, Americans are a silly people, a frivolous people, with no goal beyond learning how to hustle better. Concepts such as "community" or "society" never cross their feeble minds. I can't say exactly how that will fit into the current disaster, but I am sure that it will, one way or another.

-mb

194 Comments:

Anonymous cyrillia juniper said...

Here's exhibit #1 for "dumb as a bag of hammers."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/09/texas-republican-louie-gohmert-climate-change

My daughter lives in Australia and she and her boss were in fits of giggles over this one. They watch the news of the US every day to find new laughs from ignorant behaviors.

9:58 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Cyr-

This is exactly what I'm talking abt. Americans are stupid!--bottom-line reality.

mb

10:29 PM  
Anonymous Art Baker said...

You speak of "community" at the end of your recent statement. It
seems everyone uses that happy word to connote the family, a group
with a common purpose, a common culture, and an historical bond.
Black, gay, Asian, even sports fans are all thought of as being
embedded in a solid group and definitely not alone. Then this word
now has a rival, "diversity," which connotes separation, variety,
aloneness, and previous suppression. Hence the contradiction of
exactly what is the nature of American society, either a beehive
or a room filled with persons speaking many different languages
all isolated from one another. Orwell would wonder about this.

11:11 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Art-

Well, each of those diverse groups constitute a community, and act in supportive and communal ways. Think of Jews on the Lower East Side 100 yrs ago, or Italians in Boston. They take care of their own. The trick is whether the concept can be extended to America at large. This was the idea of the 'melting pot' concept, but it was just an ideal. Down to abt 1950, any Chinese person who ventured into North Beach got his ass kicked, for example. In any case, there is very little community left in America today, and as you say, diversity and multiculturalism have just led to conflict.

mb

11:36 PM  
Anonymous Mike R. said...

The video Wafer El Alamein may have been referring to regarding the US-ian "intellectuals"-'Merdesheimer' as he 'schools' Australians in the US empire's way of "life."

https://vimeo.com/471495888

11:51 PM  
Blogger alex carter said...

Art - I wanted to find the old anti-immigration cartoon threatening the US with "umsteen" million immigrants but can't find it for the life of me. Too bad, because I find the word "umsteen" hilarious. You have crystallized, however, the traditional WASP view toward, well, the ordeal of having to exist with anyone who's not also WASP around. The US will be about 30% "white", kids of all colors might be speaking a mix of "Spanglish" and Chinese slang outside the house, and the US Parliament headed by an Aleut while what few WASPS are left are still pining for the 1920s.

Perhaps by then the cultural gatekeepers back in Hawaii will recognize that the "Pidgin" we spoke, or "talked" outside the house when I was a kid in Hawaii was largely invented by the Chinese, beginning in the Gold Rush days.

The nature of American society is hyper-individualism while intact cultures are much more cooperative and communal. It's only Real Americans(tm) who are isolated from each other. I've got WASP relatives for whom sending me to 4-5 years at an Ivy would be like a bar tip, but they'd cut their hand off before they'd give me a sandwich if I were starving.

2:30 AM  
Anonymous Cherith Cutestory said...

Reading Neurotic Beauty right now, halfway through. I've always wanted to read about Japan from the likes of Dr. Berman. The ones I've read before are mostly bland, excessively fawning or smugly superior. This is one of those all too rare moments when "fun" and "informative" overlap so exquisitely. Dr. Berman, it would be splendid if you wrote something like this about Turkey and the rest of the Muslim world, specifically Turkey's own Meiji moment, when Ataturk abolished the Khilafah and by brute force modernized Turkey, yanking it violently from its traditional past. It was 100 years ago but its echos still ring worldwide, and there's a lot of similarities between that and Meiji restoration, including the issues of identity and the clash between traditionalists and modernists (though Turkey's Meiji moment is much more far-reaching, as it affected the entire Islamic world and not just Turkey). A Turkish politician a few years ago tweeted: "the 90-year-long commercial break of a 600-year-old empire is now over". Many Turks revere him, but most non-Turkish Muslims despise him. It's an interesting situation. The Western sources I've read are usually pro-Western and anti-Islamic, so they praise the 'hero' Ataturk who essentially waged war on Islam and brought Turkey to the modern world and ignore his butchering of an entire country's past, traditions and religion just to emulate the West (including changing the script and even petty things like ordering men to wear Western hats instead of the Turkish fez), so there's zero insight or knowledge to gain from the usual Western sources on this issue. I'd kill to see a mind like yours dive deep into this.

============

Recommended reading for Wafers: Daniel Bell's Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. Tough read but invaluable.

5:33 AM  
Anonymous Noura said...

MB,

You said “Fundamentally, Americans are a silly people, a frivolous people, with no goal beyond learning how to hustle better. Concepts such as "community" or "society" never cross their feeble minds.”

This pretty much sums up my experience of America. The American culture is about endless consumption and infinite growth in a finite universe. Creativity and talent are wasted here because the culture lacks the necessary intelligence to make use of it. George Carlin was right when he said “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” In what other country would one see an article such as the one below?

Jack Dorsey sells his first tweet ever as an NFT for over $2.9 million
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/22/jack-dorsey-sells-his-first-tweet-ever-as-an-nft-for-over-2point9-million.html
To Dorsey’s credit, he gave the money away to charity since he is a billionaire and doesn’t need it: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/04/twitter-and-square-ceo-jack-dorsey-focused-on-bitcoin-btc.html

It’s becoming increasingly impossible for me to take America seriously enough to get upset as I used to. Once we see America clearly for what It is, I think we have no choice but to adjust our expectations so we can save our energy to move on to better things.

6:09 AM  
Anonymous Karl said...

Dr B,

Putin made some remarks the other day you'd probably agree with.

“You know what the problem is? I will tell you as a former citizen of the former Soviet Union. What is the problem of empires — they think that they are so powerful that they can afford small errors and mistakes," he said.

“But the number of problems is growing. There comes a time when they can no longer be dealt with. And the United States, with a confident gait, a firm step, is going straight along the path of the Soviet Union.”

https://www.euronews.com/2021/06/05/over-confident-u-s-risks-going-down-same-path-as-soviet-union-warns-putin

7:19 AM  
Anonymous Alain said...

https://www.salon.com/2021/06/05/how-the-new-atheists-merged-with-the-far-right-a-story-of-intellectual-grift-and-abject-surrender/

Godless grifters: How the New Atheists merged with the far right

Mr Pinker made the list!

7:43 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

Ian Welsh is a Canadian blogger living in Toronto, and was managing editor of FireDogLake and the Agonist.

An email from his site that I received today contains a reprise of an item Welsh wrote in 2010 (“The Unvarnished Truth About the US,” 22 January 2010); today’s title for this reprint reads “Way Past Time to Leave America.”

WAFers might have seen this article when it first appeared. I don’t remember seeing it myself. Believe it will be of interest.

https://www.ianwelsh.net/

8:11 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Karl-

This is the kind of insight that even smart political analysts in the US don't have, who keep clinging to the hope of some 11th-hr redemption. In the postmortem to the collapse of the USSR, Gorbachev's analysis remains the best: the country had too many internal contradictions to be able to maintain itself (Reagan, he pointed out, was a factor, but not the crucial one). These internal contradictions were different from the ones plaguing America, but that hardly matters: what matters is that in both cases, the problems reached a point where they cd no longer be dealt with. Any dunce shd be able to see that, but in the US the Dunce Index is so high, that very, very few can see it. This blindness is also, in itself, a problem that cannot be dealt with. So yes, Putin is rt: we are inevitably marching toward collapse. To add to this analysis I wd add the observation of Toynbee: in the last stages of empire or civilization, instead of trying to reverse the factors that are bringing it down, it actually exacerbates them. This too is obvious in the US case.

Noura-

One sees articles like this at least 2 or 3 times a wk. Remember the recent one, abt the US Army breaking into an olive oil factory in Bulgaria? And then the congressman who wants to alter the moon's orbit? Part of the decline is that the country has apparently turned into a bad joke.

Cherith-

Glad yr enjoying NB. As for Turkey...god, it wd be an enormous project; but then, so was Japan (2 visits, rdg several hundred bks, learning basic Japanese, hiring interpreters, doing a lg # of interviews, etc.). I'll hafta think abt it.

mb

9:25 AM  
Anonymous Shermer said...

Currently reading Dmitry Orlov's "Communities That Abide". https://www.amazon.com/Communities-that-Abide-Dmitry-Orlov/dp/1500742929/

"A collection of articles devoted to multigenerational communities that have stood the test of time, focusing on the commonalities that are behind their success."..."outlines alternatives for those who want to escape the collapsing matrix"

10:37 AM  
Blogger ccg said...

It's worth looking at the comments on that article on that article about Putin. Too me, at least, they are childish in the extreme, so I believe. They make no attempt to come to grips with what Putin is actually saying. As this piece is in a European outlet, it's probably the case that most of commenters are not Americans, but they seem to have the same mindset as Americans. And I know many Europeans (mostly academics) living in America who think exactly like their American counterparts. In fact, all the ones I know thought Hillary Clinton to be an absolutely SUPERB choice for president. They pretty much deserved the election of Trump and I have to say I kinda enjoyed their subsequent angst.

Oh yeah, they all went Washington to join the pussy hat march. Naturally.

12:27 PM  
Blogger CB said...

You wrote about Obama, "his goal was simply to be president." Don't they all have that aspiration though? To be president is to be the most powerful, the most discussed, the most hated, the most loved. As well as living forever in recorded history. Immortality guaranteed ! At least for a while. Did any previous or current president actually believe that they could change things for the better? For the greater good? Or are they all very aware that it is all theater and a game. Knowing that they could be the star for four years minimum. The ultimate ego boost isn't it? Doors forever opened, ego forever stroked, lifetime rewards for accomplishing very much or very little, depending on the opinion. Sounds like a great gig.

