Reality vs. Buffoonery
Wafers-
posted by Morris Berman at 5:08 PM
193 Comments:
BLM, Genitalia hats, Occupy Wall Street, etc.etc.. nothing changes-it's theatre. All these "movements" dissipate like dandelion spores (Berman).
The only US empire "movement" is and was the bowel movement.
Moreover, USian "news" papers were mainly creative writing exercises-propaganda to keep the USians sated with just around the corner delusional optimism (hope for dopes), feeding capitalism, and Horatio Alger working hard mantras.
Believe Dr. Berman stated US "news" papers simply keep the professional classes 'on track,' and market the US empire/corporations to immigrants-populace to come on down and get their fill.
How the US empire lasted for 400yrs+ is beyond my pay grade. As the US circles the drain, the "comedy" the empire produces is hilarious; let the world see the US as THE #1 shithole.
Dr. Shit, how can you say such a thing? Don't you know that these movements are 'speaking truth to power'? That'll show 'em. On another note, here is a GOP state rep who believe the Vatican is behind Covid.
www.alternet.org/2021/10/rep-ken-weyler/
I have to confess these sorts of stories give be hope. The far right Catholics think the fundies are on their side. Basically because both hate abortion. But if the fundie far right were ever to really get into power one of the first things it would do is go after the Catholics. OMG it doesn't even think Catholics are Christians. It has to do with all that Mary and saints stuff. What it comes down to is that everybody is at everybody's throat. Secession is the only hope, IMO.
Dr. Berman and Wafers, stay safe.
Speaking of reality, it seems that the capitalist consumer culture is collapsing. This could be an opportunity to reevaluate priorities and redefine what we mean by “wealth”. The sheer stupidity of building a culture around the idea of hustling and nothing more, couldn’t be more apparent than it is now. What will it take for America to finally accept reality and live in it? This is a truly fascinating time to be alive for those who are awake.
The Real Reason the Economy Might Collapse | Robert Reich
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6dCh48b4oI
Is The UK Economy Collapsing?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l1npWZSlCo
While Everyone Cheers Soaring "Wealth," America's Social Order Is Unraveling
https://www.oftwominds.com/blogoct21/social-unraveling10-21.html
“So by all means, focus on the inexorable rise of stocks, cryptos and housing as "proof" of America's soaring "wealth" while the social order unravels beneath our feet.“
Charles Hugh Smith - Parallels Between The Decline of the Roman Empire and America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8SpoWoAi4U
Noura-
John Ruskin: "There is no wealth but life." American 'culture' is upside down. What really counts in life is ignored, and what finally won't make you happy is what everyone is chasing. Useful refs: Tolstoy, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich," and the work of Epictetus.
mb
The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrating in the hands of capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right to organize for self-protection, imported pauperized labor beats down their wages....The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of those, in turn, despise the republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes — beggars and millionaires.
Statement by the Populist Party 1892. You have ask yourself have things really changed?
This 14-minute video should deflate your boundless optimism about the
future of the US.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy26co5BSrM
To Miles Deli-
In a previous post you said "Would it be presumptuous of me to suggest that Biden declare a nuclear strike on all schools in this nation, followed by a mass public masturbation exercise administered by Marjorie Taylor Greene. Who's w/me on this, Wafers?
I would definitely support a nuclear strike on all schools in that rotten nation. Too bad that wasn't done in the 90's. I saw how American schools are just warehouses of rotten, sick and degenerate bitches and assholes. I would never forget that in a high school in NJ that unfortunately I attended, the students there used to ridicule and bully a kid that was born with some kind of defect. I am not bragging or glorifying myself but I was the only one in that garbage dump of a school who defended that kid and I was his only friend also. A Dominican classmate and I were among the few Latinos in that mostly white American shit-hole and we used to curse that place every morning.
So yeah, a strike on American schools and on that whole damn country itself would be wonderful for humanity.
David-
A link wd help. That way, we cd read it for ourselves. Wafers always try to provide refs for other Wafers, to make things easier.
Rock-
I jus' know we're gonna make it, and turn things around.
mb
Fer-
Well, that may be a bit of an overreaction, I dunno. But I do know where yr coming from. I remember there was a kid on crutches in my high schl, asked me if I wd carry his bks to class for him. I said sure; altho *I* was then late to *my* classes. His mother called up my mother, declared I was a saint. My mother laughed. "He's not a saint; he's just doing what he's supposed to." The kid's mother told my mother that Tom had approached several other students b4 asking me, and they all turned him down. You know, by age 8 I knew I was a stranger in a strange land.
mb
Dr. Berman & Wafers,
Speaking oh high schools, fear not! The kids are our future! tomorrow's picture sure shall be rosy here in our U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.! LOL. See for yourselves!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcilisJK9kU
Joe-
Progress, declinist style. Our youth are buffoons-in-training.
mb
ps: It might be helpful to know what these students, and the principal, were fighting about. But regardless, this tape, in a nutshell, is America writ large. And what it says is that we are debased. Not merely degraded, but debased. Which means there is no recovery, no turning back. There is actually something grotesque abt this behavior.
Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War: 9780374173708: Moyn, Samuel: Books
https://www.amazon.com/Humane-United-States-Abandoned-Reinvented/dp/0374173702
Nigel-
Looks gd. Thanks for reference.
mb
An interesting essay from The Imaginative Conservative:
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/10/autumnal-reflections-america-mark-malvasi.html
They told me “Cheer up, things could be worse…and sure enough, they got worse.”
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
An interesting article by Douglas Giles, Ph.D. on the differences between what he terms "free enterprise" and capitalism. Capitalism is about the accumulation of money (capital) while in free enterprise, the owner of the business is directly involved in his business creation, production of goods and services. Didn't know there is this difference between capitalism and free enterprise unless it's an invention of Dr. Giles. Dr. Giles certainly makes some interesting points. The creator of a business would be hard-pressed to keep track of his business unless that business was small - thus the complaints by small business (e.g., free enterprise) of government aid and legislation for the benefit of corporations leaving small businesses to fend for themselves - i.e., government grants to corporations versus loans for small businesses during the pandemic.
https://dgilesphilosopher.medium.com/capitalism-and-free-enterprise-arent-the-same-45b06dbdc35a
Michael-
This was the theme of a novel by Richard Powers called "Gain".
mb
Ho Hum Dept.:
https://edition.cnn.com/us/live-news/arlington-texas-school-shooting-situation-10-06-21/index.html
This also looks gd: it's abt the elite (=trash), aka douchebags:
https://www.amazon.com/Pessimists-Bethany-Ball/dp/0802158889/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2YG1JKH97J52&dchild=1&keywords=bethany+ball&qid=1633543742&s=books&sprefix=bethany%2Cstripbooks%2C317&sr=1-1
"if we want to understand why China avoided shock therapy while Russia had no option but the Big Bang the question to answer is: Why could Deng shepherd a process of incremental institutional & macroeconomic adjustment, whereas Gorbachev faced an impasse?"
How China Avoided Soviet-Style Collapse
https://www.noemamag.com/how-china-avoided-soviet-style-collapse/
We're just a fabulous country:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/06/black-women-girls-murder-rate-us
Check it out:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/06/offshoring-wealth-capitalism-pandora-papers
Dr. Berman,
As long as we above were talking about school, check out the idiocy and immaturity, not of teenage students, but of these angry conservative parents at this Florida school board meeting. It goes on for over 20 minutes! As usual, to look at, there is (are): a loud mouth wearing a Trump hat; a joker carrying the American flag; a Bible-thumper wearing a (radical fundamentalist Christian/anti masker) Clay Clark “Reopen America Tour” shirt; a “Pandemic Is a Hoax” sign; parents wearing Moms for Liberty shirts; and other nincompoops here wearing their various stale “patriotic” America shirts.
Verbally, as usual ( like a broken record) these loudmouth USAins are talking about: the Constitution; the 2nd Amendment; the Pledge of Allegiance that is “under god”; the Bible; freedom of speech; and how the school board members are godless. And for more, check out the news article on it that describes even more sickening intimidation and antics that occurred, including disgracefully comparing vaccination to wearing “the yellow star” Jews had to wear in Nazi Germany!
This no longer is funny. It isn’t pathetic. It now is downright sickening and appalling.
THESE PEOPLE AREN’T JUST ANGRY DUMB EFFING ASSHOLES! THEY’RE DOWNRIGHT DISGUSTING PIECES OF SHIT!!!! BUT EVEN MORE SAD, THEY ARE THE FACES OF AMERICA!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1oVD6QURiU
https://flaglerlive.com/168266/school-board-bigoted/
Joe-
Again, from a declinist pt of view, Bad Is Good. It really does look like Trumpi will run again, and that he has a fair chance of winning. In more ways than one, that will really be The End.
mb
War is Peace!
https://nautil.us/issue/107/the-edge/the-disneyfication-of-atomic-power
Knish-
r.u. truly unknown? I've been eating u4 yrs. Meanwhile, on the post-Hiroshima b.s., check this out:
https://www.amazon.com/Neurotic-Beauty-Outsider-Looks-Japan-ebook/dp/B01MUCF7GP/ref=sr_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=morris+berman&qid=1633621456&s=books&sprefix=morri%2Cstripbooks&sr=1-11
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Thomas Conrad, 90, was arrested for punching his neighbor in the face after his neighbor dared him to do it:
https://www.tampafp.com/i-would-have-shot-him-florida-man-90-punches-neighbor-in-the-face-twice-gets-arrested/
Deputies asked Conrad what would have happened if his neighbor asked him to *shoot* him. Conrad responded, "Then I would have shot him."
