Civility in America. Apparently this happens endlessly. And over garbage coffee to boot.
ReplyDeleteThe wife and I actually did hit the road in our travel trailer last week. Retired as early as we could (59) so we would have some life left in us as we tour the states. Too many people work work work cuz they fear poverty more than anything, and I see all too often for those folks there's never enough money. So onward and downward in a hybrid version of NMI... dodge the people and stick with the scenery.
ReplyDeleteMexico and Canada in our travel plans. If we can settle in one of those we probably will.
Thank you for the book recommendation Dr. Berman.
ReplyDeleteThank you to the person that recommended the book "Headed Into The Abyss" by Brian T. Wilson. I just finished it today. He is definitely a Wafer. More generally he could be described as a WWF member (Why the World Failed).
I strongly recommend that fellow Wafers read his book. However, if anyone here has been following Dr. Berman, Dr. McPherson, Michael C. Ruppert, Gore Vidal, etc., then most of what he has written will not be of any surprise.
Peace,
Vince
This link contains some surveillance footage of 1 of the shootings this past weekend.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/1-dead-1-hurt-after-two-sunday-shootings-in-northwest-dc/2793308/
Just another day in a decaying trigger happy empire, eh Dr. B?;)
Machiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition, and Win the Workplace
ReplyDeletehttps://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Machiavelli-for-Women/Stacey-Vanek-Smith/9781982121754
Hah! What next, "Hobbes's Leviathian For Women"?
Z4-
ReplyDeleteSorry, cdn't run it. This isn't a "broadcast yr opinion" post, for the most part. If someone is making an argument, the first thing we look for is evidence, in the form of links or refs to reliable sources. You provided none at all. Also be sure to stay w/in the half-pg-max guideline. Thank you.
Daman-
Sounds like a gross misunderstanding of Machiavelli. Check out my chapter on him in "Genio".
TooMany-
Sorry, I don't post antisemitic material on this blog. However, there are literally thousands of blogs that do, which will certainly welcome your contributions. Hatred of Jews is everywhere, amigo, so go for it.
Cherith-
Do you realize what % of the American public consists of douchebags? (Also trashy people)
mb
Hi MB, thanks for the book recommendation! Just continuing on from my question in your last post, is your deep focus the reason why you're able to remember a lot of what you read? You seem to be able to quote a lot of other people, even from books you've read from years ago, in your writings and even off-handedly in these posts. When I'm reading, sometimes it just gets lost over time and that's a little disappointing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the book reference, but when Amazon is listed as a site to purchase the book,
ReplyDeletemy heart blackens and shrivels. Screw Bezos and his ilk. He is the poster boy for amoral, rapacious, absurd capitalism and it's subsequent harsh disparities.
And as far as moving out of a schizophrenic, ultra-patriotic, patriarchal, racist, and sickeningly gullible culture built on death since it's inception, paradoxically it takes good old money to enable one to go abroad and live is some semblance of comfort.
If you don't have the means, you are destined to ride it out, fight it out, or "watch the circus as we have front row seats" as George Carlin said.
The other problem with moving out is leaving family. Not everyone can/would leave.
It boils down to saving our own asses. That is part of our collective problem here. Most seem to be so self absorbed they become apathetic to others and are unwilling to see our nation-self as fatally flawed and sick. They'd have to admit they themselves have the same characteristics. Denial reigns.
The other obstacle now to travel and seek residence elsewhere are vaccination mandates by many airlines and countries. I choose to not get vaccinated as Pfizer , Moderna, and others can kiss my sweet ass.
mike-
ReplyDeleteYou can always buy a used copy of the bk. This $ goes to independent bksellers. As for options re: leaving: check out section in Twilight bk on New Monastic Individual.
Jang-
Well, I also take a lot of notes. :-)
mb
In praise of the work of Theodore Roszak, one of the most intelligent writers on New Age culture. https://julesevans.medium.com/from-freak-to-super-freak-ae5788d67e53
ReplyDeleteGood day Wafers,
ReplyDeleteHere's an example of the deep compassion and empathy that's embedded in the very bowels of this culture (along with so many chicken sandwiches):
"Suspects who stole Surfside condo collapse victims' identities to go shopping are caught"
https://www.foxnews.com/us/miami-surfside-victims-identities-stolen-suspect-arrests
"The trio allegedly commandeered the identities of at least five Surfside victims, three dead and two survivors, according to the Herald, to open credit cards and make fraudulent purchases."
How's that for a hustle? I'm almost impressed, if I wasn't so nauseated.
A fable of ancient Greece: when the mythic universe became a rational machine
ReplyDeleteThis short story is a fictional account of two very real people — Anaximander and Anaximenes, two ancient Greeks who tried to make sense of the universe.
https://bigthink.com/amp/fable-ancient-greece-anaximander-anaximenes-2654935609
I learned a new concept today. Well, no, I learned that there is a new name for a basic condition of Americans:
ReplyDeleteinformation disorder
And there is money to be made talking about this new thing:
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/commission-on-information-disorder/
"The effort aims to identify and prioritize the most critical sources and causes of information disorder and deliver a set of short-term actions and longer-term goals to help government, the private sector, and civil society respond to this modern-day crisis of faith in key institutions."
Shoot me now, please.
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteFor any of us who still are stuck in this pathetic wasteland, why not sick back and enjoy the show?
Here are a couple of the latest mass shootings:
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/crime/2021/09/07/possible-multiple-shooting-victims-being-investigated-wilmington-police/5761551001/
https://www.cleveland.com/crime/2021/09/officials-identify-two-adults-two-children-found-dead-in-suspected-murder-suicide-in-avon-lake.html
And I for one eagerly am awaiting the 20th anniversary. I can’t wait to read the many “patriotic” screeds on my Facebook page Saturday posted by conservatives ( every single one who never served in the military) I know. Because after all, according to them “we’re soooo good.” I think I also shall count how many times they mention our “freedom” being taken away that day. LOL!
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteCherysse Cleveland became irate when McDonald's employees refuse to mix three slushy flavors together. Cleveland attempted to go behind the counter to make the slushy herself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFADuHT3vBE
Miles
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteThey are starting to call this sorta thing a "Mac Attack." But Cherysse did not uphold the standard set by Shaneka Torres. Where were her semi-automatic weapons? Most frightening is her face, wh/I regard as the face, the epitome, of America. It's grotesque. W/a face like that, you can be sure her head is filled w/dog feces. Brr.
Joe-
As I've said b4, every American needs to be issued a gun and told to "have at it!" Think of all the problems this wd solve.
Dan D-
Yes, Take me now, O Lord. When you can't deal w/real issues, you wallow in bullshit.
Kia-
For a humorous take on Anaximenes, check out the story by that name in my bk "The Heart of the Matter."
vso-
Actually, the same thing happened in the wake of 9/11.
Someone just sent me an email saying that stopping the upcoming collapse of the US was as likely as stopping a freight train w/butterflies. Nice image.
mb
Trump's gang at the Supreme Court would let him off with a warning.
ReplyDeletehttps://ca.news.yahoo.com/racist-mass-killer-dylann-roof-204450671.html
Rock-
ReplyDelete? The link doesn't support yr statement.
mb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPXXOFNw2hE&lc=UgwwbwqfC_aNdnguG_V4AaABAg.9S26ftqH81i9S2C-7QN7j3
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03ZavpuS_tY
People are overdosing on ivermectin, a horse medication touted by neocons as an effective way to protect yourself from COVID and other viruses. However, it offers very little protection against viruses, and destroys your intestines if you take enough to make a difference. It's hard to believe billions of years of evolution produced people stupid enough to kill themselves with it. Hell, it's hard to believe billions of years of evolution produced America, a nation of sociopathic morons.
Well Morris one thing that liberals forget is that the pharma companies themselves are so corrupt that they have destroyed the publics's confidence in them. They pretend that public is suspicious of science but it is mainly due to their corrupt practices which treats people like guinea pigs. Hence republicans are hugely suspicious of their motives. This mistrust leads to ivermectin theories. I agree vaccines needed since covid is a man made virus. But its not easy to convince when there have been drugs like vioxx which mererck knowingly pushed despite being aware that it caused heart attacks. And which FDA approved.
DeleteMy 2 cents. Love your blog and especially its well curated comments section
Wafer Dan Daniel-
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, many US empire "academics," "experts," etc. 'like' problems that cannot be solved or cannot be even slightly alleviated/ameliorated.
There was money to be had keeping the problem 'alive' (e.g., US "health" "care," high cost of US "education,"). Once can appear 'serious'-when in fact, the "expert" is a typical opportunistic American. The USian gives talks, interviews, writes vanilla papers, gets grants, free travel, etc. by doing basically nothing other than keeping a 'problem' alive.
It's yet another US hu$tle.
"This is a land that’s crumbling before our eyes, being (un)built month by month, year by year. Its political system is on the verge of dissolving into who knows what amid a raft of voter suppression laws, wild claims about the most recent presidential election, an assault on the Capitol itself, and conspiracy theories galore. Its political parties seem ever more hostile, disturbed, and disparate. Its economy is a gem of inequality, its infrastructure crumbling, its society seemingly coming apart at the seams."
ReplyDeleteFrom TomDispatch- The Decline and Fall of the Roman ....Whoops ... American Empire
https://tomdispatch.com/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-whoops-american-empire/#more
Dr. B and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteThis resignation letter by Portland State philosophy professor Peter Boghossian says a lot about the state of America's so-called "higher education." Are all failing empires gripped by madness in their final stages?
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/my-university-sacrificed-ideas-for
For a long time now I've worried about the country. It's with great relief, however, that I'm now able to report that America's future is truly bright–that is if these parents are any indication.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/JXMKuGc2lEc?t=121s
The segment runs for about 4:38min
Interesting little article: Will the Amish take over America?
ReplyDeleteDr. Berman, I wonder how do the Amish fit in your views about American culture and values.
@ Mike R: I think you are right. The investment some have in never solving a problem, a form of job security. And the hustle bit. Think tanks and such are similar to 'consultants' taken to the next level.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/05/the-smarmy-sacrilege-of-corporate-divinity-consultants
@ nadine and others here: please stop referring to Americans as morons. Also stop using stupid, dumb, idiots, or any other word demeaning their intellectual capabilities. They suffer from 'information disorder,' which will soon be in the DSM VI and qualifying for accomodation and support as with any other mental diability.
This article presents a strange case to me. On one h and, being Black and wanting to get out of America makes lots of sense. On the other and, the main subject has set up a hustle to guide other Black Americans in Costa Rica. Something tells me this is not a Wafer leaving the US-
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/09/black-americans-expats-costa-rica
By the way, how is everyone's 401k doing? Any idea where that money actually came from? Too late now, the ride has started and there is no emergency stop button...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/09/earths-tipping-points-closer-current-climate-plans-wont-work-global-heating
Dan D-
ReplyDeleteI've consulted several medical experts on treatment for Information Disorder. All of them recommended slapping and urine. Or waterboarding as a last resort.