2:28 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

If your dog shits on a neighbor's yard you might get shot. On the other hand this might happen to you.

https://krdo.com/news/2021/06/09/video-dogwalker-attacked-puppy-stolen-in-pueblo/

3:01 PM  
Anonymous Kevin said...

Per Alain's post of the Salon article on the "Godless Grifters" - I read the article and was extremely disappointed in the ad hominem attacks and shallowness of the article. It's clear that their major crime is that they've correctly identified the current new religion: wokeness. (John McWhorter's book on the subject will be coming out in the Fall.)

Don't get me wrong, some of them (Kraus in particular) seem to be from the 'elites' that got us into this mess (and view philandering as a right). And I've always disagreed with Pinker's espousal of 'progress' and 'enlightenment' - but that's an intellectual argument, not a condemnation of his humanity.

Also "grifters" relates to the hustling culture. These folks may have some involvement in making a living from their books, media, etc. but compared to the large-scale grifting of the SJW crowd, this seems like massive projection on the Mr. Torres's part.

The new McCarthyism on display.....

4:30 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Anon-

Sorry, I don't post Anons. You need a real handle to participate in this blog. E.g., Farragut J. Tuchuslicker, M.D.

Gunnar-

Americans are wonderful people.

Karl-

Cdn't run it; violates 24-hr rule.

CB-

I don't agree. If you start with FDR and run thru to the present, most of our presidents had, and can be identified with, a specific goal. FDR: to win the War; create a fairer distribution of wealth (=save capitalism). Truman: containment (of communism). Eisenhower: same, plus economic expansion. JFK: also a cold warrior, but some notion of remaking America on new lines ("New Frontier"). Johnson: Vietnam; the Great Society. Nixon: to defeat communism. Ford: to play golf, and be a douchebag. Carter: see my discussion of him in DAA and WAF. Reagan: to win the Cold War, and to make the rich richer. Bush Sr.: he falls into the category of having no real purpose (Doonesbury caricatured him as a feather, a lightweight nonentity). Clinton probably the same, beyond expanding the economy. Bush Jr.: "war on terror." Obama: to be president, nada mas. Trump: to make himself and his friends rich (=kleptocracy), and to make America white as the driven snow. Biden: to curtail covid, promote diversity, and imitate FDR's socioeconomic vision.

mb

7:23 PM  
Anonymous Cosmo Como said...

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trump-bombards-supporters-near-constant-182800444.html
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/90641.The_Hidden_Injuries_of_Class

This book is a classic to explain the US in depth, for it reveals
why Trump is still able to get millions from those who cannot afford
to toss away money. How can they believe that he is a billionaire
no different than us and needs the money for a worthy cause?

12:18 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Unknown-

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

Cosmo-

Only thing is, apparently a lg % of those supporters are white, middle class, w/gd jobs--not hurting financially. This was revealed in analysis of half of those arrested for the insurrection of Jan. 6 (I've lost the ref, sorry). Why then do they support him? The analysis was that their key fear was being replaced by people of color, and that the US was becoming a non-white nation. As for the bk by Cobb and Sennett--altho it might not be relevant in this case--it's 1st-rate.

mb

5:36 AM  
Blogger Xair said...

Wafers,

Latest numbers on taxes and wealth in America. Not a pretty picutre.

https://www.citizen.org/article/the-price-of-zero/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=dbef2a6e-076e-42ee-8f4a-f8d0cc8b3e6a

7:22 AM  
Blogger Bruce Ledewitz said...

Some years ago, I coughed up some money and bought 20 copies of The Reenchantment of the World for my course in Constitutional Jurisprudence at Duquesne Law School. Imagine my surprise at the tone of this blog. I have some questions I don't feel like sharing here. If you are willing, please email me at ledewitz.duq.edu (not the email associated with Gooogle) and give me an email address.

7:35 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Bruce-

I tried writing you, got a message saying "User unknown." You can contact me at mauricio@morrisberman.com.

mb

7:43 AM  
Blogger NeilW said...

I genuinely find this short passage from your Shadow speech poetically beautiful, in Schiller's sense of the 'Sublime' - maybe that's what Beethoven meant by his interpretation of Schiller's Ode? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1Mm9EvcmLc

8:23 AM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

MB,

Would you say that all American presidents except Jimmy Carter also had the goal of expanding the American empire? It sure seems that way, which is why I can't respect them. I agree that Biden wants to do positive things on the domestic front, but as you mentioned, he wants to reestablish American global hegemony, which doesn't seem possible without an imperialist foreign policy. I am, however, grateful for his successful fight against COVID, as I am unable to leave America right now for reasons I won't get into, and would probably die if I were infected due to my health issues.

8:39 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman,
Our Dysfunctional States of America may not be totally imploding after all. Our Madison Avenue advertising propaganda machine is in full force and as strong as ever.
See for yourself. McDonald’s restaurants with lines around the block now are in Indonesia, something akin to waiting in line for World Series tickets in years past.
With this BTS meal initially being introduced in South Korea, perhaps Kim Jong-un can be enticed into having McDonald’s in Pyonyang. It would expedite the two Koreas uniting, something mentioned in Global Trends.
So why do we need our military with its 800 military bases to conquer the globe with capitalism? We have Madison Avenue and corporations!

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/06/10/Indonesia-BTS-McDonalds-meals-order-surge/1491623336466/

10:46 AM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

More US empire exceptionalism!

https://www.al.com/news/2021/06/florida-publix-shooting-victims-included-grandmother-1-year-old-boy.html

How can "educated" (lawyers, doctors, scientists, historians, etc.) USA-ers yammer about: "we must, we need to, we should, we can save, action plans....." blogs about saving "democracy," 'saving' this, that. the other, "social" media statements about we can do better, US is still great..etc..etc.. There's very little to nothing to save about a gigantic mistake (Freud).

Why can't these "educated" US-ians simply state: The US was rotten to the core and there's very little to nothing to save. The hope glimmer, and/or "we must" mental derangement appears to be an ontologic blockage for the US-ian.

11:16 AM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

Xair-

Good article. Along with that, this look at taxes paid by the richest 25 Americans, 3.4% (an unorthodox approach to defining income is used, which the hedge fund scammers would vehemently oppose, of course).

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/08/richest-25-americans-jeff-bezos-elon-musk-tax

And then Kathy Porter rips apart the phamaceutical industry's claims of the cost of research being what leads to such high drug costs-

https://crooksandliars.com/2021/05/katie-porter-richard-gonzalez

The ransacking of the collapsing empire continues apace.

11:16 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dr. Shit-

I've said it many times: In the US, even the smart ones are stupid. Ontological blockage is indeed the issue.

Joe-

The US has failed in all ways, except culturally; and in that category, it has been a stunning success. "Friends," for example, w/its fantasy of American life, has penetrated the remotest villages of Africa, w/people sitting around their televisions thinking that that's what life in America is all abt.

Nadine-

The Atlantic Charter of 1941 between FDR and Churchill essentially established the plan that the US would take over where England left off, i.e., become the new empire, regulating the globe. Projecting power became the name of the (imperialist) game, and Jimmy broke w/this for the 1st 2 yrs of his admin. Sadly, after that he got seduced by his National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, into reverting to the old pattern. Biden is certainly in that mold as well, wh/by now looks tattered and moth-eaten. The rest of the world isn't having it, in short.

mb

12:12 PM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

The blurred out words were: "g--ks."

https://news.yahoo.com/florida-man-faces-30-years-184108620.html

https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/courts/2021/06/09/daytona-beach-man-faces-up-30-years-slurs-against-asians/7615943002/

That face was a true american.

1:29 PM  
Anonymous El Alamein said...

The Atlantic Charter was merely an extension of decades long plans both by the perceptive elements in Britain who knew their empire was doomed without reinforcements from abroad, and Americans who "plotted to inherit it." Not sure whose phrase I'm stealing there, possibly Orwell. The Rhodes scholarship was originally established to train bright Americans in the business of imperial administration, as Cecil was no dummy and knew which way the wind was blowing. I imagine MB and many fellow WAFERS have read Carroll Quigley's "The Anglo American Establishment", but recommend it nonetheless.

Of course if the US pulled back from its global hegemonic shenanigans today, there would be no credible body to enforce the "rules", such as they are, of global capitalism. As such, it would be a huge risk both for business interests, not to mention the struggling average American reliant on cheap imports and their Chinese-built phones powered by Congolese minerals. It may be smarter long-term to get out ahead of inevitable further US decline in global influence, but nobody wants to be a "defeatist".

1:50 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

El A-

I fear we need a bit more evidence than Quigley. Can you give us some links, some reliable refs? (for both paragraphs)

Glans-

Once again, I can't stress enuf how kind and tolerant Americans are.

mb

2:18 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

El A-

Wasn't able to post it. You violated 2 very impt rules:
1. Post only once every 24 hrs, max.
2. Limit yr post to half a pg, max.
Thank you.

mb

4:45 PM  
Blogger alex carter said...

Nadine - Read up on the Carter Doctrine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_Doctrine Also, Jimmy was a nuclear submarine officer, which meant he was A-OK with dropping missiles on brown/non-Christian people like ay-rabs and Godless Communists. And he's a super nice guy as US presidents go.

6:18 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

alex-

You've created a distortion: the so-called Carter Doctrine came late in the game, and was actually the Brzezinski Doctrine; Zbig actually wrote part or all of it himself. It remains a tragedy that Carter got seduced by the latter, when the 1st 2-3 yrs of his admin was a very different creature. Check out the 1st section of the wiki article you cite, and also my discussion of what happened to Carter in DAA pp. 132ff. The Carter family was also a staunch proponent of civil rts, this in Georgia, when it wasn't exactly a popular position. Your reference to his "dropping missles on brown people" is a smear of his character and his beliefs.