Miles
ps: "If you were to split open an American cranium w/an axe, you would find it completely filled w/fruit compote." ~ Morris Berman
Jeff-
Perhaps it's time Mr. Conrad met Laquisha Jones. Check out pics of her on Google. My kinda gal.
mb
Wafers-
While we're on the subject of revolution, and the uprising of the masses, whatever happened to the Symbionese Liberation Army? Ah, those were the days, amigos, when we had real guts. I wonder what Patty Hearst ("Tania") is doing right abt now. Go, SLA!
mb
As Caitlin Kiernan, a fantasy writer whom I admire, put it nicely today on her blog: "This, from Facebook (deleted almost as soon as I posted it): "Biden's failure, and the return of TrumpWorld, was written in stone as soon as the January 6th coup failed. But Trump and his cohorts are the people we, collectively, as a nation, deserve – perpetual trolling, tearing down, blind ignorance and arrogance, pettiness, disregard of history. The age of optimism, enlightenment, and struggle for a better world has ended.
I believe this statement to be no more controversial than the proposition that men have walked on the moon."
Yes, barring ill-health or some other unforseen factor, I think Trump is going to win in 2024. Even though I'm inured to it, it is still astonishing to me that America would likely elect him, were he to run today. My god, just months ago he fomented an insurrection! Talk about debasement. If you want the REAL Suez moment, it will be when he wins in 2024. And we will certainly deserve everything we get.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/09/09/trump-likely-to-run-for-president-2024-cillizza-the-point.cnn
Dr.Berman & Wafers,
Here’s the newest excuse for USAins killing each other. The rationale: The pharmacists are killing us all by administering the Covid shots which actually are deadly. So we have to wipe them out. SMH.
https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2021/10/06/jeffrey-burnham-cumberland-man-charged-in-3-murders-believed-his-brother-was-killing-people-with-the-covid-shot/
Hello Wafers:
"Patty's in prison, but I think she might get out
Patty's in prison, but I think she might get out
Patty's got a daddy
And Daddy's got a lot of clout"
California Prison Blues
Loudon Wainwright III
Megan-
Well, Facebook is a pile of shit, and it always was a pile of shit. When it first appeared, I suggested an alternative called Assbook, where people wd show pics of their rear ends (like Kim, for example). Sad to say, it never caught on. As for Suez Moment, we already had an internal SM in 2016. What we are waiting for now is an external one, like the one in 1956 for England. However, it's possible that the slow erosion of American power, concomitant w/the slow rise of Chinese power, might qualify as a slo-mo version of an external SM.
mb
Why nation states struggle with social care
Love and care are at the heart of our moral commitments, but they do not fit neatly into the social contract model of political community
https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/agora/2021/10/why-nation-states-struggle-with-social-care
Allison Gopnik on nation states and social care
Social media was obviously crap when it came out. I was in my late teens and realized what a crock it was. My college dorm went from happy to miserable in months. Of all the under 40s I know, I’m the only one who doesn’t use it.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563214001241
Flab-
Only a nation of douchebags cd get excited abt such a thing, really. Why? Because they are empty, and attempt to fill the Void w/whatever piece of do-do that comes along. Instead of analyzing it, they just plunge into it, because they have no minds to speak of.
mb
Boy O boy, we humans have a cheery future in store for us.
The worst imagined scenario:
at 6°C (above the pre-industrialized norm, we can expect that:) Life on Earth ends with apocalyptic storms, flash floods, hydrogen sulphide (sic) gas and methane fireballs racing across the globe with the power of atomic bombs; only fungi survive.
from:
https://www.amazon.com/Six-Degrees-Future-Hotter-Planet-ebook/dp/B002RI9F0E/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2VGQD4TKGWL39&dchild=1&keywords=six+degrees+book&qid=1633679516&sprefix=six+degrees%2Caps%2C583&sr=8-1
mentioned here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKDjjX4v6Ds
at around the 17:42 mark.
Glad I won't be around to experience that first hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C8W3ZC6lwI
Apparently, many American right-wingers want to destroy several government agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education. Maybe they believe proficiency in English and basic math are wholly unnecessary, and that thinking and culture are for pussies. Might this atavism presage a return to the Stone Age for America if these morons seize power? I can't see America maintaining any of its technology or infrastructure if nobody knows how to read or do arithmetic. And this isn't even taking into account what the destruction of the EPA would do to America's drinking water: a huge percentage of the population would end up with severe brain damage (in addition to the brain damage they already have from their cell phones and shitty diets) if corporations are allowed to pollute the drinking water as much as they want.
https://nypost.com/2021/10/08/donald-trumps-possible-2024-run-is-making-democrats-anxious/
If Trump runs in 2024, he will almost certainly win. Joe Biden barely beat him in 2020, even though Trump's presidency was an endless succession of scandals, including the failure to do anything about COVID. Now that Biden's approval rating is below 40%, Trump will probably have an easy time winning in 2024. Who knows, maybe he'll do what many of his voters want and destroy the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency, causing America to regress to the Stone Age.
Nadine-
Speaking as a declinist, morons in power seems like a desirable scenario. Go, morons!
But 2024 seems so far away; who knows what might happen in the interim? The mid-term elections are only 13 mos. away, however, and I can't imagine the Dems won't get clobbered. Schmiden is having major problems getting his agenda passed right now; after 2022, I'm guessing it'll be dead in the water.
mb
Excellant 'Oxford style' debate on American intervention/regime change held this past week in NYC see: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LxdXqAkgOVs
It was amusing watching the execrable William Kristol being eviscerated by Scott Horton (who pulls no punches.) Had I been there, my question during the Q & A segment would have been (to Kristol): "How much did all those hundreds of thousands of dead bodies during the past twenty years increase your net worth?"
Dear Dr. Berman,
Re: staying in reality: Below are two links that describe the debating technique in the Indian Dharmic tradition (Purva Paksha). One of the links distinguishes it from the Western debating tradition (Polemics). I thought Wafers might find it interesting.
https://www.facebook.com/sgekchyan/posts/4359221690839084?__cft__[0]=AZW4ZG6NKrqrjlp_Gpyav1Cc-brBHBzmYwfaNA54hDhqIvDV90rXYTgp8InkWVjfQAsr1AqtSWkiDgQNC9Iexa9Aa6rFm1233K3SvuWGM9vyYnVd0U0ZolFzCHIl00dpImjNbhRh52P4NJZHHg5PTxp4QyHEL6-CDEEvlfcjTa_gMw&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-y-R
https://www.facebook.com/JagBharat/photos/a.229418823757127/553268338038839/?__cft__[0]=AZUWZvX-aP6KTp0GK11zxonV0H3HyzIRq1TosshrIdJbDBRYXMQqQCkF0yfoLrBLILxy7g8DUfkyIGb2K9I0P_5T2l7DDgRnWUh60ivMMjveQ4PrzV67KdM40BFHTIYQga1yuPUeWdAkMGk-1wlm1Dt4v85o5Yf3H9VB_etC4Znsoj79ZO7NkpmBI4rUW4vwSu8&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-y-R
Himanshu
Rufus T.-
This ought to do it:
https://onezero.medium.com/china-is-building-an-artificial-star-to-solve-our-environmental-crisis-2252cc6d6d71
Happy Hubris Day
Gramps-
1st, this project makes no ref to chopped liver, so WTF are we talking abt, really?
2nd, I assume you know that Rufus is Groucho Marx, yes?
mb
Hello Wafers:
Did any of you catch Bill Maher and Steve Pinker ramming their noses up each other's rectums last night? No, I'm not providing a link.
J. Cheever Loopul
(That's the handle - now disabled - that I used on a hockey discussion site. Yes, the hockey reference is a bit of a forced stretch, but I thought Belman would appreciate it )
al-
Very sorry to hear that. What a terrible blind spot for Bill.
mb
It looks like this op-ed (by Eugene Robinson) hasn't been mentioned here yet:
How Dumb Can Americans Get?
"...Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was speaking to a crowd...in his home state Saturday when he...[encouraged them to get the Covid-19 vaccine]. He began, 'If you haven’t had the vaccine, you ought to think about getting it because if you’re my age — '
“ 'No!' yelled many in the crowd.
"Graham retreated — 'I didn’t tell you to get it; you ought to think about it'...But still the crowd shouted him down. Seriously, people?"
Robinson mentions his own experience: "I have, or had, an acquaintance who refused to get vaccinated, despite pleas from his adult children...He got covid-19, and it killed him." Robinson then goes on to discuss two other facets of the same problem ("Critical Race Theory" and the 2020 election).
If people are thirsty, then can easily go to the golf courses being watered and drink all they want from the sprinklers. The coolest part of the day is late at night. Other than that, they can buy bottled water.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/column-1-million-gallons-water-120036756.html
Wafers-
Possible scenario for rest of decade (print, post on bathrm mirror next to yr post-it):
Now-Oct. 2022: Biden struggles to get agenda thru Congress, mostly fails
Nov. 2022: Dems clobbered in mid-term election
Nov. 2022-Nov. 2024: Lame duck presidency; only regressive legislation gets passed
Nov. 2024: Trumpi reelected to the W.H.
Jan. 2025-Oct. 2028: Trump admin inflicts maximum damage on the nation
Nov. 2028: Trumpi cancels election, declares himself president in perpetuum
Nov. 2028-sometime before 2031: Massive crack-up of the nation on all levels
You guys may wanna furnish some of the details.
mb
Freud’s aversion to the American experiment isn’t news to this blog, but it was to me. As E. L. Doctorow recounts it in his novel Ragtime, Freud’s first (and only) trip to America in 1909 was a fiasco:
“The great doctor, age 53, decided at this moment that he had enough of America. […] He hadn’t really gotten used to the food or the scarcity of American public facilities. He believed the trip had ruined both his stomach and his bladder. The entire population seemed to him over-powered, brash and rude. The vulgar wholesale appropriation of European art and architecture regardless of period or country he found appalling. He had seen in our careless commingling of great wealth and great poverty the chaos of an entropic European civilization. He sat in his quiet cozy study in Vienna, glad to be back. He said to Ernest Jones, America is a mistake, a gigantic mistake.” (p.44, NY: Bantam, 1981).
