March 13, 2022

Eminent Post-Victorians

Wafers-

It is with some joy that I can announce the publication of my new book, Eminent Post-Victorians. I'm very happy with this; it was a labor of love, and (I think) represents some of my best writing to date. It's similar to my book on the Italians, Genio, except in this case it deals with the galaxy of British writers and thinkers prominent during the first half of the 20C: Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, Graham Greene, Isaiah Berlin, and the like. I hope you enjoy it.

https://www.amazon.com/Eminent-Post-Victorians-Portraits-Morris-Berman/dp/B09TYW8HXY/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1647180715&sr=1-26

192 Comments:

Blogger Jamie said...

I’m extremely excited to read your latest work! Just purchased. Are you saying it’s even better than Neurotic Beauty, my personal favorite of your writing and a true masterpiece?

This is perfect timing because I just finished Bethany Ball’s Pessimist. Chapter 12 is worth the cost of the book. Her excoriating take on the upper middle class life of elites in the suburbs rings terrifying accurate. Great recommendation, Dr Berman.

Again, congratulations on your latest work. It will be true manna for those of us who prefer ideas over ideology.

11:11 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jamie-

Thanks! I'm hoping for sales in the millions (ha ha). EPV is a very different sort of bk from NB. NB was an attempt to lay bare the workings of an entire culture by direct analysis. EPV does something similar for the Brits during 1900-50, but by vignettes, cameos of remarkable people. Of all of my works, it's the only one I wd describe as 'sweet'. I have enormous affection for people like Graham Greene, or Lytton Strachey, and I think this shows thru. Beyond that, and beyond being geniuses, most of them were struggling to live authentic lives in the teeth of a culture that was inauthentic. Which is why they are my heroes; I'm struggling to do the same thing, and as Wafers know from personal experience, it ain't easy.

Thanks again, amigo-
mb

12:19 PM  
Anonymous jimofolym said...

How do I order the book from a source other than Amazon? I'd prefer to get it from the publisher directly.

2:05 PM  
Anonymous Cherith Cutestory said...

-- Umair Haque is great when he writes about economics, but his pieces on Russia/Ukraine are awful: he bases his information 100% on Western MSM (aka propaganda) and believes every one of them at face value. Result: a comically black and white depiction of the current war. He paints Putin as the devil, who wants nothing but worldwide destruction and fascism, a man who produced Brexit, elevated Trump to the white house, and a myriad other things only God can do. How can someone usually calculated think like this? Is it emotion? Or is Western media truly The Matrix from which few (read: Wafers) can wake up? Sad. These disenchantments are another casualty of wars.


-- Congrats Dr. Berman on publishing this book and thank you for enriching human culture. On to the next :)

2:38 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Cherith-

Here's the downlow: America consists of 332 million sheep, wh/includes Umair, and 175 Wafers + Native Americans who think differently. My latest bk is abt brilliant Brits who didn't want to be sheep.

jim-

Turns out, Amazon *is* the publisher. Here's the story: I pitched the bk to a couple of publishers, and they said: "Great piece of work, but it won't make us millions of dollars, wh/is what we are all abt." I was, in short, crushed like a roach. Self-publishing was clearly the only option. Sorry, amigo.

mb

4:30 PM  
Anonymous Rust said...

Social media is packed with what Orwell called bellyfeel, a “blind, enthusiastic acceptance” for escalation rhetoric from neocon warriors like David Frum, reprising his “Axis of Evil” performance, now for the delight of blue-staters who used to hate him.


Taibbi on how Orwell Was Right:

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/orwell-was-right?s=w&utm_medium=web

7:00 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Rust-

There's a paywall rt in the middle. Also Orwellian?

mb

7:46 PM  
Anonymous Joe Reedholm said...

Did not find a paywall to Taibbi. Hope that means it was a snafu.

11:13 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Art rage? Think about this, Doctor and Wafers. A stabbing at an art gallery. Even supposedly “intelligent” USAins are violent. Once again, it gets wackier every single day in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbCXMVHXIhk

The more normal things, however, like this riffraff shooting of homeless persons happen more routinely.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/2-homeless-men-in-manhattan-killed-in-apparent-targeted-shooting-spree-cops/3596277/

And of course the roads are as violent as ever.
https://www.local10.com/news/local/2022/03/12/police-driver-shoots-out-window-of-car-during-road-rage-incident-in-sunrise/
https://www.wfla.com/news/pinellas-county/man-shot-during-road-rage-incident-on-howard-frankland-bridge-fhp-says/

But ain’t life here sweet in this land of exceptionalism? After all, we’re #1! We’re #1! We’re #1! So let’s all wear our smiley buttons. :)

p.s. Thanks, Doctor. I promptly ordered your latest book. I can’t wait to read it.

11:39 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

Maybe something by Picasso set him off; who knows? Or perhaps Dada got his goat. Meanwhile, enjoy EPV.

mb

1:44 AM  
Anonymous Rockwell N. Role said...

Do you readers know Tawney?
https://www.google.com/search?q=r.h.+tawney+equality+&rlz=1CAHKDC_enCA922&sxsrf=APq-WBuXG_blRI5C-zsNrDetl3ICXUvyKw%3A1647238057670&ei=qdsuYobHKKfO0PEP9fqOqAo&ved=0ahUKEwjGv6b698T2AhUnJzQIHXW9A6UQ4dUDCA4&oq=r.h.+tawney+equality+&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAwyBAgjECcyBQgAEIAEMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjoHCAAQRxCwA0oECEEYAEoECEYYAFC4CVjuEWD1KmgBcAF4AIABdYgB5gWSAQMxLjaYAQCgAQHIAQXAAQE&sclient=gws-wiz

Then there's was G. B. Shaw, also from late 19th century.

Not to be missed is a lunatic from America, who has THE solution in
a flashlight, the Bible, and the US Constitution. This short 5-min
video depicts a strange distortion of what Wafers sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTqij7GJMP0

2:14 AM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwTIIHE6sOA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36X7bczhClQ
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/walmart-satanic/

More examples of American dementia: a Karen who thinks M&M packaging is leading people down the road to hell, another Karen who thinks Walgreens is run by Satan, and a Catholic priest who thinks Walmart is selling Satanic products. Apparently, some Americans love consumer products so much that they imbue them with religious significance. If something doesn't appeal to them, they think Satan is responsible. What pathetic, degraded buffoons!

11:33 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

I don't have any trouble believing Walmart is selling Satanic products; but I'm not sure what those products are. Perhaps Jewish Space Lasers?

mb

12:21 PM  
Anonymous GoFundMe said...

What do you think of the concept of volunteering, donations, and GoFundMe in the current times? What I mean is, some people see a story in the news, then they want to support the cause by donating money online. This is happening now in Ukraine, with individuals sending money. I think the whole thing is stupid, there are bigger issues and it's just a way for people to feel that they're doing something, when in reality their country caused the entire mess.

Here's one that my coworkers shared, just as one of infinite numbers of examples of charity type things today.

https://thechurchofgrace.us/#donate

1:54 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Go-

Who was it that said that charity was the bourgeois form of justice?

mb

2:06 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...

Museum membership revoked, USian couldn't see Van Gogh's Starry Night, so, you stab people.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-2636897/Surveillance-cam-shows-stabbing-attack-MoMA-employees.html

https://nypost.com/2022/03/14/moma-stabbing-suspect-gary-cabana-says-he-lost-it-blames-victims-for-loss-of-membership

First, it was denial of seeing Starry Night causing a shit fit; next, it will be the denial of Chicken Sandwiches.

3:21 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dr. Shit-

A true American wd have pulled out a gun and blown all museum personnel away. This knife business is trivial. And MOMA is long overdue to start serving chicken sandwiches, in regular or suppository form.

mb

3:26 PM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

Stolen boat in California. American schmuck/hustler/huckster cannot stop marketing/advertising the company during the "news" interview. Americans cannot help themselves from being complete assholes.

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

Can the US empire please just go away?

6:11 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

This American Life:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/asian-woman-punched-125-new-york-attack-suspect-charged-attempted-murd-rcna19984

9:28 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

This is from Thich Nhat Hanh, "Silence":

"When we listen to music, read a bk, or pick up a newspaper, it's usually not because we truly need that activity or information. We often do it mechanically...[to] fill up the discomfiting sense of empty space. We may do it to avoid encountering ourselves. Many of us are afraid of going home to ourselves because we don't know how to handle the suffering inside us. That's why we're always reaching for more and more sense impressions to consume."

This is a perfect description of 332 million Americans, plagued by internal emptiness and suffering, and seeking to hide from it with hustling, competition, cell fones, and all kinds of addictions and toxic behavior. But what Hanh says also applies to the country at large, a country that has no spiritual center, and to hide its internal emptiness reaches out for more and more power, money, and other nations to oppress. Our internal suffering becomes the suffering of other nations in the form of war, because we are spiritual cowards, and really, dummies.

I was also reading Robt Frost's "The Gift Outright," wh/he read at JFK's inaugural. "The land was ours before we were the land's..." His idea of our becoming the land's was the Revolutionary War. OK, sure. But this ignores the larger issue, one that Native Americans always had, of listening to the land rather than trying to dominate it. In this sense, we were never the land's. All we have done since 1776 is build highways and strip malls; dominating the land, in short; ruining it. And we do this to cover up the hollow roar at the center.

America will go to its death not understanding this.

mb

10:14 PM  
Anonymous Tim I said...

Was the decade that fascinates me the most, the supposedly insignificant, uneventful 1970s, THE watershed moment for American empire?:

"How did a decadent ruling class become a national security risk, an existential threat to the American empire? The answer lies in the 1970s, when the weaknesses of the midcentury American social contract were exposed through stagflation, the energy crisis, and the disastrous Vietnam War.

In response, America’s political elites embraced privatization, deregulation, massive tax cuts for the wealthy, the outsourcing of industrial jobs, and the financialization of the economy. Inequality has skyrocketed ever since, and much of the United States has experienced a steady decline while a handful of major cities, including Washington, have become hyperwealthy and almost unaffordable through the concentration of financial, tech, and media monopolies and their affiliated lobbyists."

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/02/the-american-empire-is-the-sick-man-of-the-21st-century/

10:21 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Tim-

Gd essay. Nice to see political analysts catching up to what I was saying in 2000. As far as the 70s go, however, Jimmy was trying valiantly to reverse the course of American history, and the American people weren't having it. They preferred the Disney version, touted by Ronnie, who was peddling cultural suicide in the form of a (pseudo-)renaissance. "Morning in America" was in fact Mourning in America. While since 2000, various pundits have been giving us anodynes to reverse our trajectory, I have stated the obvious for 22 yrs: "It's over, fer chrissakes."

mb

10:48 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Only in America dept.:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/14/boy-3-accidentally-shoots-mother-chicago-suburb

11:54 PM  
Anonymous Peace said...