Pete-
Higher ed in America is a joke. The profs know 0, and the students even less.
down-
And I don' even get a ftnote? Fuck.
mb
TECH PLATFORM FOR EMERGENCY RENTAL ASSISTANCE HASN’T HACKED THE PROBLEM, CHICAGOANS SAYThe city has distributed just 16 percent of the $179.8 million it got through the Emergency Rental Assistance program.
ReplyDeleteMatthew Cunningham-Cook
September 9 2021, 6:00 a.m.
https://theintercept.com/2021/09/09/covid-chicago-rental-assistance-unqork/
Williams-
ReplyDeletePls don't use block capitals; it comes across as yelling. Thank you.
Note to Jack L.-
Loved the summer newsletter for Dada. Maybe you shd rename it Candidates for the Guillotine. I esp. enjoyed ref. to Zuckershmuck.
mb
Usher, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Julianne Hough will host competition series ‘The Activist’.
ReplyDeleteActivists go head-to-head in challenges to promote their causes, with their success measured via online engagement, social metrics, and hosts’ input.
https://deadline.com/2021/09/usher-priyanka-chopra-julianne-hough-the-activist-cbs-1234829647/amp/
Dumbest idea even for a reality show....
I'd like to put forward a book recommendation: Settlers by J Sakai. In the last thread I posted an interview with the author. I'd argue that if you haven't read this book, your understanding of the United States is incomplete. Here's a link to read the book for free:
ReplyDeletehttps://readsettlers.org/
And here's the aforementioned interview with the author:
https://kersplebedeb.com/posts/raceburn/
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/racist-mass-killer-dylann-roof-204450671.html
ReplyDeleteReturning to the Roof case and MB's remark, The Supreme Court ruled that appeal for sympathy for the victims in capital cases based on their virtues should be used only in limited instances. If they were
presented as just ordinary folks, then the death penalty is less likely
to be imposed, so argues Roof's lawyers. Then Trump's justices could
rule the presentation of all the religious virtues of the victims was
improper, hence the death penalty is too severe. Much less severe
would simply be a warning with a few months of house arrest.
Cherith-
ReplyDeleteDavid Shi's bk, "The Simple Life," might be relevant.
Rock-
"Could" doesn't mean it has happened. Once again, this link doesn't support your argument. We, and you, have no idea what the SC will do.
Pro-
Chances are, this thing will just come and go.
mb
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/09/afghanistan-us-foreign-wars-congresswoman-barbara-lee
ReplyDeleteWhy? What's the mystery? Because were a collection of clueless buffoons, is why.
Nadine-
ReplyDeleteCdn't run it; violates 24-hr rule. Very impt to stick to blog guidelines.
mb
Wafer Nadine Bupkis
ReplyDeletePlease do not repeat the talking points of main stream media about ivermectin. The MSM, CDC and Big Pharma have launched an across the board attack on this inexpensive, effective medicine. See this scientific paper posted on the FLCCC website. https://covid19criticalcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FLCCC-Ivermectin-in-the-prophylaxis-and-treatment-of-COVID-19.pdf. FLCCC and the doctors who founded it are also being smeared and censored in the press. They are not anti-vax, nor are they rightwing. They simply report what they have experienced in their practices. Another source of constantly updated information about this is here: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com. The comments section is particularly useful.
I have no dog in this fight, but it has been appalling to see the outright lies promulgated by the MSM, Rachael Maddow in particular with her completely false story about an OK hospital turning away gunshot victims because it was swamped with ivermectin overdoses. https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2021/09/06/iowahawk-lays-waste-to-rolling-stone-and-rachel-maddows-horse-dewormer-horse-puckey-with-surgical-precision/. IMHO this continuing slap down of a safe, cheap, effective medication, very commonly used for covid in other countries and that can be used in the early stages of covid to mitigate the disease, is criminal. But what can one expect from hustlers like Big Pharma backed by the MSM and Fauci. Another symptom of the decline and fall.
The ones over age 80 are harmless, but some of those still in their
ReplyDeletemid-seventies should be considered armed and dangerous. Note the
name of the town--LOVEland.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/settlement-reached-rough-arrest-colorado-092523423.html
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling we may have driven the whole subject of vaccines into the ground by now. This is a global problem, and I'm not sure how relevant it is to the collapse of the American empire (altho obviously, the pandemic can't make things any better). I have a feeling that the world has entered a new phase, in which pandemics will simply become the 'new normal'. Following Covid-19 we now have the Delta variant, and following that we have the Mu variant--now detected in 39 countries. And I doubt that will be the end of it. Of course, if the virus(es) shd start to take on the dimensions of the Black Plague, then I suppose we can say that just as the BP washed out the Middle Ages, our current plague is washing out modernity, and that the world is moving on to a new way of life. It's too soon to tell, and that would be an extreme development; but in this whole process, whatever it is, the US has done its best to make things worse--as we might expect. Still, America is just part of a larger process, and I'm not sure there is much to be gained at this pt in discussing the effectiveness of this or that vaccine. What we *can* say abt the subject relative to America is that we will fuck things up. This is just yet another arena for us to demonstrate our fundamental lack of intelligence.
My predictions abt the fall of America began in 2000 and ranged across 3 bks. 21 yrs later, it seems like those predictions are coming true. But there are 2 larger processes at work going on, hardly limited to America, that I cd never have anticipated. One is the pandemic; the other is the social media, and the replacement of human reality by a digital, or virtual, one. Together, these seem to be transforming the world, and it's my own guess that we are now entering a dark phase in human history, one that may last 50 years or more. What will come out the other end is as yet unclear; one can only hope the human spirit will prevail. As for the US, vaccine or no vaccine, we are now standing on shaky legs, and as I have suggested a # of times, we shall be in a very different place by 2030--a mere 9 yrs away.
So maybe our focus shd be on the ways the country is doing itself in, and also, what might be some creative responses to our situation. Not that we can alter our trajectory; of course not. But what, even beyond emigration or becoming NMI's, might we do as individuals, so as to live a sane life in insane times?
mb
Are the Chinese going wafer lol?! ''Bush's "global war on terror", or GWOT, pronounced "Gee-What?", has resulted in the victory for terrorism around the world－aided and fostered at every turn by the Bush administration and those that succeeded it. Only they all claimed it as a victory against terrorism'' https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202109/06/WS61355528a310efa1bd66d72c.html
ReplyDeleteDr. B-
ReplyDeleteCheck this out-
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/10/to-end-white-supremacy-liberals-must-surrender-liberalism-to-the-absolute-of-love/
Neil-
ReplyDeleteAlways, always, capitalize Wafer. As for China vs. US: the core issue, which will be played out in the yrs to come, is that whereas the Chinese are very intelligent, the Americans are fundamentally feeble-minded.
Art-
Weren't these cops weaponized? Why didn't they just gun the woman down in the street, like a dog, and then receive (well-deserved) medals?
mb
Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMy responses to our downward trajectory continue to be talking with others about what I know and observe about our demise as a country. If they didn't know, I'll tell them.
I don't feel all 'Mericans are idiots, just uneducated on our sordid history.
My focus is on the military/patriotic mentality, the finances wasted, the countries we've devastated through our nation-building, the lies of democracy spreading, and the tired old line of defending my freedoms. Oh yeah, and the millions of human lives ended, the majority being simply in the way of preserving our lifestyle.
See Al Jeezera's recent article on our global military presence. Not news to me, but an updated report on our imperialist hegemony. Spread this info. Most do not have a clue.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/10/infographic-us-military-presence-around-the-world-interactive
Great piece on the social and political origins of epidemiology:
ReplyDelete"The real problem is simply that sick societies have sick institutions. Science is not some cloistered preserve in the clouds, but is buried in the muck with everything else." https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/opinion/covid-science-trust-us.html
How many USians on 9/11 will realize that the US empire had it coming given their horrendously sordid history with a populace that never learns?
ReplyDelete<0.01%-that's my guess. The rest will be watching MSM propaganda reels of explosion clips, hero firemen yammer, verbal diarrhea commentators, and other marketing drivel for the idiot masses.
I'm not waiting to hit the road. I am mired. There is absolutely no place in this world for my kind.
ReplyDeleteDr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteThey’re learning young. And it may facilitate what you have said about USAins shooting each other to death.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-middle-schoolers-arrested-allegedly-plotting-mass-school/story?id=79929661
Also, Doctor, I already am seeing a bunch of the stale 9-11 comments about our “freedom” being attacked on my Facebook page. Check out this photo below by a far right Facebook friend of mine. It was pasted from Pinterest. It epitomizes the average USAin’s utter stupidity equating the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of our “freedom”, with structures that stood for capitalistic globalization and the corporations that encompass it. SMH.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/800444533760229702/
Ram-
ReplyDeleteTry a nice platter of chopped liver. Then get back to me.
As for celebrations for 20th anniv., 9/11: 20 yrs of clueless, self-destructive stupidity. Whee!
mb
Good afternoon Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteHe hasn't been discussed in awhile, but James Kunstler has really gone over the edge with today's post.
kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/then-what-2/#more-'
He states that the vax has killed many but MSM is hiding the truth. Worm killer works but Big Pharma is keeping the truth hidden. And the comments, which I don't believe he vets, are a collection unhinged rants from anti-Semites, Christian fundies, and those ready to die on the hill to 'save' America. It was a strange read. But I had to wonder as I read is it any worse than those folks in Richmond yesterday who believe tearing down a statue shows great social progress and change? The Bubbas and the Progs. . .and we're in the middle watching the break up. Stay safe all.
The Darker Angels of Our Nature: Refuting the Pinker Theory of History & Violence
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/darker-angels-of-our-nature-9781350140592/
Bill-
ReplyDeleteOver the past few yrs, a # of devastating critiques of Pinkfart have been posted here, perhaps this one as well. His narrative is fanciful; he doesn't have a leg to stand on. A severe beating might clear his head, but I don't have the time or $ to fly to Cambridge.
Arthur-
I haven't been in touch w/Jim for several yrs now. Does he say anything re: Jewish Space Lasers, or chicken sandwich suppositories?
mb
Tomorrow being the BIG day to celebrate our freedoms and wish death
ReplyDeleteon all those foreigners who want to take them away, I'll reflect on
the strange reaction of Oprah Winfrey, who had to ask, "Why do they
hate white people so much?" In other words, "just look at how much
we've done for them, and now this!!" Needless to say, the works of
Chalmers Johnson, one who knew why, were not mentioned.
https://www.google.com/search?q=chalmers+johnson&rlz=1CAHKDC_enCA922&oq=chalmers+johnson&aqs=chrome..69i57j46i512j0i512j0i457i512j46i512j0i512j46i512l2j0i512l2.5218j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Can you imagine trying to require vaccinations when people can't even agree on wearing masks?