Admittedly, Freud never rode the Tunnel of Love w/ Jung at Coney Island, but Doctorow is inventing the truth here, a novelist’s prerogative. A very pleasurable read Wafers. Meanwhile, here’s a succinct review situating Ragtime into our current declinist perspective:
https://harrisburgmagazine.com/arts-culture/ragtime/
The Value of Nothing: Capital versus Growth
https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/08/the-value-of-nothing-capital-versus-growth/
And let’s end the week, as we usually do, with a quick look at some of our lovely Karens here in this totally dysfunctional wasteland of a country. These Karens sure are something else. They incessantly complain at Walmarts. They’ll yell and curse like a drunken sailor. And they’ll even scream into their cell phones and hold up the line complaining about, of all things, a service dog! Ya gotta love ‘em!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm9y8L1utk0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5Vmm_uzyFc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up3NwHTsz9s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZFfiv3snPw
p.s. Doctor, regarding the collapse of our U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!: I just have a sneaky feeling Trumpi is finished. The mantle will be taken up by younger (and perhaps even more cunning) slimeballs. I can see either Hawley or DeSantis taking up the reigns from an aging Donny, winning the presidency, and driving the country into a far right oblivion by 2030.
re: Pinker and Maher - my impression of the interview isn’t as much Pinker’s folly on progress as much as it is how Pinker misses the point. Absolutely infant mortality decline is progress, problem is we hate each other. Why, if there has been progress do episodes like these continue to play out day after day year after year.
https://kstp.com/minnesota-news/15-shot-1-killed-at-a-bar-in-downtown-st-paul-overnight-shooting/6265464/
Gunnar-
I've not had much interest in refuting Pinkle-Dink because it's been done by serious scholars at least a dozen times over; and I didn't save the refs. But basically, he's just cherry-picked stuff to defend a thesis that can't really be maintained, and these scholars have torn him to shreds. His shoes cd use a lot of urine.
mb
Gun, al, MB,
"Matt Taibbi Effortlessly Destroys Bill Maher's Russiagate Nonsense" on YouTube
https://youtube.com/watch?v=e52687NeFAI&feature=youtu.be
Maher also had Matt Taibbi on last week only to attack him w repaired arguments on his views of Russiagate being bullshit.
Maher might be funny (at times) but he's not very politically astute...
Lou-
Pls note rule on this blog: post no more frequently than once every 24 hrs. Thank you. As for Maher: yes, yr rt. His views on Muslims are deplorable, and I find his pro-progress, pro-Pinker stuff not merely naive, but stupid. He cd probably use a moderate slapping.
mb
Red Pill - "The Conservative Party of _______ County" NC (in which I live) recently presented a resolution to the county school board "to prohibit the adoption of Critical Race Theory and associated Marxist approach to K-12 education". Thus showing that the "Party" has no understanding of Marxism or CRT. Before that evening, I doubt that 5 people in the county had ever heard of CRT and 0 knew what it means. Including the School Board which had no plans to use CRT or Marxist ideas in the class room before the presentation.
The use of CRT as a means of "protecting" American children from the truth about America's racist past and present is a political ploy used as a dog whistle to fire up the masses. Nothing works to get the blood flowing in conservative veins as good as telling white folks that black folk are trying to indoctrinate their kids in "lies" about racism. In addition, it gives conservatives an imaginary enemy to fight and use to unify the masses. How dumb are Americans? - dumber than a wet bag of rocks.
Another good weekly roundup of some the worst sickness of modern-day America.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/08/roaming-charges-29/
I thought this quote from it sums up the worthy but futile efforts of the GSWH and Wafers.
Gore Vidal: “What is the point of attacking writers in a period when they are of so little consequence?”
Anjin-
Regarding Gore's comment: this is why I'm puzzled by the antisemitic trollfoons, or the random hit-and-run one-off attacks that I occasionally get. Talk abt little consequence: I'm not even on the radar screen! Who cares abt what I think? My 'influence' is practically nonexistent. Why do these folks even bother?
down-
This is the highest level of shmuckdom. Gd fodder for decline, tho.
mb
Violence as quest for identity? --- ''The word used by Brown and others was ‘‘visceral’’, and in more formal language, ‘’ontological insecurity’’. https://johnmenadue.com/knowledge-skill-and-flexibility-missing-in-australias-response-to-chinas-rise/
MB-
Those are good scenarios about what the US is going to look like in this decade. I have thought about a 2024 or 2028 Democrat victory being the start of a secessionist movement in a state like Texas or visa versa, a 2024 or 2028 Republican victory starting a secessionist movement in a state like California.
MB and Wafers- how likely do you think that there will be a war between the US and China or Russia in this decade?
An interesting book about the relation between the Mont Perelin Society, Hayek and Friedman et al, and human rights in the post-WWII order. One road that has led us to an economic system that degrades people and the planet with impunity while proclaiming human rights as central in a way that defangs any challenge to the status quo that may have been part of the original impetus for people to fight for certain rights (no easy summary of these issues, of course).
non-Amazon place to buy, by the way (they do exist!)
https://www.versobooks.com/books/3087-the-morals-of-the-market
Interview with author-
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/10/neoliberalism-mont-pelerin-society-hayek-mises-human-rights-discourse-market-postcolonialism
"...“Mutant neoliberalism” might be a better way to understand the trajectory of neoliberalism from the Trump period onward. The version of neoliberalism associated with the Clintons in the United States and Third Way Labour in the UK combined a socially progressive agenda with a free-market economics. This approach was displaced not just in the United States and the UK but also in India, Brazil, and Hungary by a much more explicitly reactionary, racist, and socially conservative style of neoliberalism. However, if you look back into the history of neoliberalism, it becomes clear that these seemingly new themes — whether they affirm the superiority of “the West,” or a civilizational or racial hierarchy — have always had a key place in the neoliberal worldview..."
Dan D-
Thanks for the ref. That whole 'Chicago School' of economics did untold damage to the US and around the globe. I think I discuss the Mont Pelerin society somewhere in my work (DAA, maybe), and see also Naomi Klein, "The Shock Doctrine."
mb
Happy new week, Doctor and Wafers. Actually it’s just the start of a normal week after a weekend of the typical mass shootings. One of the latest venues: Minneapolis.
https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/10/10/st-paul-bar-mass-shooting-1-dead-14-injured-3-arrested/
And speaking of the typical shootings here in our wonderful U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, age definitely is not a factor. You obviously don’t want to live in a senior retirement community here in this piece of shit country. Check out what happened in Maryland.
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/prince-georges-county/man-charged-in-deadly-shooting-at-capitol-heights-senior-apartments/2826266/
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Cold Wendy's dept.:
Demarrus Pritchett, shift manager at a Tennessee Wendy's restaurant, poured hot oil on a customer for complaining that his food was too cold:
https://www.wbbjtv.com/2021/10/07/altercation-at-huntingdon-wendys-leaves-1-injured/
Miles
Wafers,
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/dc-superman-comes-out-bisexual-170949904.html
You can't help but marvel at just how "cutting edge" these woke progs think they are. This is what qualifies as progress and revolutionary change in this country. My god, imagine going from the Port Huron statement to this window dressing bullshit.
Xair-
More slapping is needed on a round-the-clock basis for wokes, administered by 177 Wafers. Shd take us only 6 yrs, working w/o breaks. There simply is no excuse for this level of douchebaggery.
Jeff-
I like this event, for the following reasons:
1. The usual response these days is to shoot the guy. The use of hot oil has a nice medieval flavor.
2. Normally, customers attack the service people. This is a nice reversal.
3. Check out Pritchett's face: he's happy!
4. However: Where's the beef?
Joe-
Something very American abt this. You have an argument w/someone; you go get yr gun; you blow them outta the water. Hey, what the heck.
mb
ps: America is a great country:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/11/us-students-digital-surveillance-schools
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/11/maryland-police-officers-black-man-kwamena-ocran
Dr B: In 1992 some highly principled friends of mine left the US and resettled in Portugal. They could no longer tolerate the dysfunction of the US. A decade or so later, you left the country. That’s when I knew we were doomed, because the principled people and the intellectuals always flee before the empire collapses. Unfortunately I am a septuagenarian with a step-family. My tragic duty is to encourage the kids to follow your example. “If I were your age,” I tell them, “and knew everything I know now, I would move to Central or South America and take my chances.” So far none has taken my advice, but one is getting close. I expect she will move before I breathe my last, and I take comfort in that.
Pete-
Yrs ago I gave a lecture at Thomas Moore College in which I told the students to pack their bags, and I told them why, in explicit detail. Of course they looked at me like I was nuts. Then I said: "None of you will take this advice, but I'll tell you what's going to happen. 40 yrs from now, you'll be sitting around w/some friends, and you'll say, '40 yrs ago some guy came to TMC and told us to get out of the US rt away. We all thought he was a lunatic. I tell ya, I'd give my left arm if I cd go back 40 yrs and take his advice. *I* was the one who was crazy, not him.'"
mb
Xair,
When I read your comment, I laughed out loud. It's really funny that many wokes think changing the race, gender and/or sexuality of fictional characters will help save the nation. You can't get dumber than that.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/man-shoots-and-eats-dog-b1842003.html
After reading this story, I wonder whether Americans should have to get a thorough psych evaluation before being allowed to be around animals. Besides, animals are too good for most Americans, and deserver better companionship.
Any WAFers have a NYT subscription? Though maybe not the best source for actual news, I would like to read this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/11/movies/my-dinner-with-andre-anniversary.html
Sorry Joe, the shooting was in St. Paul, not Minneapolis ... not that we want to accept that dubious honor alas.
Thoughts on the sexually confused being that was Henry David Thoreau
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/thoreau-in-love
CNN asks the question:
"Why Are We Building a Nation of Bullies?"
https://youtu.be/_754fTJCbGA
I'm going to assume that WAFers understand the impotence at work here by CNN.
Apparently a country with a history of slavery, Native genocide, and a dysfunctional healthcare system that disappears once the individual no longer has the financial means to pay for it is only NOW having a 'bully' problem.
