Wafers-
Let me repeat what I wrote at the end of the previous post:
All of America, young or old, is a case of
Lord of the Flies. Or to take another allegory, which I've talked abt before,
The Sopranos. In this TV series, as it plays out, the only purpose in living is to acquire money and material goods, and to beat out the competition. By the end, the 'brothers' are killing each other off, eating each other alive (despite their constant hugging of each other). Is this not a very close description of contemporary America? And in both cases, there is no way of arresting this pattern. Rather, the system has to die.
-mb
The beating of that child on the school bus from the previous thread is disgusting but expected. I'm thinking of sending a link to VP Harris who has an odd fetish for the yellow bus.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.foxnews.com/media/kamala-harris-mocked-gushing-yellow-school-bus-really-cant-let-talk-public
I left the United States in 2008 and moved to the Dominican Republic where I acquired citizenship. I now live between the DR and Colombia, and I visit Mexico City frequently.
ReplyDeleteI thank God for having the sense to leave that place when I did. I have gone back for short visits to attend weddings or funerals but it's always a depressing experience.
For me, being around Americans is like trying to eat dinner in a filthy public restroom where every toilet is overflowing with sh*t. I can't even stand to run across them when I'm abroad.
My last visit to the U.S. was in 2016. I have no plans to return ever again and the relief that fact brings me just cannot be described.
Gunnar, Sean-
ReplyDeleteThis American Life (and this is just California, fer Chrissakes):
2 men arrested in Goshen massacre that killed 6, including baby - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
Doctor stabbed during bike ride died at hospital where he saved lives - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
Man punched high school girls playing basketball, police say - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
'Ghost gun' used in killing of Fresno County police officer - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
Teen gunman kills man at party, authorities say - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
Vey iz mir!
mb
The previous chapter in the blog noted the quotation commonly attributed to Sinclair Lewis: “when fascism comes…,”
ReplyDeleteThe people behind the website quoteinvestigator.com investigated to find out who said it. For interested Wafers.
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/07/28/flag/
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteJoe Bageant's writings have been discussed here a few times. He was one of the very few authors who wrote extensively about the existence of a white underclass in US and that the class war being real: http://www.coldtype.net/Assets.09/pdfs/0809.Joe.Underclass.pdf
It was acknowledged here that the election of Trump brought that class war out into the open. But I doubt if the general US public for the most part is even aware of it? As US decline accelerates how do you see this class war evolving with Wokeism having more and more impact on US society/culture?
Thank you,
Himanshu
Himan-
ReplyDeletePerhaps civil war, at some pt down the line, tho it's hard to say for sure.
Jas-
I thought it was Mencken who said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."
mb
Actually the quote is from Samuel Johnson (or, at least, Boswell quoting Johnson). - Say Zan (formerly Capt. Spaulding)
DeleteOftentimes there are amazing book recommendations in the comments. Something that is endlessly fascinating to me is the near total lack of community in the USA and the vast regional differences. Does anyone know some interesting books other than Bowling Alone?
ReplyDeleteAndrew-
ReplyDeletePhilip Slater, "The Pursuit of Loneliness" (1970)
J. Olds, "The Lonely American"
S. Radtke, "Seek You"
Wafers-
ReplyDelete2-part essay in NYRB Dec. 8 and 22 by Corey Robin, on how the drive for distinction and validation drives the economy.
mb
SOTU--the State of the Union address--will be given by Schmiden on Feb. 7. A more realistic portrait of America would be SOBO--the State of Beating Off. In this latter address, the pres wd begin as follows:
ReplyDelete"My fellow Americans. During the past yr, this admin, and the nation at large, have been beating off with a vigor and dedication unmatched in our nation's history. To quote that famous political analyst, the GSWH, 'Onward and Downward'."
Wafers are encouraged to fill out the rest of this misguided masturbatory address.
mb
Doctor, Following Schmiden’s introductory speech he’ll proclaim:
ReplyDelete“Our newly formed “anger index” since I assumed office has taken off, increases daily, and is at an all-time high. I am proud to sat that 7 of the top 10 angriest states are ones that I won.”
https://power961.iheart.com/featured/sos/content/2021-01-20-these-are-the-angriest-states-in-america/
“Law enforcement definitely is on our side. Cops have blown away over 600 persons since I took office.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States
“Our mass shootings are phenomenal; they’re a daily occurrence.” Described as 4 or more persons being shot, as of tonight I proudly count at least 33 of them since New Year’s Day. “
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting
“And our safety is in good hands. Our great military shot down that Chinese balloon. As a reward our bipartisan military-industrial complex budget is ballooning ( no pun intended) every single day.”
https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy23_ndaa_agreement_summary.pdf
( Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Republican reply):
“My fellow Americans. It is an utter shame that our President never once mentioned Jesus and God to you in this overwhelming Christian nation. He is what is missing. God wants us to be rich. You should tithe your hard earned money in our many right-to-work states to our many evangelical Bible Belt pastors. And listen to the words of this man:”
https://www.joelosteen.com/
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteHere is an intelligent person commenting on America's balloon mania:
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2023/02/05/suspected-chinese-spy-balloon-phil-mudd-gps-vpx.cnn
Keep in mind that balloon rhymes with buffoon.
God are we stupid!
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteOne thing that excites me these days is the possible (or probable?) reelection of Schmiden. Why? Because given his advanced age, he could die in office, which wd bring Kamala into the presidency. What cd demonstrate the reality of our decline more dramatically than to have an empty fool heading up the nation? Yes, I know, Bush Jr. was there before, but somehow, imo, Schmamala wd take us to a new and unheard-of level of vapidity. Wafers wd smile, sigh, and shake their heads: this wd be, indeed, America for all to see.
Go Schmamala!
mb
Say-
ReplyDeleteHow do we know this is true? No link?
mb
Apologies for not citing my source!
DeleteBoswell, James. “The Life of Johnson,” R.W. Chapman, ed. Oxford UP: Oxford World Classics, 1998, p. 615.
Full quote: “Patriotism having become one of our topicks, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.’ But let it be considered that he did not mean a real and generous love of country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak for self-interest.”
I recommend that we replace “E Pluribus Unum” with Boswell’s quote, as it seems a more apt description of our era than our national motto ever could be.
MB, thanks for the reminder that tomorrow is the SOTU address. C'mon Vlad! Send a Zircon at mach 9 dead center of the toilet bowl! I nominate you, GSWH, as Designated Survivor. You could probably convince Tulsi to spend some quality time with you in the oval office secret cloak room.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading The Mandibles, by Lionel Shriver. The book is a nice depiction of what America might look like after the loss of the world reserve currency. I can see many of the themes you wrote about played out in this novel. This "American Hustling" is taking us to a true dark age in American history. I do believe the darkest is yet to unfold.
ReplyDeleteBlack-
ReplyDeleteYeah, we discussed the bk at some length a couple of yrs ago. I wrote Lionel that her work seemed like the fictionalized version of my own, which I appreciated.
comrade-
Gd idea. I think that sexually speaking, I have evolved from Sarah Palin to Tulsi. Perhaps I might expand my 5-vol. study of Tulsism to 6 vols., complete with our lurid nights on the French Riviera.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteNatalie Bruemmer, 36, arrested and charged after she hit a man in the head w/a whole chicken:
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/woman-charged-after-hitting-man-in-the-head-with-a-whole-chicken/
Up, Up and Away:
Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?
Would you like to glide my American buffoon?
We could float among the stars, together you and I
For we can fly, we can fly
Up, up and away
My beautiful balloon
Love is waiting there in my beautiful balloon
Stroking Tulsi's thigh in my beautiful balloon
If you'll hold my hand we'll chase your dream across the sky
For we can fly, we can FLY
up, up and away
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon
Jeff
“A Declining US Empire is Committing Suicide” Chris Hedges sounds less optimistic about a populist revolution that’s going to overthrow the masters.
ReplyDeleteInteresting discussion in this podcast with Margaret Flowers called Clearing the Fog. It would be nice if he acknowledged that 99% of Americans are simultaneously buffoons and douchebags.
https://clearingthefogradioshow.libsyn.com/chris-hedges-a-declining-us-empire-is-committing-suicide
Krak-
ReplyDeleteIs that douchebag/plagiarist/joker still around? What cd he possibly have to say, at this pt? Meanwhile, I said America was committing suicide ages ago.
Jeff-
Gd for Natalie! But if she loved him, she wd have hit him w/a Popeye's chicken sandwich.
mb
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh is designated survivor for 2023 State of the Union
ReplyDeletehttps://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3848415-labor-secretary-marty-walsh-is-designated-survivor-for-2023-state-of-the-union/
Better than the boobs in the regular succession line.
Yeah, Mr. Berman, Mai Tais on the sands in grass skirts beat ice flows fulla meese shit. Of course there's a chance that crazy bitch Palin would lurch outta the ocean with a pistol screaming "Die, you bitch... he's MINE!"
Is this perhaps what a dying empire says to a rising one? Or is it just America, which always needs an enemy for its psychological coherence, shifting the target from Russia to China as our Ukraine venture failed?
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/08/politics/china-biden-state-of-the-union/index.html
mb
YouTuber and comedian Jimmy Dore holds himself up as a champion of workers.
ReplyDeleteBut a work-for-hire contract his company used in summer 2020 contains anti-worker provisions like an airtight NDA with high cash penalties for breaches and forced arbitration
https://importantcontext.substack.com/p/jimmy-dore-anti-worker-contracts
This is rich! These terminally online talking heads have always seemed so full of shit to me. Stick to the comedy, Jimmy! You're suppose to be funny, not a walking joke.
Calvo-
ReplyDeleteWell, all of America is soaking in fraud. But you'd think Jimmy wd know he wd be found out.
mb
Calvo- I appreciated Jimmy Dore's insistence on hold the vote, but otherwise I've never really been impressed w him. A warmed over Carlin wanna be type, if you ask me. But the negative I've always seen from him was such petty gossip and smearing of the Intercept journalist Ryan Grim, who's a genuinely good guy and does a lot of good work.
ReplyDeleteWafers:
"Count Bill Gates among those US businessmen who see and acknowledge the decline of the US empire and the rise of China." - Richard Wolff
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-says-chinas-rise-013127950.html
Writing is on the wall, even Gates gets it....
Amerikkka's disposable society now includes unwanted rugrats as well as consumer junk. An Oklahoma lady is in hot water for chucking her sprog in a dumpster. I guess she learned the hard way that parenthood isn't like playing with barbies
ReplyDeletehttps://www.kktv.com/2023/02/06/mom-charged-after-throwing-1-month-old-baby-dumpster-court-documents-say/
Hello Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteI've been a big fan and follower of yours for quite a long time. This is my first post.
Just wanted to say that I have a markedly different impression of Jimmy Dore than the ones expressed above. He is a true dissident, calling out the hypocritical posturing of pretend "progressives" in Congress, lambasting warmongers and the war industry, giving a platform to all sorts of unknown (or lesser known) writers and thinkers.