Mr. Berman,

You said that living an authentic life in a culture that is inauthentic is not easy. I have also had same experience and I guess so do Wafers like us who are trying to find truth/peace/etc in this shitty world surrounded by morons. It takes quite a bit of years from your life i guess as its stressful to be in this state and also it tends to get lonely. By lonely I mean like even among people you will find that you are lonely in terms of your thinking. Most people nowadays seem to be attached to things and have lost touch with self. They derive happiness from buying things and have no ability to appreciate good music/books/art etc. Whenever I meet people, the talk is mostly about how to be successful and buy better things. I try to avoid them as they don’t add any value to your life but then these are the people I grew up with and they weren’t like this growing up.

Mr. Berman, you have strived to live an authentic life and as you said its not easy. Can you please elaborate on your experience, how you coped, how you kept focus on what mattered to you ? Also do you have any regrets when you look back on life and what would be your advice to young Wafers who are trying to live an authentic life?

12:05 AM  
Anonymous Megan said...

Here is a really interesting essay (with insightful commentary) by Spengler on "The Two Russias" Spengler has been proven right on so many things, that it is probably not wise to bet against him on this topic either. I think he is on to something, with his idea of the "true Russia", and the "pseudomorphic Russia." In any case, I miss "Metanarratives" like this. I think it's a shame that we have all but abolished the metanarrative from academia. And with the death of the metanarrative, we also have the loss of people like Spengler (Or Jacob Burckhardt) who are masters of vasts swaths of knowledge--History, Art, politics, religion, philosophy, architecture, etc. I know a very bright PHD (In Sanskrit Studies, who had no idea who Cicero was, after I'd mentioned him. This is the result of hyper-specialization.

This thickly accented talk is also interesting. I've read several books by and about Dugan ("The American Empire Should Be Destroyed" is a good one.), and he is certainly a charismatic and fascinating figure!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGunRKWtWBs

12:15 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

And once again, it gets wackier here! LOL! Dr. and Wafers, ya just gotta love it! Check out this buffoon who has it out for parking meters!
https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2022/03/14/philadelphia-man-vandalized-parking-kiosks-toothpicks/

The rage continues on the roads: both in cars and on buses.
https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2022/03/14/brittallia-semaan-new-castle-delaware-woman-arrested-carjacking-killing-pedestrian-crash/
https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2022/03/14/septa-suspect-assaulting-pregnant-woman-bus/

And they’re learning to shoot and kill at a younger age here!
https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2022/03/13/phil

12:49 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

Philly is what I wd call a Buffoon-Rich Environment (BRE).

Peace-

These two might help:

Eminent Post-Victorians: Portraits of Genius: Berman, Morris: 9798430871062: Amazon.com: Books

Spinning Straw Into Gold: Straight Talk for Troubled Times (2013) Paperback: Berman, Morris: 9781635610536: Amazon.com: Books

Also: leave the country. Seriously. It can only get worse.

mb

2:29 AM  
Anonymous Harold T said...

A 93-year-old woman couldn't pay her $2,300 property tax bill. So the government seized her home, sold it, and kept the profits.

https://reason.com/2022/03/11/a-93-year-old-woman-couldnt-pay-her-2300-tax-bill-the-government-sold-her-home-and-kept-the-money/

10:56 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Harold-

That's gd, but if they were true Americans, they wd have gunned her down like a dog, in the street.

Wafers-

My latest bk contains a discussion of the Vietnam war, in the chapter on Graham Greene. Here's some additional material:
1. Robt McNamara admitted it was a mistake; that we interfered in a civil war that had 0 to do w/communism. In effect, that VN was never a threat to us.
2. He knew he was a war criminal, and the guilt was killing him. Late in life, he cd be seen walking the streets of DC in a trench coat, a haunted man.
3. Ho Chi Minh's hero was President Truman.
4. Muhammed Ali: "I ain't got nothin' against them Viet Cong."

mb

11:32 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Am I supposed to give a shit abt this?:

https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/rihanna-snaps-up-her-neighbors-house-for-10-million-226768

I'm so excited!

mb

2:49 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

MB-

Congrats on your new book. I will read it very soon.

MB, Wafers-

Drinking wine w/o flavor dept.:

A water gun? Why didn't she just blow away her neighbor w/a .357 Magnum?:

https://www.wkbn.com/news/national-world/florida-woman-charged-after-neighbor-squirted-with-water-gun/

Miles

4:29 PM  
Anonymous and now this said...

"Grimes Ditching Elon Musk For Chelsea Manning Has The Internet Questioning Reality"

https://globalcirculate.com/grimes-ditching-elon-musk-for-chelsea-manning-has-the-internet-questioning-reality/

What kind of elite club are they all part of? Like once you're world famous, you get to join some underground meeting?

4:40 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

That's gotta be the dumbest thing around. Check out her face: America!

mb

4:41 PM  
Blogger Xair said...

Mb,
Quite the opposite of Emminent Post-Victorians.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/russian-tennis-players-forced-denounce-26471612

8:14 PM  
Anonymous Frederic said...

U.S. companies are rushing to suspend or curtail operations in Russia. Not Koch Industries.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/u-s-companies-are-rushing-to-suspend-or-curtail-operations-in-russia-not-koch-industries-11647286445

Koch got its big boost in the Soviet Union, obv not ready to say bye bye...

8:37 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Xair-

Yeah, ya might say. I guess the Brits learned 0 from their own history. What bozos.

mb

10:10 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Well the Ukraine is one big fucking mess, but actually, I think the leaders are doing the rt thing. Biden is all talk, but he's being prudent, not wanting to trigger WW3. Zelensky is fighting for Ukrainian independence, wh/one wd expect him to do; Putin is fighting to keep NATO and US missiles out of the Ukraine, wh/certainly makes a lotta sense. And there you have it: total stalemate all around. Meanwhile, lotsa folks are suffering, sad to say.

mb

11:01 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

This is kinda neat:

https://www.barrons.com/articles/ancient-gold-coin-marking-julius-caesars-assassination-expected-to-fetch-2m-at-zurich-auction-01647368399?mod=hp_minor_pos31&adobe_mc=MCMID%3D85553272350402348493668610254594544703%7CMCORGID%3DCB68E4BA55144CAA0A4C98A5%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1647400933

11:25 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

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

A very sad story about an Afghani man who has been tortured in Guantanamo Bay for about 12 years, and is still being tortured as we speak...and Americans think they have the right to point fingers at Russia and China and criticize their human rights abuses.

11:51 PM  
Anonymous Matt Reese said...

Black people should not listen to Trump. Fascist talk radio has a
small crew of Black conservatives, who speak ghetto English, and are
used as tools of clever propaganda. How could Walker be so dumb as to
use fundamentalist bunk in his campaign?

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/gop-senate-candidate-herschel-walker-195735348.html

2:53 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Matt-

Well, one might add that bunk is what the whole country is about.

mb

6:38 AM  
Anonymous Namaste said...

Hello Mr. Berman,

Oh my, Tulsi being called a Russian asset and a traitor, lol. Looks like her career as politician is over. What about the Tulsism’s.. maybe we will have to live with just her workout videos... so anybody with a different opinion will be labelled a traitor now..

“Tulsi Gabbard Labeled a 'Russian Asset' for Pushing U.S. Biolabs in Ukraine Claim”
https://www.newsweek.com/tulsi-gabbard-bio-labs-ukraine-russia-conspiracy-1687594

And here’s for some heavy dose of hypocrisy from The Economist..
https://twitter.com/alanrmacleod/status/1504093879661912071?s=21

10:52 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nam-

True, but my 5-vol. study, "Cornerstones of Tulsic Thought," will put her on the map as one of the great thinkers of the 21C. Go, Tulsi!

mb



11:07 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Gunnar-

We try to be more of a discussion forum than a bulletin board. Thank you.

mb

2:30 PM  
Anonymous tobias said...

Read anything by Tobius Churton? I'm interested in the concept that humanity has been on the decline, and rather than evolving to higher states, we've actually been going the wrong direction. So this fits into collapse, but America is just the latest state of collapse.

https://musingmystical.com/the-lost-pillars-of-enoch-by-tobias-churton/

3:01 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

tobias-

Consider this assessment of America by Thich Nhat Hanh (he doesn't actually use the word 'buffoons', but Wafers know that that is what he's talking abt):

"As a civilization we surely have not cultivated the arts of listening and speaking to a satisfactory degree. We don't know how to really listen to each other. Most of us have precious little ability to express ourselves or to listen to others w/openness and sincerity. When we can't communicate, energy gets blocked inside and it makes us sick; and as our sickness increases, we suffer and our suffering spills over onto other people."

mb

3:44 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

Blake Reign, 27, arrested for polishing the bannister inside a Miami Beach Starbucks:

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2022/03/13/man-accused-of-masturbating-at-starbucks-in-miami-beach-police-say/

Well, mounting casualties in Ukraine have moved from hundreds to the thousands and soon may reach into the tens of thousands, sadly. In the First Battle of Kiev, 1941, the Nazis poured 25 divisions in, and killed over 700,00 Russians to produce a victory. A pyrrhic victory, nevertheless, as the Russians would eventually retake Kiev at an ungodly cost in men and material. Russians have a long history of throwing division after division into the maw.

We are three wks into this current conflict, and it continues to widen to the west, threatening to envelop all of Ukraine. Russian forces struck a Ukrainian base six miles from the Polish border, alarmingly close to a NATO red-line border. The ultimate scale of the fighting remains frighteningly unknown, and yet US intervention is *not* desirable. I think Biden, thankfully, knows that there are no easy answers in Ukraine, and that there is no quick and dirty intervention that will produce a Ukrainian victory or save Ukraine w/o risking a terminal world war. Jesus, how long would something like that last? 15-20yrs, sans nukes? In effect, the US is completely hamstrung and constrained to act because, unlike Iraq or Afghanistan, Russia has nukes. By my lights, I see a continued Russian campaign of pulverizing Ukrainian cities w/field artillery and rockets relentlessly. We are going to see a lot more sickening carnage, kidz.

Miles

3:47 PM  
Anonymous Tim I said...

Matt,

Maybe it means Walker will be a lone voice in his party:

https://www.newsweek.com/only-strong-will-survive-american-echoes-dark-past-opinion-1576321

https://www.salon.com/2020/10/20/trump-and-the-right-share-a-social-darwinist-herd-mentality--it-leads-to-widespread-death/

https://medium.com/@newspoet41/social-darwinism-rears-its-ugly-head-b399d08d5402

3:51 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M3vP374wPM
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-mariupol-civilian-deaths-latest-b2036010.html

MB,

Not sure Putin is doing what he should be doing. I understand his security concerns in Ukraine, but he's bombing civilian targets and needlessly arresting tens of thousands of anti-war protesters. Putin has the right to try to do something about NATO trying to rope Ukraine into its orbit, but his brutal tactics are unforgivable. The ends do not justify the means.