Expat update: We're building a house in rural North Carolina and currently tidying up my daughter's Swedish citizenship. We're out of here once the paperwork is done and will probably end up in Gothenburg. We'll rent our house here in the U.S. out.
Around Sept.14, PBS Frontline dissected the Boeing 737 Max's two disasters and the company's reactions in general. Youtube's Mentour Pilot is reassuring on many occasions, recounting how investigations of aviation accidents and incidents look as far back as possible for contributing causes. Then they issue a variety of recommendations to make a good industry better, rather than just fixing blame on one individual or condition and washing their hands. These findings often result in lengthier checklists which, however tedious, should be followed to the letter. "They are written in blood."
Here he applies the same approach to Boeing's problems with its newest model, but the results are not so reassuring. They go waayy back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_zn_x2JK5Q
American leadership has yielded to foreign competition in industry after industry, but we still had the pre-eminence of Boeing for airliners. Or so most assumed. That, too, looks now like a thing of the past.
Louis-
Amazing, isn't it? The sheer blindness of the MSM!
mb
Dear Dr. Berman,
Pour yourself a nice drink and enjoy this engaging dialogue (very Waferish) on the topics of critical race theory, postmodernism, woke culture in US, AI fueling narratives, etc:
"Peter Boghossian & Rajiv Malhotra discuss how Literary Theory is blocking critical thinking in Liberal Arts education in America. For decades, the cartel of academic ideologues have produced pseudo-intellectual theories which have been exported from the US to India where it has infiltrated politics & media. Will Breaking India Forces be replicated in the USA as Breaking America Forces?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clb477m25Lg
Time stamps : 00:00: Teaser- Breaking America Syndrome 1:55: Guest Introduction 2:44: Peter resigns from Portland State University 5:25: What is illiberalism 6:46: What is'idea laundering' 8:34: What is peer-review-cartel 13:42: 5 waves post India's independence 19:40: Will Critical Race Theory help disrupt the class system 21:46: What is Title Six Grants 28:04: Breaking India Syndrome 29:10: Breaking India politics 31:44: India under foreign invasions 33:45: Woke Culture and Subalternism 35:21: Why are Indian liberals popular in the US 39:34: Sheldon Pollock attacks Sanskrit 40:21: American colonization of India 41:05- Exporting US Liberal arts theories to India 43:32: Diversity hoax in the American corporate world
48:42- Woke Culture & Corporates 51:15- Mechanisms to counter illiberalism 53:24: Artificial Intelligence fueling narratives
Himanshu
Himan-
A great conversation, and thanks for posting it. How accurate Boghossian is, when he says that the universities cannot be redeemed, and that what is needed are new institutions not based on ideological groupthink. This reminds me of the notion of Dual Process, wh/I've discussed in my work.
mb
ps: I wd also like to refer Wafers to my discussion of this politically correct phenomenon in the Twilight book. In the early 90s, I unwittingly fell into a hole: wound up teaching at a 'distance learning institute' where only 2 or 3 of the faculty (at most) were seriously interested in critical thinking, and the rest were caught up in the 'correct' ideology. I wrote up this experience in the Twilight bk, calling the place 'Alt U' (it's still in existence), and suggesting that this was the future of all education in America (wh/proved to be true). The truth is that the faculty and students were buffoons, or perhaps more accurately, robots, glazed-eyed turkeys, gobbling away. I rarely think abt it these days, but when I do, I shudder.
mb
Xair
Great news regarding Superman. Inquiring minds want to know how Superman could ever have a son with a terrestrial woman. (See Larry Nivens hilarious classic essay Man of Steel Woman of Kleenex)
http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html
Given what poor Lois Lane went thru in order to conceive and give birth its amazing any offspring would survive.
What new orientations will come from from Supermans grand children? The world waits with bated breath.
(I know this isn't about America's decline but the whole idea of Superman having children is so uniquely American stupidity I couldn't resist.)
Hello Dr Berman and Wafers,
All of us could learn something from Harry and Meghan. Just such inspirational people who practice what they preach. Netflix, Spotify, and now this amazing investment fund. Always thinking about others and never themselves. Some of the most selfless people of the 21st century. And I won’t hear of anyone criticizing the private jets, mansions or transatlantic baby shower. These two care about the earth.
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/10/12/harry-meghan-join-socially-conscious-esg-investing-craze
Obviously I jest. This seems to go right in line with the neoliberal economic structure discussed by Dan Daniel and Dr B. As long as you say nice things about poverty, the environment, education etc, your actions don’t matter. Just make sure to very publicly engage in empty platitudes while you screw over as much/many as you can. The American way.
Dr. Bergman, hi. I believe the Suez moment was the Afghanistan defeat. This will become clearer as the decade wears on. The rest of the decade will bring a series of escalating confrontations with China, and it will look like there is a Suez moment then, I think in 2023, and again in 2027, but Afghanistan will turn out to be more significant than those. Anyway the empire’s incremental doom is proceeding right on schedule.
Anis-
Crucial pt abt the external SM is that there is a general recognition that the country is no longer No. 1. This was England's situation in 1956. You cd be rt, but exit from Afg. was similar to Saigon 1975. These events showed that America is run by dolts, but not quite that it is no longer #1.
mb
Jamie-
They are called 'the royals'. But clearly this is an abbreviation of 'the royal douchebags'.
mb
Beautiful book to recommend: "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard..
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrim_at_Tinker_Creek
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/3-employees-dead-including-gunman-in-shooting-at-memphis-postal-center/ar-AAPrg0v
usa, usa!
Dr. Shit-
Going postal, I guess. Why the Pentagon is not doing the obvious thing is beyond me. If all Americans possessed a weapon, they cd all gun each other down like dogs, in the street. Then we wdn't have to put up w/these random no-account shootings, wh/are completely devoid of merit.
mb
Dr. B-
Here is an opinion piece with some discussion of the ending of Bretton Woods in 1971-
https://jackrasmus.com/2021/10/12/the-great-strike-of-2021/
"...the companies had to turn to the US government to halt the successful strikes and contract settlements. They turned to Nixon, president at the time, in the summer of 1971..."
Think Afghanistan was a Singapore Moment tbh. i.e. the incompetence has been made manifest, but an external power has yet to step and say to the US "that's enough now".
Anyway here's the latest on the architect of the USA's downfall, Wang Huning:
https://palladiummag.com/2021/10/11/the-triumph-and-terror-of-wang-huning/
Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters by Steven Pinker review
Our powers of reason have undoubtedly made the world a better place. So why are we so in thrall to fake news?
https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/07/rationality-what-it-is-why-it-seems-scarce-why-it-matters-by-steven-pinker-review
Karen Armstrong reviews Peaven Stinker's new book where (he's still telling us the universe is "pitiless".) In case you're wondering, the universe is also humorless, friendless, clueless, and doesn't answer emails, Mr Stinker!
I like Karen Armstrong's books.
Interesting article on the way that well-off well-educated liberal college grads are driving much of Democratic Party outreach, yet the kids are so out of touch with most voters that they drive people away. Certainly seen this in farther left politics- educated crazy arcane language and elitist attitudes have no idea how to deal with someone working a regular job and trying to pay daycare.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/10/09/david-shor-democrats-privileged-college-kid-problem-514992
"People who paid close attention to the 2016 presidential campaign probably remember... Hillary Clinton’s “Mirrors” ad, which featured images of young women gazing at themselves in mirrors intercut with footage of Donald Trump making disparaging comments about women. It was powerful stuff — at least among the young liberals on Clinton’s staff.
"The “Mirrors” ad featured prominently in a series of experiments that Shor did with Civis to evaluate the effect of various Democratic campaign commercials on voters’ decisions. The findings of the experiments were not encouraging. For one, they found that a full 20 percent of the ads — including “Mirrors” — made viewers more likely to vote for Republicans than people who hadn’t seen the same ads. And after his team started polling members of Civis’s staff, they made an even more troubling discovery. On average, the more that the Civis staff liked an ad, the worse it did with the general public..."
Dan D-
Forget slapping; let's just go for brain transplants.
Krystal-
Pinker: the shame of Harvard, and of Bill Maher. As I've noted b4, there are at least a dozen revs of his bks by serious scholars that shred his arguments. He's sorta like David Brooks: a douchebag catering to the professional and upper-middle classes, who thirst for his (phony) affirmation of their worldview and way of life. He needs to be waterboarded at least 185 times, then thrown on a dung heap.
mb
Doctor,
Ya just gotta love Tennessee. They’re a second Texas! LOL! In addition to the post office shootings that happened in Memphis, check out one of Don Trump’s fan club’s purchase of a property! They’ll practice their “religious” adoration of AR15’s at their “training center”.
You may get your wish, Doctor. Don Trump’s MAGA followers certainly may carry out USAins shooting each other to death. Don also congratulated them!
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/maga-cult-property-tennessee-b1937005.html
https://www.vice.com/en/article/4avkdw/rod-of-iron-ministries-purchases-property-in-tennessee?fbclid=IwAR1ouEtEczPfMSSbPsPwBO6FRcdPXLGAkQt4NAx8aH1EgawXQzyCv-CscYI
Joe-
Here's how I see it. America is the land of rugged individualism. A rugged individual, by definition, gets a gun and shoots other people. Why some Americans are upset abt this is kinda puzzling.
mb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0roBXnqlZQQ
Here, Marjorie Taylor Greene accuses Biden of making America a Communist country. Apparently, she thinks anyone to the left of Mussolini is a Communist. I would bet money that she thinks social services like homeless shelters and soup kitchens are also Communism.
Marjorie Taylor Green uses the following playbook, which seems to be a very popular tactic among American bubbas:
1.) If you don't like something, throw a fit over Communism allegedly taking over America.
2.) Refuse to learn anything about what Communism is, how it functions or how it compares to America's deregulated capitalist system or the agendas of your political opponents.