Following Brezezinski, in any case, led to America funding/training the Mujahideen, which planted the seeds of 9/11. This you probably know, already.

mb

6:39 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

My post might say anonymous webpage freeze.

7:09 PM  
Anonymous al-Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

Relative to other US presidents, Jimmy Carter is a saint, but compared to other elected heads-of-state, he's a warmongering pirate.

The genocidal slaughter reached its peak in 1977, On March 1, 95 members of the Australian Parliament sent a letter to Carter claiming the Indonesian troops were carrying out “atrocities” and asking the American President “to comment publicly on the situation in East Timor.”

The response was crickets. Carter ramped up aid with funding and weapons to the murderous Indonesian regime, brazenly flaunting the human rights requirements imposed on American aid.

As journalist Richard Dudman reported at the time: “amid all the talks about human rights, the country with perhaps the worst record has been getting increased amounts of economic and military aid from the Carter administration,” which is attributed to the “bonanza enjoyed by American oil companies and multi-national corporations since the present military regime came to power.”


https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/18/jimmy-carters-blood-drenched-legacy/

7:29 PM  
Blogger ccg said...

MB,

As the character of Obama's presidency was recently raised, I thought I'd post this article by David Michael Green written right after the 2016 election:

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/11/23/which-part-1930s-did-you-not-get-americans-finally-learn-cooperate-national-suicide

He makes many of the same points as you, and furthermore refers to Obama's presidency as The Seinfeld Presidency, a presidency about nothing. Which is surely was.

8:01 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

al-

Yr rt, the Timor thing was not his finest hr.

mb

8:19 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

alex-

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

mb

2:40 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

And the news as usual:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/12/us/austin-texas-shooting-downtown/index.html

I'm thinking that if this rate of massacres continues, the problem of America will by solved by having no more Americans.

mb

9:54 AM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

A simple tryst of fate dept.:

https://www.local10.com/news/florida/2021/06/10/couple-in-vero-beach-caught-having-sex-in-playground-tunnel/?nav=off

Shoot yr sister dept.:

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/06/07/woman-arrested-after-accidental-shooting-in-miami-beach-leaves-victim-on-life-support/

Miles

ps: We need a policy that places a firearm into the hands of every man, woman, and child in America w/the expressed order to shoot the very first person that they see. Problem solved in minutes!

10:37 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

The faces of those 2! This is the Real America, for sure. As for Americans gunning each other down (like dogs): of course an excellent idea, but I wd prefer nuclear weapons to firearms. More efficient.

mb

11:36 AM  
Anonymous down we go said...

Another author who agrees with you that it is WAY too late to do anything constructive about American collapse due to a combination of forces is Brian Watson. The book is "Headed into the Abyss". Watson discusses 10 major forces (including capitalism, technology, Webworld, education, media, and the environment) that together will mean the end of civilization we know it - ".... within the United States, and within the world, we are headed for catastrophe".

"We are beset by a range of unprecedented developments that are continually worsening and that are beyond our capacities to respond to>"

12:44 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

down-

Thanks for the ref. This guy sounds like a full-blown Wafer. No 11th-hr rescue or other such crap.

mb

2:58 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

I suggest all further stimulus be a debit card that can only be used to purchase firearms. Problem solved - everyone is armed.

3:58 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9679619/Georgia-McDonalds-customer-arrested-spits-employee-pick-window-shoots-another.html

usa, usa!

6:17 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dr. Shit-

We're basically a nation of douchebags. Look at this guy's face, fer chrissakes.

mb

6:24 PM  
Blogger NeilW said...

Perhaps the next great conflict will be fought in a McDonald's carpark with thermonuclear weapons?

9:57 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Neil-

The logical next step in our cultural evolution.

mb

10:21 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman,
Who is funnier? This Karen or the one who peed on a floor inside a department store? LOL.
Our Karens certainly never disappoint us!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsSHYU18i-o

3:30 AM  
Anonymous Aimee said...

For 97 per cent of human history, all people had about the same power and access to goods. How did inequality ratchet up?
https://aeon.co/amp/essays/for-97-of-human-history-equality-was-the-norm-what-happened

10:02 AM  
Blogger Jack Lattemann said...

Greetings Wafers everywhere, here’s your news update from Cascadia:
All three finalists for the vacant job of president at Evergreen College have dropped out. A consultant said that college officials would take “a two- or three-month period, a time for reflection, a time to rethink how they might want to proceed going forward.” A perfect moment for Tulsi to come to the rescue with an offer to re-shape Evergreen in the spirit of Tulsism?

www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/05/13/evergreen-state-re-evaluating-after-three-finalists-drop-out

Meanwhile, the homeless population in the Seattle area has found treatment for drug addiction and mental health almost impossible to find due to closures and funding cuts during the pandemic:

www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/getting-treatment-while-homeless-was-hard-before-covid-its-nearly-impossible-now-nurses-and-navigators-say/

Finally, the Washington state eviction moratorium for renters is set to expire on June 30 as over 126,000 households statewide are behind on rent:

www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/with-aid-programs-still-in-the-works-advocates-call-on-inslee-to-extend-washington-eviction-ban-again

11:13 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jack-

Thank you for update. What intelligent person wd take the job at Evergreen? Perhaps Tulsi, but then she's a doofus.

Aimee-

Discussed at length in "Wandering God," tho as that was published in 2000, perhaps there is more recent research on the subject.

Joe-

I regard Karen pee (or KarenPee) as holy water.

mb

11:31 AM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

US empire greatness, awesomeness, exceptionalism.....

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/at-least-six-people-shot-three-killed-in-cleveland/ar-AAKYWsT

2:48 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Glans-

Thanks for the update. Jesus, what a roll call. And it never ends, does it?

mb

2:54 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

And as far as tennis goes, there was no djoking around! God, I wish I coulda been there.

mb

2:59 PM  
Anonymous Cosmo Como said...

https://publicdomainmovies.info/let-there-be-light-1946-directed-by-john-huston/

Looks like the Pentagon did not want to portray war in any way
to appear unpleasant...bad for recruitment and stock prices of
the corporate death industries.

3:39 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Gd article in May 31 New Yorker, on cobalt mining in the Congo. Cobalt is a crucial element in the manufacture of cell fones, and the Congo is the major source of the mineral. Conditions are quite brutal:

-"Teen-age boys often work perilous shifts navigating rickety shafts. Near large mines, the prostitution of women and young girls is pervasive."

-"Children who work in the mines are often drugged, to suppress hunger."

-These children are as young as 4 yrs old.

-They are frequently raped, and often die as a result. In one case, the victim was 18 mos. old.

-Attorneys for the International Rights Advocates, in a Dec. 2019 report, wrote: "These [children] are working under Stone Age conditions for paltry wages, and at immense personal risk."

All of this, so that the American middle class can talk to their friends, shop online, and look hip. Americans now pay more than $1000 for the latest iPhone.

mb

6:13 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”
― Abraham Lincoln

Sounds like dual process. Don’t try to reform dog shit as MB says instead as the old institutions sink like the titanic they are, build something new to replace them, hey a guy can pray for a miracle.

7:45 PM  
Blogger alex carter said...

Aimee - Very good point. The book "Stone Age Economics" is supposed to be very good on this https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28254.Stone_Age_Economics

I think we've all seen the scene where one of the early chimpanzee scientists gives out a whole lot of bananas to a troop of chimps, and mayhem ensues. You see chimps grabbing all the bananas they can carry (they're not terribly good at it) and trying to run off, bananas being dropped everywhere, all kinds of screaming and grabbing etc. Subsequent studies have shown that groups of chimps are perfectly good at sharing and making sure everyone's fed.

I just don't think humans deal with plenty very well, and I note that the time-honored paths to happiness all seem to involve having as little wealth as possible.

MB - the ore is called coltan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan and it's in EVERYTHING your fancy headphones, your electric car, everything.

7:55 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

alex-

That chimp scene was the result of a setup by Jane Goodall. I forget the details now, but she omitted the details of having deprived the chimps beforehand, thus creating the banana riot. A woman I met at a conference yrs ago told me she knew of the setup (it involved a rigid feeding schedule), and wrote Jane 8 times abt it, never receiving an answer. Yet Jane remains a sacred icon, untouchable in popular consciousness--based on a deception. As for Sahlins, who died recently, we discussed him earlier on the blog. Coltan: check New Yorker article; the Congo mineral discussed is cobalt.

Gunnar-

Well, we never did manage to disenthrall ourselves. Try talking to a bubba, or a prog. Talleyrand's version of this advice, decades b4 Lincoln, was: "Above all, no zeal."

mb

9:10 PM  
Anonymous Cherith Cutestory said...

4 mass shootings in 6 hours in the US

And without a hint of awareness (deliberately), the average American will still support exporting the American way of life by brute force to the rest of the world. I bet if another scumbag like GWB reiterated that "they hate us for our freedom" many would still believe it, and would think this sick society - where people are either killing themselves or others - is the envy of the world.

5:47 AM  
Anonymous Nicholas Stuller said...

The Countries In Red Have As Many Murders Combined As The US - https://brilliantmaps.com/us-murders-vs-world/

7:46 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nich-

Impressive, but map provides no time frame for these murders. Is this for 2021? In any case, it shows what happens when you make guns available to a collection of violent morons.

Cherith-

But surely, this is the result of deranged loners, no? See map provided by Nich.

alex-

Cdn't run it (24-hr rule). Participants who regularly violate blog guidelines eventually get expunged, a fate worse than death. Do you want this to happen to you?

-mb

9:21 AM  
Anonymous Eric Jensen said...