ReplyDeleteBiden announces new COVID vaccine mandates for 100 million Americans
https://abc7.com/biden-speech-today-live-preisdent-press-conference-executive-order-vaccine-federal-workers/11010121/
@Arthur, I haven’t read JH for about 3 years now and now coming back to his blog, I see that his following has swelled since then as indicated by # of comments; Back when I read him, he used to get about several hundred comment postings per blog entry, while now he frequently gets over a thousand. Probably his move to being more right-wing has something to do with knowing what side his bread is buttered on? Example: In his most recent post he rails against CNN (something Trump popularized during the 2016 campaign), but does he also rail against Fox News, I wonder? But regardless, I also suspect that JH’s turn is an instance of a certain intellectual weakness endemic in the states. Holding and living in a dialectical way of thinking, without giving into pre-packaged and paranoid Manichean types of thinking, just takes a little bit of effort.
ReplyDelete...Wait! Out of curiosity, I looked back at an older posting of his posted on Jan 8th. Yup, I think it’s fair to say he’s likely “crossed over” into the rightwing conspiracy theory dreg bucket.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/fog-and-noise/
-“Who, exactly, invaded the Capitol building on Wednesday when that mass of Trump supporters swarmed up the hallowed hill? Some Antifas and BLMs were on the scene for sure, probably in the vanguard, probably the ones smashing the windows to break in.”
So much for JH : (
MB said "But what, even beyond emigration or becoming NMI's, might we do as individuals, so as to live a sane life in insane times?"
ReplyDeleteReenchantment of the World began a new era for me in an ongoing search for self and meaning. Reading that trilogy might be a good place for Wafers to visit. I am currently plowing through Wei Wu Wei's works as we vacation in the mountains of southern Colorado.
comrade-
ReplyDeleteAlways helpful to provide a link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei_Wu_Wei
Glad my work was helpful 2u, chico.
Noura-
Gd pt. I'm waiting for Biden to say, "If you don't wear a mask, and you don't get a vaccine, you'll be shot down in the street like a dog." His most recent announcement doesn't have much teeth. What we need now are teeth.
mb
Per JHK, listen to Rushkoff’s commentary at the beginning of this Team Human episode: https://www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/naomi-klein
ReplyDeleteThe interview with Naomi Klein is also good: she received the 2021 Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity. Prior winners include Dr. Berman in 2013:
2020 - Jay Rosen
2019 - Nora Bateson
2018 - Renee Hobbs
2017 - Scott McCloud
2016 - Bruce Sterling
2015 - Nicholas Carr
2014 - Ronald J. Deibert
2013 - Morris Berman
2012 - Jaron Lanier
2011 - Gary Gumpert
2010 - Mary Catherine Bateson
2009 - Alan Kay
2008 - Fritjof Capra
2007 - Eric McLuhan
2006 - Howard Rheingold
2005 - Paul Levinson
2004 - Douglas Rushkoff
@Malaga, @Ziggy,
ReplyDeleteOn the 20th Ann of 9/11 headlines from The Guardian:
Boris Johnson says 9/11 failed to undermine freedom and democracy: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/11/boris-johnson-says-911-failed-to-undermine-freedom-and-democracy
How mass killings by US forces after 9/11 boosted support for the Taliban: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/10/how-mass-killings-by-us-forces-after-911-boosted-support-for-the-taliban
Don’t these two say it all? But Oprah still wouldn’t understand why the Americans are hated so much.
Another shocking symptom of neoliberalism - faculty blues https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/04/adjunct-professors-higher-education-thea-hunter/586168/
ReplyDeleteObviously the USA has not understood the deep significance of 9-11. I see no sales at any stores.
ReplyDeleteIn the interest of blasphemy, a short video made 9 years after 9-11-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AObnzSCpIUk
ReplyDeleteDr. Berman & Wafers,
This is the 20th anniversary of our “freedom” being attacked. Of course we aren’t talking about the ersatz symbols of freedom here in the once great Dysfunctional States of America—the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, and the Lincoln Memorial. We’re talking about our real symbols of freedom: our Two Wonders of the Modern World. They were built to symbolize “free” market globalist capitalism and the military-industrial complex that ensures (on our terms of course) world “freedom”. SMH.
Let’s also not forget that before our military took part in its revengeful 20 year experiment known as “Operation Enduring ‘Freedom’ ”, there was vigilante justice done by a self proclaimed “patriot” in Arizona. This murderous USAin nincompoop didn’t even know the difference between a Muslim and a Sikh.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2021/09/09/his-brother-killed-first-9-11-hate-crime-he-wants-peace/5689842001/
p.s. Since hustling is the main part of the typical USAin’s psyche, check out what the “ultimate hustler” is doing today.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-9-11-holyfield-belfort-boxing-b1918369.html
Joe-
ReplyDeleteIf yr question is, When did the country become a collection of hustling douchebags, check out WAF: late 16C.
mb
dermot-
ReplyDeleteA bit over the line. Pls make sure you stick to half a pg, max. As for ivermectin: by now, I think we're beating a dead horse.
mb
Don' tell me we're not a great country:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/11/us-drone-strike-mistakenly-targeted-afghan-aid-worker-investigation-finds
Meanwhile, tons of mourning over 9/11, but I don't see any mourning over a long-term aggressive, disastrous foreign policy that caused it.
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteI cdn't read much of this, since there's a paywall, but perhaps the title says it all:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/09/opinion/how-9-11-turned-america-into-a-half-crazed-fading-power.html
https://time.com/6046773/black-teenage-girls-suicide/
ReplyDeleteThese data are kinda puzzling. I wonder if any comparative studies have been done, regarding black girls in other countries. Of course, if you live in the US, and have never thought of getting out, suicide is quite understandable, regardless of yr age or color. But no one seems to have an explanation for this odd 'epidemic'.
mb
ps: regarding the NYT Michelle Goldberg article, cited above: as I said, I cd only read a bit of it, so don't know what her conclusions are; but (a) I'm impressed that the NYT wd run an essay saying that the country was half-crazed, and fading (obviously true; what have I been saying since 2000?); and (b) wonder if she came to the obvious cause of it all, namely that we are a collection of morons. Given the way we reacted to 9/11, what other explanation is there?
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Trumpi is doing a commentary on some boxing match today, pay-per-view, $50. Half the voting population will admire him for this. Ignore the memorial involving 3 other presidents, and comment on a boxing match instead. That's class.
Pulkit-
ReplyDeleteThanks for yr input. A few things to note, for future reference (part of my ongoing curation):
1. We have largely gone past discussions of vaccines. Our particular focus is the collapse of the American empire, altho I concede that widespread corruption of all our institutions is relevant to the process.
2. This is a blog that's big on evidence. While I don't disagree w/yr opinion, w/o evidence it remains only opinion, wh/is finally no big deal. Give us links, reliable refs. We thank you for yr cooperation.
3. Not mereck, but Merck. Heart disease is in my family, and I think one dr., yrs back, prescribed Vioxx for me. Happily, I survived. But yes, it was finally recalled.
4. In future, pls address me as Mr. Berman, or the GSWH.
5. Thank u4 yr love. I'm an old, desperate guy, and need tons of love. It's all I need; I can't get enuf of it. Ref: the Beatles. :-)
mb
Regarding the Michelle Goldberg opinion piece, I can offer the following link. As I also do not subscribe to the Times, I can’t guarantee this is the full text, but believe it to be so. I have found that sometimes putting the title (and author) into Google search—or your favorite search engine—will deliver you to the piece that you’re after when you don’t have a subscription to the source in question. I’m sure the Times recognizes this and knows it’s just something that must be accepted.
ReplyDeleteHere:
https://gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/how-911-turned-america-into-a-fading-global-power-1.82173575
Looks like Bill McKibbon is worried about his grandkids' college fund. He's going for blood this time, meaning Baby Boomer's mone... uh, 'resources.'
ReplyDeletehttps://vtdigger.org/2021/09/10/vermont-conversation-author-activist-bill-mckibben-launches-his-third-act/
https://thirdact.org/
Here's an interesting interview with a marxist theorist/ativist grappling with the present state of capitalism and where it might be heading. 'Cannibal Capitalism'!
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/09/nancy-fraser-cannibal-capitalism-interview
Many on this blog seem to think that >everyone< on the left has their head up their butts... no, sorry, they suffer from severe information disorder. But there's a large range, and lots of discussions and actions not obvious unless sought out. There's a difference between analysis and advocating for certain actions (it's dialectical, even!!), and this article moves between the two again and again. She seems quite aware of the reality of the problems facing the world. Short article, so much won't be said, like how collapse is not going to be homogeneous across the world; e.g. while other places follow different paths, the US could "continue... to grind away in an orgy of societal self-cannibalization until there’s little left that’s recognizably human..."
Jas-
ReplyDeleteMany thanks. Here are some excerpts:
"The attacks, and our response to them, catalysed a period of decline that helped turn the United States into the debased, half-crazed fading power we are today. America launched a bad-faith global crusade to instill democracy in the world and ended up with our own democracy in tatters....
Bin Laden didn’t build the trap that America fell into. We constructed it ourselves."
"'“The advance of freedom is the calling of our time; it is the calling of our country,' George W. Bush said in 2003. But this epoch of aggressive jingoism, ethnic profiling, escalating paranoia, torture, secret prisons, broken soldiers, dead civilians and dashed imperial dreams have left freedom in retreat both globally and here at home."
"...the lack of a decent interval between America’s withdrawal and a Taliban takeover...revealed America’s longest war as worse than futile. We didn’t just lose to the Taliban. We left them stronger than we found them.
"The sheer waste of it all is staggering. Twenty years ago, American politicians and intellectuals, traumatised by an unprecedented act of mass murder and not-so-secretly eager to see history revved up again, misunderstood what 9/11 represented. We inflated the stature of our enemies to match our need for retribution. We launched hubristic wars to remake the world and let ourselves be remade instead, spending an estimated $8 trillion in the process. We midwifed worse terrorists than those we set out to fight.
"We thought we knew what had been lost on Sept. 11. We had no idea."
(I also got a pdf from Anjin-san--thank you.)