3.) Accuse anyone who presents you with facts that disprove your accusation of being a Communist.
4.) Brag about your patriotism and gun collection.
These people are jokes, and comprise something like 50% of the American populace. No wonder America is circling the drain.
I thought this would be of interest to you, Dr B. It is analysis of changes going on in China, but it ends up being an analysis of the US as well.
https://palladiummag.com/2021/10/11/the-triumph-and-terror-of-wang-huning/
The accusations of being even remotely socialist are dire:
https://foreverwars.substack.com/p/fear-itself
The fact is that those who enforce power in the USA are already (and have always been) essentially fascist.
Wafer Nadine Boukis--
Americans were walking jokes dressed up as humans (Berman).
This was the US empire...
Naked passenger asking travelers where they're from:
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2021/10/11/naked-female-passenger-denver-international-airport-draw-attention-police-response/
Onward and downward USians.
Glans-
Bupkis. *are* walking jokes.
mb
down -
The South has always wanted an "apology" for the civil war, meaning a return to slavery. Without its black population it'd be a cultureless wasteland. All modern music comes from black slaves and their descendants. Southern cuisine is also a result of its enslaved population.
Growing up in the South, we hear stupid arguments, like "not all whites owned slaves." What this leaves out is that slavery undergirded the Southern economy and made goods cheaper. Their entire way of life depended on this arrangement. They also conveniently leave out that slave-owners were reimbursed for the freeing of their slaves after the Civil War. Can you imagine Nazis (who were inspired by America's treatment of blacks & natives) being given reparations?
Ya'qkub-
Very, very misguided, and very wrong. An apology--wh/the South certainly is owed--hardly means a return to slavery, or even racism. It is merely an acknowledgment that there was more to the antebellum South than slavery. This is covered in detail in WAF ch. 4, wh/you obviously never read. And equating slaveowners to Nazis is quite off-base, for a whole # of reasons.
In addition, where are your links, your refs? This blog does not cater to broadcasts of opinion; it caters to evidence, and you provide none at all. Why shd anyone take your word for it?
However, you come to the party late. The Civil War was hashed out on this blog shortly after the publication of WAF, and finally I had to declare a moratorium on the subject, because the discussion generated lots of heat, but very little light.
There are, of course, thousands of blogs that champion your view of the Civil War, and of the South, and thousands more that don't care a whit abt evidence. You might wanna search them out.
mb
Boy does this 2:00 REALLY sum up the state of the putrid American soul. It's from a B-movie that was made in 1997, but you've got it all right here.
Though I doubt it was intentional, the casting choice even looks like the Director said "Give me the best Trump lookalike you can find."
https://youtu.be/M5J69pfWXb4
Americans truly are a pestilence right out of the Book of Revelation.
Louis-
And yet no one pays attn to things like the Pacino speech; they just go on being Barzoons. As for pestilence: do you think we might be like locusts?
mb
I was surprised to find a new source of WAFer, those who in the UK
or Europe make documentaries about the US and get them onto YouTube.
For poverty, ill health, excessively wasteful economy, too much money
given to the Pentagon, decaying cities, drug addiction and all other
topics noticed by your readers, going to "documentaries" on YouTube
offers hours of dreary viewing about the fate of the USA.
Dr. B: Anthropologists and historians have recorded the collapse of about 70 empires over the past 10,000 years or so. The collapse of the US empire is being documented as it happens, which means it's likely to be the best documented imperial collapse of all time. Great news for future historians, unless of course it's the last imperial collapse of all time.
Pete-
Which anthropologists? Which historians?
Zig-
Which documentaries? Links?
mb
No universal health care, 700+ overseas military bases, no free university, no employment rights, employment at will doctrines, no real pension/retirement, FATCA, CBT, etc.etc., however, USians felt writing abt hash browns 'defying science' as relevant:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/tried-hash-browns-6-fast-162007725.html
Doctor,
Not all mass shootings here in our U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.! are carried out. But to stir things up and create havoc here in this wasteland, all one has to do is announce he is about to start one. Check out the mugshot of this “typical neat, well-dressed USAin”. LOL.
https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2021/10/12/south-hills-village-shooting-threat/
But fear not. Check out the action that actually typically occurs in these mass shootings; people literally run for their respective lives here in this sad excuse for a country/society.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-man-charged-in-wicker-park-mass-shooting/2635781/
And if you aren’t killed by a gun, you’ll be stabbed and killed in one of our many road rage incidents.
https://www.kold.com/2021/10/14/one-dead-after-crash-violent-incident-i-10-near-valencia/
Hello Wafers:
I've been troubled by the recent accusations against Glenn Greenwald, because he's been pretty consistent in his attacks on authority, so I find them difficult to believe. Jonathan Cook has what I find to be a sensible response to what's become a witch hunt:
"Greenwald and Taibbi talk so much about the role of the traditional media and Silicon Valley because they understand that the media’s professed liberalism – claims to be protecting the rights of women, ethnic minorities and the trans community – is a very effective way of prettifying corporate authoritarianism, an authoritarianism the left claims to be fighting but has readily endorsed once it has been given a liberal makeover.
It is not that the “liberal” establishment – the corporate media, Silicon Valley, the intelligence services – is actually liberal. It is that liberals have come increasingly to identify with that establishment as sharing their values."
zcomm.org/znetarticle/what-happened-to-glenn-greenwald/
Dr. B: In addition to your own books, here are a few sources for consideration.
Polybius (book VI): He says men ascend from bad to good and then degenerate from good to bad in an endless cycle.
Machiavelli expresses the idea in his Florentine Histories: "Virtue gives birth to quiet, quiet to leisure, leisure to disorder, disorder to ruin; and similarly, from ruin, order is born; from order, virtue; and from virtue, glory and good fortune."
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (1776)
The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen (1899).
The German sociologist Norbert Elias, in his book The Civilizing Process (1939), showed that post-Medieval European civilizations exhibit predictable swings between periods of calm and periods of chaos.
The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper (1945)
The Ottoman Centuries, by Patrick Balfour, Lord Kinross (1979) -- also just a good read.
The American anthropologist Joseph Tainter, in his book The Collapse of Complex Societies (1988), showed that complex societies collapse when they become overwhelmed by their own increasing levels of complexity.
Timothy Snyder, The Road to Unfreedom, (2018): history is an endless cycle of death and rebirth that repeats itself.
Then there are Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History (1934-61); Jarod Diamond, Collapse (2011); and Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West (1926)
A curiosity is Max Nordau's Degeneration from 1892. Worth a skim.
gio-
Easy to attack someone when you haven't read their work, eh? I did not use Lost Cause material, and I didn't repeat their arguments. As already noted, we had this discussion yrs ago on the blog, in extenso, and I came to realize that there was finally no pt in discussing the Civil War anymore, because of the Manichaean and self-righteous blindness of assholes such as yrself. And I certainly have no interest in rehashing the whole thing 10 yrs later. If you want to see for yrself, you can look up the blog archives of 10 yrs ago. But rest assured, if you post again, I'll just delete it unread. There is simply nothing to be gained by talking to someone like you, unless I need an emetic.
Joe-
Check out the guy's face: America!
mb
The poetry of Rumi and ‘Iraqi cautions that we must see the body and the love it evokes as spiritual tools, not ends in themselves https://psyche.co/ideas/sufi-love-poetry-is-in-vogue-but-few-grasp-its-radical-meaning
William Ophuls an interesting writer: ''The upshot is that Americans are now deeply divided
along religious, cultural, intellectual, and political lines, so much so
that taking care of current business is almost impossible and
preparing for the future is out of the question'' https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/74b08727-45f3-470a-a2d5-5ee8efdc0403/BRIEFING-0002.pdf
Neil-
I think we recently discussed Ophuls here...I mentioned my correspondence w/him, etc. But good to have this ref, thanks.
mb
Documentaries from YouTube.
Lives Of Poor Kids In America (Child Poverty Documentary) | Real Stories
In LA, poverty on Skid Row defies US’ humane reputation
Big Pharma - How much power do drug companies have? | DW Documentary
DETROIT'S ABANDONED HOODS VS THE BRONX, NY 1982
Just a sample. Also check YouTube at the top with "recently uploaded" and "new to you" for the latest of the end of it all.
Dr. B-
Wafers interested in the US Reconstruction Era might find this online report worth a read, in order to discover the state of affairs in the South in December, 1865. The report is the work of Carl Schurz, a German revolutionary and an American soldier, statesman, journalist, and reformer; per his Wikipedia article. Here's a link to Schurz's report-
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8872
The report was apparently swept under the rug by President Andrew Johnson. Schurz later became one of the leaders of the anti-corruption faction in the Republican Party known as the "Mugwumps." Here's a photo of Schurz and his wife, Margarethe, who opened the first German-language kindergarten in the United States-
https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/madison.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/71/c719d2e5-cb51-5d1a-a4e7-8f6649091a58/5c47746b36f71.image.jpg?resize=400%2C469
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/boeings-former-chief-technical-pilot-on-the-737-max-indicted-for-fraud/
Earlier this year, the feds signed an agreement that let Boeing executives off the hook for the 737 MAX catastrophes, which killed 346 people. The lead prosecutor, Erin Nealy Cox, then took a job with the firm that leads Boeing's criminal defense.
Blinken states the US will “oppose the reconstruction of Syria until there is irreversible progress toward a political solution, which we believe is necessary and vital."