‘America’s future is as bleak as North Korea’ says defector after attending Columbia

https://www.foxnews.com/us/north-korean-defector-ivy-league-nuts

She describes brainwashed Americans and brainwashed North Koreans as being equivalent if not worse.

2:25 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Eric-

To think of all that happening at Columbia. What a tragedy.

mb

4:49 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

Asian children pet US-ian's dog-they're told to go back where they came from- then US-ian goes into rage and punches their father in the face, father then pulled out HIS gun....

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/florida-tourist-charged-with-hate-crime-told-asian-family-to-e2-80-98go-back-where-they-came-from-e2-80-99-after-kids-pet-his-dog-sheriff/ar-AAKYPMT

https://www.ibtimes.sg/asian-man-pulls-gun-racist-white-man-after-he-abuses-wife-kids-petting-his-dogs-58117

"Going back where you came from" is VERY good advice for starry-eyed imbeciles who would even think of emigrating to this shithole.

4:58 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dr. Shit-

From a declinist pt of view, this sort of thing needs to happen millions of times. Sad, tho. God, Americans are so vulgar, and so dumb.

mb

5:21 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

Quite a clip dept.:

https://abc7.com/4-mass-shootings-in-6-hours-leave-38-wounded-6-dead-/10789302/

6 hours in America produced 38 wounded and 6 dead.

Drunk, stoned, pantless and stupid. America's future is looking up!:

https://www.tampafp.com/it-was-ok-to-do-that-florida-woman-gets-naked-in-a-circle-k/

Miles

8:10 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

Then there's this:

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/cashier-dead-2-wounded-during-221000849.html

I still think my suggestion, that everyone get armed and shoot everyone else, is the best solution to our problems. Rt now, we're just pulling our punches.

mb

10:09 PM  
Blogger took_the_red_pill said...

Several posters here have noted the unprecedented amount of gun violence in recent days. Well, apropos of that, here's another installment of Signs of the End Times:

Supermarket cashier murdered because of store mask policy

"DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Authorities have identified the suspect in a shooting in DeKalb that injured a deputy and left a cashier dead... [a] Sheriff’s Office reserve unit deputy was injured during the shooting at the Big Bear Supermarket near South DeKalb Mall around 1:10 p.m.

"...the violence started as a dispute between the suspect, later identified as 30-year-old Victor Lee Tucker Jr...and a cashier over a mask. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Tucker left without making a purchase but immediately returned...

"Tucker was [shot by the deputy] and taken to Grady Memorial Hospital after being arrested by arriving DeKalb Police officers. According to the GBI, he was found crawling out the front door of the supermarket."

There was a case like this at the beginning of the pandemic; a security guard at a Dollar Store was murdered for enforcing the store's mask policy. It occurred in almost the same way: the perpetrator initially left and returned shortly thereafter with a gun.

This moron is now in custody and presumably will live to stand trial according to the news. He's thrown his life away over refusing to wear a mask.

10:39 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

pill-

Note that I just posted the link to this above. Meanwhile, in future pls watch length: we have a maximum-half-pg rule on this blog. Thank you.

mb

12:20 AM  
Anonymous Seneca’s Cliff said...

Not sure if Roger Waters is a Wafer or not, but dang I like him as he cuts zuckerschmuck down to size.

https://summit.news/2021/06/15/video-roger-waters-tells-little-prick-zuckerberg-to-f-off-following-request-to-use-iconic-pink-floyd-song-for-ad/

9:40 AM  
Anonymous Rory said...

"During orientation, she was scolded by a university staff member for admitting she enjoyed classic literature such as Jane Austen.

"I said ‘I love those books.’ I thought it was a good thing," recalled Park.

"Then she said, 'Did you know those writers had a colonial mindset? They were racists and bigots and are subconsciously brainwashing you.’"


North Korean defector on the United States and attending Columbia University:

"Even North Korea is not this nuts... North Korea was pretty crazy, but not this crazy."
https://news.yahoo.com/news/north-korean-defector-says-apos-150720135.html

9:42 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Rory-

See post above, by Eric Jensen.

Seneca-

I have tried to find a reason for Zuckershmuck not having his shoes peed on by 177 Wafers, and I cdn't.

mb

9:52 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman,
Yes. There never is a dull day here in our Dysfunctional States of America. Here are a couple more of our daily mass shootings.

https://whnt.com/news/northeast-alabama/multiple-law-enforcement-agencies-respond-to-emergency-situation-at-mueller-co-in-albertville/

https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2021/6/15/22534689/englewood-mass-shooting-morgan

Our trigger happy, paramilitarized, “shoot first/lie later” police force also shall make sure it also partakes in the statistics. These cops shall be using their “qualified immunity” to gun down a few when they have the chance.
See below for a shade of Breonna Taylor:

https://apnews.com/article/breonna-taylor-george-floyd-georgia-shootings-2b47ffa9db88b3848799e97b94417086

And never forget the most most famous police execution of them all—an execution that, for some unknown reason—never made it into the mainstream media and remains expertly hidden:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBUUx0jUKxc

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

11:19 AM  
Blogger Dan Hanrahan said...

Hi Dr. Berman, I had the chance to re-listen to a 2017 interview with you and reflected on it in a brief blog post addressing the implications of living in a society whose values are inverted to those of societies built on long-standing wisdom traditions. The micro-essay also speculates as to the origins of such ethically inverted cultures. Howdy from Xicago, IL. -- Dan Hanrahan
https://danhanrahan.blogspot.com/2021/06/more-thoughts-on-society-of-hustle.html



2:21 PM  
Anonymous Gil said...

Trump's max pressure shifted the balance in Iran in favor of hardliners to the point of emboldening them to do what they earlier only could have dreamed of:

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/06/15/why-irans-next-hardline-president-should-thank-donald-trump/

6:23 PM  
Anonymous Cosmo Como said...

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trump-calls-publishing-houses-sleezebags-141724377.html
How can he be short of funds to self-publish his lies? Perhaps
your readers could donate? Maybe he should stick to fiction?

7:18 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

MB-

I started reading the bk, "Headed Into The Abyss: The Story Of Our Time And The Future We'll Face" by Brian T. Watson. Indeed, the author is a bona fide Wafer. Your work is sourced in the fourth chapter, "Politics." Both "Dark Ages America" and "Twilight" are used extensively. Essentially, Watson connects the dots toward our collapse and dissolution. He makes a case for changing course away from disaster by way of possible reforms, but then explains why we will *not* do so! I'm about 1/3 of the way in, and so far he's right on target.

Miles

ps: Many thanks to the Wafer who suggested this fine work.

7:41 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhi7vPel7to

Some of these Karens and Darrens are surreal.

9:30 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

I had no idea I was cited in his bk. Clearly a sign of great intelligence. Honestly, every time I hear or read someone say Here's how we're going to save ourselves, I want to fly to where that person lives and give him/her a vigorous slapping.

Joe-

I saw that video a few yrs ago. Grotesque. Also very American.

mb

9:43 PM  
Anonymous Vince said...

Dr. Berman and Wafers,

Below is the link to the NBC interview with Putin.

The entire interview validates what you, Dr. Berman, have been saying for years on we as a country just do not get anything that does not fit our perception of ourselves.

You will especially like the reaction that Putin gives when a he asks the "reporter" about the U.S. promise not to expand NATO eastward.

Comments are welcome.

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/full-interview-russia-s-vladimir-putin-speaks-with-nbc-news-keir-simmons-114779717789

Peace,
Vince

10:07 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dan-

Cdn't run it. We have a one-post-max every 24 hrs rule on this blog.

mb

11:57 PM  
Anonymous FerQ said...

Prof. Berman-

In a previous post you said "I'm thinking that if this rate of massacres continues, the problem of America will by solved by having no more Americans." I hope so much that the day the scum of the Earth, AKA Americans, AKA Gringos, become extinct and can no longer be found.
The world would be better off without them.
Here is a video in which the author Tariq Ali talks about the G7 summit. There seems to be no limit to American stupidity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzCW2bZlEFs


Prof. Berman, I would like to know what are your opinions of Tariq Ali and his work?

12:23 AM  
Blogger took_the_red_pill said...

Dr. Berman:

Sorry about the duplicate post last night. In any case, I hope the added context from the news article was helpful. I should hit the "reload page" button more often, because you posted while I was typing.

I hope this one isn't a duplicate; no one seems to have posted about it yet.

Reporter trashes her career on live TV

Briefly, a veteran news reporter got sucked into the mass delusions known as "Internet rabbit holes" and self-destructed in front of a TV audience. There's too much to go into here: quack Covid-19 cures (hydroxychloroquine), surreptitious recordings of her superiors, fake "investigators" at Project Veritas, and more.

1:47 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Fer-

My ref to massacres was one of heavy irony; nor do I seriously believe that the Pentagon shd
supply every American w/a nuclear weapon. I'm just making fun of a gun culture gone nuts. As for Tariq Ali, I haven't really followed his career.

mb

6:01 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: Here's an example. Americans have rather short fuses, if they don't get what they want, or if someone tells them to wear a mask:

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/dekalb-county/retired-officer-two-others-shot-following-argument-dekalb-county/VBBPYRXO7JAKDM7TVDOTNM2AM4/

"Nation of Lunatics" is probably not too strong a description. The slightest thing sets them off.

6:29 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps2: The face of America:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/man-sentenced-mask-fight-iowa

You see what I mean, yes? The bubbas are douchebags, and the 'woke' are reminiscent of the Red Guard. Who's left? Only the door-to-door Wafer Lobotomy Program (WLP) can save us.

6:41 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...


Channeling General Jack D. Ripper, or, You Really Can’t Make This Shit Up:

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) has written a letter to President Biden expressing concern about US participation in the Winter Olympics In China next year; Cotton fears the Chinese could harvest American athletes’ DNA in order to produce super soldiers for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). https://www.rawstory.com/tom-cotton-china-super-soldiers/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=7321

For those needing a memory-refresh, from Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb:
https://youtu.be/N1KvgtEnABY

Air Force Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) tells his Executive Officer RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) of his fears concerning the loss of precious bodily fluids to the Communists.

