July 04, 2021
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Well, Wafers, we're having a great discussion, but I don' have a lot to add to it at this point. Let me just submit a question that many of you might wish to debate. It's the most important question facing America today, if not the entire planet. Kamala Harris botched her trip to the US-Mex border; now staff members are quitting due to what they claim is her dysfunctional administration. More and more, it's beginning to look like she's incompetent. But this thought occurs to me: what if, besides being incompetent, she is also a buffoonette? Here she is being groomed for the presidency, and may actually be a buffoonette! The consequences of this for the alignment of major power blocs--well, I don' hafta tell you guys what this would mean. So please, let's all weigh in on the subject and see if we can come to some consensus on it. The world is watching.
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Dr. B-
ReplyDeleteRemember this exchange from the July 31, 2019 Democratic presidential debate?
"Tulsi Gabbard torches Kamala Harris on Criminal Justice Reform"-
https://youtu.be/Cfp_IIdVnXs
Birn-
ReplyDeleteThis demonstrates Kamala's incompetence. But the irony is that Tulsi is the true buffoonette. However, if she wd only step forward and take hold of the reins of gov't, America wd surely be saved. I am almost finished w/my 5-vol. exegesis of Tulsism, I'm glad to say; it's been slow going because of the profundity of her thoughts.
mb
Kamala vs Kamala
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIpv9WN3ifo
Progressive? Conservative? Conservative shill? Not grounded in reality? Self-seeking hustler?
If 45 wasn't and Somnambulent 46 isn't enough evidence that it's all reality TV, there is nothing more those of us with brain stems can say.
ReplyDeletePresident Caitlyn Jenner, people. Get ready. You know you want it.
What exactly could a competent president do to make the USA a better country for its citizens? What would be the motive involving the overturning of the corporate elite and the distribution of wealth and income? How would this president get around the GOP and the Supreme Court? A better world can only mean not continuing to kill the planet.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU6teJhzzc8
ReplyDeleteA British Wafer? He wants a post-growth, green, community-centered system that emphasizes health rather than hustling. Clearly authentic, as he's not getting rich like so many American leftist bigwigs are.
This guy is right up there with the goat fucker (Wafer hall of shame)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4732528/Dad-killed-son-boy-compromising-photos.html
Perhaps Ms. Harris is simply conforming to the model set by her boss -- that is, to be "gaffe-prone." It hardly matters. Republicans are preparing to cross the Maginot Line next year on their way to re-occupy political territory. The Panzers of the "Freedom Caucus" are already swiveling their gun turrets to take aim. The enfeebled Democrats, like the Belgians in May, 1940, will refuse to take meaningful action -- returning the filibuster to its traditional form, for example -- because that would violate the hoped-for bipartisan consensus. As a result, the forces now mobilizing across the border will make short work of the opposition on their way to continental mastery. The retreat from Dunkirk -- or, rather, from Congress -- is already a foregone conclusion. And there is no Churchill waiting on other side of the channel to rouse the people to blood, sweat, and tears.
ReplyDelete(Charles "The Wafer Anthropologist" Nuckolls
Dr. Berman please include this tidbit into your 5 volume series on Tulsism. F
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4-lk9HZ09s
Great Seer, when are you going to get started on the Hermann Cain 555 plan treatise to "save" America and keep it 'great'; that will likely be at least 3 volumes given Cain's infinite wisdom like Dan Potatoe Quayle and Obshitforbrains (AKA: Drone strike-Terror Tuesdays).
How can anyone say USA with a straight face (Futoroexpat excluded).
Glans-
ReplyDeleteWell, there's no doubting that Tulsi is a buffoonette. As for Herman, I always had a soft spot in my heart for the ol' joker. The 999 Plan was esp. impressive. And WTF is Dan up2 these days, anyway?
Gunnar-
This is grotesque, even for Americans. As for the goat-fucker: I recall there was also some guy who fucked his van.
Charles-
Keep in mind that 99% of Americans have no idea what Maginot Line, or Panzer, or Dunkirk were, and 98% don't recognize 'Churchill'. 97% don't know what WW2 was, and 96% have their heads firmly tucked up their rumps and are rolling around like doughnuts.
Eric-
So it's clear your vote is for buffoonette. I wd add, douche baguette, clearly evident in that link.
Nadine-
He's obviously a commie. He must be stopped. Meanwhile, thanks to greenwashing in America, folks like Thos Friedman and Al Gore get rich.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteIf you stand back, and just look at the US from a distance, as it were, it will suddenly strike you what a douchebag nation America is. Really: sometimes, I literally can't believe we are so stupid, so awful, and so self-destructive. It's like a collection of buffoons and buffoonettes fighting in the dark, w/blindfolds on.
mb
ps: Exempli gratia:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/04/us/gene-siller-pro-golfer-shot-killed-georgia-golf-course/index.html
French thought once dazzled the world – what went wrong? By the Aeon author Sudhir Hazareesingh, winner of the 2021 Wolfson History Prize https://aeon.co/amp/essays/french-thought-once-dazzled-the-world-what-went-wrong
ReplyDeleteps2: It is w/some sadness that I hafta report a relative absence of antisemitic trollfoon attacks. I guess those guys just finally ran outta steam. Go figure. But I confess, I miss them. They are so stupid. I usta enjoy deleting them unread. Well, perhaps other blogs are now the recipients of their cutting-edge intellects. C'est la vie.
ReplyDeleteThe Darker Angels of Our Nature: Refuting the Pinker Theory of History & Violence
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Darker-Angels-Our-Nature-Refuting/dp/1350140600/ref=gp_aw_ybh_a_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=PF58R8HR8GQB5ET17244QB5ET17244
Some criticism of Pinker coming down the pipe!
Don Evans
Obituary for Lauren Berlant, Critic of the American Dream, who coined “cruel optimism,” as a widespread state of being in the United States-Her work illuminates consumption based societies everywhere "where the tools we depend on to achieve “the good life” — a safety net, job security, the meritocracy, even “durable intimacy” in our romantic lives — have degenerated into “fantasies” that bear “less and less relation to how people can live.”
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/03/books/lauren-berlant-dead.html
The perspective from Cascadia: In regard to the grooming of a douchebaguette for 2024, I think the recipe for success is staring at our collective Wafer faces. A reconciliation of Tulsism and douchebaguettery, or the surfwashing of the Kamaleon, if you will. I would be in the front row of a pre-election appearance of both of them at Evergreen College – a man can only hope, eh? What to call this reapproachment? Surely Wafers can suggest a name for this new meme that will relegate Mittaic Philosophy to its shadow. Meanwhile, videos like these suggest the surprising potential for the sum of these two being greater than its parts, an irresistable seduction for Merica:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-vyasZq4I0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4-lk9HZ09s
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/woody-allen-mia-farrow-dylan-documentary/619123/
ReplyDeleteWhat Mia Farrow Knew
Caitlin Flanagan is a fine writer.
Hello Mr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteOne of the so called “smart” founders of Silicon Valley had this to say on twitter
“A lot of successful founders care about making the world better once they become successful and start to feel a sense of responsibility.”
So basically he is saying - get rich first by fucking up the world and then start thinking about how to fix it. What a bunch of fucking morons!!
Dr B,
ReplyDeleteArticle on people struggling on social security in the US. Last lady interviewed had to move to Mexico.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/04/social-security-expansion-reform-push
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB-
Like America, Kamala's core principle is hucksterism. She's spent half her life selling something, and Americans bought it. Most likely she is selling a form of bullshit.
MB, Wafers-
I'm currently reading a terrific book that has me thinking, "Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself: The Mass Suicide of Ordinary Germans in 1945" by Florian Huber. Here's a review:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/20/promise-me-youll-shoot-yourself-florian-huber-review
Huber examines the period leading up to Hitler's ascent and his activities during the war. He shows just how it was that so many people fell under Hitler's spell, and how Hitler gave them hope and pride after Germany's defeat in the First World War. Essentially, the Germans centered their entire lives around Hitler's words and promises, and by the time they began witnessing crimes against the Jews, they were so wrapped up in Hitler's spell, that they chose to turn a blind eye to the evil going on all around them. This is where antisemitism ultimately leads, as MB has pointed out. When the lies were eventually exposed, and the loss of the war became a reality, ordinary Germans committed suicide by the thousands (men, women, children, entire families) as the Red Army conquered Germany from the east. While the Germans were not into wearing red baseball caps, Hitler's slogan was essentially "Make Germany Great Again." The parallels to today's politics are quite obvious. What will happen to the large collection of Trumpites who have ascribed cult-like status to Trumpola? Could we soon see mass suicides conducted on a daily basis by Trumpites when they realized they were huckstered? In any case, this book is a harrowing and fascinating social history.
Miles
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB-
Can you please post this review of the book that I'm reading as well. I realized that it needed a bit of balance. Thanks.
Miles
The prospects for Kamala's elevation to buffoonette are pretty solid. I don't have any links, but my US black friends who are well informed think Kamala is a power hungry unprincipled hustler. They think she caters to the WASP power elites. They are quite convincing in their descriptions of her failure to advocate for people who are not white and that she doesn't do much to help people who don't already have power.
ReplyDeleteFydor Karamozov was a buffon, also. And look where it got him.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Kamala deserves the distinction of being named a buffonette. She doesn't rise to the greatness of the local ones I know. Dysfunctional, no doubt. Opportunistic, for sure. But buffonette? - she has a long way to go. God bless her heart.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, think of the appeal a Kamala/ ghost of Herman ticket in 2024. How could they lose? 999, baby, all the way to the White House - or would the presence of 2 Afro-Americans necessitate its renaming?
Thomas-
ReplyDeleteFyodor Karamazov; buffoon; pazhaliste!
Jeff-
Which review? Meanwhile, suicide rate is high among veterans. Maybe they see our failure up close.
Namaste-
Check out a film called "Brad's Status".
Don-
There are certain people who need to be extensively waterboarded, like Obama, or Zuckershmuck. But Pinker is undoubtedly high on that list.
mb
At least 150 people fatally shot, more than 400 shootings over Fourth of July weekend
ReplyDeleteThis is why I don't celebrate the 4th of July anymore. Not that I was ever patriotic, but the good 'ol days of throwing a BBQ & watching the fireworks are now only a memory of those great old ones who can remember the 20th century.
I'm betting not one of those shooters even know what the 4th celebrates.
Our host's suggestion that all Americans simply head out into the street and commence blasting one another seems to be gaining traction.
ReplyDelete'At least 150 people fatally shot in more than 400 shootings over the Fourth of July weekend':
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/05/us/us-shootings-july-fourth-weekend/index.html
Traditional yearly celebration of 2nd Amendment? Also keeps alive
ReplyDeletememories of the Civil War?