Please see 2:22 of the following clip and tell me you've ever seen anything like this on national television: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP5dkR6QQj8
RNM-
ReplyDeleteTerrific, thanks. Took the words rt outta my mouth. I liked it when he said that w/respect to our foreign policy, not only do the American people have no idea of what is going on, they also have no idea that they have no idea. I wd have appreciated additional lambasting of the stupidity of Americans, using words like 'dumb clucks' and 'buffoons'.
mb
MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteRecall that the MSM blamed the destruction of the Nord Stream II pipeline on Russia. Of course it never made any sense that Russia would blow up its own pipeline, but that's what we were supposed to believe. I never believed it. In my gut I knew that the US was behind it. Well, now Seymour Hersh has confirmed that with a piece detailing how this done by the Biden administration with the help of Norway:
https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream?r=5mz1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
As I understand it, international law considers an action like this an act of war. Gee, I thought Trump was the dangerous guy, the guy who would start wars.
I understand that this article is in all the news papers in Europe. Will it make it to the New York Times? I'm not gonna hold my breath.
One of the ironies of Lord of the Flies is that the boys are rescued by boys wearing uniforms who play the "grown up" game of war that civilization fosters, at least in the movie version. (I can't remember the novel very well that I read in the eighth grade and had to write a paper on.)
ReplyDeleteKel-
ReplyDeleteLink for movie version?
RNM, ccg-
When I think of how utterly corrupt the US is, I get dizzy and hafta lie down.
mb
Note to Sophie-
ReplyDeleteI guess yr not familiar w/the guidelines of this blog. Here are a few:
1. Send messages to latest post. No one reads the older stuff.
2. Limit yr message to half a page, max.
3. Provide links or reliable refs for yr arguments. We tend to favor evidence, not pure opinion.
Thank you.
-mb
ReplyDeleteGet ready, Wafers. A special edition of the ongoing comedy show known as the United States of America comes to you this Sunday. It’s our unofficial one-day Sunday national holiday that happens annually around this time of the year. The USAin public, mainly men, will get drunk; they’ll put on more pounds devouring buffalo wings and other junk food; they’ll use their credit lines to gamble and make every possible kind of exotic creative bet; and after their bets lose will take out their anger on their significant others.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/super-bowl-betting-estimated-to-reach-16-billion
But fear not. Jesus shall be coming to our viewing screens in our de facto Christian theocracy while the game is played. Yes. Madison Avenue literally thinks of everything. After all, advertising, another big con incessantly and ubiquitously foisted on the dumb USAin general public, is part and parcel of it. And perhaps prosperity preacher Joel Osteen can do next year’s halftime show. LOL!
https://apnews.com/article/religious-super-bowl-ad-campaign-he-gets-us-424b36089913ff4a8639bbcf20c14ae3?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_11
As our many “patriotic” Christian conservatives in Bible Beltland, Rural America, the Heartland, Appalachia, and most other areas of this wasteland like to say: “God bless America.”
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
The death toll in Syria & Turkey earthquake is at 20,000. This follows on the 18,000 who died in the 1999 earthquake (different location in the country).
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/feb/09/earthquake-turkey-syria-in-turkiye-2023-live-updates-latest-news-maps-quake-death-toll-kahramanmaras
What do you think of these major disasters and the death counts? There is no widespread holding people to account for the deaths. A lot of this is allowing dangerous buildings to remain occupied, and doing nothing about it, then they collapse. None of this is a surprise. Since the 1960s, there have been building codes for seismic design, so the problem has been well known for decades.
In Seattle, they know a major 9.0 could hit the city, and they know many of the buildings are dangerous. Yet, they've allowed the buildings to remain occupied for decades (including many schools), leaving it up to the owners to fix them out of the kindness of their heart on whatever timeline suits them (i.e. never).
This risk exists around the country. Until the 1960s, a lot of stuff was built that either needs to be demolished & abandoned. The leaders don't care, instead people are allowed to live in buildings that are likely to kill them.
With apologies to Robert Preston, in the wake of Congressional action against the Chinese balloon, I had to pen the following lyrics to the tune “Seventy Six Trombones”:
ReplyDeleteSEVENTY SIX BUFFOONS
Seventy six buffoons led the big parade
With a hundred and ten seekers close at hand.
They were followed by rows and rows of the finest Reps around,
The curd of our famous land.
Seventy six buffoons swat the Chinese balloon,
With a hundred self-made hustlers right behind.
More than a thousand tee-shirt stands springing up like weeds,
Souvenirs of ev’ry shape and kind.
There were American striders as horses’ asses,
Thundering, blundering, believing their lies.
Double melt chicken burgers for the masses,
Each buffoon having their side of fries.
The hula hoop theory of history on display,
Believers thundering, they’re really sore.
Enemies of ev’ry size and politicos who’d improvise,
Chinese eviler than the ones before.
(concluding lyrics tomorrow, so as not to exceed the word limit, but start your practicing)
earthquake-
ReplyDelete2nd half of yr post cd use some references.
mb
"I think Ernest Becker’s thesis on the psychology of Man, compellingly argued in his The Denial of Death (and other texts), offers a good interpretation of this film."
ReplyDeletehttps://ernestbecker.org/resources/reviews/thoughts-on-the-banshees-of-inisherin/
Viewed this film the other evening. Just a lovely Irish fable! Then I came across this review on the Becker Foundation's blog. I know he's a fav of MB's.. "The Denial of Death" is A+!
refs:
ReplyDeleteList of URMs Identified by SDCI – December 2022
Boston's Earthquake Problem
THE EVOLUTION OF SEISMIC DESIGN PROVISIONS OF U.S. BUILDING CODES
earth-
ReplyDeleteNot clear what URM or SDCI stand for.
mb
URM = unreinforced masonry (read more here). Typical brick building construction until the 1960s collapses in an earthquake. Cities on the west coast have tens of thousands of URMs that are likely to collapse in a big earthquake. If safety was really a concern, tens of thousands of buildings would be condemned today, until they're brought up to code.
ReplyDeleteSDCI = Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections. It's the building dept. They are the AHJ (authority having jurisdiction). Ultimately, this is political. The building department has the sole authority since they issue certificates of occupancy. The average person has no idea about any of this, they don't realize they live in death traps.
The public doesn't understand earthquakes. Modern industrial civilization has only been around for a short time, whereas big earthquakes tend to hit every 500 years or so. Areas such as the west coast & Missouri could be hit with a 9.0 earthquake at any moment, but the cities were built in ignorance, not knowing that a big earthquake is likely to kill tens of thousands.
In a report (link) filed in November 2008, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency warned that a serious earthquake in the NMSZ could result in "the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States"
The concluding lyrics to the tune “Seventy Six Trombones”, with apologies to Robert Preston:
ReplyDeleteSEVENTY SIX BUFFOONS (CONCLUSION)
Seventy six buffoons led the big parade
When the order to war rang out loud and clear.
Starting off with a big bang ‘gainst the Chinese balloon,
While celeb star Bundchen brings up her rear,
Seventy six buffoons hit the counter point,
While a hundred grilling burgers filled the air.
I modestly took my place as the only Wafer there,
And I slapped up and down the square.
The balloon story won't go away. It's on the front page of the New York Times again today featuring all kinds claims about its supposed spying capability. I won't paste it in this post, but I will paste here what I think is the best take-down of this story that I've seen so far. And it's the funniest:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iKNL6Gz7vE&t=632s
Jack-
ReplyDeleteNeed 1 more stanza, for urine.
Meanwhile, on 15 July 1979 Jimmy Carter delivered his "spiritual malaise" speech in Annapolis. One thing he said was, we can't keep blaming Russia for our problems. As it says in the bible, be concerned w/the log in your eye, rather than the mote in the other person's eye. But the gd Christian nation ignored this biblical advice, and the following yr voted him out of office. Reagan told them that self-reflection was totally unnecessary; they liked that. There is no malaise, he said, and Russia is the evil empire. So continue hating Russia, and just go out and shop.
And now Seymour Hersh discovered that it was not the Russians who blew up the Nord Stream gas pipeline last September; no, it was the US Navy! After which, in clear anti-Carter style, we blamed the Russians (and continue to do so). This made it into the MSM (surprisingly enuf):
https://nypost.com/2023/02/08/seymour-hersh-claims-us-navy-behind-nord-stream-2-pipeline-explosion/
And what abt the American people?
1. A lg % don't know what a pipeline is, and probably 95% don't know anything abt this particular pipeline.
2. They also don't give a shit, wh/is why the US gov't can say and do whatever it wants.
3. They have no knowledge of, or interest in, Russian culture and society. Here's how they think: Russia = Bad. End of story.
4. Something like 50% of Americans think Russia was our enemy in WW2. Most believe America defeated the Nazis. The stats (roughly): we lost abt 625,000 in WW2, Russia lost 27 million. The Red Army did the heavy lifting, not the US Army.
5. So the real story regarding the Nord Stream pipeline is that America consists of 335 million clueless buffoons. That the US gov't is full of shit, and violated international law, is of no consequence to them. A dumber, more self-destructive people, is difficult to imagine.
Wd be great to hear from Jimmy at this pt.
mb
ccg-
ReplyDeleteOnce again, balloons rhymes w/buffoons. How hard will it be for Schmiden to step up the new Cold War w/Russia, when most of the American people have pieces of dogshit in their heads, in lieu of gray matter?
mb
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteRep Nancy Mace (R-SC) Nancy Mace scorches Washington in brutal roast: 'I love exercising 1st Amendment rights': https://www.yahoo.com/news/rep-nancy-mace-scorches-washington-in-brutal-roast-i-love-exercising-1st-amendment-rights-180230548.html
Excerpts: "In her speech before the Washington Press Club Foundation on Wednesday night, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., launched into an uncommonly sharp comedic monologue that skewered just about everyone from gun-loving Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., to progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
At one point, she turned toward Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., the first member of Gen Z elected to Congress. “He’s 25 years old,” she joked. “F*** you. I have stretch marks your age.”
Mace ended her routine with a risqué joke about the violent Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol in 2021. “I know everyone thinks Republicans aren’t funny. But if you get a bunch of us together, we can be a real riot.”
Himanshu
Himan-
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, she didn't attack the man in the street for being a total dumbbell.
mb
Occasionally, somebody tries to break through the official narrative generated in Washington DC. Yesterday the former acting Secretary of Defense, Chris Miller, called for cutting the Defense Department budget by 40 to 50 percent, back to pre-9/11 War on Terror levels since current spending only benefits a military-industrial complex that has “virtually no brakes” and depends on overhyping threats like China and creating crises. Miller, a retired Special Forces colonel, had been appointed acting Defense Secretary by Trump after Trump fired Mark Esper 5 days after losing the election to Biden. Miller remained Defense Secretary until Biden Our Time ™ took office in January 2021.
ReplyDeleteWill Miller’s statement have any effect besides “raising eyebrows”? As Wafers know, 99.9 percent of Americans are poopheads, and the Congressional House of Representatives voted unanimously to condemn Chinese balloons, so probably not.
Original post:
https://sputniknews.com/20230210/former-acting-us-defense-secretary-cut-military-spending-by-half-stop-hyping-china-threat
As reported by the Moon of Alabama, always a worthwhile blog to skim for links:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/02/ukraine-open-thread-2023-35/comments/page/2/#comments
Jack-
ReplyDeleteImpt post, thank you. The gov't can ignore this, inasmuch as the American people, of whom 99.9% are poopheads, couldn't care less. They get excited abt Chinese balloons, not abt having billions of $ available for health care, education, and other things that matter. This poop is a crucial factor in our decline; and since there is no way to remove the poop, our collapse is assured. Go, poopheads!
mb
lol Please quit apologizing to Robert Preston (actor) and apologize to Meredith Wilson (writer).