10:02 AM  
Anonymous Rupert said...

In Opinion

“As America slouches toward plutocracy, our problem isn’t the virtue level of billionaires,” writes Anand Giridharadas. “It’s a set of social arrangements that make it possible for anyone to gain and guard and keep so much wealth.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/opinion/warren-buffett-billionaire-taxes.html

11:36 AM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

Anecdotal observation only: Please use this comment Dr. Berman-delete former. Thank you.

There appears a purposeful, willful, and voluntary 'buy-in' into what the US empire is and was by US-ians.

They *want* what america is offering and agree to its' terms and conditions. Brain-washing appears only part of the equation. They may moan, complain, write 'letters,' hold up posters, etc.; however, very rarely, if ever, will you hear: the US is finished, it's fatality flawed, vacuous, we're the enemy, there's no 11th hr rabbit outta hat, etc..Yet, 98.7% of the critiques include-the glimmer of hope, that 11th hr, the last chapter action plan 'rabbit'....we should, we're better than this, we ought to's.

Being a US-ian is akin to being a member of a cult. The religion of america, is america (Herberg-Protestant, Catholic, Jew). You may have complaints abt it-but they still 'bow' to it, or at very least, still 'respect' it.

Any harsh critique (using evidence-based arguments, historical facts) will be met usually with vitriol and ostracization-which in career terms can mean economic sanctions/peril.

12:56 PM  
Anonymous S.M. said...

'In the first public accounting of its kind in decades, an AP investigation found that at least 1,900 US military firearms were lost or stolen during the 2010s, with some used in violent crimes. Some services have suppressed the release of information.'

https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-business-gun-politics-crime-6caba27108d05a8b7c1860959d1ae130

They are the cartels now.

1:55 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Glans-

Bldg on Herberg, both Robt Bellah and I wrote a fair amt abt the 'civil religion'. Which accounts for vitriolic response to any critique (yr shitting on their god). In addition, self-reflection is not exactly an American strong pt.

mb

3:18 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

All the American wanted was to mix 3 "slushie" flavors and was denied...so, you just start beating the shit out of the worker for denying you a slushie....usa! usa!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9691991/Seething-customer-rains-blows-two-McDonalds-workers-Ohio.html

https://toofab.com/2021/06/15/ohio-mcdonalds-slushie-flavors-wild-brawl/

4:09 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dr. Shit-

Look at that face! Meanwhile, I think every McD employee needs to carry a tire iron.

mb

5:00 PM  
Anonymous El Alamein said...

While we're on the topic of civil religion, a pretty good book came out last year called "Jesus and John Wayne", documenting how American Evangelical "theology" has devolved into a flimsy, pop-culture fueled justification for the rather un-Christlike ideals of rugged individualism and strongman politics. It shreds the oft-repeated myth that support for Trump was an aberration for his millions of Evangelical voters, when in fact he represents the fullest expression of what their churches have taught for decades.

I imagine some commenters here will object to its "woke"-ness, but it paints a persuasive case for just how far America's civil religion has degenerated since the times of John Adams or James Madison.

5:26 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

El A-

Link to bk?

mb

5:38 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman & Wafers,
Check out this website! It gives regularly updated reports of shootings, almost in real time! Now we can check, not only daily, but almost hourly the numbers as our Dysfunctional States of America slides ( a la Toynbee) into slow but inexorable oblivion.

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/incident/2035595

5:44 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Did Putin make Biden look like a turkey? I need feedback.

mb

6:31 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

MB, Dr. Shit, Wafers-

Wow, that's the look of trauma on the face of the woman who beat the hell outta that McDonald's employee. I often wonder what role trauma plays in the American incapacity to grow, change, deal with, and live in reality? In other words, to what degree does the emotional damage caused by trauma factor into all of the insanity that we put up on this blog (from goat fucking, public masturbation, on down to flinging feces at strangers)? I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it was discovered that 75% or more Americans are essentially traumatized, and suffering from debilitating dysfunction.

I can personally attest to the devastation that one type of trauma can cause: a close friend of mine was sexually abused by her father. Years later, as an adult, she went into therapy (3-4 yrs approx.) to cope w/the consequences of this abuse. Even after what she regarded as successful therapy, her traumatic experiences still have terrible effects on her. In a nutshell, she can't recover from *any* personal conflict; she gets easily overwhelmed by anxiety, and falls into distrust and paranoia. It's a pretty scary situation. Under the slightest stress at all, she breaks down and acts out. In many cases she facilitates the worst possible response to what most people would consider a minor inconvenience, leaving her withdrawn and depressed. She's an absolute sweetheart, but truth be told, the power and grip of her awful experiences have completely boxed her in. It's very sad to watch, knowing that none of this shit was her fault at all. Now, this is just one American person...imagine millions of them living traumatized, dysfunctional lives. Gives me the willies

Miles Freud

7:13 PM  
Anonymous Cel-Ray Tonic said...

Hey Dr. B. Didn't you say you've played some guitar? I've been listening to a bunch of Django Reinhardt recently. Cool story.

9:16 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Cel-

Classical, for 3 yrs. At the end, I was playing Bach and Villa-Lobos. Too much other work, had to quit. At least, I still enjoy listening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g4FrGcRAIs

s. lepore-

Wrong blog for blasting huge global predictions w/o any evidence. Here's how we work (mostly):
1. Take a *specific* issue related to the collapse of the American empire.
2. Present your argument.
3. Present evidence for your argument in the form of links/refs to reliable journal articles or books.
If you feel you can't do this, there are millions of blogs out there that don't have these strict scholarly requirements, and which wd welcome your valuable insights.

mb

9:53 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

Miles,

I'm really sorry to hear about your friend. It doesn't surprise me that America produces so many broken people; it is, after all, a decadent, bloodthirsty empire.

9:48 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: Yr follow up was not OK. Three ​more guidelines for you:

1. We have a half-pg-max limit on this blog.
2. Avoid large, dense blocks of text. They are nearly unreadable. Break your post up into paragraphs.
3. Post only once every 24 hrs, max.
These rules may understandably bother you. If so, you might consider posting on a different blog.
Gd luck.

9:52 AM  
Blogger Jack Lattemann said...

While Wafers celebrate the culture and cares of Mericans as they are denied their three-flavor slushie mixes and proper condiments for chicken sandwiches, let me add this Cascadian news tidbit that documents the severity of reaction to crimes against property, and to pick-up trucks in particular: a Lakewood, WA man, Michael Campbell, was sleeping in his pickup in a parking lot when he awoke at 3:45 am to hear noises under his truck as a guy was trying to steal the catalytic converter. Being a properly armed Merican, Campbell shot the intruder, Brent Jalmari Peltomaa, who was halfway under the truck, then tied the violator’s hands above his head and then to the ball hitch of the truck, and drove to a nearby field where he left the body. A truck driver sleeping in his cab awoke and called the cops, who found Peltomaa’s body, and then pulled Campbell over as he was driving by (to admire his handiwork?).

www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/man-fatally-shot-in-Lakewood-over-catalytic-converter-theft-identified/

10:21 AM  
Anonymous Rika said...

In space, nobody can hear Jeff Bezos. So can Richard Branson go too?

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/11/space-jeff-bezos-richard-branson-amazon-virgin

Interesting piece in Prospect on whether or not space exploration is even worth it. I agree w the idea that we should send robotic recognizance into space on the cheap but humans & humanity itself should remain here & fix the mess we've made of this planet. What's the Wafer consensus?

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/science-and-technology/the-duel-is-space-exploration-travel-worth-it-manned-unmanned-debate

10:37 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Rika-

It was just a Cold War epiphenomenon in 1969, and it's just a distraction from our problems today. But see also ch. 3 of WAF.

mb

10:55 AM  
Anonymous Brad Sowers said...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/16/super-rich-family-dynastic-wealth-pandemic

*Wealth secret of the super rich revealed: be born into a rich family*

11:00 AM  
Anonymous El Alamein said...

Here is the link to "Jesus and John Wayne" as mentioned yesterday [https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631495731]

As for the space program, my introduction to Dr. Berman's work was a video I stumbled across of him doing a book talk for Why America Failed. I believe it was this one: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzgY20d2MtU]

In it, he mentioned parenthetically that of course there are positive aspects of the Yankee, can-do spirit, before launching into his critique of hustling and the empty culture it leaves behind. Naturally, the space program is an oft-cited example of American boldness and achievement, and I can't disagree.

I also can't help but admire Dr. Berman's intro to the Chinese edition of WAF, in which he warns the rising superpower of the dangers of emulating the American experiment. However, the die is cast. The arms race for who can be the most dystopian, centralized tech-fueled monstrosity has already been underway since the beginning of the century if Snowden is to be believed. As America's finest news source puts it: https://www.theonion.com/report-china-to-overtake-u-s-as-worlds-biggest-asshol-1819571423

1:53 PM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

On the theme “The Elite Are Dreck,” this article from the New Yorker on the State Department under Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo.

As author Ronan Farrow points out, Pompeo graduated first in his class at West Point and got his law degree at Harvard (a common thing among the scurvy lot who lead and have led the country). Tillerson was at the time of his appointment the chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil; during his tenure (2017-2018), appllcations for the Foreign Service fell by 50 percent, and four of six career ambassadors and 14 of 33 career ministers departed, an unprecedented scale of loss. Pompeo replaced Tillerson.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/can-biden-reverse-trumps-damage-to-the-state-department

2:17 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

El A-

I didn't really think the Chinese wd take my advice, of course. Clearly, one douchebag nation will supplant another douchebag nation. Whoopee! Yellow skins, white skins, what's the difference? Or why wd black and brown hustling be any different from what we've got now? (As for Jewish hustling, Zionism is the tragic result.) For a much-wished for optimistic alternative to musical hegemonic chairs/buffoons, check out story #2 in my bk, "The Heart of the Matter." But in general, to create real change, more slapping (or lobotomies) wd be necessary than what we have available at the present time.

mb

2:20 PM  
Anonymous Heath said...