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/least-140-people-died-shootings-205639684.html
Sybok, Waldo, and Ziggy-
ReplyDeleteThese are, in my humble opinion, the True Americans (or maybe they're just declinists, who the fuck knows). But think of what cd really be accomplished if all of the shooters had been equipped w/nuclear devices. When oh when will the Pentagon listen to me? Lord, must I cry forever into the wilderness?
mb
Nightmare scenario: alarm as advertisers seek to plug into our dreams
ReplyDeletehttps://amp.theguardian.com/media/2021/jul/05/advertisers-targeted-dream-incubation
ReplyDelete“Mission Accomplished.” -George Bush referring about the war in Iraq, 2003.
“Peace with Honor.”- Richard Nixon referring about the end of the Vietnam war, 1973.
Dr. Berman, What saying will Joe Biden provide about the ending of our latest war? Perhaps do you think he can take a few lines from Billy Joel’s “In the Middle of the Night”?
Yes. U.S. foreign policy sure is a model for the world.
https://apnews.com/article/bagram-afghanistan-airfield-us-troops-f3614828364f567593251aaaa167e623
Brothers Dulles. I recall a while ago you mention this book.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7yQCsF9rGQ&t=1185s
Wafer Joe Mcllnen-
ReplyDeleteHow abt: "Full of Shit" as Schmiden's US empire slogan?
Imagine the profit of we vaccinate everything alive!!!
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/ABC/status/1411471245783220228
At least 150 people fatally shot in more than 400 shootings over the Fourth of July weekend
ReplyDeletehttps://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/07/05/us/us-shootings-july-fourth-weekend/index.html
Another uniquely American epidemic....
“Is it possible a project that involves reading novels by the thousand, from all over the world, may reveal links between current events and what disasters are likely to happen in the near future?”
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jun/26/project-cassandra-plan-to-use-novels-to-predict-next-war
There were nine indicators: thematic reach, censorship of the text, censorship of the author, media response, scandals around the text, scandals around the author, literary awards for the author, literary awards for the text, and narrative strategy. Did it push buttons for those in power and/or those oppressed?
The team correctly identified Algeria as a region of interest two years before trouble. The team warned about Azerbaijan a year before the battle over Nagorno-Karabakh.
But like King Priam, the generals do not want to know. The project was discontinued.
Oops, sorry about that:
ReplyDeletehttps://blogs.kent.ac.uk/munitions-of-the-mind/2020/01/20/promise-me-youll-shoot-yourself-the-downfall-of-ordinary-germans-in-1945/
Miles
Bret Weinstein has gone over to the far-right, as far as I can tell. He obsessively produces anti-mask, anti-vax content, like this miserable clip:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNyAovuUxro&t=1328s
Here, his guest, who is loathed by most of the scientific community, argues that vaccines will end up producing a super-strain of COVID. He doesn't produce a shred of evidence to back up his assertions, and Weinstein does his best to make his absurd ideas seem plausible. I'm 100% sure Weinstein knows better than to believe this bullshit; vaccines have never ended up producing a super-strain in the history of modern medicine. He and his wife have become grifters. This is what other scientists think of Weinstein's guest:
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19-critical-thinking-pseudoscience/doomsday-prophecy-dr-geert-vanden-bossche
Rock-
ReplyDeleteI may have posted a review of the bk a few yrs ago; I can't remember. You might search the
Web.
mb
MB, In regards to our filicidal shit eating dad. I disagree with your assessment as ‘grotesque,’ on the contrary this behavior, in order to prevent future tragedy, must be normalized and all stigma removed. Humans are 98% genetically identical to chimpanzees, it is not abnormal for a chimp to play with or even eat his own shit, ergo a human who does likewise shouldn’t be shamed. Careful genetic analysis may reveal this man has an extra chimp gene related to scatalogical behavior. This predisposition was likely triggered by living in a country full of shit for brains. He cldnt help himself.
ReplyDeleteGunnar-
ReplyDeleteHave you come to terms w/how many Americans need to be slapped?
mb
Morris - re: gene-siller-pro-golfer-shot-killed-georgia-golf-course
ReplyDeleteImagine my joy when the local Atlanta news (Ch 2) interviewed a resident of said golf course community; Gail Tverberg. Seems her upscale refuge,, isn't that.
FORE!
Hung-
ReplyDeleteKind of a cryptic post, but OK. In future, pls address me as Mr. Berman, or GSWH. Thank you.
mb
Wow - Would love a link to Gail the Actuary on the news.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that Kamala is a cross between Dan Quayle and Ellen Degeneres. She seems to be prone to gaffs and cluelessness like George HW Bushes lightweight V.P.And she pretends to be a compassionate friend of the downtrodden while actually being a tyrannical jerk to her underlings like Ellen. During the election some commentator or another ( can’t remember who) labeled her a “Matilda” which is a Jamaican term for a female Grifter.
ReplyDeleteAttention to any other New York Wafers here: Our gun violence epidemic has been solved! Governor Cuomo is taking executive action. Look for the mass shootings/gun violence to stop immediately in our state! Dr. Berman, you totally agree, yes? LOL.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/07/06/New-York-Andrew-Cuomo-gun-violence-emergency/1731625614373/
In the meantime, check out from this daily snippet what occurs in Metropolitan NYC. It’s from WINS, one of two local 24 hour news stations here in the Big Apple. Perhaps copy, paste and save it for remembrance since all our troubles have been solved and the gun violence will disappear soon!
https://www.audacy.com/1010wins
kevin - Gail's present online hangout it seems ... https://ourfiniteworld.com/author/gailtheactuary/
ReplyDeleteRaj - I was in my local downtown (San Jose California) and fireworks are illegal here, at least this year. Once it was about 9PM it was like a small war had broken out. It was glorious. I mean, even aerials being shot off from the main drag (Santa Clara Street) not too far from City Hall. I don't remember it being like this; usually there's been a big show put on by the city that be seen from all around downtown, the primo viewing location being Discovery Park which is very large and picnic-friendly.
Miles - "but readers are likely to come away still unclear on what exactly drove so many Germans to suicide in the spring of 1945." This is what cultists often do when their cult fails. See: American dream.
Joe-
ReplyDeleteWasn't Cuomo asked to step down? I seem to remember that.
mb
Maybe you could speak to him about this blunder? Maybe some of
ReplyDeletethe Wafers?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo5QeRfXMQA
@Nadine: Yes, Vandenbossche is on the extreme end of Covid-vaccine skepticism (which is not necessarily "anti-vaxxerism" in and of itself), but platforming unpopular ideas and those who promote them doesn't necessarily make somebody "far right", and these attempts to smear them as such is a good example of why so many people are abandoning the Professional-Managerial Class Democratic Party.
ReplyDeleteBill Gates asked to allow reasoned scientific debate about African agriculture. How? Stop bankrolling the pesticide industry's front groups. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bill-gates-stop-telling-africans-what-kind-of-agriculture-africans-need/
ReplyDeleteWu-
ReplyDeleteA prime candidate for slapping. He also adores Pinker.
Roboto-
Can you give us any links or refs on the subject? Proof of 'smearing', for example?
mb
ReplyDeleteRe: Gail the Actuary; Here's a shortened version of the segment. I can't find the longer segment that actually identifies Gail by name, but that's her at 1:05, reading the notice distributed to homeowners ;-)
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/golf-pro-killed-country-club-was-wrong-place-wrong-time-police-say/a19c0a13-4f8d-46b3-b439-4d0d4f66a59b/
Seems the site doesn't have a search function.
Hung-
ReplyDeleteThanks. In future, be sure to post only once every 24 hrs, max.
Wafers-
Regarding secession, check this out:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/07/politics/capitol-riot-bible-study-group-fbi-virginia/index.html
The motivation of different secessionist groups, who will gain momentum during the next 20 yrs, will be different. Virginia secessionism is not the same as the Vermont version, for example. But in various parts of the country, the game is afoot.
mb
Gunnar I get really tired of the arguments of genetic similarity between chimps and humans let alone races - when clearly the accomplishments to civilization and humanity are not only strikingly different between races and the cultures that reflect those races - that a 2% difference doesn't really seem to quantify chimp behavior in the same way diversity hiring doesn't justify skill and ability.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a waste of time to frame differences in "science" when obviously 2% implies that there must be something else going on - like environmental circumstances. Europeans aren't the majority of people chimping out and burning down cities, throwing rocks, they've actually been trying to clean up the wreckage and maintain sanity more so than any other ethnicity. However, though there are chimpers from all ethnic backgrounds - genetic rejects particularly since wars tend to deplete a gene pool of its best men - one ethnicity has consistently throughout history shown to be the most benevolent, productive, creative, virtuous etc. That ethnicity doesn't come from desert environments or have a tradition of slavery etc.
MEET THE CONSULTING FIRM THAT’S STAFFING THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
ReplyDeletehttps://theintercept.com/2021/07/06/westexec-biden-administration/
Don, For a balanced anthropologist's summary of the objections to Pnker's thesis, see the book "Behave" by Robert Sapolsky https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31170723-behave.
ReplyDeleteA good read in and of itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJLRUpQhakE
ReplyDeleteTurns out that nearly 200 people were fatally shot in 562 shootings over the 4th of July weekend. It's even worse than we thought.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States
Look at the graph on the right detailing yearly deaths from guns and suicide. The yearly gun-related deaths from suicide have been rising steadily, but the yearly deaths from gun-related homicide have EXPLODED over the last couple years. If current trends continue, we'll be looking at 50,000 gun-related homicides every year by 2030. I suspect the real number will be something like 100,000 gun-related homicides per year as the American Empire collapses. Maybe China won't even have to fight America; maybe America will simply destroy itself via gun violence. We're getting to the point where literally any American might go postal at any given time. Yep, the greatest nation ever to exist, and a nation with a glorious future.
Somewhere in the dim reach of memory, I recalled there was some business or other about the NORTH seceding at one time:
ReplyDeleteSource: Wikipedia
Article: Secession in the United States
Section: 2.7 Abolitionists for secession by the North
First paragraph: "It is not often remembered today, as it was the South that actually attempted to secede. However, there was a movement to have the North secede, thereby escaping the Slave Power that dominated the Federal government".
Rethinking Environmental History: World-System History and Global Environmental Change (Globalization and the Environment Series)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Rethinking-Environmental-History-World-System-Globalization/dp/0759110271/
Looks great: world-systems analysis + environmental history!
Mike-
ReplyDeleteBe aware that this blog is not keen on unsubstantiated opinions. Where are your links, your references? Why shd anyone believe you? Anyone can blast an opinion, after all.
Hung-
Wait 24 hrs, eh?
mb
ps: Still very little from antisemitic trollfoons. I'm gonna hafta start calling these guys the Limp Dick Club.
Dear Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeletePerhaps, this below is helpful for your potential multi-part volume on the wisdom and philosophies of this great US empire thinker. It's very sad that he 'only' made it to 2nd in 'command.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Im1Ct3lf00
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteA pretty good essay (an opinion piece since no references are cited) on the decline and fall of the United States by Paul Edwards which leaves out the essential point that the American people are not so different from the elites which the last comment by "Drew_Hunkins" makes up for by citing you, Dr. Berman, stating that Americans have always been hustlers and mentioning "Why America Failed".