4:29 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine, Miles-

Putin certainly is a pretty ruthless guy.

mb

5:21 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: Jeff: a couple of refs wd have been helpful.

6:17 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Biden says he'll supply Ukraine with weaponry. Putin says he'll fire on carriers of such weaponry. Now what?

6:36 PM  
Anonymous Noura said...

MB, Congratulations on your new book!

Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xguam0TKMw8

This video explores the economic collapse of empires from a historical perspective. I like the impersonal nature of the presentation. However, it ends with the obligatory positive spin that decline can be reversed. In theory, it’s true but in reality, it’s not. Just imagine if he advised us to run before it’s too late, lol! His book would probably not be published. It seems that being popular in the world today requires that we tell people what they want to hear, even if it’s not true. It’s really incredible how one can describe the inevitability of a situation in great detail and then invalidate the whole thing with a conclusion that’s out of touch with the content. I wonder if he is trying to convince himself that the situation is not as bad as it seems.

9:04 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

This is what I'm talking abt:

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/15/politics/biden-military-assistance-ukraine/index.html

What happens when these deliveries are shot down by Russian forces? (I hardly believe Putin will do nothing.)

mb

9:51 PM  
Blogger Brian said...

@Dr. Berman
Yeah, the grotesque infantilism regarding this issue is becoming more and more pornographic.

"Do more for Ukraine!
"No fly zone now!"
"Send fighter Jets to Ukraine"!
"Russia is just crazy and Evil"!
"The free world must stand up to tyranny and for humanity!"

How the hell can high functioning adults exist at this spiritual level, It baffles me; it's like the USA leaders are made outta spoiled chicken.
Nancy Pelosi, who I regard as the platonic ideal of Liberal class rightuousness, shows it off here. watch the first 1.5 minutes and the 1.5 minutes of our great representatives clapping for humanity! This is something they all can courageously get down on and get around!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmYT9jLJsM8

10:42 PM  
Blogger Brian said...

Apologies for violating the 24 hour rule (typo on my part)
Wafers should "watch the first 1.5 minutes and the last 1.5 minutes" of the link

11:27 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

What did you say, Ike?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEGpTu8sVKI

Well, Doctor. Schmiden obviously hasn’t paid any attention to Ike. Let the sales begin! Let the profits soar! Capitalism rules!
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2022/03/biden-sends-800m-weapons-ukraine-after-zelenskyys-emotional-appeal/363249/

9:57 AM  
Blogger Jack Lattemann said...

Noura, Ray Dalio ranks #36 on the Forbes Top 400 U.S. billionaires list as founder of Bridgewater, the world’s biggest hedge fund. Dalio talks about reforming capitalism as though it was an engineering exercise. In a recent interview, Dalio called for the healing of the U.S. political divide by rejecting political extremes of left and right. This sounds like another lame appeal to “bipartisan values.” What’s the likelihood of convincing a critical mass of his fellow oligarchs to back an attempted reform effort? Zilch. Too many uncontrollable forces have been unleashed, too extreme a wealth divide. The center is unlikely to hold. Wafers are left with choices to leave or become adept surfers.

www.forbes.com/profile/ray-dalio/?sh=4bbae3e5663a

https://tidmails.com/fortune/ceo-daily-ray-dalios-nightmare-scenario/230621/

10:05 AM  
Anonymous dopamine said...

It's difficult to keep up with trends on screen use, since the situation seems to change by the day. Research now shows that children are putting in 8 hours of screen time a day, and it's probably lots of fast paced clicking on videos, memes, social media, and games. This will only increase as schools, shopping, and social life move online more and more. We will be approaching 16 hours of screen time a day eventually, I'm assuming this to be an upper limit which may be wrong.

Your statistics & forecast pre-2020 are now vastly out-of-date. The situation is going to be far worse, when you have an entire country of kids from age 10+ depressed and on screens 8+ hours a day. What kind of world will this be in 15 years when these kids are starting to run things? The purpose of life will be purely dopamine hits with infinite varieties of options available 24/7.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/screen-time-among-teenagers-during-covid-more-than-doubled-outside-of-virtual-school-study-finds/ar-AAQcmQc

https://www.deseret.com/2022/2/16/22936140/the-next-teen-epidemic-mental-health-covid-pandemic-teen-depression-anxiety

1:56 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

MB-

I have no sources for my latest post. I was just offering an opinion. In terms of US intervention, I should have been more clear and said US troop intervention. I don't think Biden will put US forces on the ground in Ukraine, but I could be wrong. History demonstrates that when military posturing begins, it often takes very little to set the war fires alight. In any case, you're right, the US is massively arming Ukraine, and has been since 2015, and Putin won't stand by while the US beefs up Ukraine's army. He will most likely attack any arms shipments, and has every right to do so, as the US and its allies in NATO have been provoking Russia and using Ukraine as bait for a long time now. The moral hypocrisy of the US is completely staggering.

Miles

ps: The expansion of NATO into Central Europe is "the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold War era."
~ George F. Kennan

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-u-s-decision-to-enlarge-nato-how-when-why-and-what-next/

4:10 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

dopa-

What were my stats and forecast?

mb

4:52 PM  
Anonymous QE said...

Just a reminder to keep up with official government spending. We're $5 trillion into covid spending, and $13 trillion including QE.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/money-printing-and-inflation:-covid-cryptocurrencies-and-more

5:10 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

QE-

What's QE? Pls note that we try to be a discussion forum, not a bulletin board. Some commentary from you would have helped. In future, OK?

mb

6:38 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Is the US courting WW3? How is it possible that Putin won't react strongly to this?:

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/u-s-adds-kamikaze-drones-as-more-weapons-flow-to-ukraine/#:~:text=WASHINGTON%20%E2%80%94%20The%20Biden%20administration%20will,to%20U.S.%20and%20European%20officials.

7:25 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Americans: Gd people!

2 killed, 2 injured in shooting on Florida transit bus - ABC News

Louisiana Student Charged with Hate Crime for Whipping Black Classmate (theroot.com)

Meanwhile, will someone tell me what these powerful women are doing w/their day? When they get up in the morning, exactly what is it that they do? As Americans, we have a rt to know! (If it's beating off, let them say so.)
-Tulsi
-Kamala
-Sarah (Palin)

mb

7:43 PM  
Anonymous Skram said...

Dr B.,

I sadly remind your faithful readers and fellow Wafers this is number two and three in line should old Joe say: "Fuck it, I'm too old for this shit"...


https://youtu.be/jnymxGYSNhg

8:04 PM  
Anonymous Chuck Steak said...

A mere 48 years ago when a number of Wafers saw the truth of it all.
Were they able to explain why they all stood and applauded heartily?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32GaowQnGRw

9:48 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Skram-

That clinches it. She's a douche baguette, a moron. And really, a nonentity: an empty person (like most Americans). She not only knows 0, she has no idea what she's doing on this planet. Is she even on this planet? I barf on her.

mb

10:18 PM  
Anonymous Grieg said...

"A fascinating, groundbreaking exposé of how commodity traders in New York and London have destabilized societies all over the world, leaving the most vulnerable at the mercy of hunger, chaos, and war."

This is a disturbingly prescient book that Wafers will ironically enjoy.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622647/price-wars-by-rupert-russell/

10:32 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Meanwhile, I'm trying to think of a reason why Kamala's head shdn't be held under water for 10+ minutes, and I can't. Any ideas?

10:51 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

Skram,

Pelosi can't explain what's happening either. She and Kamala must be two of the dumbest people on the planet. As for Biden, he can string together a proper sentence and offer plausible explanations, but it's clearly a difficult task for him. He often seems like he recently woke up from a coma. It's hard to believe these people were elected to public office.

12:09 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

Our leaders are jokes; buffoons. From a declinist pt of view, it wd be fab if Kamala became president. She's little more than a clown.

mb

2:32 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

And still more wackier road rage here in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
When you can’t get your hands on a firearm, use a BB gun.
https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/road-rage-woman-shot-in-the-forehead-with-bb-gun-three-arrested-say-state-police

Or just run the person over.
https://ktul.com/news/local/road-rage-incident-leads-to-outrage

Now this is funny! Researchers in Texas are trying to figure out what makes USAins angry on the road down there in that pathetic red state with their unique form of justice. Any thoughts, Doctor? Not enough Chick-fil-A’s nearby? Or are drivers perhaps angry because they’re stuck in traffic and can’t make it to the next Joel Osteen prosperity sermon at Lakewood Church? What do you think?
https://abc13.com/houston-crime-road-rage-what-sparks-investigation/11659634/

10:01 AM  
Anonymous Erf said...

Q: How's "defund the police" going with black voters?

A: Not well.

74% of black voters (and 78% of Hispanic voters) want spending on police to increase or hold steady.

Black voters favor *increased* police spending more than white voters: 38% to 32%.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/10/26/growing-share-of-americans-say-they-want-more-spending-on-police-in-their-area/ft_2021-10-25_policefunding_03/

...it's like "defund the police" was only an empty chat from entitled communities that didn't face the violence of out country on a daily basis in their lives!

10:23 AM  
Anonymous Noura said...

Jack – Based on the info you shared, it seems that Ray Dalio’s purpose for writing about economic collapse was to try to reverse it. It’s definitely in his best interest to keep the system going. This is a great example of how America is like a religion, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, we are not allowed to say that it’s over.

Wafers – Just imagine if this interview was conducted in the US:

What Do the Chinese Think of Russia? | Street Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZoxqltgS0Y
“While the world is watching the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war unfold, many countries condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. But what about China, which is supposed to be one of Russia’s biggest allies? We hit the streets of Shanghai to get Chinese citizen’s reaction.”

Translation errors corrected below:
1:05 "I personally think the invasion is quite extreme" should be "I personally think the word 'invasion' is too extreme" 5:10 "We shouldn't step in because this is Ukraine's issue" should be "We shouldn't step in because Ukraine is the one who provoked Russia" 14:36 "First of all, the US has Taiwan's back..." should be "First of all, Taiwan's boss, the US, won't agree to it" edit: adding
6:15 "We won't abandon the situation either" should be "we also won't send weapons to (either Ukraine or Russia)"

10:45 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

I can't get over the stupidity of Kamala Harris (see above). While I'm not surprised to learn that 98.6% of Americans have shit for brains, how is it possible that the Vice President falls into this category as well? The woman is an imbecile.

mb

5:47 PM  
Anonymous Loon said...

Inside Putin’s Head

https://nonzero.substack.com/p/inside-putins-head?s=w

I've always liked Robert Wright, always very even keeled.

I've just started the bio "The New Tsar"

7:24 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

Brass Tacks: Americans are the dumbest people in the history of the world:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzdyx7qJAHI

Miles

7:41 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

And Kamala is one of those people. Why she shdn't be beaten severely and thrown on a dung heap, I can't figure out.