That we had our heads impacted in our rumps is not explicitly stated by the author, but implied. Also, I was gratified to see that she stated, unequivocally, that it was the end of an empire, and referred to Spencer Ackerman's bk, "Reign of Terror." Meanwhile, our heads go deeper into our rear ends w/each passing day. Proof: this NYT essay will be completely ignored. Almost all Americans believe that our destruction of Iraq, a country that had nothing at all to do with 9/11, was the right action for us to have taken. At least with respect to Afghanistan, they are no longer so sure.
mb
ps: I need to refer to an argument I made in QOV and other places: psychologically speaking, the US always needs to be making war with *someone*, and this goes back to the rejection of 'decadent' British society in the late 16C. A Manichaean outlook is literally sewn into our DNA; it's our 'meme', along w/the meme that we can and shd be the model for all other nations to follow. Sadly, the city on a hill--well, the hill is now a mountain of shit, and we are not only on it, but in it. The rest of the world hardly regards us as a model of anything, except stupidity and misdirection. This is why we were "not-so-secretly eager to see history revved up again," and why we "launched hubristic wars to remake the world." It explains the Cold War, Chile, Vietnam...war is simply what we do, and without which, as a very few (foreign) observers have argued, we couldn't exist as a nation. Self-righteous hatred defines us, and now, it has finally turned inward. For whom the bell tolls...
ReplyDelete“Progressives are angry. The Bubbas are angry. The Karens are angry. Who in America isn’t angry?”
ReplyDelete-GSWH, September, 2020, Nature Bats Last: 53:45
So let’s look at some more funny angry Karens. ( And a couple of Darrens, too). The people in this sad excuse for a country are so pathetically angry and hostile that they are their very own comedy show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQNojQb9jMs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hXQhpfxDXw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUAE9pderAI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJW8He1aMaE
p.s. Look at the bright side for many of these USAins. The N.F.L. has kicked off its season. That also means the national pasttime ( gambling, not baseball) really kicks in to high gear. And after these foolish ( mainly male) USAins lose their money, they’ll probably mutter: “Oh damn. There goes my last Covid unemployment check!” LOL!
https://apnews.com/article/sports-nfl-football-tampa-health-91e74170294fcb1e0e6d1a5ab7be62e4
p.p.s. Just for kicks I turned on the television to watch the opening of the NFL season. Of course the networks all together had the national anthem being played from around Ground Zero to appeal to all those “patriotic” conservatives in the audience. And immediately after it was finished there were commercials for the Hard Rock Casino and chicken wings. LOL!
How Bin Laden Won
ReplyDeleteExcerpts:
In his 2002 Letter to the American People, bin Laden taunted the inhabitants of “the worst civilisation witnessed by the history of mankind” that “it was easy for us to provoke this administration and lure it into perdition. All we had to do was send two mujahidin to the Far East to raise up a rag on which “al-Qaeda” was written, and the generals came running. This inflicted human, financial, and political losses on America without them even achieving anything worth mentioning, apart from providing business for their private corporations.”
Indeed, in his critique of America’s conversion of the War on Terror into a vast and lucrative wealth-creation scheme for the military-industrial complex, bin Laden either echoes or prefigures the identical critiques of American anti-interventionists of both Left and Right, from Bernie Sanders to Trump’s previous, anti-interventionist incarnation.
Joe-
ReplyDeleteSomeday, there will be commercials for chicken sandwich suppositories. (One can only hope.) The Karens cd certainly use them.
mb
@Hornwood:
ReplyDeleteHere is another great essay in a collection of great essays on the origin of war & human violence:
Pinker's List: Exaggerating Prehistoric War Mortality by Brian Ferguson
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273371719_Pinker's_List_Exaggerating_Prehistoric_War_Mortality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQtp79pcuro
ReplyDeleteLooks like Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Jewish space laser conspiracy theorist and fascist Congresswoman, has pocketed 3.5 million in campaign donations. She's not just a Nazi; she's a hustler extraordinaire. This is a great thing, as she's been defrauding some of the most disgusting people ever to walk the earth.
PC, internet, smartphone: what’s the next big technological epoch?https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/11/pc-internet-smartphone-whats-the-next-big-technological-epoch
ReplyDelete....‘the future is already here; it’s just not evenly distributed’ William Gibson
Brooke-
ReplyDeleteIn 1984 Gibson published a novel called "Neuromancer," in wh/digital communications technology was implanted in people's brains. I believe some lab, perhaps at MIT, has been working on making this a reality. When available, I'm guessing Americans will fall over themselves to have it installed.
mb
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteI know we're to refrain from further engaging in the vax discussion, but this story about Alberta anti-vaxers notes that some of them compare themselves to victims of the Holocaust, yellow stars and all.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-vaccine-protest-1.6173293
The plague is too good for these bozos.
More excitement in the business enterprise masquerading as a "country"...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dailywire.com/news/illinois-music-teacher-resigns-after-calling-student-piece-of-st-for-wearing-mask-below-nose-vows-to-become-a-better-human-being
This is what US empire "teachers" got worked up over...
Also, didn't know USians were 'human beings'--thought they were jokes dressed up as humans (Berman)?
Film rec that has flown under the radar: "Captain Fantastic"
ReplyDeleteUnknown-
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't post Unknowns. You need a real handle to participate in this discussion. E.g., Rev. Pierson J. Flanksteak.
Paran-
It sounds terrific, thank you. In future, pls provide a link. E.g.,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Fantastic_(film)
Dr. Shit-
They're jokes.
mb
Written a like a true addict; I assume that smartphone screens have an even larger effect due to the social media derived neural damage.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/sep/13/the-proof-is-in-tv-really-does-rot-your-brain
> A new study reveals the terrifying truth that too much television lowers your volume of grey matter. But TV is the defining art form of our age – so I refuse to quit <
"Until now, claims that television makes you stupid have only been backed up by anecdotal evidence. True, at a certain point it does seem that people who watch vast amounts of TV do become so intellectually impaired that they start involuntarily clapping along to theme tunes like imprisoned sea lions performing for fish, but that isn’t anything you could write a medical paper about.
"Now, sadly, science has trundled along to back it up. According to Dr Ryan Dougherty, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, the more television you watch in middle age, the lower your volume in grey matter. Examining the viewing habits of 599 American adults between 1990 and 2011, Dougherty found that those who watched an above average amount of television showed reduced volume in their frontal cortex and entorhinal cortex. Basically, your mum was right: TV really does rot your brain."
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/13/politics/amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-not-partisan/index.html
ReplyDeleteIf they weren't a bunch of partisan hacks, it wdn't be necessary for this turkette to deny it. It reminds me of Nixon declaring, "I'm not a crook." What else was he, then?
There isn't a single institution in the US that isn't corrupt. Why shd the Supreme Court be exempt from this?
Here's another turkette:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/13/politics/stephanie-grisham-melania-trump-january-6/index.html
Honestly, this country is so full of crap, it makes one dizzy to think abt it.
mb
Dr. Berman: "Honestly, this country is so full of crap, it makes one dizzy to think abt it."
ReplyDeleteDidn't Paul Fussell state that everything in America was coated with a thin layer of fraud--would say more like a very thick layer of fraud; yet, american dolts cannot see truth/reality 2" from their noses bc they're ontologically blocked. Sure, that supreme court jester is for the people (just vomited a lil' in my mouth).
The US was really THE show abt nothing; simply, distractions, delusions, deceptions, denials. Nothing mattered and hopefully, real countries are starting to wake the fck up to what the US really stood for?.
One can only hope.
For a jaw-dropping display of good old vulgar American dumbass-ness check out this 15 seconds of a smoking 9-11 parade float this past weekend (kindly provided by local Republicans) in Valparaiso, Indiana: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVn90oyGc1o
ReplyDeleteflan-
ReplyDeleteI got a 'video unavailable' message.
Glans-
Something like 10 yrs ago Ronald Dworkin (now deceased) published an essay in the NYRB in wh/he said that every institution in America was corrupt. And he was no hippie, I tell you. I think most nations see thru America now, and realize that it's just a pile of b.s. However, given the as yet violence of its military, and power of the dollar, they have to tread very cautiously; wh/means feeding the US the myth of its greatness. Sometimes, politics demands that you just hafta humor shmucks.
Dan D-
That probably goes for all screens, smartfones in particular.
mb
Fabulous bk rec:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Living-Squares-Loving-Triangles-Bloomsbury/dp/1445660083/ref=sr_1_22?crid=UNAOFXHH0K0N&dchild=1&keywords=amy+licence&qid=1631565958&s=books&sr=1-22
This is a real 'portrait of an age'.
How come more like him are not at the US-Mexico border trying to
ReplyDeleteget in?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abimael_Guzm%C3%A1n
This is nice:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rt.com/usa/534750-new-york-subway-attack/
A question for our good Doctor or any Wafer: Where was Blackwater when we needed them? Where have you gone ( not Joe DiMaggio but) Erik Prince? Our army turns its beaten eyes to you, wooh, wooh, wooh. LOL.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/09/13/half-trillion-anti-terror-spending-contractors/1641631553122/
Upon reminiscing $14 trillion later, you’d think Uncle Sam would have let the “patriotic” DeVos scion in on the action. Did Cheney and Halliburton not want to be shown up? But hey: Our military-industrial complex adds to the GDP, no?
How pathetic.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vogue.com/article/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-met-gala-2021
I don't want to obsess here, but how many different ways can the American left embarrass itself? Why not just admit that everything is a fucking fashion statement?
I laugh when liberals suggest that this degenerate American culture is in ANY WAY compatible with Scandinavian style government. One area I DO agree with the insane right-wing on is that if we attempted it, we undoubtedly fuck it up. It would end up being another contemptible display of 'ME CULTURE' with a different coat of paint.
This is why America truly deserves a wretch like Donald Trump running the country. He's the perfect avatar for our cesspit of malignant narcissism.
GSWH, if I might be permitted a comment based on your RT item?
ReplyDeleteI can’t help but feel disgust for the person—can’t tell whether male or female—who watched another human tumbling down the escalator and did nothing to attempt to arrest her fall. Or for that matter to reverse course against the escalator’s movement to see if he could render assistance down below.
I see such incidents at salutary in this sense: it helps us mark in a clear and unambiguous way the individuals who are truly loathsome, deserving of urine and then being rendered senseless and thrown on the proverbial dungheap.
Thank you for indulging me.
Sir Owen Dixon in Australia insisted upon a 'strict and complete legalism' re High Court. I believe that is the right way to look at courts - ''And the judge who does not properly perform the task which is assigned is rightly to be subject to critical scrutiny'' https://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/speeches/current-justices/haynej/haynej_ruthbad.htm - I really don't believe the 'Supreme Court', per Dworkin, is a real court anymore.