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/56629.htm
Dr. Shit-
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't he marry Tulsi Gabbard?
mb
How can he hope to keep the Jewish vote with his position on Israel
ReplyDeletewhile he makes such statements about Hitler? Maybe he just doesn't
know a thing about WWII?
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/donald-trump-praised-adolf-hitler-140345885.html
Art-
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't care abt the Jewish vote, because he won't get it no matter what he says. In 2016, 25% of Jews voted for Trumpi; in 2020, 30.5%.
mb
@Berman,
ReplyDeleteIt was over 70 million. 74,222,958 mopheads voted for Trump, with 81,283,098 going for Biden. All while the man was openly threatening a military coup.
https://www.cfr.org/blog/2020-election-numbers
Now with Biden succumbing to dementia, and Kamala Harris losing the primary in her own state in 2020 along with some inside reports, of her being incompetent at her job , it's looking likely like it's Trump vs Kamala 2024... who will win?
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/30/kamala-harris-office-dissent-497290
Brian-
ReplyDeleteYes, yr rt, it was 74 million, sorry. But the spread was abt 8 million, wh/hadly qualifies as a 'hair's breadth'. Also, electoral college votes were 306 to 232. Not exactly close. As for Biden and dementia: proof? I'm guessing he'll run again in 2024, but who knows, really. Finally: pls address me as Mr. Berman or GSWH. Thank you.
mb
Gunnar—and Dr. Berman!
ReplyDeleteGreetings from Los Angeles, where I first learned from an emeritus professor of biology at UCLA that human share a shocking number of genes with ... forget about chimps, consider plain bacteria instead. A New York Times article (link below) offers this sobering clarification: "(M)any genes in different species of bacteria are so similar that they appear to have been exchanged directly, perhaps in some act of engulfment or infection. This source of genes is called horizontal or lateral transfer to distinguish it from vertical descent, or inheritance from a common ancestor, which is the usual reason for different species to possess similar genes."
Further, and more to my point: "Humans have about a thousand genes similar to those of bacteria, presumably because the genes are so vital that their DNA structure has remained much the same over millions of years of descent from a common ancestor."
Bacteria? Yikes! Minor debates notwithstanding, we're inseparable cousins!*
* https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/18/us/link-between-human-genes-and-bacteria-is-hotly-debated-by-rival-scientific-camps.html
Not slapped MB, mule kicked. I have this faint embered delusion that if enough Americans were mule kicked in the head simultaneously enough poop wld b dislodged we cld find a way out. But I'm almost reconciled with a simple slap.
ReplyDeleteMr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteActually, the vote was very close.
If 42921 Biden votes in three states (Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin) had gone to Trump instead, there would have been a tie in the Electoral College and the House would have chosen Trump.
If, in addition to those votes, Trump had managed to win in Nebraska's 2nd District, which he lost by 22091 votes, he would have picked up that district's one EC vote and he would have won outright.
I'd say 42921 votes out of 155506056 votes cast (0.0276%) is a very slim margin.
https://www.cfr.org/blog/2020-election-numbers Under the heading: A Close Election or Not?
Dicky-
ReplyDeleteYr rt, I didn't take into acc't those 3 internal state votes. Thanks for the clarification.
mb
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteWhen one considers how billionaire oligarchs run the USA, the office of the president and its associated elections are merely theatre.
Given the current arc of US politics, I see no reason why mud rasslin' between Sarah Palin and Shamela Harris cannot be what determines the 2024 presidential contest.
You can't make this stuff up:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thedailybeast.com/shane-meehan-charged-with-killing-terre-haute-officer-greg-ferency?source=articles&via=rss
Dr. Berman is right. Give everyone nukes and let's get this bloody decline over and done with.
Demo-
ReplyDeleteIt does seem to be taking much too long, n'est-ce pas? Hope yr atoms are doing OK...
mb
US off-duty copper knocked out after saying: “didn’t know they let black people in the reception hall.”
ReplyDeletehttps://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article252661158.html
Maybe should rephrase the question/statement: Didn't know that 98.7% americans have shit in their heads.
Washington, DC--another fine moment in the most exceptional, amazing, greatest place on God's green Earth.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/of8nrv/man_on_pcp_rips_off_cars_bumper_wash_dc/
Does this exceptionalism happen in Japan, Mexico, or Belgium etc.? Also, why didn't he just whip out an uzi and start spraying? That's the american way!
MB - I'm surprised that many Jews voted for the Dump, and I'm guessing it's because it involves their being American Jews and the Dump being buddy-buddy with Bibi and moving the US embassy to Jerusalem etc. Bleh.
ReplyDeleteI got a copy of Pnin, indirectly. Looked for it at the used book store and didn't find it, settled for The Portable Nabokov for $3 and settled down at a nearby park to read a bit of it, found out there's Pnin in full in there plus a lot of other neat stuff.
A Reddit goldmine of American hilarity here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/
Repealing important laws so we can hustler better seems like suicide …
ReplyDeleteCollapsed Florida tower could have been repaired faster under repealed law, experts say
If a 2008 Florida law that required condos to plan for repairs had still been in place, "this never would have happened," said the legislator who sponsored the law. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/collapsed-florida-tower-could-have-been-repaired-faster-under-repealed-n1273310
“Robaina sponsored a 2008 law requiring condo associations to hire engineers or architects to submit reports every five years about how much it would cost to keep up with repairs. The law lasted just two years before it was repealed in 2010, after Robaina left office. Robaina blamed pushback from real estate lawyers and property managers, who he said claimed that the law was too burdensome for condo owners. The legislator who sponsored the repeal, former state Rep. Gary Aubuchon, a Republican real estate broker and homebuilder, did not reply to messages seeking comment.”
“The repeal left Florida's condo residents less protected than those in nine states that legally require reserve studies, according to the Community Associations Institute, a nonprofit organization that advocates for condo associations. Thirty-one other states, including Florida, regulate reserves in some way — although Florida is one of three states with loopholes that enable owners to opt out of requirements, the nonprofit said. Ten states have no regulations about reserves at all.”
The situation in Afghanistan seems to be changing by the hour after the departure of most American and allied troops as the U.S.-backed central government, really just a coalition of warlords, teeters and Afghan army troops and police flee or surrender:
ReplyDeletewww.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/09/taliban-take-key-iran-afghanistan-border-crossing-joe-biden
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/09/taliban-sweep-through-herat-province-as-afghan-advance-continues
The present events were foretold years ago. This week I watched an excellent video from 2017 on Aljazeera. Brave reporter Nagieb Khaja interviews various sides, including the Taliban, “The Fall of Helmand – People & Power”:
youtube.com/watch?v=ZERXm8ts5Yk
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteRe: condo collapse, Afghanistan w/drawal, and guy tearing bumpers off of cars: when the nation consists of morons who think that life is abt war and $, what else wd one expect? John Berger once wrote that all that America knows how to do is drop bombs and transfer funds. We kill 'em abroad, and we kill 'em at home. We're No. 1.
mb
Afghanistan pullout:
ReplyDeleteGeorge Herbert Walker Bush's failure to pullout sometime in 1945 is one of the world's great tragedies, because it produced George W. Bush.
On a more serious note, empires can't impose solutions on foreign countries -- that's been the bloody, tragic lesson that America refused to learn, from Vietnam to Central America to the Middle East. Will this begin a much-needed process of national introspection? I certainly hope so, but I doubt it. The only hope for America is a Lorenzo Riggins presidency.
Here's a Riggins presidential slogan/poem:
My bag of tricks depicts my politics
What If seven McDoubles turned out to be six?
Don't you point yr plastic finger at me
Chartreuse suit flashing down the street
They're hoping my kind will drop off and die
But I'm gonna wave my freak flag high, High, HIGH!
Miles
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteWe can only hope that Lorenzo resurrects Herman's 999 Plan, and chooses Crystal Walraven as his VP. In the meantime, a short poem of my own:
Our lives are X-rated;
We are buffoons--and degraded!
mb
ps: The relative silence of the antisemitic trollfoons continues. I think these guys' testicles never descended. They are reduced to a random hit here and there, every so often, wh/I don't even read. No testes, and limp dicks. Not exactly a major threat.
ReplyDeletemb
2 killed in shooting at Downtown Aquarium.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/Houston-police-respond-to-shooting-at-Downtown-16302739.php
Come on down to the aquarium, see some fish, play with phones, and get killed.
usa, usa!
Check out this face:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/07/us/new-jersey-racial-slurs-arrest-edward-mathews/index.html?hpt=ob_blogfooterold
The horror!
mb
One of the big stories in Canada of the last month has been the discovery of many Unmarked children's graves around residential school is around residential schools.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/jul/09/indigenous-children-who-died-canada-residential-schools-podcast?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
But it takes a conservative to come up with the true meaning of these deaths.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-meaning-of-the-native-graves/
Apparently it's all for their own good.
The sickness and callousness of this North American culture is on both sides of the border.
Anjin,
ReplyDeleteThat kind of evil leaves me speechless. I know we spend a lot of time making fun of Americans and laughing, but this is no laughing matter. I find it really upsetting to think about what was done to the Native Americans. All this makes me think the entire North American continent should be returned to the natives ASAP.
It could be time for Wafers to broaden the decline of America to the
ReplyDeletedecline of it all. The example America set spreads ruin to all who
have adopted it.
https://www.boredpanda.com/urban-nightmare/?utm_source=leenks&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=organic
https://hartmannreport.com/p/how-the-reagan-revolution-collapsed
ReplyDeleteHow The Reagan Revolution Collapsed America & the Florida Condo
Tobin-
ReplyDeleteGd article, thanks.
mb
'Tragedy beyond tragedy': Champlain Towers South was a catastrophe in slow motion
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2021/07/03/us/surfside-condo-collapse-questions-unanswered-invs/index.html
“The disaster appears to have exposed some of the limitations of condo associations, which are made up of condominium owners with a vested interest in the property but that seldom possess much expertise in structural engineering. And it has raised questions about whether other residential structures could be at risk in Miami-Dade County, where sea levels are rising, the salty air is corrosive and nearly two-thirds of all commercial, condo and apartment buildings are as old or older than the 40-year-old edifice that went down, according to a CNN analysis of county records. Some have since been renovated or had newer additions added on to them.”