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Music_Man
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteBk suggestion: Gold, Glory & God - A Curse on The Natives: https://www.amazon.com/Gold-Glory-God-Natives-Sattology/dp/B09JDZJHQY . Bk begins in the 6th c tracing the world of Papal Bulls & the origins of Islamic conquests. 2nd Ch on how Europe was colonized by State Christianity is most interesting because it is the least discussed in the West. 'Critical Faith Theory' (CFT = someone's faith was better than others, to colonize the natives) is a new term in the bk. CFT was used to call others as 'Pagan', 'Heathen', 'Infidel', 'Kafir', 'Kufr' 'Savages'. CFT template has been the constant in the colonization of all continents by European powers & it continues to this day under fanciful terms: liberalism, globalization, etc. Eg in US context: Order from CA governor (1849-1851) to finish off Indians: https://governors.library.ca.gov/addresses/s_01-Burnett2.html
Church declared that the native Americans = Red Indians did not have souls & hence be treated at par with Vegetation & Animals. Dutch West Indies & Dutch East Indies were 2 companies formed after the Church gave them the idea that - Africans are not humans & Slave trade is the only way to beat the profits of Spices trade of India. George Washington believed best solution to Indian problem is to Civilize them (Convert to Christianity). Andrew Jackson came up with Indian Removal Act, 1830: massive wipe-out campaigns.
1868: Ulysses Grant started a Peace policy to remove (finish off) the black ones who don't convert to Christianity. Words like Race theory, Savages & Gold Diggers were created to push the CFT to impose Christianity. General Sherman - The more Indians we kill this year, the less we have to kill next year. All have to be killed or kept as paupers. 1867: Every buffalo dead, is an Indian gone.
Himanshu
We live in a country where children go to school, get bullied, beaten, and harassed, and nobody does anything until someone dies. Who were these 4 girls who beat this girl to the point of her dying by suicide? What are there parents like? My assumption is that everyone involved is especially horrible, the teachers, the principal, the parents, and the students.
ReplyDeleteAs much as bullying has been in the news for years, nothing is done about it. Everything is reactive, and there is no proactive assessment of children & their parents. These 4 girls should never have been allowed to be in this school. Too many sociopaths and cruel bullies run free in our society.
https://news.yahoo.com/four-students-charged-over-beating-142225672.html
Bull-
ReplyDeleteI guess you understand that a sociopathic society breeds sociopathic people.
Tilly-
We are more of a discussion forum than a bulletin board. Perhaps you cd resend the link, but w/a few sentences of commentary. Thank you.
mb
"I guess you understand that a sociopathic society breeds sociopathic people."
ReplyDeleteI grew up in New York City in the '70s and the things I witnessed go on at my elementary school (not to mention my junior high school, which was essentially an unsupervised prison yard) were mind-blowingly violent. Talk about Lord of the Flies. It wasn't until I was well into my twenties that I thought back on all that stuff and why nothing was ever done about it. What I realized was this:
- As a kid your default assumption was that since your parents force-marched you into this school, anything that happened there was also your problem. You clearly had zero rights, and your body, your time, and even your life were not your own.
- If you dared tell any adult about what you saw or experienced, you would be painting a target on your back for massive retaliation from the sociopaths all around you, so it was advisable to shut up and pretend it didn't happen.
- Every second of every day at school was some form of violence and an imposition on your person and dignity, so the bullying and violence going on everywhere were merely differences in degree and not kind.
American bullying by the numbers:
https://www.pacer.org/bullying/info/stats.asp
Well, now there's credible evidence of Ukraine using chemical weapons against Russians, evidently provided by Ukrainians themselves. Scott Ritter is interviewed about it here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn9V41asoxs
What are the chances that the MSM will cover this? Zilch, I expect.
Dr Berman,
ReplyDeleteI came across this news in a retweet from an Indian geopolitical analyst:
https://twitter.com/ThePollLady/status/1624841041349148672?s=20&t=WF7DXDG0TpY55i4XXwylgw
Apparently MSM is not covering this much incl. the local news in OH:
https://twitter.com/realstewpeters/status/1624885466469175298?s=20&t=WF7DXDG0TpY55i4XXwylgw
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1624736579108368384?s=20&t=WF7DXDG0TpY55i4XXwylgw
CNN covered this but not as major news (as did other major news media): https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/06/us/east-palestine-ohio-train-derailment-fire-monday/index.html
Himanshu
It's important to look at trends (e.g. obesity & CO2) rather than listening to mass media or politicians. The trends have been straight lines for decades. All the news stories, celebrities, & political decisions are simply distractions; they don't want you to realize that nothing of substance is being done, and the problems get worse year by year, with no sign of change.
ReplyDeleteThere are wildly popular fitness influencers & the media puts out lots of health stuff, but the average American is unhealthy & their diet is horrible. If you want to see the reality, just look at the products sold at your average Walmart or Kroger. Look at the average high school & what the kids are eating. The US is promoting solar panels & electric cars, but this is simply accounting tricks; we just import items and other countries have the CO2 emissions on their books. Electric cars have always just been greenwashing & a distraction.
Share of adults that are obese, 1975 to 2016
Annual CO₂ emissions
This morning I listened to the first interview given by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh following his substack publication describing the U.S. sabotage last year of the German-Russian Nord Stream gas pipelines. This is must-listening for Wafers. The interview is on podcast #366 by Radio War Nerd, with the actual interview starting after the 07:10 intro:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLpGH0BpOnk
Some tidbits from the interview: Hersh said the only reporter who has contacted him since the story came out was Tucker Carlson of Fox News. He called his investigation “desconstructing the obvious”, saying this wasn’t a hard story to find and that the pipeline industry people talk to divers and know who has the capability to do what, and know who did it. He called the consequence of crippling economy of Germany, a U.S. ally, “stupid beyond belief.” Hersh declined to talk about sources or how many, saying he protects his sources and is not going to have somebody put in jail because “the one thing the government is good at is striking down people who talk.” In the interview, Hersh sounded like a no-nonsense type of guy but displayed a blunt sense of humor.
Jack-
ReplyDeleteThis is the macrocosm of the micro, as described by Pol, above. Another example is the arresting of journalists trying to report on the fiery explosion in Ohio. Some democracy we've got. On both levels, we are talking abt a vicious nation. The bullying that goes on: in the 50s, it wasn't, in high schl, so much physical as emotional. But it really was Lord of the Flies. By age 10, or b4, American children are cruel to one another, socialized into it.
mb
Xen-
ReplyDeleteWe are more of a discussion forum than a bulletin board. Perhaps you cd re-send that link, and add a paragraph of yr own commentary. Thank you.
mb
Anger and stupidity. They go hand-in-hand in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.! LOL!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/paulding-county/instant-karma-driver-who-shot-his-own-hand-during-road-rage-incident-identified-by-deputies/CI5J32RTFJAXDPOP4FPUZGKYP4/
But on a more serious note, some use a van as a gun on wheels to mow down people.
https://abc7ny.com/brooklyn-uhaul-truck-pedestrians-struck-live-updates-driver/12808946/
And of course those who do have guns take part in the daily mass shootings. The latest: Michigan State University.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/02/13/michigan-state-university-active-shooter/3731676345322/
What’s your beef with Chris hedges? Besides you he is the only I know who gets what’s really going on in America. I read him every week on consortium news .I think he is insightful. Like this great article he wrote a few weeks ago.
ReplyDeletehttps://consortiumnews.com/2023/01/30/chris-hedges-ukraine-the-war-that-went-wrong/
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteMost of you realize that Americans are empty. If they had to face that, they wd kill themselves. As a result, one impt function of the gov't is to keep them hysterical, i.e. worked up in a frenzy, to distract them. For many yrs after WW2 it was Russia. This was finally parodied in a film called "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" of 1966, starring Alan Arkin. But of course, the pt was lost on the American public. Then it was Russia redux, as we all got excited abt Zelensky and ran around waving Ukrainian flags, and banning Dostoevsky from college courses. Since it's starting to look like that venture isn't terribly successful, the gov't cannot allow the frenzy mode to dissipate; so it found a new target: Chinese balloons. Meanwhile, I have an idea for a new Wafer T-shirt:
BUFFOONS NEED BALLOONS
Wafers are encouraged to submit other slogans for potential use.
mb
Mo-
ReplyDeleteThis is something that we discussed on this blog at great length, in the past. You might want to check out past posts, if you are interested. But resurrecting all that material now is not something that holds a lot of attraction for me. Obviously, if you like what he hasta say, keep reading.
mb
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more about America's hyper-alpha shoot downs of Chinese spy balloons or UFOs. The whole thing looks like macho posturing. It may also be a ruse. Biden is taking a lot of heat now. It just goes to show how much deceit the US involves itself in. The country has or is becoming completely schizophrenic.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/02/14/unidentified-objects-shot-down-classified-china/11251562002/
Here's an interesting site begging Congress to close the US/Mexico border, citing:
ReplyDelete"Americans are tired of the Violence, Drugs, Trash, Disease and Deaths Illegal Aliens and Illegal Immigrants are bringing into this Nation. We stand United in our Desire to Close the Border against more injustices to our Nation."
https://www.petition2congress.com/ctas/close-border-petition
Given all I've read on this blog/ your bks, I'd say Amerikkka's decline was written in the stars. Yet a lot of folks want to blame Mexicans. The irony is that the US is dead last in the categories that matter; anyone seriously considering a move there is out of their mind, I feel. Smart folks who saw the writing on the wall have abandoned ship (e.g, the Doomer Optimism folks).
Fly-
ReplyDeleteIngrained in the American psyche, and politics, is that if anything goes wrong, the fault lies w/the Other, never w/ourselves. Jimmy Carter got elected out of office because, in his 1979 Annapolis speech, he appealed to the bible in suggesting that we examine the log in our eye, not the mote in the Other's eye. In 1980, Reagan easily defeated him by telling Americans that we were the innocents, and doing just fine. ("evil empire" talk) There is no changing this mindset, and once you realize it, emigration becomes a very attractive possibility.
Sang-
Your new post-it for yr bathrm mirror:
BUFFOONS NEED BALLOONS
mb
Popper, John, Hook: “No matter how much Peter loved her what made the Pan refuse to grow was that the Hook brings you back. I ain’t tellin’ you no lie. The Hook brings you back. On that you can rely. [Harmonica] Suck it in, suck it in, suck it in if you’re Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn. Make a desperate move or else you’ll win and then begin to see what you’re doing to me; this MTV is not for free. It’s so PC it’s killing me.
ReplyDelete“So desperately I’ll sing to thee of love, sure, but also rage and hate and pain and fear of self, and I can’t keep these feelings on the shelf. I’ve tried, well no, in fact I lied. Could be financial suicide, but I’ve got too much pride inside to hide or slide. I’ll do as I’ll decide and let it ride till I’ve died and only then shall I abide this tide of catchy little tunes of hip three minute diddies. I wanna bust all your balloons. I wanna burn all of your cities to the ground.