Meanwhile, 60% of Syrians are near starvation according to the UN.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-rules-out-normalizing-with-syria-while-assad-in-power/ via Times of Israel
Ya'qkub-
I guess you didn't read my last reply to you, and probably not WAF ch. 4. Jesus, I say several times in that chapter that I agree that the War had to be fought to root out slavery. I also explained to you that this was a long and useless argument, 10 years ago. Rest assured, I'm hardly afraid of you; I just can't keep having the argument over and over again, and apparently you don't want to respect that. As a result, I don't respect *you*, and I won't be posting you on this blog. You need to go somewhere else. (If you continue to post, I'll delete w/o reading it.)
mb
Dr. Berman & Wafers,
Just another normal mundane occurrence here our “exceptional” land of the free. Just another typical mass shooting.
https://www.cleveland19.com/2021/10/15/chaotic-aftermath-cleveland-mass-shooting-caught-camera/
No! Wait. There’s more. Check out the right side of the headline. There’s another way to “hustle” here in our U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.! Human trafficking is taking place in a prosperous “City on a Hill”. ( Well, not quite. Cleveland is at sea level. LOL.). Our good old USAin sex traffickers include a firefighter, a city council member, a teacher, and a man who arrived with a 2-year-old child in his vehicle.
https://www.cleveland19.com/2021/10/04/over-160-caught-ohios-largest-human-trafficking-sting-including-arrests-portage-summit-counties/
Joe-
These are all, wonderful things.
mb
Al-Q - Check out the book by Eric Alterman which challenges the idea that the media is liberal. For Alderman, the media is neither conservative nor liberal but corporate, which means that it's owners are first concerned with making money and only second or third with investigating and reporting the news. Whatever drives up ratings is kept; whatever does the opposite is junked. Like Vidal said about partisan politics - 2 wings of the same party.
https://www.abebooks.com/9780465001767/What-Liberal-Media-Truth-Bias-0465001769/plp
down-
If it became fashionable to roast skunks and serve them w/a side order of chopped liver, the MSM would be promoting skunk-liver dishes as the new thing. David Brooks wd write an op-ed in the NYT about the spiritually redemptive power of skunk-liver.
mb
Hello Wafers:
Never fear, down; one thing I find myself frequently writing in online discussions (and yammering about in the classroom) is that the corporations who control mass media are anything but "liberal" (in the left-wing sense), but are there to suck whatever money is possible from advertisers and subscribers.
Greetings MB and Wafers,
Explosion of American brainlessness dept.:
A Texas school district administrator told teachers that if they have books about the Holocaust in their classrooms, they should also have books that offer "opposing" or "other" viewpoints on the subject:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/southlake-texas-holocaust-books-schools-rcna2965
Miles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_IvE1HVLfQ
Looks like Trump received millions from foreign governments and hid debts and losses using the Trump Hotel. If true, this would probably make him guilty of multiple counts of treason and fraud. The evidence seems to be extremely strong.
If recent history is any guide, Trump will say this is a political witch hunt waged by people who don't have any evidence that he did anything wrong, and his supporters will believe him. In fact, Trump's supporters will believe *anything* he says, no matter how crazy. He could say he shits fillet mignon instead of feces, and they would believe him. You can't get more degraded than this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmyIcQGD7BE
More and more Americans have been trying to take guns aboard planes, and more and more American air travelers are behaving belligerently. Might we see another 9/11, but perpetrated by Americans rather than foreigners this time around? It doesn't seem farfetched anymore.
More and more guns, more and more rage, more and more stupidity...America is a pressure cooker ready to explode in an orgy of violence and idiocy. We're going to have tons of entertainment for decades to come.
Fake news? Do you see any evidence of this craving for cokes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqnUohxXV0I
This video reminds of Joseph Tainter’s book The Collapse of Complex Societies. The situation in America is becoming more surreal by the day! Lol. There are so many warning signs that we are headed in a scary direction. It’s amazing how we are doing all the wrong things even more as things get worse. This is a truly suicidal country.
Kim Iversen: Dems Want IRS To SPY On Bank Accounts With Transactions Over $600
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm5kLDbVV7E
NeilW -
Excellent Ophuls piece. The link is to an unsigned .pdf. Can you indicate where this is posted or comes from?
Love his book “Plato’s Revenge.”
Thanks.
Wafers-
Thank you all for providing further evidence of the American collapse. This is all slo-mo, but it's accumulating on a daily basis.
mb
This is and was the US empire (hint: chicken sandwich mayhem).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkJKkltIo7A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_hcuN-qsRw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Ydk88e7vA
Dr B,
Steven Pinker has been pushing this article, which is a classic case of American indifference to the rest of the world.
"The next 75 years of global warming are going to be worse than we’ve gotten already, maybe millions of lives lost and tens of trillions of dollars in damage. In aggregate, they’re going to be a giant disaster. But the average person in the First World, probably including your child, still won’t notice much of a change to their daily lives."
https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/please-dont-give-up-on-having-kids?fbclid=IwAR0bLbFIXLP46iG6_Gy4auYpL4Mb_WKEH4eGCp_DcVDZXkP-m10NVC9GY90
Karl-
Not clear who the author of this essay is.
mb
Dan D-
A bit too long, sorry.
mb
Wafers,
I remember as a kid I lived in Uruguay for 18 months. While living in Uruguay I rode the bus all the time, and if a women or older person got on the bus and all seats were taken you gave them your seat no questions asked. In fact, all the young people would immediately look to be first to give up their seat so as to not be reprimanded by other passengers. Now contrast that with this. My goodness what awful people.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fox29.com/news/man-facing-rape-charges-in-sexual-assault-aboard-crowded-septa-bus-police-say.amp
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/16/update-1-u-s-offers-payments-relocation-to-family-of-afghans-killed-in-botched-drone-attack
This story makes me physically ill. I feel a knot in my stomach just thinking about it.
The main reason is that this is merely the most visible of the thousands of 'mistakes' that we've made with our micro-militarism. The Middle East is littered with stories just like this one.
"Sorry we mistakenly bombed that schoolbus full of children. You can see how we thought it was a mobile anthrax lab, right? Here, have some coupons for free chicken sandwiches at Chick-Fil-A and we'll call it even."
There's no bottom to our depravity.
Dear Dr. Berman,
Check this out:
"MAGA Gun Church That Worships With AR-15s Has Bought a Giant Mountain Property in Tennessee
Rod of Iron Ministries has been on a property-buying spree and says it plans to build a training center and spiritual retreat."
Rod of Iron? what a name for a ministry! Should Wafers suggest more such names for future American churches? Here is one from me: Guns n Crosses
https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/4avkdw/rod-of-iron-ministries-purchases-property-in-tennessee?__twitter_impression=true
Himanshu
Given the low wages in fast foods, this is understandable. Imagine
a waiter not getting a sufficient tip and discussing the matter with
a gun in his hand.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/waffle-house-employee-pulls-gun-103024063.html
I think we need to go further in to the bullpen when debating which possible presidential candidate is best from the declinest perspective. Sure Trump and “empty shelves joe” both have good declinest credentials. But if we want to find a president that really personifies the behavior, morals and intellect of the average American then I think the perfect president would be Hunter Biden. Talk about a declinest dream candidate
Seneca-
Maybe give us a link that discusses this?
Wafers-
I'd like to draw yr attn to an article abt a geneticist named Kathryn Paige Harden, in the Sept. 13 issue of the New Yorker. But 1st, let me digress a bit. Recently 2 total jackoffs wrote in on their take on the Civil War, how it was all abt slavery etc. It's quite amazing: they decide I'm racist or whatever w/o having read my work, or following past discussions on the blog. They know dick, in short, but it doesn't stop them from parading like peacocks, handing out self-righteous, Manichaean judgments. I told them that the blog had an extended discussion of WAF ch. 4 yrs ago, and that all the clowns that posted were simply unable to grasp the nuance and paradox re: the antebellum South that I was arguing for. All I personally learned from the discussion was that Americans had shit for brains; like these 2 morons.
Now one thing I have said repeatedly is that in America, even the smart people are dumb. A similar kind of attack has descended on Prof. Harden, who does objective research on genetics w/o having an axe to grind. She shows how the Manichaean binary 'dialogue' of "it's all environment" vs. "it's all genetics" has undermined the possibility of a nuanced position: the truth is that it's not either/or, but both/and, and the way genes and environment interact is quite complex. And then what happens? She's castigated by both sides, for political reasons. Woke left-wing scientists don't want to deal with her evidence for genetic influence (which they see as leading to Nazi-style eugenics), and so they attack and ridicule her. These are folks w/very high IQs, and they are dummies.
I came away from this article feeling a sense of defeat. Just as the critics of WAF cdn't grasp what I was saying, because it involved race, and Americans go nuts once race enters the picture, the same thing was happening to Prof. Harden, and for the same reason. She says genes are important, so the scientific left immediately shoves her into the Charles Murray category ("The Bell Curve"). This country simply doesn't do nuance; Americans, including smart ones, don't have the ability to simultaneously hold opposing views in dynamic tension. All they can do is collapse into one extreme or the other. Of course, Harden and I work in very different fields, but the causes and nature of the opposition are pretty similar. However, she seems to be a more level-headed individual than me, taking it all in stride and continuing to do her research (a gd scientist follows the evidence; which is actually what I did when I researched WAF ch. 4). Me, I just get frustrated when douche bags show up here, w/no knowledge of my work, wanting to rehash the Civil War argument all over again, from a B&W perspective. My desire to bang their heads together, like coconuts, becomes rather strong. (Altho Hillary and Obama remain 1st in line for that treatment.) Anyway, check the essay out; it's called "Force of Nature." She will be, from now on, one of my heroes. As for the douche bags, may they be cast down into utter darkness, into the remotest regions of Gehenna.
Of course, from a declinist pt of view, stupidity and the inability to deal w/complexity are gd things, contributing as they do to the further disintegration of the country. But I confess this whole thing does annoy me.
mb
Dr Berman,
Just coincidentally, I've been reading a lot about The Civil War and the Lost Cause myth. I thought this was a pretty stimulating talk on the latter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbEjmEyHf8U&t=4689s
Just to clarify, I read WAF and especially enjoyed chapter 4. I think you are right. This is not about rehashing anything. But would you say it's true that the whole idea of a clash of cultures (more specifically, of a modern, hyperactive, consumerist and Hamiltonian North, verses a rooted culture of leisure, refinement and taste in the South) was more implicit than explicit? That is, were a lot of Southerners actually discussing and writing about it in these terms? (If so, I'm not aware of this or who they were.) Or was it more the water to the fish? It seems to me that the Southern people more than likely just felt this in their blood and bones, though perhaps it wasn't explicitly there in their conscious awareness or writings? At least in large measure. Do you think this was the case? At any rate, the Lost Cause people generally talk about things like "states rights". Whereas if they had put it in terms of defending a superior culture (minus the slavery, to our sensibilities) that would have actually had more force. I wonder why there wasn't more of that?