“Champlain Towers South -- and a sister structure, Champlain Towers North -- were completed in 1981 by a consortium of developers that included two men from Canada; one of them, Nathan Reiber, was wanted back home for tax evasion, according to the Hamilton Spectator in Ontario. He pleaded guilty in 1996 -- 15 years after the charge -- and would ultimately become a prominent philanthropist in Miami. Reiber died in 2014, at age 86. When it first went up, the building was billed as a luxury development with wraparound balconies, breathtaking ocean views, a heated pool and valet parking. ‘Be the first to get the best of the last,’ touted a newspaper ad pitching units in the Miami Herald in 1980. In recent years selling prices in the building have remained high. A week before the disaster, a three-bedroom condo there sold for $710,000, according to realty company Redfin. The price of most condos ranged from $295,000 (for a one-bedroom in March 2020) to $980,000 (for a three-bedroom a year later), real estate records indicate.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vp141Ghr6E&t=10s
ReplyDeleteAmerican conservatives are wonderful people, rewriting history as always. What's next? Claiming the Holocaust was a humanitarian effort where Germans gave free food and housing to millions of homeless Jews? I wouldn't put it past the Republican Party to make that claim.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHT_c4f1pRk&t=908s
Glenn Greenwald is now apparently part of an anti-trans movement. I already posted a clip of him praising Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson; the man's a right-wing reactionary at this point.
It seems that nearly everything in America eventually turns to shit.
Nadine - this book looks like a good one: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/214073/columbus-and-other-cannibals-by-jack-d-forbes-foreword-by-derrick-jensen/
ReplyDeleteSome years ago a copy was $300 or so, by the way. This looks like a new edition with a new forward.
The US is Exhibit One for the case of, "Behind every great fortune is great crime".
Greetings again, Dr. Berman & Wafers. To top off another week here in our land of “American Exceptionalism”, and from New York City to somewhere in the deep South, let’s enjoy some more funny Karens doing their things! LOL.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H4ZVsGGRPI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24bf9D1DpaU&t=216s
The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes: Carter, Zachary D.: 9780525509035: Amazon.com: Books
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Price-Peace-Democracy-Maynard-Keynes/dp/0525509038
This is a *very* good biography guys.
Corey-
ReplyDeleteOne of my heroes. I may hafta buy it. Thanks!
mb
Is America turning into a mental asylum? If this trend continues, we may all need some training on how to deal with insanity. While things are imploding around us, including the minds of our fellow citizens, billionaires are flying to space.
ReplyDeleteTikTok video shows woman on American Airlines plane duct-taped to her seat after she tried to open the door mid-flight
https://www.businessinsider.com/american-airlines-woman-duct-taped-seat-after-attacking-plane-crew-2021-7
The FAA said it has received 2,500 reports of unruly behavior by passengers since January 2021.
https://www.businessinsider.com/faa-charged-fines-up-to-15000-for-assaulting-flight-attendants-2021-5
Virgin Galactic just flew billionaire founder Richard Branson and 3 crewmates to the edge of space
https://www.businessinsider.com/virgin-galactic-rocket-plane-flies-richard-branson-crew-to-space-2021-7
Noura-
ReplyDeleteWhy duct tape? Why not just shoot her in the aisle, like a dog? American Airlines, as well as America, has lost its nerve.
mb
The ideal place for the Death Instinct. If they won't kill
ReplyDeletethemselves with their guns, they'll use their germs.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/horrifying-fauci-says-cpac-crowd-163948951.html
Cosmo-
ReplyDeleteThe truth is that the vaccine issue is v. complicated. My acupuncturist told me that to be trustworthy, a vaccine hasta go thru at least 2 yrs of testing. My internist told me to get the vaccine, but his body language and tone of voice said precisely the opposite. These vaccines we have available from Pfizer etc. were rushed thru, partly due to panic, and partly due to politics. Every day I read online reasons *not* to get the vaccine: people have gotten blood clots from it; have died from it, or gotten severely ill; available vaccines are only 60% (or whatever) effective, and may not be very effective against the new Delta virus; and so on. Mutations of the virus will keep occurring; it's not clear how we can keep up (Pfizer is now suggesting a 3rd shot). The whole thing was poorly handled, and this aside from the negligence of Trump. And then there was some revelation that Fauci was pushing a brand in wh/he had a significant investment. I'm hardly on board w/CPAC in general, but the question of whether or not to get vaccinated may be one that every individual hasta decide for him or herself. I certainly don't have any authoritative answers, but I'm frankly wondering whether the scientific establishment does either.
That being said, it may turn out to be a moot pt, in that various institutions--e.g. schools, or gov't jobs--may make the vaccine mandatory, if they haven't already. You may not be able to obtain, or renew, a passport w/o it, and then various countries may not let foreigners in w/o it (if this is not already in effect). Things seem to be moving in this direction.
On a more upbeat topic, esp. for all you hispanohablantes out there: "Are We There Yet?" has finally been translated into Spanish, as "Ya llegamos?". There were a # of translators involved, including myself, but my friend Juan Antonio did the heavy lifting (my role was largely one of editing and providing feedback). My Mexican publisher, Sexto Piso Editorial, now has all the files in hand and will release the book in Sept. or Oct. Arriba! But I wanted to flag something, again, esp. for Spanish-language readers: there are 7 essays in this collection that did not appear in the original English text, having been written after the publication of the latter in 2017. They were, however, posted on this blog, and if interested you can locate them by using the blog search function. Titles as follows: The Brothers; Declinism Rising; It's All Over but the Shouting; Shane; Thoughts on Proust; Is There Life Beyond Paradigm?; and Of Size and Scale. Happy re-reading!
mb
We shd do this, we shd do that:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-07-11/lonely-century-global-crisis-loneliness
Hung-
ReplyDeleteSorry, cdn't run it. We have a half-pg-max limit on this blog. Suggest you compress and re-send. Thank you.
mb
Leave The Billionaires In Space
ReplyDeletehttps://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/07/leave-the-billionaires-in-space
I took the Pfizer vaccine and got real sick after the second dose (vomiting, chills, big time night sweat) one of the worst cases of flu I’ve ever had. Like everything else in trumpland the issue becomes fodder for morons. Then shit like this happens:
ReplyDeletehttps://news.yahoo.com/cdc-investigating-death-13-old-133618464.html
I can’t imagine this family’s pain.
Long time lurker here. Dr. Berman's writings helped me enormously in clarifying my own thoughts regarding the US. Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteThought you might appreciate Florida Republicans latest foray into Stalinesque leadership:
https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2021/06/22/college-campuses-now-required-to-conduct-annual-surveys-to-measure-intellectual-diversity/
Nothing new or original, but even Putin feels he have to comment on the likely future of United States.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/ZMAP9Ccg2-0
farbror-
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised this was dated June 8, since I already saw this 2 or 3 wks ago. Putin is abs on target, and altho the American crash probably won't be as dramatic as the Soviet one, it will nevertheless happen. Will the Biden admin pay any attn to this? What do you think?
The rock bottom fact is that the US is incompetent and stupid. Recall several wks ago, how US troops attacked a 'terrorist cell' in Bulgaria that turned out to be an olive oil factory. This is iconic of the US: we are simply a collection of clowns. It all reminds me of that old Peter Sellers film, "The Mouse that Roared."
mango-
Glad I cd be of some help, and thanks for the link. If you keep in mind what I just told farbror, the American cultural and political situation is not mysterious. We're jackasses, end of story.
Gunnar-
Remember what I said earlier, abt the need for a nationwide slapping program. As far as I can make out from online news, the whole vaccination program looks like a semi-disaster. America is always in a rush, always doing what is stupid and incompetent. There was no 2-yr trial period for any of these vaccines. It's another version of invading a 'terrorist cell' only to find out that it was an olive oil factory. Your post-it need only contain one word: BOZOS. This is the one-word answer to our social, economic, political, and cultural failure; one need look no further. Millions are on the edge of starvation; billionaires fly into the stratosphere. What a joke we are.
mb
Michael K-
ReplyDeleteIf you want to participate in this blog, you must never refer to what I or any of the other Wafers say as 'nonsense'. We entertain disagreement, but we certainly do not entertain disrespect. If you want to restate your objections in a polite, factual way, that will be fine; but first you are going to have to make an extended and sincere apology for referring to our discussions as 'nonsense'. This will be very difficult for you, of course, and if you can't do it, good luck in finding a blog that will tolerate your rudeness.
mb
ps: Your follow-up, unfortunately, referred to having doubts abt vaccination as 'stupid' and 'irresponsible'. Kind of vitiates the apology. We are neither, and I doubt that the issue is an open and shut case. The constant confusion I'm reading online regarding the subject wd suggest otherwise. You can still post here, if you want, but I'm waiting for a real apology, plus the elimination of 'attitude'. I appreciate that you have strong feelings abt the subject, but yr simply going to have to dial down yr energy (anger, indignation) if you want to advance yr argument.
ReplyDeletemb
ps2: Articles like the following have been appearing online 2 or 3 times a week for something like a year now:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/12/health/johnson-vaccine-guillain-barre-syndrome-fda/index.html
Dr. Berman & Wafers,
ReplyDeleteHere is a bonus Karen for everyone to enjoy. They get crazier by the day! LOL!
https://asamnews.com/2021/07/11/first-on-asamnews-boys-mother-speaks-about-the-traumatic-experience/
p.s. Dr. Berman, May I bend the rules a bit and give an opinion? But it is an opinion backed up by documented historical facts: Pearl Harbor, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Iranian Revolution, the implosion of the Soviet Union, the first World Trade Center bombing, 9-11, and this latest fiasco noted on this blog here—the bombing of an olive oil factory in Bulgaria.
And my opinion is this: Our intelligence SUCKS and always ( with the exception of the Cuban Missile Crisis) has downright SUCKED! About the only thing our so called “intelligence” is good at is staging coup d’etats and installing brutal murderous dictators like Pinochet, the Shah, Castillo Armas, and others to help our corporations.
USA! USA! USA!
Joe-
ReplyDeleteWell, yr lumping things together that I'm not sure can be lumped. In the case of Pearl Harbor, supposedly FDR knew of the attack in advance. But at least one historian discovered that Japan changed its encryption code 1 mo. b4 Dec. 7, and that we never cracked the new one. Bay of Pigs: major US fuckup, 2b sure. Iran goes back to what we did in 1953 (see DAA), but it wd have been very difficult for anyone to know when and if such an event might occur. Collapse of USSR: again, complicated: there were a very few analysts who did see it coming, but the regime had been going since 1917, so...In case of 9/11, yr rt: the USS Cole was attacked 11 mos. b4 that, so we shd have been on extreme alert, esp. if you factor in the 1993 attack on the WTC. The olive oil factory was stormed by paratroopers; it wasn't bombed. All in all, a mixed bag; tho I think we can say in general that our intelligence isn't of the highest caliber. For starters, plug James Jesus Angleton into Google, see what you get.
mb
No end to progress when it comes to defending our freedom. When
ReplyDeletethe Chinese hear about this, it is unlikely they will invade us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMUrLDbwoo4
The debate about the worth of vaccination can be solved by noting
ReplyDeletejust two numbers: the reduction in deaths and new cases in the
treated population. In Canada these are both happy numbers. Only
if vaccines were useless or dangerous could one reject their worth.