“But I’ve found, I will not mess around, unless I play then hey I will go on all day. Hear what I say. I have a prayer to pray. That’s really all this was. And when I’m feeling stuck and need a buck I don’t rely on luck, because the Hook brings you back. I ain’t tellin’ you no lie. The Hoo‑oo‑ooh yeah, on that you can rely.”
Popper, David, Hohe Schule des Violoncellospiels, op. 73
dah‑dah‑di‑di‑dit di‑di‑di‑dah‑dah — “In 1857, 73 meant literally, ‘My love to you.’”
Dr. Berman—
ReplyDeleteCandidates for government are screened by campaign financiers for "corporate friendliness" because the US is a country run for profit, not human wellbeing. Whither public safety in such a system? Look at Ohio, following the incredibly ill-prepared for, massively toxic train derailment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGN81SEmoPU
The corporate news media have barely mentioned the disaster (about 38:40 min in):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCOatl6jv_k
Oops-
ReplyDeleteAmerica is so full of shit it makes me dizzy just to think abt it. Humans are 0; $ is everything. Barbara Ehrenreich once called the place psychotic, wh/is true enuf. Re: the Ohio disaster, I read somewhere that the cops were arresting journalists trying to report on it. Now this bothered me, because a true American reaction wd be to gun them down in the street, like dogs. Meanwhile, 99% of the population is oblivious to reality.
mb
ReplyDeleteHere’s how USAins celebrate Valentine’s Day. Three mass shootings in a single day. That’s how they “spread the love”.
https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/5-people-shot-monday-night-in-buffalo-crime-wny-community/71-b1c26bf7-6625-4312-86c6-384cd4eb4af1
https://www.wbir.com/article/news/crime/monroe-county-shooting-february-14-2023/51-a41599c9-1079-451d-b0dd-b32e62d58306
https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/least-3-people-shot-outside-westinghouse-academy-homewood-west-sources-confirm/GHYASDMKOBGBTMMIECMNTCWHGU/
And let’s not forget. The anger and fighting inside chicken eateries is still going full force. As our good Doctor has so accurately said, “Americans are a very angry people.” https://www.audacy.com/1010wins/news/local/man-killed-another-critically-injured-in-shooting-on-bronx-street
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Flyingspaghettimonstr’s comment on Americans’ hostility toward Mexicans reminded me of a favorite bit from a favorite comedian, Doug Stanhope. He punctures nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment both:
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/QsPDT5qHtZ4
Former Trump Defense Secretary Chris Miller actually got an interview with The Hill over his proposal to cut U.S. military spending by half. But contrast this coverage with the total silence of U.S. media in their refusal to acknowledge Seymour Hersh’s expose on U.S. sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline. Well, as Miller himself acknowledges, he does not expect any action by Congress since “There’s no incentive to reduce military spending.” He got the interview because this is another case of vigorous ABO, translated as Nothing Will Happen ®:
ReplyDeletehttps://thehill.com/policy/defense/3850009-trumps-last-defense-secretary-takes-on-the-american-war-machine/
For a total contrast in values, leave Planet Mars and imagine a community whose main focus is saving baby puffins:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/icelandic-town-goes-all-out-save-baby-puffins-180981518/
I agree with the folks defending Jimmy Dore. Jimmy definitely "gets" it, even if he finds ways to hang on to hope. The material presented in that "Important Context" piece easily can be seen as a hedge against potential moles gaining access to information that could, and would, be used to distort reality.
ReplyDeleteHere's a rare treat: Jimmy on Kim Iversen's show waxing about the decline of empire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43chovyoF8w
Ram-
ReplyDeleteHe does take a swipe at the cluelessness of the American people, wh/I appreciate. The thing I'm waiting for, from all American critics, however, is for them to say first, that the country consists of buffoons, and 2nd, that the whole country is beating off w/a vigor that is terrifying. In short, all these guys in the Dore mold are doing gd things, but until I hear the words 'buffoons' and 'beating off', I will maintain that I am ahead of the pack. Let's call a spade a spade, fer chrissakes. The time for polite dialogue is long past.
I'm also wondering if, in the history of the world, there has been a country that is so full of crap.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteI can't get into the Wash Post because of their paywall, but here's a headline from yesterday:
"American teens are unwell because American society is unwell"
To which my response is, No shit, Sherlock.
mb
I live in the Lizzie Bordern city.The people around here can some of the ignorant you will ever come across. The people around here embrace that street culture as a way of life. The good thing is we have random homicides. It could be worst, but it is not getting better. Best wishes to you Dr.Berman.Thank you for your work.It as had effect on life.Thank you good sir.
ReplyDeleteBlack-
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, glad my work has been helpful to you. I'm not sure random suicides is a good thing, however. You might think about moving, esp. out of the US...which is pretty scary no matter where you are.
mb
Note to Rosegarden-
ReplyDeletePls re-send yr post. I deleted it by accident. Sorry.
mb
We have now reached the point where people experience more than one mass shooting. But taking away the guns will do nothing about the anger and despair in this toxic culture.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz9YA8UFTS4
KBlackburn1984 -
ReplyDeleteThe ignorance across the US is uniform. Street culture is in every suburban household across the country. Pick a random public high school in whatever state, and you'll see the same thing. TikTok & YouTube have caused culture to become even more uniform than it already was. TV was bad, but the internet is much worse.
Florida has now joined the lawsuit against TikTok. I see this having zero impact; Americans love this crap, and nobody cares that all the students are idiots & test scores are dropping year after year. After 2020, there were huge drops in test scores, and I suspect this is likely to continue as students fall into depression and just scroll on their phones.
Florida school system suing TikTok, YouTube
23 Baltimore schools have zero students proficient in math, per state test results
Rose, Stupidity-
ReplyDeleteWafers have better things to do than to go door to door, attempting to de-buffoonize the citizenry.
mb
Dr. B. and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteOne thing I don't understand is why people (Americans?) use words like "incomprehensible" to describe these mass shootings; the statistics have been out there for years (e.g. see bar graph in https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/02/15/antx-f15.html). It's also strange for people to talk about how "we must have real action" but of course they never say how such action could take place. The people demanding action are in my opinion ignoring a very real phenomenon identified years ago by Dr. Berman: that of CRE, or Cranial Rectal Embedment. Anyway, these shootings are yet another reason I can't wait to get out of here.
-- Torreblanca
Torre-
ReplyDeleteWe all wish you gd luck on yr escape from Nutville; the sooner the better. As for explanation of mass shootings: for yrs, the explanation was individual and psychological: He was a loner, mentally disturbed, etc. The stats finally made that kaka hard to maintain; obviously, this is a societal issue. But Americans are not trained to think sociologically, and are not really capable of pointing the finger at our entire way of life. Hence, for them, these constant massacres remain puzzling. We have had no surveys, thus far (to my knowledge), asking them why they think these events are happening.
As for 'action': the endlessly impotent response is usually "our thoughts and prayers are with their families at this tragic time." Which effectively means fuck all. The record is that nothing changes, nothing gets done. Politics in Washington, especially, makes sure that no substantive changes will take place, no matter how brutal the most recent shooting is. Plus, Americans want their guns, and hence can only come up with lip service--"thoughts and prayers."
Overall, I'm reminded of that great line by Garrison Keillor: "Here in Lake Wobegon we can look reality right in the eye and deny it." Another version of CRE, really. And beyond a doubt, America is surely woebegone. Nazi Germany excepted--and it lasted only 12 yrs--I can't think of a sadder, or crazier, nation in the history of the world.
mb
Will the ruling factions who guide the American Empire willingly give up their vision of global hegemony or scale back their ambitions? Commentator William Schryver doesn’t think so, and just re-posted an essay he wrote 6 months ago that predicted a critical inflection point given the trajectory of the Ukraine war:
ReplyDeletehttps://metatronink.substack.com/p/the-moment-of-greatest-danger
Given the growing recognition within the U.S. military and even NATO honcho Jens Stoltenberg that the West logistically cannot supply enough munitions and equipment to match the Russians in Ukraine, Schryver’s critical moment in Ukraine might be postponed if the Americans repeat their Afghanistan moment and abruptly pull out. A more unavoidable and fatal situation may be a future, overt U.S. confrontation with China for preeminence in the Pacific. Will the U.S. ultimately back down and stick to dominating weaker countries in its regional backyard of the Western Hemisphere? Whatever the future course, this drive to keep the empire going is really in the American DNA. As the poet Auden said, better to be wrong than changed.
Jack-
ReplyDeleteThe link didn't work. Also note Auden quote: "We would rather be ruined than changed."
mb
A piece from the Wall st Journal warns China of what could [possibly) happen if it attacks Taiwan, w/ the help of amateurish graphics. The subtitle claims that China "is convinced that American strength is waning." I really don't think Amerikkka's "strength" is what it used 2 b. This sounds like a washed-up boxer who still thinks he has it
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/challenging-the-u-s-is-a-historic-mistake-11675441152
This blog focuses a lot on the sociological aspects of decline, but I like to focus on poisons, diet, and other physical changes to ourselves & the environment.
ReplyDeleteThis is from a CDC study released today:
"Many children aged 1–5 years, are not eating fruits and vegetables daily and are regularly drinking sugar-sweetened beverages. In 20 states, more than one half of children did not eat a vegetable daily during the preceding week. In 40 states and the District of Columbia, more than one half of children drank a sugar-sweetened beverage at least once during the preceding week."
Just to note, sugar-sweetened drinks don't include 100% fruit juice. So parents are giving their kids cokes & Gatorade, or who knows what else, Starbucks Frappuccinos maybe?
Nobody cares, the CDC and doctors just say, "eat healthy!" which is like saying, "thoughts and prayers" rather than taking action.
Fruit, Vegetable, and Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Intake Among Young Children, by State — United States, 2021
Object downed by US missile may have been amateur hobbyists’ $12 balloon
ReplyDelete“Illinois hobby group says balloon went missing the day military missile costing $439,000 destroyed unidentified entity nearby”
“They contain trackers, solar panels and antenna packages lighter than a small bird, and the balloons are filled using less than a cubic foot of gas. According to Aviation Week, they are small hobby balloons starting at about $12 that allow enthusiasts to combine their interests in high‑altitude ballooning and ham radio in an affordable way.”
“Scientific Balloon Solutions founder Ron Meadows, whose Silicon Valley company makes purpose-built pico balloons for hobbyists, educators and scientists, told the publication that he attempted to alert authorities but was knocked back.”
“I tried contacting our military and the FBI, and just got the runaround [emphasis added], to try to enlighten them on what a lot of these things probably are,” he said. “They’re going to look not too intelligent to be shooting them down.”
Here is the correct link to the William Schryver essay on the trajectory of the American Empire:
ReplyDeletehttps://imetatronink.substack.com/p/the-moment-of-greatest-danger
Jack-
ReplyDeleteHe makes a gd case that we are, at long last, coming up to our Suez Moment. It's really amazing, how stupid America is.
k-
Even more stupidity.