On another subject, I broke down and watched my first "Karen" compilation video yesterday. Good lord, they are truly awful! So funny that it is so widespread as to be an actual phenomenon! In some of the videos, though, the people filming are even more obnoxious than the Karen. Anyhow, I'll add one for everyone's viewing pleasure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywTjzGyELAc
Megan-
It's been a long time since I read WAF, but the explicit nature of the Southern way of life was documented by Eugene Genovese in particular (whose work I draw on) and 1 or 2 more scholars; maybe C. Vann Woodward, I can't recall. The CSA never used the phrase 'clash of cultures', but this issue was certainly what they were willing to go to war for. That way of life was much larger than slavery (as Genovese et al. demonstrate), but unfortunately, it did include it. Trump was rt when he said that the display of the CSA flag signified pride in Southern heritage; again, a real shame that slavery was part of that heritage. The contemporary defense of the War based on states' rights is pretty weak; culture clash was the real issue. It was fascinating to me to discover that even the "let freedom ring" school of historians, such as Foner and Macpherson, actually agree w/me, i.e. do say this; you just hafta read them closely.
That being said, I *really* don't want to rehash the CW or the blog discussion of 10 yrs ago, so let's leave that all behind. What I took away from that (non)dialogue was that when race was involved, there was no way of penetrating the Manichaean American 'mind'; as Prof. Harden also discovered. Of course, this binary 'thinking' now seems to pervade everything in the US (masks, vaccines, you name it). Americans believe that emotions are thoughts; their stupidity fast approaches infinite dimensions.
mb
@Dr. Berman: understandable. The black and white thinking, though not uniquely American, is especially pronounced in the US from my experience, where people attach a religious zeal to it, i.e. to even entertain there could be anything but B&W means you took one of the two sides and deserve instant vilification.
My personal interpretation is that one cause of this is the lack of a moral core in the US, so people are desperate for any moral position to stick to to alleviate the angst and confusion. That means vigorously adopting a revolving door morality, with new moral principles introduced regularly and embraced with desperation, even if they are stupid and hollow, invented by something akin to a social fad (you see this currently with woke fascism and PC tyranny and LGBT insanity).
What you have though that we don't is renown and credibility. Your putting those facts in WAF is brave and sobering. When I have an argument with someone about this issue, I refer them to your book. I now have something credible and solid to rely on and point to. You've made an impact in the world.
I read about past scholars and authors from Islamic history, some legendary and influential thinkers, and one thing I noticed is that some of the greatest minds of the past were impelled by finding themselves in a sea of decay and ignorance. Without that, their genius might have been buried by complacency and indifference. That applies to you IMO: what drove you to put out some of your impressive books is being surrounded by stupidity and ignorance and wickedness. They seem to bring out the intellectual fighter inside. Like the Terminator said in Terminator 3, after seeing John Connor feel despair and then deliberately pissing him off and getting an angry reaction: "Good. Anger is more useful than despair."
Cherith-
Thank you. In future, pls provide links or refs that substantiate yr arguments. For the most part, this is not an "air your opinion" blog.
I was not motivated by anger, BTW. It was actually curiosity: in the case of all my work, the motive has been to figure out why cultures/people behave the way they do.
mb
More crazy Karens for all to see. LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms4PdXGgcjw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmVcKKhWMZE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZW_4R9C0vg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C5fuM2BjJI
Sorry for breaking the 24 rule, just adding links to my previous comment. When I talked about past Islamic scientists and the troubled (sometimes catastrophic) eras and circumstances they were born in, I meant people like Ibn Khaldun (another source but in Arabic) and Ibn Taimia. One of the great Arab philosophers of the modern era is Malek Bennabi and in his book The Question of Culture he discusses the disconnect between Ibn Khaldun and the society he was born in.
Cherith, I think Americans hold on to their opinions with such veracity because they have nothing else to believe in. We're right and you're wrong help them make meaning of the world and give them something to ground their miserable lives in. When challenged, they go nuts because their IDs are grounded in what they believe.
Quotes on the state of America from "Infinite Country", a great novel about the experiences of an immigrant family from Bogota.
"'This country[America} doesn't know it's dying', Mauro said as they watched the news after dinner. 'It's not the country we want, but it's the country we deserve', Perla answered.
"What was it about this country {America} that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous week an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers ... A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise."
down-
As a courtesy to other Wafers, you always wanna provide a link:
https://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Country-Novel-Patricia-Engel/dp/1982159472/ref=sr_1_1?crid=38LCBF4GVJCOU&dchild=1&keywords=infinite+country&qid=1634509571&s=books&sr=1-1
Next time, I guess.
mb
Wafers-
Apparently Hillary has been drinking the blood of children. And she's not even Jewish!
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/17/eva-wiseman-conspirituality-the-dark-side-of-wellness-how-it-all-got-so-toxic
mb
I guess information about the perils of compound interest was not
available at the schools they attended.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/meet-married-couple-130-000-100000540.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbDnAlqcSpY
Many local Republican governments are purging Republican officials who won't peddle the lie that Trump won the election. Although this is fascistic, it also tells me the party knows exactly what it stands for and what it wants to accomplish, and will grow stronger in the coming years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcDC3dDzeZE
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party can't decide what it stands for or what it wants to accomplish. From what I've gathered, it's split into three factions: the progressives (e.g., Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez), the neoliberals (e.g., Nancy Pelosi), and those who agree with 99% of the Republican agenda (e.g., Joe Manchin). Because the party is so divided and chaotic, I don't see it being a significant influence in the coming years.
Nadine-
Even so, it's not clear Trumpi will win in 2024--tho it's certainly possible. What I think is extremely likely is that in the midterm elections, the Dems will get their asses thoroughly kicked. This will add to the dilemma you pointed out: they don't really stand for anything at all. Obama's 8 yrs are a gd example of this: he just wanted to be president; he had no plan or vision beyond that, and the 8 yrs now look like empty space. If Hillary had won in 2016, it wd have been more of the same (altho according to some sources she is apparently killing young Christian children, draining their blood, and baking it into matzoh). Meanwhile, Biden has 13 mos. to get his agenda passed...and I tend to think he won't be successful. After Nov. 2022, he'll just be a lame duck. Which wd mean more floating in nowhere land.
mb
Tunisian authorities have arrested a journalist after he read lines from a popular poem on television by a renowned poet about “dictators in Arab countries and how they treat their people”.
https://nehandaradio.com/2021/10/06/tv-host-arrested-after-reading-poem-about-dictators/
Wouldn't see this sort of thing here..
No academic reference here, just a tweet that made me laugh in that sad sick way America's truth can do-
https://twitter.com/honeystaysuper/status/1449789376003780608
"This country's whole vibe is feeling threatened by people who are absolutely no threat to you and cheering on the people who'd push you in front of a train if it meant they could have the last cookie"
Hello Wafers:
Um, Armand?
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/sep/27/senior-cia-officials-trump-discussed-assassinating-julian-assange
Doctor,
I have a request. In addition to my “Karen Sunday”, may I add a “Road Rage Monday” to start off the new week? Just think, Doctor. USAins lead such miserable, shitty lives. And they always are angry. So it goes without saying they aggressively take out their anger and violence on the road to wherever they are going—their shitty jobs that they hate, a fast food joint, the shopping mall, some sporting event, the local Walmart, the bar, a convenience store, or wherever—inside especially their macho pickup trucks, Hummers, SUV’s, and all those other big, heavy, high-off-the-ground monstrosities they drive.
Also, to be fair to our Karens here in our U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, most of the violent road rage attacks are perpetrated by men. Some result in deadly shootings that, along with the mass shootings, contribute to the decline of the population ( a declinist’s dream) in this violent disgraceful society. So if I may, here is a premiere featuring just a few of the previous week’s road rage incidents:
https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/crime/2021/10/16/couple-threatened-after-witnessing-road-rage-incident/8487184002/
https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/shooter-fires-at-car-with-children-inside-during-road-rage-incident-on-i-96-in-detroit
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/new-mexico/articles/2021-10-16/police-driver-fatally-shot-in-apparent-road-rage-incident
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/67-year-old-arlington-man-arrested-charged-in-road-rage-incident/2770908/
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/north-fulton-county/video-shows-man-punch-woman-through-car-window-road-rage-incident/QKTKDANYAFCDDMRVIUNI4WU7OI/
Dear Dr. Berman,
Below is a nice video about the negative effects of AI on us (the speaker talks about how many technologies are not neutral which you have also discussed in some of your writings):
Rajiv Malhotra's Milestone book Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Power presented at the united nations conference :Ethics of Artificial Intelligence - Exploring Pluri - Perspectives by Swami Sarvapriyananda ji, resident Swami and head of the Vedanta Society of New York. In this monologue he goes on to explain the biased view of human and human spirituality coming out of AI and Big tech algorithms. Rajiv Malhotra's book Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Power unmasks the inner workings and end goals of AI that stem from a for profit motive, ultimately aiming to engage every human and sell their behavior as a product. Time stamps: 00:00 - Introduction 02:01 - AI & hijacking your Attention ? 06:31 - Technologies are not neutral 10:22 - AI and Altruism 12:58 - AI and Maximization of Desires 16:06 - Conclusion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8IYaY4aOV0
Himanshu
Joe-
Bring it on!
mb
https://www.amazon.com/Arriving-Today-Factory-Everything-Changed/dp/006298795X/
Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door -- Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy
^ A damning account of hyper-capitalism and our culture of runaway consumerism
Closeness Without Community
Musings on small-world networks and their implications
https://appliedcomplexity.substack.com/p/closeness-without-community
Yes to this. I would trade the Internet for knowing my neighbors on a first name basis in a heartbeat. Not that it would come to that (or even be necessary) but still.