Loon-

Author? Link?

mb

9:39 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDr30pItmI8

Nancy Pelosi might be even dumber than Kamala Harris. Listen to her read this awful poem and tell me she isn't retarded. This is what the Democratic Party stands for: awful poems, empty platitudes, pussy hat marches, 10,000 genders and the destruction of the arts in the name of wokeness. I'm *embarrassed* that so many Americans think this self-indulgence will change the world for the better.

I'm 40, and can't recall the Democratic party ever doing anything about economic or environmental problems in my lifetime. It's always been smoke and mirrors and hollow political theater. Many Americans grew tired of this bullshit and embraced fascism out of sheer frustration, paving the way for Trump's 2016 victory. The Democratic Party could have prevented this by helping the working class, but it loves corporate funding far too much to care about anything else.

9:52 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Unknown-

Sorry, I don't post Unknowns. You need a real handle to participate in this discussion. E.g., Julius V. Fathead.

Nadine-

She's actually a troll. I tell ya, come November...

mb

10:36 PM  
Blogger ccg said...

Yesterday I heard, on the local NPR station (WNYC), a gushy academic mention something about what's called the The Kamala Harris Project. Of course there is such a thing:

https://dornsife.usc.edu/clwoc/kamala-harris-project/

Oddly, that gushy academic made no mention of the fact that Kamala Harris is a blithering idiot. Nor does that website. In fact, there's not much indication from the website that anything is going on with this "project," almost as though it died from lack on interest. But it was just yesterday that I heard about it so soebody must be pushing it along.

It's projects like this that cause me to despise academics as a whole these days. And I say that as an academic myself.



10:10 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

And it gets still wackier! Now dentists are being blown away here in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.! But then again, what do you expect? It happened in Texas.

https://apnews.com/article/shootings-texas-arrests-dallas-tyler-a8a270ebdd6733c9b4febb6ef15bb09b

The guy in the mugshot is so angry he won't smile to show his poorly-done dentures.

11:04 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Sometimes I find the superficiality of Americans terrifying, if not also dazzling. I remember yrs ago, I was camping somewhere, and the guy in the next tent was Canadian. He said he was perplexed by Americans. "There seems to always be a story of the week," he said, "and everyone is in a frenzy about it. A week later, it's completely forgotten, and there's a *new* story of the week."

I think of how we cycle thru one piece of crap after another. Whatever happened to Pet Rock, Baby On Board!, twerking, and now--the Ukraine, wh/most Americans can't locate on a world map. They certainly can't tell you what the war/conflict is abt, and indeed, as we saw earlier (scroll back), neither can Kamala or Nancy. They come off as cartoon characters, in their presentations, and they are the VP and Speaker of the House. The wo/man in the street may be in a frenzy abt it, but they know even less than Kamala. We are, indeed, a nation of jokes.

The best study of the American character by a Canadian probably remains "The Puritan Origins of the American Self," by Sacvan Bercovitch.

mb

3:17 PM  
Anonymous Dr. Shithouse said...


The US empire was taking part in a NATO "exercise" known as 'Cold Response,' which is designed to prepare members of the defensive alliance to protect Norway, and 4 USians died.

Anyone protecting Americans domestically from no universal health care, student loans, employment at will doctrines, living wages, poor infrastructure, FATCA/Citizen-based double taxation, etc.etc.?


https://www.wpxi.com/news/trending/4-us-marines-killed-when-plane-performing-nato-exercises-crashes-norway/7DEODSXI6BFVDO4ZQI2T23WXPE/

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/northamerica/northamerica-top-stories/us-military-plane-crashes-in-norway/ar-AAVfLB5

3:55 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

See-

The presentation on Ukraine by Kamala and Nancy was recorded by Jimmy Dore, posted above. Not the sharpest nail in the box, r.u.?

mb

5:28 PM  
Anonymous Toni said...

Watched 'Network' (1976) last night.
It's one of the edgiest, trippiest, funniest, most subversive movies ever made about American corporate media. A must-watch.
Faye Dunaway got a well-deserved Oscar for playing the sociopathic TV executive.
IMDB 8.1/10.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/

5:37 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

What is it abt Americans, that they never learn anything?:

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/16/us/kenosha-officer-kneel-girl-neck/index.html

5:49 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Meanwhile, the similarity between the guy's face and a horse's ass is remarkable:

https://www.today.com/popculture/kanye-west-barred-performing-grammys-t250638

5:57 PM  
Anonymous Hero said...

Chomsky Is No Friend of the Syrian Revolution
A leading Syrian intellectual takes on the famous linguist, arguing that Americentrism blinds the latter from the reality of the revolution

https://newlinesmag.com/review/chomsky-is-no-friend-of-the-syrian-revolution/

This is a deep and thoughtful reflection by a brilliant man, who spent 16 years in a Syrian prison. Shows how even America's most conscientious of intellectuals are so full of it.

8:11 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Who are the American people, really?Recently, I was reading up on the murder of 4 students at Kent State, 4 May 1970, by the Ohio National Guard (who got off scot-free). Some of you may remember that iconic photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio (who was a runaway, 14 yrs old, and not a student), kneeling/screaming over the dead body of Jeffrey Miller:

https://petapixel.com/2012/08/29/the-kent-state-massacre-photo-and-the-case-of-the-missing-pole/

58% of Americans polled blamed the students for the massacre. Nixon, of course, dismissed them as "bums". The following is online info on the aftermath:

Students from Kent State and other universities often got a hostile reaction upon returning home. Some were told that more students should have been killed to teach student protesters a lesson; some students were disowned by their families.

Florida governor Claude Kirk labelled Vecchio a "dissident communist," stating that she was "part of a nationally organized conspiracy of professional agitators" that was "responsible for the students’ death." The Vecchio family received many death threats. Messages received included, "What you need is a good beating until you bleed red," "I hope you enjoyed sleeping with all those Negroes and dope fiends," and "The deaths of the Kent State four lies on the conscience of yourself."

Neat people, eh?

mb

8:23 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Hero-

Or more to the pt, out of it.

mb

8:26 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ccg-

The case of Kamala is an interesting one, if only for its boredom. Joe picked her because she was a black female, and wd attract the woke vote. I guess it worked; but once the election was over, it wasn't clear what to do w/her, and he hasn't done much. She also doesn't know what to do w/herself, truth be told; and her public appearances suggest that there's really not much to her. She's an empty person, and a silly one as well, wh/makes her representative of a very lg % of the American public. But obviously, that doesn't solve the problem. If she does become pres, she'll continue the Biden pattern: make Cold War, and otherwise tread water. We're fucked either way.

mb

9:15 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: the truth is that Tulsi cd be president, and it wdn't make any difference (beyond making me rich from the sale of my 5-vol. study, "Cornerstones of Tulsism"). Really, at this pt a tuna fish cd be president.

9:19 PM  
Anonymous Tim I said...

You all are forgetting that Kamala Harris was, from the time that the 2016 dust settled, Democrats' preferred candidate for president. Voters weren't impressed (or she was a victim of unfairly being outspent; take your pick), and it came down to Biden and Sanders. However, if she was to assume the presidency and complete Biden's term it would be what was wanted all along.

From 2017:

"The Democratic donor class has their 2020 presidential candidate...it's Kamala Harris"

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/18/1681589/-The-Democratic-donor-class-their-2020-presidential-candidate-it-s-Kamala-Harris?msclkid=7f4fb5bba80d11ec9aaf83352cf2c12c

From late 2020:

"The question now is why Harris' selection was considered desirable. The most obvious reason is that she was in a very real sense the preferred candidate of the Democratic establishment, someone many of us thought had the best shot at winning the party's nomination in 2020."

https://news.yahoo.com/kamala-harris-once-future-queen-213439525.html?msclkid=232f9c80a80c11ec9b61995b2adc5716

1:39 AM  
Blogger Domenico said...

[machine translated:] I must say that as an Italian I appreciated your book on the Italian genius. For my part, I would like to hope that there is still hope, even for those, like me, who live on the outskirts of the Empire. If you don't mind, take a look at a drawing of mine related to the matter.
http://domenicodamicoslastgasp.blogspot.com/2021/09/la-condizione-umana-eh-gia.html

6:16 AM  
Anonymous Himanshu said...

Dear Dr. Berman,

US/NATO continue to get humiliated in the diplomatic space by China:
https://thesaker.is/here-comes-china-and-they-dont-stop/
Excerpts: I particularly enjoyed this vignette: "NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that any support to Russia, military or any other type of support, would actually help Russia conduct a brutal war against an independent sovereign nation, Ukraine, and help them to continue to wage war which is causing death, suffering and an enormous amount of destruction.
This was the comment of the Chinese spokesperson:Chinese people can fully relate to the pains and sufferings of other countries because we will never forget who bombed our embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. China does not need a lecture on justice from the abuser of international law. As a Cold War remnant and the world’s largest military alliance, NATO continues to expand its geographical scope and range of operations. What kind of role has it played in world peace and stability? NATO needs to have a good reflection."
On the topic of Kamala Harris (she is a complete moron IMO) here is a nice imitation of her: https://mobile.twitter.com/Iyervval/status/1503610641407352833
Himanshu

6:44 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Himan-

Kamala is quite simply a dope.

Domenico-

Bellissima! Grazie mille!

mb

7:10 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: "Genio" is being translated into Spanish, but I would love there to be an Italian translation as well. Do you know any publishers in Italy who might be interested? Grazie.

7:13 AM  
Anonymous Wildfire said...

https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/geopolitics/2022/03/the-new-age-of-disorder

The Western mind no longer understands Putin
The belief that liberalism will inevitably prevail is an illusion that Europe must abandon if it is to win a war of his creation.

By John Gray

9:06 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Fire away! Yep. There’s never a dull moment wherever you may happen to be in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/03/19/dumas-arkansas-shooting-outside-car-show/7109558001/
https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-lifestyle-shootings-austin-e4c71be5d7f830fe6eadbca04309dd24
https://apnews.com/article/shootings-maryland-baltimore-0a1afed164bb878854a2502272ac0c78
https://apnews.com/article/crime-shootings-virginia-norfolk-newspapers-8751aec23157e0f9fea3c5715769f22c

And of course our “Back the Blue” boys don’t think twice. They’ll even gun down a 13 year old autistic boy. ( I came across this snippet that never made the national news a couple of years ago.)
https://www.abc4.com/news/top-stories/tell-my-mom-i-love-her-graphic-body-camera-video-shows-police-officer-shooting-autistic-13-year-old-boy/

10:35 AM  
Anonymous subcultures & nostalgia said...