Civilisations: A Personal View -- https://besharamagazine.org/newsandviews/civilisations/

Fascinating piece!

4:04 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Heath-

Gd ref, thanks.

mb

5:05 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

Nadine-

Thanks, that's sweet.

MB, Wafers-

Why didn't this woman just bash her girlfriend's head in w/a baseball bat?:

https://hollywoodunlocked.com/florida-woman-arrested-after-beating-girlfriend-who-talked-in-her-sleep-about-an-ex/

The way I see it, America needs to implement 4 big policy changes:

1. Make Morris Berman Director of Mass Lobotomies and Random Slapping (MLRS).
2. Discharge the Wafer Urine Detail (WUD) inside every American city. Each Wafer should be equipped w/a sixer and an unlimited supply of pastrami sandwiches. Chopped liver wouldn't hurt either.
3. Compel Marjorie Taylor Greene to insert a Jewish Space Laser inside her anus on live TV.
4. Reinstate Donald J. Trumpola as President of the U$A.

Miles

5:07 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

That wd be gd, altho personally, I don't see why she didn't shoot her like a dog in the street. This wd ensure that the argument not continue.

All of your recs are excellent; I'm ready to assume a top admin post at any time. But help me out here: I keep trying to find reasons for not beating Jared Kushner to w/in an inch of his life, then throwing him on a dung heap, and then unleashing the WUD on him. No matter how hard I try, I can't see why this shdn't be done.

As for Marjorie, I have a T-shirt that illustrates the JSL (seriously). But I wd like one showing Marjorie's rear end, w/a JSL hanging out of it. Can't seem to find a vendor, however.

mb

5:18 PM  
Anonymous Anjin-san said...

Apparently not... if one believes Putin and AP.

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-europe-summits-d86605a1c60be7c9ca856028030b961b

5:29 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Ho Hum Dept.:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/17/us/arizona-shootings-victims/index.html

9:53 PM  
Blogger Mohamed said...

Why do you think current civilization and empires like the u.s don’t learn from past civilization ? And try not to make the same mistakes. Putin said the us is making same mistake as ussr.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-says-us-threats-smack-soviet-unions-fatal-mistakes-2021-06-05/

1:13 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Mo-

See Freud on the 'repetition compulsion', I guess. There's also a diff between ontological knowing and intellectual knowing, as we've discussed in the past. Why don't alcoholics stop drinking?

mb

4:53 AM  
Anonymous Birney Zouave said...

Dr. B-

"Biden signs law making Juneteenth a federal holiday — but some remain unimpressed"

https://news.yahoo.com/biden-signs-law-making-juneteenth-200500703.html

7:43 AM  
Blogger Brian said...

Geat News from our finest prophet,
The American Rennaisance has begun:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/17/opinion/covid-economic-boom.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

"First, power has begun shifting from employers to workers. In March, U.S. manufacturing, for example, expanded at the fastest pace in nearly four decades. Companies are desperate for new workers. Between April 2020 and March 2021, the number of unemployed people per opening plummeted to 1.2 from 5.

Workers are in the driver’s seat, for now, and they know it. The “quit rate” — the number of workers who quit their jobs because they are confident they can get a better one — is at the highest in two decades. Employers are raising wages and benefits to try to lure workers back."

"The economy has already taken off. Global economic growth is expected to be north of 6 percent this year, and strong growth is expected to last at least through 2022."

9:57 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Brian-

I have characterized Brooks as one of the greatest shmucks America ever produced. He continues to not disappoint, in that regard. His shoes are too dry; Wafers know what to do.

mb

10:04 AM  
Anonymous down we go said...

Miles - Glad you like "Headed into the Abyss". One caveat - Watson fails to include an index or footnotes. This is important because he draws lots of conclusions without citing evidence. While I agree with most of them, it would be helpful to know what sources he used.

Further evidence of American foreign violence coming home to roost? Airplanes, road rage, fights over chicken sandwiches and slushies and, most recent manifestation - Beach Bashing.

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/fights-break-out-amid-large-crowds-at-hampton-beach/2392275/
"A lot of boxing, a lot of random fights going on here and there, but that's what happens when you get a big crowd of people in one place," explained the manager of a burger joint. In America, yes, but where else in the world do fights break out spontaneously among persons seeking recreation at a beach?

1:13 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

down-

Will there come a day when every American will look at him/herself in the mirror, and suddenly cry out, "My God, I'm degraded and debased! I'm nothing more than a violent buffoon! My life has no meaning at all! And America is a pile of dreck!"

(Don't hold yr breath)

Of the 332 million Americans, I wd guess that less than 5000 know that we are finished.

mb

4:19 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

down we go-

Yes, Watson should have used a more scholarly citation method to document his sources rather than relying on a general bibliography. Could be the result of his journalism career, as opposed to being a trained historian. Still it was nice to see MB's work advanced within his narrative.

MB, Wafers-

Very enlightening piece:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/the-lab-leak-theory-inside-the-fight-to-uncover-covid-19s-origins

Miles

5:05 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

Gd Vanity Fair essay, thanks. I'm waiting for Marjorie to announce that covid was a Jewish conspiracy, run by Jewish Space Lasers from a synagogue in Wuhan.

mb

7:10 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

US-ian customer orders bagel. Bagel did not contain cream cheese due to mix up; therefore, the US-ian pulls a gun on the clerk.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/his-bagel-didnt-have-cream-cheese-so-he-pulled-gun-on-a-police-chiefs-daughter-cops-say/ar-AALcnDR

"Basically, you always know that you could be prone to something like this,..."

It's 'nice' to know that US-ians are "prone" to "something like this." Curious are Russian prone to this? Japanese, Swiss, French, Mexicans Italians, Luxembourgers, Kiwis, etc.

The US empire "news" makes it appear as if this is normalized across the "world," desensitized to fucked up behavior as if it's the same everywhere?!

8:37 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dr. Shit-

I'll be frank: if I had also ordered lox, and the bagel came w/o it, and w/o cream cheese, I would have felt obliged to gun the clerk down like a dog in the street. What, I'm supposed to eat a dry bagel? What are guns for, anyway? This is exactly why the citizenry needs to be armed to the teeth.

Here's a pic of the gun waver. He seems fairly happy:

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/06/18/man-accused-of-waving-gun-at-starbucks-appears-in-court/

And while we're on the subject of American morons, what's up w/Shaneka Torres, and Laquisha Jones? (Wafer heroes)

mb

9:07 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman,
In reply to your “Ho Hum Dept.” post above, I have bad news for you: Phoenix lost by the score of 20 to 8 to the City of Baltimore.
Perhaps Las Vegas should take odds as to which city will have the most amount of weekly gun shootings here in our pathetic wasteland. See below.


https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2021/06/18/im-terrified-at-least-20-people-shot-this-week-in-baltimore-police-identify-victim-of-deadly-mass-shooting/

10:49 PM  
Blogger NeilW said...

EXTREMELY POETIC ''“Mr. Wright’s demands for cream cheese, while armed with a firearm, caused a well-founded fear in the victim leading her to believe that if she didn’t give him the cream cheese, whether he pays for it or not, her life was being put at risk,” the arrest report says''.

12:55 AM  
Blogger alex carter said...

Happy Juneteenth everyone! I mean, yeah, they could have made election days federal holidays but that might actually change things a bit ...

3:01 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

Here's a line from that link: "some believe the violence has spiraled out of control." Duh. Gee, do ya think? At what pt might we decide that that is, in fact, the case?

mb

4:20 AM  
Anonymous Cherith Cutestory said...

I need some enlightenment: I have never seen any other society where people are murdering each other over bagels and burgers. Is this because Americans are violent, and doing this sanely and deliberately? Or is there a massive undiagnosed epidemic of mental illness that's causing these things (given how abnormal this is to human behavior)?

-----------------

There's something so funny and caustic at the same time about "schmuck", I don't know what it is, but this word is endlessly pleasing to use.

6:59 AM  
Anonymous Birney Zouave said...

Dr. B-

Here's Biden in Cornwall, discussing foreign policy. The clip is 1 minute 47 seconds:

https://youtu.be/d18fa34_IWc

Putin's view-

https://politicalwire.com/2021/06/17/putin-says-biden-was-very-sharp/


8:08 AM  
Anonymous down we go said...

Article in NYRB about Jan 6. Author argues that a candidate as unqualified as Trump could be elected "only as a gesture of supreme repudiation" of the the government class by the electorate. As has been said on this blog many times, Trump was "the effect, not the cause" of what is so wrong with America.

Quoting Biden's question about whether American democracy can overcome "the lies, anger, hate and fears that have pulled us apart" the author answers: "there is yet no sign that it can. All around us are signs that our angry politics are likely to grow angrier - and perhaps more violent still". Daily reports of mass shootings, road rage and airplane brawls support his assertion. Hatred and anger are beginning to influence interpersonal encounters everywhere.

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/07/01/reality-rebellion/

9:29 AM  
Blogger Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAxfAW48u9s

This kind of clownishness is uniquely American.

9:37 AM  
Anonymous Lukas said...

The European Environment Agency states that green growth is "unlikely" and calls for post-growth and degrowth alternatives to be integrated into EU policy.

https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/growth-without-economic-growth

9:39 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

Call me crazy, I love 'em!

down-

For more evidence, see Nadine's wonderful link.