Dud-
I just wrote President Xi a letter, explaining that most of the US consisted of morons, and that what he needed to do was establish 2 teams. The first wd be a slapping team; the 2nd, a urine team. They wd come over here and go house to house. I urge all Wafers to write him, supporting this exciting plan.
diet-
This may partly explain why American children have dog poop in their heads.
mb
Ho-Hum Dept.:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/17/mississippi-shooting-tate-county
There are only 4 possible ways of solving the 'problem' of America:
1. Herman Cain's 999 plan
2. Berman's Guns-For-All plan
3. Berman's Chinese Urine & Slapping plan
4. Tulsi's Workout Tape plan
If you guys can add to this list, feel free.
mb
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/18/world/europe/china-wang-blinken-munich-security-conference.html
ReplyDeleteFirst, Mr. Yi needed to enlarge his accusation. I.e., it's not just balloons. The *entire country* is absurd and hysterical.
2nd, he failed to use the word 'buffoons'--a serious oversight.
mb
Well what do you know? The spy balloon was a weather balloon after all:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC2QZW3LvdM
Who could have imagined that this would have turned out to be the case?
Well, sadly, but unsurprisingly, certain academic colleagues of mine swallowed to spy balloon story hook, line and sinker. It never even occurred to them that there might be an alternative explanation to balloon story. Of course, these are some of the same people who think it's just great that the US is sending billions to Ukraine to keep the war going. I can't help but wonder wonder whether it's the Americans or the North Koreans who are the most brainwashed. Naturally, I go with the Americans. But I know many European academics that are quite brainwashed, too. Ugh.
ccg-
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that buffoons need balloons. Inasmuch as Americans are empty, they need something to get worked up abt.
mb
I know the Ohio train derailment and associated chemical disaster has been covered on the blog, but Dozinger’s article on The Guardian describes this event in great transparency. The Ohio chemical spill was clearly not an unforeseen accident; “It was a function of our out-of-control corporate culture in the United States, which has neutered effective government oversight of hazardous activities – including the rail transport of highly flammable and carcinogenic chemicals”. The real rub is that 5,000 bubbas could’ve avoided being poisoned if the company only simply installed new braking systems, instead of lobbying to repeal safety measures. Millions more bubbas will remain ignorant that this ever happened, as most media outlets won’t cover this issue. Truly, a land of the free we live in. At least, freedom for corporations to remain unanswerable for their crimes.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/18/ohio-train-derailment-biden-east-palestine
https://jacobin.com/2023/02/department-of-transportation-train-brake-regulation-ohio-derailment
In more positive news, I might just have found a way to escape the empire for good. A wonderful woman I met from work here in the States with Argentinean/Columbian citizenship was gracious enough to let me travel and stay at her home in Bogotá for two weeks. I promptly fell in love with this corner of Latin America, with a culture of substance and genuine sense of community. Not a single Karen in sight, and conversations with strangers didn’t leave me feeling the urge to slap and urinate some sense into their brains. We plan on returning in a few years, perhaps never to return to the US.
Mass shootings. Road rages. Let’s not forget our bully authoritarians, also known as our police force, who show their machoness to both women and high schoolers.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.audacy.com/1010wins/news/local/cops-pepper-spray-man-at-bk-subway-arrest-woman-filming
https://www.2news.com/news/nevada/officer-under-investigation-after-encounter-with-student/video_ce8937aa-0708-5183-b170-1fa5bc10f18d.html
And of course the outright hypocrisy of our leaders, in this case Schamala, when it comes to human rights violations.
https://www.politico.eu/article/us-formal-accuse-russia-crimes-against-humanity-ukraine-kamala-harris/
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/civilians/iraqi
Oh but we’re so good.
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteHere is the face of America: a vapid douche baguette:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/18/us-accuses-russia-crimes-against-humanity-kamala-harris-ukraine
KAMALA SCHMAMALA!
mb
American buffoonery going global.
ReplyDeleteThe Unherd Channels youtube interview on Seymour Hersh's expose on Nordstream2 with Jeffery Sachs is one of the most unitentionally funniest interviews I have ever seen. Sachs is his usual knowlegable and candid self. The interviewer gets more and more twisted in knots trying to refute the information Sachs reels off. His refutations get more and more absurd as though his brain is starting to explode with the straing of trying to fend off the reality of what Sachs is saying.
His concluding remarks at 42:30 having him state that Sachs explantions stretch the limits of plausibilty had me rolling on the floor. I was expecting him to say that maybe the recent spate of UFO's did it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fv_nKyF_5g
Anjin-
ReplyDeleteI can't say it enuf, and you may need to refresh yr post-its:
NO AMOUNT OF SLAPPING
NO AMOUNT OF URINE
Really, u.c. how frightened, and full of shit, so-called 'informed' Americans are.
mb
Old Buffoons Dept.-
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/19/us-congress-presidency-gerontocracy
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/15/how-conflict-minerals-make-it-into-our-phones.html
ReplyDeleteConflict minerals in your phone
The death of others in the palm of your hand! Hate this stuff so much. They are practically a religious covenant, and there's no better example of the ethical cost of living in the modern world...
Max-
ReplyDeleteI occasionally raise this issue w/my friends, because every time you make a cell fone call, yr contributing to the death of children in the Congo. It's one reason among many that I don't own such a fone. The response to my observation is a shrug, even by those who claim to be buddhists, and believe that we are all interconnected.
mb
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteJim Kunstler recently interviewed Orlov on Ukraine, Russia, US, and EU/NATO. Note: Orlov left the US about 6 years ago and moved back to Russia after having lived in US for about 40 yrs.
At minute 57:58 Kunstler asks "What went wrong with US?"? Orlov essentially said that right from the beginning its was British empire's pirate outpost run by "privateers" and it stayed that way forever (even after kicking the Brits out) basically fleecing anyone it could. Orlov did not use the word "hustling" but his response seems to align with your writings on the US being a nation of hustlers from the get go. Orlov further said that fleecing other countries has run its course and is not working anymore so the US is now devouring itself: Americans doing it to themselves and to each other.
https://kunstler.com/podcast/kunstlercast-371-dmitry-orlov-on-russia-ukraine-and-the-swirl-of-events/
Himanshu
Himan-
ReplyDeleteGood info, thanks. That Americans are busy eating each other alive is quite clear; at least, to a few of us.
Meanwhile, I've been rdg Arthur Herman's massive tome, "Gandhi and Churchill." Here's an interesting paragraph:
"[The two men] believed that the personal and the political were inseparable. Gandhi spent his life insisting that Indian self-rule and rule of the self were the same thing: that people who cd not do the one were incapable of the other. He may not have been far wrong. Likewise, Churchill believed that a strong nation was the necessary product of a strong people."
Some observations, relevant to the US:
For yrs I have been talking abt the congruence between the microcosm and the macrocosm. Both men are certainly correct. American 'democracy' (self-rule) is not possible because Americans have no individual self-rule. Worse, they don't even have selves. And if a strong nation is the product of a strong people, it follows that a self-destructive, buffoon nation is the product of self-destructive buffoons. You have to be totally clueless (which 99% of America is) to not see that the country is in the process of committing suicide.
The only individuals who have spoken this way, as far as America is concerned, are Mencken, Carlin, Vidal, and me; all of whom were/are completely ignored. Cassandras, all of them. And here's a day none of us cd have imagined: Mr. Average Joe wakes up one morning, looks in the mirror, and declares, "Shit! I'm a total, self-destructive buffoon! I'm going to abandon all of my irrational beliefs and behaviors and become a sensitive, engaged, intelligent person!"
There is a day, my friends, when this will occur, and the nation's slide into death will consequently be arrested: When pigs fly over the White House in V-geese formation.
The lesson of history, a la Toynbee and so many other astute historians: buffoons do not de-buffoonize themselves. This simply never happens. We are in our death throes, and by 2030 will be little more than an irrelevant pile of crap.
mb
Former president Jimmy Carter is now under hospice care.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.reuters.com/world/us/former-us-president-jimmy-carter-receive-hospice-care-statement-2023-02-18/
He is well thought of here so I figured you might want to know.
BH-
ReplyDeleteYes, thanks, I saw the notice. I discuss his presidency in DAA and WAF, if I remember correctly. It was a success, imo, from a human pt of view. For Americans, however, who are not very bright, and lack a human pt of view, it was a failure. Of course they voted for Reagan. Talk abt self-destruction!
mb
ReplyDeleteGo North Carolina! Elementary school kids with guns. They’re learning younger and younger about 2nd Amendment rights and obviously how to mow each other USAin down. Routine daily lockdowns too are an unofficial part of the school curriculum. Yeah the future certainly looks rosy here. Our “exceptional” educational system here is doing its part here in the “Land of ‘Exceptionalism’ ”! LOL!
https://www.wral.com/at-elementary-school-in-harnett-county-middle-schools-in-cumberland-and-orange-students-found-with-weapons-friday/20725541/
https://www.wral.com/58-year-old-man-charged-with-misdemeanor-after-rocky-mount-police-find-unloaded-gun-in-6-year-old-boy-s-backpack/20722743/
https://www.wral.com/mother-arrested-after-student-brings-gun-to-wendell-middle-school/20720237/
https://www.wral.com/these-lockdowns-are-very-traumatic-wake-school-board-discusses-safety-after-week-of-lockdowns/20708247/
And before we forget, let’s look at a couple of our daily mugshots taken from the roads:
https://www.witn.com/2023/02/17/woman-arrested-lenoir-county-road-rage-incident/
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/man-arrested-for-fatal-road-rage-shooting-in-riverside/
What a country! What a society! What a culture!
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Joe-
ReplyDeleteBy 2030, if not b4, toddlers will be gunning other toddlers down in the street, like dogs. (This is not hyperbole.)
mb
Wafers, buffonhood is not only american. It's also for non americans who eat from the same american pile of trash (referencing Zizek's comment on ideology as trash in his film a pervert's guide to ideoloy).
ReplyDeleteHere's something you can laugh at, an Ozzy comparing Zelensky to Fanon, Ghandi, Mandela and others. Scroll around his account for a little fun.
https://twitter.com/DrewPavlou
French-
ReplyDelete1. "If yr born on this earth, yr born into a freak show. But if yr born in the US, you get a front row seat."
2. The guy castigates John Pilger. This means he's a bag filled w/rancid douche fluid. He needs to be slapped.
3. Zelensky and Gandhi? My ass.
mb
ps: Forgot to mention re: #1: quote is from George Carlin.
ReplyDeleteWafers-
ReplyDeleteOn Jimmy:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/20/opinion/kai-bird-jimmy-carter-life.html
Also check out the sections on Jimmy in DAA and WAF.
mb
https://williampoulos.substack.com/p/can-christopher-hitchens-save-the
ReplyDeleteFascinating analysis of the polemicist Christopher Hitchens. How he fell from the left, but then the essay is shrude enough to recognize the "left" also fell out of its own moral positions..
"I agree that people should support their claims with reasons and not identities, but I don’t know if Mr Hitchens is the best model here. He often substituted dogmatic pugilism in place of orderly argument; his opposition to tribalism and dedication to rational debate might be more persuasive if he hadn’t made a career of spewing pints of bile on his opponents."
[...]