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/covid-19/info/restart
Hello Dr. Berman and illustrious Wafers; shining like beams of light through the increasing cesspool of reality. (Even the antisemitic trolls on here are the finest in trolliage and human scum)
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, it's been awhile since I've posted here. I had to take a sabbatical from the horrors of empire collapse.
So with each passing day I become more and more skeptical of this vaccine, and the virus itself. I realize this blog isn't intended for spouting conspiracy theories (and I know a few) but at this point I believe nothing at all, from the conspiracy stuff, to the official narrative.
I think the bottom line is this:
It looks like this vaccine is headed towards becoming mandatory. Is it really a good idea to give the corrupt rulers of a collapsing empire the ability to administer forced injections to the citizenry?
This seems quite different than other vaccine initiatives in the past, of which, I have no problem with. And regardless of whether Covid is real, or a total hoax, it seems to me that setting the precedent for mandatory government injections, both now and in the future, is the worst idea imaginable.
Thoughts? Comments? Ridicule?
Stay safe, be well, and avoid the space lasers.
Hi MB and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteLong time no post. I want to reassure my fellow Wafers that I am not Michael K. He sounds like a trollfoon or douche bag. I noticed yesterday the mainstream media is reporting protests in Cuba. It's hard to tell if there is any momentum to these protests, because the media always like to report bad news out of Cuba. If there's any substance to these protests, it makes me very sad. I always thought Cuba would be a good place to escape to as the USA implodes. I hope the CIA or other rogue organizations aren't driving the protests.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-57813704
Wafer comments would be appreciated if you know anything about Cuba.
Hey Cosmo Como: I could not have said it better and likely many others here feel the same. I am also very grateful for the thousands of extremely smart, dedicated men and women scientific researchers, working hard to develop vaccines in several countries. They have families & friends they want to protect just like the rest of us. But no vaccine is 100% perfect.
ReplyDeleteMichael Kelly-
ReplyDeleteJust a note to say that Michael K. is not a jerk. He is just overly enthusiastic abt his subject; I asked him to present his argument w/o Attitude--as Cosmo did, wh/was perfectly acceptable. I'm sure Wafers all have an opinion on the vaccine thing, pro and con. And I certainly don't claim to be some expert in epidemiology; just a guy w/doubts.
mb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpuQlAhCt74
ReplyDeleteLooks like Trump will be the 2024 Republican nominee by a huge margin, despite his obvious descent into madness. I'd bet money he'll be the Republican nominee until he finally kicks the bucket - even if he's holed up in a loony bin and no longer able to talk, walk or think.
Pomp, ceremony, and Pentagon plans in Afghanistan, from ABC News (Australia): www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-13/us-general-austin-miller-leaves-afghanistan-ceremony-end-war/100287822
ReplyDeleteTo summarize:
Following General Miller's departure for the US, the Pentagon has engineered a transition that will allow a series of generals to carry on with supporting Afghan security forces, albeit mostly from overseas. Beyond General McKenzie's overwatch from Florida, Qatar-based Brigadier General Curtis Buzzard will focus on administering funding support for the Afghan security forces, including aircraft maintenance support. In Kabul, Navy Rear Admiral Peter Vasely will lead a newly created US Forces Afghanistan-Forward, focusing on protecting the US embassy and the airport.
My interpretation:
“Overwatch” from Florida’s Central Command? Now that’s one way not to get the hands dirty and avoid casualties. No doubt, “smart” drone strikes are planned. Afghanistan becomes an Air Power video game. Good to hear that funds will continue to flow to US contractors maintaining the Afghan Air Force, so long as proper paperwork for expenditures is filed; a Buzzard will be circling. An admiral assigned to oversee the embassy and airport? Couldn’t they find an air force general wanting an Afghan service patch?
Didn’t someone say recently on this blog that what U-S-A! U-S-A! is good at is dropping bombs and transferring funds?
@Mike Kelly- As you know, reporting on places like Cuba and Venezuela is notoriously biased. And hope all you want, you know the odds are that the CIA or such are fomenting the protests. Someone I know who was just there didn't understand what he was seeing on US news. Bore no relation to the day to life he saw for two weeks away from Havana. A couple of years ago I heard a Venezuela man speak about the alternative social structures being developed in response to the US war boycott, the kind of thing you will never hear on the news.
ReplyDeletehttps://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10061
Here is a twitter post on an ancillary aspect of the vaccine that I think sums up why America is a sh** hole country:
"I never understood why masks are so stigmatized here in the U.S. I’m from Japan where we have been regularly masking since before the pandemic—when feeling a tickle in our throats, during flu season, on crowded trains, etc. Masking is our way of showing kindness to others."
https://twitter.com/risahoshinoMD/status/1412606822356336640
'Showing kindness to others.' What a loser, eh?
"We have taken Native lands, tried to eradicate Indigenous societies, yet not only what we’ve done to the living is deplorable. It’s what we’ve done, continue to do, to the dead.":
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/07/08/will-mass-robbery-native-american-graves-ever-end/
Knish-
ReplyDeleteSorry, cdn't run it (violates half-pg-max rule).
Dan D-
Check this out:
https://www.amazon.com/Foreign-Babes-Beijing-Behind-Scenes/dp/0393059022/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3O1QUYH43XMX0&dchild=1&keywords=foreign+babes+in+beijing&qid=1626200581&sprefix=foreign+babes+in+beijing%2Camazon-devices%2C224&sr=8-1
Author lived in China for 5 yrs. Every day, she checked the NYT online. Turns out, what was being reported in our flagship newspaper had abs. 0 to do w/what was actually happening on the ground in China.
Jack-
Buzzard!
mb
Wafer Dan Daniel--thank you for the Japanese person's statement abt being kind to others--what a foreign concept to USians, whereby I got mine, fuck you was their creed.
ReplyDeleteAs Wafer Nadine aptly stated (paraphrasing), 'The US was never a country, it was a business enterprise masquerading as a country'--100% spot on in my opinion--it's populace, simply businessmen all trying to get more--hu$tlers and hucksters.
It was and is THE shithole.
Sorry about the length, probably for the best not posting it since arguing about vaccines really isn't what the blog is about anyway.
ReplyDeleteInteresting essay here: https://aeon.co/essays/empires-pandemics-and-the-economic-future-of-the-west
Dear Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteWas in France for some time during the Gilets Jaunes protests. The NYT (all the news that fits state run views), BBC (Big Bad China), CNN (China & Corporate 'News' Network), Washington Compost etc. "reporting" was quite different than the realities/truths on the ground.
In fact, we were in several buildings that US corporate-state "news" reported were "burning down" and being "attacked" by Gilets Jaunes....with pictures/video too...Yet, never happened. In fact, some of the Gilet Jaunes were friends of ours and we enjoyed some pastries in one of "burned down" buildings. When we showed them the pictures/videos, they thought that was a US comedy/parody skit show. Total US empire fabrications. It was more US psy ops/Operation Mockingbird propaganda.
These US empire corporate -state run "news" agencies are good for chuckle, and / or promoting adherence to US empire mythologies / ideologies / agenda for the american/british dolts.
Dr. B-
ReplyDeleteAt first, I wondered why "The Guardian" allowed this OpEd to be published, but then there's this key observation about 3/4 the way through-
"The people who have, in fact, sucked up all of the money that no longer belongs to the mythical American middle class cavort openly in Sun Valley while we fearmonger about Antifa breaking the windows of some coffee shop. It is enough to make me think that we are not so skilled at threat assessment, after all."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/12/what-happens-at-sun-valley-the-secret-gathering-of-unelected-billionaire-kings
US cigarette giant Philip Morris said Friday that it has agreed to buy Vectura, a UK company making breathing inhalers, as part of a push into healthcare
ReplyDeletehttps://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/tobacco-group-philip-morris-buys-maker-of-inhalers/articleshow/84268470.cms?from=mdr
What the fuck?
"As Wafer Nadine aptly stated (paraphrasing), 'The US was never a country, it was a business enterprise masquerading as a country'--100% spot on in my opinion--it's populace, simply businessmen all trying to get more--hu$tlers and hucksters."
ReplyDeleteI think that's a bit of an oversimplification. The US cannot be properly understood without looking at the contradictions between its professed idealism and economic self-interest. I am not about to let Thomas Jefferson off the hook for owning slaves, but I also believe that he meant every word he wrote about liberty, his own hypocrisy notwithstanding.
FDR is perhaps the most interesting case study in these contradictions. By far the most radical president we've ever had [imagine Biden raising top tax rates above 90%], and yet he did it all just to save capitalism, and its elite moneyed class of which he was a charter member. Conrad Black's bio elucidates this nicely [https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/conrad-black/franklin-delano-roosevelt/9781610392136/].
Again, not to say we aren't a nation of hustlers, or that this isn't the central problem, but the story is much more complex and fascinating than that, tragic as it may be.
Unknown-
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't post Unknowns. You need a real handle to participate in this blog.
El Al-
Yr kind of off-base here. What Tom wrote in the Declaration--well, the idealism was pretty thin. "Pursuit of happiness" was 18C code words for "amassing property," wh/he certainly did. He died quite wealthy, as did all of the Founding Fathers. As for FDR, by yr own admission his 'radicalism' was merely savvy capitalism. There's no way he wd have instituted capitalist-saving measures had we not been in a rather revolutionary situation in the 30s. As he told that elite class, "you can lose a little, or you can lose it all." In a word, the story is *not* much more complex. "Democracy" was always a cover for hustling, and was a sham, because the supposed choice that the American people had in practically every election was the *style* of capitalism they wd have to live with. Socialism, or not-capitalism, was never an option. You are confusing shit w/Shinola. (ps: You might wanna check out the chapter on Gramsci in my bk "Genio". He explained the theater of capitalist operations in brilliant detail.)
Birn-
Well, the Guardian is somewhat left-leaning, so perhaps this essay is no surprise. But there is a lot more the author cd have said, abt why this state of affairs is allowed to continue. Also, of the 4 factors I listed in the Twilight bk as bringing down the Roman empire (and the American one), the widening gap between rich and poor was 1st on the list. But very few Americans consider this a threat, or are even angry abt it. Most just want to become part of the elite, and many are stupid enuf to think that this is possible.
mb
Haiti from Harper's Weekly:
ReplyDeleteFollowing months of protests prompted by his refusal to leave office and his employment of gangs to support his rule, President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti was assassinated at home by a group of 26 Colombians and 2 Haitian Americans posing as U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents. The United States—which replaced Haiti’s democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide with a Florida man in 2004; illegally excluded major parties from Haiti’s 2009 parliamentary election; interfered in Haiti’s 2010 election and then removed an OAS observer who objected; and declared support for President Michel Martelly, even after he had to rule by decree following a low-turnout, sham election in 2015—has sent a group of government officials to assist with the murder investigation. Claude Joseph, the acting prime minister of Haiti who also claims he is the new president, requested that U.S. troops act as a peacekeeping force in the country; the Pentagon has not made a decision.