I've noticed that nearly everyone of all ages has retreated in subcultures & nostalgia, based on both isolation & the internet (Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube). I was in a Barnes & Noble yesterday. They refer to themselves as a bookstore but this is misleading, as it's really just a subculture supplier. One aisle has manga, one aisle has 1940s jazz LPs, one aisle has Harry Potter toys, one aisle has cookbooks, one aisle has "green" baby toys for eco friendly mommies, one aisle has tarot cards, one aisle has D&D games, one aisle has high end toy collectables.

https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-fashion-trends-y2k-indie-sleaze-old-money-twee-2022-1?op=1

10:43 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wdn't it be nice to have a VP who wasn't a bag of douche fluid?

11:37 AM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

USian douchebag (redundant) tries to do a comedic sketch in Plano, TX

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/03/18/alex-stein-plano/

How ANYONE can say USA with a straight face is beyond me.

11:54 AM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjuAe3UOcYg

In this installment, Space Lasers Karen proves she's completely full of shit, just like 99.9% of Americans.

12:16 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

Well, I don't think 99.9% of the country was buying Lockheed Martin, but keep in mind that those Space Lasers are Jewish. Nevertheless, she is certainly full of hot dung, while the Lasers cruise the planet looking for little Christian boys to kill. After which, the Jews drain their blood, wh/they use in baking matzoh. I'm waiting for Doug Emhoff to affirm that this is true.

Glans-

Americans are pretty embarrassing, no?

mb

2:40 PM  
Blogger ccg said...

I thought it worthwhile to recall how Tulsi Gabbard essentially destroyed Kamala Harris in the first primary debate:

https://twitter.com/mahyartousi/status/1293457789214490624?lang=en

Kamala never recovered from this and shortly thereafter dropped out of the race. But this begs the question: Why did Joe Biden choose her, someone who basically got no votes in the primary, to be his running mate? Choosing her never made sense me, but then the Democrats do a lot things that don't make any sense.

8:45 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ccg-

Go Tulsi! Kamala got picked as the diversity candidate, i.e. for the woke vote. I guess it worked. But even beyond this Tulsi attack, Kamala's dubious record was outed elsewhere, and earlier.

mb

8:56 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps:

A testament to a country going down the drain. Kamala is a moron and a vile human being, but hey, she's a black woman, and that's all Schmiden needed to know. So neat, how the woke crowd has its priorities straight. And then, we all know how powerful diversity is as an agent of social and political chg, eh?

9:30 PM  
Anonymous Cherith Cutestory said...

It seems to me the US deeply desires WWIII, and if the war doesn't start organically, the US will trigger it deliberately . (The following links are from rt.com, you can open them using VPN or Tor browser).
1) An endless two-pronged provocation campaign against Russia primarily and China (examples: 1, 2, 3). The latest is of US navy commander warning that the US will "fight and win" a war against China.
2) The world is starting to coalesce into 3 main groups: pro-Western, pro-Russian, and neutral. The West is aggressively attacking the third one, threatening and warning countries that they should take sides, even threatening China. So the third group is bleeding into the other 2, with China probably going pro-Russia. Western aggression caused Pakistan to praise India for standing up to the West! China is warning of "unimaginable consequences" if Western countries push a nuclear power into a corner, by which they mean Russia (perhaps implicitly China?).
3) After reading Break It Up, I came to know that the US has been viciously disunited from the start, and nothing could unite people except war. Currently reading The Next Civil War and it's clear the country is on the verge of a massive civil war. Hard right armed groups are bigger and more violent than people expect, and are just itching to start killing.
4) Given that the imminent civil war and US decline, WW3 can - in the eyes of the powers that be - fix the biggest internal problems (uniting people against an external enemy instead of fighting each other) and external ones: a massive show of force, including nuclear attacks, can in their minds frighten China and make them submit (here I recall what Dr. Berman said in Neurotic Beauty about the 2 atomic bombs against Japan being primarily a show of force to scare the USSR).
5) It has started. Russia said it uncovered a planned false flag operation against US diplomats in Ukraine.

3:39 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Cherith-

1. In future, pls don't post as one thick blog; hard to read. Break it up, and make sure you don't exceed half a pg.
2. I don't trust RT, esp. now.
3. I doubt we're on the verge of a civil war just yet. What is likely to trigger it is if Trumpi runs in 2024, loses, and once again claims it was a rigged election.
4. What I said in NB was that scaring Russia was one possibility (Gar Alperovitz). There were other factors involved, esp. technological momentum.

Thank you.
mb

5:16 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Just another new routine week starting off with a mass shooting in the Land of Shit:
https://www.wisn.com/article/1-man-critically-injured-3-other-people-hurt-in-quadruple-shooting/39484534

And of course road anger. It’s not even safe being a tow truck driver.
https://wtop.com/prince-georges-county/2022/03/suspected-us-50-road-rage-shooting-in-maryland-sends-truck-driver-to-hospital/

Many angry USAins flip their cars over and total them anyway. LOL.
https://kutv.com/news/local/road-rage-incident-high-speed-pursuit-ends-in-rollover-crash-in-cache-county

p.s. Doctor, I really enjoyed Eminent Post-Victorians. Thank you for the informative knowledge I have gleaned from it

11:44 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

Well, nothing like a few massacres to start the day off, I always say. As for EPV: so glad u liked it. If the spirit moves you, think abt posting a short review on Amazon. I'd enjoy having more readers. But only if you really wanna do it, obviously. (Thanks)

mb

11:58 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

THE WAFER CREDO
(You might post this on yr fridge)

1. Kamala is a joke.
2. The elite are trash.
3. Pelosi is a dried-up prune.
4. America is a disaster, and has no future.
5. On an international scale, the average American is an embarrassment.
6. The new Cold War will make things worse, not better.
7. Beef Zelensky, Freedom fries, and Ukranian salad dressing don't exist.
8. The odds that your next-door neighbor has dog poop in his head are higher than 90%.
9. The MSM are feeding you crap on a daily basis.
10.Remaining in the US is not a smart option.

12:31 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG8RxH9Q7sg

A particularly pathetic example of the Western media's hypocrisy and historical amnesia. What about what NATO did to the Middle East over the last 60 years? It was much, much worse than what Putin is doing to Ukraine. The Western media never mentions this, nor that NATO broke every promise it ever made to Russia. No wonder Putin is cutting ties with the West.

However, Putin is still a fascistic war criminal. He's bombing civilian targets, jailing peaceful antiwar protesters, destroying Russia's civil liberties and manipulating his people with propaganda. Moreover, he has said that he wants to revive the USSR, an extremely vicious political entity that killed even more people than the American Empire.

There's no getting around the fact that both NATO and Putin are bad actors. Let's hope they come to their senses and stop this madness. Ukrainians don't deserve to live in a war zone, Russians don't deserve to be impoverished by Western sanctions or be robbed of their civil liberties, and peaceful antiwar protesters don't deserve to be jailed.

6:41 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

I cdn't find anything in the link you posted that substantiates your 1st paragraph. It's very impt that u not make assertions w/o proof, wh/you've done in the past. And where did Putin say that he wants to revive the USSR? Also, I was not aware that Russians *had* any civil liberties. Lots of problems here. I'm concerned abt yr posts.

mb

7:05 PM  
Anonymous Cherith Cutestory said...

-- Financial Times and Washington Post reported what seems to be bogus news about Russia asking China for help. Both countries deny it. FT/WaPo attribute this to US officials. Seems the US is trying to both embarrass Russia ("their invasion is failing") and pressure China ("they are aiding the evil bad guys!"). It's like American media doesn't even try to maintain objectivity anymore, and just playing eager prostitute for the White House.
-- And the empire is still in denial about its decline. Biden said yesterday: "there’s going to be a new world order out there, and we’ve got to lead it." Delusional. Pathetic.
-- Sad, ironic, but expected in this hellhole: a mass shooting was taking place, so a news outlet tried to contact their reporter to go cover it, only to discover she died in the shooting.

6:26 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Cherith-

The real story, of course, is that America is coming apart at the seams. In our lifetimes, it has turned into a pile of shit. Only a moron wd believe what the gov't, or the MSM, say--abt literally anything. Schmiden means well, but he's nearly 80 and living in a fog; and as we've seen quite clearly, Kamala is a joke. The GOP victory this coming November will further contribute to the process of disintegration, and as for Nov. 2024: What difference does it make, who is president? The system is rotten and unfixable, and by 2030 it will indeed, as I have been saying for yrs, be over. (I'm hoping that by then, secessionist movements will be given a new lease on life.) The jig is up, and it's time to move on. A new era dawns. That the American population is clueless can only add to the relentless process of slo-mo collapse.

mb

8:34 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

In the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” department:
https://www.wkrn.com/news/good-samaritan-rescued-jet-skier-then-shot-him-in-self-defense-sheriff-says/

Spring break here in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
https://apnews.com/article/business-health-education-florida-dan-gelber-525f972145f646e2dc05065663899f5c

And speaking of school, check out these fine young “Christian” kindergarteners here in our de facto far right Christian theocracy chanting about Schmiden:
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/we-want-him-out-controversy-brews-after-video-shows-norco-preschoolers-chanting-against-biden/

“Teach your children well.” -Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Ya gotta love it! LOL!

11:43 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

Many thanks for Amazon review; very kind. As for Schmiden, I think it's time for Wafers to assemble across the st. from the W.H. and silently hold up a large sign, w/one word on it: SCHMIDEN.

mb

11:49 AM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

MB,

Sorry, I was kind of out of it yesterday due to lack of sleep. In the future, I'll make sure to get enough sleep before posting.

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

In this video, evangelical Protestants stand with Trump and pray for his spirit to "move all across the nation". This sort of language leads me to believe they think Trump is the second coming of Christ, or maybe even God Himself. Might this be yet another example of American dementia?

8:39 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

Forget abt Trump. Promise yourself the following: "In the future, I will dial the rhetoric down, and dial the evidence up." All of us will thank you, believe me.

Wafers-

I had a Divine Visitation. In it, Joe and Kamala announced that they were going to make a joint statement to the American people. This was it:
Joe: "I'm just an unimaginative old duffer. The best I can do is make diversity appointments that won't change a thing, and resurrect the Cold War. All of you deserve better, but the truth is yr as clueless as I am."
Kamala: "Tulsi nailed me but good. I'm a fraud, and a stupid fraud at that. I have no idea what this Ukraine thing is about. In two yrs as VP, I haven't done dick. I intend to resign my post, and move to Eastern Oregon and grow rhubarb."

mb

9:17 PM  
Anonymous Flow said...

‘I don’t know how we’ll survive’: the farmers facing ruin in America’s ‘forever chemicals’ crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/22/i-dont-know-how-well-survive-the-farmers-facing-ruin-in-americas-forever-chemicals-crisis

God, this was depressing to read.

9:46 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Flow-

The fact is that there isn't a single institution in the entire country that is not corrupt, or corrupted. Think of the water supply in Flint, for example. Ruination is central to our decline, and I doubt there's a whole lot we can do abt it at this pt.

mb

9:58 PM  
Anonymous Cosmo Como said...