"The “left” doesn’t only represent sugar and spice and everything nice. Its impatience, fervour, and willingness to sacrifice people for ideals are well documented: the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian Revolution of 1917. The people who bombed Kosovo and Iraq and Libya and Afghanistan and many other places weren’t conservative: they were the Jacobins of Washington and the Bolsheviks of Westminster. "
EU renewing ban on sales of toilets to Russia on war anniversary
ReplyDeletehttps://euobserver.com/world/156725
We're idiots. Let's not punish Putin, let's make it a miserable existence for everyday citizens who probably want nothing to do w what Russia or the US are up to..
Maggie-
ReplyDeleteSee Putin's recent speech. He's abs. rt: the US and NATO force Russia into a corner, then declare him the aggressor. SOP for the US: we did it w/Japan as well. The whole world seems to have forgotten the Cuban Missile Crisis, when we insisted on protecting *our* borders, and rightly so.
mb
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind wishes re. my future escape from Nutville, it makes a difference. I write in today to share possibly the most American thing I have _ever_ seen.
According to a Michigan State University student (https://www.reddit.com/r/msu/comments/117r0z2/comment/j9e4sv5/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3), while the campus was still locked down and the shooter was potentially still "active," a person who sells personal beauty products made a post on social media promoting her MSU-themed nail stickers. I present to you her post:
https://preview.redd.it/nqh3cu664jja1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=9c4cb3d4ddac82e618a3820a0baf283c287e4dee
-- Torreblanca
Torre-
ReplyDeleteI can't help it: as a confirmed declinist, I love a gd buffoon. Buffoons are in the vanguard of our collapse.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteBuffoons at the center
Buffoons from behind
Buffoons on the side
Buffoons above us
Buffoons down below
Angered that a couple in a neighboring apartment was making "too much noise during sex," a pair of gun-toting buffoons threatened to shoot the noisy lovers:
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2023/02/14/couple-says-loud-sex-in-apartment-complex-prompted-neighbors-to-pull-gun-on-them-houston-police-say/
Jeff
Texas! Texas! Texas! Drive ‘em, Cowboys!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austin-street-racing-incidents/269-75a69613-c3b2-4872-be30-30839cc48f25
Today’s mug shot:
https://apnews.com/article/homicide-mississippi-tennessee-1054df126188c0d3bc7ecd7d67bd81c2
Angry USAins at the airport:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11707233/Spirit-Airlines-agents-seen-trading-blows-passengers-Philly-airport.html
And today’s Karen. She’s so angry she pees on herself! LOL!
https://apnews.com/article/homicide-mississippi-tennessee-1054df126188c0d3bc7ecd7d67bd81c2
Just a normal day in the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Is he wrong?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkQG2PBQ_48
Dr B,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog through some book reccs on Japan, & came upon "Neurotic Beauty". This was the result of my discovery on Japanese-American writer Yoshiko Uchida, who wrote a memoir called "Desert Exile" about her experiences in the Topaz internment camp.
https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295994758/desert-exile/
I'm an avid reader who's drawn to historical books, memoirs & other works of non-fiction. If one doesn't study events of the past, how can they understand the present? Going through some of these blog posts have been enlightening in my quest to understand why the US is in such a quandary now.
I relocated to South America in 2015; US society in general always felt off to me. I can't feel sorry for this nation as a whole, & am glad that it's getting its comeuppance
Ichiro-
ReplyDeleteGlad my work was of some help 2u. And congratulations on yr escape. Smart move. The US is basically a dinosaur; it just doesn't know it.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteVery impt article:
https://www.cato.org/commentary/us-press-again-becomes-conduit-pro-war-propaganda
Unfortunately, no mention of Gisele Bundchen.
Also impt:
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/06/12/a-case-study-in-american-propaganda/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/02/23/fkbn-f23.html
This war, and US propaganda for it, are massive crocks of shit.
mb
An American douche bag at work:
ReplyDeletehttps://us.knews.media/news/texas-man-who-blamed-elderly-neighbors-killing-on-lucifer-charged-with-murder/
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteThis is not covered in any western MSM or alternate media: Chinese Foreign Ministry officially signals the end of the US dollar with this publication released few days ago: US Hegemony and Its Perils https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjbxw/202302/t20230220_11027664.html
"The United States exploits the world's wealth with the help of "seigniorage." It costs only about 17 cents to produce a 100 dollar bill, but other countries had to pony up 100 dollar of actual goods in order to obtain one. It was pointed out more than half a century ago, that the United States enjoyed exorbitant privilege and deficit without tears created by its dollar, and used the worthless paper note to plunder the resources and factories of other nations."
Furthermore: Xi Jinping writes - to curb exports to Developed countries we need to push domestic consumption & how festivals bring spending & consumption : https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/cgtn-expanding-domestic-demand-and-opening-up-chinese-economy-off-to-good-start-in-2023-301749072.html
Re: Dedollarization : an Indian foreign policy and security observer (whose predictions have been spot on for the last 5-6 years) predicts the following abt the West: Western media titles later this year -
1. Low consumption is good for health
2. Chinese products have harmful effects on your health
3. Gulf exploiting US's Strategic petroleum reserve position
4. BRICS+ is de-globalising the World
5. Aged should skip 1 meal for sound sleep
https://twitter.com/ankitatIIMA/status/1628334292748374019?s=20
Himanshu
Blowing the whistle on Ukrainian-American bullshit:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/search?q=tulsi+ukraine+not+a+democracy&hl=en&source=hp&ei=ybj4Y_bLDpr8kPIP9ei9kAI&iflsig=AK50M_UAAAAAY_jG2U6LE21N9MhXxHnlQ0Y9bhQS7MFk&ved=0ahUKEwi21PKMn679AhUaPkQIHXV0DyIQ4dUDCA0&oq=tulsi+ukraine+not+a+democracy&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAw6BQgAEIAEOgsILhCABBDHARDRAzoICC4QgAQQ1AI6BQguEIAEOg4ILhCABBDHARDRAxDUAjoICC4Q1AIQgAQ6CwguEIAEEMcBEK8BOgkIABAWEB4Q8QQ6CAgAEBYQHhAPOgYIABAWEB46DAgAEBYQHhDxBBDHA1AAWPhRYO5kaABwAHgAgAG2AYgBixeSAQQyMS44mAEAoAEB&sclient=gws-wiz#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:fff5b464,vid:yoIZD8Ebjxs
Dr. Berman, in islamic tradition (something I know a thing or two about) there is a saying "he has told you the truth though he is a liar." In this case "She has told us the truth even though she's Tulsi" (and whe're still waiting for the workout tapes, our only hope for a bright future).
ReplyDeleteThe US have a history in supporting dictatorships in the name of fighting some imagined aggressor, Pinochet for example. This was THE american behaviour during the cold war. What's happening now is just another proof that the US is still stuck in the cold war and it is behaving accordingly.
MB:
ReplyDeleteWell, here is Paul Krugman in today's Times being about as shrill as one can be, basically claiming that anyone not fully supporting what we're doing in Ukraine is a Putin puppet:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/opinion/putin-ukraine-toughness.html
At the end of it he says that if Ukraine loses the war, that will be, in part, because "America's Putin fans force[d] a cut-off of crucial aid." And he does this all while defending wokeness. I guess he wanted to touch upon as many hot-button issues he could for the PC crowd while defending the US in it's proxy way with Russia.
This is low point even for Paul Krugman.
And Donald Trump is right in that clip you posted.
https://nypost.com/2023/02/22/wife-of-duck-sauce-killer-glenn-hirsch-will-stand-trial-on-gun-charges-judge/
ReplyDeleteNo universal healthcare, no access to education without huge student loans, FATCA, poor infrastructure, no real pension system, employment at will doctrines, endless wars, massive military industry, lawsuit industry/pastime, punitive tax system, etc etc…yet, USians killed for duck sauce
Will Schryver has just posted a well-reasoned and insightful critique of what he calls “the ontological incoherence of American imperial exceptionalism." Schryver’s critique is a response to a recent essay in Unherd, “Is the West escalating the Ukraine War”, by Arta Moeini, Director of Research for the Canadian Institute for Peace and Diplomacy in Toronto. Schryver says that Moeini reflects American exceptionalist orthodoxy, hardly a surprise since the Institute receives some of its funding from the Canadian Department of National Defense.
ReplyDeleteSchryver sees Moeini portraying the Ukraine war falsely as a regional conflict, rather than a power struggle by the American empire to hold onto its unipolar status against its current nemesis, Russia, and ultimately against a developing axis of Russia, China, and Iran. In conceiving the Mother of All Proxy Armies in Ukraine as a tool on behalf of a vision for weakening Russia, changing its regime, and eventually dismembering the country to better exploit its resources, the hubris of exceptionalism has led the NATOistas astray into disdaining and underestimating Russia’s military capabilities and industrial capacity, and now face eventual catastrophic defeat. Schryver fears a possible nuclear exchange originating not from the Russians, but from a U.S. empire that desperately needs an off-ramp. Much food for thought here.
The relevant links are below:
https://unherd.com/2023/02/is-the-west-escalating-the-ukraine-war/
https://imetatronink.substack.com/p/the-ontological-incoherence-of-american
Dr. Shit-
ReplyDeleteI tell ya, if someone shorted me on my duck sauce, I wdn't be responsible for my acts.
ccg-
It's Krugman who's the puppet. What a snow job America is able to perform! It has the ability to get most of the world to shove their heads up their asses.
French-
W/Tulsi, and Tulsism, you get the gd w/the bad. She's kind of a smart moron.
Gunnar-
We are not a bulletin board. We are also interested in evidence. What were you thinking??!
mb
French/MB: I'd say the same thing about Dore, or Maher.. They get it (meaning they see The Decline), but then look at the way they live their lives.. D bags, all of 'em:
ReplyDeletehttps://importantcontext.substack.com/p/jimmy-dore-anti-worker-contracts
Tommy-
ReplyDeleteMaher is worth $140m, and makes 1m per show. Well, what the heck. Let him continue to debunk the US. What you need to do is refresh yr post-it:
NO AMOUNT OF SLAPPING
NO AMOUNT OF URINE
There will never come a wake-up moment for America, or Americans. Scroll back to ccg, on Krugman. This is America's finest? The whole country is a sad joke.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteFrom a declinist pt of view, this is extremely gd news. We can only hope it is the beginning of a nationwide trend:
https://wjla.com/news/local/marymount-university-major-cutbacks-minor-elimination-arlington-virginia-college-dmv-education-professors-students-stunned-9-nine-art-humanities-theology-catholic-sociology-math-english
Go, Marymount!
mb
‘Freud was wrong about many things, but he was right about what matters the most.’
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/why-we-should-keep-reading-freud-c5c404ce
I read somewhere that Freud passionately read Shakespeare in english throughout his life, and it probably is what influenced most of his thought on human psychology. Freud is dismissed only by people who don't know that he created much of what psychology and psychotherapy are today. People make fun of cliches and caricatures of Freud, but his work and the subsequent 100 years in that vein have produced a powerful understanding of humanity.
Lan-
ReplyDeleteNo argument here.
mb
Lanham + Morris Berman:
ReplyDeleteYou guys have any recommendations to better understand Freud's relevance in modern thought? I like the south African psychoanalyst/neuropsychiatrist Mark Solms' stuff!