Birn-

Traditionally, Russian humor is heavy on irony.

Cherith-

Call me a shmuck, but if some waiter handed me a dry bagel, sans lox or cream cheese, I'd take out my gun and shoot him/her like a dog in the street. As for burgers, let me refer you to my hero, Shaneka Torres, a take-charge kinda gal.

mb

9:55 AM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

This is a great document. Makes clear that once painting Black Lives matter in the street doesn't help with the millions of evictions on the horizon, the government will simply declare everyone a terrorist and round us up like cattle. Domestic violent extremists, i.e. terrorists, include things like 'opposition to perceived economic, social, or racial hierarchies; or perceived governmental overreach, negligence, or illegitmacy.' Personally I'd say that if you are not in opposition to something in today's US you are pretty well brain dead.

Un terroriste, c'est moi.

Scroll down for an image of the main page from the government document.

https://txktoday.com/national/u-domestic-violent-extremism-poses-heightened-threat-in-2021/

And Biden berates the Chinese....

https://gazettengr.com/biden-xi-square-off-as-america-berates-china-for-rights-abuses/

1:58 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dan-

Well, from a declinist pt of view, extremism is making a great contribution to our current situation. Spiritually speaking, all Wafers are extremists. Meanwhile, article notes that 22 vets kill themselves every day. Why is that, do ya think? Hmm...that their lives were wasted on delusional, imperialist crap? I recall seeing a film ca. early 70s, of Vietnam vets throwing their medals over the White House fence and shouting things like, "Here's some bullshit for you." I doubt that film can be accessed today. Too 'extreme'.

mb

2:31 PM  
Anonymous turnover said...

The videos of the 1971 medal tossing are still on the net. There's so much data it's difficult to censor most of it.

Reporting Vietnam: "Operation Dewey Canyon III" Anti-war Protest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iydq2QS35iQ

Vietnam veterans end war protest by tossing medals away
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRYW0tUc3MU

This is the NYT coverage
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/24/archives/veterans-discard-medals-in-war-protest-at-capitol-veterans-discard.html

3:09 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

turnover-

Many thanks. I really appreciate your digging this up for us. And inside the W.H. cowered a thug, a crook, a piece of human garbage, who was forced to resign just a few years later.

mb

4:01 PM  
Blogger flanagle said...

On June 17th the Institute for Economics & Peace published its (annual) Global Peace Index 2021-"Measuring peace in a complex world". I have been following this for several years now. WAFers who are considering escaping the 'exceptional' country may find the color-coded (dark green, light green, yellow, orange, red) world map of interest. (And there's plenty to read as well). Out of 163 countries, the US continues its ever-downward trajectory dropping two clicks from last year and coming in at the penultimate 'Yellow Zone' number of 122 (right between Azerbaijan and South Africa).
It is, without question, the worst showing of any highly wealthy, seriously powerful, industrial democracy. No need to name any 'Green Zoners', you can guess many of them easily enough. But here's some fellow, yet more peaceful, 'Yellows' to consider: No. 78-Cambodia, No.86-Peru, No.95-Sri Lanka, No.108-Haiti, No.110-El Salvador(!), No.120-Algeria. At its present rate of decline, the US will be hitting the 'Orange Zone' by next year. Then, eventually, on to the final 'ZONE RED'?

5:29 PM  
Anonymous Namaste said...

There you go again.. Mr. Berman, maybe just give everyone a battle tank fitted with nuclear missiles....

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/officer-shoots-driver-accused-hitting-least-8-cyclists-arizona-road-n1271438

5:59 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Namaste-

You wonder when someone will finally stand up and say, "These massacres are the product of the American Way of Life, nothing else. Enuf w/the crazy loner theory!"

flan-

A link wd be nice.

mb

6:12 PM  
Anonymous Earle said...

Jeff --

Thanks for the Vanity Fair piece. I think this is also a good one:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/15/lab-leak-theory-doesnt-hold-up-covid-china/

We'll see. A lot of recent diseases were at one time wrongly thought to be human-made: (Remember the hoopla from the 1000 page book about how AIDS was caused by polio vaccines?)

6:42 PM  
Anonymous Suzanne Lowman said...

Sensational James Baldwin interview buried by ABC more than 40 years ago.

“Nobody wants a writer until he’s dead,” he tells a youngster at one point, presciently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jXwWCyMJyc

6:53 PM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

Dr. B, as a side note, could I request that you resume adding a D to my name if you are responding to me? 'Dan D' I remember when I first started posting that there was someone else who posted as a 'Dan.' I don't remember if I was asked to differentiate myself or if I simply did it out of respect for the 'old timer' Dan.

Anyway, out of respect for the original 'Dan,' I'd appreciate the appellation 'Dan D' going forward. merci!

obviously 24 hour rule violation and no intention that this be posted.

7:04 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dan D-

Yr rt! Not a problem.

mb

8:09 PM  
Blogger NeilW said...

Cyclist story reminded me of this film - funny how art imitates life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OByPf1fTZ0

11:50 PM  
Blogger flanagle said...

Here's the link to the Global Peace Index: https://www.visionofhumanity.org

1:23 AM  
Anonymous Damfino said...

MB

re: your answer about a book writing a book about Turkey:

Glad yr enjoying NB. As for Turkey...god, it wd be an enormous project; but
then, so was Japan (2 visits, rdg several hundred bks, learning basic Japanese,
hiring interpreters, doing a lg # of interviews, etc.). I'll hafta think abt it.

Wouldn't it be easier & just as interesting to write one about Mexico? No matter how much you learnt about Japan in your 2 trips and interviews, you're probably more intimate with and more savvy about your adoptive country by now. A book about Mexico by Morris B. has the potential to be a unique book--

2:43 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dam-

I was asked that by the salespeople at Gandhi (the Mexican Barnes & Noble) at a meeting I had w/them a few yrs ago; they had asked me to come and do a riff on my bks that were available in Spanish trans. I guess my feeling is that the story of Cortes, Father Hidalgo, Pancho Villa et al. has been told so many times, that there is nothing new left to tell. But I cd be wrong...I dunno...it's a thought, for sure.

mb

3:35 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Dr. Berman & Wafers,
Let’s not forget that two of our fifty Dysfunctional States of America are not part of the original 48 that we stole by plundering. But in keeping up with the times, our Last Frontier State has joined in the mass shooting statistics.


https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/crime-courts/2021/06/19/at-least-1-dead-4-wounded-in-shooting-near-downtown-anchorage-police-say/


p.s. Since Nadine beat me to it this week, the Karens already have been shown. The myriad daily mass shootings have surpassed them lately in the ratings anyway as we watch our pathetic wasteland of a country further implode into obscurity on the world stage.

12:00 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

Two things are clear:
1. There is no upper limit to the # of massacres.
2. There is no upper limit to the # of Karens.
'Homework' for Wafers: tie the two together.

mb

12:36 PM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

Those chosen, exceptional american "people" did exceptional things....land illegally sold from elderly woman.

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/06/18/3-arrests-made-after-womans-coconut-grove-property-sold-without-her-knowledge/

12:37 PM  
Anonymous Maxwell said...

The End of Friedmanomics
https://newrepublic.com/article/162623/milton-friedman-legacy-biden-government-spending

1:01 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Max-

"Legacy of ruin" is rt on target. The damage he did, not only to the US, but to Chile and other countries, was incalculable. A grotesque buffoon, who shd have died b4 he was born. And he had the nerve to let himself be called "Mr. Freedom." My ass.

Glans-

Look at the faces of these 3 clowns. True Americans, all. Time to chg the legend on US currency from IN GOD WE TRUST to WE HURT PEOPLE.

mb

mb

1:36 PM  
Blogger Rosegarden said...

Here is a commentary on the violence in the USA in song form
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BtLtad0pmY

Some comments on literature and guns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-NgNvq5e_g

And just for fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwaxWoJPUC0

3:48 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/25/us/texas-guns-law-permits.html

Texas is now allowing pretty much anyone over the age of 21 to own a gun. The next logical step is to remove the age requirement too, so all schoolchildren can bring machine guns to school and shoot up their classmates. MB has frequently commented that all American should walk around with machine guns and kill each other. At least in Texas, this scenario appears likely.

6:38 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

Gd news; an armed nation is a happy nation. What I have in mind is a once-a-month "Kill Free Day." On that day, citizens are encouraged to go out into the street and just shoot anyone they see, for the fun of it, and there will be no law enforcement repercussions; esp. since the cops will also be gunning people down. Whee!

mb

7:08 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

There's something terribly kind abt Americans:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/17/us/oc-pelicans-injured-trnd/index.html

Meanwhile, Ethel was innocent, and Julius was not guilty of passing atomic secrets, abt wh/he knew 0. He did pass industrial secrets, but that wd have carried a lesser penalty than death. What a fine country we live in:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/19/rosenbergs-executed-for-spying-1953-can-sons-reveal-truth

mb

7:20 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Here's a surprise:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/21/us/gun-violence-weekend-roundup/index.html

7:41 AM  
Anonymous Quiet Desperation said...

The Wafer Lobotomy Program Technician(WLPT) should be modeled after the Anton Chigurh(Javier Bardem) character in the film "No Country for Old Men." The portable compressed air cattle gun is perfect for lobotomies and should be distributed to all 177 Wafers immediately. It will be a laborious and time consuming project to assist 330 million "Muricans to "get their minds right" but somebody's gotta do it. Heading to Harbor Freight for the parts...Phhhhfooot, right between the eyes. I feel much better. Onward and downward.

12:16 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Quiet-

Am excited abt this project, but we need a link, eh?

mb

3:13 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

Some folks had a bbq on the beach, soon thereafter another USian nearby decided it was too close to "his" firepit. The USian took off his shirt, pounded his chest, with other gesticulations. 2 hours later he arrived with 'back-up' and beat the shit out of the one of the firepit intruders breaking his jaw. ‘If you guys are here any later, we’re going to shoot all of you,...'