Also, I agree with El Al re contradictions: per WAF, almost all the 'good stuff' came from the alternative tradition, of which folks like Jefferson were a part. Yes, "pursuit of happiness" is code for amassing property, but the Declaration is also a synthesis of Lucretius and Spinoza. (See "Nature's God" by Matthew Stewart.) Interesting that while hustling is the dominant culture - and is/will bring the U.S. to the end (just like Rome and all the other 'advanced' civilizations) - the alternative tradition is what will be remembered. (And the madness at the end of course.)
It's about time! What about kiddies in grammar school: they also
ReplyDeletehave a right to a handgun. No better way to protect yourself from
bullies than pack a rod.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/law-banning-handgun-sales-americans-215030551.html
Zig-
ReplyDeleteFrom a declinist pt of view, this is a gd thing. BTW, I believe the correct gangster slang for a gun is 'a piece'. And when you pack it, you 'pack heat'. God, we're so hip on this blog.
Kevin-
Jefferson really cannot be put in the alternative tradition I identify in WAF, and I specifically indicate it was folks like Capt. John Smith, the Puritan Divines, Emerson, Thoreau, Mumford, Vance Packard, rt up2 Jimmy Carter, who constitute it. Tom amassed wealth and effectively made it the pt of life, something that Smith et al. pointedly rejected, even denounced. I make it clear in WAF that following the initial rush and heady days of the Revolution, the idealistic component, ultimately feeble, blew away like dandelion spores. In fact Benjamin Rush, ca. 1800, predicted that America wd collapse in "an orgy of selfishness," because that orgy was in full swing by the late 18C, to the extent that John Adams and others began to speculate that the whole thing had been a mistake. (I believe Adams even entertained the notion of bringing back the monarchy!) Finally, I'd like to believe the alternative tradn is what will be remembered, but my argument in WAF is that America failed precisely because it ignored or shut down or ridiculed that tradition. But it's just as well that America will be remembered for its dominant tradition, because that cd ideally serve as a warning to others: do not follow our example. Of course, that cd be a long shot; in the preface to the Chinese edition of WAF, I accused China of being little more than the US in Mandarin. (Amazingly enuf, this was not censored.)(Note that several yrs ago I met an economist who was a professor at the U of Szechuan, who was deep into Milton Friedman. Lewis Mumford was definitely *not* on his rdg list!)
For more on Tom and Lucretius, however, check out "The Swerve," by Stephen Greenblatt; altho he cites Tom at the very end saying that he is a follower of Epicurus.
mb
Regarding Pearl Harbor: Read "Day of Deceit" by Robert Stinnett. According to his research of Government/Military documents, officials in Washington (includeing FDR) deliberatley prevoked Japan to launch and attack on the U.S. They not only knew Pearl Harbor would be attacked, but acturally offered it up as a target. Naval official at Pearl Harbor were in on it. They kept Admiral Kimmel, Commander of the Pacific Fleet, in the dark. See the first web page for the book and the second for a lecture he gave.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/books/edition/Day_Of_Deceit/Q2UKN5daNHYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=day+of+deceit&printsec=frontcover
https://www.c-span.org/video/?157339-1/day-deceit-truth-fdr-pearl-harbor
TKR-
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for the ref. Problem is, I distinctly remember some historian debunking this theory, saying that the Japanese changed their encryption codes 1 mo. b4 Dec. 7, so that FDR could *not* know what was happening. And Stinnett's bk is dated--publ. in 2000. However, I dunno when this other historian published his findings. So I'm still in the dark abt it.
mb
Here are two links that will tell you more than you would likely want to know about Pearl Harbor from the standpoint of the codebreakers from the US Navy’s OP-20G who were trying to anticipate Japanese naval moves through cryptanalysis of Japanese naval ciphers before the attack. These links come from the National Security Agency’s website; NSA was established in 1952 to consolidate the cryptologic activities of the US military codebreaking organizations.
ReplyDeleteOf course if you believe the links, coming from the successor to these WWII efforts (i.e., the US government), is by definition so much bullshit, well then I can’t do much to help clarify the history I’m afraid.
https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/center-cryptologic-history/pearl-harbor-review/pearl-harbor/lang/en/
https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/center-cryptologic-history/pearl-harbor-review/
Jas-
ReplyDelete2nd link didn't work.
mb
Dear MB
ReplyDeleteCame across your writings in the middle of last year. Been reading your monographs (DAA, WAF, and Twilight) as well as this blog and it has been a light in my dark world. I live in Australia and can see that what is happening in the US is also occurring here. Your writings have such strong explanatory powers for what I have observed here over the last 20 years. Thank you so much.
I had a question. I noticed that you moved to Mexico. I'm thinking of leaving Australia, any suggestions on places to move to? What was the criteria you had when you moved to Mexico?
Jang
Jang-
ReplyDeleteGlad my work was of help 2u. "In a dark time, the eye begins to see" (Theodore Roethke). If you also need a few laughs, try "The Heart of the Matter." As for criteria: #1 was to get out of the US, because I finally had no one to talk to. Anglo cultures are very alienated, uptight and anti-human. I wanted to find a place where the value system was different, that put human relations ahead of endless hustling and making $. Now Mexico has been seriously fucked over by the US, and has adopted much of its values and behavior; and yet, even in Mexico City, you find pockets of the traditional ways of life. Despite all of its problems, Mexico is an extremely gracious place; everyday interactions have the flavor of cooperation rather than competition. So I wd suggest you move to a Latino culture--Costa Rica, for example. When I crossed the border in 2006, with the US in my rear view mirror, I had a sensation of huge relief.
I recently spent a week in Wash DC, for various reasons, including a great Wafer Summit Meeting, and had the same sensation upon my return. No amt of $ cd get me to live in DC; I thought the place was awful. And when I went thru Immigration at the Mexico City airport, the official looked at my permanent residence card, and said to me: "Welcome home." I cd have hugged him. Yes, I thought; I am, indeed, home.
Suerte, chico-
mb
What Americans are concerned abt:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/14/most-surprisingly-contentious-subject-toilet-roll-orientation
Be sure to note the 1992 comment from Ann Landers.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteSomething to think abt:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/07/13/imagine-a-nation-like-this/
mb
Theorist-
ReplyDeleteSorry, cdn't run it. We have a half-pg-max rule on this blog. Suggest you compress yr post to the acceptable length, or else send it in 2 installments (24 hrs apart--another rule). Thank you.
mb
MB,
ReplyDeleteIn your response to Jang, you said “Anglo cultures are very alienated, uptight and anti-human. I wanted to find a place where the value system was different, that put human relations ahead of endless hustling and making $.”
How about places like France and Scandinavia? Did you consider these places before moving to Mexico?
This article (https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/07/13/imagine-a-nation-like-this/) you shared earlier is a scary and true depiction of America. It’s like a dystopian universe. I don’t know where I will emigrate yet but I am certain I don’t want to grow old in such a nation.
US empire fast "food" workers quit en masse.
ReplyDeleteThe US empire has apparently coined a new term, "rage quitting;" appears to be when exploited corporate tax and debt slaves exert their rights. However, at the end, the US empire ALWAYS has the upper hand of course, the academics serve the elite bc they know where their bread is buttered.
https://www.businessinsider.com/burger-king-we-all-quit-sign-viral-workers-labor-shortage-2021-7
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/we-all-quit-burger-king-sign-goes-viral-as-staff-walk-out-11626193
~12.50$ after 18 years at the same job enduring those conditions, yet....
https://www1.salary.com/RESTAURANT-BRANDS-INTERNATIONAL-INC-Executive-Salaries.html
Noura-
ReplyDeleteYour best bet for growing old is probably Scandanavia; it's just a bit too cold, and too dark (winters), for me. France: v. expensive. I did think abt Spain for a while, but Mexico was a better option (closer to the US, for example, if I needed to go there).
mb
Thanks for the counterpunch link from Paul Street.
ReplyDeleteThese are the kind of facts I wish I could take to my neighbors and gauge their response. I know they would scoff at any one of these statements as ludicrous and offensive. But how many might work themselves into a rage similar to that described in Mr. Berman's short story "The Wire Cage Experiment"?
link here for those who haven't read it:
https://morrisberman.blogspot.com/2019_12_01_archive.html
Dr. Berman - Respectfully, I think you are slightly misconstruing my comments. I never said the idealism wasn't thin, as Jefferson's own actions show. Additionally, I said FDR was "the most radical president we've ever had". I meant that as a hell of a qualifier, not that he was in any way a genuine radical. I am under no illusions about capitalism or the American power structures, although I will be more than happy to check out "Genio".
ReplyDeleteMy point was a more broad, psychological one. I think a large part of the population through American history, even if they didn't truly believe in the idealism, believed that they believed it, if that makes sense. And were deeply shaken when they had to face the reality.
The greatest works of American art, in my opinion, are those that show the gap between the idealism and the reality and the great psychic distress it causes. Think of George Babbitt vainly searching for a happy life outside of stultifying middle class conformity and philistinism, or Jay Gatsby climbing in vain from the ashes of poverty. Even Tony Soprano having panic attacks because he can no longer abide his own delusions about being a bastion of old-school nobility in the milieu of crass, materialistic 90's suburbia.
Of course hustling is at the root of all of this. Any other idealism or alternative was futile from day one. But who ever said futility can't make for high drama?
El Al-
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't think I misconstrued what you said, and now it seems like yr trying to have it both ways. I also don't think "believed that they believed" makes any sense at all. Moreover, I don't think Sinclair Lewis or F. Scott Fitzgerald made any more of a dent in the dominant culture than did the (real) alternative tradition of Emerson et al.; and I very much doubt that the American TV audience saw in "The Sopranos" what you saw (we are not talking abt sophisticated people, after all). What they likely saw was entertainment, not much more. Finally, high drama is neither here nor there. The point remains that what you are calling alternatives amounted to little more than blowing in the wind (as has been the case w/the real alternatives). If this were not true, we wd have wound up w/a very different country, whereas the one we have is quite accurately portrayed in the link I posted from Counter Punch (scroll back).
I recall, when I was in high schl, we were assigned "Walden," and required to write an essay abt it. One of the kids in my class wrote, "Thoreau paints a beautiful picture; the problem is, where to hang it." Not yr typical American adolescent, quite obviously (altho looking back, I suppose he was just being an American pragmatist).
Krak-
Since I presume yr neighbors are Americans, let me suggest that no amount of facts, slapping, or urine will serve to wake them up. Of course, *you* might enjoy the interaction, but keep in mind that they are probably armed.
mb
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that virtually all Americans have no real ideology and only value hustling. However, I think they can't understand anything *except* hustling, and therefore misinterpret religions and ideologies in such a way that they think they promote hustling. I don't think this is always disingenuous; I think many Americans really do conflate religion/ideology and hustling.