Here's his latest:
https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Spring-Journey-Source-Consciousness/dp/0393542017?ref_=d6k_applink_bb_dls&dplnkId=83de6261-6e6f-452a-8bc5-153d314ab8a1
The BMJ: “Phobia of balloons (the party, not hot air, variety) may seem a reason for mirth rather than serious attention but can need surprisingly urgent intervention... After being sensitised in childhood by exploding balloons, patients tend to avoid proximity to balloons… [F]ear of balloons (globophobia) can also cause crises… Freudians may have fun speculating on the sexual significance of particular balloon shapes and colours, but most patients are uninterested.”
ReplyDeleteOprah Winfrey faces her phobia: “For my 40th birthday, my entire staff decided to surprise me… [T]he entire audience is filled with balloons… It was an anxiety-filled day.”
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry: “Three sessions of flooding conducted on 3 consecutive days involved exposure to and participation in the popping of hundreds of balloons. Following the three flooding sessions, the subject showed no avoidance behavior and reported almost no subjective distress in the presence of balloons. Furthermore, the subject stopped avoiding situations in which he might encounter balloons and reported no further distress in his life related to balloons.”
National Museum of the United States Air Force: “[T]he Japanese halted their balloon attacks in April 1945. On May 5, 1945, six picnickers were killed in Oregon when a balloon bomb they dragged from the woods exploded… These [six picnickers] were the only known fatalities occurring within the United States during World War II as a direct result of enemy action.”
Next stop: Go Nevada!
ReplyDeleteAlways funny things happening in our ongoing comedy show of a country. Even at an establishment of the world’s oldest profession where in this state it’s legal. Two “ladies of the evening” having a fight at their place of employment. Call in our paramilitary police to calm things down and have business resume. Ha!Ha!Ha!
https://www.kolotv.com/2023/02/21/deputies-respond-possible-shooting-mound-house/
While we’re in Nevada, let’s look at our daily mugshot. Drunk Karen here doesn’t believe in yielding to ambulances. LOL!
https://www.kolotv.com/2023/02/18/crash-closes-mt-rose-highway-near-summit-mall/
And unconscionable thievery for element #29 in the trillion dollar plus underground economy leaves people without power. Perhaps it’s just part of the Hustling 101 curriculum in this wasteland of a country.
https://www.fox5vegas.com/2023/02/24/copper-theft-leaves-units-vegas-apartment-complex-without-power-second-time/
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Anon-
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't post Anons.
Becks-
https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Chains-Illusion-Bloomsbury-Revelations/dp/1501334484/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1677360372&sr=1-11
mb
Tommy: Maher might be worth $140m but Dore is worth $4m! Not chicken feed... They're all grifters.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile check out Tulsi in this Watters clip. My God she's dumb.. I don't like the identify politics stuff either but... nazis? Can these ppl not think of any other historical analogy? Just lazy...
https://twitter.com/AndrewFeinberg/status/1629275104176644099?t=lR8ZB6ULg0HJKvkUAcd1hQ&s=19
Check it out:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/25/thousands-protest-in-berlin-against-giving-weapons-to-ukraine
Some populations aren't brainwashed.
mb
MB,
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to read about the protests in Berlin. It's no surprise that the establishment figures there are basically calling the protesters Putin puppets, evidently oblivious to their own status as puppets of the US. I'm sure that Paul Krugman would label the protesters Putin puppets.
Sadly, my very Americanized German friend, another physics professor like me but at a school in the midwest, would side with the establishment. Of course, he reads nothing, has no clue about the historical back story to all. Even when I try to tell him about it, it just seems to go right by him. Rather, he gets his world view from CNN as far as I can tell. He claims to despise the notion of American exceptionalism, but doesn't seem to notice that by supporting the US support for the war In Ukraine he's actually buying into.
ccg-
ReplyDeleteI guess slapping him wd be outta the question. Too bad. But then as our latest post-it goes:
NO AMOUNT OF SLAPPING
NO AMOUNT OF URINE
Jesus, the sheer idiocy of these people. Is your colleague an expert on black holes, by any chance?
mb
Gunnar-
ReplyDeleteOnce again, this blog is not a bulletin board, and we are not interested in pure opinion. Wise up, amigo; I'm not going to say it again.
mb
Hugging in the Sopranos is a good comparison with America. Gift giving in America is a massive industry, yet nobody actually cares about anyone else. When I say gift giving, I mean not only gifts between individuals, but philanthropy, volunteering, and donations. Gifts are a way both to make yourself look like a good person to others, but to also keep deeper systemic change from happening. I've noticed more and more businesses and grocery stores touting their donations to charity. With personal gifts, you can treat people like shit or ignore them, but give them a $20 present and make them forget all about how you treat them day to day.
ReplyDeleteThe recent court loss re: Savers Value Village shows that the courts will even uphold businesses who use extremely deceptive tactics to present themselves as charity organizations, when they're really for-profit corporations.
Court rejects deception charges against Savers Value Village
Would the World Be Better Off Without Philanthropists?
gifts-
ReplyDeleteI think it was Proudhon who said that charity was the bourgeois form of justice.
mb
gifts-
ReplyDeleteI've always thought that a social system where philanthropy is a thing is a failed social system. I agree with Marcel Mauss that exchanging gifts is a fundamental human behavior (see below.) But modern forms of giving gifts within the context of a capitalist society is just "moral masturbation" that is meant to regenerate the social order not change it. And unlike what Mauss described, in modern gift giving there is no equality between the giver and the reciever.
Here's a brilliant quote by Engles in his conditions of the working class: "The English bourgeoisie is charitable out of self-interest; it gives nothing outright, but regards its gifts as a business matter, makes a bargain with the poor, saying: "If I spend this much upon benevolent institutions, I thereby purchase the right not to be troubled any further, and you are bound thereby to stay in your dusky holes and not to irritate my tender nerves by exposing your misery. You shall despair as before, but you shall despair unseen, this I require, this I purchase with my subscription of twenty pounds for the infirmary!""
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift_(essay)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/condition-working-class/ch13.htm
taylor-
ReplyDeleteYou may not understand how this blog works. Some pointers 4u:
1. We are a discussion forum, not a bulletin board. If you are going to reference a bk, provide a paragraph of discussion with it.
2. Name of a bk requires a link, so that Wafers can access it more easily.
3. Thank you for your (future) cooperation.
mb
All aboard.
ReplyDeleteToday’s stop: The Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Go Minnesota!
Shots fired at a funeral reception.
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/crime/3-shot-at-funeral-reception-for-harding-high-school-stabbing-victim/89-a98a8379-e131-4e01-be1a-f0455a633005?ref=exit-recirc
And at a “celebration of life” as they say in the funeral business.
Two in one day. LOL!
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/crime/two-dead-three-others-injured-in-st-paul-shooting/89-af97c557-1e96-47e2-a2ef-76c2df12476f
And an everyday ordinary one. Gotta love the upper Midwest. They too contribute and do their deadly share of murders here in the world’s biggest violent shithole of a country.
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/crime/woman-killed-man-wounded-in-north-minneapolis-shooting/89-b57966be-beb5-4164-9247-2ef34d6d77d8
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Greetings Wafers everywhere, here is your news report from Cascadia. Slava Ukraine dominated the headlines of the Seattle Times this morning as several hundred people rallied on Saturday at Seattle Center to show support for Ukraine. Representative Adam Smith, Democrat from Bellevue WA and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, declared, “We have to give Ukraine absolutely everything they need militarily to win this war.” Presenting a united front in agreement was Seattle prog representative Pramila Jayapal:
ReplyDeletehttps://seattletimes.com/seattle-news/hundreds-rally-in-Seattle-to-support-Ukraine-on-anniversary-of-invasion
Meanwhile, retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson on his blog Sonar21.com called attention to the Russian forces on the verge of completely surrounding a large Ukrainian army in the heavily shelled town of Bakhmut in the Donbass region. London commentator Alexander Mercouris in the latest Duran podcast mentioned an estimate of 30,000 Ukrainian combatants in the Bakhmut area as Ukraine continues to send fresh units into the “meatgrinder”. The rationale of the Biden regime and their Congressional supporters seems to be, just hold on just another 6 months and the Russians will be close to exhaustion (running out of shells, missiles, etc.) since they’re just a gas station with nukes:
https://sonar21.com/is-russia-closing-the-cauldron-around-bakhmut/
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2qBbJsCNHJA
Peggy Noonan has an op-ed in the weekend WSJ. I have a print copy. Here's the link, undoubtedly paywalled: https://www.wsj.com/articles/jimmy-carters-malaise-speech-aged-well-ex-president-citizen-habitat-for-humanity-address-white-house-polarization-3db889d1
ReplyDeleteShe writes that the 'malaise speech' aged well and was essentially correct. Then this: "Here is why the speech didn't succeed. He thought America was suffering a crisis of confidence. It was. But the more immediate problem was that it was losing confidence in him..." Then she spends the final third basically blaming Carter for not understanding how the public saw him. Could we not also say he overestimated Americans? Of course not a word about the public being [everything noted and documented on this blog]. I suppose that's to be expected. I'm curious what others think of this op-ed, if you can get access... maybe I'm just misreading it. Seems like the usual msm letting people off the hook. At the same time seems more complimentary of Carter than I would have expected.
Vida-
ReplyDeleteCheck out DAA and WAF; I discuss the Carter presidency in some detail, including the 1979 'malaise' speech. One thing I argued is that it was not that Jimmy failed the American people, but just the reverse. He was calling for a complete U-turn in both domestic behavior (lunatic consumerism) and foreign policy (blaming Russia for our problems). Obviously, the American public wasn't having any of this, and when Reagan came along, affirming our destructive way of life ("morning in America!") and our Manichaean hatred of the USSR ("evil empire"), he won by a landslide. But it did show that Reagan knew his audience and Jimmy did not. Jimmy thought they were compassionate and intelligent. Bottom line: they were narcissistic boobs--as was Reagan.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteBut I have this vision for national healing. It's about as utopian as Jimmy's vision, but let me express it anyway. One day, everyone in the US wakes up. They all declare: "We are clueless buffoons. We are stupid, empty people. We are nothing but narcissistic hustlers, and cowards to boot. We are gullible, believe whatever the government tells us. On a planetary scale, we are the lowest of the low. But somehow, somewise, we are going to reject all of that, and become decent human beings. We affirm--better late than never--that Jimmy was a great human being, and that Ronnie was a complete asshole, a senile douche bag of the first order."
What are the chances, do ya think?
mb
ps:
ReplyDeleteJimmy: visionary
Ronnie: asshole
Fact #1: Ronnie won the 1980 election by the greatest landslide in American history.
Fact #2: Whenever a poll is taken for "Who is your favorite president?", Ronnie typically comes out on top.
Pop quiz: What does this say about the American people?