Shaw, Kia-
I'm with you. The damage that hi-tech communication, and virtual reality, has done to human relationships is incalculable. We live in an age of technological brilliance w/o any human purpose for it, wh/is as good a description of America as any. Someone like Bill Gates comes out of the American ethos (one biography is titled "Hard Drive") and deepens its worst features--alienation, dumbing down, loss of empathy and connection, and absence from real life. While being adored by most Americans--what a surprise. And of course, a close buddy of Pinker's (gag response here).
mb
I recognize the teacher described in this essay. He taught me Latin in a small Southern high school in the 1960s, whose language staff consisted of two teachers. His department colleague taught me French. I daresay neither would have recognized the modern classroom, understood what has happened here, or could explain why.
https://quillette.com/2021/10/17/my-father-teacher/
Big Tech is replacing human artists with AI
https://erikhoel.substack.com/p/big-tech-is-replacing-human-artists
On High Tech - the internet may have had the chance to be something worthwhile in the beginning. But like everything else in America, it got monetized and commercialized and it's aim became not to facilitate information real people could use to better their lives but to be a source of more profit for multi-billionaires. Has anything in America ever survived its association with capitalism?
One more quote about all this from "Infinite Country" by Patricia Engel: "Mauro told Elena the news abroad showed a United States scorching with civilian massacres as bad or worse than Columbia's ghastliest days of warfare, where ordinary American citizens were more heavily armed than any guerilla or paramilitary fighter ever was. And was it true - he asked - the stories of cities contaminated by the water supply, children killed by police with impunity, communities left to fend for themselves against natural disasters ... ?
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Infinite-Country/Patricia-Engel/9781982159474
Hornet, down-
America, and capitalism, have the ability to turn anything into a pile of shit.
Jas-
I also had a high schl teacher who inspired me, made a great impact on my life. He's long gone now, but if he were to enter a modern classroom, I think he wd lose his lunch. To look out over a sea of buffoons is not an inspiring sight.
mb
The Iraqis got it right: goodbye to a war criminal:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/18/colin-powell-iraq-reaction-death
mb
Powell, along with the rest of W's criminal gang, should have been serving life sentences for the hell they unleashed. All things being equal, Trump was a rank amateur in terms of overall destruction compared to Bush. It's not even close.
Along those lines, if you want to have your breath taken away, check out the 'news' coverage from FOX the night the war started (if you can stomach it):
https://youtu.be/uQd5ZIwObmQ
Look at how smugly assured of ourselves we were. Americans good. Iraqis bad. Bill O'Reilly bringing you 'Fair and Balanced' coverage of a war-crime with the production vibe of a fucking Superbowl Sunday.
"Hey look, 5% off the Sizzler buffet for every Iraqi town we destroy! Let's stop by on our way home from Red Lobster!"
I hope future scholars really see how Trump was symptomatic of a disease, not the malady itself.
Louis-
Most Americans admire Powell, regard him as a hero.
mb
Americans are the most caring and courageous people on the planet:
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/577131-passengers-failed-to-intervene-as-woman-was-raped-on-train
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/18/politics/colin-powell-dies/index.html
Here, CNN waxes nostalgic about all the allegedly wonderful things the late Colin Powell accomplished. No mention of the 1 million people he helped murder and the millions he helped displace. By glorifying this war criminal and many others, CNN reveals just how committed to liberalism and democracy it really is. And the other supposedly liberal American media outlets aren't any better.
And this theatrical glorification of Colin Powell by the "liberal" media is enough for most "liberal" Americans to forget his misdeeds and view him as a hero. That these same media outlets were roasting him during the days of Bush Jr. doesn't matter a whit. This is totally Orwellian, and a sure sign that America has completely lost its mind.
There's always ample room at the bottom of US society.
Take a look to see how it is done.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=living+on+the+minimum+wage
Psychoanalysis doesn’t work
Sigmund Freud was a writer, not a doctor
https://unherd.com/2021/10/psychoanalysis-doesnt-work/
Well written piece
Zig-
Over the past few yrs I read 2 or 3 articles that showed that the poorest and most oppressed in America were the most patriotic. Typical comments were "This is the best system, because everyone has a chance." Sorry I don't have the ref.
mb
Dr. Berman,
I'm afraid I have to disagree with your stance on the commuters who did nothing while a woman was being raped. Don't you know they'll probably tell you they're fine progs who believe violence solves nothing. Why I bet you they're probably planning the protest march at the train station as I write.
Stay safe all.
Arthur-
Apparently a # of commuters made videos of the rape w/their cell fones, but not one of them dialled 911.
Wrath-
Well, it's not so simple. That wd be a long discussion, and I'd prefer to stick to the collapse of empire.
mb
Hello Wafers,
Another street petition highlighting the general cluelessness out there, this time to "Save the Triceratops"
https://youtu.be/KFuFqA4CG78
AMLO Is Nationalizing Mexico’s Lithium Supply
https://jacobinmag.com/2021/10/amlo-morena-cfe-federal-commission-lithium-nationalization-energy-independence/
Hmm, hope this is good for you guys Mr MB! Sometimes I'm really impressed with AMLO, others times not so much.
Coco Chanel-
Yeah, he's a mixed bag, I agree.
vso-
The fact that Joe Rogan hunted down an extinct reptile fills me with horror.
mb
Tech advice for incels everywhere:
https://www.fleshlight.com/?locale=en
and
oculus.com
re: Road Rage - check out a fat psychotic Russell Crowe
https://youtu.be/3xIO18Du5aY
Gunnar-
I'll hafta order Unhinged on Netflix, because I like to see Americans in action. Meanwhile, I think it's time 4u 2 freshen up yr post-it:
DEGRADED BUFFOONS
That shd hold you for a while.
mb
A true American....
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/creator-of-worlds-most-effective
I had to leave the room in order to remain employed after a coworker waxed poetic about how great he was today.
Revealed: more than 120,000 US sites feared to handle harmful PFAS ‘forever’ chemicals
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/17/us-epa-pfas-forever-chemicals-sites-data
Neflix cranks out these documentaries, but nothing really changes.
https://www.organicconsumers.org/blog/devil-we-know-how-dupont-poisoned-world-teflon
The Intercept has had articles on this for years.
https://theintercept.com/2021/10/19/pfas-epa-water-dupont-chemours/
Tef-
Nice thought. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
Flab-
I guess urinating on his shoes was not an option?
mb
This is good:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/19/texas-holocaust-curriculum-schools-hb-3979
#1 Horse's Ass in America:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/oct/19/kanye-west-changes-name-ye
I can't get over how stupid he looks.
mb
Out of 185 countries with available data, the United States and Papua New Guinea are the only ones whose citizens are entitled to no paid parental leave. https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2?abVariantId=1&campaign_id=134&emc=edit_db_20211019&instance_id=43240&nl=debatable&productCode=DB®i_id=45616064&segment_id=72077&te=1&uri=nyt%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter%2Fdba0a25e-7bd2-5a05-a139-49a1dddc88a2&user_id=147d2233e5db88a2ba802c51e18ed6f5
Neo-feudalism at its best!
It's haunting to go back and watch the footage of American politicians and broadcasters all beating the war drum in 2003.
https://youtu.be/1Z3f_p_7OeE
All the pro forma attempts to get Saddam to 'disarm' via UN resolution would be comical in retrospect if they weren't so chilling. Knowing that this tap-dancing produced an Iraqi body-count in the hundreds of thousands fills me with a sadness I can't really express.
Families destroyed. Parents grieving. Graves being dug around the clock.
I'm quite convinced that W's presidency will go down as the most destructive in America's history.
Doctor,
Thank you for allowing the weekly showing of Road Rage Monday which premiers next week. Here is a sneak preview, just a small sampling, of what we all can expect to see. The outright heated rage of USAins definitely is manifested on the roads and highways. That being said, there never is a dull moment here in our great U.S.A.!, U.S.A!. U.S.A.!
What do you think, Doctor? Is this guy one of those “Professional Drivers on Closed Course” that you see in the fine print on those idiotic television commercials? Or someone who has ( like most USAins) anger issues? LOL!
https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021/10/19/chp-in-pursuit-of-sedan-involved-in-several-road-rage-incidents/
GSWH:
Robotic and armament firms are expanding on your idea of arming everyone in the USA by creating a robotic dog with a gun strapped to its back. And potentially with a silencer so no one can tell where the shots are coming from!
What can possibly go wrong!
https://youtu.be/-zWIN2sdDQU
When they add flamethrowers and Stinger missiles to them they will put Cerberus in retirement.
Anjin-
This shd serve to wipe out large segments of the population, altho I think it wd be more effective if the dog were carrying a nuclear weapon. Are these firms declinists? That wd be interesting...
Joe-
Road Rage + weaponized dogs: this is what America has come to. (Not to overlook Jewish Space Lasers.) Onward, into the Abyss!
mb
You think it is rough being oppressed and exploited when being part
of the suffering working poor! Not much fun for the deluded patriotic
class above them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tamC-M8TxtY
Zig-
Interesting article, but in future, pls wait the full 24 hrs since yr previous post to post again. Thanks.
mb
Wafers-
I'm w/Trumpi on this one:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/19/politics/donald-trump-colin-powell-death/index.html
mb
Powell apologizing for his part in justifying the invasion of Iraq is like a child saying he's sorry after setting fire to his family home, knowing full well when he lit the match what would happen. A little late General.
down-
Pls send messages to most recent post; no one reads the older stuff. Also, pls avoid sending in pure opinion messages. This blog is abt evidence, not pure opinion. Thank you.
Unknown-
Sorry, I don't post Unknowns.
mb
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