ReplyDeleteJas (also Louis)-
ReplyDeleteYes, I caught that too. Why didn't that person break the victim's fall? The answer is that for centuries now, Americans have lived in a everyman-for-himself culture. "Not my problem"; "I'm all right, Jack!", and so on. Why help someone in distress when you can just step out of the way and let them fall to the bottom of the stairs and get hurt? The bottom line is that Americans are pigs. Not 100%, of course, but the pervasive ideology is to NOT help anyone else. (Final episode of Seinfeld: "Jackie Chiles" says to Jerry: "You don't *have* to help anyone else; that's what this country is all about!" Larry David's spot-on dark humor.)
Let me tell you 2 true stories, so you can get the diff between the US and Mexico. About 20 yrs ago or so, I was wandering around Bklyn w/2 friends when something blew into my eye: glass, sand, whatever. Suddenly, tears were streaming down my face. "Visine!" I cried. "Let's find a drug store." We did, 2 or 3 blocks away. At the counter was a girl of abt 20, talking/mildly flirting w/a boy her age. "I need Visine," I said to her. She barely looked at me, had no comment to make abt the obvious distress I was in. She got the Visine, and w/o looking at me continued talking to the boy. I handed her the $, she handed me the change, and she never made eye contact the entire time. I fully believe that this girl was, is, a typical American girl, who probably loves her dog, etc. That someone needed her attention, let alone concern, never crossed her mind.
Fast forward 20 yrs to abt 3 wks ago. I'm in Mexico. I drive into a large outdoor parking lot attached to a supermarket. At the gazebo, where you pay when you exit, sits another girl, also in her early 20s. As I get out of my car (as I get older, and increasingly senile, my motor control gets a bit sketchier), my agenda book ('the bible'), which is stuffed w/papers such as doctors' prescriptions and such, falls out of my hand and onto the concrete. The papers start blowing away. W/o a moment's hesitation--it was like a reflex--the girl in the gazebo leaps out of her chair, literally races over to me, and gathers up the book and the papers, while I'm mumbling "Oh gracias, muy amable," etc. Why didn't she behave like the girl in the Bklyn drug store? Because the ideology here is completely different; it's not even an ideology. It's simply the way human beings are taught to behave in a non-Anglo country, wh/is to say: we take care of one another. We're all in this together. When you leave a restaurant, you say to the other patrons, "Buen provecho." You don't just silently leave, as one does in the US, because in the US one doesn't care if other people live or die. The difference, imo, is between a decent society and a disgusting one. Honestly, I wdn't return to the US for all the enchiladas in Mexico City. Blech.
As for AOC and the Met Gala: I wonder how much that dress, shoes, and handbag cost her? Also: who paid for them? Yeah, she's some socialist, all rt. And abs. no self-awareness on her part of what this caper says. Fashion statement indeed: it's all theater by now; an entire nation beating off, 24/7.
Joe-
Gee, what a surprise.
mb
ps: And this piece of dreck is the alternative to the far right? Take a look at that face, fer chrissakes:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/14/us-faces-real-battle-for-democracy-against-far-right-says-hillary-clinton
ps2: Don't think for a minute that this is not a joke country, filled w/jokes (dressed as people). AOC, Hillary, bubbas, Karens, progs, wokes, Trumpi--who *isn't* a joke?
ReplyDeleteQ: Why wd this guy do such a thing?
ReplyDeleteA: Because he's a joke!
https://www.insider.com/maryland-man-stabbed-woman-with-a-syringe-filled-with-his-semen-2021-9
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteIf you enjoyed "The Circle," check this out:
https://www.amazon.com/Every-novel-Dave-Eggers/dp/0593315340/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LXT3PSZAG04B&dchild=1&keywords=the+every+dave+eggers&qid=1631592083&s=books&sr=1-1
American women are really doing us proud right now. Thanks B Louis for the Vogue article about AOC and her socialist bonafides. I was inspired! While watching TV with my husband’s 97 year old grandmother this morning, we saw a clip about Melania Trump’s chief of staff’s new book. She didn’t miss a beat and said “At least Hitler’s spin doctor had the decency to die.” The insidious crimes of Hitler and Goebbels (including killing his family) are undoubtedly hideous. No denial on that. I just thought it was very Wafer of her to note that one propagandist died and the other, the American, just found a hustle and demonstrates absolutely no shame or remorse for her role. Just further evidence that our real religion is money. The article notes how lucrative Trump books are.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/09/trump-stephanie-grisham-press-secretary-white-house-memoir
U.S. Forces Were Training the Guinean Soldiers Who Took Off to Stage a Coup
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/world/africa/guinea-coup-americans.html
What a (dark) comedy our foreign policy & geopolitics are
Another interesting chat with John Pilger:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlyVJF00Pxc
Seems to be a push on to look back at Obama.
ReplyDelete"HBO has a new documentary about Barack Obama. It’s so devoid of politics that a viewer just learning about Obama would have no idea he escalated the war in Afghanistan and presided over eight years of rising economic inequality."
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/09/hbo-barack-obama-a-more-perfect-union-documentary-film-review-recession-libya-iraq-afghanistan-wall-st
And in response to a book of photographs of Obama's presidency: "Barack Obama, the Hollow Icon; An interview with Blair McClendon: The Obama presidency gave rise to a uniquely powerful iconography that projected a sense of hope and radical possibility. But behind the president’s messianic imagery was a country unraveling at the seams — and a president who stood for nothing."
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/09/barack-obama-photography-race-representation-mcclendon
Dan D-
ReplyDeleteHe's a 0, an image. One of the emptiest people to ever inhabit the W.H.; douchebag doesn't even begin to cover it. Yet millions of progs love him. Yuck.
mb
Here's Bill...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYbteM7KLhI
Sounds like an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteThe country was more or less united briefly following the 9/11 attacks 20 years ago. But that ended quickly. Will there still be a U.S.A. for the thirty year anniversary of the tragedy? I don't know.
Anjin-
ReplyDeleteJust a bit too long. Pls edit it down by abt 30% and re-send. Thank you.
James W-
By 2031, I doubt there will be very much left to celebrate. The bell is tolling for us now; this is the deciding decade for the US.
mb
Dr. B-
ReplyDelete"Top US military leader called Chinese general out of fear Trump might start a war, book says"
https://www.yahoo.com/news/top-us-military-leader-called-204011937.html
"...Gen Milley was aware that he was pulling a Schlesinger”
A retired friend of mine sent me a link about an American poet I didn't know about. He was an NMI before out times. He turned his back on hollow American success to devote himself to living and his art.
ReplyDeletehttps://poets.org/text/coming-end-his-triumph-retrospective-jack-gilbert
I consider my friend an NMI even though he has never heard the term. He has two websites devoted to his photography, wilderness experiences, and haiku/haibun writing. I think Wafers would find them interesting.
https://rays-blog.ca/
https://raysweb.net/
Nomadland is a 2020 American drama film based on the 2017 nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomadland_(film)
The author is interviewed by PBS NewsHour in the video below.
WATCH: The real world of 'Nomadland'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO-pKYzcY_8
America’s glorious future …
Timestamp 8:50 – 64-year-old couple living in an RV since 2010 after the great recession sank their LA motorcycle repair shop and their home. They had a $700,000 house that they owed about $200,000 on that sold for $131,000 on the auction block. There were no jobs where they were so instead of taking an apartment, they got an RV and drove to where the work was. Their first job was Amazon in Coffeyville, Kansas. A two-month stint in a warehouse, holiday rush. It was pretty rough because they expect certain numbers and you have to hustle. The husband over-hustled and blew his knee out … Amazon was the first of some twenty something seasonal gigs since last fall. They go to Mexico for affordable healthcare.
Good movie on the experience of Canadian Native Americans placed in Roman Catholic "schools" to turn them into proper Anglo-Saxons and remove from them all signs of Indian culture and language.
ReplyDelete"Indian Horse" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Horse_(film)
Same kind of thing was done by Europeans to Natives in Australia and America. Native children were, in some cases, forcibly removed from their homes or reservations and forced to live in "schools" usually supported and run by Christian organizations. The purpose of removal was to eliminate Native culture by transforming children into good little Europeans.
https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/IPS_Boarding_Schools.pdf
Hello Wafers,
ReplyDeleteHere's some more on the MET gala and celebrity outfits:
https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/met-gala-2021-red-carpet-live-celebrity-fashion
Kim K's outfit was particularly stupid:
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/kim-kardashian-met-gala-fashion-234632968.html
And this guy Kid Cudi, apparently the ornament around his neck is worth $1.6 million:
https://www.vogue.com/article/kid-cudi-met-gala-2021-beauty
It's amazing how there's a direct correlation to the degradation of fashion, music and art in general and the decline of a culture. It's so easy to see in hindsight when one is living through it. The question is, how much more stupid can it get? If one were able to determine all the levels of possible stupidity in the known universe and plot it to a graph, it may provide insight on the end date/end game/the end.
And the clown car rolls on... Tucker! Nicki! Swollen Balls! A cousin's friend's fiancee!! We have it all, folks...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.huffpost.com/entry/tucker-carlson-nicki-minaj-cousin-covid-19-vaccine_n_61419ee7e4b0dda4cbd5d7d6
Tucker Carlson wants the supposedly swollen-testicled friend of Nicki Minaj’s cousin to come on his show.
(Tucker Carlson is a favorite of white nationalists and Trumpi conspiracy junkies- https://patriot.shieldrepublic.com/4-reasons-why-tucker-carlson-is-the-best-journalist-today/
The Fox News personality on Tuesday issued an on-air plea to talk to the man in Trinidad who the unvaccinated hip hop star this week claimed, in a hotly contested viral tweet, suffered enlarged genitals and impotence after receiving the coronavirus vaccine ― and was then dumped before his wedding...
“...But if Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s friend is watching, or his former fiancee is watching, we want to hear your story,” he continued. “We’ll come to Port of Spain to see you. Let us know.”
vso-
ReplyDeleteKim is such a shithead, no? What an absurd person, and what an absurd party. I keep trying to think of reasons why these folks (starting w/AOC) shdn't be beaten to w/in an inch of their lives and then thrown on a dung heap, and I just can't! Once again: the US is a joke, and its citizens are jokes.
down-
Check out NB, section on what the Japanese did to the Ainu.