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/student-fractures-jaw-during-violent-attack-in-ocean-beach/2636035/

https://nextshark.com/san-diego-asian-student-attack/

Tough basketball game at a predominantly Latino California "school"-the team lost. So, USians start throwing tortillas at the "losers"...

https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/tortillas-thrown-team-latino-california-school-78405393

4:34 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

Some ideas:

1.) Create a television station called Karen News Network (KNN) with round-the-clock footage of American Karens being douchebags. The footage would be broadcast internationally, and the proceeds would go to the victims of American imperialism.
2.) Change the American flag so that it has the McDonald's logo superimposed over the stripes and stars.
3.) Create a $1,000 bill with Shaneka Torres's face.
4.) Create a game show where Americans beat the shit out of each other with foodstuffs like cakes, pies, pizzas and loaves of bread. The footage would be broadcast internationally, and the proceeds would go to the victims of American imperialism.

What do you think? Any other ideas you want to add?

5:10 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

All worthwhile suggestions, altho I think that Laquisha Jones shd share the stage w/Shaneka on the 1K bill.

Dr. Shit-

Once again, Americans are great people. As for the tortilla-throwing: why not chicken enchiladas?

mb

6:03 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Unknown-

Sorry, I don't post Unknowns. If you want to participate in this blog, you need a real handle, e.g. Manischewitz J. Protocol. Thank you.

mb

8:35 PM  
Blogger alex carter said...

It's just a drinking club with aloha shirts and funny sayings like "boogaloo" ... https://www.wonkette.com/former-proud-boys-were-shocked-to-discover-hate-in-hate-group-they-joined

Dr. Shithouse - I remain unmoved until I know if they threw flour or corn tortillas - if they threw perfectly good corn tortillas I'm outraged. They can throw all the flour ones they want.

11:51 PM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

re: Quiet Desperation's lobotomy tool, here's a clip of it in action (warning- blood)-

https://youtu.be/Lp3VHEL4wm8?t=157

Even better that the good citizen compliantly accepts his fate because, well, police officers are there to protect us. Amazing what Americans will accept if something is done under color of 'authority.'

6:24 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

alex-

I'm so disappted in the Proud Boys. Here I thought they were armed to the teeth, and were going to bring in the boogaloo. In the crunch, they did nothing at all. Time to rename them the Limp Dick Boys, I guess. Why does everything in the US hafta be so disappointing?

mb

8:22 AM  
Anonymous Brookes said...

https://amp.thepostmillennial.com/seattle-pride-event-charges-white-people-reparations-while-bipoc-attend-for-free/

What happens when a Turkish guy walks up? Is there a color graph set up to help solve such problems? How dumb can we get?

9:27 AM  
Blogger Brian said...

Dr. Berman,
With all due respect, having a national "kill-free day" would be bad for the economy. If the labor supply is reduced, then our business and corporations will have to raise wages. What will save us then if innovation grinds to a halt? In a nation of irrelevant lazies, of course, they'll start clamoring for communism since they just don't understand BASIC ECONOMICS. Here is a better idea: Americans should not shoot each other, but instead work on self-improvement and stop blaming the rich for their woes— to be an individual is important. I advocate for all of us to start sprinting around the streets smacking each other across the face with copies of “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, “You are a Badass: How to stop doubting your greatness and live an awesome life” and “Atlas Shrugged”. Only then will Americans understand basic economics and we’ll be saved from this communist nightmare.

9:34 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Brookes-

And for these people, this amounts to substantive social change. Just when you think we've reached the bottom of the stupidity barrel, it turns out that there is a little more to scrape out.

"You can never underestimate the intelligence of the American people"--H.L. Mencken

mb

9:36 AM  
Anonymous Andy Ross said...

The Dream God

https://www.amazon.com/Dream-God-Brendan-M-P-Heard/dp/B091WCSTDK/ref=gp_aw_ybh_a_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=AR0XYKY5MH683EZTSW6Q

Description

In a distant future, where the Roman Empire never fell. A young Legatus and his Tribunus travel to Neptune to investigate a metaphysical innovation: the Godstream. They soon discover that they are not the only interested party.

This looks like fun!

9:58 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Andy-

How gd cd it be? Not a single ref to chopped liver.

Brian-

Yr forgetting the central declinist motto: Bad Is Gd!

mb

10:59 AM  
Anonymous Kim said...

Former president Barack Obama says he supports Sen. Joe Manchin III’s effort to scale back a sweeping voting rights bill in hopes of securing some Republican support

HAAHAHAHA


https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-voting-rights-obama-manchin/2021/06/22/31714c52-d358-11eb-9f29-e9e6c9e843c6_story.html

11:45 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Kim-

Well, he was always a douchebag. What a fool. I still am hoping I get the oppty to bang his head together w/Hillary's on nationwide TV for 20 mins.

mb

12:13 PM  
Blogger Ajay Singh said...

Dear Dr. Berman,

Spot on analysis—again—of 'Merka's 2,000-mph disintegration, a planet on its way to becoming a comet. The impetus is so inexorable that no force—especially nobody—can stop the free fall.

Here, from the city where the Hells Angels really belonged, comes news of a man whose progressive, compassionate, utterly sane efforts to reform society are being met with California's latest Recall effort—yes, that very same fundamentally undemocratic assertion of "popular will" that gave us Arnie the Barbarian, and which now threatens to put the toothpaste back into our prisons. It appears, sadly, to the fate of any and all individuals that threaten the wider 'Merkan Mafia, while blaming the Mexican one for all its ills:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/19/us/george-gascon.html



1:16 PM  
Anonymous down we go said...

Nadine - I, too, enjoy a good food fight, but if you want to make an impression on Americans, pies won't do - it takes guns and bombs, at the least.

Dan D - in the 70s, I believe it was, a Stanford psychology professor ran what he called the "Prisoner Experiment" which purportedly proved the power of the human tendency to follow authority.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

Kim - waiting for Reps to cooperate didn't work too well for Obama and it won't work for Manchin. But maybe that's the point -

5:44 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

down-

It was conducted by Stanley Milgram. Turns out, it was seriously flawed. I can't remember where I read the critique, but it's no longer cited as proof of obedience.

mb

6:05 PM  
Blogger taylor1956 said...

Kevin,I agree with you. The article on the allerged "ties" between new athiests and the right was a superficial, ad hominem attack. Not a shred of real evidence.

6:44 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Biden: Man of the People:

Activists fear Biden’s climate pledges are falling apart: ‘We aren’t seeing grit’ | Joe Biden The Guardian

Migrants turned away at border under Biden face shocking abuse in Mexico | US-Mexico border | The Guardian

7:34 PM  
Anonymous Seneca’s Cliff said...

Alex, I think you are confusing the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Bois. The first think they are good Americans, wave the flag, support the cops and fight Antifa. The second are wishing for a second civil war and dream of fighting the cops. The first group actually shows up here in Portland to brawl with baseball bats and such while the second seem like posers and just talk and wear Aloha shirts. The good news is that both groups are idiots and we should cheer them on as they are hastening the decline of America.

11:08 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

This is nice:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/22/us-military-training-document-socialism-terrorist-ideology

11:15 PM  
Anonymous Cosmo Como said...

If Trump knew about Wafers, could he have sent his agents to give
a closer look at how he can shut them up?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ7qIlhMCa8 go to 00:00:45

2:40 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Cosmo-

Pretty funny. Well, I'm not Jimmy Kimmel, and I'm not even on the radar screen in the US. And if Trumpi ever did (somehow) find out abt this blog, I doubt he'd consider us much of a threat. (True enuf)

mb

4:54 AM  
Blogger Dan Daniel said...

Dr. B and Down We go- The Stanford prison Experiment is not the same as the experiment Milgram was known for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
A 'temporary community' of 'prisoners' and guards' that was shut down within days as the abuse by those given arbitrary power grew.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
Milgram's work was on obedience to authority, the infliction of increasing levels of pain under cover of authority.

One refutation of Milgram's methodology and results-
https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/the-shocking-truth-of-the-notorious-milgram-obedience-experiments

Personally, I don't need such studies to claim that obedience to authority is a huge part of American culture (human nature in general most likely). Look at Nixon's Law and Order success. Trump's strong man appeal. A (neo)liberal university town I lived in until recently reelected a mayor who had people scared that their backyard sheds would be regularly pillaged if they didn't increase police funding.

8:11 AM  
Anonymous Val T. said...

Question for Wafers:

Is Milton Friedman the inevitable intellectual reincarnation of Ludwig von Mises?

Discuss.

8:45 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Anjin-

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

Dan D-

Yes, of course; the prison expt was conducted by Philip Zimbardo. In any case, thanx for the ref on the refutation of Milgram. However, check out the 2012 film "Compliance," which is pretty horrifying re: obedience to authority (and a true story).

mb

10:02 AM  
Anonymous James Allen said...

[Fashion tip for teens: junk the black clothing
It’s a demonstrated TRIGGER for law enforcement]

“According to CBS12 [in Fort Myers, Florida],16-year-old Jack Rodeman was standing on the back porch of his girlfriend's home. He was reaching for his phone to text her that he was outside so she could let him in. It was known that he was going to be there. He has permission to be. Still, a state trooper tased him, put him in handcuffs and took him to jail.” [Where he remained for 21 days, explanation for which not yet made public.]

CBS 12 revealed that the official police report said that the trooper believed he was a "suspicious person" because he was dressed in black. It also said that when he saw the police car he "darted" and hid.”

https://www.rawstory.com/florida-trooper-tases-black-teen-at-his-girlfriends/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=7360

10:05 AM  

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