There's an endless flow of such bizarre items in America. Note that
the 74-year-old man had a pistol when he went to rescue the 29-year-old
probably drunk man and his wife. Hostile words and behavior appear,
and the only way to calm down the younger man is to shoot him dead in
self-defense.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/no-charges-shooting-death-man-175308228.html

10:02 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: Yet another example of American degradation:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/22/its-a-culture-war-thats-totally-out-of-control-the-authors-whose-books-are-being-banned-in-us-schools

Cosmo-

A true American carries a gun and uses it whenever a situation arises.

mb

10:11 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Kamala File:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/22/jill-biden-kamala-harris-runing-mate-vice-president-book

But does Jill pt out that Kamala is a douche baguette, a moron, and a fraud?

10:18 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

From our continental road rage traffic helicopter:
1) In Michigan, two Karens start arguing. One drives over the other.
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2022/03/23/driver-involved-in-dearborn-road-rage-dispute-runs-over-woman-after-argument-police-say/

2) In Georgia, a man was shot to death after a road rage dispute.
https://newschannel9.com/news/local/shooting-outside-dollar-general-in-walker-county-kills-one-tuesday-night

3) And up in Oregon one driver wanted to teach the other “a lesson”.
https://katu.com/news/local/road-rage-suspect-admits-to-pointing-gun-at-driver-to-teach-lesson-newport-pd-says

Just another happy day of freedom and “love thy neighbor” examples in our de facto Christian theocracy in the great unique U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!

12:39 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Joe-

Running over the other driver is wholly w/in the American spirit. Imo, all cars in the US need to be weaponized.

mb

12:47 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Dr. Shit-

Discussion forum, not bulletin board. Thank you.

Wafers-

It shd be clear by now why the US is going down the drain: we have refused to embrace our Inner Tulsi. After all, she did try to run for president. She did expose Kamala as a dirt bag. She did give us a workout tape, and she did inspire me to write a 5-vol. exegesis of the basic principles of Tulsism. Yet Americans have not only failed to embrace their Inner Tulsi; they have even repressed it. This can only end in disaster for the nation.

mb

3:46 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Thich Nhat Hanh writes that meditation "touches the stillness in ourselves. It allows us to calm down and reflect so that we can reconnect w/our true self. Our true self has been camouflaged by our numbed, autopilot way of life...and by the never-ending stimuli from our high-tech, advertising-driven consumer society."

Question: out of an American population of 334 million, how many of them are not living on autopilot? A few hundred? 50?

mb

5:10 PM  
Anonymous Chuck Steak said...

Life in the destruction of modern toys is truly entertaining. Go to
00:07:20 and 00:09:35 to observe the applause when each of these
motors dies. Can any Wafer understand the reason for this gleeful
applause and why two engines had to be destroyed for the show?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVnBMkC7_Aw

6:44 PM  
Anonymous Nadine Bupkis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJKVRMkOwxs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWbzHszCy2o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3K-99jYWtg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrgols8eyUQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJKVRMkOwxs&t=1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDZROin8sR0

A few Republican senators attended the America First Political Action Conference, a noteworthy white supremacist event. In addition, a Republican senator recently said interracial marriage never should have been legalized, while another Republican has called for the banning of birth control. It seems like the Republican Party's devolution has accelerated. I can only imagine what the Republican Party will be like five years hence.

MB,

I provided six relevant links. Is that sufficient evidence?

7:01 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

Don't get smart w/me. Watch how other Wafers approach the blog; you might learn something.

mb

7:51 PM  
Anonymous Chop said...

Laws targeting transgender youths lean on myths about White childhood innocence. This explains how.

Here’s what’s behind the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill and laws forbidding transgender athletes from competing

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/23/anti-transgender-laws-race/

How the fuck did this get published?

8:32 PM  
Anonymous Tim I said...

Flow,

Are you familiar with transhumanism? What those farmers are going through is horrible, but the elites running the world are busy trying to emancipate us from our biology, so they probably don't care about toxins or cancer. They probably just shrug and say that we'll download copies of our brain contents into a new body of some kind.

This kind of sums it up:

"In some ways it appears as if the problems of the global situation at the moment (resource scarcity, war, reliance upon fossil fuels, lack of adequate clean water and food for third-world nations, overpopulation beyond the carrying capacities of various regions, ecological and biodiversity decline, pollution, climate change, etc.), perhaps in many ways the product of technological advance combined with global capitalism, will require yet further technology to ameliorate. There is no going back, only forward."

https://cot.gbcnv.edu/~schwandt/S10_FPs_pub/John_S/transhuman.html?msclkid=61f2d04aab1911ec9c045c69dd29c006

10:49 PM  
Anonymous Megan said...

Here is a nice and insightful talk about "Liberal Gnosticism" (I like that phrase. Harold Bloom made a similar point about Americans.) and the invasion of Ukraine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr74ASw6WvA

Deeneen's take on mask-wearing mandates during the pandemic is also pretty clever. On another subject, someone asked Deneen (in another video) who he thought was the most likely Republican presidential candidate besides Trump. He said he thought Tucker Carlson, from Fox News seemed a good prospect. (He never said that he liked him or wanted him personally.) At any rate, my memory of Carlson, whom I hadn't watched for years, was of a smug little douchebag. But after Deneen's comment, I started watching him for a few weeks, and yeah, he actually talks a decent amount of sense, on Russia, on Wokism, on the border, etc. In spite of my negative pre-judment, I could definitely see him capturing the zeitgeist. At any rate, perhaps he could hook up with Tulsi as his running mate, combine male and female, conservative and liberal, Shiva and Shakti, and together they might really bring about the American Eschaton!

11:35 PM  
Anonymous JUS said...

Hi Dr Berman and Wafers

Here's a really good interview from Scott Ritter about what's going down in Ukraine. He really gives a great background history of our involvement and where we are now. It's rather long but so worth the watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSkpIq3T-Zc&t=1s

I think with all of this going on I have to remind myself to breathe.

Hope all is well with you,
JUS

11:51 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Megan-

Link to the other video? As for Tulsi, we ain't done with her yet...

mb

3:35 AM  
Anonymous Karl said...

Dr B,

I can't resist sharing this quote from the article linked:

'Gen. Kenneth Frank McKenzie, the head of the U.S. Central Command, said that “with our weapons come our values.” '

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhartung/2022/03/18/were-1-the-us-government-is-the-worlds-largest-arms-dealer/?sh=42662eb05bb9&fbclid=IwAR26vdF6payQHRFWUt4A5RKxgDFhpRVXPYCzZnnHgTRYITHRsuxH4vRw6k4

9:47 AM  
Anonymous Anjin-san said...

@JUS

I was just going to recommend the very same video. Around the 23-minute mark he makes comments that are well-known to Wafers i.e. that the Americans in charge are incredibly dumb.

Given the complexity of factions ideology and stupidity that he outlines in that video I too am having a hard time breathing.

Seems like a repeat of what went on in 1914 when events spiralled out of control.



9:55 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Speaking of not being done w/Tulsi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DxBju-jNIs

10:57 AM  
Blogger Jack Lattemann said...

Greetings Wafers everywhere, here is your news roundup from Cascadia, two glimpses at domestic brutal Merican reality:

A Seattle Times columnist calls attention to central WA congressional candidate Loren Culp’s call for lynchings and firing squads after an arrest of a repeat offender Alexander Jay for pushing an innocent bystander down the stairs at a Seattle light rail station. “Get a rope! Not only for the low life scumbag who did this but also for the worthless judges and prosecutors who continually let this happen by turning violent criminals back out only to make new victims,” tweeted Culp, then followed up with, “No rope, firing squad and I’ll volunteer for it!” The reaction to all this executioner talk: crickets…

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/state-of-our-politics-even-a-call-for-a-lynching-brings-weary-silence/

And in northern WA’s Skagit Valley, the tulip and daffodil farmworkers are on strike for increased wages, guaranteed 8-hour workdays, sick leave to begin accruing at the beginning of seasonal employment, safer application of the pesticides, and provision of gloves and hydrocortisone cream (daffodil sap causes sores and rashes to exposed skin):

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/skagit-valley-tulip-daffodil-farmworkers-on-strike-over-working-conditions-and-wages/

11:18 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Up north in the planet’s biggest societal wasteland, Native Americans no longer are welcome at this S.D. hotel. Check out the excellent grammar ( “Do to” LOL!) and sentence syntax by the hotel’s owner.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10641245/South-Dakota-hotel-owner-sparks-fury-Facebook-post-banning-Native-American-guests.html

In the NYC wasteland women are getting in on the act of shoving people to their deaths. It doesn’t always happen on subway platforms.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/jarring-narrative-emerges-in-nyc-street-shove-death-as-accused-woman-awaits-release/3612361/

Our wasteland’s youth certainly are learning violence young:
https://apnews.com/article/sports-baseball-media-social-media-homicide-8d2536fb9668f3767b832c4d88b3f041

And of course USAins are using their cars to try and kill people.
https://sfist.com/2022/03/23/reckless-19-year-old-driver-who-targeted-three-pedestrians-in-oakland-hills-road-rage-incident-gets-probation/

U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
"God bless the USA & God protect our troops." -Schmiden

1:34 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jack, Joe-

Thanks for the updates on American sickness, wh/has permeated to the marrow of our bones. We are not merely degraded; we live in degradation.

mb

1:40 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

Shades of Lorenzo dept.:

https://www.newsweek.com/woman-called-911-chicken-wings-kfc-ohio-police-1691304

I tell ya, if I could get around a 100,000 chicken suppositories and a loop Tulsi's workout during these insertions, I could solve the energy crisis.

Miles

1:57 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

A Lorenzo/Tulsi ticket in 2024 wd be unbeatable. I wd work on their campaign.

It's amazing how clueless America, and Americans, are with respect to Russia. We have experts such as John Mearsheimer and Scott Ritter factually analyzing the situation; they are completely ignored. Then we have the country in a frenzied emotional anti-Russian uproar, cancelling college courses in Doestoevsky and boycotting vodka. Plus a president who can only think in Cold War terms, and a VP who is an ass beyond belief. We are a joke. A declinist's dream, really.

mb

2:23 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

So there's this Jan. 6 committee, and as far as I can see they've been doing little beyond beating off, for several months now. What are the chances that they will indict Trumpi between now and Nov. 8? Less than 0, I imagine. Steve Bannon has told the committee that they shd kiss his tushie. He doesn't seem to be too scared.

mb

3:48 PM  
Anonymous Crossing said...