Noura-
I've watched it twice now. A terrific film.
mb
If you wondered whether the Afghan fiasco spelled the end of the US Empire, here is proof that you're jumping the gun. As Dr Berman has analyzed in his books, Empire is deeply imbedded in the American experience. From its worship of the military to the omnipresence of the MIC in our lives, the heavy hand of Empire is present in our hearts and minds daily when we pay our respects to our enlisted persons on our city streets, and when we applaud and cheer when our leaders declare for the umpteenth time that we have "the strongest military in the world". As the article below suggests, it will take nothing but a collapse of the current socio-political order to break out of this closed cycle of Empire. Don't count on the brainwashed hoi-polloi to be the catalyst for that collapse.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/15/though-cracks-appear-empire-remains-in-the-dna-of-the-u-s/
David-
ReplyDeleteWell, the Roman Empire was said to die the "death of a thousand cuts," and that is what has been going on in the US for some time now. Sometimes, the cut becomes what I call a "node"--a serious punctuation mark in the process. Like 9/11, or the crash of 2008, or yes, our defeat in Vietnam. If Afghanistan is not such a node, then it is surely a very big cut. I guess all I wd add to what you are saying is that the collapse you refer to is with us already, in slo-mo. Every day, we get increasingly dysfunctional, and w/o really knowing it, hoi polloi are making this happen. Every time you buy an SUV, or use a cell fone, or promote the consumer-imperialist society, you are moving things toward the breaking pt. As Wolfgang Streeck has argued, it's the very success of capitalism that is pushing it over the edge. Habits of mind do indeed persist, and they won't change until they can no longer work. I believe this decade will prove to be a milestone in that process, but sure, it will probably take another 50 yrs to work itself out, and for us to evolve (or devolve) to a new socioeconomic formation (possibly aided by secessionist movements). The impt thing rt now is for the US to get off the world stage, and that is clearly underway. It's no small thing for the rest of the world to regard us as a military and political failure, even a bad joke. (Note that the parallel process was described for feudalism by Johan Huizinga in "The Waning of the Middle Ages.")
mb
So this will replace our stupid venture in the Middle East--a stupid venture in the Far East. America always hasta be at war; w/o Manichaean opposition to someone or something (Hegel's 'negative identity'), we wd simply fall apart, because we are empty at the core. The douchebaggery never ends:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/15/politics/us-uk-australia-nuclear-powered-submarines/index.html
Cold War Revisited.
re: Dr. Berman's link on Australia being supplied with nuclear powered submarines as part of an alliance with the US to combat China, after having its ass handed to it in Afghanistan, I see the US now abandoned the spectacularly futile and preposterously costly anti-Islamic crusade (sorry, the "war on terror") and decided to go with what Biden described as "autocracy versus democracy". Is there a word to describe galactic-levels of BS and phoniness that make you almost throw up? We need a word like that for US foreign policy rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteAnd sad seeing the UK (which neither really united nor really a kingdom in the old sense) desperately riding the coattails of the moribund giant for a few crumbs of relevance. Missing those old glory days, it seems. They remind me of Putin trying to revive Russian influence and standing internationally, only he's a success, while they come off as yapping poodle.
Cherith-
ReplyDeleteSending nuclear weapons to Australia to threaten China is just about the dumbest thing we cd do. And while Schmiden, Johnson, and Scott Morrison (Australian PM) are pretty dumb, there's an even deeper reason for this caper: in terms of foreign policy, we don't know what else to do. The crucial word in that equation is "versus". America is *always* versus someone; psychologically speaking, that's how it survives. The momentum of 400+ years is hardly going to change now, and we don't have the imagination to think of something more creative, like detente/cooperation. Internally, the same sort of logic informs the bubbas, the Karens, the progs, the wokes, and the projected Boogaloo. All of these postures, whether foreign or domestic, are finally BO-ring! (That might be the word you were looking for.) They represent the appearance of strength, but belie the weakness within. Strong people don't hafta rattle their swords.
mb
ps: Meanwhile, stuff like this is what most Americans are concerned abt: hot 'news' item:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/15/entertainment/octavia-spencer-britney-spears-sam-asghari-apology/index.html
MB, tech not nuke weapons just nuke-powered subs but still, v stupid escalations.
ReplyDeleteMuch like Joe’s Sunday Karen series, I need to start mentioning things my husband’s amazing grandmother says while watching the news. Today she told me it was amazing that producers at ABC News could air segments back to back about Genera Milley/Trump and then the plan to give nuclear submarines to Australia. She said clearly both administrations were looking for conflict with China and how did people not notice. And she’s 97!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.npr.org/2021/09/15/1037454733/milley-defends-call-to-chinese-general-about-trump?t=1631800433820
We are in Europe now (currently staying with the venerable grandmother) because my husband wanted to spend some time with family. We’ve now been on the road for a year. Eight glorious months in Mexico followed by four months in Europe so far. Though the EU is much better than the US, I still long for more traditional cultures I find in countries like Egypt or Mexico or other parts of Latin America. Maybe Jefferson was right when he said that travel makes you wiser but less happy. Or maybe it’s because EU member France is mad about its Australian submarine fleet contracts being canceled instead of concern over escalating US/China tensions. Seems like a fairly American attitude to me. Next the French will be eating in their cars!
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australia-get-us-nuclear-submarine-technology-china-looms-large-2021-09-15/
Mara-
ReplyDeleteYes, yr rt, thank you.
Jamie-
Zut alors!
mb
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteCaitlin Johnstone succinctly sums up the US/Australian U-Boat deal:
"Australia is not aligned with the US to protect itself from China. Australia is aligned with the US to protect itself from the US."
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/09/16/australia-continues-its-plunge-into-authoritarianism-and-military-brinkmanship/
Greetings from Italy.
ReplyDeleteI am not a wafer but I appreciate your work. I really enjoyed your book on the Italian "genius".
In my opinion, there is still hope. http://domenicodamicoslastgasp.blogspot.com/2021/09/la-condizione-umana-eh-gia.html
Ciao.
Buon giorno Signore Domenico, e grazie per aver scritto. I'm glad you enjoyed "Genio". Please remember to capitalize Wafer, nel futuro. As for speranza: per l'italia, forse; per gli Stati Uniti, non è una possibilità . Gli idioti governano; l'oscurità è il nostro futuro. And I tell you, amico, we have many idioti.
ReplyDelete-maurizio
Hello Dr. B,
ReplyDeleteIt's been awhile since I last posted but today I bring you fellow traveler Charles Hugh Smith and his latest missive:
The Illusion of Getting Rich While Producing Nothing September 15, 2021
Opening line, "By incentivizing speculation and corruption, reducing the rewards for productive work and sucking wages dry with inflation, America has greased the skids to collapse."
https://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html
Noam Chomsky: Average People Still Have the Power to Stop Wars
ReplyDeleteAN INTERVIEW WITH
https://jacobinmag.com/2021/09/noam-chomsky-jacobin-show-interview-antiwar-afghanistan
^^
Lol, poor guy. Not average Americans, anyway.
Lydia-
ReplyDeleteHe also thinks the US is going to evolve toward democratic socialism. He's a great man, but he's in his dotage now.
ps: Domenico: Do you have any connections to publishers in Rome? I would love it if the Italian public could have access to "Genio" in Italian translation. After all, I argue that they have much to be proud of.
mb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoGpNep_chI
ReplyDeleteA sports writer for The Nation just wrote a book called "The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World". If you weren't aware, Colin Kaepernick is a football player who kneeled during the national anthem to express his moral outrage at America's misdeeds. In his book, the author claims this purely symbolic act changed the world for the better.
I can't imagine anything more deluded than this. The world's problems are getting worse, not better, and there's no evidence this will change any time soon. Kaepernick's act didn't even make sports more ethical in any meaningful way. Professional athletes, many of whom are obscenely wealthy, are as niggardly as ever. And although many have publicly supported Black Lives Matter, nothing has really changed.
American progressives will never wake up. No matter how bad things get, they'll always believe America's in the process of perfecting itself. They are infected with the same blind nationalism plaguing the bubbas.
RE: Noam Chomsky's 'hope around the corner, we can do it, fight the US empire's military industrial complex, change on the horizon yammer,'
ReplyDeleteIt still surprises me how dumb "smart" USians are.
Another example of the ontological blockage.
"The reason for the lack of progress [in Yemen] is that although Biden committed to a more diplomatic approach, in practice the U.S. remains a staunch patron of Saudi Arabia."
ReplyDeletehttps://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/09/16/bidens-broken-promise-on-yemen/amp/
Dr. Shit-
ReplyDeleteWell, Noam is a patriot, and actually a quite dedicated one. This accounts for his blindness. I suspect that when the US finally collapses beyond anyone's illusions abt its possible continuation, most of the countries of the world will be happy, if not at least relieved, to see it go. This shd suggest to Noam and other patriots, that hoping that America might prevail is simply wrong-headed, and out of touch w/reality. The same can be said for the hope that it can be radically transformed. Not in a million years, professor, unless transformation means becoming not-America.
Nadine-
See my reply to Dr. Shit. We have seen Occupy Wall St., BLM, pussy hat marches, and on and on, and it shd be obvious to any clear-thinking person: the only movement w/any sustaining power in the US is the Bowel Movement. Which brings us back to knowing the diff between shit and Shinola. Or as Hamlet puts it in "Hamlet," "I know the difference between a hawk and a handsaw." Very few Americans do.
However, maybe the Met Gala will change all that--AOC's outfit etc. And then Kim's outfit: a powerful, radical statement, in the vanguard of social change (look it up online).
mb
Professor Berman, for your publishing concerns, I suggest you contact professor Ugo Bardi(Physical Chemistry). Professor Bardi is Italian & lives in Italy. He has been a collapse blogger for years & is the author of a number of books in both English & Italian. I've watched him in interviews, read his blog for years & conversed with him in the comments section - he's a good guy & may have the contacts you need.
ReplyDeletehttps://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/
moresoma-
ReplyDeleteGrazie mille. I just dropped him a note.
mb
Dr. B-
ReplyDeletehttps://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/15-year-old-seatac-girl-charged-with-murder-hit-and-run-in-july-death-of-maple-valley-runner/
"A 15-year-old SeaTac [Seattle-Tacoma?] girl, who was driving a relative’s Toyota Camry without permission early on July 18, decided to “scare” and “bump” a jogger she saw running on the side of a rural road outside Maple Valley, King County prosecutors say."
She was allegedly going 50 mph when she "bumped" the jogger.
Birn-
ReplyDeleteWhat a horror. Maybe instead of using guns on one another, Americans of all ages might be encouraged to get in their cars and run down everyone they see. Apparently the girl found the whole thing funny:
"The girl and her 14-year-old passenger later laughed about the way the man — who has since been identified as Greg Moore, 53 — “flew over the car” when recounting the story to another teen, say criminal charges filed Tuesday."
Here's a useful discussion for America: where did this girl learn to do something like this, and where did she learn to think this was funny? She didn't get the information from Mars (or Denmark, for that matter).
mb
ps: These are your neighbors!