There's some evidence this idea is correct. For example, look at the immense popularity of Joel Osteen's gospel of wealth, a hideous perversion of the Biblical tradition of selflessness and self-sacrifice, and how seamlessly it conflates virtue and hustling. Although this "gospel" is an example of hustling par excellence, I guarantee you that many people who believe in it think they're genuine Christians. These people think they're idealistic even though they're wholly pragmatic. The same can be said for those who believe in the bullshit peddled by the likes of Oprah, Chopra, and many other snake oil salesmen.
Maybe El-Alamein is right in saying many Americans think they're idealistic but are actually wholly pragmatic. Many Americans can't tell shit from shinola, and can't tell the difference between idealism and hustling either. Degraded buffoons indeed. What do you think?
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteRegarding COVID vaccinations, I suspect that the view from the USA is influenced by concerns over Big Pharma and how your for-profit health system operates (I can't get over how bizarre your drug ads on TV seem...and what are "medical bills?), but in Canada there isn't too much controversy over the matter.
This item was in the local news recently:
...in the last almost six weeks or so, we've seen a very clear pattern, which is that most, if not all of our [COVID-19] patients in the ICU were folks who did not receive their vaccines."
He said medical professionals find caring for those patients extremely challenging, because they have often made the conscious decision to not get vaccinated despite repeated urgings from multiple levels of government and experts.
The experience Masri describes isn't just anecdotal. It's backed up by hard data provided last week by the province during the final regular COVID-19 briefing.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/covid-19-sask-unvaccinated-icu-death-1.6100898
As to my use of "pack a rod," Zig wonders if you left the US too soon
ReplyDeleteor didn't associate with the right kind of people.
https://www.google.com/search?q=pack+a+rod&rlz=1CAHKDC_enCA922&oq=pack+a+rod&aqs=chrome..69i57j46i39j0i433j46i199i291i433l2j46j46i199i291i433l2j0j0i433.5398j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Nadine-
ReplyDeleteIs that what El Al was saying? I found his arguments rather confusing, but that may be my own limitation, for all I know. As for hustling: it seems to me it *is* an ideology, involving elements of radical individualism, the Protestant ethic (secular salvation), consumerism, and ultimately imperialism (need for foreign markets).
On another note: once again, I note the lack of evidence in your post. For the most part, we avoid just airing opinions here. Pls keep that in mind, in future posts. Here is the ideal format: (1) You have an argument to make about the collapse of the American empire; (2) You provide links or refs to support that argument. Try not to deviate from this. Thank you.
mb
Zig-
ReplyDeleteI hung out w/thugs. Also, I am a thug.
mb
Just wondering if there any Wafers currently in Guadalajara? I got into town today, and it would be fun to meet up. I am checking out the area as a permanent retreat. My email is charles_nuckolls@byu.edu. Best wishes,
ReplyDeleteCharles "The Wafer Anthropologist" Nuckolls
@Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeletePer the recommendations at the Wafer summit, I watched the movie “Midnight Cowboy”. I must say that that movie provides a rich learning experience in exploring what you mean by the “hustling” life. A lost soul who doesn't even know he's lost, one who dissociates from the trauma of his past, and then one who sells his dignity in service to the dream of striking it rich.
And what was it that folks did when the movie first came out... they started wearing cowboy hats because it was cool right? Violently misunderstanding it like Hesse’s Steppenwolf?
Nadine -
ReplyDeleteThanks for your explanation. I got bogged down in a tangent about art and psychology, but this is what I was initially getting at. Osteen is a good example, I was thinking along the lines of the right sincerely believing in capitalism as a benevolent ideology [think Ayn Rand] or the left embracing "woke capitalism". For instance, you will hear people talk about how Henry Ford cared about the workers, wanted to bolster the middle class etc. In reality, he viewed labor about as charitably as Augusto Pinochet, but paid his workers well because it was cheaper and more efficient to do so than to constantly train new people. Needless to say, he was also fascist conspiracy theorist with the intelligence of a sea slug. [https://jrbenjamin.com/2015/04/19/henry-ford-was-a-colossal-moron/].
As for Dr. Berman's earlier comment on Anglo culture, and his desire for statistical evidence, the following says it all. I actually laughed out loud at this graph, which I screenshotted to get around the paywall:
https://imgur.com/6AM0hlZ [source: Statistica Research]
Nadine - followers of Osteen, Oprah, and their ilk are not forced at gun point to attend services and subscribe to their philosophies. They choose to in hopes of getting rich. IMO, its not a matter of conflating religion with greed, but understanding the difference perfectly well and choosing the latter. In this instance, Americans are not so much stupid as devious. They know and accept that their primary objective is to make as much money as possible and see religion as just another way to do that.
ReplyDeleteHello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteIn the "Oh, FFS" department, the Asian Carp is to be renamed because the name is apparently racist. Last week there was a report on how the Gypsy Moth is getting the same attention.
What's next, the Canada Goose? The Russian Thistle? The Belgian Waffle?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/asian-carp-renaming-fish-racism-1.6103742
Dr. B-
ReplyDeleteRE: No "Hedgian revolution" by the masses on the horizon...
You quoted author Joe Bageant in 2011 in your blog post-
http://morrisberman.blogspot.com/2011/05/rainbow-pie.html
My favorite quote by Bageant in that post-
“We dumb working folk were clubbed into submission long ago, and now require only...a 24/7 mind-numbing spectacle of titties, tabloid TV, and terrorist dramas. Throw in a couple of new flavors of XXL edible thongs, and you’ve got a nation of drowsing hippos who will never notice that our country has been looted, or even that we have become homeless ourselves...and besides, there’s always bourbon.”
Is there any other value than making money in America? Some videos I watched about the condo collapse had advertisement. And now, a judge has approved the sale of the collapse site before recovery efforts were even completed. Maybe we should stop and reflect on what this collapse means instead of rushing into making money right away.
ReplyDeleteSurfside building collapse: Victims’ relatives react to judge allowing process to sell property
https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/07/15/surfside-building-collapse/
“We aren’t a case number,” Lagesfeld said. “We lost humans. We lost family members. Loved ones.” A developer could still be required to build a memorial in part of the property. Court records indicate the property is valued at $100-$110 million, The Associated Press reported. Attorney Michael Goldberg, the court-appointed receiver who is tasked with disbursing insurance payments, told The Associated Press that Hanzman was exploring a potential sale contingent on making sure the proceeds benefit the victims. “It feels like every day there is a new roadblock, but this one is inhumane,” Lagesfeld said about the judge’s decision.
Widow says talk of development to be built at Surfside site disrespectful - Full memorial on property where Champlain Towers South stood would be right thing to do https://bit.ly/3yXbhWG “It’s been 20 days since the collapse of the Champlain Towers South. Soriya Cohen is still waiting for rescuers to find her husband’s body.”
Casket of nanny killed in condo collapse returns to Paraguay https://bit.ly/3z3EIGQ
Brian-
ReplyDeleteThe American sense of self is so thin as to be pathetic. I recall seeing lines at movie theaters in NY, to see the film, when it first came out, and running up and down along the lines were guys in Joe Buck outfits. Wd it be worthwhile to stop them and say, "*This* is what yr life has come down to?"? What do ya think?
El Al-
Somewhere in my American empire trilogy I cite the # of square feet in America occupied by shopping malls (I can't recall where, cd be 21 yrs ago). I do remember that it was off the charts; came to millions upon millions. This #, wh/of course is much greater today, we might call the Douche Bag Index (DBI).
Charles-
My favorite residential area in Guad. is Zapopan; be sure to check it out. Also, if yr into artesania and have a car, cruise by Tonala and Tlaquepaque.
On a sad note, the antisemitic trollfoons have literally disappeared. Perhaps they figured out I was baiting them; or that I wasn't reading their posts. Who knows, really? But I miss them, they are so stupid. Let me try this: Pathetic antisemites! You have no testes, and your very small dicks are limp! You are cowards, hiding under rocks. I release excrement upon your heads, you losers! The Jews will replace you; make no mistake abt it.
OK, if that don' do it, nothing will.
mb
ps: Trollfoons: American GIs were fond of singing the Colonel Bogey March while they were fighting your heroes, the Nazis. Here's the music:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHLOWfxoQdE
Of course, they changed the words, as follows (you scumbags will be able to relate to them quite easily):
"Hitler, he had just one ball;
Goering, had two but very small;
Himmler, was very similar,
And Goebbels, had no balls, at all!"
Ring a bell, assholes?
mb
Re: Pearl Harbor Attack.
ReplyDeleteWhat does it matter that the Japanese changed their codes just days before the attack. If the U.S. had indeed broken their codes, they would have known the attack was coming and when.
The main point I was trying to make was that while the president was preaching how he was trying to keep the US out of the war, he was doing everything possible to provoke an attack to get the US into the war. He especially wanted to get into the war in Europe.
As for people debunking Robert Stinnett's book, the press followed a familar pattern. For a week or two everyone writes or talks about it as a important historical discovery. Then the press turns on the author. They did the same thing with the reporter who broke the CIA's involvment with allowing or selling crack cocaine in the U.S. It eventually drove the author to suicide.
The colonel bogey March brightened my day immensely. We need more irreverent stuff like that.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the idiocy continues. I really cannot believe how bad this is! Every COVID victim (death) in Maryland last month had not been vaccinated.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/07/07/us/maryland-unvaccinated-covid-deaths/index.html
Yet I work with people who brag about not being vaccinated.
Check out this progressive American Youtube channel. I tell ya, progressives are gonna turn America around and make it a socialist utopia...when pigs fly.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7CzM1wspQ4
TKR-
ReplyDeleteYr 1st para: it wasn't days, it was abt a month. And if the US hadn't broken the codes for a month, then they wdn't know abt the coming attack--assuming it was discussed by the Japanese during that month. So yr 1st para doesn't make a whole lotta sense. That being said, I wish I had the ref to the historian who discovered this, because he cd obviously make the case better than me. Still, I'm on the fence on this one. I'm just in the dark as to what side the hard evidence comes down on.
2nd para: it's certainly true that FDR wanted to get America into the War, and certainly something like Pearl Harbor wd do the trick. Which is suggestive, but not conclusive. However, I don't recall rdg that he was preaching abt staying out of the War. Do you have any evidence to back that up? Even a single reference?
3rd para: you cd be rt, but where is yr evidence? On this blog, we require proof. We don't just take assertions at face value.
Long story short: as of now, you haven't made yr case.
mb
Zig and MB - you're both right. The US English lexicon contains many, many terms for carrying a gun. It can be a rod, or a "piece" or a "heater" etc. You can be "packing heat", "carrying", "strapped" and so on. There really is no wrong way to say you're burdening yourself with one of the heavy, uncomfortable things.