Why We Have To Give Up On Endless Economic Growth

Sustainability efforts are scaling and speeding up — but the treadmill of global economic growth is still faster.

https://www.noemamag.com/why-we-have-to-give-up-on-endless-economic-growth/

8:13 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Crossing-

Check out "The Parable of the Frogs" in QOV, and "Dual Process" in AWTY.

mb

8:42 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Nadine-

Jesus, GSWH is a joke, fer chrissakes. Yr sense of humor ain't terribly developed, eh? Anyway, I suspect yr the one who needs (a great deal of) therapy. (Physician, heal thyself!) Best of luck. I'm sure you'll find a blog more suited to yr needs. It certainly isn't this one.

mb

9:29 PM  
Blogger Ordinary Indian said...

Hello Wafers, interesting read about a conversation with the Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa. Proves again, it’s difficult to be a sane person in a time of mass hysteria.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/mar/24/putin-is-just-the-frontman-sergei-loznitsa-the-ukrainian-film-maker-who-refuses-to-be-cancelled

10:59 PM  
Blogger Gunnar said...

It isn’t awful enough a 3 year old shoots himself in the head (which btw are down 3% from this time last year) mom, who was in the car gets one year in prison. What kind of sick country normalizes this horror? (rhetorical question)

https://krdo.com/news/crime/el-paso-county-crime/2022/03/24/mother-sentenced-in-shooting-death-of-4-year-old-outside-manitou-springs-dispensary/

11:31 PM  
Anonymous Megan said...

Dr. Berman,

I can't find that one. But here are two of Carlson that are too good to miss. In the one, he deliciously skewers the Neoliberal, Max Boot. It exemplifies so perfectly the insanity of the the Neoliberal outlook, when confronted with the idea of a multipolar world, yet you can see that Boot holds to it almost like a religious faith. In the second, he does what has to be the best (and certainly the most humorous) takedown of AOC (Who, to her credit, is actually entirely right on several things, like taxation, big corporations, climate change, etc.) But also ridiculously frivolous and self-absorbed. Theater. Again, I've never liked Carlson, but it's hard to deny that he is right on so many of these issues. And he is funny! At the bottom is a link to Rod Dreher's article. Hard to disagree with any of no? Except maybe the president part. It would probably slow the decline if he actually governed like that. And if he started wearing the bow tie again, that would be a deal breaker for me!

thahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HjVipLZYnst,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H00jERnz8Rw

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/tucker-carlson-for-president/



4:10 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Megan-

Time for AOC and Tulsi to team up, I guess. And Max Boot comes off like a major jackass. Lotta shmucks out there. Nevertheless, Tucker is no great prize himself, imo, but that's just me.

mb

5:42 AM  
Anonymous willy robinson said...

I’ve been greatly enjoying Eminent Post-Victorians, as much for the writing stlye as for the content.

One theme that emerges is how this group celebrates the inner life (love and friendship), where previos generations had focussed on the outward projection of their virtue as perceived by society – leading to inconsistancy, deception and deep unhapiness even among the most successful Victorians.

I am struck by the similarities between millenials and Victorians, even if the focus now on instagram etc. is on projecting, not our vitues, but our cosmetic appearance of happiness based on physical beauty and material things, the disregard for the inner life is as profound or more so. As are the consequences.

6:00 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

willy-

Really glad you liked the bk. The temptation, among the Victorians as well as the millennials, to focus on the outer life is extremely strong, wh/is why people get sucked into it. Rejecting the dominant culture is no easy task. I may have referenced Tolstoy's novella, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich," in wh/the guy realizes only 3 days b4 he dies that he had wasted his life by pursuing the popular definition of success. But as E.M. Forster noted, the % of those who will follow the call of their inner self is very small, and it always will be. How extraordinary folks like Virginia Woolf or Lytton Strachey were, really. It was, for me, a pleasure to write about them. Genuine integrity is breathtaking, eh?

mb

7:23 AM  
Anonymous Pete said...

AOC is the new Trump

She'd rather tweet than be an effective politician

https://unherd.com/2022/03/aoc-is-the-new-trump/

This is a smart piece by Kat Rosenfield

8:44 AM  
Anonymous Skram said...

Dr B., Wafers, Faithful Readers(FR):

I recently read this article and asked myself: How is it possible Americans can be so dumb? These are my kin folk and neighbors for chrissake!

74% of Americans support a no fly zone over Ukraine. What the article didn't fully explain was that 95% of Americans have dog poop for brains.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/03/zelenskyy-no-fly-zone-ukraine-putin-definition-war-invasion/

We need Jay Leno to come out of retirement and do another JayWalking episode and ask the person on the street..."What does a no fly zone mean?"

Let your imagination fly what would be the responses...pun intended.Ha!

9:30 AM  
Blogger Baron Von Strangeknight said...

Dr. Berman, I hesitate to mention that this is my brother-in-law's writing, but here is his essay about learning to find some value in post-modernism. https://wiserbraver.com/2022/03/20/learning-to-not-hate-postmodernism/?fbclid=IwAR2l0WXvhJyRmOmqPSYuhPkEpX6_OwaUJ0rAUpSOoAwMWFQzNPYj9bg6mU0
He's a super smart guy but it makes me wonder if most Americans could ever get to a level of civil discourse that he mentions later in his writing? Sadly I think I know the answer (no). I lurk here but I'm afraid I don't really have a lot to contribute except to say I encounter so many dimwits in my daily life that it is frightening. Your blog is an oasis comparatively.

9:41 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Baron-

Don't lurk; live!

Skram-

Most Americans probably think it means a zone where there are no flies or mosquitoes. Truth is that probably 95% of them don't understand what's going on in the Ukraine, and are just following the national frenzy about it. They have abs. no awareness of critics like Scott Ritter and John Mearsheimer, nor do they understand that establishing such a zone cd provoke a dangerous response. And they certainly are not aware that the US has ignored Russia's concerns over the security of its borders for 15 yrs; that murderous as he is, Putin has a legitimate case. To quote H.L. Mencken, they are boobs.

Pete-

As we all know, 0 in politics has any intellectual content anymore. Woke morons are just as blind as bubba morons, obviously.

mb

11:20 AM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

Get a load of this! LOL! A husband and wife start fighting. They both angrily leave the house in separate cars. They both drive aggressively. Karen out of anger hits another car on purpose for going too slow. Only here in this land of exceptionalism.
https://www.nbc15.com/2022/03/24/deputies-woman-taken-hospital-after-grant-co-couples-argument-leads-road-rage-crash/

Of course, in that great open carry conservative Lone Star State, the road rage shootings are going strong.
https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/shooting-bissonnet-dairy-ashford-houston-texas/285-5e17b951-9f08-4a3d-b708-d5ebfd2ac932

So why are they surprised? There’s more than one a day here!
https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/03/22/multiple-deaths-and-dozens-of-injuries-as-us-sees-9-mass-shootings-in-one-weekend/

“God bless America. And God protect our troops.”-Schmiden
( So some of them can storm our capitol. But let the ass kissing and adoration of the military in this shithole by our dumb public continue.)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/capitol-riot-january-6-military-ties/

2:12 PM  
Blogger anderszornpalette said...

Hola Wafers,

Funny how things shift. You get more reality from Fox News and Tulsi these days.

https://youtu.be/6ZvRb6Tbg8c

Concerning Kamala. When she was San Francisco DA, she actually promoted a policy of tossing parents of truant kids in jail. She’s pure garbage. Everyone thought Trumpi was an accelerant for decline, but it looks to me that Biden/Harris are far worse (or better, in the spirit of this blog.)

https://www.factcheck.org/2019/05/kamala-harris-spins-facts-on-truancy-law/

Cheers Amigos!

2:32 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

anders-

You raise an impt pt. I keep thinking that when Trumpi returns to the W.H. in 2024, he'll roll up his sleeves and polish the country off, once and for all. But it seems that Schmiden and Kamala are already doing that. Schmiden doesn't really know what he's doing, and Kamala knows even less. And jiminy cricket, Tulsi is emerging as an accurate, accusing finger! And while she doesn't really have a coherent vision of her own, her workout tape wd seem to be a better direction for the US than whatever it is we're doing now. Meanwhile, we've got 334 million mindless buffoons raging against Putin w/o any understanding of how we got there, Schmiden resurrecting a moth-eaten Cold War scenario, and Kamala giving talks that are laughable (and she laughs at them herself).

Ages ago, I suggested that George Washington be replaced on the $1 bill w/Kim's buttocks. But no one is interested in Kim's buttocks any more, whereas there are some gd shots around of Tulsi's buttocks in a bikini. *This* is what we shd be following into the future, no? This is the crevice into wh/the entire country might profitably disappear, I'm thinking.

mb

3:21 PM  
Blogger Miles Deli said...

Greetings MB and Wafers,

A poem for AOC:

Beautiful, busty black-haired gypsy AOC
eyes pointed straight at me
crimson lips
so moist and full
showing a little leg
drinking champagne

What entranced you to take my hand
and lead me into your world?
I'm dancing now, weightless and unbound
fingering yr cell fone
for no reason whatsoever

Our faces pressed and breath
with intermingled sighs
together we lie
enwrapped inside
love's delicious lies

You stole my heart
and kept the money you found in my back pocket

4:06 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Jeff-

Very moving. Need to add 'a hint of rump'. Oh wait, that's Tulsi.

mb

6:17 PM  
Blogger Baron Von Strangeknight said...

I’m sorry for the second post in a day but I feel it’s important to note Scott Ritter is a convicted sex offender. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ritter Makes me question if I should consider his foreign policy opinions.

6:34 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Baron-

I question *your* opinions. What does one hafta do w/the other, really? His work as nuclear arms inspector for the UN, and in Iraq, speaks for itself. The guy knows something abt foreign policy, doncha think? Note that Shakespeare was antisemitic.

mb

7:26 PM  
Anonymous Tim I said...

I'm beginning to wonder if with the people who bash the late Christopher Lasch it's cognitive dissonance; being territorial; or something personal. His ideas, supposedly having little merit, correspond to so much of what I read. He criticized both the right and left for not recognizing limits. Look at this:

"In this way, the idea of transhumanism as an attempt to go beyond the human can be countered with “humanism of the defective human being”, as Riechmann has defined it, accompanied by judiciousness, courage, and a commitment to sustainability and social justice that embraces the limits of the world we live in, as well as those of the human condition."

https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/an-eco-social-perspective-on-transhumanism/

8:11 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Tim-

Who bashes Lasch these days? He really isn't on the radar screen anymore (sad to say). Note that your link doesn't mention him, so I'm not sure what yr talking abt. As for transhumanism: check out my latest bk, "Eminent Post-Victorians," chapter on Alan Turing.

mb

8:47 PM  
Anonymous Rollo Dice said...

Can this be the explanation? Imagine tiny particles of plastic
blocking the very thin arteries in the brains of Americans so an
insufficient amount of blood reaches their brains.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/news/tiny-particles-plastic-detected-human-172104226.html

3:14 AM  
Anonymous Megan said...