Dr.B you asked the question where these young people could get an idea to run over someone and think its funny.My nephew was playing a video game and I watched what was going on.The purpose of the game was to run over pedestrians.You were supplied with a car and a pistol so you could run over people and shoot them.The more people you killed the higher your score.If you glanced someone you could put the car in reverse and roll over them or shoot them because you got a higher score for kills.My nephew was not embarrassed I was watching what was going on it was no big deal.I think you are playing with other players so the one that kills the most pedestrians wins.He got the game from X-Box which is owned by Dollar Bill Gates our buddy.By the way he was about 14 or 15 when he was playing.Thanks
ReplyDeletedoor-
ReplyDeleteI guess the real question is what's the nature of the culture that makes this sort of thing OK, or even more than OK. In some cultures (I hafta believe), people wd find that game disgusting. Not ours.
mb
“US & UK actively funded groups and organisations who were allied to the same people who conducted 9/11”
ReplyDeletehttps://www.doubledown.news/watch/2021/september/9/after-9/11-us-uk-increased-support-for-islamist-terrorist-groups
@door: I don't think video games cause violence. Look at Japan. Their manga, video games, anime and entertainment in general contains some of the bloodiest, goriest, most sadistic, most sexual (including violent rape) content on planet Earth, yet they don't imitate those things in real life. Worked for years in Middle Eastern countries where kids play these games all the time but their streets and societies are safer and quieter than anywhere in the US by miles, it's not even close.
ReplyDeleteOther nations can enjoy them as entertainment while acting civilized in the real world. It's a culture problem. Americans were just as violent in the 70's when they were playing Pong.
“There isn’t a country that spits out as much moralistic, lofty, idealistic, sanctimonious rubbish as the United States.” Vladimir Mayakovsky in My discovery of America 1925.
ReplyDeleteHello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteIs this another of the thousand cuts that will end the US empire?
Following Afghanistan Defeat: Can EU Win Own ‘Independence’ from the US?
Now that the US and NATO have officially left Afghanistan, a political debate in Europe is raging on many political platforms. The strongest indicators that Europe is ready to proceed with an independent foreign policy agenda and European-centered military strategy became evident in the EU Defense Ministers’ meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/15/following-afghanistan-defeat-can-eu-win-own-independence-from-the-us/
Cherith - I agree. I think the games merely tap into/exploit a violent tendency that is part of the American psyche from an early age. Like Rome, America uses violence abroad to maintain its homogeneity and violence at home to contain its citizens.
ReplyDeleteBy far, the most popular American movies involve violent revenge with the gun and/or the bomb. We learn at an early age how to respond to affronts - the old fashioned way, with violence. We cheer boxers beating one another to pulp and football players ramming into opponents. We laugh when someone falls down or trips. We enjoy their embarrassment and pain. Rather than going to their aid, we milk it for personal amusement.
Violence comes natural to Americans. Having been raised in a violent culture that teaches us that the proper response to affronts is violent retribution, we make good soldiers and dependable patriots. USA, USA!! kill em and let God sort them out.
Regarding Dr. Chomsky's hope around the corner, broken-record delusions, and Mr. Hedges endless resist/revolt/rising up nonsense, do you thk it's yet another US empire hu$tle?
ReplyDeleteHucksters-hustlers selling the US dolt populace (redundant) hope and someday talk to sell books, papers, lectures, interviews, CONferences, etc.?
OR do you think they're that stupid; that they "really" think the US populace is simply 'duped' and if they just 'wake up,' then maybe the masses will rise up and create a "social democracy" (complete with >800 overseas military bases) and save the US, hence, he's a yankee doodee patriot. Vey iz mir...
If the latter is the case, then Dr. Chomsky does NOT appear to appreciate a basic tenet of the US empire way of life--the vast majority of USians WANT what empire is offering. There's a visceral buy-in. Very few are being cajoled, coerced, duped etc.into American way of "life." The wool IS their eyes (Berman). They willingly and gleefully participate in the Empire and want more of it with some mild refinements. WHY can't Dr. Chomsky understand this fundamental tenet?!
SCOOP -- France is immediately recalling its ambassador to the United States in protest of the US nuclear submarine deal with Australia. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/us/politics/france-ambassador-recall-us-australia.html
ReplyDeleteMore and more countries are going to say fuck off to America.
down-
ReplyDeleteActually, our soldiers are not very gd.
mb
I bet you could get a bargain on the rent for the Wafer office in
ReplyDeleteNYC. It could also be used instead of a hotel for your many trips
to America.
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-tower-loan-moved-watch-191119363.html
There isn't a phrase strong enough to express my disgust at America. We killed 10 innocent people. 7 of which were children.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/aCDGb1iu0ZA
O
Within 12 hours, this story will be forgotten and the average American will get back to focusing on the important things like figuring out which brand of tissue Kim Kardashian uses when she sneezes.
Louis-
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine too many Americans being concerned abt the murder of 7 Afghani children. As for Kim, check out her absurd outfit at the Met Gala. Also keep in mind that Kanye is a colossal horse's ass.
Rollo-
I get to the US abt once every 2 yrs now. I can't help wondering if the gov't is going to start requiring vaccination to renew a passport. Tentatively, I'd like to hold the 8th Annual New York Wafer Summit Meeting (8ANYWSM) abt a yr from now this month, but we'll hafta see how things develop.
mb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJRAMR8tGkQ
ReplyDeleteChomsky might be a patriot, but his analysis of the so-called War on Terror in this video is nothing short of brilliant.
Thank you Wafer Nadine Bupkis for the electronic link.
ReplyDeleteYet, Chomsky chooses to "live" in the US Empire and continue paying taxes/fees to support an evil and vile regime.
hat must make for some serious cognitive dissonance.
Mike-
ReplyDeleteI dunno of this is still true, but yrs ago I had a friend who was friends w/Noam, and who told me that Noam never paid taxes. The gov't chose to not go after him because given his prominence, they were worried it cd create a serious public backlash if they did. Whether this is still the case, I have no idea.
I also wanna say that the IRS goes after you no matter where you live, and taxes you on 'world income'. My taxes don't amount to very much, since my income is rather modest, but by law, I hafta pay it even if I'm a resident of Mexico. And shd I earn $ from a Mexican source, I hafta report it on my 1040. So I subsidize, as a teeny-tiny fraction, the butchery we visit on unarmed civilians around the world, torture included. Wish that weren't the case, but then if I stopped paying it there wd hardly be some popular outcry as a result.
mb
Dr. Berman -know some folks who renounced their US citizenship (of course, the US charges exit fees, highest renounciation fee in the world)---also, the US is the only "country" (beside Eritrea-that can't do much) that taxes their chattel on worldwide -citizen-based income, rather than residency-based like the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteWith Obshitforbrains 2010 FATCA laws, US massive reporting & compliance costs, etc...many non-US banks slam the door to US persons bc of the America's massive compliance industries/liabilities; hence, the US person can be left w/o banking, mortgage, life insurance, retirement planning etc.. bc the US does not look kindly to those who leave the empire. It's intentional--the US looks at their populace as nothing more than sources of revenue for their enterprise.
If you're younger, the best bet is renounciation so one can live an ordinary existence like every other citizen of the world.
Facebook knows that it is toxic, is designed to be toxic, and keeps chugging right along being toxic:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/18/facebook-instagram-zuckerberg-teenagers
"{T]he latest revelations once again show that there is not much hope for reforming the platform by changing its culture or design. A world with Facebook is going to be crueler, stupider, and more deadly than one without Facebook. But it looks like we’re stuck with it."
Where have we heard such things before? Oh yeah, climate change?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/30/climate-crimes-oil-and-gas-environment
(just learned an interesting thing: my bookmark for the UK Guardian is for the 'world' page. But if I click on its home page link from inside an article I get sent to the US page. The World home page has a section devoted to Climate Crisis. The US home page does not a Climate Crisis section. But don't worry, Facebook is stepping up its fight against climate misinformation! Geez...
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/sep/16/facebook-climate-change-misinformation
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteCheck it out:
https://www.noemamag.com/the-reverse-deplorables-campaign-in-germany/
mb
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/18/want-to-save-the-earth-then-dont-buy-that-shiny-new-iphone
ReplyDeleteThe Bozofone: millions will buy it.
And speaking of turkeys:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/sep/18/devious-licks-tiktok-challenge-vandalism-schools
No upper limit to American assholes.
‘Steven Pinker and the Problem with Irrationality’ would be a better title for this article. Worth a read, regardless of one’s opinion of Pinker. https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2021/09/steven-pinker-and-the-problem-with-rationality
ReplyDeleteInteresting link you posted MB (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/18/want-to-save-the-earth-then-dont-buy-that-shiny-new-iphone)
ReplyDeleteTypical behavior of pretend lefties, gotta have the latest and greatest tech because after all it's tech that's gonna save us. Around here the BLM signs are still up, and I can just picture the thinking in these (mostly) white mid-upper class homes. OK, I have the sign up, and the bumper sticker on my prius, now I don't have to do anything else. Simplistic and shallow. No thought where all that lithium and cobalt comes from. No thought on military spending , just dare ask one of these pretend lefties to cut the military by 50, 70, 90% and you get nowhere. Rant over.
Wafers,
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxnews.com/entertainment/ed-sheeran-american-award-shows-hatred-resentment.amp
Can you say microcosm? What a fucked up country.
Cel-Ray-
ReplyDeleteKeep ranting, and start slapping. Americans need both.
Xair-
Did you see "Yesterday"? Ed plays himself in that very entertaining movie. As for his comments on US award shows: gd, and obviously true, but I am still waiting for these critics to start using phrases like 'douchebags' and 'buffoons', because that's what these Americans really are. Enuf w/this pulling of punches.
mb
Link posted by MB (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/18/want-to-save-the-earth-then-dont-buy-that-shiny-new-iphone)
ReplyDeleteI like how this article encourages us to fix and replace rather than buy new things, and shares some useful links on this. This is definitely what we need to be doing. Doing the right thing in America these days is like swimming against the tide. I’ve seen the advertisement for the new iphone. It kept showing up on the Youtube videos I watched today.
The following article is one of many examples of how destructive technology can be because it oversimplifies things in the name of efficiency. It’s ironic that technology is making us dumber. In addition to the nightmare of technology, life in America is becoming increasingly grim, no joy or laughter, instead there is an emptiness filled with seriousness and violence.
Automated hiring software is mistakenly rejecting millions of viable job candidates
A new report says automated systems are hurting the US labor market
By James Vincent Sep 6, 2021, 6:30am EDT
https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/6/22659225/automated-hiring-software-rejecting-viable-candidates-harvard-business-school
( Like the question NBC always gets, “Is there a new SNL episode this week”?), Is Karen Sunday new this week? Of course! Our new Karens go non-stop and pop up everywhere! LOL! Here are a few.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH_lVQtzWHo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TXDzuKymLA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1i-06UFlWM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAMgVxsWGJU
Joe-
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that these Karens are what make this country great. I love them!
mb
"...the idea that we are living in a land of opportunity—founded and built by immigrants—was a convenient response by the ruling class and its brain trust to the 1960s demands for decolonialization, justice, reparations, and social equality. Moreover, Dunbar-Ortiz charges that this feel good—but inaccurate—story promotes a benign narrative of progress, obscuring that the country was founded in violence as a settler state, and imperialist since its inception." Publisher notes.