ReplyDeleteal-Q - I believe the fish is more usually called the silver carp anyway...? "Asian Carp could be any of a number of fishes, even the beloved koi.
I am no WWII in the Pacific expert, and to me Pearl Harbor is, well, just another boring place although it is nice and watery and has interesting ships and stuff. So without a lot of research all I can say is, Did FDR *want* to go to war, or did he realize it was coming regardless of his own personal feelings about the matter? How would things have worked out if the US had stayed out of the war? Has anyone thought about how things might have gone then? Now that's an interesting idea. I'm all ears.
alex-
ReplyDeleteIt cd also be called a can. Then one cd say, "I'm packing tuna." As for Pearl Harbor etc., I for one just need more info, more studies of the subject.
mb
TKR-
ReplyDeleteSorry, cdn't run it (24-hr rule).
mb
This was what USian pollies and citizens were concerned about..
ReplyDeletehttps://nypost.com/2021/07/13/new-york-lawmakers-want-to-ban-chick-fil-a-from-rest-stops/
https://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/rochester/bronson-criticizes-selection-of-chick-fil-a-for-new-thruway-dining-options/Content?oid=13407519
Interesting choice of words: a US polly will "go to war" for chicken sandwiches--very US empire like.
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article252802478.html
Forget FATCA, citizen-based double taxation, no universal health care, military-industrial complex/war mongering imperialism, educational-industrial complex-massive student loans/debts, few employment rights, employment at will doctrines, no real retirement/aging with dignity, etc.etc. this is what USians focused on...what a colossal band of fuck ups.
Really, of all the shit the US has pulled throughout its history, going to war with Tojo is what we're complaining about? FDR, like any keen observer, felt that war between the United States and Japan in the Pacific was inevitable. Even before the massive Japanese land grab of the late 30's, high-ranking Japanese officials had been talking openly for decades, in English language sources, about when, not if, America needed to be attacked. Such statements were in the congressional records as early as the 20's, during debates on immigration quotas and the like. [source below]. I give you the words of Count Okuma, Japanese Prime Minister during WW1:
ReplyDelete"America to any warrior race, is not as a foe, but as an immense melon, ripe for the cutting…North America alone will support a billion people; that billion shall be Japanese with their slaves. Not arid Asia, not worn out Europe (which, with its peculiar and quaint relics and customs, should in the interest of history and culture, be in any case preserved), nor yet tropical Africa, is fit for our people. But North America, that continent so succulently green, fresh, and unsullied — except for the few chattering mongrel Yankees — should have been ours by right of discovery; it shall be ours by the higher, nobler right of conquest.
On a lighter note, he did call America a "fatuous booby, with much money and sentiment, but no cohesion or brains for government". I would imagine this statement meets with Dr. B's seal of approval
https://books.google.com/books?id=SVooc06LbFEC&pg=PA1047-IA2&lpg=PA1047-IA2&dq=%22america+to+any+warrior+race%22&source=bl&ots=u--gw9m3fs&sig=ACfU3U2WqPGokNRVerct8cYZBk_ROKtywA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi8qtGbhejxAhV8FFkFHeaUAhcQ6AEwCXoECAwQAw#v=onepage&q=%22america%20to%20any%20warrior%20race%22&f=false
Came across this quote from Orson Welles and thought it would resonate with fellow Wafers.
ReplyDelete"I think I essentially made a mistake in staying in movies but it’s a mistake I can’t regret because it’s like saying I shouldn’t have stayed married to that woman but I did because I love her. I would have been more successful if I hadn’t been married to her, you know. I would have been more successful if I’d left movies immediately, stayed in the theatre, gone into politics, written, anything. I’ve wasted a greater part of my life looking for money and trying to get along, trying to make my work from this terribly expensive paintbox which is a movie. And I’ve spent too much energy on things that have nothing to do with making a movie. It’s about two percent movie-making and ninety-eight percent hustling. It’s no way to spend a life.”
From Jeffrey St. Clair's weekly roundup of the continuing demise and madness in the USA.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/07/16/roaming-charges-19/
"the problem isn’t necessarily appropriation. It’s what appropriation can produce: an Orientalist perspective toward non-Western practices that can be misrepresented to further a political agenda." https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/the-goods/22577558/wellness-world-qanon-conspiracy-orientalism
ReplyDeleteThe wellness world’s conspiracy problem is linked to Orientalism
What the hell is wrong with the Weinstein Brothers? Crackpots who had so much potential.....
ReplyDeleteLooking for COVID-19 ‘Miracle Drugs’? We Already Have Them. They’re Called Vaccines
https://quillette.com/2021/07/06/looking-for-covid-19-miracle-drugs-we-already-have-them-theyre-called-vaccines/
Is Eric Weinstein a crackpot? The grand unified theories of the man who brought us the Intellectual Dark Web.
https://nonzero.substack.com/p/is-eric-weinstein-a-crackpot
Great essays by Claire Lehrmann and Robert Wright
Jaco-
ReplyDeleteAs Marcuse pointed out decades ago, anything can be absorbed by capitalism--even anti-capitalism. Hustling is the world's most elastic ideology.
El Al-
I tell you honestly, I don't care one way or another abt Pearl Harbor. TKR wants to dismiss the month b4 the attack, when (according to some historian I can't remember) the encryption codes changed. But the previous messages might have omitted date and location of the future attack, for all I know; in wh/case, that 'opaque' month wd have mattered a lot. (Earlier rants abt the need to attack the US don't prove anything, really; it cd have all been spleen, or hot air.) I remain an agnostic, and what I said abt the subject in NB is still gd enuf for me. (TKR, on the other hand, is a True Believer; he cd be rt, altho I don't think he's proven his case.) At this pt, I find the subject rather tedious, and don't wanna spend any more energy on it. So I will leave it to other Wafers to carry on the debate, altho I suspect they have better things to do w/their time.
mb
Tackling climate change will require global cooperation and yet in America, we can’t get along. I suspect we will be hearing more of these kinds of disasters.
ReplyDeleteEurope floods: At least 120 dead and hundreds unaccounted for
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57858829
How does climate change cause flooding?
• Global heating causes more water to evaporate, which leads to an increase in the amount of annual rain and snow
• At the same time, a warmer atmosphere means it can hold more moisture - which also increases the intensity of rainfall
• Rather than gently watering plants, this intense rainfall leads to flooding, like we're seeing in Northern Europe now
Europe Flooding Death Toll Exceeds 125, With Potentially 1,300 Still Missing in Germany
https://weather.com/news/news/2021-07-15-europe-flooding-belgium-germany-rain
“Climate scientists have been vocal in the aftermath of the disaster, saying such events are going to become even more frequent in a warming world.”
America's No. 1 Weather Killer Is Not Tornadoes, Flooding, Lightning or Hurricanes
https://weather.com/safety/heat/news/2021-06-03-heat-america-fatalities
To add to Noura's list of climate flooding, extreme weather, etc., The Guardian UK had an article today about what farm workers deal with in the heat.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/16/farmworkers-labor-deadly-heat-few-protections
I know everyone will be shocked, SHOCKED I say! that the US has almost no standards for protecting workers laboring in extreme heat. Fires, floods... add famine to the list. This is a cicada year in the US, isn't it? What's left, frogs was it?
And oh yeah, for fun, the plague is coming back.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/16/covid-19-us-delta-variant-unvaccinated
People should remember that most people who come down with Covid do not require hospitalization. So here's a group of health care workers who were vaccinated and still got it-
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/13/coronavirus-delta-variant-nevada-outbreak-health-workers
I wrote about Pearl Harbor because you wrote "In the case of Pearl Harbor, supposedly FDR knew of the attack in advance." I thought you might be interested in reading the book I wrote about.
ReplyDeleteTKR-
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought you might be interested in an alternative possibility. Anyway, as I said, other Wafers might want to continue the discussion.
mb
IKEA was buying timber from Russia’s largest-ever illegal logging site, approx area of 21,000 football fields, environmental NGO Earthsight claimed. The Siberian timber ended up in a range of children’s products sold in IKEA stores across Europe & the U.S. https://www.earthsight.org.uk/news/investigations/ikea-house-of-horrors
ReplyDeleteHello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info on IKEA, Mr. Davis (are you THE Eddie Davis? https://cfhof.ca/members/eddie-davis/).
This raises the pressing question: who ought the US to nuke, Russia, Sweden, or both?
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/07/15/us-intervention-is-never-ever-ever-the-solution/
Dr. B-
ReplyDeleteIn the "for what it's worth department," I think that author Ian Toll has done a fine job in analyzing the Pacific War in his trilogy, linked below. I have read the first two volumes and am looking forward to reading the third-
https://www.ianwtoll.com/
Elena,
ReplyDeleteI've talked about Bret Weinstein extensively on this blog, and how disgusted I am with him. However, this is definitely a new low for Bret. As the article points out, he's knowingly spreading false and dangerous propaganda about COVID to make money. That this propaganda will sicken and kill people doesn't appear to bother him in the slightest. This is a man who once admired people like Noam Chomsky and Julian Assange. Now he's friends with people like Tucker Carlson and Dan Crenshaw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC-EpyHrAbw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh0kauv1lGo
Elana/Nadine:
ReplyDeleteThis shows what even the intellectuals are in this country: Everyone's a charlatan!
WAFERS,
ReplyDeleteAnother day another brawl over fast food. What wonderful people.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/brawl-outside-shake-shack-detroit-151615365.html
Xair-
ReplyDeleteAgain, where were these girls' guns? They're fighting w/juice bottles? Kinda lame.
mb
ReplyDeleteIt's nice ordering a book from Amazon and getting it two days later. But the secret cost is to the poor American worker who is forced to defecate in a bag, in order to get your delivery to you on time. It's really quite harrowing when you take a close look at how bad we have made things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq3aUwY859U&t=305s
Have been reading 'Rainbow Pie'. What I get from that book and this article is the schizophrenic seesaw between 'needing assistance' and the old self reliance myth. I don't see how you can fight social problems with 'self-reliance', useful as that trait is in certain circumstances: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/12/beattyville-kentucky-and-americas-poorest-towns
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteDr B: "Anglo cultures are very alienated, uptight and anti-human."
Oh how these words tear at my heart. I've been a denizen of London for the past ten years. Midway through I was able to spend a year in Barcelona. Now that place has its problems like anywhere, but in general the warmth and humaneness of the Spaniards was wonderful compared to the Anglos. There is no natural joy or spontaneity in the Anglo world. Everything is conformity and sacrifice to the god of GDP.
I hope I can escape it some day.
Karl-
ReplyDeleteCertainly, a goal to live for. Gd luck.
mb
This video on Christian Nationalism in the US Military is pretty frightening. Indeed, the worst are full of passionate intensity.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/89yDHX-5PAs
Further documentation that the most probable revolution will be from the right.
Anjin-
ReplyDeletePlease send messages to most recent post. No one reads the older stuff. Thank you.
mb