Greetings Wafers. I watched an interesting documentary about Greenwich Village during the folk music period and found this part quite amusing. It is amazing how brainwashed Americans are into believing they have freedom. This shows that even singing the Star Spangled Banner that the police will crack heads and arrest you. The irony is rich. But we live in the land of freedumb.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/VYBnGmXgB1E?t=1312
Harvey-
ReplyDeleteLink didn't work. As for Americans: you can scour the entire Internet, but I am the only person saying that the cause of our decline is people w/shit for brains.
mb
I certainly agree with you GSWH on Ronnie vs. Jimmy, but surely it was in 1984 ("Four More Years!") and not 1980 that Ronnie won by the greatest landslide in history? (Though Goldwater losing in 1964 must surely come close?) I may be splitting hairs but it was Mondale not Carter who lost in the 1984 landslide!
ReplyDeleteGreetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteAmerica Today Dept.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV8yb3_T51g
Is it time to issue a moratorium on all public education in the US? Are these students actually learning anything? And look at the student (?) who watches the assault and walks away. Not even a flinch toward assisting the teacher being beaten unconscious. Oh, the horror of it all...
Jeff
Dr. B-
ReplyDeleteI thought that this was a very good essay, in detailing how the arts marches lockstep with the current narrative. I have gotten numerous email ads from major US opera companies and orchestras letting me know that they recently played the Ukrainian national anthem before performances...it's like they are patting themselves on the back and displaying their virtue for everyone to see-
https://www.greanvillepost.com/2023/02/27/the-crusades-of-the-virtuous/
birn-
ReplyDeleteIf the gov't told Americans that Chad was the enemy, they wd run around screaming, "Down with Chad!" When you grasp that Americans are idiots, daily news events aren't all that puzzling.
Jeff-
But she took away his Nintendo Switch! What can she have been thinking? Have him read a bk instead?
Shmuck-
No, it was 1980, if by landslide one means in the electoral college. Biggest up to that pt, anyway.
Wafers-
Kanye lost billions, Scott Adams lost millions. Why are these dopes eager to shoot themselves in the foot?
mb
ReplyDelete“ Basic words are misspelled on government signs. This blows your mind away.” -GSWH
The GSWH is so right on this one. He said this when talking about his notable Twilight Book in 2000. The dumbing down of the U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.! obviously is going full force. I happen to drive in this area about once a week. My girlfriend lives in Woodhaven. And I travel on the Jackie Robinson ( formerly the Interboro Parkway) going home. SMH.
https://nypost.com/2023/02/26/nyc-dot-strikes-out-with-jakie-robinson-parkway-sign/
Joe-
ReplyDeleteDouche bags. What else can I say?
mb
Mexicans March En Masse Against President’s Electoral Reform
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-26/mexicans-march-nationwide-against-president-s-electoral-reform
Mexican president posts photo of what he claims is a Maya elf
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-26/mexicans-march-nationwide-against-president-s-electoral-reform
Interesting week of news south of your border, MB! Sometimes surprised by AMLO politically. Although the elf photo is fun/interesting, shows you how more traditional cultures see the world as alive & mysterious!
Found this recently among the Tweets
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/i/status/1630372305296838656
"Discover the untold truth about the war in Ukraine in this eye-opening documentary." It really shows how extreme some of the most influential political players were during and after the Maidan revolution in 2014. Its titled "Ukraine: Masks of the Revolution" directed by Paul Moreira from 2016.
Its no wonder Russia responded the way they did. How can the Western world be so blind to these elements? This would be like if the Soviets never took the weapons out of Cuba.
Luckily this blog gives me a reminder that there will never be enough urine or enough slapping to wake up enough Americans so they can throw out their oppressors and create a society that fixes human problems- not endless war and suicide.
Biden continues trying to paper over the emptiness in his soul/head/foreign policy/country with "us vs them" posturing:
ReplyDeletehttps://strategic-culture.org/news/2023/02/27/manichaeism-and-ideology-of-liberal-empire-biden-forever-cosmic-war-against-russian-evil/
Reagan, 1980: "Russia is evil! Vote for me and you'll get rich!"
Biden, 2024: "Russia is evil!"
Trump, 2024: "Vote for me and you'll get rich!"
Cranston-
ReplyDelete"Our imperialism is largely unconscious"--Walter Lippmann
Krak-
Endless war is what the US only knows. Therefore, suicide.
mb
ps: Trumpi in the W.H. wd be horrible, but at least he wdn't be so stupid as to provoke 2 superpowers (simultaneously) toward war. Also, Kamala cd get a job selling shirts at Macy's.
ReplyDeleteCran, Krak, MB:
ReplyDeleteIt can't get any richer than this:
“[T]he US government appears unwilling to address its role in mentoring military officers who have sown chaos in [North Africa]; men who have repeatedly overthrown the governments the US trains them to prop up”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/west-africa-coup-american-trained-soldier-1234657139/
US-trained military officers conducted 7 coups since 2008:
Burkina Faso 3x
Mali 3x
Mauritania 1x
“If the US is ignoring the fact that it trained putschists, that reflects a broader problem of a lack of long-term strategic thinking for its CT policies” - Crisis Group
Ryan M
Ryan-
ReplyDeleteI think it's pretty clear by now that the US doesn't have a clear idea of what it's doing. The pres lives in a fog, and the VP is a dope. Our institutions are corrupt and/or clueless. Putin and Xi are rt to smell a semi-dead corpse, altho I think they are content to let it kill itself, rather than openly make war. We are the dregs of humanity, and dregs usually go down the drain.
mb
Dr. Berman and Wafers
ReplyDeleteI know we discuss mostly th US here, but here's a video that's closer home for me. If you ask an african about which country is evil, they'd probably answer France. I know France isn't the US and there is always hope (after all it is France that gave us the modern civic world.) But in the past as in now, France is the devil of Africa.
https://youtu.be/_-u1Pjce4Lg
The video is mainly about economics, but France is literally the ruler of those countries and more. And it does not matter whether the french president is right leaning or left leaning, they are all colonizers, It was during the presendecy of Mitterrand that Sankara was assassinated.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/01/ukraine-lobbyists-washington-defense-industry
ReplyDeleteO surely not...
I rarely remember to check my email, but when I do I'm often rewarded with a new post by Linh Dinh, a world traveling photographer at home on the streets. Always has several jewels showcasing American collapse and asshattery. Just ignore his jew hangups...
ReplyDeletehttps://open.substack.com/pub/linhdinh/p/third-world-enough?r=ee9gw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
comrade-
ReplyDeleteHe's quite the anti-Semite, I fear.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteRe: Ukraine war
This Ukraine war stinks to high heaven. I can't take much more of it. It was completely cooked up by the US; predictable because of the American policy decision to expand NATO eastward and the encouragement of Ukraine to align w/the European Union instead of Russia. For decades, Russia made it crystal clear that it considered NATO expansion and a westernized Ukraine antithetical to Russia's core security interests. This is pure common sense, the likes of which even the war criminal Henry Kissinger understands! In any case, the US government did this *knowing* that there was high risk that Putin would defend his conception of Russia's interests in Ukraine militarily. In addition, the US was never willing, then or now I would argue, to expend American lives directly or risk nuclear war in defense of Ukrainian sovereignty. The US also knew that Ukraine would be incapable of defeating Russia militarily in the long run, so let's all get rich off the backs of thousands of dying Ukrainians. Given this knowledge, American support for Ukraine's independence from Russia is actually a fucking *betrayal* of Ukraine. Brass tacks: the US and its arms dealers are leading Ukraine into a total and complete catastrophe. Are Wafers and Trumpi the only people who see this?
Jesus, I need a pastrami sandwich right about NOW!
Jeff
Throughout the month of February, Amazon.com ran a banner that read, “Shop Black-owned businesses.” Now that we’ve rolled over to March it reads, “Shop women-owned businesses.” When I saw this I thought, so this is what political activism has been reduced to in 2023. A computer geek opens an app, deletes the word “Black” from a text field, types in the word “women,” and clicks Save. Another month it will be “Asian” and after that “LGBT.” This is what passes these days as working for social justice.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think Rosa Parks would be impressed.
Ruskin-
ReplyDeleteYou may not have heard, but the US Mint is going to chg the legend on legal tender from IN GOD WE TRUST to WE'RE SO FULL OF CRAP WE DON'T KNOW OUR ASS FROM OUR ELBOW.
mb
The End of the English Major
ReplyDeleteEnrollment in the humanities is in free fall at colleges around the country. What happened?
Nathan Heller
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/06/the-end-of-the-english-major/amp
This seems like a big deal. The humanities are ending in this country. College means absolutely nothing now, just a promissory note towards careerism or class status.
Unknown-
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't post Unknowns. You need a real handle to participate in this discussion. For example, Beef Zelensky. Thank you.
Jorgie-
Gd news, from a declinist pt of view!
Jeff-
Meanwhile, 'news' articles in the MSM, like the front pg of the NYT, are 0 more than editorials--ie, propaganda. It's so amusing that anything Putin says is branded as coming from a "parallel universe"; we never manage to see ourselves in such a universe. And this claiming that the Ukraine is a democracy is, as Tulsi has shown us, so much dog poop. It's amazing, how Putin's attempt to protect his borders is seen as aggression, by nearly half the planet. Well, next time I'm in NY we can go to the Russian Tea Room and order a plate of Beef Zelensky, Stroganoff having been expunged from the menu. Ay, Papi!
mb
Doxastic-
ReplyDeleteI guess yr not v. familiar w/this blog. Here are some guidelines:
1. Posts shd be no longer than half pg max.
2. We're not terribly interested in large, global opinions abt things. Instead, pick a specific topic, related to the collapse of the American empire, state yr argument, and then defend it w/links or reliable references.
3. For the most part, I'm not into private chats.
We thank u 4 yr understanding.
mb
Unknown-
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't post Unknowns. You need a real handle to participate in this discussion. E.g., Halberstam V. Forkbender III. Thank you.
mb
Go North Carolina! Check this out. “Public interest” gangs are drafting juveniles for future violence. A pretty good violent biker brawl. And the Tar Heel State is a leader in ghost guns. Yeah. The future certainly looks bright here! North Carolina is helping to lead the way!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wral.com/NC-gangs-using-social-media-pretending-to-be-public-interest-groups-to-lure-kids/20744374/
https://www.wral.com/one-person-shot-four-severely-beaten-during-rumble-between-rival-motorcycle-gangs-in-clayton/19762723/
https://www.wral.com/fact-check-is-north-carolina-a-top-state-for-ghost-gun-confiscations/20410007/
From the con artist/hustling department:
https://www.audacy.com/1010wins/news/li-woman-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-usd250k-from-summer-camp
And from our ongoing comedy show, a guy hijacks a shuttle bus at JFK Airport. Doctor, you best not take American Airlines for your next Wafer Summit up here. LOL!
https://thehill.com/homenews/3879371-man-steals-american-airlines-bus-at-jfk-airport-drives-it-through-nyc-police/
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
ps: Jeff: Walk down memory lane...Where are these people?
ReplyDeleteShaneka Torres
Laquisha Jones
Freddie Wadsworth
Schmendrick
P. Snoots
Chrystal Walraven
They made America what it is today!
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB-
I would absolutely luv to walk down memory lane w/u, MB. This fine list of clowns certainly gave us a laugh, and contributed to our state of misery in the US. In any event, may I warmly reciprocate w/a few of my own:
Lorenzo Riggins
Brittany Carulli
Tracey McCloud
Oh, how lovely it was!
Jeff
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteYes, Lorenzo; I wonder what he's up to.
mb