Here is one more for good measure. I honestly have no idea how many people even know about this stuff with Corey Booker, but he is apparently far worse than I'd even imagined. It sounds like he fabricated some whole story about a drug kingpin whom he knew, and later had to go after.....Well, just watch this. It's seriously fucked up. And the ghastly theatrics over the Supreme Court nominee, well, you just have to see it to believe it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2RoUKKNkZw

Booker should be a potential candidate for any potential AOC, Tulsi, Lorenzo Riggins,etc. ticket. But it would be hard to stomach him for four years. I'm betting most of you will have trouble making it through the entire video

Incidentally, I just finished a great book ("Heirs to the Founders", by HW Brands), which details the careers of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John Calhoun. My, how we have fallen, whether it is AOC's tawny bushy brows, Beto's ear hair, or Booker's complete lack of anything resembling dignity or proper public restraint.


5:42 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Megan-

Yrs ago I read "The Devil We Knew," by Brands. Outstanding study of the Cold War.

mb

6:02 AM  
Anonymous Cherith Cutestory said...

-- Just finished reading The Next Civil War. Man, Americans really do not like each other, and it appears the right trigger at the right time could spark a truckload of havoc. However, the author pissed me off in the epilogue when he said that the world will miss America after it collapses or is torn into smaller parts, and that the world needs America. The author is Canadian so I might excuse him for having this overly romanticized idea, but still, he deserves some of Dr. Berman's prescribed vigorous slapping for that part. Rest of the book is alright though.

-- From the "Someone kill me now" department: story of a tiktok star who made a pornographic OnlyFans account only to discover her own father subscribed to it and was watching the content. For God sake. I can only imagine the rest of the world barely holding back its vomit as it watching Western depravity day by day.

6:02 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

Imagine 2 groups of Wafers in front of the W.H. The 1st group unfurls a banner that says SCHMIDEN. The 2nd displays one that says SCHMAMALA. This wd say it all, I'm thinking.

mb

12:52 PM  
Anonymous Glans Butterworth, III said...

A little US empire 'levity' to help with the anti-Russian propaganda-frenzy and war de jour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_hcuN-qsRw

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-2049028/Video-Brawl-breaks-Popeyes-drive-line-California.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4r0mzeLDqA

3:01 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Glans-

Thank you. These are wonderful links. To be honest, I can't see any reason why Americans shd not kill each other over chicken sandwiches, esp. those sandwiches that are targeted for suppository use. I also heard that Tulsi is planning to ram one up the ass of Kamala, while yelling, "Laugh at this, you mindless moron!" We also have videos of people holding up chicken sandwiches as saying, "Thank you, Jesus!" It's all America, and it's all good. (Happily, the sandwiches are not Russian.)

mb

3:16 PM  
Anonymous Jason said...

Gonzalo Lira is a Chilean-American who is living in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in the besieged city. He gives commentary on YouTube.

He gave a 2 part commentary on how "The USA is Committing Suicide". Part 2 follows on because of technical difficulties at the end of Part 1.

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVbVwFPgSk4

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16C4CTZNKQc

5:45 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Head Wedged in Rump Dept.:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10656033/Experts-slam-Biden-unprecedented-call-regime-change-Russia.html

A good way to make things appreciably worse. Schmiden's Freudian slip says to Putin: This is what I really believe and intend. Never mind Putin; shd *Schmiden* be allowed to stay in power? What a doofus. We can agree that Kamala is a foreign policy disaster, but *this*?

As the American empire crumbles, disintegrates, and falls apart, we have the president believing that we are entering a 'new world order' w/America in charge. That we still call the shots, and can dictate regime changes as we see fit. This is delusional buffoonery of the 1st order. We have a clown in the W.H. Declinists can only rejoice.

mb

12:32 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: How is this better than Trump? Schmiden is literally a dope. Arnold Toynbee wrote that when an empire collapses, it's not from external attacks; rather, it happens from the inside. Duh.

1:00 AM  
Blogger ccg said...

Joe Biden has been a gaffe machine for quite time. Videos have been made of them. Here's one of them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNQAbF33gFM

A few months before the election, I mentioned these gaffes to two Biden supporters. Their explanation: Biden stutters! I got that explanation from two people at different times on the same day, so this explanation must have been floating around in the ether. Well, I know what stuttering sounds like and I've never heard Biden stutter. Those two Biden supporters I mention have serious cases of what a former student of mine has called Long Trump Derangement Syndrome. One of the symptoms of this condition is that they can believe that Joe Biden is the second coming of FDR.

So, Biden's 'stuttering' could lead us into WWIII. I fully expect these people to be on board with the idea regime change in Russia anyway, so they might not even see this as a major gaffe. Fools!

9:26 AM  
Blogger anderszornpalette said...

Check out Glenn Greenwald's latest post on Biden’s cluelessness:

"As grave of a threat as deliberate war is, unintended escalation from miscommunication and misperception can be as bad. Biden is the perfect vessel for such risks."

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/bidens-reckless-words-underscore?r=2xujz&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

1:42 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

anders-

How did we get to this place? The country is being run by 2 idiots, and this is not an exaggeration. If any regime chg is necessary, it is the one in Washington. As for the Ukraine, Greenwald writes:

"Prior to the U.S.'s jumping directly into this war, those questions [regarding our purposes with the respect to the Ukraine] were never meaningfully considered. Instead, the emotions deliberately stoked by the relentless media attention to the horrors of this war...left little to no space for public discussion of those questions. The only acceptable modes of expression in U.S. discourse were to pronounce that the Russian invasion was unjustified, and that Putin is a “bad guy.” Those denunciation rituals, no matter how cathartic and applause-inducing, supplied no useful information about what actions the U.S. should or should not take when it came to this increasingly dangerous conflict."

Of course, this fits in well w/the American public, who confuse emotion w/thought or analysis. They are empty people, so if they can jump up and down in righteous indignation, they feel fulfilled. Meanwhile, we are cluelessly involved in a situation that might even have a nuclear outcome.

mb

2:39 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

ps: I also need to pt out how Schmiden and Kamala scored on the scientifically accurate Douche Bag Level (DBL), which runs on a scale from 1 to 100. Schmiden: 88. Kamala: 100. While we're at it, what # wd Wafers assign to Elon Musk?

mb

9:06 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Wafers-

I have a homework assignment 4u. It's called the Shithead Meditation, and will only take up 5 mins. of yr day, every day. Sit on yr couch; turn off TV, cell fones, all that crap. Environment shd be quiet. Now close yr eyes, and focus on the stupidity of the American people. Think of how they are all worked up abt the Ukraine while not having a clue as to what is actually happening there. Think abt how for them, an emotion = an idea. Think of their self-righteous frenzy, and how they are now boycotting vodka. Think of how they wd be boycotting Dostoevsky, but that this is a moot pt because "Crime and Punishment" has polysyllabic words, and Americans can only handle monosyllabic ones. And finally, think abt how all of this stupidity is actually a kind of evil all its own.

Slowly open your eyes, look around, and say these 6 words: "My God, these are my neighbors!"

mb

9:58 PM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBfBTZ8mcmA

11:07 PM  
Anonymous Frizzy said...

Thnx for the Hill Rising clip, MB!

I always appreciate how raw that program is, the hosts really get into it & hold tight to their respective views. Kim can be a little nutty though, she's had several segments denying the genocide of Uigurs in China (and even minimized the situation to the face of an activist/author who devotes their life to helping those suffering) but at least she's honest about how she feels/her views.

I appreciated the replies Ryan & Robbie made, much less whacky but still agreeing that NATO & the US are not w/o blood on their hands.

7:44 AM  
Anonymous Repo said...

Karl Marx Study Room Name Changed Due to Ukraine-Russia War, Officials Say

https://www.newsweek.com/karl-marx-study-room-name-changed-due-ukraine-russia-war-officials-say-1690072

What a dumb country

9:07 AM  
Blogger Krakhed said...

Americans are senselessly violent- https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/man-and-juvenile-boy-critically-injured-in-shooting-near-24th-street-and-cactus

And here we have some spring breakers going to the beach packed with some heat in case they have to blast any suckas- https://www.newsherald.com/story/news/crime/2022/03/28/panama-city-beach-spring-breakers-bring-guns-crime-man-injured-shooting-press-conference/7187882001/

This guy murdured his wife and dumped her in a creek. Look into his eyes and you might see the face of America- https://www.wthr.com/article/news/crime/boone-county-community-shocked-by-wilhoite-murder-wife-found-dead-husband-arrested/531-72ae4f2a-7e58-44e4-814a-641d4de032b8

And lastly, a 17 year old dies of malnutrition and neglect- https://www.syracuse.com/crime/2022/03/100-gather-for-vigil-for-jordan-brooks-his-smile-could-light-up-this-town.html

What a wonderful country eh?

I tried the shithead meditation and I got so dizzy after realizing that 99% of the 330 Million buffoons in America have no clue how fucked they are in the head.

10:44 AM  
Blogger Morris Berman said...

Repo-

Hard to get dumber than that. Oh, our university students; cutting-edge intellectuals!

Krak-

Up to 334 million by now. And so many of them killing each other off!

mb

11:33 AM  
Blogger anderszornpalette said...

Michael Tracy’s article on the situation is also worth a read. I remember when the pitch was “We’re bringing the adults back into the WH. No more of Trump’s off the cuff brain farts!" Funny how Biden’s senility and natural gaffe ability has brought us closer to WW3 than Trumpi ever did. And our backup is an even more moronic Kamala.

https://mtracey.substack.com/p/the-adults-in-the-room-are-always?r=2xujz&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Emotional vs rational: With social media, it’s easier than ever to manipulate the population into a righteous frenzy. This era of tech would be a wet dream for Edward Bernays - the ease of which you can manipulate public opinion through social media is unparalleled. And big tech is more than willing to play ball with the current administration - the fact that they suppressed a factual news story (Hunter’s laptop) that cast a negative light on the Biden family just before the election is just one example.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/hunter-biden-laptop-scandal-is-the-ultimate-american-information-operation-opinion/ar-AAVoXMG

We are now living in a blend of Orwell and Huxley’s future.

-Anders

12:45 PM  
Blogger Joe McIlnen said...

"God bless America. And God protect our troops.” -Schimden

Doctor Berman & Wafers,
All attention is on Russia and Ukraine. But meanwhile, back at the base: Oops. Which one of the over 800 we have scattered? Answer: One in the Philippines with our friendly far right dictator Dutuerte.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2022/03/28/philippines-Balikatan-joint-exercise-US-military-China-South-China-Sea-Rodrigo-Duterte/1081648465584/

Perhaps the Manichaean powers that be think China would be an easier opponent. So let’s increase military spending even more. Maybe Joe also is trying to outdo Don.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/03/28/joe-biden-2023-budget-military-spending/7191648415646/

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

1:07 PM  

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