ReplyDeleteNew book by the author of "An Indigenous People's History of the United States", Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. http://www.beacon.org/Not-A-Nation-of-Immigrants-P1641.aspx
down-
ReplyDeleteA terrific bk indeed. Why did Americans buy all this poop? It was congruent w/the poop in their heads. Poop-to-Poop, that's our motto. All nations, of course, have a # of gullible buffoons w/in their borders. But the American buffoon is sui generis, because an MRI of his or her head will reveal pieces of dog excrement inside. Neurologists say that this makes it hard to think clearly.
The problem is not only are such people not interested in bks like Roxanne's; worse, they are unable to read bks that have words that are longer than one syllable. Write an intelligent bk? Yr royalties will be a joke.
mb
Dr Berman and Wafers
ReplyDeleteNot being a religious person but still a read worth considering in todays world and
especially in the USA. Taken from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's posthumously published work entitled
Letters and Papers from Prison. The theologian was sentenced to death April 9, 1945.
https://religiousgrounds.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/bonhoeffer-on-stupidity-entire-quote/
Down- I 2nd that recommendation! I picked the book up last week and it is just as well written as "An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States" was!
ReplyDeleteWafer material, for sure.
Hope
Wafers,
ReplyDeleteAn example of the current state of higher education in America.
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/my-university-sacrificed-ideas-for
Xair-
ReplyDeleteThis is hardly limited to Portland State, sad to say. But from a declinist pt of view: bring it on!
mb
The article posted by Xair about Portland State was previously posted on this blog, but this time I noticed that the source of it is one Bari Weiss, a person of dubious concern about real academic freedom. In fact, she has a well-known history of trying quell academic freedom at Columbia University, at least for Muslim scholars, during her time as an undergraduate there. Glen Greenwald tells all about here:
ReplyDeletehttps://theintercept.com/2018/03/08/the-nyts-bari-weiss-falsely-denies-her-years-of-attacks-on-the-academic-freedom-of-arab-scholars-who-criticize-israel/
She is what I think you would call douche baguette.
ccg-
ReplyDeleteThanks for filling us in. I've seen so much of this, esp. among Jewish academics. They are smart, sober, and rational abt virtually everything, but when it comes to Israel, they are 100% emotion-based. Israel is Jewish land, the Palestinians are a crazy people, and so on. Try to get them to read Ilan Pappe, for example. It's all Holocaust-related, of course: they think that if they lose this argument, they will die. (See my essay in QOV on "Tribal Consciousness and Enlightenment Tradition.") I suspect they might think differently if some group threw them out of homes they had lived in for hundreds of yrs. But then, this complete identity between who you are, and what you believe, is hardly limited to Zionism. I have had no luck trying to talk to feminists, techno-zealots, communists, and politically correct wokes. They are hysterical because their psychological lives are on the line (screw the truth, or contradictory evidence). I can't imagine bubbas and Trumpites are any more flexible. "ism" is proving to be a major curse of humanity. Even slapping can't cure it.
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Here's a gd way for BLM to spend their time:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/19/new-york-restaurant-vaccine-brawl
Hi Wafers,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it looks like Glenn Greenwald has started down the same path J. Kunstler did. A good article from Paul Street shows it:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/17/glenn-greenwald-and-iowas-latest-wtf-moments/
Now Mr. Greenwald is going on Tucker Carlson's show to aide in railing against the left.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgj0fjPQeyg&t=28s
Aww well Glenn, it's been nice knowing ya.
Who will be next to follow? will Chris Hedges soon make his debut on Tucker?
We all know how some baby showers can be boring. This is certainly
ReplyDeletea way to add a bit of excitement.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/3-shot-pennsylvania-baby-shower-215258281.html
More USians on display. An american "man" growls while removing and replacing his mask, yelling “God bless America” and making obscene gestures.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/aflyguyslounge/videos/american-airline-passengers-growls-at-flight-crew/1207189496358391/
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2021/09/07/unruly-passenger-arrested-after-growling-swearing-flight/?outputType=
Dr. Shit-
ReplyDeleteAlways remember: the greater the buffoonery, the faster the decline.
Art-
See my reply to Dr. Shit.
Brian-
Hedges on Tucker? What a thought. I'd love to see it, altho I think the guy has found his 'new' groove (what I was saying 21 yrs ago): revolution won't happen, so it's curtains for the US. No shit, Sherlock.
I tell ya, the parade of buffoonery and douchebaggery makes for an entertaining declinist show. I suspect we can look forward to boatloads more of it. Collapse is a cabaret, old chum...
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"Like" that the US "news" focuses on the right things with critical thinking articles that challenge the status quo! MASSIVE Chicken Sandwiches!!!
ReplyDeletePlease take note Mr. Hedges--these are YOUR people.
https://www.newsweek.com/mans-freakishly-large-burger-king-chicken-burger-stuns-fast-food-fans-1628940
https://news.yahoo.com/tiktok-loses-over-freakishly-large-154738930.html
Glans-
ReplyDeleteThe next step wd be to put an entire broiled chicken between 2 halves of a hamburger bun. While this cd be eaten (maybe), the best use of it is to coat it w/KY jelly, stick it on the end of a Jewish Space Laser, and going door-to-door w/these things (held by Wafers), ram it into the asses of the entire American population. While many of our fellow-citizens are focused on who wore what at the Met Gala, the overwhelming majority have their lives revolving around chicken sandwiches. These suppositories shd satisfy those urges.
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If Trump has a second term, he has the music for his inauguration.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjrKSROVnXA
Dr. B-
ReplyDeleteHeadline-
"Harrowing Photos Of Border Patrol With Whips On Horseback Hunting Haitian Migrants Evoke Images Of Slavery"
https://newsone.com/4213330/haitian-migrants-border-patrol-photos/
I want to comment on Glen Greenwald. I've been following him for years, and in all that time I've no shift in his thinking. You have to look at the whole picture and not be guided just by his appearance on Tucker Carlson. For one thing, he doesn't get invited on CNN or MSNBC, at that's largely because push the Russiagate nonsense that they were focused on. In fact, he provided evidence contrary to neo-liberal conspiracy theories being pushed by the likes of Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, and Don Lemons. A while back, Greenwald predicted that the Mueller investigating would amount to nothing, and that's exactly what happened a couple of years later.
ReplyDeleteI've seen a couple of videos where he explains why he goes on shows like Tucker Carlson. I'll post them if I can find them again, but it isn't because he agrees with Carlson so much as the fact that he (Carlson) gives him the exposure to an audience that otherwise won't see him. In any case, there are lots videos of him talking with a wide range of people.
I don't have too many heroes in journalism these days, but I still regard him as a hero. And I don't regard Chris Hedges as such. Not at all.
Way to go 'murica!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/20/us-begins-deportation-flights-haitians-texas-border-town
I am so proud, someone pass me a Bud Lite and aren't the Packers on MNF tonight?
ccg-
ReplyDeleteYou cd be rt, but where is yr proof? Those castigating Greenwald have brought forth evidence that he has moved to the rt. You have offered an opinion, but w/o any substantiation.
Birn, Knish-
I have repeatedly praised the fundamental decency of the American gov't and its agencies. In terms of decency, Texas, as you know, is pretty high up on the list.
mb
I've always thought this tragedy is a perfect summation of the sickness in American society.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't remember the story of George Sodini, he was an extremely isolated man who took out his social frustrations on innocent women at a gym, killing three in total.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Collier_Township_shooting#Perpetrator
What the media largely ignored was the degree to which George had been involved in a mens' self-help group called "The Right Attitude". With the assistance of its leader "R. Don Steele", the group purported to help men get 'steel balls' in dealing with women. In fact, the group's tag-line was "Nice Guy Must Die."
Here is footage of George at this misogynistic group listening to his pickup guru explain why it's important to 'not be a pussy'. Just because all the women in one's life (including mother) are predisposed to hurting men, it's no excuse to 'quit the game'. It's breathtakingly twisted:
https://youtu.be/9VDvZYcrq0o
I know this suggestion is a bit early for your Christmas line of
ReplyDeleteWAFer T-shirts that capture the theme of this blog by mentioning
that YouTube has videos on building demolition and large cranes
toppling because the operator does not know what he is doing. From
these, many pictures could be found to be printed on the T-shirts.
All one need do is to view of few of each to see what I mean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC_50-7Vtj4
ReplyDeleteUS border patrol agents are such humanitarians.
Forget about minors having to be vaccinated or wearing a mask possibly to save their lives. It doesn’t matter one damn bit in this violent pathetic country. The mass shootings involve every age, even children and juveniles.
ReplyDeleteU.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
https://www.wsav.com/crime-safety/1-dead-multiple-injured-in-shooting-at-yemassee-gas-station/
https://apnews.com/article/shootings-virginia-newport-news-fbdaf5f7d4833c48988fc8b9994f50d3
Nadine-
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that a lot of people viewing these tapes fail to realize that the border patrol guys are whipping the Haitians out of love.
mb
usa, usa!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2021/07/26/663102/Most-disturbing-Frito-Lay-story
https://atlantablackstar.com/2021/08/01/they-are-stalking-us-black-veteran-suffers-electric-shock-while-working-at-frito-lay-factory-says-company-is-filming-his-family-in-an-effort-to-undermine-pending-lawsuit/
USA--the truly vile and disgusting business enterprise masquerading as a "country."
Forget being electrocuted at work, do citizens of other "developed" countries have fundraising/"Go Fund Mes" for their health conditions?
This is how the US empire treats (terrorizes-controls) it's populace; yet, the empire always seems to have more and more and more trillions for the imperialistic war mongers.
Just ask both right wing parties abt cutting military spending by 10,20, 50%+ to help provide a health care system, then watch the the USian reaction.
ps: Nadine-
ReplyDelete"Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return."
(W.H. Auden)
Dr. Shit-
The problem is that this guy is unable to see that the company really loves him, and is trying to help him.
mb
Their Baby Died in the Hospital. Then Came the $257,000 Bill.
ReplyDeleteA New York family had good health insurance. But the bills for their daughter’s care started showing up and kept coming.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/upshot/hospital-bills-baby-death.amp.html
This Misanthropic Society
Here's a recent recent interview Glen Greenwald did with someone at the Telegraph, which I believe is a fairly right-wing British tabloid. Does he sound like a raving right winger on this video? I think not.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI-0IBeXU_s&t=1377s
ccg-
ReplyDeleteNo, but I think we need more than one interview to conclude anything. "One swallow doth not a summer make" (Aristotle).
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